The Awakening of an Artist: Brian Simon's Journey from Logic to Intuition
For Canadian artist Brian Simons, painting is not just a visual or aesthetic exercise; it is an extension of the soul, a deeply intuitive process that speaks to the raw and unfiltered corners of human emotion. His art emerges not from structured techniques or academic blueprints but from a more primal, subconscious source. This approach has given rise to a body of work that bursts with energy, imagination, and an unmistakable sense of personal authenticity.
Over three decades ago, Simons made a life-changing pivot away from a stable career in engineering. It wasn’t burnout or dissatisfaction that led him to leave the technical world behind, but rather a growing realization that fulfillment lay elsewhere. He was drawn to painting not as a hobby or a leisure pursuit, but as a profound callingone that spoke to something essential within him. This philosophical awakening was the catalyst for a dramatic transformation, one that would see him shed conventional expectations in pursuit of artistic truth.
Without any formal training in the arts, Simons embraced a self-taught path defined by tireless exploration and a commitment to daily practice. Rather than being hindered by the lack of academic credentials, he found it liberating. The absence of rigid rules allowed him to cultivate a visual language that is both personal and dynamic. His early works brim with the kind of expressive spontaneity that only emerges when an artist is guided solely by internal compass points rather than external validation.
Simons' departure from logic-based disciplines into the expansive world of imagination is more than a career changeit’s a philosophical statement. He believes that intuition, not intellect, is the wellspring of true creativity. His canvases begin not with a fixed idea but with an open mind. There is no roadmap, no sketch, no formulajust an emotional resonance guiding his hand. It’s a process akin to jazz improvisation, where one note leads to another, and the harmony is discovered in real time.
This radical embrace of uncertainty lends Simons' art a certain electric immediacy. Every painting session becomes a dialogue between intention and impulse, between the conscious and the subconscious. The initial marks on his canvases are often erratic or abstract, and yet from this seeming chaos, images emergesometimes whimsical, sometimes poignant, always alive. It’s not about constructing an image; it’s about uncovering it, as if it had always been there beneath the surface, waiting to be revealed.
Painting as Process: Emotion, Humor, and the Power of the Subconscious
At the heart of Brian Simon’s artistic philosophy lies a deep trust in the subconscious. For him, painting is not a technical endeavor to be perfected, but a living process fueled by feeling, memory, and the intangible. This belief has led to a practice that prioritizes flow over form and intuition over intellect. It’s a method that frees the artist from the paralyzing grip of perfectionism and opens up a direct channel to emotional expression.
Simons is critical of over-analysis in art. He sees it as a kind of creative straitjacket that stifles spontaneity. Instead of meticulously planning each stroke, he allows one brush mark to dictate the next. This courageous immediacy infuses his paintings with energy and soul. His works are often completed in just a few hours, not because they are rushed, but because the process itself is so deeply immersive and responsive. When he paints, time compresses, and the outside world fades away. What’s left is a dance between emotion and pigment, between the fleeting and the eternal.
A defining feature of Simons’ work is its emotional range. While many artists gravitate toward either seriousness or levity, Simons masterfully balances both. His paintings are not weighed down by melancholy nor superficial in their lightness. Instead, they exist in a space where humor and depth coexist. A single canvas might make the viewer smile with its whimsical characters and then linger with them, stirring something more reflective and profound.
This emotional complexity is achieved through his masterful use of color. Simons has long since abandoned the structured rules of color theory. While he initially dabbled in it, he quickly found the system too restrictive. Instead, he relies on instinctchoosing colors that feel right in the moment rather than those that follow conventional harmony. The result is a palette that is vibrant, bold, and entirely his own. His use of color is not calculated but felt, and this gives his work an unmistakable vitality.
Even though Simons paints from imagination, he is anything but disconnected from the world around him. His art is informed by the currents of real life, reshaped through the lens of emotional intelligence and creative play. This responsiveness became especially poignant during the COVID-19 pandemic. As isolation, fear, and confusion swept across the globe, Simons channeled these collective emotions into his canvases.
Instead of dwelling on despair, however, he filtered the strangeness of the moment through humor and warmth. Paintings from this period depict masked figures, cluttered interiors, and bizarre rituals like panic buying rendered with a touch of gentle absurdity. These works offered viewers a way to process the chaos not with despair, but with grace and laughter. They acted as both personal catharsis and communal balm.
