Design Blog

Artists Statement

Stillness is the First Song:
A Visual Language for an Interconnected Future

Artist’s Statement of Purpose:

“Words do not label things already there. Words are like the knife of a carver. They free the idea, the thing, from the general formlessness of the outside. As a man speaks, not only his language is in a state of birth, but also the very thing about which he is talking.” ~Inuit Wisdom

“May we learn just to be, a moment at a time. No expectations. Just an open heart. Sharing as we can.” ~Stephen Levine

Interconnection and Presence:

In 2012, I began a series of large works about Presence. I’d been photographing landscapes, seeking to capture a sense I had, of no separation between myself and my environment. Photography began to feel too fleeting. To “mean it” I must invest more life-force. I began to draw, embedding the work with layers of marks, accumulating time, gravity, weight, magnetic pull. Insights unfolded:
The pace of modern culture is accelerating. We are constantly disrupted, not able to finish one thing before we must begin the next. We are losing the art of intimacy; of connecting with ourselves, with each other, with nature, with our planet, with stillness, with gratitude.

The commitment to slow down, to draw, to listen, allowing my subject to lead me, restored an experience of groundedness, reconnected me with my inner wisdom. The accumulation of the tiny marks each of us makes – the quality of our marks, is what the world becomes. We are each the creative source of the causes we are living in together.

Influences:

I am interested in the emerging intersection between Indigenous world views of Interconnectedness as the foundation of Life, and the newest understandings about the Quantum Zero Point Field – a field of waves of potential, where, when waves intersect, each wave receives all the information of the other, creating a non-local, infinite field of information/experience, an instantaneously accessible holographic imprint of all experienced events. This echoes the concept of the Akashic record, (Akasha is a Sanskrit word meaning “sky”, “space” or “aether”) a non-physical plane of existence, where all phenomenal experience is encoded therein. I am interested in the idea of mark making as an Akashic record of a journey, which creates a resonant object. This journey can help re-tune ourselves, our environment, our culture.

Collaborative Learning:

I am also highly interested in translating these frameworks to education, and how they might inform dialogue-based, collaborative learning, and the advancement of innovations which can be achieved by collaborating across disciplinary silos of expertise.

Sincerely,

~Lisa Hoag

What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a problem solving method which reframes problems as opportunities, by asking the simple question “How might we…?”.

Design Thinking borrows from the artist’s approach of observing a subject as it currently exists; then creating thumbnail sketches, and iterating those sketches as a learning tool. Through this iteration process, understanding of the subject increases. Ultimately the designer arrives at a new expression of the topic, which, when well implemented, has a simplicity and elegance of purpose; becoming resonant, relevant, inspirational, ideally useful and meaningful to the viewer/ user/ experiencer.

“A Designer is anyone who devises ways to change existing situations
into preferred ones.” ~Herbert Simon

Welcome!

Dear Friends,

Welcome! This will be a place for a river of thought, ideas, small gratitudes for simple moments, tiny evolutions, sharings, appreciations, and perhaps occasional grand gestures. We are witnesses to the beautiful world we share, and stewards for its future, and each other.

Warmest Regards,
~Lisa