Bracelet Story #2

Art and the Muses

I made this bracelet a couple years ago. I belonged to a small group of artists who challenged each other and created for fun. We lived all over the country. We started our group because of Art. Art, the man in the picture, not art, the pursuit of visual sensibilities.

People who like to make stuff love to go to classes and workshops, learn new ways to make stuff, and mingle with other people who like to make stuff. We are all the same that way, but that is where the similarities end. Lots of these people consider themselves artists. And they take it seriously. I have been in class with people that encouraged me to chant, "I am an artist!" It cracked me up, I could not do it. I also once took a fun week-long fabric art class with 19 other women. They considered themselves artists and talked about their inspirations and their muses and all that serious stuff. On the first day, I received pity when I said I am not really an artist, I just like to make stuff. One day we went around the room to show and tell our work and discuss. It sounded like this.

"This is my representation of the little man being repressed by the government"

(It was her paint rag, I kid you not, she admitted it. She showed us her paint rag as her piece of created art.)

"This is my vision of a factory in Korea and the poor factory workers"

(It was a piece of fabric with some color smeared on it. No lie.)

"I was inspired by the juxtaposition of colors and design elements and repeated it inverted throughout"

(huh?)

"I like blue"

(me)

They felt so sorry for me. On the last day, the teacher pulled me off to the side and told me not to listen to any of the stuff my classmates were saying...since I was the only person in the room actually making money from stuff I like to make. And, I don't have to pay any muse.

So, Art (the guy in the picture) was our tongue in cheek way of laughing at all the seriousness of people who consider themselves artists. Everything we made, had a picture of Art in it someplace. Love that guy, isn't he cute?

Art and the girls are decoupaged into bottle caps, with some seed bead sprinkled on top. The bottle caps and the beads were turned into charms and wired to the charm bracelet. I made the beads too!

Normal (I am an artist) Girl