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Should You Simplify Your Art
163 Plays5 months ago
Should You Simplify Your Art? Insights and Practical Advice In this episode, Nic Torres reflects on a conversation with artist Laura Williams about the complexities of art creation and whether simplifying art can be beneficial. Laura shared an anecdote about receiving advice to simplify her work to enjoy the process more and to make her pieces easier to sell. The episode explores the importance of understanding one's goals in art, whether as a hobby or as a full-time profession, and considers how simplifying art can free up time, reduce production costs, and potentially increase sales. The speaker encourages artists to reflect on their enjoyment of the creation process and offers practical suggestions on how to simplify art without compromising quality.
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Transcript
The Advice: Simplify Art
00:00:00
Speaker
Should you simplify your art? A couple of weeks ago, I got to interview Laura Williams. And one of the things that Laura Williams told me when I was interviewing her was that she had an encounter with somebody from that happened to walk into her studio when she was doing a residency. And the thing that the person said to her was that it looked like what Laura was making, it looked like it took a long time, it looked like it was very complicated to make. And she asked the question, did do you enjoy what you're making? And Laura responded, not really, it's kind of tedious and it's kind of long, it takes a lot while wow to make.
00:00:40
Speaker
And so with that, with with what with Laura's response came the guest response as well. And she said, well, maybe you should simplify
Hobby vs. Profession: Art Simplification's Role
00:00:49
Speaker
your work. Maybe you should take out a few steps and take out a few things to maybe so you can price your work a little bit better and you could make pottery a little bit faster. And that becomes the question. Should you simplify your art? Well, really comes down to what your goal is. What is your goal in Pottery. What's your goal in art? Why did you get into pottery? Do you do it as a hobby? Do you do it tried to be a full-time potter? What is your
Pricing and Sales: The Impact of Complexity
00:01:15
Speaker
goal? If your goal is to become a full-time potter, you might want to think about simplifying your work because the goal is to sell the pots, right? the sell The goal is to sell the pottery, sell things to make living off your pottery.
00:01:30
Speaker
And if you price your work too high in the beginning, then you're not gonna be able to sell anything at all. I learned that lesson myself. I tried pricing my mugs way too high and I didn't sell anything. And so, but the reason why I priced it so high was because it took a long time for me to make. And that was pretty much the same conflict that Laura was facing, that it was like the stuff that she was making took her a long time.
Laura's Decision: Aligning Art with Market
00:01:52
Speaker
So she had to either price it very high, but Either price very high and not sell very much or lower the price and simplify it and sell more. And that was the decision Laura made. She decided to simplify her work. Instead of doing something that is super very complicated, she decided to simplify it. But it comes back to what your goal is. Are you doing this as a hobby? If you do this as a hobby, you don't need to really simplify your work. As long as you're enjoying what you're making, that question, are you enjoying what you're making?
00:02:20
Speaker
If you answer yes on that, then you don't need to simplify your work. You don't need to do anything else because that's what is going on in your mind. You don't need to do anything else.
Benefits of Simplifying Art
00:02:30
Speaker
You are already you're already doing it, right? Because if you are enjoying what you're making, then that is the number one thing. But if you ask yourself the question, are you enjoying what you're making and the answer is no, then you know you need to simplify your work. You need to start simplifying your work. Dumb it down a little bit and by dumbing it down, I just mean taking out a few steps that you're doing into your pottery process or your art process as well. Dumb it down a little bit so that you can make the art faster, make the pottery faster and price it a little bit better. Price a little bit more affordable. Right. So let's say you are making a mug and you have you add a bunch of sculptures to it.
00:03:09
Speaker
Is that taking you a very long time and you really want to sell this and are mean maybe you are something that's new to selling art, selling pottery? Try simplifying it down because that process, it can be heartbreaking when you are, mit you spend a lot of time on something and it just doesn't work, right? It doesn't sell because that's what you want it to do. You want it to sell. A simple solution is to simply simplify your art. Maybe only doing one or three color one to three colors, right? If you are somebody that uses a lot of colors, or maybe you're only adding a few. If you're a sculptor, if you have sculptures through mugs like me, maybe it's instead of doing the whole sculpture, maybe it's adding the head or maybe it's adding the head and body.
Creativity Through Simplicity
00:03:50
Speaker
You're not doing an entire thing. You're not doing every single thing to make it more complicated. It's okay to simplify your work. It's okay. it Just because you're simplifying your work doesn't mean it can't be just as good. Not only that, by simply putting limitations onto your own pottery you ah and and simplifying what you're doing, new ideas start to come about. Simply by putting limitations on yourself, you think start thinking outside the box, okay, how can I make this pot make it the best pot possible with the limited resources I have or with the limited steps I have to take to make this pot, make this piece come to life?
00:04:28
Speaker
And simply by simplifying, it frees you up time to make the work and also price a little bit better. We don't always have to make the most complicated things. If we could simplify our work, learn to simplify it, li take out some steps that you're doing in the process. then that becomes how you simplify the work. You don't always need to make something extravagant. And again, it comes back to your goals. If you are if your goal is to become a full-time potter, if you are want to sell your own art, your own pottery, you might want to think about simplifying work. But if you're just doing it as a hobby, maybe doing it on the side every once in a while, it's okay to make more complicated work.
00:05:06
Speaker
So that's my advice to you if you're thinking about trying to simplify your work. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next.