Why I Am a Maker

I haven't let go of those blog hop questions yet...they have stuck to my mind like peanut butter.  And this week I had my last class with my photographer student.  I didn't see her all that much, honestly, because I shared her with another teacher who was her main teacher.  But already the fact that she's no longer a student makes me a little sad.  It's so rare that I have artists as students and it was such a pleasure to be able to discuss with her.  It kindled my making urges.

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And, to place all my cards on the table, I personally value art and art-making more than I do trade.  Commerce is important, to be sure, and of course art and commerce have a special relationship too, but I'm not especially interested in the pecuniary aspects of art, but rather, the creative aspects.

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So anyhow, the confluence of these two events - losing my art students and the blog hop - have kept me thinking about the role of art and creation in my life (in the past, present, and future) and why it's important/essential for me.

For one, I think that making something (from conception to realization) makes me feel more anchored in the world.  Like I'm giving something fundamental and not simply reacting.  I feel more secure and real somehow.  I grant you, this is illusory, but the feeling is important.

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Most of my other interests, reading, traveling, movies, etc. are essentially consumer experiences.  I experience things and I learn things and perhaps - especially with traveling - I influence other people's lives, but nevertheless, I don't feel like I am creating with those experiences.  Of course, books, movies, and travel definitely influence what I make further down the road and so are an important part of the process.  I *do* have another passion in which I think I am fundamentally an actor and not a consumer, and that is dance.  My partner and I create the dance; if we don't move, there is no dance.  But dancing is such an immediate, lived experience that it's hard to share on a blog. And I think I experience it and conceive of it differently than I do my other creations because it is easier to see that it is fundamentally ephemeral...

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Making something (or altering something) seems to create a fundamental shift in the fabric of the universe...putting something there that wasn't there before.  And through this act I feel that my presence has more substance.  I suppose this is sometimes why people have babies...but then again, what do I know?

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So, fundamentally, why do I create anything?  To say that I'm here and that I matter, and to say, this is how I see the world right now, in this space, in this moment.

The photos sprinkled throughout this post are taken from my kitchen window, looking toward the cathedral.  I haven't retouched them in any way, not even cropping.  It's just a view from my kitchen window or an object that I find beautiful.  And, of course, a cat photo-bombed my shoot, for so much the better. ;)  I also placed the photos in the order that I took them...so the earliest in the series is featured first in this blog post.