Tropes from my history – a list of creative memories or tendencies:
- Assemblage, arrangement, build
- Modularity, pieces, construction/deconstruction
- Toys
- Colourful, contrast, colour-object relationship
- Collection, collectibles, grouping, genres, completion, interchange
- Display, show, curation, togetherness
- Fantasy, narrative, otherworldliness
- Uncanny, strange but familiar, transformation, beyond the ordinary
- Manufacture, admiration, wonder, workmanship
- Cuteness, friendliness, personification
- Form, tessellation, interrelation of forms
- Mechanism, moving parts, animation
- Craft, making, doodling, experimenting
- Materials, textures, tactility, interest, fidgeting
- Physical-digital world overlaps
- Pride – collection, creative ability
- Invention, pushing the limits of product function/intention
- Wanderlust, the exotic, the mystic, the ancient, the alien, discovery
- Psychology, relationships, identity, morals
- Gadgets, technological novelties
This list seems very long, and although there are lots of overlaps and cross references, I am unsure what to do with the information. I would say that ALL of the above links in with what I have tried to do with my own practice, yet the words highlighted in bold seem particularly relevant to my current direction.
What I feel I need is someone to say that it doesn’t matter about finding an answer – it’s all subjective, we all have our likes and dislikes, and these can be irrational and interchangeable. We can be fickle and we can change our mind – we like what we like, and sometimes we can’t explain it or say why. But I feel that I am being challenged to stay away from that ‘easy’ answer.
I just want to make what I want to – it has taken me long enough to find a practical project I can focus on. I don’t feel I have time to do the requisite research into psychoanalysis or narratives or artistic imperatives at this stage. I can’t give any more effort than I have been doing so. I am at my maximum capacity.
Cafe del Martin 