This is the soil to my roots.

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Reading this the other night seemed to open my understanding to things that I already believed but never put into words. In the midst of creating the concept for my Senior Exhibition collection and each individual work, I found that the concept was changing. I started to look at this opportunity with a different perception about art, about myself, and about my work. It was at that moment that I came to a new understanding. An understanding that  Art is ideas. Not Inspiration.  At the very root of all acts of expression, over centuries, I believe, was the simple desire to communicate an idea. To express how one feels about something. The means by which one creates the idea is then left to personal preference. But with proper training, even if the idea is not a work of pure creative inspiration, it can still creatively communicate an idea that affects all who are open to receive it.

This series is a collection of thoughts and ideas. Old and new. A collection of understandings about life. [As a designer] I strive to create works that are visually stimulating, but are based on my foundational pursuits of guiding the eye, educating the mind, and promoting action. But [as a human being] I find a lot of life experiences or ideas that inspire personal revelations and growth in my life come from people and nature.

Aristotle once said that,  “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”  I often stumble onto new ideas that I merely entertain; ideas I feel inclined to express creatively (if possible) when reflecting on my understanding of history, of people, and of nature. But other times it is merely the idea itself that can change my perception or how I choose to live. In life we have free will. The ability to choose which thoughts or ideas will change our perception or view of the world around us. Art has become the catalyst for a sort of creative reincarnation; a rebirth of understanding ideas and creatively expressing them. And, to take it one step further, often the idea behind a work I create may be clearly evident, however, even if it isn’t clear, the reality of it all is that it doesn’t really matter.  All that matters is perception.  What it means to the viewer. How their mind chooses to process the information they have just received. In this way, we can acknowledge the aesthetic appeal or skill it takes to create the art, or create the design, but it is the viewer’s perception of it that gives it meaning. Creativity waits for me to fulfill the ideas that reveal themselves to me, and proper training helps me to do so. These are my ideas. Welcome to my reincarnation.