Chat with a gallerist in Portland changed how I think about my digital pieces

She told me my work was technically solid but had no 'breathing room' because every pixel was trying too hard. Made me go back and strip out half the layers from my last three projects to see if less really does more. Anyone else had feedback that forced you to rework your whole approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_zara20d ago

Had a professor tell me once that my digital collages were like "a party where everyone's talking at once." Stung to hear it but she was right. I went through and deleted anything that wasn't pulling its weight... turned out half my elements were just noise. Suddenly the pieces had space to breathe and the main subjects actually hit harder. It's weird how scary it is to delete work you spent hours on but the final result is always better. Now I try to ask myself "what's the one thing I want people to see here" before I add anything else. That single rule changed my whole process more than any tutorial ever did.

the_evan13d ago

Eighteen layers deleted from one piece last week... felt like a tiny funeral but the piece finally worked.

lindamartin20d ago

Cringed when I read "party where everyone's talking at once" because I felt that in my bones. That's brutal but so real.