User:Tyson Goudsmits

Tyson Goudsmits tysongoudsmits@gmail.com

Why am I a maker?

My mother influenced me creatively and my father taught me practical thinking

When I was young I was directly influenced by my mother who always had a
motivation to create things. She made paintings, drawing, she even made our
clothes and cut our hair in weird shapes, also she made an ugly angel hanging
from the sealing colored gold (the frustration). Even tough she was always
making, she never approached it seriously except for the one year she studied
fashion in Utrecht, but then she got pregnant and the whole plan was scrapped
form the book. These days my mother is still creating, she is doing a ceramics
workshop and is making ceramic flowers and dinner set’s for at home.

Not only did she influenced me creatively but also she supported me to do what I
like most unlike a lot of people saying art can hardly be a source of income. Like
my dad for instants, he doesn’t seem to see the point in creating unless it’s
practical. But I still think he was a big influence because of his practical point of view.
He is a mechanic who has a passion for motorbikes and really trucks, he
also managed to build his own house form scratch with the help of a couple
relatives who are in that business, so most of the day at work and at home he
is crafting. I think helping him for instants with replanting a tree in the garden
taught me to think practical.

While I’m writing this I actually realize that my mother influenced me with creativity
and my father taught me practical thinking, I think those are the most important
factors to be a maker.

I enjoy watching and observing, and reuse what I see

Also I think a maker is often occupied with observing, not only to observe and
reflect on his own work but also to observe and reflect on his environment to
gather inspiration on purpose or not. But I also find myself often observing
obsessively trying to unravel how things are made. When I am observing I’m
passively trying to figure out how it could be made, but mostly there is no
conclusion or an answer because its uncommon for products or structure to
unravel its mystery, for instance the inside of a car or the screws in your chair.
So, with most of the things especially concerning technologies its impossible to
know anything about its component without taking it apart.

But that doesn’t mean it is pointless to stare at a chair for minutes.
Deconstructing these things in your mind has a great impact on your ability to
apply visual and practical techniques. So when I am working I’m actually reflecting
on things I have seen.

Learn form the material

Another reason why I am a maker is my interest in material, its not that I am
especially interested in the substance of the materials, it’s the curiosity on how
materials react on certain things. For instant when I was working with caramel
and cement I wondered what would happen if I pour them together, how would it
solidify? The answer was quite disappointed when I found out that they both did
not solidify at al. Often it’s a big risk when you attempt to add something to your
work when your not sure how it will turn out, but not knowing what eventually could
happen I think is worst. Only in this way you can really find new insights on your
work preventing it to become a staged or composed project form beginning to end.
Although this is an pretty practical example it also happens while painting for
instants I wonder what would it be looking like when I turn the background from
black to yellow, and this is a big change so again this is a risk but I think your
work is open to experiments until you feel some kind of satisfaction and if that
doesn’t come just make it an experiment and not a work.

Often observing and learning form the material happens at the same time. But I think
this refers mainly to visual aspect of life. By watching how materials interact I learn form
the visual characteristics of the material, this is how I know how to draw hair underwater
water, or the movement of smoke without having research it.

Creating problems witch I can solve

One of my greatest gifts is creating problems, it may even be a hobby. I’m not talking
about getting kicked off of school and getting into jail type of problems but rather
problems I can solve with intuition.

Often when I decide to go to a legal graffiti spot to make a big artwork I often come
unprepared, mainly because I decide very impulsively what I want to do. So when I
get the idea to go paint I don’t want to waste my time on making a sketch and getting
art supplies although I know that its very important to come prepared.

File:Work proces cement.jpg

Normally cement is only used to bond between stone (mostly bricks), but when it is used to make concrete you can pore it into any shape. unfortunately I didn't prepare well enough, I forgot buy the right sand to mix it with so I had to pull it of with only cement and water. As you can see I used a plastic cup to make a mold, in this way I could remove the mold carefully by cutting it open because the dry cement can be very fragile.

Final shape

For the second assignment I used lego. I combined two different techniques to bond material that is plastic. Lego itself off course has a bonding ability, but it also is made to easily take it apart and rebuild something new. But when you combine this with clue it becomes a strong structure. Also I think its very nice to see the color grid without directly associating it with lego because we are used to see lego in the typical block form