variance | The Direction of Intention

The Necessity Of Texture [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on May 14, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“I like the flower against the wood,” she said. A statement of texture. Variance is infinitely more visually interesting than uniformity. Innovation is more about deviance than it is about conformity. Ingenuity is the blossom of wild imagination and not the child of practicality.

In every aspect of life, the pursuit of a question is far more important than the regurgitation of an answer. Learning is never about the answer. Life is never about having an answer. It is never about the hard-held-belief; it is about the capacity to challenge every scary assumption. It is about stepping beyond judgement into the unknown. That is known as expansion. It requires an open-mind.

The maga-man looked mockingly at the interviewer and said, “I don’t care what (the wannabe-dicator) does as long as he owns the libs.” What does that mean, to own the libs? The interviewer asked a maga-woman what she meant when she used the term “woke”? Like the maga-man, she has a particular hatred for folks who are “woke.” She admitted that she didn’t know what it meant but she’d heard it plenty of times and she knew she didn’t like it, whatever it is.

No ability to question or challenge. Regurgitation. This is known as a closed-mind.

To be educated – inquisitive – one need not pull a single right answer from a hat. It is far more essential to stoke curiosity and find a path of many answers en route to greater and greater questions. A single answer, unquestioned belief, though safe and perhaps temporarily gratifying, rarely provides life with texture and vitality.

It is not a mystery what will happen if this administration manages to scrub all the color from the nation, to eliminate the texture, the voices of dissent, to actually achieve dull conformity, the bland uniformity that they think will make America great. No variance. No diversity. No deviance. No ingenuity. No innovation. No imagination. No capacity to reach across difference.

A few questions, a recognition of the necessity of texture, might save this ailing nation a world of hurt and decades of self-inflicted pain.

Day Is Done (work in progress). Nothing but questions and texture.

read Kerri’s blogpost about WOOD ANEMONE

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Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, conformity, curiosity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Diversity, elements of art, imagination, ingenuity, innovation, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, questions, studio melange, texture, the melange, variance | 1 Comment »

Embrace The Contrast [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on November 16, 2023 by davidrobinsoncreative

In art it’s called the contrast principle. The pairing of elements that are opposite from one another. Or somehow different. Man made next to nature made. Fabric next to steel. Autumn color next to grey and white.

Contrast principle is a fundamental, not only in art but in perception. We only know ourselves through relationship with others. I am a son, a husband, a friend. These designations are also examples of the contrast principle. I know myself, I perform myself, based on the others that I am with.

Contrast need not be oppositional. It can be a complement. Red and green. Blue and orange. Relationships that change the individual colors. Together they are bold. Lively in their contrast.

A single color on a canvas, a single idea in a brainstorm, a single party in a congress, is static. Bland. Lifeless. Ellsworth Kelly placed his wall-size blue canvas next to a wall size yellow next to a wall size red. Primaries in contrast capable of snapping your head back when first you see them. Dynamic. Alive.

A community with contrast, a community of color and varied ideas, a community that embraces the value and power of the contrast principle, is capable of anything. The illumination of each other. The best kind of harmony.