Quantity vs Quality
A couple of years ago, I read Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It was transformative. I’m not just saying that - it was actually life changing. I will never fold my clothes in any other manner than what she taught me. You can get the audiobook for free here and decide for yourself.
That’s how I “read” it. On my commute to work. There aren’t any plot twists to follow and it’s an easy listen. Here is an arial view of my shirt drawer. I see every shirt in one look with nothing smashed at the bottom or forgotten. My fashion choices have more variety because it’s easy to find what I am looking for. Goodbye boredom and the desire to buy something new because I’m tired of wearing the same thing.
So, this blog is about art - not origami shirt folding. What does this clearing out have to do with the art process? The actual point of the book is that we should rid ourselves of things that we don’t find useful and don’t consider beautiful or meaningful in some way. It’s not about minimalism - although I did clear out a lot of stuff that I no longer used or needed. choosing Quality over Quantity left me with empty space, breathing room, more freedom and less cleaning time. .
I’m going to take a contrary approach to Marie’s Less is More concept for a moment. In my art making process I have learned that less is not in line with better. To put it more directly, the less I paint, stitch, and create the less likely I am to make anything worth sharing. However, the more I paint, stitch and create the more likely I am to make something I really love and want to share.
In order to build my art practice, I have taken to setting little challenges for myself and create MANY small experimental pieces so I can hone in to what I really like and then let go of what I don’t like and create from that place. The place that I clarified and refined through observation and discernment. Only then can I create a body of work that I truly enjoy throughout the entire process. Without fail, the results are more satisfying than if I was trying to create the minimum amount of work necessary.
The quantity of pieces allows me a broader range of visual observations than if I only tried something a few times. Once I see what works, I can explore that more deeply. Without the larger quantity, there would be very little quality.
Once I have made a quantity of experiments, I will elevate the quality of work from what I learn. Then I will make a series or QUANTITY of work. From that I will select for exhibit or sale those of the highest QUALITY. I can’t find a shortcut to get quality without first creating a quantity of work.
For those of you who are mathematically inclined, I recently made 100 small compositions. I worked quickly and didn’t invest my expensive materials or too much time creating. I also went into the process knowing that by definition half of them will be below average.
I set parameters: 5.5” X 5.5” hot press water color paper painted in all different colors, pairs of squares were collaged with 5 of the same pieces of collage paper, final decision - I could add a pattern, splatter, or scribble.
Here’s a quick video of the results of my project.
I learned a ton about composition. I will be sharing it soon in an in-person workshop. The only reason the ability to pass on what I learned is possible is because I created a large quantity and then refined it to the ones I felt were the highest quality.
So, while I’ll agree that clutter and holding on to things because “I paid a lot of money for that”, “It was a gift and I’d feel bad giving it away” or “I don’t have the time, energy or motivation to clean out the closet” are excuses we tell ourselves that can really affect our mental state, I don’t think making 25 or 65 or 100 art investigations in order to refine our work is the same thing.
Feel free to leave a comment or suggestion about how decluttering or art experiments have helped you or what you’d like to try but have been putting off. Thanks for visiting the blog. I wish you a creative week.
