something new...

...as much as I love to stamp, I'm not that good. I rarely step out of my comfort zone preferring to work with the basics. But I have a lot of stamps...a...LOT and I feel as though I should try and find new uses for them, and by new...I mean new to me. There are so many wonderful magazines, books and websites devoted to helping stampers expand their horizons...but I have a funny relationship with that sort of thing. Maybe you can relate...do you ever find yourself emulating behavior rather than being inspired by it? I do. It's a bit of a trap for me. I buy a mag...and before I know it I've dogeared a bunch of things I want to copy...not just interpret. I have a strong sensitivity to stimuli...perhaps that is why I became a designer...I have a need to somehow recreate what I see, how I see it. I don't care to be good...I care to provoke, to inspire to teach and tell stories. You are probably wondering... what does that have to do with rubberstamping. Well...who knows, maybe nothing...but all of those little stamps...stacked like building blocks present something fascinating to me...a little world waiting for discovery.

I subscribe to the tenets put forth by Bruce Mau in "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth"

#2 Forget about Good
"Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth."

I'm creating a little book that pays homage to Mau...I'll show you when I'm done...if I'm ever done.