People often ask me how I know when a project is done. The straight answer is I don’t know how I know. It varies. Sometimes the project ends on its own, when a technology no longer exists or the materials are no longer available. Other times I am distracted into doing a new project and the old one can’t compete for my attention. And occasionally I just can’t bear to make another piece in the series. Or I feel as though I have explored it as deeply as I can – there are no more avenues to explore, no more questions to ask and nothing left to keep me engaged.

The good thing is that there always seem to be new ideas, projects and challenges. Sometimes there are fallow periods when I take a break, like when someone has writer’s block. Those periods always seem to end on their own too. They are awkward but healthy because they allow new ideas to come to me naturally. I do keep absorbing the ideas that surround me continuously and somehow that will break the pause and inspire new work. I can’t force it since it is intuitive and I just know when I have been captured by a new idea that leads to a new project.

My father was a quiet yet wise man. He said “Never look back, keep moving ahead.” And to that I always say “Yes!” because it is always more fun.