In these pandemic-era pieces, Simons’ gift for emotional synthesis shone brighter than ever. He managed to reflect the collective anxiety of a global crisis while simultaneously lifting spirits. The characters in his paintings, exaggerated and oddly serene, became symbols of shared resilience. His work invited viewers to acknowledge their discomfort, even laugh at it, and in doing so, transcend it.
Visual Empathy and the Courage to Create Without a Map
What sets Brian Simons apart in the contemporary art world is not just his technique or visual style, but his deep, abiding belief in the transformative power of imagination. He approaches the blank canvas not as a challenge to overcome, but as an open field of infinite potential. It is this fearless relationship with the unknown that defines his artistic journey and continues to inspire both aspiring and seasoned creatives alike.
In an era where art is often commodified or subjected to critical analysis, Simons offers an alternative: a kind of visual empathy rooted in emotional truth. His paintings are not prescriptive; they do not dictate meaning. Instead, they invite viewers into a space of shared human experience. Each person who engages with his work brings their own memories, interpretations, and emotional responses. And yet, because the work originates from such an honest and intuitive place, it resonates broadly. The connection is immediate and visceral.
Simons understands that art does not need to be didactic to be powerful. It doesn’t need to be perfect to be moving. What it does need is authenticity. And that authenticity can only come when the artist is willing to let go of control, to surrender to the process, and to trust that what emerges from the subconscious is worthy of expression.
His evolution from engineering to art is not just a story of personal reinvention a roadmap for anyone seeking to align with their creative instincts. It shows that imagination, when given room to breathe, can become a guiding force not just in art but in life. It’s a reminder that creativity is not a luxury or an escape, but a vital form of communication that allows us to navigate the complexities of existence with a little more clarity, compassion, and joy.
As we delve deeper into Simons’ work in future explorations, what becomes clear is that his paintings are far more than visual compositions. They are emotional landscapes, spiritual inquiries, and playful provocations. They challenge viewers to reconnect with their inner worlds while simultaneously opening a window into a shared human condition.
In Brian Simons’ world, painting is both a deeply personal ritual and a universal language. Through his fearless embrace of intuition, his resistance to over-analysis, and his capacity to find meaning in chaos, he has created a body of work that stands as a testament to the power of imaginative freedom. His art reminds us that creativity is not about following rules’s about trusting the journey, wherever it may lead.
The Emotional Pulse of Color in Brian Simons’ Art
At the very core of Brian Simons’ artistic practice lies a singular, dynamic force: color. Far from being a mere visual device or compositional component, color in Simons’ work functions as a vital emotional conduit unspoken language that resonates on an instinctual level. His canvases hum with vibrancy and immediacy, inviting viewers into an experience that is as much felt as it is seen. Every stroke of color is more than pigment; it is an echo of an emotion, an internal landscape brought to life.
For Simons, color is not dictated by academic theories or established artistic principles. He has never been interested in formulas or conventional palettes. In fact, his early struggles with traditional color theory only underscored his need to break free from such limitations. Attempting to follow prescribed color harmonies and technical frameworks left him frustrated, creatively constrained, and emotionally distant from his work. What eventually emerged from this dissatisfaction was a radical shift: a surrender to instinct.
Instead of planning color schemes or aiming for traditional balance, Simons began to choose hues based on gut feeling. This intuitive methodology allowed color to rise organically from the painting process, rather than being imposed upon it. It’s a process that mirrors poetry more than the kind where each hue, like a word or phrase, carries its emotive weight and significance. From the intense saturation of crimson to the soft diffusion of sage green, each color becomes a direct extension of his emotional state at the moment of creation.
The result is artwork that feels alive, emotionally charged, and atmospherically rich. Simons’ colors are not passive aesthetic choices; they are dynamic presences within the composition. A dash of indigo might suggest contemplation, a streak of orange may radiate playfulness or defiance, while the intrusion of teal might signal a moment of unexpected clarity. In his paintings, color assumes the role of an emotional actor, playing its part in a visual drama that is often abstract but deeply communicative.
His approach ensures that even when the themes lean toward the surreal or melancholic, the mood never becomes stagnant or heavy. There is always a vibrational quality in his pieces, a sort of chromatic energy that prevents stillness. Each painting pulses with momentum, created not through structured technique but through the artist’s profound emotional engagement with the medium.
