Why Less is More in Art (BKI 25)

Last week’s BKI 24 was my favorite space decluttering tip, giving your creativity room to grow. Now let’s learn how to declutter your art so that it becomes even more powerful! We’ve been having a fascinating conversation within BK Harp Circle about “less is more.” It’s amazing: by simplifying our art (removing busyness), we GAIN so much:

• more expression

• better technique

• more room for experimentation

• more room for connection/communication

• more space to listen • more mental space to think

• more peace

• more joy!

Why simplicity is sophisticated When you pare back to essentials, you reach the essence of what you want to say. As creatives, clearly delivering our message (whatever our art form) is beautiful. Simplicity is no compromise; instead, it is profound.

Hi, this is Diana. Bright Knowledge Instants give you one thing that you can do today to move your creativity ahead. Last time, we talked in bright knowledge instant 24 about decluttering and how decluttering leaves space for your creativity to happen. Today we're going to go one step further and talk about decluttering your art form. No matter what art form you work with, whether it's music, painting, dance, writing, cooking, gardening, any art form benefits from decluttering.

Why is that? When you clutter things up, when there are extra elements in your art form, it takes away from the essence of what you're trying to say. And ultimately, we are trying to communicate in as deep and clear away as possible. So by taking things out, you communicate the essence of your message far more effectively. What would that look like? Well, in music, take a look at your scores.

Are there some chords that you can take out? Are there some ornaments you can take out? Are there even sections that you could remove? And it would make your piece even stronger in writing? Do you have a long description that really could be short and pithy, far more memorable in visual art, Are there some elements in your piece that are distracting from your main message? Can you remove those so that your message is clearer?

When we declutter, we get to the very heart of what we're trying to say, and that is a joy for us, and it's also a joy for the people who are engaging with our art. It becomes so much clearer and easier for them to understand what it is we're trying to communicate. So try this today, decluttering your art form. Just take out a few elements and notice how much more you gain in terms of emotion, in terms of impact, in terms of clarity.

Try this today and let me know how that goes for you. Bye.