[Music]
[Applause]
all right so I’m gonna start with a
quote from the late great sculptor
Dwayne Nicholson who was a mentor of
mine and helped me solve a problem once
I was really stuck which is cool because
Dwayne didn’t solve my problem right
Dwayne helped me solve my problem and so
when I said thanks he just showed your
shoulders and said well sculptures just
create a problem solving right and I
love that quote because it’s true and
and I know that it’s true because I’m a
sculptor right that’s what I do now so
it’s cool I I get it’s my job to solve
problems all day right so I get paid to
go into a space and look at it and
imagine it to be different somehow right
hopefully better and then I make that
change so this wasn’t this wasn’t always
my job I didn’t always get to do this I
went to school for art education and and
I had some really amazing teachers right
teachers who didn’t just teach me how to
make art but teachers who who taught me
how to think creatively right how to use
imaginative thought to solve problems so
when I when I became with that’s what I
tried to do right tried to carry on that
tradition so and and yeah I mean and yes
I along the way I saw I saw some amazing
things right crazy students so um it
wasn’t my goal to teach a kid how to how
to be the next van Gogh right because I
mean well I’m van Gogh’s life sucked so
my goal was actually to try and to try
and teach kids how to use a magnet of
thoughts you know creative thinking to
solve their own problems right and so
along the way I had a lot of students
make some really amazing art and
inevitably I would end up with with
those students parents community means
yeah oh that’s so cool little Susie
meeting the neatest thing in your class
and I don’t I don’t know where she gets
it from because her mom and I we don’t
have a single creative bone in our body
anything I know of course you don’t
right nobody does there is no such thing
as a creative bone right that you
magically born with it or born without
right obviously I mean
even my seven-year-old can tell you
that’s just simply not a thing right
because here’s the thing
imagination it’s a muscle right it’s a
muscle just like every single other
muscle it grows and it shrinks depending
on how much you use it and you might be
thinking well I don’t have an
imagination muscle but but you do right
in fact it’s located but actually it
doesn’t matter where it’s located right
the important thing for you to know is
that you absolutely have an imagination
muscle in fact if you have the cognitive
ability to form a sentence you have an
imagination of muscle and and that’s a
good thing too because it’s the most
important muscle that we have right
it’s that muscle that separates humans
from animals and and I know like I know
monkeys have opposable thumbs and that’s
really cool you know but at the end of
the day still monkeys right so it’s
humans ability to imagine and invoke
change that has allowed us to progress
so and now you might be thinking well my
imagination muscles puny and shriveled
and I guess if you haven’t really used
it that much lately it might actually be
pretty weak but that’s okay that’s all
right I mean everybody’s body is
different right so in fact if I were to
do a hundred push-ups every single day
chances are good that my my biceps are
probably never gonna look you know like
a young Arnold Schwarzenegger butt but
that’s okay because they will get
stronger right and so then when it comes
time to do the heavy lifting I’ll be
ready for it alright and and we all of
course know the opposite of that is true
if I do zero push-ups a day my biceps
are probably gonna begin to look like I
mean honestly they’ll just look like
they do right now but but but that is
also okay right because later if I
decide to start using them again they
will grow right they’ll get stronger so
they might get tired they might get sore
but but they will get stronger right and
so I try to exercise my imagination
muscle every single day right I wake up
I go out into my office with you know
cement floors and high ceilings and I
sit down at my desk which may or may not
be a little bit messier than the average
desk
I clean a space and I draw I just I draw
and I draw and I draw I just vomit as
many ideas
onto the page as I possibly can right
and and most of these ideas they’re
throwaway sketches whose only purpose is
to get me to the next idea but and as
many of you know right they often times
takes a thousand terrible ideas before
we can come up with one good one but I
just worked through them and hopefully
in the end hopefully eventually I can
come up with something I like something
something I think can be useful an idea
that I can actually turn into a
sculpture so so then then the real
problem-solving begins right because I
have to take a I deal on a flat piece of
paper and a sketchbook and turn into a
three-dimensional sculpture that exists
in real life so so I start with my cat’s
you can think of this as a little 3d
sketch or or you know a model that I can
hold in my hand use that as a reference
and then and then comes actually the
challenges of bodily or excuse me of
actually making the sculpture right
fabricating the piece this is my
favorite part it’s the most fun but and
then that’s done then come the logistics
of actually transporting the piece and
figuring out what heavy machinery and
stuff do I need for installing the piece
it’s all you know a million things and
then but hopefully in the end when all
is said and done there’s something fun
that I can be proud of that they can
bring joy and inspiration to the peoples
who experience it right in their
community so now obviously none of my
other artist friends are really too
impressed by any of this cuz obviously
that’s just what they do all day too
