I have often wondered why we do what we do, this is obviously a small part of a bigger question.
Most people in this country have thousands of different careers that they could chose from. i am single and childless with no responsabilities and i have not been born into a spoon carving dynasty with the expectation that i carry on the good spooner family name. So why do i chose to make spoons, well it should be obvious why spoons, so i'll focus on why "Make".
Creating something is a very satisfying thing, and when you focus your efforts onto one type of thing you gain much understanding, the way you think about and feel about your creations becomes deeper. For me there is the challenge and there is the outcome. i enjoy the challenge and i think this is in part simply because of the need to do something, there is a sense of progress as i become more proficient at manifesting the spoons i dream of making.
Then there is the outcome some spoons i love because they are beautiful. and not just aesthetically their beauty is in their functionality or their simple lines or something special that only i know about them such as where the wood came from and the circumstances of the wood retreival, or what was going through my mind at the time of making. Sometimes the spoons are ugly and i love them because they are so. sometimes i will stare for hours at a spoon wondering about it's existence. Using a spoon to cook or to eat, when i see someone eating a meal with one of my spoons i am filled with joy and what can be better than serving someone food with a spoon you have made for them. There are times when i have produced things i have been so proud of i have cried (how embarassing!).
When it comes down to it i aim to make something that has pure ideals, a spoon that functions beautifully and has clean efficient lines too simple to hide any lies, ordinary in every way but special beyond measure.
And when you hold something like that, something precious to you and someone takes that away and you realise that precious thing you thought existed no longer does. when something becomes nothing, and that space in your heart that it had filled is now just empty.
If i'm being honest it's that empty feeling that drives me on to keep making, it's the only reliable way i can fill the void.
so why do you make things?
This has to be one of my favorite blog entries you have done...
ReplyDeleteWhy do I make things... for me it provides an escape... when I am making things my brain shuts off.. I just do... and it fills me with something.
Its hard to explain to people who do not make things, spoons, boxes, artwork and the like..
its just the joy of being... you are so focused on the one thing all your worries and troubles of the day just disappear and you relax or go into the zone... and the next time you look up its suddenly 5 hours later..
Making things does not always seem to work out.. sometimes it fails in a big way.. but that too as frustrating as it can be relaxes me..
Why do I make things... its not for profit or acolation (though I do like being told that people like my work or thats neat!) its strictly for me and my pleasure. That is why I make things...
Chris
I work in an environment where nothing really gets created. Well nothing that you can hold in your hands. It is all pretend, manipulating lines of computer code to get an intended result. Moving lines and boxes around to push phone calls from one call center to another. At the end of the day I am still filled with nothing. I feel the accomplishment of a job well done, but there is nothing tangible that I can point to and say "I made that!"
ReplyDeleteSo I carve a few spoons here and there and I hold them in my hand and I touch them. I use them to stir my soup and to eat my oatmeal in the morning for breakfast and to give away as a gift to friends. And it fills me up inside in a way that my real work never can. It gives me the something that I need to really feel like I have accomplished something.
I'm not in it for money, nor accolades, I make things because they make me happy inside.
Great blog post.
ReplyDeleteI keep telling you Barn, when you get one you feel like that about it is a keeper! You must find a place to keep and archive, maybe it is only one every few months that does it for you to that degree, 6 spoons a year, you really should put a few aside so you know where you have been when you look back. Not only that but at times when inspiration is hard to come by you can rifle through your best old faves and pull out some ideas. If you must sell it then at least double the price then when it goes you are left with a feeling of joy in that it went to a customer who valued it equally highly and chose to pay twice the price of all the other good spoons, these special ones need to go to special homes.
don't worry Rob, i took your advice last year and now my parents have around 20 spoons some from 10 years ago some from 18 months ago and some recent ones, i gave my 3 favourites to my family for christmas so i know where they are if i need them. i have at times kept spoons for a while when they weren't good enough to sell but held some 3d information i hadn't quite got to grips with yet, i tidied some of these up the other day and sold them happy that i now held the information in my mind and didn't need the actual spoon anymore.
ReplyDeleteBut i guess i wasn't really talking about people taking away my spoons which i can remake or at least replace with a similar. but the other things in life that are precious and beautiful, whether it's a feeling or an idea or whatever and someone or something takes that away and you realise that precious thing you thought existed no longer does and that space in your heart that it had filled is now just empty.
for me the experience of making spoons is the exact opposite to the feeling of loss, and i am more than happy for people to take them away, i just wish they didn't sometimes take the other things away.