Doing More With Less
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
- Epictetus
"Doing More With Less" is a fifty piece "tiny art" project that was conceived over the course of several years, and implemented with the goal of making a lot using little. Our world's resources are increasingly stretched to provide for a population that doubles about every four decades. In 2022 we hit eight billion people. Humanity is grappling with how to consume less and produce more.
A single sharpie, one 2' x 2' piece of scrap 1/4" plywood, acrylic paint, adhesive, and a roll of spare aluminum tape. From this, fifty individual pieces were created using hundreds of doodles made on a single newspaper. I wanted to explore themes of whimsy, interdependence, consumption, production, and natural life. Recurring themes include farms, natural and artificial landscapes, animals, togetherness, longing, growth, and love.
While these fifty pieces were created together, they were always intended to be distributed to lead lives of their own. They may be mounted, placed on stands, forgotten in drawers, regifted to others, lost to time, or otherwise enjoyed by people and in ways never imagined by me. I love the idea that art is sent into the world to be enjoyed in many different and unforeseen ways.
The full collection can be viewed here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/KCW2Q6ezBKFH1FtP7
Wood cut and painted
Cutting aluminum frames
No pain no gain
Assistants for doodle cutting
Hundreds of doodles were created for this series
A single Wall Street Journal was used for all artwork
Two acrylic clearcoats applies to protect the final pieces
Art is my personal catharsis. It allows me to - somewhat contradictorily - escape from reality while simultaneously drawing upon it. It is important to me that my art is accessible, which is probably why I love tiny art so much. Smaller pieces that are more affordable and easy to understand regardless of whether you know your Sol LeWitt from your John Singer Sargent. I want my creations to capture whimsy and joy from life to make the viewer smile and reflect on their own.
It is okay for art to make us happy and upset at the same time. Holding contrary emotions at the same time is the beautiful hypocrisy of humanity.