Book Review: "The Ideal Man" by Joshua Kurlantzick

The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War


Jim Thompson earned the title of "The Silk King" in Thailand, back in the 1950's.  One of the first Westerners to appreciate Thai Silk, he had a vision to transform the life of poor weavers, giving them ownership over their production and exporting their silks to the United States and Europe.

He was also a spy.  In fact, he ended up in Thailand as one of the CIA's first batch of suave James Bond types, fell in love with the country and stayed.  He had studied architecture and design and truly loved the old Thai way of life.

Then he disappeared.  The story had intrigued me for years, but I had never really gone beyond the surface details.  His name came up again as I wrote a post for TAFA's blog , "S is for Silk".  I had seen a novel about him in a bookstore, a mystery written with a possible scenario of how he vanished, so I decided to see if my local library had it.  Instead, I found this one, "The Ideal Man", and am glad I did.

As the subtitle states, Jim Thompson's tragedy is tightly linked with how the United States developed its presence in Asia.  The tragedy goes beyond the disappearance.  Thompson's whole life became tragic as he fell in love with this country, created a voice for the common people, and increasingly lost faith in the American role in Asia.  When he arrived in Thailand, there was a vibrant democratic movement happening in the region.  Within a few years, both the Royals and the United States helped ensure that these anti-colonial voices were squashed.  Instead, the usual corrupt dictatorship was endorsed and led to power.  We all know what the consequences were for Vietnam.  Much less is told about Laos and the devastation we left there.  Thompson's political position was in favor of working with the rebels in all three countries.  He met with them, knew them as friends and had a vision for self-government that was way ahead of his time.  He watched his friends become imprisoned, then shot, and he himself lost favor with both the Thai Royals and the U.S. government.  The ideal man had ideals.  They were trampled on, breaking his spirit and his vision for the region.

The book mostly covers the political intrigue that happened around Jim Thompson over a period of twenty years.  It names the characters that played the main roles in deciding Thailand's future.  It also describes Thompson's life, how he collected and preserved thousands of artifacts, keeping them in his home until he would one day make them available to the Thai people in a museum.  

Jim Thompson's house.

Even his house was one of these artifacts.  He had two traditional peasant homes dismantled and reassembled in Bangkok, starting a fad among the elite to copy him and preserve traditional Thai architectural elements in an environment that was quickly modernizing into Western influences.  At the same time, he built the Thai silk industry into the giant that it is today.  He entertained the most famous people of the day in his peasant houses: presidents, film stars, political leaders, and wealthy tourists who had begun to explore Asia.  Towards the end, the book describes Thompson as worn out, a man with a broken heart and no hope for the future.  Ironically, his disappearance ensured the preservation of his life work.  The house is now a museum and the silk business continues as a profitable venture.

Jim Thompson goes on a trip, a vacation, in Malaysia to visit some friends on an estate.  This was March 27th, 1967.  He goes for a walk and never comes back.  There are woods on the estate and several searches funded by different parties look for any little clue that might lead to an explanation of what happened.  Detectives are hired.  For years, various groups grasp at possible leads.  Nothing is ever found. Nobody knows what happened to him.  Could he have walked out into a new life?  Unlikely.  Did anyone want him dead?  Yes.  It would have been a relief to the CIA, to the Thai Royals and to his silk competitors to have him gone.  His political positions were embarrassing to the US and the Thai elite despised him.  A tragedy, indeed.

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, where Jim Thompson disappeared.

This story is so familiar to me.  I grew up in Brazil during a time when there was great civil unrest (1970's).  Students were disappearing by the thousands.  Dissidents were imprisoned, tortured and killed.  As a teenager, an American abroad, I was told, in whispers, to always say that Brazil was a democracy.  Later, in college, I learned about the CIA's role there, about the School of the Americas, of how Latin American dictators were puppets, held in place by the US government.  Of course, none of these stories are simple, black and white moments.  They evolved out of many legitimate fears coupled with greed and the desire for power.

Now, both South America and Asia have become strong economic powers on their own terms.  We see an economic decline in the United States that rocks our way of life, our sense of entitlement.  Brazilians flock Disneyworld and fly up to Miami to shop.  Thailand is party land, a center for easy drugs and prostitutes.  The lesson for me is that what we do is important.

My portal to many countries is usually through their textiles and crafts.  Jim Thompson's story resonates with me because of this connection and because of his understanding of how economic development can happen through handicraft production and through the arts.  He was about fair trade before the term was even coined.  And, his story rings a bell because of the expat connection.  When I was a kid, almost every house in Brazil had a picture of JFK hanging next to Jesus with his bleeding heart.  Being an American back then was like being nobility.  I learned early on that some kids wanted to be my friend because I was an American.  Some were curious, some wanted "stuff".  Now, being an American is considered cancerous and downright dangerous in many countries.  This has not happened overnight.  It's decades and even centuries of abuse on our end.  This is truly the great American tragedy.  With our way of war, we have lost our friends.

Everything we do has political and economic consequences.  What we buy, what we eat, where we walk, drive or fly.  And, this is what drives my passion behind my love for all things handmade:  We can be simple so that we can simply live.  In peace, with one another.

Jim Thompson with weavers.

