DAY FIFTY

Do you fly solo or with others? 
 
I have always thought of crafts, making and creativity as largely a solo thing, activities pursued by indviduals. That is the popular image I would say, whether it's the tortured genius, the artist starving in a garrett, or the contemplative master it is always an individual. Going one step further, even when an artist in question is a member of a group, it tends to be a group which they are rebelling against, trying to step away from, transcending its boundaries and restrictions. 
 
Perhaps I'm being overly influenced by literary and cinematic traditions which, after all, are in the business of storytelling with one of the most popular story archetypes being that of the singular hero/heroine facing hostility, setbacks and overcoming challenges.

This is rather at odds with the reality and the history. A book I'm reading at the moment vividly describes the situation of the very first 'artists', we're talking people who drew animals with burnt sticks on cave walls and moulded reliefs of bison from clay which they stuck to rocks. The archeological evidence suggests these were group activities, or at least not the work of individuals.

The actual reason I've been thinking about this question is, however, that I am looking for some arts and crafts based groups to join. I am not a groupie by nature. I'm practically a hermit and as I've written before making commitments is not my strong suit, so it is quite an endeavour for me to even consider working with others, however informally. Add to that the fact that the town where I live is generally thought of as a working class/blue collar cultural desert and I wasn't really expecting to find much to spark my interest.

Couldn't be more wrong. It really is a case of scratching the surface and finding a wholly unimagined world beneath. Far from being a difficult search I am now spoilt for choice and am looking forward to making my mind up over the Christmas period. If I wanted I could just about fill every day with one or more lesson, class or workshop. At the moment I'm leaning towards facing the demon I wrote about here, my negative self-belief in the matter of painting and drawing.  And probably the photography group, and maybe some pottery on the side. The knitting group looks fun too.

I suspect these hidden depths exist in most communities, at least those where people are not primarily concerned with survival because of war, displacement, hunger or some other upheaval. Even there I suspect there will be people recording events artistically and creatively. To make, to create, to craft, is something of a fundamental need it seems. Those cavemen didn't have to make marks on the walls after all; they chose to.

Onwards...experimentally.

Picture Credit: Painting Class in Sanur with Noella Roos. Noella Roos, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons


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