Sunday, October 15, 2006

Frank Gehry


Today I heard Frank Gehry speak at the Society for Neuroscience meeting here in Atlanta. It was a huge event...and, quite frankly, I don't know that I was supposed to be attending the discussion because I didn't have a fancy hang tag to wear that said who I was, where I studied and what level of education I had completed (PhD or MD). Alas, I relied on my Southern charm and natural good looks and managed to sneak in. It was awesome. So inspirational. He was so funny, down to earth, and natural. You would've thought the man was talking about baking cookies....meanwhile, back at the ranch, he freaking designed the Guggenheim in Spain...among MANY other AMAZING structures. Once again, I was struck by how the creative mind works...Hank loves to quote Louis Kahn's "form comes from wonder" piece...and it is true...all great pieces of art come from a sense of wonder and curiosity...behind that is someone who believes enough in their vision and craft to execute it. Gehry had no use for the conventions of his time, or the limits of what was, he imagined what COULD be and created it. His work is amazing, innovative, organic...and the scale of his work amplifies all of these inherent properties. He talked about "informed intuition" as being a part of his creative process...I will devote an entire blog entry to this term...but seeing how a work of art is born from these loose sketches, to scaled models to the real thing...wow. I was moved, inspired, intrigued...

8 comments:

Angie said...

if you haven't already, you should see the documentary shot by is friend--Sketches of Frank Gehry--since I'm no hot shot, with no southern codesention... I mean charm--All I had was the movie. very inspiring as well.

Angie said...

shit, it' s late.. hard to be a jerk when you can't even spell--ahem, condescension-- that's what I meant... no longer funny... as you were...

Mary Campbell said...

(further proof that drinking and blogging don't mix)

minus five said...

frank gehry copied me.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget "subtleties of mediocrity."

Angie said...

Less drinking, more like exhaustion. Wait until your 8th quarter, and we'll see if you can spell and/or articulate anything.

There are good days and bad days... that was a bad one.

Anonymous said...

The man has skillz. More amazing than his design aesthetic is what it takes to build those forms. This ain't your father's oldsmobile.

Anonymous said...

I learned about him in Art History at school!