[Music]
I am a guy that is obsessed with
building the objects of his imagination
I’m a guy who is constantly recording
his vibrations his observations or his
emotions through drawings sculptures
video projects and epic collaborations
but in the end I think I’m a guy that is
just searching for the best way to live
my creative life and as you might
imagine things started out super slow no
one told me early on that I needed to be
thinking outside of the box or the
bucket I guess that’s when I heard about
a job as a cookie decorator brushes
edible paints free cookies it was
amazing my mind my imagination was
beginning to imagine on an unimaginable
new level I thought if I could make
cookies which would make and decorate
cookies with such a skill perhaps I
could get into construction I didn’t
know it at the time but I’d taken the
first major step into the world of
object building I had imagined something
I had drawn that thing and then I had
built that thing soon though the bottom
fell out of that market the top and the
sides kind of fell out too and so I
talked with a couple mentors that had
been helping me and they thought I
should improve my social network maybe
learn to read
so I experimented with school on and off
for the next 20 years looking back
though I think in school what I really
learned was how to speak better visual
sure I read some fiction I learned some
facts I improved my social IQ but I
never stopped drawing I was learning to
confidently print my imagination and I
would encourage all of you to speak more
visual maybe today take some notes in
the form of pictures as opposed to words
think about your ideas in the forms of
colors and shapes scribble more all of
my high-level research indicates that
obsessive drawing helps lead to a
creative life that’s true
another thing I think I learned was that
a good idea only comes while you’re
working on a bad idea that you just have
to get started that’s that’s the most
crucial thing you just must get started
nothing’s gonna happen while you’re
flipping channels you have to get
started I’ve built 20 or 30 cameras that
had no idea that how to take a
photograph I’ve built heaps of musical
instruments that never played a note of
music
I built a hand-built a city for 4
million people this big
I’m not sure any of these ideas were all
that great but I got started many of
these projects have ended up leading to
commercial jobs one I’d like to share
with you today is I got approached by
this big Hollywood hotshot mouse and he
wanted me to help him sell his TV
channel
[Music]
so just getting started leads to
projects like that another form of
making that I’m extremely passionate
about and has taken up really the last
maybe five years of my life it’s really
taken over is this idea of making things
with people who normally wouldn’t make
things people that don’t think of
themselves as creatives people that are
maybe in an office all day
and I just try to get scissors and glue
in front of them and just see what
happens
this is actually the other thing is that
every project is different the only
thing that really changes is that
everyone is invited this is actually a
shot of Southwest or the South Island
field notes which is right down the
street
here’s another shot I think we had 700
people show up over the course of three
days and I got everyone to think about
the beauty of this island and just be
inspired by it and just make I also get
a chance to do these projects with more
skilled makers or art students this
Prairie schooner was built in five days
with 220 people in Ogden Utah this yacht
was made in six or seven days with 30
people there’s a fantastic video on my
site about this I also took that idea to
the skies recently and got I think it
was 280 people in seven days we’d built
this plane all I really wanted was a
plane but once the art students started
getting inspired by each other I was
able to step back and things got built
that I never could have possibly
imagined the cockpit was fully equipped
with all the latest dials whoa you guys
like that with all the latest dials and
switches and levers and buttons that you
could possibly imagine
we had gauges to monitor the gauges that
were monitoring our gauges nothing could
go wrong
so I strapped into my flight vest and I
took off on a maiden voyage everything
was going pretty good what – until
mechanical failure or the lack of an
actual engine forced me to crash-land
through the skylight into this gallery
where I just happened to have a drawing
show up so I thought maybe I could test
pilot my way to a creative life so I
wrote a few letters and before you know
it I was training to be an astronaut
soon I was underway underway with the
construction of my new craft and it –
had all the latest technology available
I started the engines and I learned a
flyer
[Music]
but that ship didn’t what run quite so
well I thought if I could find a group
of people that had done a bit more
research than me if I could find a group
of people that actually knew how to do
