Remembering Why...

Remembering Why...

First, I would like to congratulate all the 2023 graduates. This year is big for the Parker family, since my youngest daughter, Emma, graduated from High School with a 3.9 GPA. In the Fall she is off to Wyoming to Equine Veterinarian School. I am so proud of her.

To start this newsletter off, you have to know two things about me. One, I started illustrating buildings to help people understand their 2d drawings. While I was in Jr. high-school, my parents had some plans drawn up for their dream home. Everything looked great on paper (2D), but not so much after they built the house. I always loved drawing, I worked for a builder during high-school, so I would render proposed designs for my boss’s projects. I didn’t want others to experience what my parents had to experience.

Second, which will make sense shortly, is I am a huge Elvis fan and have been since grade school. When the internet became a thing, I gained access to so much more material than I had available to me in the school and public libraries. One thing that fascinated me was Graceland, Elvis’s mansion in Memphis, TN. I could visit Graceland as an adult, and it was a childhood dream that I could fulfill several times. Everything but the upstairs. Now, you can see floor plans on the internet of the entire house, and I have been looking at those for 40+ years. I thought I understood the upstairs, but not until today do I understand the space.

There is a YouTuber called The SpyGuy, and he does Elvis videos. Today, he walked us through a home built from those Graceland internet floor plans. If you don’t know, only the mansion’s curator and close family members may go upstairs at Graceland, which is exactly how Elvis left it in 1977. There are very few photos, and with the internet floor plans, you can kind of make things out, or I thought. I now know what the upstairs of Graceland looks like after watching today's YouTube. Looking at floor plans for 40 years, and I understand more today after 1/2 hour of seeing the space in 3D.

I know why I do what I do, but today was a reminder of the importance of what I do. People need to see things in a way that they can understand. You can’t understand a complex shape in 2 dimensions, no matter how long you stare at it. Architectural renderings must match the quality of the motion picture industry standards to be successfull with the new technology, like Apple's Vision Pro. I look forward to what is to come and I want to be on the cutting edge. Let's allow the home owner, or investors to see and get excited about their project, like never before!