We hear this phrase a lot in music and other artistic venues. It's a mantra that keeps us from saturation. That's when all of the space is taken up with stuff, leaving no blank space for air. You need air against whatever you're doing. It's serves as a kind of palette for movement to whatever you're trying to say. What we do/say has to go up against something for contrast. Contrast helps to give what your communicating the 2D effect for impact. But for 3D you need air. In photography you have to pay attention to background. But that's not enough for movement. For that you need air. Air is invisible, transparent.
For instance, music is not just playing notes. Jazz master Bryan Carrott says that it is a collection of notes "and" silence. Without the silence there is no contrast, no 3D. Think about this. The more silence, the less saturation, the bigger impact of what you're trying to say, the bigger the stage for the content. Confusing? Then let me get even more confusing.
Jordan Miles Cortese [my firstborn and co-best friend after my wife Mel, she's first. Jordan gets the "co-" because Donovan, my 2nd born, gets equal placement] and I have been trying to practice being more economical with words. We're not doing such a great job just yet but we're consciously working at it. We're taking more drives together to practice this. We practice it on topics like the arts, politics, religion, holy discontent's, etc. We realized through honest reflection that when we go too long trying to explain or defend a point of view, we're actually weakening our statements. Almost like we're trying to prove something with a run-on collection of words instead of just stating our case and then letting, even trusting it, against the silence. If not the silence, the left over space of nothing that, under the old ways, would have been filled up.
Even worse is the insertion of "superlatives". Now this is my biggest Achilles heal. Why do my words have to be accompanied by "the greatest, best, nothing better, you don't know". Just to think, if everything I say has to have "best, greatest, the most delicious" attached to it, then there is and will never be room for a greater experience to happen to others. That is robbery. And do I really want my experience, which no one else will ever have, to be the greatest? Won't that cause someone to covet, even lust for something they can't have? If Italy is the greatest place in the world (it is :-), why say that knowing that most people won't ever make it there? And who is to say that their trip to the Harriman State Park won't be the greatest? Lake Welch might look like Lake Cuomo to them :-0
Less is more. Trust me. Less is more. The attached picture is one of my favorite. I love it because of the bigger absence of information than the actual subject. There is more white, more contrast, more air. As a result, The Don looks awesome! Ooops. I mean "good". There goes another superlative. I bet you I could've written this thing in half the amount of words. I told you...we're just starting to work on this. Now you go and start paying attention to your rambling ways. We're rooting for you! Less is more. Trust us...who have to listen you :-)