Instinct Over Instruction: The Creative Rebellion
Brian Simons’ journey away from traditional instruction toward a more primal, intuitive method of painting reflects a broader philosophy that permeates both his art and his life. For him, the act of painting is inseparable from the act of living is an extension of being, a spontaneous dance between emotion and expression. Rather than treating color as an academic problem to solve, Simons embraces it as a living, breathing phenomenon to experience.
His brushwork is unrestrained, guided not by careful deliberation but by the rhythms of internal impulse. There’s a noticeable fluidity in the way his paintings develop. He doesn’t draft; he dives in. This spontaneity lends an unmistakable honesty to his work, as though the canvas becomes a mirror for his emotional state in real time. His choices are not designed to please, but to reveal.
In this way, color becomes a metaphor for freedomboth artistic and existential. Whether it’s a burst of chartreuse slicing through a calm blue or a glowing violet shadow tucked beneath a figure’s silhouette, the colors Simons employs carry a sense of personal liberation. They are not constrained by realism or by expectation. They exist to express, not to explain.
Interestingly, this mode of creation parallels his worldview. Simons approaches life as an open field for exploration rather than a domain to be mastered. He embraces the unknown, both in art and in existence, seeing each brushstroke as a risk worth taking. This philosophy permeates his pandemic-era work, where confinement and routine were countered by explosions of color that seemed to rebel against the drabness of isolation. During a time marked by restriction, Simons responded with emotional and visual expansiveness. His canvases became spaces of resistancevivid, unpredictable, and joyfully alive.
These works didn’t seek to capture the literal experience of the pandemic but to offer an emotional antidote to it. The use of bright, even euphoric color schemes during a time of widespread despair speaks to Simons’ belief in the redemptive power of creativity. Through his palette, he offered not just artistic expression, but emotional resilience. The emotional tone of these works does not reflect resignation, but rather a fierce insistence on hope, humor, and humanity.
This form of artistic rebellionthis refusal to be hemmed in by external realitiesextends to his refusal to align with specific artistic movements or schools. While his colorwork occasionally evokes comparisons to the Fauvist painters, who also prized emotional authenticity over realistic depiction, Simons is not interested in homage or replication. His work is fundamentally contemporary, infused with subtle cues from the modern world and shaped by an imagination that is at once reflective and irreverent.
Emotional Landscapes: The Silent Stories of Color
In the absence of overt symbolism or recognizable figures, the emotional impact of Simons’ work relies heavily on the interplay of color and form. His compositions often hover between the abstract and the figurative, challenging viewers to engage not with narrative but with feeling. A viewer might not immediately discern the “subject” of a paintingbut they will feel something. That emotional reaction is, for Simons, the very heart of the experience.
Color in his work acts as a kind of emotional geography. A painting may contain elements of joy, melancholy, absurdity, and serenity, all coexisting within the same space. This complexity is not articulated through familiar imagery, but through the way colors interacthow they clash, blend, or echo across the canvas. These interactions form what might be called an emotional topography, where each hue signifies a peak, a valley, or a shadow of the soul.
His paintings do not obey the logical constraints of the visible world. Perspective, proportion, and spatial accuracy are secondary to emotional resonance. What binds the elements together is not technical precision but chromatic cohesion. Objects, figures, and abstract forms are woven into a singular emotional rhythm through the harmonies and dissonances of color. This synesthetic structure gives Simons’ paintings their dreamlike qualityunreal in form but deeply real in feeling.
This emphasis on emotional rather than literal meaning allows Simons’ work to speak across boundaries of language, culture, and experience. His canvases become emotional spaces where the viewer is invited to bring their interpretations, their memories, and their sensations. It is a deeply inclusive form of art, one that does not prescribe meaning but evokes it.
Even in pieces that appear chaotic at first glance, there is a deep underlying coherence. It is a coherence built not from visual symmetry, but from emotional symmetry. A glowing patch of yellow might counterbalance a stormy blue; a splash of pink may rise like a whisper above a field of heavy gray. These pairings don’t follow rulesthey follow resonance. It is that resonance that lingers with the viewer long after they’ve left the painting behind.
In essence, Brian Simons has forged a path in contemporary art that is both deeply personal and universally accessible. By trusting his instincts and embracing color as a vessel for emotional truth, he has created a body of work that speaks directly to the heart. His paintings bypass intellectual analysis and tap into something more primal and profound shared emotional register that transcends the limitations of language.
