Seth has a unique, whimsical approach to his creations. They are playful in nature and encourage us all to embrace our inner child.
Here’s our full interview with Seth in his own words:
How did you get started creating your pieces?
When I was 22, I randomly started drawing one day while working at a cell-phone accessory kiosk in the mall as a way to pass the time and amuse myself. I had never really drawn much in my life and for some reason that day I didn’t have any of the underlying judgment of “not knowing how”.
The drawings that day cracked me up and I realized that it was simpler than I had ever really thought. You just make things up and try to draw them and mostly, enjoy the process. Ultimately, that’s the same way I try to approach all the work I do now.
What’s the favorite part of your work/what you make?
One thing I’ve always really enjoyed is the simple concept of erasing nothingness and replacing it with creative energy. It’s kind of like a magic trick we’re all allowed to know. As it turns out, a lot of the work I tend to gravitate to makes people laugh and smile and once the work is all done, I really like enjoying that part about it too.
Although I like to keep the concept of an audience out of the creative process, it’s nice to see it hit the mark of sparking some joy or curiosity afterwards.
How do you express your creativity through your work?
These days I really like to play with different mediums or styles that I’m not necessarily familiar with. I still keep my old friends close and continue developing bodies of work that I’ve made for years.
But I like finding simultaneously trying things that are brand new that make me feel like I don’t know where it’s going to go or if I’m even going to like it. It keeps my creative self really stretchy and staves off the trap of always striving to make something “good”. Again, this keeps the focus on enjoying the process and seeing what unfolds.
What brings you joy?
Oh gosh. So much. I really love being alone at night and playing with my brain like a toy. But I think making things takes a pretty big back seat to the relationships in my life with those I’ve come to love.
We really get to find our true tenderness with those that we’re close with. Being with those people helps me to remember I’m really just a big kid and that tends to help me cast off a lot of the societal pressures that can wear me down and sap that joy.
Also, the moon and flowers and poetry and long drives and live music and watching strangers fumble about in the same clumsy ways I do.
What challenge(s) have you overcome?
I think as an artist, the largest challenge I needed to overcome was just to understand that not being technically skilled, academically trained or innately gifted had no bearing on whether or not I should be making art.
For a lot of my life those barriers were up and getting past those made a whole world open up. Professionally now, having some degree of success, I’m spending time thinking about the privileges I’ve been given and finding the balance of my social responsibility in responding to the social ills we face in this world. It’s a work in progress.
Anything exciting in the works/coming up for you?
I have a new studio to make larger work in! It’s exciting because I’ve usually worked at a desk and the work I make reflects in scale so it’s really exciting to have a space that encourages larger work.
What do you wish for the world?
I hope we can take a harder look at things that we accept as just the way it is and start looking at our lives and our the structures we abide by, as more malleable.
The way the pressures of this world come at us, it can give us a head-down-plow-ahead mentality. The constructs around us get really reinforced when we don’t take time to poke at the bricks and stand on our heads and ask silly or serious questions.
This isn’t easy to do because we’re all trying to make it through, but making a little room for it opens possibilities and often we find previously unrealized allies in our dreaming.
Is there anything else you’d like to share/us to know?
I’ve come to believe that all the work I've made, and all the work I will ever make, is a big collaborative effort. We learn what we value by those who touch our lives by wandering around in their own simple gorgeous ways and we create what we do by looking into what we value.
This stands to reason that everything I do is an echo of things I’ve learned from people, namely those who have shown me love, kindness or care. This is still happening. It’s happening right now. Thank you.
See his collection of items at MADE here :)
You can also check out his Instagram and Website 💙💜
* Photo of the artist from Voyage Houston Magazine