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I wanted to take a minute to sit down and talk to you guys about an amazing opportunity that was presented to me. I was approached by Carolyn Hill, the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park & Museum’s Visitior Services Coordinator, in regards to the museum’s interest in commissioning me to created a design for them. The design (see top and bottom of webpage) will be used for a T-Shirt Design that will likely and hopefully launch during this year’s Whirligig Festival. If you are not familiar with the Whirligig Festival or the park itself, I would encourage you to visit both the following websites, wilsonwhirligigpark.org and whirligigfestivalnc.org. Over the last couple of weeks I worked with the museum to bring this idea to life.

I commenced this project by visiting the park and rendering a series of ”Studies” or preliminary sketches that highlighted areas of interest that might otherwise be difficult to identify through photography alone. Armed with what was a handful of sketches I began working on a draft. This whole process was a bit new to me, as I usually work backwards in the sense that I work on a final piece from the beginning and work out the kinks as I go along. I’ve realized how detrimental this is to my creative process, but it has also challenged me to come up with solutions at the drop of a dime. There is a sense of safety working in a more traditional way. What I’m suggesting is that allowing myself to plan out the design and working from bits and pieces that were produced earlier in the creative process resulted in less casualties and complications. Will I take what I’ve learned from this experience and apply it in future works? more than likely not. As a self taught artist I can tell you that nothing I’ve learned thus far was credited to caution. Instinct and impulse has and continues to propel my creativity. Allowing myself to make mistakes allows me learn and grow as a creator. I am aware that certain situations call for different procedures and that I am able to compromise.

Certain clients and projects will expect and require you to create a series of sketches and or drafts that allows them to clearly see your vision. In some situations artists will allow a certain number of revisions that are allowed to be made during the creative process. Although I am familiar with these, there haven’t been very many instances where I’ve had to apply them. I don’t consider myself a designer and my experience with design work is limited to only a handful of projects. I am incredibly thankful for this experience as it has taught me it is okay to skew away from the way I frequently do things.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated by the importance of this project. I say this because ”creating a design for the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park & Museum” may seem like a small achievement two years from today. Today I am proud of this achievement, because two years ago this opportunity was only present in my dreams.

I want to end this blog by reminding you to…

do what you love today without fear. let the fear of failure fuel your desire to succeed and everything will fall into place. If its meant to happen, It will. But you have to allow it.

Special thanks to Carolyn Hill and the rest of the Museum Associates for allowing me to work with them and for being so understanding of my hectic schedule.

• Be aware. This design is owned by the “Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum”, all reproduction and printing rights are reserved by said party. I, Juan Carlos Duron Martinez, reserve the right to publish content depicting images of the design for promotional purposes on former and future personal webpages and social media networks. Reproduction and use of this design and content by parties not mentioned in this agreement are liable and subject to legal prosecution.