Today, TBWITWW and I went to the Renegade Craft Fair. It was an interesting gathering of people and stuff to look at. I think it's telling though, that while we spent a couple hours there, we didn't find anything we wanted to buy. (We did come close to buying an Inigo Montoya baby shirt for Tommy, but it was just a little too expensive. There were some interesting items, and we collected a few business cards of places we thought would be worth another look. Among these were Eight Gang Switch, Loose Leaf Collective, Traveling Rhinos, Campfire, Aisha Celia Designs, Catia Chien, and Avec Mes Mains. Unfortunately, the truly interesting an unique stuff was the exception rather than the rule. Unsurprisingly the crowd seemed to be similar. Every other booth seemed to have the same type of kitchy small buttons, and lots of "outsider art" type graphics. Silk screened drawings similar in quality to what children produce without the innocence that children bring. Many of the people who were attending the event had the same sort of sameness about them. The whole "I'm a rebel, just like all my friends" aspect seemed prevalent. I think it's trendy right now to be part of the "crafting movement". Hopefully a balance will be established between the people who are crafting because it allows them an outlet, and the people doing it because it's trendy. There's good stuff out there, and more and more people are interested, so it's become easier to find supplies, and support.

A subset of this is the people who see digital cameras as bad for photography because they make it too easy to take crap pictures. Therefore, more people are taking, and seeing, huge numbers of crap photos. However, I think people have the ability to learn the difference between what's truly great and what's just good. Now, people who wouldn't have had the resources to have created their art, or the audience to get the art seen, have that ability so more great stuff is accessable now. Eventually, this can only help the overall quality of the art in general. People who, 10 years ago, would have taken a handful of snapshots at family gatherings will now take enough pictures to become curious as to how they can make their photos better. They'll learn about "the rule of thirds" and lighting. The same applies with crafts. People will begin to think more of how things are made, and explore making things themselves. They'll get ideas for layout and composition that they may not have seen before. In the end, we all benefit from art being something for everyone rather than for the elite.

I was reading Chris J. Davis' post "Emptyness" today and it made me want to say something about art in my life.
Chris said, "I see the world through the eyes of the artist again, and dear God it scares me to death. "
That fear is, in my mind, a fantastic thing. It's so hard to know who you are, and even harder to live the life you want in your heart of hearts, but when you find it and go after it, the terror is a fulfillment in itself.
I am not an artist. I am, on my best days, a talented craftsman. I am a tinkerer. I take ideas that exist and try to make them fit into my life, and to be just a bit better when I can. I combine that which already exists and make something new out of it. Occasionally, when I am very, very lucky, my craft crosses the line and becomes art, but it does that of its own merit, not my own. I'm not trying to come off as modest or self-effacing. I'm proud of who I am. I'm proud of the skill that my craft requires. There's a quote I use in my sig file: "A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." (Antoine De Saint-Exupery) The person who can envision that Cathedral and communicate that vision, is an artist. But it is the Craftsmen who actually turn a rock pile into a cathedral.

Try to figure out who you are... artist, craftsman, scientist, laborer, explorer, anything. And then be that person. Even if you have a job that pays the bills, that doesn't have to be who you are. If you have a job you love, and go home from every day feeling proud, you are lucky, because you have found who you are, and have managed to make that your job as well. But if you have a job that is just a job, don't let it become your identity. If you are an accountant, but every day when you get home, you make collages from magazines, then you are not an accountant, you are a collagist. If you are a police officer who writes potetry on your napkins at lunch, you are not a police officer, you are a poet. If you are a painter of portraits, but in your spare time, you tend a plant that grows in your apartment, you are not a painter, but a gardener. You can be who you are, regardless of your job. Be who you are and enjoy it. If you do that, you will probably enjoy the other things in life just a bit more as well. Even your job.

A friend sent me an e-mail with a few pictures of the Picasso in Daley Plaza. The first two were fairly standard shots... the third is the interesting one. Sculpture should be designed to be viewd from all sides, but many times people only really look at the front view. How many pictures of David's backside do you see? Apparently the Picasso included a profile of his wife in the sculpture. See if you can find it.And the next time you're looking at a sculpture, walk around it and see what you can find.