Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Reginald Twigg. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Reginald, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Now retired from a career in the tech industry (specializing in AI), I now am working full time as an architect and artist in 1:12 scale miniatures. My specialty is recreating historically accurate museum quality Victorian Era houses and interiors. My work is for museums, the most famous work being the ‘Rose Mansion’ at the Taiwan Museum of Miniatures. My current project in an 1880s San Francisco mansion for a millionaire art collector. My work gets its meaning from its focus on accurate historical reproduction in miniature of authentic period domestic architecture and interiors. I also publish a blog series about the period and its aesthetics.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

After completing my Ph.D. in Communication Theory and Critical Linguistics in the 1990s, I went into the software industry, from which I have recently retired to focus full-time on my artistic interests. Having studied Architecture and Architectural History at University, my passion always has been historical preservation and historical interiors. I have published articles on late nineteenth-century interior design, cultural history and documentary photography. Much of this work is continually applied to the study of the Aesthetic Movement, as captured in essays on my website www.aestheticmovementhouse.com. My obsession with Victorian aesthetics and cultural history informs my work in scale miniatures, as well as in writing about the period.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The creative process is different for every artist, and the artist’s muse is a life partner, and the artist has to be willing to listen to both. For me, the journey had to be independent of making a living. Accordingly, I had a long and lucrative career in an aligned industry whose proceeds I used to finance my creative process. For me, trying to earn a living as an artist forced too many compromises on my creative process and its output. Patrons, commissions, and other art-for-hire always compromises the artistic vision, since you are selling it to the buyer’s vision. Regardless of how much freedom the patron gives, one still is beholden to the whims and vision of the person paying the bills. Accordingly, with my standard of living provided by my own means, I have TOTAL control over the works I create. If I choose to sell them, I’m selling completed works on my own terms. Over the years, friends have suggested that I could make a fine living with my unique art, but that advice fails to understand the struggles artists have to make a living from their art and how it, in my experiences, shackles the creative process. Finding an income source outside of my art kept my creative process and art works fresh and fully independent.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Creativity and art are a life force of indescribable joy. When creating, one feels fully alive and completely absorbed in making something unique. I have marked the important moments in living to creative projects and their outcomes. Seeing documentaries and interviews with famous artists, whether they are rock stars, actors, movie directors, painters or authors, one gets a glimpse into their special relationship with life, their audience and how they shape history through their creative work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aestheticmovementhouse.com; https://www.overlandterminalrailway.blogspot.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reginald.twigg
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/RJTwigg

Image Credits

All images used are taken and are the property of Reginald J. Twigg.