So here, I’ve been thinking. I really love my art, I love wood, I love the feel of wood, and I love the fact that I am able to see something in my head and create the visions that I see.

This whole technology revolution of new media, new gadgets, and new web applications is pretty cool too. However, I have much more experience with the latter. Unfortunatly, I am not yet able to mold and create the things that I see in my head to the web page yet. I am learning to add in plugins that may or may not be usefull and I spend more time fixing things after I break them than I do being creative.

I look back at when I started turning wood and I honestly cant remember a long learning curve. I remember stepping into it with my whole heart and passion as it were a time capsule that could take me anywhere. The natural flow that I felt at the lathe and in working with my hands almost seemed as if I was working with the hands of my grandfather, and that I almost assumed his wisdom and craftability.

Grandpa, where were those hands when it came to the keyboard and mouse?? I suppose if he’d known the internet he might have thought it was cool as I do, but I suppose he’d have the same sorts of challenges that I do in really having no clue how to manifest the creations we see in our heads.

This being said, I am organizing and really making it my winter project to perfect my web imiges, fix all the broken links on my blog, and open up a storefront on www.etsy.com. I want to make that journey of the learned, to a technician, to an artist and really be able to express myself in the digital world as well as I express myself in the virtual world.

Admittedly, I do not treat this blog as a newspaper article or press release so I do very little editing. I would love any suggestions on my endeavors to become more art than fart in the web world, and what you think about my writing that I like to think more lovingly as speaking with the keyboard.

Feel free to click the flickr link to check out some recent and past works.

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In starting the post I am almost without words. The saying of what I am feeling to be conveyed on the written screen, or ink on page is really not possible.

I think everyone will agree that “energy is everything” and energy applied to ones work, to ones self, from spirit, or from ones thoughts is very powerful. I might go as far to say that thoughts and the application of the energy behind those thoughts is everything.

The fact is we were all created in the image of love. What is it, what force, what thought takes us away from love? If we were created in the likeness of spirit, and the likeness of love, we should in theory be all powerfull. I don’t mean power in the sense of physical strength, or in the amount of money we make, but to be able to react to energy in a way that we always react with love.

The prayer of St, Francis says:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Love is everything. Where we sow love energy only loving things can be manifested from that.

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

Make the latter of these statements your thoughts, your energy, your reaction to the initial. If you do this you will only feel love. When a spouse yells;return Love. When a fellow worker scorns; return Love and love is all you will feel, and in return…..love is all they will feel. This is not mastering your emotions, this is not anger management. This is your divine birthright, and what you were put here to do.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

We only reap the bounty of the seeds that we sow. My Parents have been the most loving, caring, giving, people I have ever known. My gratitude for them reaches boundaries not able to be written. My Daughter has been a blessing thousands of times over and the challenges she hands me on a daily basis are my life teachings. My girlfriend and future wife (hopefully has been another of the wonders of life energy colliding and I cant wait to spend all of my days with her. My Sister;Laura, Sister;Patty,Niece;McKayla, Brother;Hugh, Sister-in-law;Andrea, and their future child are all gifts of love energy. Powerful Love energy that gives and will forever always be there.

If you are reading this and thinking that I am on my pulpit preaching, well you might be right, but I guess that is my right since this is my blog. If you are thinking that this guy is a religious freak, hey think what you will. Anyone that knows me knows that I am not outwardly religious if ever and might even be a bit surprised by the writing. However, anyone that knows me knows that I am loving, I am giving, I am creative, and that I always have best intentions in mind even if I show it in an awkward way sometime.

My hope is that if you are reading this, and that if you have made it this far that you are feeling the love that I am conveying through this post, and that you come away feeling better because of it. Maybe the next time someone sends you hatred, you will send back love, and maybe if you feel the need to send hatred outward, you will think twice about your actions. Pour love into the world and the world will dump love back onto you.

I am not writing this from a position of all knowing. I am surely not writing this from a position of perfection. I however am writing this from a position of humility, and writing this not only for those reading it, but for myself to visit whenever necessary, for me to live by, and as a reminder that life isn’t always the way we want it, but life is however always perfect.

If your reading this…I love you.

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I have been struggling lately with the question of whether my work is craft or art? Is there a specific line that separates the two or do the two lines cross depending on the viewer or consumer?

www.TheFreeDictionary.com defines craft as:

Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency. see synonyms ART

Well then, thats my answer…huh…right. Ok, so what is the difference between craft and art? Is it the quality of the work? Is it the medium that you work in? Is it the way in witch you put things together and combine different mediums? Or is it the fact that your taking a medium, wood, clay, fabric, or paint and making something from scratch?

I really don’t know. However I do know that in terms of marketing and promoting my woodturned art, I seem to be better off in the realm of craft. It’s seems to me that my customers con vein more at a high end craft fair, or markets than in a high end art gallery. In fact in having approached “Art Galleries” in the past they are rarely interested in carrying my work no matter what the quality or craftsmanship.

So…what is the answer? Is it really definable? Are high end, highly skilled craftsmen in any way less of an artist? Are these people in any way less valuable or collectible? I don’t think so. I think that the definition lies in the eye of the viewer of those pieces. A couple blobs of paint on a canvas may be much less art to one person than a beautifully finished piece of furniture, or a finely sculpted piece of clay.

As my friend Ani DiFranco said in one of her songs “I get up every day to do something I can’t even define” I guess the feeling in my mind is “If you get up every day and do exactly what you love & provide value to others….who cares what they call it”

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