Bread and Roses

I would feel more satisfied about the 'holes' here...

...if it weren't for the bins of yarn pulled for the next warps here...

With my yarn out where I can (mostly) see it, I have been feeling a bit smug about the holes developing in the yarn stored on the shelving near the Megado.  

Yesterday while congratulating myself on the excellent progress on stash busting, it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn't doing quite as well as I was thinking, given the several pounds of yarn pulled to make the warps (and weft) for the projects in the queue.

However, given that those shelves were packed cheek by jowl just a few short (long?) months ago, I have made progress.  And progress is still progress, no matter how much further there is to go in the journey.

During this time of pandemic and stress/worry about what will happen in the upcoming months, I constantly question why I keep making more stuff.

The craft fairs that I do locally are cancelled.  The consignment shops are also closed.  People are hurting financially in many cases.  Like someone once said to me a long time ago during a different economic recession, when they are worried about putting food on the table they can't be thinking about pretty cloth to put under the plate.

It is a comment that I have never forgotten, in large part because most of my life as a 'starving artist' my concerns were more about the food on the plate than anything else.

So what is the role of artists in our society anyway?  We often take them for granted.  Arts funding is one of the first things that gets cut in economic downturns.  People worried about their literal survival have no room to spare in their budgets for the 'frivolous' pursuits of the arts.  On the other hand, people frequently use things like music to lift their spirits, read to escape from reality.

Craftspeople participating in what we now call 'traditional' crafts frequently make useful things, not just decorative.

But throughout humanity, useful things have been decorated.  Given the time it takes to make something useful also beautiful, the very act of making the beautiful must mean something to our souls.

I was once asked to talk at an International Women's Day gathering.  It was sponsored by several unions so I drew on the value of making in society.  And ended presentation by saying that we need our bread, but we need our roses too.