Blog
The Joys of Pinterest
A few months ago I began exploring Pinterest and was immediately excited by the world that it opened up for me. Since then, I have been ‘collecting’ interesting and inspiring images as I travelled various sites on the internet and now have them ‘pinned’ in one easy to find ‘board’. One can also pin from other people’s boards and the option to comment on one another’s pins is also a possibility. It basically opens up a whole new way of communicating about and through beautiful images. (http://www.pinterest.com/davidtragen/)
OK, I confess, it is one of my ways of avoiding the more mundane aspects of my working life, like doing my accounts, but by having it on my mobile, I can take a quick 5 minute break to fill my mind with colour and beauty. It literally does brighten up my day. Pinterest has become yet another strand of the creative process in my everyday practice. By actively searching for specific things such as waves or cloud formations, then one’s own preferences come more into the conscious mind and this allows a better understanding of one’s own creative process. This process becomes more and more fine-tuned as time goes on. It also works on a more sub conscious level, where one naturally gathers a sense of aesthetic somewhere in the depths of one’s own mind. These two different patterns, sub conscious and conscious, form part of the distinction in my mind between an artist and a designer but I will save this subjective theme for another occasion!
My most populated boards so far are Nature, Photography with Architecture and Art not far behind. My latest work, the Strata Series http://www.davidtragen.co.uk/blog/the-strata-series-limited-edition-sculptural-furniture/ is inspired by a fusion of geometry and patterns in nature and some of the ideas behind Sidewinder and Beating Wings can be clearly found here.
There is no question that seeing beauty in the real world rather than on a screen is far more inspiring. Ones senses are in closer contact with the object and therefore the effect is enhanced, particularly if it the object can be viewed from varying angles. However if you’re waiting for a train, in a call queuing system or simply avoiding doing your accounts, then why not indulge yourself in Pinterest?