You can tell that Byatt loves to make things (she thinks of writing as something she constructs). In an interview, she says:
I think of writing simply in terms of pleasure. It's the most important thing in my life, making things. Much as I love my husband and my children, I love them only because I am the person who makes these things....Who I am, is the person that has the project of making a thing.
Ah, the project of making a thing! First, for me, there is the itch in the fingers, then the project, then the thing itself. A thing--a piece of writing, a picture, a sculpture, a tablecloth made into a dress--that wasn't there before. It is only when I am making something that I feel affection for myself, and that then allows me, like Byatt, to love others in a better way.
What things--art, gardens, rugs, dinner--do you make that make you who you are?
I love the "itch" part best, I think. The creation in the mind before the actually doing...the second best part, for me, is the finished project and the satisfaction of it. Well, unless it didn't turn out. And I am always amazed re the picture I had in my head versus the actual end product. Most of the time they don't match! It took me many years to realize that's alright too. I wonder if God(dess)' mental pictures matched the end product? I imagine the thought, "Hmmm. Universe=Great. Humans=Didn't quite see that coming!"
ReplyDeleteQuilts. I'm a process quilter. I rarely, if ever, repeat a pattern or technique, unless it is to perfect it (like piecing curves). Once i've made a Japanese inspired kaleidoscope pattern, I'm not going to start a series of them. It's time to do a homespun bear tracks or a 30s reproduction sunbonnet sue.
ReplyDeleteJaimie, I know what you mean about the gap between the itch and the finished product. And for a weaver like you, there are so many intermediate steps!
ReplyDeleteBridgett, I wish you'd post more pictures of your quilts on your blog....and those bento lunches are works of art too.
Dinner definitely. I always feel slightly dissatisfied if I have made an "easy" dinner or one that doesn't really reflect ME.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course my photographs. I make a lot of cards from some of my photos (flowers, trees, animals), and photobooks, and have a wall down a stairwell that's covered with black and white travel photos. I spend hours tweaking them till they're just right, and making sure they reflect what I felt when I took them.
Mali, what luck to live under your roof, with those dinners! Black and white photography is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteyes, this is why i was not satisfied with my first job--shelving books at the public library. it was what i called 'circular work'--you worked and worked and at the end of the day there was no evidence you'd do a thing. you'd shelved a bunch of books, but a bunch more got returned in the meantime.
ReplyDeletei wanted a job where i created something, or at least had some tangible resule of my hours. and so--newspapers!
...and now you've made a book!
ReplyDelete