On Family and the Architecture of Growth
Since I can remember, I have loved drawing. And yet, over the years, what has defined me is something beyond the process of recording. As life’s challenges approached me, my choices in navigation have revealed what is most important. In the face of loss, I found creativity. This creative phenomenon can be traced throughout history, not just in my own story, but in that of wider scopes of communities and civilizations.
The beginning of hurricane season is a reminder that from loss, we change. We can never get back what has been washed away but have the opportunity to take what is left and redefine our environment. When I was a kid, one of my favorite past times was trailblazing through the woods. My family lived walking distance from one another, and so whenever one place got boring, I could hop on my bike and ride to my aunt’s house, or go see what my grandparents were up to. As an adult, I still live a couple of miles away from where I grew up. This sustained proximity, while not necessarily the same as it was when I was a kid, has been the literal inspiration for the majority of my visual output. I am still learning new things just by having a morning coffee in my backyard.
Family, or the way in which one thing relates to others, is essential to all things we experience in life. To broaden this scope, “family” also refers to anyone who makes up one’s day to day existence. Family is the foundation from which we build all things. In the spiritual definition of “father” and “mother”, we see family as a framework from which all things emanate. Today we can reframe the familial structure while still maintaining the output of raising a complete human being. Is it not extraordinary how humans have evolved to claim an expanded definition of love and family?
I’m not afraid of losing myself in the process of growth. In fact, I am anticipating the discovery of new passions. I am praying to abandon whatever limits I might have and trailblaze through a forest that I have never known. Because I know that in navigating these woods, I have a basis for it all. The basis for all of my work, regardless of medium, is the personal dynamic of my observed relationship between things.
Architecture is building upon the past, or as Leland Roth so marvelously put it, “Architecture is the chambered nautilus shell of the human species; it is the environment we build for ourselves, and which, as we grow in experience and knowledge, we change and adapt to our expanded condition.” In moving forward, we have the potential to change for the better. Embracing and Learning about the past gives us the foundation from which we build. Likewise, embracing and learning from the present allows us to reflect upon our observations.
The Nautilus has become my spirit animal as I begin building yet another chamber.