About
Welcome to a blog about business, art, design and the human body.
Huh?
This is a photo of me. Over the years I’ve trained in and practiced a variety of disciplines, many seemingly only loosely connected. Often I’ve felt slightly embarrassed by this variety, but the farther I delve into whatever I am doing, the happier I am to have such a variety for cross-reference, inspiration and backup. The closer I look, the stronger the links between disciplines appear.
Cross-Pollination is about relationships. That is, the connections between things: between art and entrepreneurship, between dance and washing the dishes, or between drawing the human figure and writing expense reports. What happens when these topics are put in a room together? Is the conversation stilted and awkward, or does it flow smoothly? What insights can be mined from the interaction?
There are a few starting points, which will no doubt be recurring themes: design thinking, physical intelligence and commercial art.
Design thinking: the idea that the creative process most artists and designers employ can be of use in the world of business is relatively new, and is catching on under the name design thinking. Most of the disciplines I have studied involve a creative process*, and I work in the corporate sector as a designer, illustrator and management trainer. Creativity and its application for organizations, their products and services is a subject of keen interest to me.
Physical intelligence: for decades I have been interested in the body’s natural intelligence and how it can be applied to everyday life. After decades of study, practice and teaching, I am surprised at how little information is out there on the subject. Okay, the information is out there, but very few people have attempted to compile and apply it, and there are very few discussions of the subject. With Cross-Pollination I hope to spark a few conversations on this topic.
Commercial art: I practice what was once called commercial art, a discipline that has now been divided into illustration and graphic design. The worlds of fine art, illustration and graphic design were once much more fluid than they are now, which is understandable with the development of software that practically lays pages out for you. But this is a topic—and hopefully a debate—to have in a future post. Suffice it to say that one of the main focal points of this blog will be art, illustration and design.
…and above all, what happens when you put these things together in a room, and how can they help improve business and daily life?
*esp. design, painting, sculpture, acting, directing, playwriting, dance, choreography & fiction.
author w/big dots