This is an experiment to see what different artists do with limited creative options. Participants are given stereotyped construction paper shapes and a sheet of white letter paper, and are told to make the strongest artistic statement they can.

I thought of this while trying to convince someone she was an artist. Further minimalism is possible, and is perhaps paradoxically more artistically challenging. What is the strongest artistic statement you could make in these scenarios?

• A true/false test with 20 true/false bubbles on a sheet of paper.
• A sentence of ten words. Insert up to nine line breaks.
• Four squares arranged in a square, each of which can be filled in or not. Which of the 16 possibilities is most meaningful?
• Three restangular blocks, with heights 3:1, 2:1, and 1:1. What's the most artistic arrangement?
• A coin. Heads or tails?
• A one-line story about suicide. Samples.

See how your mind start to explore all the possibilities within the limitations. Can I fill in both true/false bubbles? Neither? Must I use all the shapes? I think this is both a shared and a distinguishing characteristic among artists.

If you want to participate, better not to look at these beforehand.

James Fifield

Mary Kay Brengosz

Expressing the feeling of inside versus outside.

Joseph Fifield

Great effect with shadows.

Catherine

Like a city.

D. T. Pennington

First one not to use all the pieces.

Carly

Non-abstract is an interesting angle.

Frank Kwiatkowski

Mark Coleman