math then then maybe I could have a
better potential of achieving my
creative life in space so with the help
of retired astronaut Nicole Stott 700
science teachers and the help of the
NASA Houston Space Center and all the
kids and families that showed up that
week we created the world’s largest
space fleet or Starfleet in the galaxy
and I think the best-looking as well
here’s a video
[Music]
that was a fun one and there’s a longer
form video on my website if you’re
interested in that project the
technology that I was exposed to at NASA
had my mind spinning and before you know
it I was working on my first laser
things got a little bit out of hand as
you can tell I ended up catching the
house on fire and then while trying to
put that out I nearly killed myself got
a little bit of a scar still from that
actually but I had I was learning to I
was going to learn to use this tool for
my selfish gain I was going to use this
laser to achieve my creative life and
before you know it I had the director of
the Long Beach Art Museum convinced that
that my work was gonna be the best work
for the next show the last project I
want to share with you is another mega
super collaboration I like to call him
or collaborative super jam I was lucky
enough to work with a school K or
kindergarteners through high school
through 12 so we were working with
six-year-olds all the way up to 18 year
olds and I wanted to get everyone to
work together to build one world so I
had kindergartners cutting cardboard
fringe and painting it green to make it
grass I had first graders and second
graders making flowers and fence posts
I had third and fourth graders making
telephone poles and mail boxes we had
six and seventh graders making buildings
we had the eighth and ninth graders
helping those sixth and seventh graders
at details of the buildings and in the
upper school designed cars trucks and
caravans and then I enlisted the help of
Roger TV some good friends of mine in LA
and they came out and we brought this
world to life the project’s not finished
yet but I want to share with you share
with you a teaser
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
it’s just in a giant robot is attacking
the star Patrol is on their way to
battle the mysterious robot target
sighted
get ready to engage
[Applause]
Sall in there but I think there’s maybe
a larger lesson here how do we make
things we let ourselves go we provide
the tools we unplug and we reconnect
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Music]
I am a guy that is obsessed with
building the objects of his imagination
I’m a guy who is constantly recording
his vibrations his observations or his
emotions through drawings sculptures
video projects and epic collaborations
but in the end I think I’m a guy that is
just searching for the best way to live
my creative life and as you might
imagine things started out super slow no
one told me early on that I needed to be
thinking outside of the box or the
bucket I guess that’s when I heard about
a job as a cookie decorator brushes
edible paints free cookies it was
amazing my mind my imagination was
beginning to imagine on an unimaginable
new level I thought if I could make
cookies which would make and decorate
cookies with such a skill perhaps I
could get into construction I didn’t
know it at the time but I’d taken the
first major step into the world of
object building I had imagined something
I had drawn that thing and then I had
built that thing soon though the bottom
fell out of that market the top and the
sides kind of fell out too and so I
talked with a couple mentors that had
been helping me and they thought I
should improve my social network maybe
learn to read
so I experimented with school on and off
for the next 20 years looking back
though I think in school what I really
learned was how to speak better visual
sure I read some fiction I learned some
facts I improved my social IQ but I
never stopped drawing I was learning to
confidently print my imagination and I
would encourage all of you to speak more
visual maybe today take some notes in
the form of pictures as opposed to words
think about your ideas in the forms of
colors and shapes scribble more all of
my high-level research indicates that
obsessive drawing helps lead to a
creative life that’s true
another thing I think I learned was that
a good idea only comes while you’re
working on a bad idea that you just have
to get started that’s that’s the most
crucial thing you just must get started
nothing’s gonna happen while you’re
flipping channels you have to get
started I’ve built 20 or 30 cameras that
had no idea that how to take a
photograph I’ve built heaps of musical
instruments that never played a note of
music
I built a hand-built a city for 4
million people this big
I’m not sure any of these ideas were all
that great but I got started many of
these projects have ended up leading to
commercial jobs one I’d like to share
with you today is I got approached by
this big Hollywood hotshot mouse and he
wanted me to help him sell his TV
channel