so but then again I would actually argue
isn’t that like what you do right isn’t
that what you do when you have a problem
don’t you just brainstorm the the best
ideas that you can come up with pick the
one you think is the most likely to work
and then take the steps to fix that
right to achieve that goal so but every
once in a while however I do I do come
across somebody new who who meets me and
says Oh a sculptor all that sounds cool
you must love your job and I got a ton
well to be honest when you’re 40 feet in
the air
I’m precariously balanced in a
scaffolding trying to lean over and weld
in place something that only exists in
your mind and maybe a sketchbook
somewhere yeah yeah I love it
yeah so I mean it’s great every day I
get to exercise my imagination muscle
and and that’s awesome because it turns
out that sometimes in my life I have
challenges so and it’s my ability to use
that imagination muscle that actually
allows me to find creative solutions to
those problems so and and if by some off
chance there happens to be anybody here
who also occasionally experiences
challenges in their life
you might be asking yourself well how do
I exercise my imagination muscle and to
that I would say well it’s it’s the same
as all muscles right you you start small
you start with five pounds and you work
your way up right so and I would even
tell you that art art is one of the very
easiest and most effective ways that you
possibly can exercise that you can think
of art as the as the low-hanging fruit
that you might as well just reach out
and grab right so to start with I would
say simply expose yourself to art right
just just surround yourself with it
right go to galleries go to shows go to
museums go to festivals right buy art
bring it home put it up in your living
room put it in your office anywhere that
you can possibly use creative
problem-solving all right cover your
walls with it because because art is
just it’s a physical manifestation of a
imaginative thought right I mean good
design is nothing more than a problem
that somebody solve creatively right so
so go see some sculpture go to your your
local sculpture garden right or your
community rotating sculpture tour if you
if your community doesn’t have that well
clearly that is a problem that needs a
creative solution right so because
here’s because if history has taught us
anything it’s that art changes the world
right I mean it’s it’s people with the
huge bulging imagination muscles that
have brought us airplanes right they
developed the automobile they build
bridges they design a democracy right
and they find the cure right these are
the people that change the world that
help humanity advance and so yeah and so
now yeah I mean I think about like think
about Brunelleschi in the you know he
he designs the Duomo in Florence right
and and they finally finished building
it in the 15th century and people are
they they are blown away right nobody
has ever seen something that dome this
huge you know we ever imagined it could
even be possible people look up and they
are inspired by Leonardo da Vinci looks
up and he says I wish to work miracles
and then he totally does right I mean we
have the whole entire Renaissance come
out of there right and so so and for me
it happened to be happen to be abduction
of a sabien woman by Gian Bologna I saw
this piece and I was not out for hours I
spent just in two days trying to
comprehend how something so amazing
could even exist I looked up and I said
I wish to work miracles all right and
and I’m only one person right who can
who can count the number of lives of
that piece alone has changed over the
last four hundred and thirty five years
that’s been drawing crowds to it so but
at some point it comes time right it’s
time to take it to the next step right
it’s time for you to do something
creative time to add some weight right
and I can’t really tell you exactly what
the best way is to do that right maybe
you can do something with your hands
maybe maybe you need to draw a picture
or write a poem right maybe you need to
sing a song or or tell a story right
okay
what is it yeah who can even guess what
what that what crazy idea you have might
actually completely revolutionize the
way that we live our lives right I mean
maybe you can maybe you imagine silly
invisible animals and and you think it
would be fun if your friends could see
these animals and you guys could go out
together and play with them or I mean I
don’t know maybe Pokemon isn’t actually
your thing but but but what is your
thing right you got to figure it out
because because you need your
imagination muscle to be strong right
you need to be as strong as it can be
because you got to solve some problems
right I mean I mean how are you gonna
how are you meet that deadline that your
teacher gave you right or or your boss
you know
how are you going to keep your client
happy and stay under budget
how are you going to pay next month’s
bills how can you tell your son that you
love him in a way that he understands
and believes you how are you gonna keep
your mom safe now that she’s getting a
little bit older and she needs some help
but she doesn’t want it you know how can
you how are you gonna have for your
medication and say for your daughter’s
college how are you gonna reduce
educational inequality right what are
you gonna do about climate change or
cultural change I mean these are huge
problems right that they require some
serious heavy-duty creative lifting
right because ultimately these problems
are just way too important to simply not
solve but if if we’ve learned anything
it’s that all of life is creative
problem-solving right so but imagination
that’s muscle so go use it thank you
[Applause]
[Music] you
[Applause]