Echoes of the Subconscious: The Emotional Pulse of Simons' Work
In the enigmatic dreamscapes of Brian Simons, figures do not merely appear; they emerge like whispered memories rising from the depths of the subconscious. His paintings resist the pull of realism or traditional symbolism, instead presenting forms that exist in a liminal space between recognition and abstraction. These are not characters drawn from archetype or anatomy, but emotional residues rendered in shape and color, as if they had always been waiting beneath the surface of the canvas, dormant yet destined to be revealed.
What sets Simons' work apart is this extraordinary sense of inevitability in his figures. They don’t feel painted so much as uncovered, as though they were hidden just beneath the surface, beneath the texture of the medium itself. The figures hover in an expressive balance, gesturing toward familiarity without descending into the concrete. They resemble people, perhaps; or feelings; or thoughts half-remembered. Their presence evokes an emotional memory rather than a literal one, a quiet reminder of something sensed rather than known.
Simons describes his approach to painting as a process of discovery rather than construction. He doesn't begin with a plan or sketch, nor does he work from a predetermined narrative. Instead, he listens to the brush, letting intuition lead. The spontaneity in his practice ensures each stroke becomes an act of excavation, revealing stories he did not consciously set out to tell. This approach gives his art an uncanny vitalityfigures that seem to know more than they reveal, silent observers of hidden truths.
There is a mysterious theatricality in his compositions, a suspended drama that unfolds not through dialogue or motion but through gesture and symbol. A solitary character might sit motionless, yet charged with meaning; a group of figures might gather in silent communion, hinting at a ritual or meeting whose purpose remains just out of reach. Each painting is a tableau from an unwritten play, frozen mid-scene, inviting the viewer to imagine the dialogue and emotions that surround it.
Between Memory and Myth: A Symbolic Language of the Soul
Simons’ artistic world is governed by its internal logic, where time and space behave more like emotions than coordinates. The traditional boundaries between background and foreground collapse, allowing figures to float or dissolve into their surroundings. This spatial ambiguity adds to the dreamlike sensation, a visual metaphor for the way memory folds over itself, nonlinear and layered. The result is a theatre of the subconscious, where the usual rules are replaced by a more intuitive, symbolic framework.
While his figures are central, they are often accompanied by carefully placed objects that seem at once familiar and enigmatic. Chairs, ladders, clocks, windows, masks, crowns, animals: these items populate his canvases like totems from a private mythology. Though placed spontaneously, their inclusion feels intentional, resonant with latent meaning. A ladder beside a contemplative figure might suggest a yearning for transcendence, while a fish might whisper of transformation or hidden depths.
These objects do not dictate meaning; they suggest it. In this way, Simons invites the viewer into an open-ended exchange. Unlike art that seeks to convey a singular, fixed message, his paintings offer interpretive freedom. Each viewer brings their own experiences, memories, and emotional landscapes, transforming each painting into a personal journey. What one sees in a figure with a mask or a crown may differ wildly from another's interpretation; this is the power of his work. It lives and evolves in the eye and heart of its audience.
Simons' figures, in their ambiguity and abstraction, are reflections more than representations. They do not portray specific individuals; they refract aspects of the human condition. In their distortion, there is authenticity. In their vagueness, there is a welcoming space for projection and empathy. These are not portraits of people, but of states of beingsolitude, longing, joy, confusion, resilience.
In these surreal, symbolic arenas, every brushstroke adds not just color but meaning. Each composition becomes a narrative portal, not to a fixed story but to a realm of infinite stories shaped by the viewer's gaze. The objects and figures interact silently, forming emotional constellations whose logic belongs more to memory than to realism. This blurring of the mythic and the personal grants Simons' work its unique resonance.
Allegory, Adaptation, and the Unseen Theatre of Human Experience
The global disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point in Simons' oeuvre. In response to a world transformed by isolation, uncertainty, and collective anxiety, his canvases became even more allegorical. He embraced satire and surrealism to speak to a fractured world. Figures appeared more masked, forms elongated, and domestic interiors were pushed to absurdist extremes. Yet even amid this visual commentary on crisis, a thread of humor endured, underscoring the resilience of the human spirit.
These pandemic-era works deepened his ongoing exploration of emotional truth. Confronted with an altered reality, Simons infused his visual language with sharper symbolic edges. The paintings from this period oscillate between melancholy and whimsy, tragedy and satire. Characters might be caught in exaggerated stillness, their features hidden behind masks that obscure and amplify. Spaces might expand or collapse, mirroring the psychological distortions of lockdown life.
