"what's the point"/purpose

The publications from Goldsmith's Journal were formative for me, as I previously posted. This article by Gary Griffin was probably one of the most influential. When I think about what the professionals in the filed were doing to not only make work, but to promote knowledge, and advance the field of metalsmithing, I feel a little guilty. I don't feel like I've really done as much writing as I should have. I'm trying to understand why that is... 

On one hand, I feel like I disengaged from SNAG for a good portion of my early career as I tried to figure out how to deal with the demands of tenure. I was just worried about getting tenure and doing all the things my University expected. I also felt like I didn't really fit into SNAG all that well for some reason. It could have just been my introverted personality though. 

Now long after tenure and the academic hoops I've jumped through, I find myself drawn to the early ideas of the organization. I still don't feel like I fit in, but I like the idea of sharing knowledge and seeing what discoveries in processes and material can allow a person to create. I also like the idea of professional standards that people agree on. I find these professional standards at risk or vanishing in my own classroom, when students ask why glue is not an acceptable form of bringing pieces of metal together. I also worry about this when sloppy craft is featured in our current publications and then celebrated and promoted. Maybe I'm just old and opinionated though...

The balance of jewelry and functional objects in these early issues is also fascinating to me. I would say that I felt pressured in grad school to make jewelry, even though I moved farther and farther away from this as I continued in school. Object making became my comfort place. Maybe I liked these early issues because it felt like there was a balance between jewelry and object. I often wonder if the blacksmiths in our field feel excluded because of the heavy focus on jewelry. They honestly probably don't care and seek out ABANA or other avenues for their professional membership.

In discussions with Adam Hawk and Chad Bridgwater we have discussed some other venue or gathering for sharing information. I know both of them are invested in Digital Fabrication so this might be the common bond that brings a new group together. I know Digital Fabrication has interested me for some time now, but I find myself really just interested in learning new things. I guess that is the topic of this post. I just want to hang out with good people and make things and learn as much as I can about this material that allows for so many possibilities in creating new and interesting things. I'm not interested in personal image and how to create a persona and how to promote myself; I just want to learn more. I'm interested in the act of learning and passing that on and then seeing what an individual does with that knowledge.

Maybe this reflection will help me. On our daily walks, Jill and I have been discussing "what the point of all this is". In other words, why do I feel compelled to make things and "what's the point". I facetiously told her a day ago that I might just give it all up and sit and watch tv. She said that "just isn't who I am". She's right. I like to learn, and I need to remember that learning is the purpose. It's not just about process learning either. I get to learn about myself as a person and what it means to create for the purpose of bringing beauty into the world and its connection to the humanities. Now there is a future post to discuss: the purpose of the humanities in education, but I'll save that for another day...