Challenges

After reading Atom’s post about his frustrations with the lack of wings his “brainchild” community has grown, I thought to myself that I’m just as guilty as the next of being a “consumer” of this community instead of a “contributor”. With that said, I wanted to commend Atom for his foresight to see a need in the community/society and attempt to fill it. Thanks for your time and efforts. Let’s make this fly NWI!

So about 2 months ago, I was at an INsight Design Conference meeting (Quick plug: It’s an event that every single one of you should absolutely be attending. If for nothing else, to get out and socialize with awesome talent in the community.) and Kevin Bruinsma of Faith Church approached me with an “Art” project that he wanted people in the community to participate in. He would give you an old window (Yes, an actual window from an old house) and you (the artist) would create some piece of art out of it so Faith Church could display it. The project had a theme: “Looking into your community” and you absolutely had to use the window somehow, but the rest was creatively up to the artist. My first reaction was: “Oh no, I can’t do that. I’m not a Fine Artist; I don’t draw, or paint. That is just not for me.” Kevin insisted that I take this window home and at least think about completing it. That window sat propped up against my desk for a full month and a half without me even touching it. Every time I saw Kevin he would ask “How’s the window coming?” and I’d laugh and reply “It’s all up here” pointing to my head. I had an idea, I just wasn’t sure how to complete it yet. Finally that window stared at me one day too long, and this is what I came up with.

For 3 years, I commuted to the city for school. At this time, I had lots of free-time (those were the days) so I would sit on the steps of buildings in the city and watch people. These “business people” mystified me. I saw every kind of expression you could imagine and I got to thinking about what is really going on with these folks. You never truly know what is going on in someone’s mind or life. They could have the biggest smile on their face and being dying inside. So I started imagining people walking around with “bubbles” over their head. They, of course, are invisible, but we all have a “bubble” because we all have a story. Your “bubble” changes from day to day, week to week or month to month. In some cases, it’s so traumatic or exciting that your “bubble” stays for an extended amount of time. It’s on the lines of a Scarlet letter; just invisible. I applied that concept to my window.

Since “bubbles” can be both positive or negative, I sat down and made a list of both negative and positive bubbles. I picked up a Dremel tool, for the first time ever, and started making art. The front of the window is etched with all positive bubbles, they are seen the correct way. The back of the window is etched with all negative bubbles, they are seen backwards and some are upside down. Many of the negative things that happen in life are rarely understood (ie. backwards) and seem so unexplained. I sanded and painted the outside of the window and mounted black matte board on the back to make the etching stand out a bit more.

Window Full View

Bubble Words Close-up

I had such a blast doing something so different for a change. I rose up to the challenge of using my hands and making my concept come to life. Best of all, I made something which I’m proud of. Never realized it previous, but I hadn’t been challenged or challenged myself in a while. Which got me thinking, have you been challenged lately? Have you challenged yourself lately? How do you challenge yourself?

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 9:23 am and is filed under Write. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.