Don’t Quit Your Day Job

Above is my take on free-form crochet

Imagine this: You are taking a walk with some friends. You are kind of spread out, maybe one behind and a couple ahead of you. Being that you are not talking to anyone at the moment, you automatically start singing very quietly to yourself. It’s that Joni Mitchell song you got stuck in your head because you recently heard it and now it just won’t leave. But that feels good and you know it’s a good sign to be singing to yourself and you don’t even notice you are doing it. The person behind you says: “Gee, you have a nice voice.” You don’t say anything because it’s at this point that you realize you are singing quietly to yourself and you are a tad embarrassed that someone heard you. But you continue singing never-the-less and then maybe ten seconds later someone in front of you turns and says: “Don’t quit your day job.” And all you can think is: why would someone say that?

Before I go on with that thought, I do want to mention that although I am not going to quit my day job to become a singer I did quit “my day job” to involve myself in this weird tapestry medium and eventually the loom business and I have not had one regret. I know others who have just followed their bliss and jumped right in and survived. Some people indeed need to quit their day jobs. But that’s not what this is about.

This about honoring yourself because you pick up a pair of knitting needles for the first time and knit an awful scarf but you secretly had a blast doing it. This about honoring yourself because you decided to experiment with dyeing and every skein of yarn came out this grey/purple color (the default color for dye failures just as the default color for paint is brown). And honoring yourself because you jumped in and bought a Mirrix Loom and now you are weaving stuff on it but it all looks a little off and not like the sampler in the book but you just can’t put it down. You might not have dreams of paying your bills on your tapestry income but this sure helps you find your bliss.

Above is knitting done with hand-painted silk/wool yarn

Can you imagine if while weaving blissfully away on your second tapestry someone walked into the room and said: “Don’t quit your day job.”

Now I admit it, I can be very critical of artwork. I have been known to go to museums and look at some of the modern art and think that the concept did not make up for the total lack of craft. But then again, that artist got his or her piece in the museum and so it’s actually my job to be critical.

I think mostly we do what we do with our hands and our sense of color and shape and form because we kind of have to and it fills something in us that just cannot remain empty. Who knows why we weave or paint or knit or crochet and throw pots.  Who knows why we are attracted to one art form and not another.

Above: A coiled silk basket, that free-form crochet and the beginnings of a scarf

Maybe someday you can quit your day job but for now just be glad there is something you are doing that you love to do.