Creating More With Less
Reflections on Global Creativity, Craft & Culture from Harper & Benita, the founders of Proud Mary
Hi friends,
We re-launched Proud Mary with a simple question:
Can we create a world in which less stuff creates more impact?
This question becomes that much more relevant in this season. Entering the final weeks of the year inherently entails contending with the pressure to buy a lot of stuff.
From the Halloween costumes that may or may not be repurposed to the inevitable food waste that comes with expressing our gratitude to the obligatory consumption that consumes much of December, we are entering a season of - simply put - mass consumption. Yes, there’s a lot of joy. But we’ve also tended to equate joy with lots of stuff - and lots of new things.
There seems to be no better time than now to dig deeper into that question: Can we create more with less? So we’re inspired to share more about the Proud Mary model and how exactly each piece creates more with less, how each fine art print is a meaningful heirloom gift not ultimately destined for landfills but rather destined to stay on walls and in families, and how each work of art on ProudMary.co contributes to the proliferation of impact - rather than the proliferation of stuff.
We’re also grateful for each of you, and we wanted to share a special coupon code that will give you 15% off on every order you place on ProudMary.co between now and the end of the season. You can access that discount and do more with less with code:
MOREWITHLESS
We’re so grateful and inspired to have you here. And if you haven’t checked out our full raison d’etre, you can see that here.
xx, Harper & Benita
Creating More With Less
For centuries, creative entrepreneurs have been told that they can earn according to a 1:1 ratio. In other words, in order to earn, let’s say, $2, they would have to create one unit. If they want to earn $4, they would have to create two units. So on and so forth.
The earning potential of a knitter who sells scarves on Etsy operates according to the very same unit economics as a weaver in India or Guatemala for centuries. The cycle goes something like ideate, produce, earn. Ideate produce, earn. And that cycle usually continues over and over with no opportunity to leverage. Moreover, the ideate step of the equation has often been lost as artisans are valued more for the speed of their hands than the value of their creativity. (Another topic for another time.)
Yet, we still refer to so many of these makers as creative entrepreneurs.
But do we even give them the opportunity to live up to that moniker?
When you think of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, you think of individuals who have leveraged their creativity into a multiplier effect to create ripple effects of wealth. And there are plenty of examples of creative entrepreneurs who have been able to build creative leverage. From Walt Disney who trademarked Mickey Mouse early in his career and built one of the most profitable IP empires in history to George Lucas who chose to forego a large studio fee in favor of licensing rights to the Star Wars franchise, creatives have long found ways to be compensated for the impact of their intrinsic creativity - rather than simply the stuff they make.
What’s inspiring and impactful about the above examples is not just the inherent abundance that comes from putting one’s creativity on a flywheel to generate wealth. It’s that when we translate that model of creative leverage in the world of craft, it means that an abundance of wealth can come from less product.
Take the work Flora from the Proud Mary launch collection. In addition to the commission fee earned by the artist Las Dalias who created the piece, the prints from the limited edition release provide the artist with ten times the original commission fee - without having to use their hands to create another piece. Their earnings come from their creative genesis. And consumers become collectors, contributing to global abundance without contributing to the proliferation of more stuff.
Similarly with one of our favorite pieces from the collection, the whimsical Gold in Goat: Our partner artist William in Lesotho, like all of our other partner artists, will receive the highest royalty commission rate on the market, which equates to over $23 for each print sold. When creating the Proud Mary financial model, we benchmarked all the other businesses who pay artists royalty fees. And driven by the mission to provide artisans everywhere with their first meaningful source of passive income, we created a model that provided artists with greater royalties than any of our competitors.
Of course, the limited edition fine art prints we sell on Proud Mary are, by definition, also stuff. Yet our print-on-demand model is both driven by and creates environmental efficiencies by not creating more than what consumers demand. And the very nature of what our partner small, family-owned print shop creates is art that is intended to grace our inspired spaces for many years to come.
As we enter a season in which we equate abundance with more things, we want to posit a fundamental reframe. Can we create abundance - both for ourselves and for the creative makers who bring beauty into our homes - with less? Can we gift with more meaning, and fewer items? Can we create more impact with less stuff?
We believe that not only is such a world possible - but that it’s necessary. Each piece in the Proud Mary collection embodies the potential of such a world. And we invite you to be a part of it.
Get 15% off your holiday orders with code MOREWITHLESS.
Exclusively for our Substack subscribers, this code is valid through the end of 2025, and can be used as many times as you wish.
Stay tuned next week for other businesses we admire who are achieving less with more this upcoming holiday season.
We appreciate you.
What’s Inspiring Us
It’s so important to stay inspired these days. In closing, here’s a bit of where we’ve been finding hope, beauty and inspiration.
Intellectual Inspiration
Harper: I loved the Liz Gilbert interview on Rich Roll’s podcast. I’m paraphrasing a bit but thought this part was so so beautiful…”Your chances of being born in human form and having the opportunity to have this spiritual experience in life are so unbelievably slim….It’s like a turtle coming to the surface once in 100 years and popping up right in the center of a ring floating on the surface. You’re being offered to have an interesting experience here and show up for it.”
Benita: I had a magical experience this past weekend creating vision boards with my older daughter and seven of her besties for her 10th birthday. Teaching 10-year old girls about the concept of manifesting was pretty special, and reminded me of this great podcast on the topic from Mel Robbins and Dr. Jim Doty.
Aesthetic Inspiration
Harper: Art, design, and architecture in Bali does NOT disappoint. Everything feels so thoughtful and intentionally designed to fit into its surroundings. A few images from Sumberkima Hill in NW Bali.
Benita: I just took my younger daughter to see The Lion King on Broadway (again) last night and wow is Julie Taymor a legend. The fact that her creativity, costume production, puppetry and lighting has remained so captivating for almost 30 years speaks to the vibrancy of what she’s created.
And the incorporation of kente cloth, kuba cloth and respect for traditions create so much beauty. The fact that the show is still so appreciated in spite of set design with greater fanfare and bells and whistles speaks to how craftsmanship, mindful design and tradition long endure.
Cultural Inspiration
Harper: I went to a local textile market last week and got a beautiful overview of cloth from the island of the gods. I had no idea they made tie dyed fabric like the ones below…they feel much more India or Mauritania than Indonesia. I obviously have a lot to learn and thankfully feeling very up to the task!
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If you made it this far, we’re grateful for you. And if you didn’t, hopefully that means you’re on ProudMary.co buying some fine folk art for your home and all your inspired spaces.
Till next time. Proud Mary