Day 10 The power of stories
There is something around my work that I am trying to get my head around. At this stage, it feels like a 5000-piece puzzle without a reference image. How do I tell the story around my art and my design practice? What does a plot look like when it is focused on thoughts, ideas, and the everyday?
As humans we need stories. We need them to relate to each other and to make sense of our own complex and contradictory identities. We have stories about our childhood, our love for a certain music genre and much more. We want to believe that there is meaning, a pattern, an arc between the things that happen to us. There is little more frightening than chaos.
Imagine you have a new partner, the two of you met chatting on a plane. It is easy to take the leap into destiny, to say that the two of you were meant to cross paths that day. Because what would be the alternative? Admitting that the chance of you two never meeting was far greater than you actually finding each other? All of our lives are incredibly unlikely. Frightening. There were endless factors that could have led to you or me not being born. Yet, we are here, confused and trying to find our path in life.
I became an artist because of a series of events that nobody could have predicted. I still remember the moment I overheard a conversation about exchange students and knew, that when I was old enough to go, I would leap at the opportunity. Making that decision led me to Thailand, where I met a girl who posted on Facebook about an art school in Bangkok. I was so bored in the countryside where I was living, that I asked if I could sign up for courses at this school. Back then, I was already painting a little here and there but I was not committed yet. The teacher at that school didn’t just show me how to paint, he gave me a new perspective on life. He was different from everyone I knew, and for the first time, I wanted to become someone like him.
That story about my creative becoming started when I was sixteen, it has been many years since then but I am still learning, asking questions and expanding my abilities. I can now see that I would like to be more open about that process — the things I research, the questions I ask, and my incomplete answers. I am not here as a guru, but as someone still figuring it out.
In these posts I am not only stretching my willingness to be seen but also practicing my storytelling. It feels like there is so much to talk about from morning coffee to design thinking and neurodivergence. I have been quiet for too long, and now I struggle to decide where to start — like a river that is becoming unblocked.
I want to design for neurodivergent, queer, and curious people, but I can only really do that well if I am in conversation with my community. I want to find a way to connect, to ask the big questions together, and to write this shared story—not just alone in the studio. You are part of that conversation.
I hope you are well wherever you are
Celine
