Ira Glass, Taste, and that Tingly feeling

THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.


Ira Glass, from This American Life, is one of my favorite radio hosts. His video on taste, which I posted above, points to exactly where I am in my creative process. After spending the last few months building a studio, I feel like I am back at the beginning, starting over again, and trying to find my footing. I want my work to go in a new direction, but I can't quite put my finger on what the work should look like.

I have ideas in my head. I swear they are there... but they feel more like sentences about ideas than plans for a three dimensional object. I can barely grasp that there is even an idea in there. The only sign of their existence is a slight tingling feeling that I get when I let my imagination wander. From the inside it feels like a mixture of 1/3 excitement, 1/3 fear, and 1/3 confusion. Over the years I have learned to indulge the tingling sensation. To keep turning an idea over in my mind until it spills out.

My mind is like a coffee percolator. I put in ingredients like visual influences, conversations, and goals. Then I let them sit for a week, a month or sometimes even years. In this semiconscious process they tumble around gaining steam. Then almost miraculously they emerge fully-formed. I used to think it was instant intuition, but now I see it's a slow brewing process. I can't get the finished idea without putting the ingredients in.

Here are the ingredients that I have put into the percolator lately. In a few months we'll see how this coffee tastes.

Fred Wilson- Mining the Museum




Kudzu car

Sugar Cane


"If it was a snake it would have bitten you..."