Saturday, June 18, 2011

Is Artist or Crafter a real job?

     Not everyone has the creative gene.  Those of us who are gifted by creativity know that I'm talking about.  They see creativity as a process, as ability.  Creativity leads to your output of an art or craft creation.
     This missing gene seems to cause a blockage in most other people.  They end up, seeing creativity as something they don't understand.  Why worry about it's existence.  This idea usually is accompanied by the feeling that creative output such as arts and crafts are a waste of time.  They see this creation process and end products as a hobby, not a real job.
     An example of this is when asked what I do for a living, my reply of Artist is met with confusion.  This usually followed up with the question of what is my "real" job.
     Get real people!!!  From the dawn of time, Artisans have been creating items like the clothes you wear or the jewelry you adorn your body with.  If you think that this is so easy as to not be considered a job then I give you this challenge:
Want a sweater?  Go out and catch yourself a smelly, dirty sheep.  Sheer the sheep, wash the wool, dye it, card it, spin it into yarn, and then knit your sweater.  Now if you're lucky, you got all the grease and grass out of the wool while washing.  If you're lucky you didn't over wash your wool causing a huge clump of felted mess.  If you're lucky you didn't over cook the wool in the dyeing process, also causing a felted mess.  If you're lucky someone taught you how to card, spin and knit your wool  Now after hours that you've put into this hopefully finished and wearable sweater, tell me it wasn't work, or a job.  Someone is making a living at this, because they enjoy it, just so you can wear that pretty cabled knit pullover you saw in that boutique window. 
     Please think of all the hours of work involved before you off-handed sneer at their "creative" job.  Do a little research and find out what went into that sweater you bought. You may be surprised.

1 comment:

steufel said...

Cool post! You totally nailed it. That is what I'm always thinking.