[Music]
so just getting started leads to
projects like that another form of
making that I’m extremely passionate
about and has taken up really the last
maybe five years of my life it’s really
taken over is this idea of making things
with people who normally wouldn’t make
things people that don’t think of
themselves as creatives people that are
maybe in an office all day
and I just try to get scissors and glue
in front of them and just see what
happens
this is actually the other thing is that
every project is different the only
thing that really changes is that
everyone is invited this is actually a
shot of Southwest or the South Island
field notes which is right down the
street
here’s another shot I think we had 700
people show up over the course of three
days and I got everyone to think about
the beauty of this island and just be
inspired by it and just make I also get
a chance to do these projects with more
skilled makers or art students this
Prairie schooner was built in five days
with 220 people in Ogden Utah this yacht
was made in six or seven days with 30
people there’s a fantastic video on my
site about this I also took that idea to
the skies recently and got I think it
was 280 people in seven days we’d built
this plane all I really wanted was a
plane but once the art students started
getting inspired by each other I was
able to step back and things got built
that I never could have possibly
imagined the cockpit was fully equipped
with all the latest dials whoa you guys
like that with all the latest dials and
switches and levers and buttons that you
could possibly imagine
we had gauges to monitor the gauges that
were monitoring our gauges nothing could
go wrong
so I strapped into my flight vest and I
took off on a maiden voyage everything
was going pretty good what – until
mechanical failure or the lack of an
actual engine forced me to crash-land
through the skylight into this gallery
where I just happened to have a drawing
show up so I thought maybe I could test
pilot my way to a creative life so I
wrote a few letters and before you know
it I was training to be an astronaut
soon I was underway underway with the
construction of my new craft and it –
had all the latest technology available
I started the engines and I learned a
flyer
[Music]
but that ship didn’t what run quite so
well I thought if I could find a group
of people that had done a bit more
research than me if I could find a group
of people that actually knew how to do
math then then maybe I could have a
better potential of achieving my
creative life in space so with the help
of retired astronaut Nicole Stott 700
science teachers and the help of the
NASA Houston Space Center and all the
kids and families that showed up that
week we created the world’s largest
space fleet or Starfleet in the galaxy
and I think the best-looking as well
here’s a video
[Music]
that was a fun one and there’s a longer
form video on my website if you’re
interested in that project the
technology that I was exposed to at NASA
had my mind spinning and before you know
it I was working on my first laser
things got a little bit out of hand as
you can tell I ended up catching the
house on fire and then while trying to
put that out I nearly killed myself got
a little bit of a scar still from that
actually but I had I was learning to I
was going to learn to use this tool for
my selfish gain I was going to use this
laser to achieve my creative life and
before you know it I had the director of
the Long Beach Art Museum convinced that
that my work was gonna be the best work
for the next show the last project I
want to share with you is another mega
super collaboration I like to call him
or collaborative super jam I was lucky
enough to work with a school K or
kindergarteners through high school
through 12 so we were working with
six-year-olds all the way up to 18 year
olds and I wanted to get everyone to
work together to build one world so I
had kindergartners cutting cardboard
fringe and painting it green to make it
grass I had first graders and second
graders making flowers and fence posts
I had third and fourth graders making
telephone poles and mail boxes we had
six and seventh graders making buildings
we had the eighth and ninth graders
helping those sixth and seventh graders
at details of the buildings and in the
upper school designed cars trucks and
caravans and then I enlisted the help of
Roger TV some good friends of mine in LA
and they came out and we brought this
world to life the project’s not finished
yet but I want to share with you share
with you a teaser
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
it’s just in a giant robot is attacking
the star Patrol is on their way to
battle the mysterious robot target
sighted
get ready to engage
[Applause]
Sall in there but I think there’s maybe
a larger lesson here how do we make
things we let ourselves go we provide
the tools we unplug and we reconnect
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Music]
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