I am currently engaged in what I call The Domestic Project, which is mostly a digital diary of what I see in my back yard, but extends to several paintings which derive either from my physical home and surroundings.

Elements, in the beginning, combined in only a small number of possible ways. Complexity is when it gets difficult, and interesting in a different way. Reductive art is like the first atomic combinations - simple, and really big. Monochromes, formal elements. But then the question arises as to how to get to the more complex. There are many routes, and they could be likened to different ‘schools’ of aesthetic pursuit. 

Anyway, one way to get to a more complex set of issues is to introduce representation, or meaning of any sort that is unrelated to the formal aspects of the painting. For an example, take the Golden Mean. The Mandelbrot set. Which has examples of its own, in nature. 

Nuance is key, as well, in that a monochrome is infinitely complex, given its degree of nuance.My main point being that there are multiple ways to get more complex - none more righteous than the other, in my opinion. 

The mixed media panels that make up Keeping House are pantry shelves salvaged from a kitchen renovation, washed, with a piece of Color Aid paper glued down using PVA, then painted over in a matching color oil paint, with a piece of masking tape glued on top.