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Beyond the Ordinary

The world is full of extraordinary. Join me in exploring all that sparks creativity and change.

latest inspiration posts

April’s Inspiration of the Month: Daya Brown

Daya Brown is a name that an increasing number of people are beginning to recognize for her intelligence, dedicated work ethic, and the fact that she was accepted by 54 colleges and received $1.3 million in scholarship offers! Brown is my inspiration for April for all her accomplishments and determination to reach her goals – especially because most of her journey was during unprecedented global uncertainty. As a Freshman at Atlanta, Georgia’s Westlake High School, Brown said she considered becoming a lawyer before being introduced to Westlake Out Loud, a poetry performance group for students. She then realized she wanted to embrace her creativity to empower people and heal the world.

Mickalene Thomas Claims Her Space Within the Frame

There's something really special and different about Mickalene Thomas’s art. An African-American contemporary artist and filmmaker from New Jersey, she studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000, and later received her Master of Fine Arts from the Yale University School of Art in 2002. Mickalene’s work encompasses a range of mediums, including painting, photography, and video installations. She explores issues of identity, representation, and gender, and draws on popular culture and art history. She is best known for her large-scale paintings that feature complex, multi-layered compositions and include bold patterns, bright colors, and glitter.

Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II

This is great storytelling about winning WWII, American ingenuity, innovation, and how many of the great engineering and construction firms grew into the powerhouses they still are today. I wish this book would have been around when I started Clayco. “Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II” is written by author and history connoisseur (with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and five other historical works to his credit) Arthur Herman. This book is insightful in covering the history of the United States’ industrial mobilization for World War II.

March Inspiration of the Month: Lauren Underwood

My inspiration of the month is the really impressive Lauren Underwood. The Illinois Democrat Representative is a registered nurse from Chicago who set out to make a difference in the healthcare system. She’s also the first woman, the first person of color, and the first millennial to represent her community in Congress. “If you focus on the work, you find fulfillment,” she once said. Underwood was born in Naperville, Illinois. Even as a kid, she believed in public service. She was a Girl Scout, a volunteer for community service groups, and always working to help others. As a junior at Neuqua Valley, her first experience with politics was serving on the Naperville Fair Housing Advisory Commission, where she was exposed to injustice and discrimination. Her task was to report these to the Naperville City Council. That was when she began to build her leadership skills.

In Memory of Rafael Viñoly

I am deeply saddened to learn about the passing of one of the great architects and thinkers of our time, the renowned architect Rafael Viñoly. Rafael was an Uruguayan-born architect based in New York. He was born Montevideo, Uruguay in 1944, and his passion for architecture later led him to study at the University of Buenos Aires. He then continued his journey to the United States in 1978, and decided to make New York City his permanent home in 1979.

Deconstruction to Reveal What Lies Beneath with Derrick Adams

A person whose work I truly admire is Derrick Adams, a multidisciplinary New York-based artist. His installations include painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound. Through his art, he looks at how popular culture influences people’s views of themselves. Derrick has an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from Pratt Institute. He is also an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program.

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Cover of the book "Engineering in Plain Sight" by Grady Hillhouse, featuring a colorful illustrated landscape with bridges, tunnels, cranes, roads, and power plants representing various elements of the constructed environment.

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Inspiration

I have always had an insatiable curiosity

What causes me to get out of bed every morning is driven by inspiration. Ever since I was a little boy, I was inspired by my insatiable curiosity, which caused me to be a reader, a thinker, and a dreamer.

I can remember being inspired by seeing Bobby Kennedy on TV and watching videotapes of Martin Luther King Jr., and being deeply saddened by their assassination even though I was only 10 years old when I experienced all of this.

As a little boy, rocket flight was a big thing. I remember being fascinated by the moon and the stars and the astronauts exploring them.As humans we are achieving remarkable things that only a handful of years before were just in the imagination.