all right so I’m gonna start with a
quote from the late great sculptor
Dwayne Nicholson who was a mentor of
mine and helped me solve a problem once
I was really stuck which is cool because
Dwayne didn’t solve my problem right
Dwayne helped me solve my problem and so
when I said thanks he just showed your
shoulders and said well sculptures just
create a problem solving right and I
love that quote because it’s true and
and I know that it’s true because I’m a
sculptor right that’s what I do now so
it’s cool I I get it’s my job to solve
problems all day right so I get paid to
go into a space and look at it and
imagine it to be different somehow right
hopefully better and then I make that
change so this wasn’t this wasn’t always
my job I didn’t always get to do this I
went to school for art education and and
I had some really amazing teachers right
teachers who didn’t just teach me how to
make art but teachers who who taught me
how to think creatively right how to use
imaginative thought to solve problems so
when I when I became with that’s what I
tried to do right tried to carry on that
tradition so and and yeah I mean and yes
I along the way I saw I saw some amazing
things right crazy students so um it
wasn’t my goal to teach a kid how to how
to be the next van Gogh right because I
mean well I’m van Gogh’s life sucked so
my goal was actually to try and to try
and teach kids how to use a magnet of
thoughts you know creative thinking to
solve their own problems right and so
along the way I had a lot of students
make some really amazing art and
inevitably I would end up with with
those students parents community means
yeah oh that’s so cool little Susie
meeting the neatest thing in your class
and I don’t I don’t know where she gets
it from because her mom and I we don’t
have a single creative bone in our body
anything I know of course you don’t
right nobody does there is no such thing
as a creative bone right that you
magically born with it or born without
right obviously I mean
even my seven-year-old can tell you
that’s just simply not a thing right
because here’s the thing
imagination it’s a muscle right it’s a
muscle just like every single other
muscle it grows and it shrinks depending
on how much you use it and you might be
thinking well I don’t have an
imagination muscle but but you do right
in fact it’s located but actually it
doesn’t matter where it’s located right
the important thing for you to know is
that you absolutely have an imagination
muscle in fact if you have the cognitive
ability to form a sentence you have an
imagination of muscle and and that’s a
good thing too because it’s the most
important muscle that we have right
it’s that muscle that separates humans
from animals and and I know like I know
monkeys have opposable thumbs and that’s
really cool you know but at the end of
the day still monkeys right so it’s
humans ability to imagine and invoke
change that has allowed us to progress
so and now you might be thinking well my
imagination muscles puny and shriveled
and I guess if you haven’t really used
it that much lately it might actually be
pretty weak but that’s okay that’s all
right I mean everybody’s body is
different right so in fact if I were to
do a hundred push-ups every single day
chances are good that my my biceps are
probably never gonna look you know like
a young Arnold Schwarzenegger butt but
that’s okay because they will get
stronger right and so then when it comes
time to do the heavy lifting I’ll be
ready for it alright and and we all of
course know the opposite of that is true
if I do zero push-ups a day my biceps
are probably gonna begin to look like I
mean honestly they’ll just look like
they do right now but but but that is
also okay right because later if I
decide to start using them again they
will grow right they’ll get stronger so
they might get tired they might get sore
but but they will get stronger right and
so I try to exercise my imagination
muscle every single day right I wake up
I go out into my office with you know
cement floors and high ceilings and I
sit down at my desk which may or may not
be a little bit messier than the average
desk
I clean a space and I draw I just I draw
and I draw and I draw I just vomit as
many ideas
onto the page as I possibly can right
and and most of these ideas they’re
throwaway sketches whose only purpose is
to get me to the next idea but and as
many of you know right they often times
takes a thousand terrible ideas before
we can come up with one good one but I
just worked through them and hopefully
in the end hopefully eventually I can
come up with something I like something
something I think can be useful an idea
that I can actually turn into a
sculpture so so then then the real
problem-solving begins right because I
have to take a I deal on a flat piece of
paper and a sketchbook and turn into a
three-dimensional sculpture that exists
in real life so so I start with my cat’s
you can think of this as a little 3d
sketch or or you know a model that I can
hold in my hand use that as a reference
and then and then comes actually the
challenges of bodily or excuse me of
actually making the sculpture right
fabricating the piece this is my
favorite part it’s the most fun but and
then that’s done then come the logistics
of actually transporting the piece and
figuring out what heavy machinery and
stuff do I need for installing the piece
it’s all you know a million things and
then but hopefully in the end when all
is said and done there’s something fun
that I can be proud of that they can
bring joy and inspiration to the peoples
who experience it right in their
community so now obviously none of my
other artist friends are really too
impressed by any of this cuz obviously
that’s just what they do all day too
