primalmommy on fri 9 aug 02
Cindi Anderson wrote:
>You mean, "the ideal job" for YOU, I hope? I know many people who want
>nothing to do with creativity.
Speaking just for me, the ideal job would be one that allowed me
creative growth, balanced all my priorities/responsibilities and harmed
nobody. The Buddhist idea of "right livelihood" is one I value. And I
certainly know happy, driven, wealthy, successful people (and bitter,
unfulfilled starving artists) but I am one who believes that we ALL are
born creative... some express it in their lawyering, or administrating,
or stock trading, or homemaking, or whatever. But too many discard
creativity as unproductive and inconsequential (or have it pounded out
of them) and as a result are working without all the tools required to
build the life they might have had -- in a studio or a boardroom.
I am taking a second trip through "the Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron,
this time in the cyber-company of new potter friends from a recent
workshop. It is a nice companion piece for "Art and Fear" and reminds me
that, like the "corporate types are shallow and miserable" myth, there
is also a widely accepted myth that art and financial success must alway
be at odds.. that true artists must either starve or "sell out"
commercially. I know several successful artists making a handsome living
who have not compromised a bit. Some are clayarters, others non-potters.
Anyway, figuring out the ideal job "for me" is easy... if it was only
about me. What's trickier territory is figuring out the ideal job for
the planet, for humanity, for communities, for families, for those kids
who -- unfortunately, as you say -- may be born to people who find them
inconvenient.
We all have our own answers to those broader issues. Mine no doubt
reflect a bias of farm background -- families working together -- at
home -- on the same land for generations. It sounds romantic...
grandparents tending babies, neighbors sharing harvest work, and the
able-bodied working physically hard all day, like potters and
blacksmiths and millers and fishermen always have... but it seems to
have filled a basic need. People now scramble for child care, get their
physical work on a treadmill, their food at the store, find community on
the internet. Whether that's improvement or not is a matter for each
individual to decide.
Me, I have to get off the computer and go lock the chicken house to keep
the raccoons out...
Yours, Kelly in Ohio... who took that Tofu clause in the PPA guidelines
to heart...
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Carole Rishel on sat 10 aug 02
Kelly,
Beautifully stated. No one can escape creativity - it IS our DNA. The s=
ame force which created the universe continues to create every nano secon=
d of everyday. I'm sorry for that woman from the WSJ who took your work =
and bashed it. I loved your website by the way! It's great!
Carole Rishel
kallahcee@msn.com
Smithville, TX =20
=20
----- Original Message -----
From: primalmommy
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2002 4:38 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: The ideal job (was: business is for making money...not)
=20
Cindi Anderson wrote:
>You mean, "the ideal job" for YOU, I hope? I know many people who want
>nothing to do with creativity.
Speaking just for me, the ideal job would be one that allowed me
creative growth, balanced all my priorities/responsibilities and harmed
nobody. The Buddhist idea of "right livelihood" is one I value. And I
certainly know happy, driven, wealthy, successful people (and bitter,
unfulfilled starving artists) but I am one who believes that we ALL are
born creative... some express it in their lawyering, or administrating,
or stock trading, or homemaking, or whatever. But too many discard
creativity as unproductive and inconsequential (or have it pounded out
of them) and as a result are working without all the tools required to
build the life they might have had -- in a studio or a boardroom.
I am taking a second trip through "the Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron,
this time in the cyber-company of new potter friends from a recent
workshop. It is a nice companion piece for "Art and Fear" and reminds me
that, like the "corporate types are shallow and miserable" myth, there
is also a widely accepted myth that art and financial success must alway
be at odds.. that true artists must either starve or "sell out"
commercially. I know several successful artists making a handsome living
who have not compromised a bit. Some are clayarters, others non-potters.
Anyway, figuring out the ideal job "for me" is easy... if it was only
about me. What's trickier territory is figuring out the ideal job for
the planet, for humanity, for communities, for families, for those kids
who -- unfortunately, as you say -- may be born to people who find them
inconvenient.
We all have our own answers to those broader issues. Mine no doubt
reflect a bias of farm background -- families working together -- at
home -- on the same land for generations. It sounds romantic...
grandparents tending babies, neighbors sharing harvest work, and the
able-bodied working physically hard all day, like potters and
blacksmiths and millers and fishermen always have... but it seems to
have filled a basic need. People now scramble for child care, get their
physical work on a treadmill, their food at the store, find community on
the internet. Whether that's improvement or not is a matter for each
individual to decide.
Me, I have to get off the computer and go lock the chicken house to keep
the raccoons out...
Yours, Kelly in Ohio... who took that Tofu clause in the PPA guidelines
to heart...
_______________________________________________________________
Sign up for FREE iVillage newsletters .
From health and pregnancy to shopping and relationships, iVillage
has the scoop on what matters most to you.
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