This is my fanciful place, the heart of the enterprise, the idea gallery within an idea gallery, a look at how I work, what creativity means to me, how my ideas are born, how I work and think. This is the first of what I plan to be a series of ideas, some mine, some others.
Many people seem to think that ideas have to start with them to be good. I think ideas start with other people, and that the heart of my creativity is taking these ideas and turning them into reality. The two things I love most are hearing a good idea and putting my hands on it, literally.
Concrete is, of course, the perfect expression of that.
I have a client in Saratoga who asked me for a sleek, classic counter that was six feet long, and that is discreet and sophisticated, as she and many of her friends are. I got that, and my mind started racing – I went to other homes, browsed online, read books, made sketches, made sleek and classy samples, rented videos of home interiors, knocked on doors.
So this is how ideas go here. Somebody invites me into their home and tells me they want a dark blue countertop shaped in the form of a mermaid, that spouts water from a sculptured gill, and that is inlaid with seaweed and shells. Not exactly my taste, but still, great fun to try and execute. This is a customer with a sense of humor, not somebody who wants to go to a mall. My kind of customer.
Thinking of the forms, the complex process of inlaying things
will that will show up and look good, how to
shape the edges and
choose a color that invokes the ocean. Hard work, great fun. The challenge for me is to bring that fantasy to life and put it in a kitchen or bathroom or backyard or hearth. The point where the idea becomes something real, something I can build, is the powerful place.
So that’s why I call it the fanciful place, that indefinable, but for me, very exciting connection of an idea with the means of executing it. That’s how ideas are born for me. It’s a place without borders or boundaries, really, one that frees you and me. The minute I hear an idea, my mind starts to race. And it keeps on racing until I hear another idea. Sometimes I hear more than one, and that’s when I have to get on the dirt bike or walk out into the woods.
The inside of my head is a busy place, if not necessarily a calm place. I want it to be a creative place. Here, I will show you some of the ideas I love the best from time to time.
Sometimes it will be a sketch, sometimes a picture, sometimes…just an idea, a trip to a place in time and imagination, yours and mine.
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