Is Less More?

A little behind-the-scenes peek at how I write these here posts here. I think of something then spend a few days thinking about it, then I write it down, usually in one fell swoop, late into the night. I then, in the morning, look with horror at the jumbled mess of letters and punctuation marks that last night I believed were coherent sentences, rewrite it and then post it. Well this time... It's going to be pretty similar except without the days of thinking about the subject. Yes that's right this is going to have even less thought put into it than usual. I'm sure it will be fine. I came up with the idea for this post around 10 minutes ago in the shower. My hair is still damp. So on with the show!

I just realized I have secretly been a minimalist for quite a while. Its been so secret I didn't even realize myself. Until now!

I believe the artist Ad Reinhardt (who I literally just found out about. I am making this up on the fly) said it best when he said of art:

The more stuff in it, the busier the work of art, the worse it is. More is less. Less is more. The eye is a menace to clear sight. The laying bare of oneself is obscene. Art begins with the getting rid of nature.

This quote, quite nicely, sums up my rather newly apparent preference. I do like minimalism. I do think that less can be more. For me the most impressive art or music is the one that can do the most with the least, the fewer the number of words, the fewer colours. As is customary for this blog, I shall now poorly quote someone I can't remember the name of. A famous rock musician (I think) said (perhaps) that he thought it was a greater achievement to write a rock song with 4 chords on a guitar than it was for Beethoven to write a symphony with the many thousands of tones and sounds at his disposal and really I agree. Perhaps that is why my favourite band is Melvins. They don't always play around with complicated guitar solos or other "add ons" (although they can and have), they just play good solid music. One of my personal favourites is their song Night Goat (I have lovingly provided a link that I'm sure no-one will want to click):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwSOrd4E7yw

Look me in the eye and say that that opening bass line didn't send a chill up your spine. That bass line is a constant, like a drum beat on a distant hill. I love Night Goat. Another, more recently discovered, band that I think also have appealed to my love of simplicity is Evil Blizzard. Really it's ironic because they have 4 bassists. Their song Slimy Creatures I think could be said to have minimalist elements considering the full lyrics are "Slimy creatures / Ugly features" and the music itself doesn't deviate much throughout the song. Some might say this is a bad thing but to me it comes across as relentless (which is good). It's like a train being driven through your ear. That bass guitar (well all 4 of them) just keeps pounding along :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4OscceBWe0

Now of course I am aware that they are not strictly minimalist and actually are made up of more than one noise but it shows you don't need a million chord changes or a hundred different versions of the chorus to make a good song. The repetitive nature of both of these songs really appeals to me. I have no idea why. Maybe I'm a simpleton. But then again minimalism, as an idea, has been around a long time and there are interpretations of it in essentially every art style from music to literature to video games (Minecraft anyone?). So I am not alone in enjoying "pared-down design elements". But why did I have this sudden realization in the shower? Why have I, the least artistic person in the world, been thinking about minimalist art style? Well, recently, I went and tried to do some art...

Well when I say art...

When I say try...

I kind of became a bit obsessed by a certain blog called Propnomicon. Now, if you are a fan of the writing of H.P Lovecraft, you should also find this site pretty fascinating but you don't need to be a Lovecraft fanboy to think this stuff is legitimately awesome. Essentially it's what you get when you mix a load of artists, sculptors, prop makers and people with time on their hands and an extensive mythos based around eldritch horrors, unearthly beings and alien gods. And it's awesome. Seriously just look at some of the stuff people have made. I can and have spent hours looking at this stuff:

http://propnomicon.blogspot.fi/

Now my personal favourite objects exhibited on this website are the Cthulhu idols. Now if you don't know who Cthulhu is you need to:
1. Read The Call of Cthulhu by H.P Lovecraft.
2. Try to stop weeping in fear.

In the story, a statue of the octopus-headed, dragon-bodied being from beyond the stars, who lies dead in his house at R'yleh, is recovered from a cult gathering in the swamps of New Orleans and it's description and importance in the story, has captured the imaginations of many and so people have created their own versions of this disturbing sculpture, carved millennia ago, on some dark star.

(Just as an aside: This story and character are famous enough for Cthulhu not to be flagged as a spelling mistake but "favourite" and "colour" are. Americans...)

And by God, are these statues good. Browse through them and see the sheer love and craftsmanship put into these images. They are astounding. They are... inspiring....

 Yeah, I had a go at making my own. Now my personal favourites of the statues shown are those that embrace a simple design (Surprise!). There are plenty that have exquisitely carved scales, tentacles that curl around, dripping slime,  monstrous claws and look so incredibly life like that you almost recoil from them, but the ones that really hit home for me are the ones that are simplicity itself. They look like some ancient stone age man carved them with primitive tools in a dark cave, visions of the great beast torturing their mind. They are just a few lines and yet they are weighed down by the lore that surrounds this creature that is instantly recognizable. Stuff like this:

http://propnomicon.blogspot.fi/2013/10/cthulhu-fhtagn-gormly-edition.html

And especially this one (which incidentally was created by a Finnish artist!):

http://propnomicon.blogspot.fi/2013/06/cthulhu-fhtagn-jarvinen-edition.html

They are rough and worn and aged but essentially just clean lines and shapes and somehow all the better for it. They could be polished and detailed, every inch worked over, but the very fact they are simple adds volumes. It adds some mystery, which if you know Lovecraft, is the whole point of his stories. The terror of the unknown, the indefinable.

So I had a go at my own versions and they turned out pretty darn well if I say so myself. I currently have made 2 and a half wooden ones (the half didn't go so well and then went terribly when I managed to slash my finger open with the penknife I was using. Good thing that scars look cool) and one out of a cork. They all consist of 6 holes (the eyes) and some straight lines and that's it (except the half which was more complicated... and caused me to cut my finger. Minimalism is best). Anyone familiar with Cthulhu would (I hope) very easily see the resemblance and I achieved it with almost nothing. I think that's awesome.

(This is where I would add photos of my creations but I have no idea how to add photos to this blog and I feel it will be more effort than it's worth so sorry.)

But anyway enough backslapping of my own creative talent (they are so simple, I really did very little), this is what got me thinking about minimalism and for me it really is true that less is more. To strike fear and dread into people's hearts is easy with a ton of money, years of experience in the prop making world and professional materials but to do it in a simplified, stripped down form can be just as effective. Think about the current trend for über cheap, found footage films, but it's true for all the arts. I'm currently reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy which is also very minimalist and uses very few words to convey a lot of emotion about a man and his son (both of them never named) traveling through post-apocalyptic America and trying not to get eaten by cannibals.

The main point of this blog post (and all of those links I've put up for you) is that the flashiest, most over-the-top, the MOST isn't always the best or the most effective. Just a few lines in the right places can suggest otherworldly beings and conjure up a whole store of imagery.

You also don't need talent to do art stuff.

But you should be careful and wear gloves when working with knives. 

I lied. Scars aren't cool.