Beachcombing and the Design Process

This morning I was remembering some of my favorite finds on the beach when I was a kid.  One was a baby abalone shell, only about an inch on the long side.  Another was a large conical shell that was uncommon for our beaches in Southern California.  Both finds filled me with exhilaration; finding a piece of beauty while scanning the shore was an unanticipated reward.  Now of course one goes beachcombing hoping for the beautiful find so it is obviously sought after but never guaranteed.  And this is the same feeling that is most rewarding in the studio.  One enters every day not knowing how the work will go.  And between the pinned up incompletes, the sketches, the final pieces and the discarded ones, sometimes one is rewarded by seeing the heretofore unseen.  An unexpected conjunction, an incidentally transparent layer, an ‘I ran out the door and set something in a different place’ moment all open up the possibilities for a new and fresh solution to a design or art problem.  And it is these finds that bring joy to the process and make the hours, days and weeks where one finds nothing worth the work.