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That strong will to do something that overtakes you to the point that you get lost in the doing. And it was the first time I experienced what I would later define as passion. But what they made happen was beautiful to me.
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Likely because toilet paper tubes and duct tape are not particularly beautiful. I didn’t consider myself an artist back then. It wasn’t a word that ever came up in reference to me. Equally, I’ve never lost the need to create something out of whatever is sitting in front of me. I’ve never lost this fascination with perpetual motion and things that spin. Shooting and rolling down chutes and jumping tracks to land safely at the bottom of whatever weird thing I built to make it happen. It always felt more magical to me seeing what a tiny little orb of glass could do. Cars always seemed too advantaged with their four wheels to propel them. While other kids were playing with race car tracks, I was content with my little marble. I’ve never seen it, but I’m sure I would be mesmerized for hours. Today, the beautiful solutions many serious enthusiasts create are called kinetic art. The tallest rolling ball sculpture in the world is said to be Energy Machine, located in the Hong Kong Science Museum, which measures 22 meters tall (72 ft). Though people are making rather elegant sculptures, little Charlie would make them out of bizarre mix of duct tape, Lincoln Logs, old board game pieces, and empty toliet paper rolls. It was the elaborate contraptions I used to build out of anything I could find so I could watch the marble spin, roll, and whoosh its way through gutters, holes and tunnels. This type of rolling ball sculpture is also referring to as a marble run, or the even cooler name of gravitram. I know this sounds weird, but it wasn’t just the marble. But thinking back, I just kept remembering how a single marble used to provide me with hours of entertainment. Choosing a favorite childhood toy was incredibly difficult, since I absolutely loved all my toys as a kid and still love the ones I’ve acquired as an adult.