For the past year I’ve focused firmly on creating jewelry. I wanted to use environmentally friendly materials and create unusual objects that you wouldn’t typically find in a department store. I spent a lot of energy defining my work as art and learning about the field of art jewelry. But deep inside, I felt a pull to create other things that perhaps were not art, maybe they were craft or design or something in between.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about painting again. I’ve been in my studio, circling my brushes and paints, thinking about the rough feel of the canvas, and the creamy, nutty-wet smell of oil paints. But last week I went to a local art walk, and it occurred to me that I don’t have anything that I want to particularly say through painting. It also occurred to me that I’ve been longing to create beautiful things for the home: decorative art.
What does this all mean? While I ponder this, I finally watched Hilary Swank’s P.S. I Love You. It’s a charming, bittersweet New York romantic comedy. One line in the movie resonated with me particularly. It’s where Swank’s character, Holly, says to her future husband, Gerry, “my business is to create”. The idea is that you become extraordinary by creating something new and unique. The challenge is to find whatever makes you uniquely you. All I know is for the longest time all I’ve wanted to do is make embellish thrift store finds (dressers, bowls, lamps, trays, etc.) and make them beautiful.
In the field of fine art, we often speak of audience, that particular group of people who find resonance and meaning in the work the artist produces. All art has an audience, and so it is with every created thing. The challenge is to be brave enough to create the wild and wonderful things your heart calls you to make–even when you feel no one will understand it or even like it. Like they said in the movies, “build it and they will come”.
So today, I feel a little more sure even though I am standing firmly at the intersection of art, design, and craft about to take a step into uncharted territory. I have things to make, and I no longer care if I’m called an artist, a craftsperson or a designer. I have things to create, an audience that’s waiting for me.
