Found
Objects
“See
over there/ A created splendor/ Made by one individual/ From things residual.”
Patrick
Kavanaugh
One of the boons
of the creative mind is that it changes the way one views the world. Everyone I
know who does art of any kind, notices patterns and textures and chance juxtapositions.
We stop at piles of “stuff” on the street, and peruse them for materials—unusual
leaves, scraps of wood or metal, old fencing. We man-handle, and photograph,
and record the colors and shapes of everything—even the shapes of shadows on
the sidewalk or tree branches above our heads. This is not a contrived quirk;
it is simply the way the creative mind works.
Walking into store full of newly
manufactured items stacked neatly on shelves is less exciting than finding
discarded gems just by chance. There is something of the gypsy spirit, the
delight in finding treasure in things other people throw away. It’s an old,
primitive human behavior.
In Big
Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert notes, “For most of human history, then, the vast
majority of people have made their art in stolen moments, using scraps of
borrowed time—and often pilfered or discarded material, to boot.” Whether drawing
with mud on cave walls, stitching together hanks of fabric for quilts, or covering
a lean-to with car license tags, we humans love to create something from
nothing. It gives us a thrill.
People decorate their animals—braid
the manes of horses, paint the horns of cows, costume dogs with jackets and
bows, and make funky little houses for wild birds. Often, we do this on the
side, on the weekend, in odd hours, around the demands of family and work and
social life. We have an innate need to create, so even if we are super busy
people, we grab moments on the sly to make something.
This is not a passing fancy, or
a silly time-filler. This sort of intimate relationship to materials is deeply
human. It is the co-creative connection to the God-spark within us. We do not
wait until we have the money or time to create—we just use our hands. We can’t help
ourselves. We pick up whatever is available and let our hands do the rest.
Making time
to create something uniquely yours is just as important as the size of your
bank account, or the status of your job. Using our hands to make something—even
a loaf of bread or a vase of wildflowers—connects body, mind and soul. It
grounds and stabilizes everything else we do. We have these opposable thumbs
for a reason. Today, let’s put them to good use.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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