Excerpts from convos

So I was asked by this amazing lady/customer/etsybud who is also a professor at a university I forgot the name, to speak to her students next April. Yeah, like as a guest lecturer or whatever. She even said she's been reading to them from my stupid blerg!!
*blushes down to me toes*
*falls off chair*

So in mentioning this to my bud Sparrow, we sort of developed an interesting convo thread which I think might hold the seeds of what I could speak to these students about. I mean, they're not jewelry makers so I'm a bit at a loss. I'ma just share excerpts from the convos as a way to gather my thoughts semi-publicly cuz why not?

Sparrow: What's this uni thing about? Was that one that was planned ages ago? What does she read specifically- like what' her angle?

Me: Her angle is she sees me as a model of an actual functional artist in the world. lol. i guess what she said is most of her students will go on to get job jobs or whatevs but there's this special few that she sees as true artists. and while she has helped them become better photographers, she feels she hasn't really prepared them for the world. so... i dunno.

Me (cont.): i was thinking that the mark of a true artist is having no self control- that is being unable to NOT be one. if you can keep down a job, then you should. if you can consciously choose to keep down a job and have a stable life, you're not an artist. if you are so driven by a vision that you have to go for it despite your best interests, then you're an artist and its not a great thing to be, despite how we put the term on a pedestal. its like another way of saying you're not totally ok in the head. this comes from reading this thing that kinda bugged me, here's an excerpt:

Sparrow: Yeah there's a huuuuuge difference between being an artist and being creative- and pretty much like you said, it's that being able to control it. If you can pick n choose when you do your makings and can sacrifice that time for other thing like jobs and socializing, then you're not a real artist, you're just creative. 

Thing is you say that to people and they're all like 'HOW DARE YOU' because 'artist' is a badge of freedom to so many people without any other meaning in their lives. There's a modern cult among the developed world (especially middle aged women) where people have learned that all you gotta do is buy an art journal, slap a few clipping in there attack it with some stamps - boom you is artist. Nope- you're just exploring the in-built creativity that comes with being human. No different than splattering hand prints on a cave wall.

Sparrow (cont.): "functional artist in the world"?
I mean yeah you're functional in the aspect that you make money from what you do, but only through fortune rather than judgement (you've said yourself you don't 'business' anything, you just make it and list it). And because like you said, to be a true artist you gotta be 100% and you can't have a real world life and be 100% at the same time, there's just no space for that. So it's like she'd be saying to the class 'ok you want to be a real artist you have to give up everything outside your studio like this lady does'.
Maybe there is no place in the 'real world' for a real artist, there's only being able to harness creativity and a certain level of commercial viability. If you commit to being a 'proper' artist you do have to give up on 'proper' life. But then if you're happy and not homeless, does it matter?

Me: I agree. Artist is a disease we've put our stamp of approval on because we like the pretty results.
And like i told her literally 1st thing when she invited me- im not a model, the only reason i can do this is i have no kids, my parents bought me a house and i live in my pjs and do nothing else! and she's like yes exactly. tell them that.

 So that was that convo. We seemed to agree a lot but I tried to weed out much of the babble. As per usual, please enter your .02 in comments.

Keeping in mind that Sparrow and I don't bother to speak politely so you don't have to say anything like, "What's her angle? Does she need an angle? Isn't Marina's natural awesomeness enough?' kinda thing. Although comments specifically about my natural awesomeness are always welcome. Like, if you want to expand on that idea. Or any thoughts about how my lazy immobility is a good thing? Or how crap sales means you're actually even cooler because, like we saw above, non-functioning = artist? Er. I mean if you care to try to convince me aw forget it.

Look, three rings. Not just that- notice my dark background? HU?!!! That's a departure for me. Shit it needs more contrast.

And the earrings above with ladycabs- there is one speck of white I didn't blur out on the background tin plate thing that is driving me up a fucking wall.

The other day, I couldn't take it any more, I desperately needed to solder. I said fuck the polar vortex, opened my window a smidge, set the fan to work and went to town. I was all proud of myself because the ventilation system seemed to be working quite well. Then I realized that the door wasn't as, well, closed as I thought it was and the house had filled up with clouds of sal ammoniac. And that's when fretful Mr. Devices came home. And I'm like, "Nooooo, it's not toxic at all..."

I thought I'd made an irredeemable mess with the soldering itself as well. Like this old piece of something from Kathyhaul that I soldered to a tin section. I thought I'd pretty much melted the old bit to the point of evaporation into the air. But nope!

 

Also, the top ridge on this is super thick and stiff so I had to curve it before soldering and then solder two curved things together and it turns out that's almost impossible! and yet! It was a wonky mess but I sorta cut the tin to make it look un-wonky...

