Does Size Matter?

 

We're deep into winter here on La Belle Farm and our hens have just launched into an egg-laying strike. Okay, not really. They’ve just stop laying eggs. They do this every year around this time. Farmer Bill tells me this is simply their hibernation phase and it's perfectly natural. And so, the eggs in this photo are actually from last summer.

Just look at these eggs! What's with that little brown egg? It's so cute, so unusual. I just had to show it to you.

By the way, I did not chastise the hen responsible for laying such a tiny egg. And I did not tell her that she was being a slacker and needed to get with the egg-laying program!

Actually, her eggs are the ones that get all the attention--because they're different. They stand out. So you see, size does matter, but not in the way you might think. Isn't that the secret to great art? It's the originality. It's the surprise. Perhaps the strangeness. We yearn for the thing that will re-awaken our senses, because we all long to see our world with new eyes.

Of course, we will recognize this thing. It's an egg. Or a novel, a painting, a dance, a song--but there's something about it that feels a little off. And, that's what makes it remarkable.

In the art world, being a little off is a good thing.

Creative Friends--your work is not about the size or the numbers. Don't ask yourself how many pages did I write today? Don't worry about how many followers you’ve collected or how much money you're raking in. The real work is not about numbers. This is a distraction from your true calling—which is to make something genuine and original. Something we haven't seen before. Surprise us. Shake us out of the ordinary. That’s the work.

And yes, go ahead and be a little off. This is where genius lives and thrives.

Love,

Jamie