A new ‘twist’ on the Glyphs series :-) A practice run for a future piece. #glyphs #artonthebeach #blog #pin

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The Problem with Goals and Purpose

This is a bit off-topic, but my interests and thoughts range widely and I’m getting back into speaking my mind, so here goes…

I recently came across a motivational speaker, someone famous for their accomplishments. He spoke about the unorganized expenditure of energy for people not connected to a goal and then stressed the importance of having a goal and then driving towards that with everything you’ve got.

I feel differently about all this. I don’t have an issue with having a goal or striving towards something. What I see is that, generally speaking, the goal itself is not the end. Once that goal is attained, then what? A new goal perhaps. Okay, fair enough.

Professional Development with Mountain View Schools

This past month I was invited to share perspectives and techniques in my style of art to 5 and under instructors from Mountain View Schools. During my site visit I was inspired with the layout of the school- numerous zones with different features- trees and grass and sand amidst the concrete jungle of Mountain View. I began visualizing my session.

Offset Dislocation

This concept comes from the book The Self-Made Tapestry by Philip Ball, which I speak about in this post.

Offset Disclocation as a concept arose in the section of the book that looks at how markings occur in on biological bodies. This includes phenomenon such as zebra stripes, fish banding, and butterfly wings. Each organism has its own approach to this and so Philip goes through many potential routes. The implications of the principles he engages take him all the way to pondering how a fetus knows where to place its head and fingers (more on that in a post dedicated to ‘Diffusion Fields’). Very cool.

An Offset Dislocation is like a tectonic fault line. A road is going along and then suddenly, after an earthquake, there is a split that cuts across the land and the road is now a shifted few feet to the side. In this concept, the entire field suddenly shift along a a specific (or sometimes gradual) fracture line.

This artwork of mine is almost, but not quite this idea:

Ephemeral Art at X

I recently had the honor and privilege of creating art for an amazing event at a Google campus.

Patterns in Nature

I’ve recently gotten back to the excellent book The Self-Made Tapestry by Philip Ball. I began this book at least 10 years ago. It’s a dense read- I need to have head-space available when I approach it (often difficult to come by as parent of a 4 year old!) and I generally need to set it aside for periods of time for integration. This book and other work by Philip about shape, form, and pattern have been highly influential in the evolution of my art.

Free Form Structure

I created this piece, which I call ‘Fields III’ on a remote beach in Northern California on a gorgeous winter day while my wife and son worked on their own art and explored the cave seen in the photo. 

This artwork is a culmination of two opposite directions in my work development- order and chaos.