I suppose this comes under the category of "lofty thoughts," i.e., thoughts that have no other purpose than to be thought about. I think in general, humans are creative entities, and that their creativity takes many forms. In contemplating my own relationship with creativity, I find two questions worth exploring:
- Why do I create?
- How do I create?
The question of "why" is the one I've been mulling over. To give the question context, I'm thinking of creativity as a pastime, as opposed to gainful employment (which would be a motive unto itself). Pastimes cover a broad spectrum of activities including arts and crafts (drawing, painting, knitting, woodworking, weaving, etc.), entertainments (movies, videos, television programming, spectator sports, etc.), mental activities (books, puzzles, etc.) physical activities (walking, hiking, participating in sports activities, etc.), hobbies (collecting, small scales building such as doll houses or model railroads). I choose working with my hands to create yarns and textiles.
But why?
Concepts that come to mind (nothing that follows is in any particular order):
- inspiration
- curiosity
- intellectual stimulation
- satisfaction
- distraction
- fun
Reasons that come to mind:
- to be creative
- to beautify
- to work with my hands
- to leave my mark
- to not be idle
- to be constructive with my time
- to feel productive with my time
- to influence my home environment, i.e., to create a welcoming, pleasing atmosphere
- to exercise my mind
- to be thrifty
- to not have to buy everything
- to not be dependent on consumerism
- to have unique items
- to have well made quality items
- to not have cheaply made copies of what everyone else has
- to follow my own preferences rather than the latest consumer trend
- to challenge myself to learn new skills and improve upon them
- to help preserve historic knowledge and skills that are gradually being lost
- to reduce my carbon footprint by using environmentally responsible materials and techniques
- it's who I am
I'm sure more will come to mind and I'll add them as they do. I also want to note that there is no reason to rank or weight any of these; it's their sum total that attempt to answer the question of "why?"
Do you consider yourself a creative person? If so, why do you create? Is it important to you? What motivates you? I'm interested to know.
© Sep 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal
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8 comments:
Leigh, I hardly consider myself "creative" in that sense, but I do enjoy creating.
Why? Perhaps the biggest thing is that it simply allows me to work with my hands and mind (and body upon occasion) in a way that my regular job does not. In some cases I create things that I use (mostly food), in a few cases things I can gift to others, and in others simply things to read (and hopefully enjoy and provoke thoughts).
The important thing -and you touch on it - is the idea of creating not specifically for money or profit. There is nothing wrong with that of course, but if the measure of something worth doing is simply "I can make money from it", most people would not do it. Which is a shame, because creating a thing is in some form or fashion leaving a mark on the world.
Our knowledge of ancient cultures is built on the things they left behind: pottery, metalwork, buildings, textiles, written works, even art. Without them going the "extra mile" of making something worth saving and using, we would know so much less about them.
In one sense the modern world is a creator's dream, with all of the access we have to almost anything we want to do or use. On the other hand it often seems to push such activities to the side (or completely over the edge) because it does not generate revenue or serve some larger social purpose. Which is a shame, really: the creators of old created for utility and for craftsmanship and for beauty, and we are the richer for it.
TB, excellent points.
In his books on Americana, Eric Sloane echos your points about craftsmen of old and the pride they took in the quality and beauty of their work. Sadly, we've lost that.
Somewhere along the way, making money replaced a sense of making a contribution to society, or one's home and family, or to creation. Almost everything is judged now by its monetary worth. I applaud artists and artisans who can make even part of their living with their hands, but its a shame that our human worth is judged by whether or not we're making money for what we do.
What might future archaeologists find when they excavate the remains of our society? Rusty electronic parts and bits of broken plastic? It would be a sad cultural legacy if that turns out to be the case.
I largely blame the Industrial Revolution (For once, the blame is merited). It reduced labor to particular steps and outputs, and valued that output over the knowledge of the entire process. People got used to the speed of goods and the relative lower cost.
Although I suppose I cannot fully blame people. It is nice when I can support a small artisan or business, but by doing so I am also inherently paying a higher cost (which goes directly to them, of course). In that sense, it is almost a luxury to be able to do so, or I am simply trimming back in some other area to make that purchase.
That said, I do value craftsmanship and durability a lot more than I used to.
And yes, future archaeologists may very well have little to comment on (and that not good) based on what we are leaving as artifacts.
TB, I agree with you. Mass manufacturing certainly made more goods available to people, but it changed the way we look at and value those goods. Years ago I had some handspun, handknit wool caps for sale and had several people dismiss them and their price because they "could get that at Walmart." Actually, they couldn't. They could only find cheaply made caps of synthetic yarn. But they didn't see the difference.
Artisans truly face a conundrum when it comes to pricing their work. Part of the problem is that the creating community is also seen as a marketing demographic and there is no wholesale option. Supplies and materials are exorbitantly high. Then, how does one price their time and expertise? Minimum wage? More? If it takes me 40 hours to create something, plus my materials cost, plus vendor costs, sheesh. It will be out of most peoples' price range.
I've read a lot of interesting discussions based on the question, "can I make a living at weaving?" (or craft of choice). The answer usually boils down to the definition of making a living.
I agree with most of your reasons, and I like TB's making special things to give to friends. Although one must have friends who appreciate handmade things; I have those friends, many of them makers themselves, but non-Ben family members, not so much.
At the top of my list, (not that ranking is important, but the first one that comes to mind,) is I love problem-solving, - I suspect you do, too? - and once I learned the basics of weaving, I've enjoyed where technique meets aesthetics.
Again, TB's point: "In one sense the modern world is a creator's dream, with all of the access we have to almost anything we want to do or use." I could not agree more, living in a tiny place at the bottom of the planet.
Re. money and making, I tried, not to make a living, but to earn enough to buy material, but it didn't work. One of the big problems for me as a maker was I sometime diluted my making experience so I can make things to sell quickly. It made me so unhappy. I still have stuff in the local gallery, but I hope to never focus on "quick/easy" aspect of making and just do what pleases me.
What I do wonder, though, is... do folks really need more scarves? That sometimes stops me from weaving.
Meg, problem solving - absolutely a reason! I love your phrase, "where technique meets aesthetics." Working toward that is a motivating goal.
I had the same experience about trying to make money at it. It was just more work and stress in the end than I wanted. And it made a chore out of something I enjoyed.
I have to confess that I have trouble using the word "makers." It always reminds me of the spice worms in Dune, lol.
Goodness, I don't remember "Dune" very well - I've only seen a very old film/tv show version. But I like "makers" because it doesn't separate "artists" and "craftspersons/artisans/those-second-class-folks".
Meg, those are excellent points for using the term. I just always think of those spice worms! lol
If you like to read fantasy fiction books, Dune is one of the best. I've seen most of the movie versions, but none of them do the story justice. They seem to be geared toward people who've read the book and already have an idea of what's going on. My husband never read it, and was completely lost in terms of characters and the nuances of the plot. Book is definitely better.
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