The Soul of the Project

Even though I felt that my midpoint presentation was successful, I left San Francisco a little bit empty. I had an unsettling impression that I didn’t quite hit the mark. In between semesters, I embarked on a bit of soul searching to find a way to make the project my own. How could I make it personal?

How could I convey not just the ideas, but the feelings that I’d developed over time? How could I make the project an exploration of original art, and not just a rehash of materials created by others?

Exiting the commercial business world and diving into the world of fine art was not as easy as I had hoped. It was difficult to shed years of corporate stifling. Coming up with creative ideas for my project proved to be a challenge. I sought direction from friends, past advisors, and professors, hoping to rekindle a bit of the creative spark that I felt I once had.

As I attempted to work things out, I realized that rather than telling about the interesting facts that I had found out about knots I needed to find a way to explore the things that I hadn’t found out. This became the soul of the project—the need to express the mystery and spiritual symbolism of the knot, without killing those ideas with boring facts and historical examples. I needed to look at the concept from within, not from the outside. With this shift in thinking, I felt free to explore the topic as a fine art project.

I needed to tell a personal story using my art and design as the vehicle. I began to develop a loose narrative, based on archetypal experiences, mythologies that we all share. This story would be accompanied by a series of nine unique artistic compositions, each representing a different aspect of the symbolism of the knot. These compositions would create a canvas for me to explore artistic technique as well as symbolic significance and beauty.

I was excited about this approach and the chance I had created to explore painting, typography, storytelling, and computer development all in a single project.