I soldered this decorative section on to this perfume bottle that had come to me just glued on. I know you're distracted by that huge topper I added but it might make sense when I make it into a big long necklace. Though I don't see the red rhinestones making sense. Might have to dig those out.

While I'm at it, I also soldered this thought the quick snap I took of it, I got the back of the adorable hanging thing so you can't see how awesome it looks.

More WIPs? I've been making more of these beads and finishing them with a thick resin coating to make them stronger. Mostly I've been making a goopy mess though.

Here's a great big something where I was all "EVERYTHING GREY!" (When you see this closer there's some really amazing beads in there...) 

OH! See that honkin fluorite upper right? Just so happened to have that cab bezel that fit it exactly!!! This is why it pays to have everything all over the place. You find bitties that match up, even if you forgot you had them.

Earrings in the making.

In that mirror charm, I need to include something where the glass would go.

Need oxidizing and some final dangle off chain....

Need top half. We'll see what they become.

An etsylady shared with me a pic of my tute on her tablet. I thought it looked so cool I wanted to share:

I know I know

I usually blerg more often. I've been totally without motivation or raison d'etre or joie de vivre or je ne sais quoi for a while. I've been without a croissant or a s'il vous plait. I've been without my latrine. And now I just want a milk au chocolat for some reason. But this is the first time I've been without voulez vous coucher avec moi in the five years or so I've been doing this so yeah, I'm not sacre bleu-ing myself over it or any kind of comment sa va.
What was the question?

I made some simple little guys though. 

In this piece and the following, you'll see a bumpy connector that manages to be rusty crusty and iridescent at the same motherslappin' time! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHGHGHG! This is our greatest achievement as a species I think.

There she is! Hello my baby.

 Should I even bother listing anything? Sales are ... man. I think everyone is suffering financially.

See that? I didn't look for a reason for crap sales over on my side of things. Because everyone's sales are shit and everyone's broke and its FINE. I mean, other than if you're starving and can't pay your heating bill during this POLAR VORTEX.               

Dun-dun- duuuuunnn!    

Whoever came up with that term deserves a Nobel prize in branding. Which is totes a thing. Did I mention that we are under like 6 feet of snow here in the Chi? The Chi not to be confused with the Shire. No that you could, what with the polar bears. 

Anypoopers. I have another destash lot for the dark gothsters out there. Click for bigs.
[ALREADY PUCHASED THANK YOU! I should only sell destash lots, man.]

 Instead of describing what you can clearly see in these pix I'm going to not. (I've never had so much italics in one post!)

Apropos of nothing, I was reading some crap about how to shut up your inner critic the other day and wanted to put in my $0.02.

I embrace my inner critic, it's what makes me better, what keeps me away from average. It gives me the impetus to rework and edit pieces, gives me all kinds of ideas for changes. When I stop and truly look critically at something, that can make all the difference. It also lets me know something extremely important, which is when to abandon a project and not waste time on it.

(The red thing is iron-on monograms.)

Often if there's a project I can't get excited about or I can't seem to get myself to work on, it's another aspect of the critic telling me to give it up.

(A roll of tigertail beading cord whatever its called)

But see, I make it work. It's not just "this sucks," I make it tell me what sucks about it, what could make it better, creative and productive stuff. Make your critic sweat for you. Just saying something sucks is stupid, so your critic is being stupid, so be the critic of your inner critic, demand more of it. Yeah!

Another productive step is to ask for honest feedback from artists you admire. I've had people send me pix of something they're working on for this purpose and I tell them- this bit isn't adding anything, I'd switch those beads for something more eye-catching, if there were different ones on either side it would be less repetitive, etc. (Now, this is of course work you're asking for and it's best if you can reciprocate in some way.)

(Who doesn't want a chandelier crystal with a grungy bat on the back? That's just classy.)

I find it helps to take a picture of a project; this allows me to see it anew and much more objectively. It's not hard to decide whether we like the work of others and why, and it's possible to adopt this same perspective with our own.

So yeah. That's what I have to say about that. Your 2 centavos to go in the comments s' il vous plait.

(Some pages from this cool-ass Mexican comic book for your art journal/collage/wrapping. Guilder's in Antique Gold but it's in a little shoe polish can instead of the original huge-ass pot.)

A vintage lighter, a glass hoop, a bunch of hairpipe beads, a ammonite fossil that looks like someone crumbled fibers all over it.

A piece of antique leather glove for your thin soft leather needs. Bit of dyed crochet.

This is actually a bracelet sorta. 

A little scrap of sewy thing.

Hollow heart pendant, little metal beads.

Some decent bits. I'mna say $45. So $50 w/ship. And any extra space always gets more goodies. Convo me if you want. Whatever. 

And remember if I don't blerg for a while it's just me being rudder-less, huddled at the computer giggling at stupid lolcats, sucking on a granola bar, not a sudden brain hemorrhage you need to worry about or nothing.