For many months now, I have been showing you pictures of
things I have done and told about them.
Today is going to be something different.
I’m still going to relate real life things, and art world
things, but a little different
This next couple of posts here are going to be stories of
the caliber of people in the art world and things that show me the good and bad
of humanity.
Today’s post is those that have irritated me and why.
Art Theft
I do studio time at a local studio/coffee shop that also has
a gift shop stocked with products from artists who are associated with the place. A few months back, while I was there, a woman
shoplifted several pieces. Nothing was
terribly expensive, but it was a loss nonetheless. This hurt the shop owner and the artist(s)
who produced the works. It also upset me
and probably upset other artists/attendees of the studio.
Art is personal. The process
in which we “work”, contains many emotions different than those used to put
together a spreadsheet, program and application or serve a meal in a restaurant. Those of us who call ourselves artists do
sell and gift our work. Sometimes
parting with pieces takes effort. We do
it though. Some of us do it for money;
some create with gift giving in mind, and some do both. I do not sell my quilts because there is not
a good market that justifies the time and money that I put into them, but I am working
towards selling my glasswork.
I cannot speak for every artist, but I personally enjoy the
creative process more than the retention of the finished work. Yes, I need to hold and admire my creations
for a while – sometimes weeks/months. I
take pictures, document, and set it all aside until I am ready. Then, I get great joy out of seeing and/or
imagining the next person to possess that piece.
However, where we have a big problem with the next owner of
our creations is theft. If someone
steals a mass produced product from a retailer, it drives up costs but it does
not do the degree of personal harm that stealing art does. First, when a one of kind, significant piece
is stolen – the world is robbed of enjoyment of that. Think about all the great art works that no
one has seen since the Nazis accumulated things pre/during WW2.
Stealing from artists like me is nowhere on the same playing
field as a missing Monet, but it is far more hurtful and discouraging. We can almost understand stealing a million dollar
art piece – it is a saleable commodity.
Humanity as a whole takes a hit when boutique artwork is stolen. Those pieces are not going to provide a
living to the thief when he/she resells them, nor will their personal value to
the thief balance out the damage done to all involved.
It is not food or clothing that is needed to survive. It is not money to pay a heating bill so one does
not freeze in the Minnesota winter. No,
stealing art is taking something from others just because you want it. That is about the ultimate in
selfishness.
Purse Theft
In addition to glass studios, I also spend a lot of time in
fabric and quilt shops.
Really, I do!
(Like anyone who knows me would doubt that!)
Anyway, shopping at a quilt shop (and the fabric sections of
large crafting stores) is vastly different from shopping at the grocery store. It is an interactive experience; we quilters
often jump into conversations with fellow shoppers even if we have never met
them before. It is not uncommon to ask
the stranger looking at another bolt of fabric for their color advice on your
own project, or to be the one offering up advice.
While we may take a dress to the shoe store and hold it up
to the clerk to ask for assistance in picking out shoes to match, at a quilt
shop, we may take up a HUGE area on the floor to lay out a quilt and pick out
borders. In the shoe store, one
interacts only with the clerk; but in the quilt shop, that quilt on the floor
will engage most of the people in the store, and elicit any number of helpers
and comments.
What I am saying is that quilt shops are a “club”. Camaraderie is the focus and all quilters are
friends.
Would you steal your friend’s purse?
I know I would not.
I have heard of two purses stolen from two different quilt
shops in the last year. I can
understand a purse stolen from a grocery store (especially from carts where
people put them in the seating area and wander away. I never do that and I think it is just an
invitation for trouble). Grocery stores
are large, impersonal places where everyone goes. Quilt shops are small, cozy, clubs. There are specialty places where people go to
discuss their art. It just seems far more
wrong to steal from there. It is akin to
breaking into someone’s home.
If There Be Damage
Background: The
studio section of the shop/studio/coffee place I go to is a large, open room in
the back. There is a large square table
area on one side, and a smaller rectangle table area on the other. Open studio participants can be there when
classes are going on; it is all rather casual.
Generally, classes use the larger area, and any artists like me seeking
to work on their own, sit in the smaller area.
A week ago, I went to my usual Friday night studio session. There was a class that night – cub scouts
doing a stained glass project for a badge.
I estimate the boys at 10 to 12 years of age. I was working on jewelry – small squares of
glass covered with millefiori to be exact.
Each piece varied, but basically I spent a lot of time arranging 4 – 8 mm
sized pieces of millefiori onto base pieces… time consuming, exacting AND
touchy.
At one point, I went to the kiln that I was loading to put
in another piece. A boy and his father
were standing by the kiln and the boy was pointing into the kiln. I thought that he was admiring my
pieces. I started to speak to him –
asking him if he wanted to see some of the fired, finished pieces.
Both the boy and his father did not meet my eye, and did not
really listen to me. I stopped… after a
couple seconds, the father – still not meeting my eye – stated “he touched one”,
and they both turned away.
Dismayed, I looked into the kiln. Yes, the boy had touched one and the tiny millefiori
pieces were scattered.
Now, the fact that he touched was not the horrible
part. I can understand that. I have touched things I should not have, have
broken things at that age, etc. Any
child that age has a natural curiosity and some lack of understanding of what
should/shouldn't be touched. Children
will be children.
However, what upset me was that NEITHER of them apologized.
The boy who damaged my art did not apologize, nor did his
father make him do so.
That hurt.
Conclusion
I will end my stories for this post here.
The gist of all this is that art is personal.
It needs to be respected as such.
Enjoyed, shared, traded, sold, etc., etc., but also
respected above all else. There is a
piece of the artist in each and every object and when it is disrespected, you
hurt the artist and the artist community.
