Renee De Four

Vance Joy - Georgia

This is where my journey with Agnes Martin begins - chapter 4, part 3 of A Simpler Life titled “voluntary poverty”.

The first time I read this, I was at a loss for words. How can someone live like this? I suppose a better question is, what did Agnes Martin realize or see that most of us don’t? Somehow, she was able to see that these fleeting forms of pleasure don’t bring happiness anyway, like Rupert (Spira) says.

Something else fulfilled her and it wasn’t to be found in acquiring material objects.

Personally, I know these things don’t bring happiness, certainly not in and of themselves. I’ve known this for years yet I still fall back into these cycles of materialistic consumption. I must pay more attention to the moment that my awareness shifts from the internal to external.