With a Purpose

There are too many times when my main goal in art is to do something that just looks cool. This would look great! That would really impress people! While cool looking pieces are fine and good, they lack something that pieces with substance behind them have.

I've recently been getting into Google Sketchup, which is a free 3d modeling program that is basic enough and intuitive enough for the 3d novice to pick up and feel comfortable with pretty much immediately, but powerful enough to be used in the production pipeline of many architectural/ACAD studios. As some of you may know, back in high school I wanted to be an architect. I didn't care what I was designing, be it bridges, buildings, apartments, classrooms, as long as I was designing something. Unfortunately, I didn't get very far, as I picked up Japanese and did it a bit better than I ever did architecture, but the desire to design something that is closer to being tangible than airships and angel wings hasn't disappeared yet.

While doing some research on tutorials for sketchup, I came across this link. For those who are too lazy to follow the link, this architectural firm has used sketchup in the past to create eco friendly single and multi-family green homes. How's that for doing things with a purpose, eh?

The way I'm seeing it now, I have something I'm passionate about. I can keep the fruits of that passions (hmm) to myself, or I can try to do something with it. Something meaningful.

Now, I may not be a great architect, or a renowned painter yet, but I should start somewhere, and sometime. So why not here and now? So Now I'm making a resolution. From now on, every piece I do is going to be for a specific purpose. No more, "Wow, that looks cool!" for the sake of looking cool. Everything I do is going to be to in the efforts of learning something, or the piece will be used for a specific purpose.

Does that mean that Nevergreen is on the outs? No, not quite. NG was originally conceived as a reason to learn how to model more complex scenes, learn color theory, shot composition and lighting. It evolved into the story that I want to tell, but it has an educational origin.

I want to help people. So I'm going to take what I love, and figure out how to help people with it. Or at the very least, I'm going to have a reason for my art. Art for the sake of art lacks substance, in my opinion.

I want mine to have more purpose.