Craft Mission

One of my favorite artists of all time, Elsa Mora, wrote about a new project she is starting called Art is a Way on her blog today.  Please check it out at http://elsita.typepad.com/elsita/2012/07/art-is-a-way.html.  It inspired me to write this reply.  I'm sharing it here simply because I want to remember how it affected me!

Dear Elsa,

This post has given me the guts to come out of the woodwork.  I am a new mother who  works at a college and has a craft business on the side.  I've always dreamed of being an artist, even though as I have walked my own path, I've realized that I don't necessarily know what that means.  I discovered your paperwork a short time ago and I became obsessed.  I read every old blog post on every blog, I googled for every show I could find and poured over all of your work I could see on the internet. I started looking in books for examples of your work after that.  Just looking at your work made my own passion bubble up inside me.  I looked at your work and I said inside me, "How does she do that?!" and "She can do that?"  Every blog post I found where you shared the tools you used or mentioned the processes you took made me ecstatic! It was not that I wanted to copy your work but I saw a thread inside each of your creations that tapped into who you were and I wanted that! I wanted to "do" art, to be an artist, to try and better know who I was.  I want my daughter to see that her mother knows who she is and is inspired by that.  Papercutting for me was meditation, release from the daily grind.  I thought it was magic that you could do something I already loved to do, papercut, and be an artist surviving in the world at the same time. Just yesterday I went to another craft show and brought my items to sell. Usually all my work is jewelry, accessories, etc. that are made from recycled things.  They have to have a purpose in my mind or they are not useful and not "worth" making. I try to save old things from just ending up in the dump. I don't know why I have this mindset.  This time I also brought a few pieces of art(just 5 of them) that had no purpose other than to look at them. I was inspired by old, vintage fabrics and the colors in them.  I cut simple graphic papercuts and laid them in layers on top.  Their purpose?  To look at? To inspire? To be? I sold more of them yesterday than any other piece! After the first one left me, I turned to my friend and asked, "Am I an artist now?" She looked at me a little confused.  After I sold another I felt a moment of small panic.  Wait, how can I sell that?  That's part of me! I'll never see it again! (Next time I think I'll take pictures of my creations.) Then an artist I knew (Raine Design) came to my table and chose one.  It inspired her she said.  She wanted it in her studio as the first piece of art on the wall.  Another artist came and asked me if I wanted to make a trade! This blogpost put into words my feelings so clearly. I will probably never venture to say that I am totally in touch with my full creative potential.  I will probably always ask, am I an artist now? But, I am walking towards my dream and imagining all that it could be.  You inspire me as an artist but also as a mother and a woman.  You made accessible to me the world of "art" and brought it into my little home in northern MN with honesty, wit and grace. When I read your blog, I'm always impressed by your candor and sincerity. Your writing inspires me like your art to "make it" and make sure to provide an environment for my daughter so that she can "make it" too.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I can't wait for January 1st!

Linnea