We recently connected with McKinley Smith and have shared our conversation below.
McKinley, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
‘Curiosity killed the cat’ has always been one of my least favorite sayings. For me, the adage should read more like ‘curiosity made the cat creative’.
These two forces—creativity and curiosity—are so interwoven I’m not sure I can take credit for the habit of refilling my well of creativity through curious exploration. As a kid, I was the classic tinkerer, taking things apart to see how they worked and what the internal components looked like. That habit along with the fearless nature of a child jumping into unmapped depths of knowledge fostered my initial creativity. Once I saw how something worked or learned a new process, I immediately wanted to do something with my new knowledge. Through a wallflower high school experience, I managed to hold onto these habits and build a sizeable well of resiliency around them. They served both as my escape from a small southern town and my greatest skill set. This combo helped keep the child’s spark of fearlessness to start a new project or try and new technique into adulthood.
Now, with years of introspection and hindsight brought about through life experiences, I can recognize the role curiosity plays in my creativity. It’s not that I could even limit my curiosity if I tried, but whenever I feel a lull in creativity or I’m facing a particularly tough creative problem, I know where to reach to recharge. Most of this takes the form of learning whether from listening to scientific lectures or audiobooks, reading about the latest breakthroughs in science or tech, YouTube videos on topics ranging from biology to physics, or researching mechanical applications or novel materials. While it sounds like a bore to many people I tell, or earns me eyerolls from friends and partners, all of this intense focus on learning gives my creative brain a rest allowing me to return later with new energy and sometimes new information.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Under the moniker, TERRAMOTO, I use the aesthetics of space engineering to create artworks aiming to inspire interest in STEM and related fields of innovation while also analyzing contemporary issues. This pairing aims to highlight how solving extreme engineering situations of space travel can create unexpected solutions to the contemporary human condition. How will Martian habitat solutions affect current homelessness and housing crises caused by war, environmental displacement or crumbling economic systems? How will novel material development or new forms of access to raw materials affect our current material reliances, applications and power structures on Earth? How will agile micro factories developed for frontier fabrication affect our current manufacturing production power structures and distribution systems? The first space race gave us solar panels, air purifiers, velcro and “Tang”. What if the second space race could give us increased security, environmentalism, and egalitarianism.
Currently, I’m working on a diverse series titled, ARTIFACTS OF THE THIRD SPACE RACE (A.3.S.R.). This is a conceptual exploration of humanity’s dive deeper into our solar system, beyond the doorstep of Mars, through a series of works that uses a heavily multidisciplinary art practice including metal fabrication, hand quilting, painting, industrial design, additive manufacturing and creative writing among many others. Works are presented to the viewer as imported future historical artifacts, with fictional narrative woven into the didactic information that probes at these connections and concepts. My goal is to encourage deeper engagement and curiosity of the viewers on the various science and engineering, ethical, or humanitarian topics presented, rather than telling them how to think by injecting my own thoughts.
Examples of my work and processes can currently be found on instagram @terramoto.co if you’re interested in seeing more.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Stay Curious 2. Trust Yourself and the Process
3. Remember the Inner Child
Firstly—Curiosity. While potentially my greatest asset, it also proved a bit of a tricky guide. Because I have been so easily intrigued by so many things, I spent many years trying a lot of new things without sticking to a single one. It wasn’t so much a phase based roaming, as I rarely traded old interests for the new ones. Instead, I added them to my toolkit. However, as the number of skills grew, the time lengthened between returning to practice and continue already learned ones. This lengthened the journey and time to gain expertise in any one area, and many of my peers became seemingly more successful in a much shorter time as they focused more intently on a single area.
However, though my second pick—self-reliance—I continued this path of collecting skills and endured the general harassment of being a “jack of all trades” and a “master of none”. I trusted I knew what I wanted and I carved that path regardless of the friction others added.
The rub came later when I felt I had collected enough skills and really wanted to dial down on exactly how to employ them, but wasn’t sure the appropriate application. Here’s where the third idea comes in—don’t forget your inner child. My younger self was a space fantastic from the strange worlds of science fiction to the stranger realities of modern physics. Once I was able to let go of the things my adult brain thought I ought to be doing with these skills, and gave in to my inner child I had a flashbulb moment of clarity. Since then I have refined that idea and devoted myself to it in a way that allows me to dip in and out of flow states on projects.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
For my father, it was allowing me to make all my own decisions from a very (and potentially too) young age. It meant I never learned to play the piano since my 6 year old self threw a tantrum about being pushed towards lessons, but I learned to be decisive and follow my gut which is invaluable. It should also be said that as a test pilot and an Aerospace Engineer, he introduced me to the worlds of space flight and science in general. Growing up around jets, and rocket launches was pretty incredible to say the least. For my mother is was her willingness to allow me to creatively explore and her eagerness to support my pursuit of the arts. In fact she went as far a allowing me to purchase an ingot of pewter as a kid so I could do some backyard metal castings with a blowtorch, a tin can, and some homemade clay molds.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @terramoto.co
- Email: mc@terramoto.co
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mckinleyalansmith/
