My creative process is largely dependent on ideas that come to me unconsciously. It feels like design ideas are dropped on me unceremoniously and then I’m expected to make them happen. Getting an idea is one thing, but using that idea is another.  If you make a sketch or write down the concept in your journal or nearby scrap of paper, the studio is soon littered with “ideas.” I get excited when I get a new idea, and honestly have good intentions, but then I wonder what to do with them?  

Enter, “Building a Second Brain,” a book by Tiago Forte which helps you organize your ideas digitally. All my design notebooks and scraps of paper could be scanned and put into an app that organizes them into themes.  It sounded promising and I thought it would help me get more organized; however, when I started going back through decades old designs I realized most of them came from some previous version of myself, and they no longer felt magical or important. I looked at them and thought, “Eh ? Hmmm…”  In other words, I had lost my emotional connection to them, and they had grown cold.

But they did not start out that way.  Ideas have an energy around them I have found. Usually they come in hot, and almost scorch me with excitement as I put it down on the page, sure to burn a hole in the paper.  But after a while another idea jumps ahead in line and the energy of that earlier idea dissipates.  It eventually turns cold as stone.

With hundreds of ideas coming in every year and only two dozen coming out, most never make it to the hallowed ground.  This causes a certain amount of guilt.  What could have been? But alas, there is no percentage in having regrets. You just have to trust that you are moving in the right direction and that releasing old ideas / parts of yourself is part of the growth process.  I have a pile of old clothing waiting to go to Goodwill with no guilt involved.  Surely there is an Ideas Goodwill out there!

Every quarter I round up 15 or so of my best ideas and make a decision matrix to help me decide what designs I should pursue.  I rate them based on things like if it’s a new engaging concept, if it will show new techniques, if I have all the material in stock, what is the perceived production difficulty, what are the estimated fabrication costs…  A few years ago I added a column for Energy – how much energy does this project give me?  Would I bolt out of bed every morning for a month to work on it (10), or does the thought of it make me pull my covers over my head (0).  This became an important addition after tallying up the matrix one time and the pieces that came out on top did not feel right.  They did not give me as much energy as those lower on the list.  Hence, since I like being excited about my work, I had to skew the results 😉

Ultimately only a portion of those 15 every go into production.  A new list evolves and the decision matrix crunches the numbers again.  The hottest ones come out on top.  I hope you can feel their energy.

Stu and I got away after the gallery opening in Colorado Springs. We drove to Saratoga Hot Springs in southern Wyoming and then Atved up Kennaday Peak to the old Fire Lookout.  At 10,788 feet the views of the Medicine Bow National Forest were incredible. Then our family got a wild hair and decided to go to Kauai for a family get together. I had a girl’s day at the Fern Grotto with my daughter-in-law, Ellen, daughter, Electra, and my granddaughters.  Then, of course, we had to take in a luau with the entire family. The little 4 month-old baby was not a fan of the fire show! Stu and I also kayaked and hiked to Secret Falls with his daughter Lacey, and her boyfriend Ronnie, where they got engaged under the water fall!  A very fun-filled trip.

My solo exhibition at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry in Colorado Springs runs until December 14th.  There are 27 artworks displayed in a lovely setting with great lighting. Please stop by when you have a chance:

In December we will be in Reno, Nevada at the American Exploration & Mining Association.  I would love to see you there: