Breath of fresh air

In the humdrum of everyday work, there come those moments when one breathes deep & full, those moments when one sees exciting, adventurous work. Such a moment came for me today watching a documentary on Frank Gehry's work on PBS ( BTW, this wonderful channel amidst the crap that goes in the name of entertainment TV channels has given me & my family so many wonderful moments, I owe it big!). His process, his inspiration, and his amazing work: this documentary covered it beautifully. Gehry says his desire to build what he builds now-- in my view, some of his structures look like a child has randomly arranged blocks, sometimes a little awkwardly, so that the viewer gasps at the possibility of one of the blocks tipping over---emanated from a childhood spent building fantastic creations out of left-over wood-blocks that his grandmother would bring in. His Bilbao museum is stunning in the way the burnished metallic shapes melt & flow one moment, stand uptight & rigid the next. The way the earthy browns combined with the blue reflections in the glass walls took my breath away.


I also loved the kind of loose process he has - he sits back, while his assistants add another twisted piece of paper to the model at Gehry's bidding, only to have him make them rearrange it; or when asked why he says he likes a shape, or what materials he will finally use, his answer is very often "I don't know yet".

For me personally, the challenge is to see how I can combine my passions for painting with my work in interface & interaction design. I don't know how I am going to tackle this one, not yet anyway, but I do know that the idea has been brewing in my head for a while.