inspiration/confirmation

this week i had a couple great conversations with my friend paige about inspiration & in particular, the act of drawing inspiration from outside sources. i find myself going in waves, like seasons, of looking outward - almost searching for a collective read on what "everyone else" is doing. and then there are times (like now, when i am knee deep in a big project) when i need to minimize my exposure to "everyone else" because it clouds my judgement or impedes upon my own clarity of vision for what i am working on. it is during these times that signs of confirmation reveal themselves and i find connections to things i've already done. i begin to recognize my work in the context of a bigger picture - a larger pool of ideas that transfer through all of us. i really believe that the same ideas are revisited, reworked, renewed throughout the world and they have been throughout time... ideas that help define us, reflect us, and help us relate to each other.

i have been inspired by maya lin's work for many years, and this morning i opened the july issue of Architectural Record and discovered her third Wavefield. the image immediately resonated with me, as if i was looking inside my own brain at my own vision of a contrived landscape = contrived topography ... the TOPO around your neck or hanging on your arm. this Wavefield project (particularly in contrast to the first and second wavefields which exist in rigidly-defined environments) is fantastic and involved and much more complicated than a bracelet. but i also feel that there is an underlying thread - like wearing a necklace or bracelet could make one feel more connected to nature and constructing a natural environment allows one to really see (and thus feel more connected to) its environment that naturally exists.

the video (below) that architectural record features on the project contains some great still-shots of the rolling hills in the context of the natural rolling hills and is essentially a video version of the article that is printed. this video by The New York Times is a nice bit about maya herself. there is much that i admire about her and her work, but perhaps the thing i relate to most is that she works in different scales and scopes - within one project/thought process as well as between the larger worlds of architecture and art. and i love that she says it is hard to exist between the two. "making architecture is like writing a novel. making a work of art is like writing a poem."