Yet even as these compositions respond to immediate events, they do not relinquish their timeless quality. They still reside in that mythic, emotional plane where memory and imagination intersect. They are chronicles of an era, yes, but also eternal meditations on adaptation, alienation, and hope. As with his earlier work, they refrain from preaching or prescribing. Instead, they offer a mirror to the soul, inviting reflection without instruction.
Brian Simons paints with a sensitivity to the invisible. His works form a kind of visual mythology, not populated by ancient gods or heroic battles, but by the quiet, strange, and intimate dramas of human life. He paints not to record events, but to evoke experiencesto externalize the invisible rituals that govern our inner lives. In this theatre of paint and gesture, he casts ephemeral figures who play out stories of longing, joy, confusion, and grace.
In every piece, Simons opens a door to emotional discovery. His art is a kind of remembering, not of events, but of feelings. The viewer is never a passive observer, but an active participant in the unfolding drama. Each painting is not merely a visual object but a dynamic space of engagement, interpretation, and connection.
Simons’ commitment to intuitive creation ensures that his work remains vital and evolving. As the world shifts, so too do the forms on his canvas new piece, a continuation of a lifelong dialogue with the subconscious. In this sense, his work becomes a living archive of the human condition: mysterious, mutable, and full of meaning.
By drawing upon emotion, memory, and myth, Simons offers us a space not just to look, but to feel. He invites us into a visual experience that transcends the confines of narrative and taps into something deeper shared inner world where images speak the language of the soul. It is there, in that rich and uncertain space between knowing and feeling, that his art finds its true voice.
The Art of Presence: Brian Simons and the Power of Intuitive Creation
Brian Simons approaches painting not as a craft to be mastered, but as a living process unfolding journey of presence, spontaneity, and inner exploration. His work does not follow a linear method nor aim for perfection; instead, it emerges from a place of deep awareness and emotional sincerity. For Simons, the canvas becomes a mirror to the moment, a sacred space where intention dissolves and intuition takes the lead. Each brushstroke is a response to what is not a calculated gesture, but a spontaneous act guided by feeling, memory, and the ineffable rhythm of creativity itself.
At the heart of Simons’ philosophy is a powerful commitment to being fully present. When he paints, he enters what can best be described as a meditative state trance-like immersion in the act itself. This state is not merely “flow” in the conventional sense; it’s more profound, more immersive. The mind quiets, and the hand becomes a conduit for something unspoken. The ego recedes, allowing a deeper intelligence, we might call soul or intuition, to guide the process. Painting, then, becomes not a performance but a practice of surrender, of listening inwardly and responding with honesty.
For many artists, the blank canvas can be a daunting visual metaphor for the unknown, the place where doubt often takes root. But Simons embraces this emptiness with enthusiasm. He does not see it as a void to be filled or a puzzle to be solved, but as an invitation to engage, to play, to explore. The first mark is not the beginning of control, but the beginning of dialogue. He meets the unknown not with fear, but with curiosity, trusting that one gesture will lead to another. In this way, creativity unfolds naturally, like a conversation rather than a construction.
This trust is essential to his process. It allows for mistakes, surprises, and revelations. It also requires discipline, the kind that confines, but the kind that grounds. Simons has developed a rhythm over the years of practice, one that allows him to remain open while maintaining a steady connection to his core intent. His creative path began as a personal refuge, a means of reconnecting with joy after leaving a technical career in engineering. What started as self-healing eventually evolved into a profound life practice. Painting became his compass, his sanctuary, and ultimately, his offering to something greater than himself.
In a world obsessed with polish and technical prowess, Simons offers something refreshingly honest. His paintings do not conform to conventional standards of refinement or academic precision. They pulse with life because they are born in the momentunfiltered, vulnerable, and deeply human. This raw immediacy is what makes his work so compelling. Viewers are not dazzled by illusion; they are moved by truth. The texture of emotion, the nuance of intuition, and the depth of presence are the elements that give his art its unique power.
The Poetics of the Unknown: Embracing Mystery Through Art
Brian Simons has never been content with the surface of things. His work consistently gestures toward something deepersomething felt but not always seen. Over time, he has come to view painting not just as an artistic act, but as a spiritual one. This spirituality is not tied to dogma or doctrine; rather, it reflects a humble relationship to the unknown. In his words, painting is a conversation with mystery, communion with forces beyond the rational mind. He does not claim ownership over his work; instead, he sees himself as a participant in an ongoing, invisible exchange with the muse of imagination.
