Living a creative life was my only option. I’m hardwired for deep investigation and engagement and I have a deep struggle with mindless repetition. I still feel that I have little understanding of my creative limitations, but I am actively trying to find the boundaries.

In the last few years, I have found an ease in my practice with the building of maturity that allows me to be fully in service to ideas.

A Tri-cone resonator guitar that I designed and built. smalldrumrevolution.com.au

Amongst other interests, I am a musician and a writer, I design and build musical instruments, and I am a commercial and art photographer. I am driven to work slowly across a broad range of areas as I am not really cut out for virtuosity.

My angle is this;

The key to finding anything unusual is to commit adequate time to look.

There are only two options. Stop or complete the task to the highest standard possible at the time.

My progression has been entrepreneurial by necessity. I’ve been of the mindset that it's essential for me to make, so, make do with what I have and DO SOMETHING! Waiting for tools, money or someone else's approval is wasted time. The problem-solving required to make something special out of next to nothing has shaped everything that I do.

Largely it's all about playing. Engaging in experimentation, interrogating possibilities with an expectation of enjoyment and really being open to what may occur. I’m trying to make the work that only I can make but I won’t know what it ought to be until I see it.

Craft vs Art

Craft is safe and predictable work. It is having the hand skills to make repeatably strong work. There is a high level of craft required to pull off consistently strong artwork. If craft is the hand skills, art is born of a mindset to execute an idea beyond the expected. To make work imbued with love. The more fluent a craft person that the artist is, the more audacious the reach of the ideas they can attempt.

Amongst the experimentation, there will inevitably be a specific idea that needs to be fully realised. To ensure that a project will run to completion, I find it invaluable to outline a set of parameters and a goal. Having parameters keeps me on task and on track. Sometimes the goal can be simple and sometimes audacious. I don’t necessarily have the required skill set to achieve the task when I start, and it’s never a linear path.

For me, creativity is a commitment to a practice of problem-solving. No idea is safe, no idea is off the table. Not being fixated on stylistic expectations allows me to be purely in service of the idea. I’m aiming to make the very best iteration of that idea. I commit regardless of how long it takes or even if there is a reason to create it beyond my desire to engage. I’m often trying to distil the idea into its simplest form.

The work I make must be engaging and moving for me. My personal opinion is that, for a piece to be art, it must transcend my ability as a craftsperson. It must be surprising to me. It must please me, as these are my personal musings. I am attempting to create work that is as uncompromised as a diary entry. I am the client, and the brief is; amaze and move me if you can!

I am engaged in an iterative process pursuing a chosen trajectory. I act, I assess, I act again. Incrementally I'm building understanding and an opinion. There are no mistakes, only activity. Each step brings me more knowledge and more time on the tools. Over time I am developing a stronger opinion of the project and unlocking new possibilities whilst simultaneously broadening my skillset. Throughout a project, I am elevating the quality of my work so the later, more evolved work, will inform what earlier parts of the project can remain. Standards and expectations adjust through the progression. It's called a practice with good reason.

If the work brings me great joy through the process, and great joy to sit with when it's finished, it’s a success. Any further life the work has is a lovely byproduct. The purity of work made in this way will deeply move some people and be completely overlooked by others. I make for the joy of doing. It has kept my practice exciting and has made my life objectively better.

At the beginning of my career, I had a pivotal conversation with a dear friend and artist Ashely Starkey. His point was that “An artist must always make art.” It doesn’t matter if there is a reason, resources or an audience. I took that as a truth and have benefitted ever since.

Deep engagement in making, challenges and broadens your mind, broadens your skillset, enlivens your social networks, provides a means of expression, enhances meaning, opens your heart and brings you and others joy. If you are keen to stay young at heart and vital as a person, art and gratitude are your key ingredients.