so but then again I would actually argue
isn’t that like what you do right isn’t
that what you do when you have a problem
don’t you just brainstorm the the best
ideas that you can come up with pick the
one you think is the most likely to work
and then take the steps to fix that
right to achieve that goal so but every
once in a while however I do I do come
across somebody new who who meets me and
says Oh a sculptor all that sounds cool
you must love your job and I got a ton
well to be honest when you’re 40 feet in
the air
I’m precariously balanced in a
scaffolding trying to lean over and weld
in place something that only exists in
your mind and maybe a sketchbook
somewhere yeah yeah I love it
yeah so I mean it’s great every day I
get to exercise my imagination muscle
and and that’s awesome because it turns
out that sometimes in my life I have
challenges so and it’s my ability to use
that imagination muscle that actually
allows me to find creative solutions to
those problems so and and if by some off
chance there happens to be anybody here
who also occasionally experiences
challenges in their life
you might be asking yourself well how do
I exercise my imagination muscle and to
that I would say well it’s it’s the same
as all muscles right you you start small
you start with five pounds and you work
your way up right so and I would even
tell you that art art is one of the very
easiest and most effective ways that you
possibly can exercise that you can think
of art as the as the low-hanging fruit
that you might as well just reach out
and grab right so to start with I would
say simply expose yourself to art right
just just surround yourself with it
right go to galleries go to shows go to
museums go to festivals right buy art
bring it home put it up in your living
room put it in your office anywhere that
you can possibly use creative
problem-solving all right cover your
walls with it because because art is
just it’s a physical manifestation of a
imaginative thought right I mean good
design is nothing more than a problem
that somebody solve creatively right so
so go see some sculpture go to your your
local sculpture garden right or your
community rotating sculpture tour if you
if your community doesn’t have that well
clearly that is a problem that needs a
creative solution right so because
here’s because if history has taught us
anything it’s that art changes the world
right I mean it’s it’s people with the
huge bulging imagination muscles that
have brought us airplanes right they
developed the automobile they build
bridges they design a democracy right
and they find the cure right these are
the people that change the world that
help humanity advance and so yeah and so
now yeah I mean I think about like think
about Brunelleschi in the you know he
he designs the Duomo in Florence right
and and they finally finished building
it in the 15th century and people are
they they are blown away right nobody
has ever seen something that dome this
huge you know we ever imagined it could
even be possible people look up and they
are inspired by Leonardo da Vinci looks
up and he says I wish to work miracles
and then he totally does right I mean we
have the whole entire Renaissance come
out of there right and so so and for me
it happened to be happen to be abduction
of a sabien woman by Gian Bologna I saw
this piece and I was not out for hours I
spent just in two days trying to
comprehend how something so amazing
could even exist I looked up and I said
I wish to work miracles all right and
and I’m only one person right who can
who can count the number of lives of
that piece alone has changed over the
last four hundred and thirty five years
that’s been drawing crowds to it so but
at some point it comes time right it’s
time to take it to the next step right
it’s time for you to do something
creative time to add some weight right
and I can’t really tell you exactly what
the best way is to do that right maybe
you can do something with your hands
maybe maybe you need to draw a picture
or write a poem right maybe you need to
sing a song or or tell a story right
okay
what is it yeah who can even guess what
what that what crazy idea you have might
actually completely revolutionize the
way that we live our lives right I mean
maybe you can maybe you imagine silly
invisible animals and and you think it
would be fun if your friends could see
these animals and you guys could go out
together and play with them or I mean I
don’t know maybe Pokemon isn’t actually
your thing but but but what is your
thing right you got to figure it out
because because you need your
imagination muscle to be strong right
you need to be as strong as it can be
because you got to solve some problems
right I mean I mean how are you gonna
how are you meet that deadline that your
teacher gave you right or or your boss
you know
how are you going to keep your client
happy and stay under budget
how are you going to pay next month’s
bills how can you tell your son that you
love him in a way that he understands
and believes you how are you gonna keep
your mom safe now that she’s getting a
little bit older and she needs some help
but she doesn’t want it you know how can
you how are you gonna have for your
medication and say for your daughter’s
college how are you gonna reduce
educational inequality right what are
you gonna do about climate change or
cultural change I mean these are huge
problems right that they require some
serious heavy-duty creative lifting
right because ultimately these problems
are just way too important to simply not
solve but if if we’ve learned anything
it’s that all of life is creative
problem-solving right so but imagination
that’s muscle so go use it thank you
[Applause]
[Music] you
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