Of Art and Fun, cont'd

I received an email from Mr. Smith, asking me if I thought his art would be of interest to my readers. I clicked, pointed, clicked again, and saw wonder after wonder of playful art and artful play and sometimes even both. I wrote back to Mr. Smith, asking him if he might say something to us about what he perceives as the art-fun connection. He responded:

"People often ask me how I get the ideas for creating my sculptures. The truth is I usually don’t know what a sculpture will be until it is actually in the process of being built. I approach my work with a very wide expectation of what it may become, and I try to allow myself to let it go in the direction it wants to go.

"Most of it is trial and error, a kind of form follows function construction process. If an element is not working or just doesn’t do what I had hoped, I will cut it off and try something else.

"I enjoy the raw creativity in this process. I am constantly observing the world around me seeing things that capture my attention. Sometimes I will try to incorporate these elements into my art somehow or it will spark an idea that leads to another idea and so on. My strongest pieces are usually the ones I had the most fun making. Art doesn’t always have to be serious, political or even emotional. Sometimes it can just be fun.

"Sometimes when people look at my Kinetic or Rolling Ball Sculptures they will ask, 'What does it do?' I usually answer, 'It’s doing it.'"