In October 2016 I gave a TEDx talk at TEDxCharlotte about something that had been bothering me for years: the light bulb.
Not the invention — the symbol. The light bulb is an intimidating stand-in for ideas, implying that good thinking arrives in a sudden, unpredictable flash of brilliance. It doesn’t. Ideas are the product of diligence, exploration, and collaborative thinking — observation, experience, and good old problem solving. The eureka moment is a myth.
I’ve been thinking about this ever since, especially in the studio. The paintings don’t arrive as flashes either. They come from the same slow, searching process I was describing on that stage.