The image accompanying today’s blog is the work of one of my Facebook friends. I asked if I could share his image with my readers as I admired the fluidity of the brush strokes and their almost mystical innocence. Having studied both Japanese and Chinese painting styles, I appreciate the genius of reducing an image to its primary lines. No gaudy birds. No dazzling the eye with color. Strokes, elegant strokes, and a rhythmic line that seems essential to the core.
To a person unfamiliar with such skills, to someone who has never cursed the master for accomplishing with ease an expression immensely difficult, the image might appear naive. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, but it requires an informed eye.
Unfortunately, what tumbles from my mouths when I attempt to describe the mystical quality of the painting seems pretentious. I apologize, but I have a point to make.
Today, my web platform added a robot app. Its purpose is to make me a better writer. I didn’t ask for the robot; it appeared uninvited. It said, my writing was “considered fairly difficult to read. Try to make shorter sentences to improve readability.” Had the robot followed its advice, it should have written: “Create shorter sentences for readability.”
I take umbrage when a machine with no comprehension of the relationship of content to expression, advises me to dumb down my words. The painting that accompanies this blog is an example of the difference between spare and simple. My readers don’t require Dick and Jane sentences. Only the soulless robot does.
Bamboo leaves courtesy of Pete Paridiso
