The intersection of art and culture has been an area of interest for me throughout my life. In the fifth grade (I was ten!), I wrote a paper about how needlepoint in the colonies evolved in response to the unique conditions faced by the colonists:
During my undergraduate degree at Smith College, I took a course on Japanese Buddhism. I learned a bit about Japanese history, and was exposed to the work of many beautiful poets. The professor also introduced us to cultural practices like tea ceremony and ikebana (Japanese flower arranging).
Later, my Masters’ thesis explored the role and evolution of traditional ikat weaving in Balinese culture.
Following a trip to mainland China, I also studied a bit of Chinese calligraphy as part of an independent study. Although I was truly terrible at it, the experience deepened my appreciation of the form, it’s history, and it’s cultural complexity.
Today, most of my interest in creativity occurs when I’m trying to determine the most impactful slides for a speaking engagement. But given how long this topic has been of interest to me, I imagine it will come around again. In the meantime, I use my understanding of culture and human behavior to create optimal conditions for the teams that work under my direction.
“Natalie promotes collaboration and innovation while allowing everyone to be autonomous by always encouraging us to try new things, or think about things in new ways. This is the foundation needed to achieve new and better things, promote critical evaluation to improve, and learn from things that don’t always go as planned, and Natalie has never shot down a new idea! This kind of environment is paramount to a creative team, and keeps everyone highly engaged and excited about the possibilities of UX at ZS.”
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