I am exactly the opposite. I never throw anything away. In time, there may be a use for it. I had put aside some larger canvases before because they were not working out, but then I discovered some nice details, cut them out and used them for smaller paintings. Even cut to shreds, images can be used for collages; given new life. Striving for perfection is futile. Nothing we ever do is perfect. If it were, that would be the end of it, then we could give up art and start playing chess instead. But I still think Duchamp was a better artist than chess player. But he was not perfect. Not as an artist, and certainly not as a chess player.
No thought or idea is ever really gone, it is within me and, should I need it again, it will come back to me.
Of course! It is irrelevant whether striving for perfection is futile or not. The choice to strive for it, that is what matters, for me.
I must stress that part again and again, simply because these are highly personal choices. I don't presume to know what others should do, nor what is right or wrong. I only know what is right for me.
ah yes, I might have phrased that wrong - Striving for perfection is futile.
I should have said "Expecting to be perfect" (and subsequently tossing what does not measure up). As long as we are not perfect, we are creative. Once perfect (a unobtainable goal, but just for the sake of argument) we have plateaued. There is then no use creating anything anymore. That is what I alluded to mentioning Duchamp, because that was his conclusion (and I think he was patently wrong).
Yes, I understand.
As for tossing what is not needed, for me, that's essential (in art as well as life)! Removing what you no longer want or need in order to make room for new developments.
I am not an archivist. Other people can archive (those who choose to do so).