Follow your dreams and do what you like.
You can't create for other people, or what you think other people are going to like. Do what's inside you , if you're happy with it, then people will be
Have you ever seen anything so beautiful and awe-inspiring that it makes you ache? Thats me with art. More specifically, with ancient crafts.
I just finished exploring ever corner of www.parishrelics.com. I am....in awe. This woman from Maine handmakes jewlry that replicates those created from centuries past.... she takes some from Byzantine and Medival and Italian Renaissance paintings, others she fabricates from Greek and other mythology stories. They are...incredible. Completely handcrafted, no molds, eath original. They are antiqued, and seem to ooze the past. Glass vestle necklaces, filled with herbs varying from francensence to bloodroot, rose petals, thorns, or parchment with a single word or phrase. Intricate designs. Crowns, real crowns, with precious stones and dangling beads that look like they belong on some medival princess- none of this sparky, clean cut, perfect silvery tiara shit, but real- you can see that there is a person behind each piece, that it was not just punched out of a machine, but that someones time and effort and dedication went into it, that the person had creativity and passion and talent...........you can tell it was made by, as the koala man would say, an afficionado. In our discussion in lit, someone said that there is no way to define who is an afficionado- you just know. With this girl, you see it in her work. You know.
"We know what afficion is, but what does it feel like?" Seltzer asked. I think I have to agree with Sellars on that- its indescribable. But I'm going to try anyway. Those pieces make my mouth water. They make me want to laugh and cry and sing and just stare in wonder all at the same time. I love them, not just for what they are but because of what it took to bring them into being, and because of the person behind their creation. My dream in life is to be like that artist...to create such magnificent and beautiful things-- not for money but because I love it. Not "like" or "enjoy" it, but love it, in that "I need to do this; there is nothing else for me" kind of way. My mom was laughing earlier about someone else who is shocked and appalled that I want to study art...and to me it's so strange. I mean, not doing something related to art and beauty and creating.
I've been thinking about what I want to do in interior design, and I think I know. I want historical preservation, as specialized as possible. I was really unsure at first, which is odd, because historical preservation fits my personality so naturally. I love old things, ancient things, things that have a past; I love history (not in the regurgitate facts sense, but in the sense of seeing the way people saw); I love projects that seem to have a....I don't really know how to put it. "Higher purpose" seems too strong and religion based, which this most certainly is not. Ideally, I'd love to work for people with gobs and gobs of money who are very anal about getting a certain style, feel, etc in their home-- the kind who would pay $2,000 for an antique hand-etched chest of drawers from Tibet. However, I am painfully aware of how rare those kinds of people are. They exist, of course- stores like "The Silk Road" would not exist if that wasn't the case. But that doesn't make them common, and it doesn't mean that nitch is easy to get into.
You never know, though. Actually....I just thought of something. When I am in Philly, I am going to apply for a job at The Silk Road. I'll drop in a few times this spring/summer, when its warmer, but somehow I think Donna, the owner who I talked with a few times, willl remember me. Its located in a corner of the Marketstreet Design Building, which is essentially a mall for interior designers. Most of the stores are for designers only (they have obnoxious signs and dissaprove of normal people being there) and so there is little traffic in there, even from adults, let alone from teenagers. But the Silk Road isn't, and so I explored...and was in awe. Donna noticed, and we got into a wonderful conversation about her products and how rare they are and so on....(does the fact that I remember the womans name after 6 months when I only met her twice say something?). Lol. Who knows? Maybe that will offer me a way in.
I love things like that. One of my favorite places on earth are in the obscure rooms of the Philadelphia museum of art, with its reacreations of different places. There is this one room, an asian temple or something.... the ceiling is a huge sculpture with a dragon in the center, and buildings surrounding it. It's incredible. Who knows, maybe someday I'll get a chance to do a truly magnificent room like that for a museum or something of the sort. ::sigh:: but not today. And so, I've babbled enough. Good night.
'It just makes you feel alive...it makes you see the beauty in the world. It makes your live worth living."