​How I Practice

I don’t always know what I’m making when I begin.

This is how I keep going anyway.
​
Not as a step-by-step process--
but as a set of ways to start, explore, and continue.

Collect and make different types of marks

→painted brushstrokes
→enamel marks
→​thumbnail sketches
​
Marks are a way of thinking.
​
You’re not making a finished piece.
You’re building a vocabulary.

"Ideas don’t appear fully formed.
​You build them."

Brainstorm questions
​Instead of trying to find the right idea, I ask more questions.
​
How can I change this?
What happens if I push this further?
What else could this become?
Questions create direction.

Change questions to discover new directions

Use enamel to explore different types of questions.
​

• How can I play?
• What variables can I control?
• How can I interpret a photo image using this skill or color
• What can I change to make it more interesting or focused?
• Why do I connect to this enamel image?

Collect sparks of inspiration everywhere

• the marks on the skin of an over-ripe pear
• the cracks in the pavement aftera light rain
• lyrics  in a song or something said in a television show
• an image  or memory
• colors and patterns in the hotel lobby floor tiles
• a gust of wind that blows cherry blossoms through the air

Turn anything into a starting point

• photos of your own work
• sketches
• fragments
• things that didn’t work
• anything that catches your attention
• Nothing has to be the right starting point.
  It just has to get you moving.

You don’t need a plan.
​
You just need a place to begin."

Make lots of thumbnail sketches

Explore mark-making with enamel

Ask “what if…” and then try it

→​Cloisonne´ wires
→Enamel color layers
→​Silver and gold foil

Use digital tools to play
​Procreate
​Photoshop

Follow what feels interesting.
​
Change something.
Try it again.
See what happens.

Create a series to explore variations

Let studies become finished pieces
Sometimes the finished piece is already there.​

Make simple surfaces to explore on

"One thing leads to another.
​
You don’t have to figure it out ahead of time."

This is what practice looks like

Sometimes I practice to improve a specific skill.

And sometimes I practice without knowing exactly what I’m working toward.

I start something.
I respond to what happens.
I keep going. 

Over time, things begin to make sense.

What about you?

What would happen if you approached your studio like this?

If you didn’t wait to know what to make--
and trusted yourself to begin anyway?

This is the way of working we practice in the workshop.

Explore the workshop