spark / grind

The idea for this book cover came from an exploration of dichotomies. I considered what Erik Wahl was saying about creative genius and how it interacts with the world, and found myself drawing up symbols for protagonists and antagonists, dreams with a foil. I came back to the elemental dichotomy of fire and water—fire, a literal spark, and water, the foil of fire. To depict the potential energy being described in The Spark & The Grind, I photographed the very moment fire hits water. It represents the same choice each of us have in our relationship with creativity: will we feed it, or extinguish it? What will we do when a sudden downpour comes our way?