|
I sent this out an hour and a half ago and it's not shown
up. So I'm putting this on a web page. 9:33pm
Debbie:
Thank you for your heart felt reply. It's kicked off a
Ramble. You touch upon so many topics I feel are
important that I want to share a mess of Rambles for
all the new list members, new clayers and those who
have other people bumming their high. The list of
Rambles that are part of "brain massage" will follow
my nattering.
Money is the new False God I do believe. It's a First
Commandment Beef, this worship of money, and the so
called power that comes from it. Pride goeth before
the Fall. There's more important things than money and
the things they can buy. One of the important things,
for me, is charity.
I have been on the receiving end of charity most of my
life. I promised myself that if I could ever "pay
forward" I'd do so. Lord knows I can't "pay back"
because most of those who extended mercy to me are
dead.
I've been told, most emphatically, for years what I
"should" do. I should sell. When I need to sell things
to pay for the phone bill or something, I should sell
for higher prices than I do. I should charge for
Demos. I should not share my techniques for free. I
should not give my books to our lending library. I
should should should
Oh Just STOP... I tell these folks. You don't
understand the reasons why I do what I do. It's not
about the money. It's about paying forward the love,
compassion and mercy that I was blessed to receive in
my life. It's my turn to serve, thankyouverymuch and
shuddap already.
The ONLY person in my family who understands where I'm
coming from is my husband. That's right handy because
he pays for the websites, books and vids. He paid for
the "hostess" boxes that preceded me when I was on
tour. If he didn't understand my need to serve the
clay and mini community we'd have been divorced by
now.
Most importantly, to me, is this question. Does art
belong only to the rich? I don't think so. I say the
desire to create is God given and it didn't cost us
anything to get the urge. Art training has got to be
free, somewhere, or it's tragic.
Some folks ask, "What's in it for you?"
Why does there have to be anything more than the
joy-joy feeling of doing something nice for folks? Why
does there always have to be some ulterior motive when
you want to give something to someone? As I said, I
already GOT MINE. I've been paid up front, years ago,
by people who have died and now it's my turn. Call me
greedy for blessings and not dollars.
As for taking time to look at people's first efforts
and give encouragement, life's hard enough. What we do
here is reach inside of ourselves and drag out some
vision that needs to be expressed. That's a delicate
process. Folks are tender hearted and beat up enough
from life, why should they suffer from mean spirited
comments on their first efforts in a new medium? See
the Ramble "There are no questions too beginnerish"
below.
Everyone was a beginner at one time in something or
another. Everyone here was a beginner or is a
beginner with polymer clay and miniatures. There's no
dishonor in being a beginner. There's great dishonor
in not having empathy and compassion for other
beginners.
Do you want to know what I feel about experienced
artists who look down at beginners... I pity them. I
really do. They must have some damage in their own
self esteem to have to put other people down. I have
no problem with my self esteem. I can praise folks,
give them encouragement, share my techniques, give
stuff away without fear of LACK.
That's where all that mean spirited stuff comes from,
the sense of LACK. "If I give my secrets away other
people will use it and sell things and I won't make
that money." As if there's any clay technique we can't
reverse engineer. Well there was one technique I
couldn't figure out but it wasn't one I wanted to use
all the time, so it doesn't really count. LOL
I feel the Mod Team and I are conduits, it comes
through us, it doesn't come from us. We are tools, ya
see? Everything we do for the list comes from a
genuine sense of love for the ClayMates, whether we've
met you or not.
I don't feel any of us feel the fear of LACK and
that's why it's easy for us to share, give energy to
the services we render to the list and to build
tutorials for the general public.
It's a philosophical difference you'll find here on
this list. That's why we're not focused on sales, have
little tolerance for SPAM, refer business discussions
about Crafts to our sister list
CraftBizAdvice.
What we do here is to create a safe, loving, nurturing
environment for artists to blossom and find their way
around clay.
One common thread with women is self diminishment.
It's pervasive and insidious. That's why we have the
"Quarter Jar". We drop a coin in the jar each time we
doubt ourselves. That's why we'll stop a new ClayMate
who says "I'm a dummy" right in their tracks and refer
them to this next Ramble, saying "nownowtherethere".
To explain the quarter jar
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/QuarterJar.htm
Often we are our own worst nay sayers. The Quarter Jar
helps us break the habit of putting ourselves down.
That's why you'll never be made to feel stupid here by
the Moderators. If another ClayMate causes another to
feel diminished, that ClayMate will be put on
Moderated Status and emailed an invite to a "one to
one" with one of us to explain why that's damaging and
not appropriate here.
Everyone here is an artist, no matter where the skill
set is at this time. It's the desire to express
oneself that marks one as an artist. We have to
practice and need a space to share information where
we don't feel like jerks all the time. Most of us are
on limited budgets and expensive retreats and having
to pay for information is cruel.
I've gathered a few Rambles that continue on this
rant, should you be interested in checking them out.
They are found on two pages:
http://www.norajean.com/ramble-index.htm
and
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/CurrentRants.htm
There are no questions too "beginnerish".
http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/MSAT/ClayArt/Beginnerish.htm
For the Shy Beginners with Polymer Clay
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/ShyBeginners.htm
Sharing Technique
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/sharing-technique.htm
Clay Retreats and Why I don't Go
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/retreats-Y-I-don't-go.htm
Sense of Self: What is it? Why is it important to the
Artist? How to Repair it?
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/12-12-04-SenseOSelf.htm
Sense of Self Part Two: Dr. Ginger Blume
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/12-13-04-SOSBlume.htm
Competition Curbs Creativity
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/10-21-04-CompetitionCreativity.htm
Be Kind To Each Other and To Yourself:
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/04-24-04-BeKind.htm
You are the most important person at your worktable.
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/01-26-04-OnlyYou.htm
Part of the Art of Being Joyful: Developing a Give a
Shit Attitude
http://www.norajean.com/Rambles/GiveaShit.htm
That last one freaks people out but when you read the
Ramble you'll understand. Well, this is long enough,
been typing for an hour. Still got dishes to wash so
I'll send this out. |
