constrained AND expansive

Can you do/be/have BOTH? (+ lots of art from last few weeks)

“Artichokes” by Cynthia Berg, 2025 - all rights reserved.

A little while ago, I decided to enforce a ‘morning pages’ art practice in an old book I grabbed at the local thrift.

I wanted to keep this morning practice simple and achievable, so I released the idea that I’d make anything deeply thoughtful or useful for any purpose other than filling the pages of an unreadable book.

Not as easy as it sounds. Maybe you’re familiar with my flavor of perfectionism or ‘greatitude.’ (Yes, I just made up that word. Great, isn’t it? lol)

To bring you completely up to date - I’ve made a bunch of terrible and beautiful things on those pages during my morning coffee time. I’ve been amusing myself quite a bit, but also enjoying a break from the reality show that is the US government right now.

If you’re curious, I’ve been sharing short notes here on Substack - see the NOTES tab in the navigation on my page.

For me, the whole point of making art is to cultivate more freedom. I spend a lot of my life tending to obligations, so I really crave time and space to retire all my ‘shoulds’ and just unapologetically explore.

I used to think freedom came from being unconstrained. But I’ve learned this isn’t true at all. Too many choices can be paralyzing.

What’s great about doing some quick morning art in an old book? The paper only takes dry-ish media, the pages are only so big, I only have a little time, limited colors of oil pastels or markers. Lots of constraints!

Did it feel limiting? No, It felt FREE.

It felt expansive. I started to wonder how I could do new and novel things INSIDE the constraints. I forgot about limitation as a barrier and started believing it was a KEY.

For example, if I didn’t have a certain color of marker, I found it in my collage papers and started ‘painting’ with collage (using a simple glue stick). Off-cuts of collage paper became new elements I could use to create ‘negative’ shapes.

Sharpie bleeding through the pages? No problem - tear up some paper from the recycling bin and collage it in as a background. Does it look like trash? I think not. I kind of love it.

A few days ago, I wondered if I could create even MORE constraints. Would doing so create even MORE expansiveness?

Dusted off my old ipad and started dabbling in Procreate. Make no mistake, technology can be anything but constrained. But I chose to just use one brush and not get too fancy. Would I end up with crayon-like drawings - ok, let’s see.

I instantly felt it - expansiveness!

Digital tools give you infinite color choices - but it couldn’t be simpler to choose them and put them to work. No paint mixing or running out of your favorite color. Is your composition feeling a little drab? How about a little spot of teal? Easy-squeezy.

No layers, no fancy brushes, no clipping masks - just shapes and colors. Amazingly simple, but the possibilities suddenly became ENDLESS

Here’s another thing….

I’ve come to realize there are two big parts of artmaking:

Composition - all the ways the artwork is designed - shapes, lines, colors, contrast, arrangement, etc.

Methods - all the HOWs of making art - choosing the substrate, the size, the materials, mixing colors, making time, finding the space needed, cleaning up, finishing and framing, labeling, sharing and selling (if you’re into that).

Making digital art puts METHODS on hold (constraint) and lets me explore COMPOSITION freely (expansive).

I imagine that some of my digital creations will become blueprints for wet-process artmaking. With a lot of the composition decisions made, I can then focus on HOW to replicate some of the best moments, using real-world art materials.

Because, of course, making a mess with paint and collage is still the absolute best way to spend an afternoon.

Question I’m Pondering

Sometimes less is more. LESS leads to MORE. Beyond artmaking, in what other dimensions of life could creating constraints actually lead to more expansiveness?

Thoughts?