Beautiful Work Spotlight

All of us are capable of beautiful work. Often, the process to creating beautiful work looks like...well, work! We brainstorm, we prototype, we draft. We make ourselves vulnerable by sharing unfinished work. We listen to high quality feedback from our friends and colleagues. We look at our work from different perspectives and angles (sometimes literally!). We nurture the work forward. We make changes. Sometimes the process is long and tedious. Sometimes we throw it all away and start from scratch, inspired by some vision that came to us at 3:00am as we lay awake in bed. And very occasionally, some of us will draw on a natural talent and whip out a work of true art in a half in hour and when people see it they will think it took years. But those times are lucky and rare.

Regardless of how we get there, when we look at our work and know it is beautiful, we swell with pride. Looking back through the years, we can't help but tear up with joy and excitement at some of the beautiful work from Avanti students. You know how Robert Pirsig talks about the metaphysics of quality? Sometimes we just know when a piece of art, music, writing, or even mathematics or scientific study is of high quality. Though it can be hard to describe or quantify each part of what makes this so, and arguably our own world view and environment shapes this understand, we are still left with a sense of unshakable awe. We wanted to highlight this sort of work, the work that leaves you speechless, the most inspired pieces of our students...in a sort of 'spotlight.' This isn't to say that these students are the 'best of the best' or rank higher than others, but rather this work represents what we are all, each of us, capable of when inspiration hits or we take the time to be diligent and do our best. Enjoy.