The Creative Boomerang: A True Story About Art, Serendipity, and Impact
What we put into the world sometimes comes back to us in the most unexpected and magical ways.
Did not see this coming.
Years back, I’m in Oakland, California with my family. Visiting an old friend.
Late in the afternoon, we wander over to a local outdoor craft market by the water.
Stall by stall, we work our way through. More accurately, I sit on a bench in the shade, shvitzing and complaining, while my wife and daughter explore.
Twenty minutes in, I get a text.
“Come now, we’ve found a really cool one.”
I navigate my way around to find them in the middle of a stall alive with high-contrast photo montages. The photographer, Steve, spends his time moseying around San Francisco, and pretty much anywhere else. Taking pictures of graffiti and old signs. He then isolates the letters, and prints them out large-format on photo-paper to form words and phrases, made up of a patchwork of letters.
If it sounds a little ransom-y, it is, but it works. Just super cool. And playful.
We get to chatting, and he tells us how …