so what was it about "less is more," anyway?

Sometimes I do take a peek at myself in the mirror before I leave the house. This morning, for a second, I got a big surprise (see below) then I thought, "I guess I look like my quilts and people in town should be used to me by now."
Although I live in New England, austerity does not become me or maybe it would be better said that I really don't understand it. I seem to respond to Modernist aesthetic in the same way. Clean, pure, simple Zen-like white boxes really do sound like peaceful places to live and work and be contemplative, but what about pink and red and purple...together. Where would I put that decorative scarf? Detritus of daily life quickly forms itself into an altar or some other little collection. (Some people call this "clutter".) The first large quilt I made in response to moving to Maine is "A Mayan Child Moves to
Maine in November." This quilt suggests a landscape; the stones are there, the spindly trees without their leaves, the night sky in all its winter purity. If one looks closely at the different kinds of embellishment used for different
purposes, one can see a glimpse into my brain: "Oh, an empty space, fill it -quick."