Honing a Craft

In this essay we will take a close look at how joy and happiness are natural by-products of fulfilling the creative process — I will let on a little about what I'm crafting on now, discuss the existential art of crafting mentality and talk about why scissors are just, so important.

It is a serendipitous encounter that this Vocal+ challenge by Fiskars should pop up on my Instagram feed. It wasn't but 6 months earlier, in an attempt to live a more purposeful life, I deemed 2021 "Year of Honing my Craft".

Tiny backstory: I graduated college in 2012 with an interdisciplinary B.A. in Studio Art —essentially the closest you can get to a formal education in crafting. My degree was comprised of absolutely no structure so I was free to take any class, any art discipline of my choosing. Foci include, but not limited to: dying fabric & applied textile arts, basic construction techniques, installation sculpture, graphic design, typography/branding, experimental painting, drawing & performance techniques. My days were full of pushing the limits of what was considered "art" and something happened to me when I began to wrap my brain around various creative techniques and processes simultaneously. A new way of thinking emerged: I began to eat, live and breathe creativity as a lifestyle. Fortune favored upon me and I was blessed with a corporate creative job opportunity the moment I graduated that brought along high level career exposure, international travel and immense growth. In 2017 I left the corporate design world to pursue development of my personal career as an artist.

Let’s talk scissors, a true icon of art. Think of holding them in your hand. You just picked them up. You feel the weight of them ever so slightly. The metal is cold from sitting there unused. The orange plastic handles are smooth and your hand slips in just right. Thinking now, you're excited at the potential of the things you can cut, gliding across that perfect piece of paper. When suddenly you hear, "Hi there friend, why are you holding those scissors like you're about to cut something and staring off into the distance like that?"

Scissors are one of the essentials of life like rocks, paper, pens and pencils. It's easy to get caught up day dreaming of the things they can do. Pruning herbs and peppers from the garden to make fresh salsa, clipping the wick on a homemade candle, cutting along the edges of a new drawing whilst framing, splicing through the cellophane of a fresh package of paints, snipping the sleeves and bottom half off of an old favorite t-shirt, trimming my bangs as time passes and hair grows.

What brings me the most joy is a little obscure so let's linger here in the universal concept of general creativity for a moment; a commonality we all, as crafters and artists, share. Have you noticed, yourself or knowing someone who is creative, that it's never just one project? Am I right? You'll see creativity infused into every element of their life from food to clothes to decor to multiple hobbies. This is because there is so much metaphorical meaning in completing a craft from idea to reality, that sheerly making something from nothing translates into an emotional experience for the human psyche. It is cathartic to create. It is empowering. Crafting can even be transformational; think of cutting out your favorite bits from magazines for a vision board or piecing together fabric for a new garment that reflects your unique style.

Existentialism can be crudely summed up as having awareness of the need to feel in harmony with existence. There is such a thing as the paradox of happiness in that you cannot achieve it by seeking out directly. Happiness needs a catalyst by design. Pure joy and happiness are emotions that surface when you have invested sufficient energy in longterm goals. Art and crafting fulfill this paradox and allow for happiness when the creative cycle is completed, success or not, if you allow space for it.

Ok, zoom out! I know the last couple of paragraphs were really big think so I will bring it back down to planet earth and get specific about my current project. I like operate from a fringe space at the intersection of Art, Philosophy and Spirituality. Recently I’ve been cataloging and experimenting with colors and their symbolic, psychological and spiritual meanings regarding emotions and feelings. What?! Let me tell you, it is the most exhilarating work!

A work of art may in some moments be experienced as beautiful and in other moments be experienced as boring or even ugly. Its beauty (that is, its potential to be experienced as beautiful) exists whether or not the work of art is momentarily being appreciated as beautiful by an observer or not. Extraordinarily heartfelt experiences are what is known to be spiritual. The spiritual is found to be mysterious, awesome, urgent, and fascinating—what the German theologian and historian of religion Rudolf Otto called “numinous.” The relation between the spiritual and the numinous is comparable to the relation between a beautiful object and the hypothetical subsequent aesthetic experience of what is to be observed of the object by the observer.

So when I say I’ve been cataloging and experimenting with colors, this looks like: endless research (lots of cutting and pasting), mood boards for each color with collage clippings, custom mixing hues and creating tailor-made labels, experimental projects using colors and specific criteria, painting swatches and piecing together common combinations. I have a dedicated research sketch book that grows to look like a scrapbook more and more everyday. In broader terms, I am a mystic artist and my practice includes aura/energy portraits, making custom vision candles and reading tarot from a customized deck. What truly brings me happiness is research and expanding my skills/knowledge and this is why I chose my current deep dive project into all things color as the craft that brings me the most joy.

I want to share a little about how I look at the creative process and break it down into basic steps from an integrated lifestyle perspective. I’ve built into the mental construct of the creative process as a cycle; because if completed to the end, will provide an ideal context to start again at the beginning with a new idea. Creative cycle steps: 1. divine/sacred interception of an idea; 2. energetic investment and opportunity are both required to work in tandem with one another in order to begin manifesting said idea; 3. trust and faith are required both: in yourself and in the divinity/sacredness of said idea —only through trust and faith can you surrender to the process of applying your skills into action and enjoy the process until it is completed 4. By fulfilling the original idea to the point of reality, you build into the ideas: a. You are capable; b. Building trust in yourself; c. A physical act of self love. All of this makes way for joy and happiness by simply doing what you set out to do.

This is why, when you get it —you get it— and you choose to live in this self-fulfilling joyous mode with every opportunity because, why not?! For a long time I was overwhelmed in this space, spinning my wheels and chasing every new idea. At the point of writing this, I have been working towards finding and expressing my artistic voice more directly and with career seriousness for around 5 years now. Just like the creative process, my experience has not been linear. There has been drawbacks and distractions as well as intense periods of growth and an outpour of expression.

All this to say that sometimes life doesn’t fit neatly inside a box and I hope you take reading this as a sign to keep going with whatever it is makes you happy. Even if it’s weird or you’re not sure how to even explain it. Keep going. You can do it! If there is one thing I’ve learned, you never know when the universe will conspire in your favor to come across a big money contest where the rules literally say, “everything counts!”.