When I’m developing a new idea this is what I do…

1. Consult sketch books, I have a lot of them. (see image 1) They’re a hodge podge of my drawings, writing, and glued-in images from magazines, etc. I’m recording my thoughts concerning the challenges and vagaries of being a human being.

2. Keep flipping through the books, beginning with the most recent one, until I find something of interest. In this case it’s a page containing 2 lists from Psychology Today Magazine. (see image 2) One offers strategies for how to avoid bad decisions, the other suggests ways of holding on (or not) to happy feelings. Both concepts are enormously complex. By providing the lists the authors are giving us starting points, places to begin tackling the challenging issues. What they give me are distilled versions of the material that I can then translate into drawings.

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3. In this case, I’m not as attracted to the lists as I am to the word “as”, lower down on the page. My thoughts ran to figures as or with geometric shapes, figures as compositional devices, as plaid or herringbone patterns, etc. I’m creating a lot of thumbnail sketches. (see image 3) Man As Circle is a more developed version of one of the thumbnails. (see image 4) Who knows if this idea will lead into anything, but, you know what they say….nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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