This orientation demands a certain kind of humility. Simons doesn’t approach the canvas with preconceptions or rigid plans. Instead, he allows the painting to reveal itself, to evolve organically. The marks he makes are not calculated, but discovered. This openness to the unknown is both liberating and challenging. It asks the artist to relinquish control and to embrace uncertaintynot as a limitation, but as a source of creative energy.
There is a paradox here that Simons has learned to navigate: form emerging from formlessness, structure arising from spontaneity. His work resists categorization precisely because it remains in dialogue with change. Each painting is a unique inquiry, a visual poem composed in real-time. Some works feel dreamlike, others grounded; some are whimsical, others carry a deeper emotional weight. Yet all are unified by a quality of sincerity, a refusal to settle for surface-level expression.
Even when Simons ventures into abstraction or surreal imagery, his paintings remain tethered to lived experience. They are not escapist fantasies, but rather distillations of emotion, perception, and human complexity. You can sense the breath of life in the textures, the quiet humor in the forms, the contemplative silence behind the chaos of color. There is always a pulse reminder that these works were created not in detachment, but in deep engagement with the world and its contradictions.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this practice took on new depth and urgency. With the world caught in collective uncertainty, Simons returned to his studio with renewed purpose. The isolation and anxiety of the moment became part of his process. Instead of resisting the global atmosphere of disconnection, he channeled it into his work, creating pieces that were emotionally resonant and spiritually grounded. These pandemic-era paintings captured something many felt but could not articulate: the sorrow, the absurdity, the resilience, and the fragile beauty of simply continuing.
They became visual meditationsneither escapist nor didactic, but profoundly human. In this time of rupture, his art reminded us that creativity is not just a luxury or a pastime. It is a way to make meaning, to reconnect, to heal. It is a way to bear witness to both suffering and hope. And perhaps most importantly, it is a way to remain presentto refuse to become numb or disengaged.
Creativity as a Way of Life: Lessons from Brian Simon’s Artistic Journey
What distinguishes Brian Simons is not a singular style or technique, but a way of being. His work is inseparable from his lived experience, from his values, and his ongoing relationship with creativity as a mode of inner alignment. He does not paint to impress or to conform. He paints to listen, to feel, to connect. This approach challenges many of the dominant narratives in contemporary art culture, which often prioritize commodification, spectacle, or intellectual abstraction over authenticity and vulnerability.
Simons reminds us that art-making is not the exclusive domain of professionals or experts. It is an accessible, intuitive, and deeply human practice. Anyone, he suggests, can step into the unknown with a brush or a pencil in hand. What’s required is not mastery, but willingnessa willingness to explore, to make mistakes, to be surprised. This democratization of creativity is central to his ethos. It’s not about producing masterpieces; it’s about showing up with honesty and responding to what arises.
There is something deeply redemptive about this stance. In an era dominated by metrics, algorithms, and instant gratification, Simons' work calls us to slow down and tune in. It invites us to reawaken our sense of wonder, to rekindle our connection to the tactile and the tangible. His paintings do not shout for attention. They whisper. And in that whisper is an invitation to feel more deeply, to see more clearly, to be more fully alive.
This is not to say that his work is sentimental or naive. On the contrary, it is often laced with complexity, contradiction, and subtle commentary. There is playfulness, yes, but also grief. There is spontaneity, but also depth. What gives his paintings their staying power is this layered emotional resonance. They do not offer easy answers. Instead, they hold space for questionsfor ambiguity, for nuance, for mystery.
Simons’ artistic journey is ultimately a testament to the courage of following one’s inner compass. His transition from engineering to painting was not just a career change; it was a transformation of worldview. It required letting go of certainty, of societal expectations, of linear progress. It demanded a leap of faithinto color, into process, into the unknown. And in doing so, he found not only a new way to express himself, but a new way to live.
His legacy, then, is not just in the paintings he leaves behind, but in the example he sets. He teaches us that creativity is not a means to an end, but a way of being. That presence is more important than perfection. That beauty can emerge from chaos, and that artat its bestis not about proving something, but about revealing something.
Brian Simons invites us to take that leap as well. To pick up the brush, to embrace the unknown, to trust our own intuition. And in doing so, we may just rediscover something essentialnot just about art, but about ourselves.
