I want a piece of that (does anyone see that I keep making cake references in my titles??)

Finally, In the Making gives me an article and an artist I like and can understand!

What I have believed most about art is that it is firstly, and mostly, personal. Art is something that should be appreciated but is not (I think) created for that sole purpose. However, I have also found that looking at art, especially art created with more than a desire to make a pretty picture, but with a passionate message, has always felt a bit intrusive. I am looking at images from someone's soul. The art isn't something that was seen by many (or more than one person), like a photograph of someone on the street. There must have been other people on that same street seeing that same person. But a painting or a drawing or a sculpture that came from the artist arranging objects or posing a person or just pictured in their head was something that no one else saw or thought of and now I'm looking at it without even asking.

Now there is an artists whose main objective is take your tools and suggestions to heart and make something beautiful, useful, natural, and eco-friendly (in the good way, not in the awful ways that Cradle to Cradle makes eco-friendlyness sound)

Skip Schuckmann is the first, and only artist I know, to have not only his own vocabulary. but a personally invested goal to make a committed relationship to the people who want his artwork. "The relationships are often sustained for decades. The nature of work expands when it is based upon an 'until death do us part' commitment" (p 38). But its not just his dedication to a sustaining relationships that keep the communication and interaction going, but also that the nature of the work is meant to constantly evolve with the nature that the art comes from. Every twig used as a support beam in the underground house is a reusable support beam in the above ground ruins collage (or something). "Even an elaborate configuration that he has just constructed, and that his clients have just paid him for, always remains catalogued as a raw material for succedding manifestations" (p 38).

My favorite part of the article though was the ending glossary of Schuckmann lingo. My favorites were

Unlaxing- the design of a lifestyle in which work is so satisfying that vacations and retirement become undesirable.
I like this word because it is something we should all want for our lives

Emotional Velcro- The greed and laziness that make us stick to our ideas about ourselves
This is a favorite because changing, even for the better, is so hard

Protocolic- The discomfort that ensues from excessive politeness
Who doesn't hate super dupre pleasantries all the time?

At-onement- The physical and mystical interconnectedness of all things
I love this word because it makes you see the similarities we all share and that can help us overcome the differences we do have and eventually, hopefully, possibly, lead to understanding

ps) I think we should do the black-eyed thing, just because it's more artsy BUT I like the message behind the napkin idea, so someone else vote so we can get started =)

pss) I don't think I will ever enjoy Cradle to Cradle; does that make me Republican?