From the course: Matthew Hoffman: How a Kind Word Can Make the World Better

Curiosity and tinkering can lead to a career

From the course: Matthew Hoffman: How a Kind Word Can Make the World Better

Curiosity and tinkering can lead to a career

- [Announcer] This is an audio course. Thank you for listening. - [Instructor 1] What were you like as a kid? Were you an artist, were you creative? Like what sort of things, go as far back as you want. Where do you first remember creating something? - [Instructor 2] Yeah, I think I was always a tinker. You know, I was just always like taking apart radios and like when a car broke, I never got, I never figured out how to fix them. I just took 'em apart once they were broken. - [Instructor 1] Yeah. - [Instructor 2] And then try to find someone to help me get it all back together. But I was always interested in how things worked and how things kind of came together. And then at one point there was a little workshop in the corner of, like a little work bench in the corner of our garage. - [Instructor 1] Okay. - [Instructor 2] And so I started just like playing around on it and messing around on it. And my dad thought I might scratch the cars and so he suggested to look at the basement. And at that time we lived in this 150 year old farmhouse. - [Instructor 1] Oh wow. - [Instructor 2] And so the basement was mainly a cellar. Some of the floors were dirt. The walls were made of stones with cement mud - [Instructor 1] Yeah. - [Instructor 2] And stuff stuck into it. - [Instructor 1] It's kind of a cool creative place for, I mean how old were you - [Instructor 2] Yeah. - [[Instructor 1] At the time? - [Instructor 2] This would've been like, well, this I'm kind of jumping before. This is like seventh grade. - [Instructor 1] Okay. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. - [Instructor 1] Now, did you think it was cool or did you think it was like dungeony? - [Instructor 2] I thought it was a little of both. And it was a sign that like our family dog would stay, he would not go down there. - [Instructor 1] Okay. - [Instructor 2] He stood at the top of the stairs and just wanted to you know and - [Instructor 1] Okay. - [Instructor 2] But my sister wouldn't go down there. So it was sort of like my like getaway and so we would go to old tool auctions 'cause there were a lot, 'cause we lived in rural Indiana at the time. And so there were all these sort of like, you know it was basically older people would die and they would auction off all their equipment in life. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. - [Instructor 2] And so we would go and get the dollar buckets of the residual tools that were just left over - [Instructor 1] Because you paid a dollar and then whatever you got in there, you got in there, right? Yeah, it's kind of exciting. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. No, it was super fun and we found all sorts of old antique stuff that probably if I would've held on to, it might be worth some money. - [Instructor 1] Yeah. - [Instructor 2] But yeah. Then my dad and I would clean 'em all up and I would try to figure out how they were used or what they were used for. And I would just tear apart old radio, like we would get these radios that had the old glass tubes in the back and TVs and things - [Instructor 1] Yeah. - [Instructor 2] And I got shocked by tons of stuff and yeah. - [Instructor 1] Yeah, that's good. You know, it teaches you something right? - [Instructor 2] Yeah (chuckles). - [Instructor 1] What did your dad do? What was his profession when you were during this time? Did he work with his hands or? - [Instructor 2] Not really. What's funny was he he's kind of joked that like somehow it skipped a generation. Like his dad was very hands on and made things and he did. I actually have it. He made a small cedar chest. - [Instructor 1] Okay. - [Instructor 2] But then yeah, it stopped kind of making things with his hands. So I think that gave more to - [Instructor 1] Okay. - [Instructor 2] Like he kind of just passed everything on to me. So all his tools. - [Instructor 1] Okay. - [Instructor 2] He had given to me but he wanted to make sure that he didn't lose track of em. So he painted a white D on all of them - [Instructor 1] For dad or (indistinct) - [Instructor 2] Well or Dwayne. - [Instructor 1] Dwayne, okay. - [Instructor 2] And so I'll still find a tool or something here or there that has a white D and I'll send it to him when I see him. - [Instructor 1] Now but it sounded like he encouraged you, see? Yeah. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. So, I mean, it was just it was always exploration, always tinkering, always just kind of like creating. And at that time too, all the trade school classes were still in schools. - [Instructor 1] Yeah. - [Instructor 2] You know so middle school and high school, I took wood shop and metal smithing. - [Instructor 1] That's the best. - [Instructor 2] Yeah and so I learned a lot and then it wasn't until I think my last year in high school. I had to take an arts class in order to get my honors diploma and my mom made it very clear that I would be taking an arts class. - [Instructor 1] And that you're going to be getting your honors diploma, yeah. - [Instructor 2] Yeah, exactly So I took this class in graphic arts and it, we had block scheduling so it was like four classes a day. So it was the last period of every day. So it was a double class and learned how to use a camera, learned how to develop film, learned how to make prints in a dark room, learned how to airbrush. And then they had these crazy things, these teal G three towers. - [Instructor 1] Wow. - [Instructor 2] And I never really touched a computer before and it, yeah. I mean that class basically exploded my mind and everything else - [Instructor] Wow. - [Instructor 2] Since then is history. - [Instructor 1] Can you remember the first time that you kind of fired up a computer and did something on it? Like, do you remember how you felt? - [Instructor 2] You know it was really interesting but also really foreign and I mean, so it was my first time using Photoshop and free hand if you remember (laughs). - [Instructor 1] All this free hand, yes. I love free hand actually. I thought it was great. - [Instructor 2] Yeah so, but it just took forever to do things because I didn't know how to do it and also then the programs had less capabilities. - [Instructor 1] Right and the machines couldn't keep up with what you wanted to do with stuff. - [Instructor 2] Yeah so, but it was really cool and I, the first or the big project that I did was I made a, I designed and made a book of all the art pieces that I had made that year. - [Instructor 1] Of course you did. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. - [Instructor 1] And that makes so much sense in hindsight, yeah. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. So it was incredible that you could just do that and we printed it out and used a heat press and made this little hardbound book. - [Instructor 1] That's super exciting. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. - [Instructor 1] Do you still have it? - [Instructor 2] I do, it's embarrassing. No, I mean it's beyond embarrassing. - [Instructor 1] No, but it's cool to look at. I think I still have work I did in high school that I thought was awesome. And then even my first college portfolio. - [Instructor 2] Yeah. - [Instructor 1] It's embarrassing. - [Instructor 2] Right. - [Instructor 1] But I was so proud of it at the time. - [Instructor] Right, yeah. - [Instructor 2] I thought that I hit to pinnacle. - [Instructor 2] Yeah exactly, yeah.

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