nyc, curiosity + trying out new things.
pushing beyond the how and the why of art.
to kick things off this week, i want to give a shout out to
and the unfold gallery. they included my art on the streets of nyc last week! seeing a video of resonance, iii. sitting alongside radio city was a surreal treat, here’s a still.
thanks to their teams for doing what they do + doing it so well. providing exhibition materials free of charge to each curated artist of last week’s mobile galleries is a beautiful thing to see, let alone get to be apart of. be sure to check out both teams!
curiosity as the canvas.
i used to take apart old electronic devices, phones, calculators, those little memo assistants from the ‘90s. my family would deposit them into my 7 year-old hands and i’d set to work deconstructing them with my set of mini tools from a rocking junior toolbox i’d cart around.
i’d take the object and strip it down part by part until i had a pile of curiosities. some things i’d recognize, others were often new to me. i’d run to my grandpa who’d be working away in his garage workshop to ask what this or that was and what it was for.
to me, he’s still the handiest human around and could answer my questions +90% of the time. the other ~10% i’d make up a use and incorporate the found part into whatever game i was playing at the time. (pretty sure at one point i used a motherboard as a spatula in the mud pie kitchen i had set up in the backyard.)
when i look back on those memories i realize that making art feels like this to me. it goes beyond that initial sense of play to curiosity and intrigue, to become a discovery of how something can be a bridge to both the unknown and something new.
curiosity: a strong desire to know or learn something. — oxford languages
most times i’ll start with a medium because i’m curious about the how of it. how do i technically do x? how can i reverse engineer my way to z?
in each case i find that i want to use a given tool to understand why i feel a thing in the first place. i want to know if other people feel it too.
this is the ultimate beauty of art. taking intuition past the point of how to eventually arrive at why, and, push on to if.
so much of art is caught up in how or why something is made. i find i’m most energized when i experience an artwork and forget about the medium entirely, when my senses are caught up in a dance with my mind, forgetting about the here and now while being ironically, wholly, caught in the present moment.
it’s after i experience artwork this way that i dive in with that 7 year-old brain, right back to wanting to understand the how, so that maybe i can put my spin on the why and, that feeling i’m experiencing, too.
said another way, i approach art as one large, shared project. one where we all have a unique perspective with which to contribute to the shared canvas. our world.
we’re ultimately on a shared journey, a journey strengthened by the unique voice with which we each wield our tools. i’m forever captivated by why we humans do what we do.
with my art i will continue to ask the question, do you feel things the same way i do?
notes, tweets + bluesky.
speaking of curious, i’ve found myself dabbling across social media lines these past few days. i’m trying out notes here on substack (see above) and received an invite to bluesky — find me there as @mbranson.bsky.social.
it’s been years since i was spread across multiple social media profiles and i can already feel my skin itch with anxiety. 👀 😂
i’ll be trialing out each for the foreseeable future, so if you’re there too, give a shout. you can watch me flail around as i try to make sense of how to present my art + thoughts in multiple places. 🍿
if you prefer to keep it steady and weekly, this is the best place to be. thanks for being here. please hit the 🖤 and help others discover my writing + art. thank you for reading and / or listening this week.
do you have questions or comments? i welcome them below.
see you wednesday!
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some music i enjoy getting curious to.
So rad!! You're a rockstar!
Wonderful, as usual! How cool that your art was in Times Square! Proud of you ❤️