Not Naivete but Clarity

The American textile artist, Anni Albers, is "credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art." (Wikipedia). She was born in Berlin in 1899 and started to study at the Bauhaus in 1922. Many of the disciplines were forbidden to women (much to her disgust) so she enrolled in the weaving class. However, she took to "the challenges of tactile construction" (Wikipedia) like a duck to water. In her writing, she says, "In my case it was threads that caught me, really against my will. To work with threads seemed sissy to me. I wanted something to be conquered. But circumstances held me to threads and they won me over." Her designs were bold and geometric and her work has been exhibited all over the world.

Tapestry, 1948 by Anni Albers (Wikimedia commons)

This week's quotation is by her: "Lack of complication is not naivete, but clarity." The German phrase provided by the Harenberg Kalender, from which I get my quotes for this blog, was difficult to translate. It could read "Uncomplication / lack of complexity is not simplicity, but clarity." But I think I understand what she is getting at.

Human beings are geniuses at making their lives both complicated and complex. A simple life of clarity can seem to be a distant, unrealisable dream. I believe that Albers is reassuring us that if we are able to remove some of the webs of complexity from our lives, try to live more simply, clarity will be our reward.

Last November, I wrote a post about meditation and clarity here. I said then and still believe now, "We live in a complex world, with many demands on our bodies, minds and spirits. The clarity which can come from a regular meditation practice is an essential counterpoint to this. If we can find a place of clarity in our meditation practice, through using gentle curiosity, it may help us to lead more mindful, calm lives."

Mindfulness. Calm. Simplicity. Peace. May we all find a way to access these much-needed qualities.