Woke up this morning, debated getting out of bed.* Wife woke up and left the house for special activities on her day off. Got out of bed, ate breakfast after showering, checked email and fell into an old habit - reviewing general news sites (al.com, knoxnews.com, independent.ie, yahoo.com and google.com). Nothing new in the world - poverty, pestilence, rampant disease, political turmoil. Reassuring, nonetheless and all the same. Played with cats, delivered card table and one Pink Panther slipper to my wife for her to use with her business partner at their exhibit in the spring NEACA craft show where they sell handmade cards, journals and scrapbooks.
[*Ode to Beatles' "A Day In The Life"]
Need to work on lesson plan for tomorrow's class and write blog entry for today. No theme yet. Perhaps examination of the craft show business:
- What is your hobby?
- How do you express your creative side?
A friend who used to own a Japanese restaurant (in which my wife and I were part owners, now since defunct), Robert, commented that we should only eat food that we recognize its original shape.
What about the rest of life? What do we consume without knowing its original shape? Do we realize what original ingredients go into plastic bottles and understand the benefits/risks of post-processed results like bisphenol A? I grew up in a town where the main employer, Eastman Chemical Company, still prides itself on analyzing organic polymer chains, developing new polymer compounds and selling megatons of packaged polymer bits to companies that melt, mix and shape polymer goop into various products, including plastic bottles, carpeting, dyes and other items not found in nature.
In high school one year, I was a member of JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society), mainly because most of my fellow Boy Scouts were sons of Eastman employees. Thus, we would take monthly tours of local businesses, with Eastman garnering a large number of the monthy* visits. The engineers and scientists who conducted the tours would talk with joy about their work, some of them even showing off the chemical burns and permanent dye stains on their bodies. "The price of pure scientific discovery!" one of them proclaimed to us when we asked if it hurt.
[*a twisty ode to Monty Python and "The Full Monty"]
As I sit here in a portable metal-and-plastic folding chair, observing the vendors and customers at the craft show, I see a hand-painted wooden sign on the other side of the aisle. "Don't wait for the storm to pass / Learn to dance in the rain!" Hmm...would that include acid rain? lol
The craft show crowd is abnormal this year, coinciding with spring break (that is, many primary/secondary school students have at least one week of free time away from in-school studies). Still, the majority of casual shoppers include retired adults and young mothers with babies. Earlier, one special contingent of Japanese mothers and their children passed through, saying they were returning soon to Japan after their educational exposure to the American craft business.
I can't imagine this is a full livelihood for anyone, but at least a way to make spending money and travel the country for some. An RV cottage industry, so to speak.
Which reminds me, are there active Travelers in this part of the country? I haven't heard about them in the news lately but I know they're out there. If Travelers are a distinct subculture (with many subgroups distinguishing each other as pure or impure Travelers), when would a craft show seller qualify as a Traveler?
What is the difference between craft and art? Some differences are obvious. Some are not. Repetitive piecework most definitely is craftwork, but some crafters produce art, unique works that exist outside contemporary, zeitgeist moments.
I like to look at insightful work, 3D pieces that speak of timelessness, point out human frailty and offer thought-based remedies for our woes without falling into superficial sentimentality.
What is art? Well, if you have a place in your part of the world where the random ravages of nature have mixed and shaped the ecosystem, you'll see art. The redbud tree blooming outside my window is art. Three hundred windows piled end-to-end through which I could see the world is art. Art is life, no matter whether what you see was shaped by one human, a group of humans or no human at all. Art is what you get when you learn something about yourself you didn't know you had or could do. Computer programmers discover art in their algorithms. Scientists see art in long polymer chains. Repetitive craftwork becomes art when your repetition turns into a mantra that leads to a deeper self awareness. Art is not restricted to museums, galleries, architecture or religious structures.
Art is understanding, plain and simple.
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