Bohemian Bluestocking

"Office life and real life had to be kept separate. On weekday mornings, you locked the door on your unacceptable self; you let it out again after five. This was the arrangement by which I knew I had to live. But only for the time being" -- Joyce Johnson. Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir (1983)

If it were only that easy. Sometimes you end up closing it off completely, and never letting out your unacceptable self. (almost dangled a participle.) There are those moments when you want to shyly offer to open the box and let others see that creative, unique self, and you do, and noone seems to be paying attention.

I am certainly not pointing to any recent offering, just musing on the nature of creativity, and acknowledgement of art and craft in a world that willfully undervalues/misunderstands the nature of craft -- the "gosh, aren't you clever and craft-y" response to creativity, albeit maybe not art, because what you do is what countless grandmothers, spinster aunts, and crabbed old ladies rocking in chairs do when they are not starching dollies and making cookies.

And that would be undervaluing and marginliation of their work as well -- though sometimes some of that work might be better off unmade/undone, because there are moments when the craft is overwelmed by the "what was i thinking?" point of the process.

Never in a bunch of years, would have I thought this to be true: