Geo's Right Shoe

I'm painting a pair of shoes for my friend Geo. The design is from the logo for Tam Makers, an organization Geo co-founded with the designer of the logo, Fabrice Florin. The color scheme is mine. Geo taught me how to make things from wood with power tools and hand tools. Importantly, he also taught me what I guess you could call "the engineering mindset." Just as some people (who were probably shut down when very young) don't think they have artistic talent, I never thought of myself as having engineering talent. The genius of Geo's class is that it was called "You can make it." He was (since retired) the shop teacher (and much more) at the local high school, which had a very well-equipped shop. People who took this after-hours class would come in with an idea for something to be made from wood. Geo would work with us, one at a time, for coming up with a sketch and a plan. He taught us how to think about making ideas come to life, which I think you could consider to be a form of engineering. 

This reminds me of a phrase "making is a stance toward learning," that I picked up from Sylvia Libow Martinez, who I interviewed. I used it in an article about what I was learning about learning while I began to learn coding and electronics: 

The tyranny of correct answers masks a vital and essential element of learning — the practice of debugging. When you make something, however, especially something that involves code and/or electronic or mechanical components, it is to be expected that your project will not work the first time you turn it on. Coding and making involves a great deal of systematic problem-solving to find and eliminate bugs.