Me Not Watching Me

Even though I’ve been accused of it often enough, I’ve never been the kind of person who could show off. Every time I’ve tried, I’ve made a pig’s breakfast of it. The best only comes out of me when I can get my mind on the project at hand and not on my doing it.

The picture for today finds me in just such a moment. I was inlaying glass in a box top. I was at the end of an interview by a woman who was putting me and my work into a local magazine. She had a photographer with her. She asked me what exactly I was doing and would I show her. She stood behind me and a little over my left shoulder. I did not realize it, but she had motioned to the photographer to get as close to in front of me as he could without my noticing him. He took that picture about right then.

I was surprised when I saw the picture because I didn’t remember it being taken. I like it because it shows me giving something to my craft. In it, only the materials and the movement of my hands are important. Doing craft is like throwing a baseball. What matters is the mechanics, not the outcome. I’m told a major league pitcher concentrates on the movements that will ultimately result in a strike. So it is with a craftsperson. You move your hands and place your body so that the design you wish to create can appear in front of you. In this process, me watching me is a complication, a blinding of the vision.