Remembering those who gave their all to provide us with the freedoms we enjoy. Honoring the men and women in uniform of our Armed Forces, at home and abroad, as well as people in Law Enforcement, Fire Fighters and many other courageous souls in the service of our country who maintain our liberty and security at great personal risk and sacrifice. My Heartfelt Thanks to YOU and YOURS. -V-

If you are a full-time artist or craftsman, how do you answer the question - what do you do for a living?

If you're like me and many others, you've been in the trade for several years, worn many hats, before settling on, if not a specific medium, at least a title. I know I can answer that question in one of a about dozen different ways.

Ever try telling someone filling out a form you are a craftsman? Or an artist? Then you get a blank look. So you say, you know a professional crafts person, professional artist. Still, the look. Now, the question - what does that mean? Hmmm... So you are forced to reduce what you do to layman terms. I'm a doll-maker or a wood-worker or a metal-smith or potter or painter. OH. That. OK then. Or worse - they ask or insinuate. Is that a hobby? Meaning what? What I call work, is not really work? I've often wondered how that person is processing the information I've given them. How are they relating to the word artist or craftsman?

In this day and age, in a world that shops for convenience - how do you get respect for what you create? When art comes from rag-tag display of poorly framed prints in the middle of an isle at Walmart? When pottery and metalwork comes from the Dollar Store? When dolls and other textiles, lining the shelves at Hobby Lobby or Michaels are imported from foreign countries? When gift wares at even the largest department stores are labeled Made in China. When imports are billed as handmade and original and OOAK (one-of-a-kind) on ebay?

And, here is the worst of it. How do you compete with imports at a craft fair or any craft market? How do you explain what you do to people whose idea of what you do is determined by their exposure to what should be original and hand made, but most certainly is not? There are few promoters who really jury entrants to craft fairs now. It is disappointing as a craftsman and as a buyer, to wander through booths at local craft fairs only to find mass-produced imports from designers-gone-global filling the booths. With a little capitol, it is remarkable what can be purchased wholesale. With a little skill at merchandising, it is amazing how well imported product can blend into a craft fair atmosphere and be passed off as hand made. Of course, much of it IS hand made. The question is - by whom and perhaps more importantly, where? I used to sell at craft fairs and I worked hard to deliver a product I could be proud to call my own. When I took my original designs to market, I could say 100% Made in America by Americans. When the craft guild I belonged to juried the exhibitors, we were diligent about screening the originality of their creations. Here's a question that perplexes me -- most large craft fairs charge an entry fee. Why would a person pay to purchase imports that can be had at any corner gift shop or big box store?

But I digress. When I am asked, what do you do, which is fairly often - I say that I am a Primitive Artist. That's about as close an approximation as I can give about what I do but is hardly all-inclusive. If pressed, I explain that I mainly design and create from scratch, big, ugly dolls with a vintage look and feel, using a variety of mediums including but not limited to: wood, assorted metals, canvas, clay, paint, wool and other vintage textiles.

Primitive Artist. Primitive Craftsman. Purveyor of Original, Hand-Made in the USA, Gothic-Americana Product. If you need further explanation -- you wouldn't understand. -V-

Funny how you can think to begin a project (this Blog, for instance) and get stumped before you even get started. I created this page and organized how I wanted the entries to look. To get a feel for it, I typed the title of this entry and the date and immediately drew a blank without a clue how to proceed.

Creativity is sometimes like that. I mull a project over in my head or see something that inspires me and I'm off to the studio to get busy. Sometimes I dig right in and other times I spend more time organizing materials and sketching than actually creating. Sometimes I veer completely off course. The starts and stops and traffic jams of the mind don't always merge happily with the creative heart. Do they?

It takes considerable energy to begin a new creation from scratch. Especially one-of-a-kind creations. Sometimes I brainstorm and sketch and get no farther. I file the thought of it away for a rainy day, so-to-speak. Other times I feverishly work at something from start to finish like I'm possessed.

When I began my journey into the world of arts and crafts, I was much more disciplined. In those early days, my creativity was repetitious. Like most crafters, I started by duplicating other people's designs and techniques. That got boring pretty quick, so I started straying from those set designs and implemented different techniques. Eventually, I became confident enough in my abilities to create my own designs. Still, each design was cloned in great numbers. Meaning, I designed one item and immediately reproduced many more, sometimes hundreds of that exact item to sell. Every year I would redesign some of the items and tell myself that I was being creative. Every year, I would add more, similar items to a line and call that creative, too. I had a set time to start the work of the day and an agenda for the day. Shows had to be scheduled. Orders had to be filled. Inventory surplus was a must-do. Customers had to be called. The books were kept in good order. The craft mall booths were well-stocked. I worked seven days a week, sixteen hours a day. Those were my craft show, festival and market years. I remember it well, enjoyed it all, every exhausting, harried minute of it, approximately ten years or so, until... I couldn't make myself do it anymore.

I was much too busy to realize I had ordered and restricted and finally marched my creative child straight into a deep, dark closet and walked away. I didn't clean that closet for several years. Fortunately, a closet is only a small, dark room with a door. All I had to do was open that door and the light took care of the rest.

These days, I'm a little more laid back... I create when I feel like it. I don't place restrictions on myself or my creations. I may make one or twenty of something depending on how much energy I want to put into a design and its variations. It is fun to sell my creations. It is also necessary to sell them, because sooner or later, one simply runs out of room...

One needs to make room in the mind and the heart and the house for new creations... and that brings us full circle to beginnings... It's a good start, I think. -V-