Stone Soup with a dash of Design

Several days ago, a few of my contemporaries and I came together in an attempt to appease our design hungry souls.  Inspired by Marcia Brown's classic children's novel, Stone Soup, in which three soldiers were able to make a fabulous stew out of random ingredients both readily available and offered, we followed this recipe of creation and were able to produce our very own Stone Soup.  Of course ours was flavored with a dash of design.To begin the day, we laid out the mishmash of materials that we had gathered and brought with us.  What we had was a variety of items ranging anywhere from empty bottles, acrylic paints, buttons, bottle caps, sheet music,  and silly string.   A couple of us began to brainstorm and pool our ideas into what could be done with said materials.  Simultaneously, a few other members of our team scoured the area for more supplies.  Rather than constructing something entirely new and alien to the area, we decided to incorporate what we had into nature itself. 

Despite our initial planning, the final outcome of our "soup" was beyond what any of us had imagined.  It was then that I realized that the key ingredients to our soup weren't the supplies that we had, It was the joint forces of our minds that provided the base for our grand recipe. With eight sources of brainpower contributing to the installation, creative ideas sprung from the ground and grew into a design of our making.  A framework of literal frames hung from the boughs of a large tree.  Music and fresh paintings decorated its trunk, and a bouquet of bottle caps, buttons and pipe cleaners dangled enticingly within a singular wooden frame.  In the end, much of our work was done spontaneously and without explanation.  There was no heartfelt discussion about the meaning behind the piece, nor was there intellectual conversation on the usage of space or color theory.  Much of what was done may have similarly been done by a child.  Working in such an unbound manner was thought provoking and inspiring.  This experience has brought back memories of artistic designs and dreams I had years past, many of which I have previously forgotten or abandoned over time.  If an unfettered process of design today could fabricate such an exceptional outcome, I will never again forsake the ideas of my past. 

"All children are artists.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." 

~ Pablo Picasso