Quantity is Better than Quality

Quantity is Better than Quality

There is a classic story about creativity  from Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking that I want to share with you.

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quantity. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated and “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an “A”. Well, come grading time a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than  grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” – Art and Fear

So don’t get hung up on how great your images are. If you simply spend more time behind that lens snapping away at lots of things, without worrying about what you are doing a funny thing will happen … you will find yourself getting better and some amazing images will start appearing.

Sometimes quantity IS better than quality.

 

Have you ever hit a creative dry spell? If so, did you do anything special to free yourself of it?