Resources:

Jim Thompson Website
The Jim Thompson House

TAFA Members Working in Thailand:


TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles
Unique Batik Fair Trade
Luxury Lanna Crafts
Siamese Dream Design

Book Review: "The Ideal Man" by Joshua Kurlantzick

Affecting Change in Your Corner of the World

"Gandhi" by Diana Bracy

You must be the change 
you want to see in the world.

-Mahatma Gandhi

I just watched an inspiring video by Jeff Skoll, one of the founders of eBay, at a TED conference.  The video is several years old, yet still current in its message:

Jeff's path is one example of one person who succeeded in harnessing his talents and ideas into successful businesses that could then allow him to give back to society.  We have several leaders today, who like him, are working on the big issues that threaten our world's future: the environment, economic inequality, human rights, war, etc.  Any one of those issues seems daunting enough on its own.  Together, the state of world affairs seems depressing indeed.  How do we move forward and hope for a future in the face of this mess?


My answer is that we have to believe that each person can truly make a difference.  Diana's quilt above is made by tiny pieces of fabric, each a different shade.  On its own, the piece might not seem significant.  As a part of the whole, it is essential.

Many pieces make the whole.

Two years ago, at right about this time, I had an idea and put it out there:  I felt that those of us who have an online presence and are trying to get an audience for our work as fiber artists or textile businesses needed a better way of getting the word out.  Most of my peers were starting to use social media sites, opening shops on Etsy and spending a lot of time networking and doing what we thought we needed to do get business to come to us.  Swimming alone in an ocean of information.....  We needed to band together and be so beautiful that the right people would come to us.  TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List was born.  Two years later, we are almost ready with our state of the art new website.  You can preview it here.  We are now at 402 members from over 30 countries.


Yes, I have worked hard to make this happen, but it could not have happened on my own.  Many of TAFA's members have stepped forward with their time and money to help this dream come true.  I've had to learn a lot along the way and have some tips on what has worked for me:

1. Be passionate.  Love what you do with your whole heart and be willing to take risks for it.  Expect that it will take time and endless hours of unrewarded effort.
2. Define your Vision.  Don't replicate what is already being done out there.  Most of the textile and fiber art organizations that are out there serve their specific niche.  TAFA embraces all of the textile and fiber art traditions, but members are vetted in based on the maturity of both their product and their presentation.  Members came together in a think tank to help write the mission:   TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List is a membership organization of fiber artists and textile businesses on the web.  TAFA showcases member portfolios through its website, provides access to larger markets, offers business resources and fosters community.
3. Establish a Home Base on the web.  I used Blogger as it is easy to set up, free, and integrates with other platforms.  
4. Set up your social media hubs.  TAFA now has active hubs on facebook, google+, flickr, LinkedIn and a team on Etsy.  
5. Build your community.  I started with my peers and several signed on.  Then, I visited thousands of websites over the past two years, inviting the cream of the crop to join.  Of every 100 that I visited, 10 were invited and of those, 1 accepted.  It took persistence, but as the list of members grew, it became more legitimate and interesting as a group.
6. Make the financial risk minimal:  For the first year, membership in TAFA was $25.  This was an affordable amount to risk in a new enterprise.  In the second year, the membership fee went up to $48.  Now, in the beginning of the 3rd year, it is up to $75.  Members have also supported TAFA financially with inexpensive ads.
7. Reward your supporters:  As TAFA grows and establishes itself, my main priority is, "How will this benefit the whole membership?"  I have tried to build systems that benefit everyone equally.  
8. Ask for help.  There have been times where I was stuck or against the wall.  The members stepped up to the plate and helped me center my energies in a productive way.  (Don't do this too often as it can get annoying....  )
9. Build your financial support.  Once you have your project seasoned and can show something for what you have done, take it to the next level and get the financial support you need to fund your tools.  We identified the need for a "real" website with a robust search engine and estimated that it would cost $5,000.  We raised exactly that through the members in a fundraiser using Indiegogo.  By the time the site is finished and does everything I want it to do, it will end up costing closer to $10,000 (Spring 2012).  But, I expect the site to raise the rest of the money on its own through new memberships and advertising.
10. Set it free.  Let your dream take root and become bigger than yourself.

After two years of hard work, TAFA has established a name and identity within the textile and fiber art community.  The next steps will include separating it from my personal business and making it an S-Corporation, getting it to become financially stable so that it can hire staff, and ultimately selling shares back to the members so that it can become member owned.  I predict that it will take another two years before we get to that point, but when it happens, TAFA will be something beyond my own vision.

Jeff Skoll's speech confirmed much of my own process.  Some of us, creative entrepreneurs, have a gift at seeing a need and of imagining a way in which that need can be addressed.  When TAFA can fly on its own, I will probably start something else as I have always been an idea person.  Change does not have to happen by creating a new project like eBay, or on a much smaller scale, TAFA.  It happens by each of us being conscious about everything we do.  If you are an artist, think about the materials that you use.  Are they toxic?  Can you recycle garbage into your work?  Can you involve your local community into an activity that helps them understand art in a new way?  Are there local organizations that need your time or financial support?  Each person's talents, resources and visions all contribute to change the world, a bit at a time, to make it a better place.

FACES of EARTH - 1972 NASA Blue Marble image of Earth as a Twitter Mosaic.

Affecting Change in Your Corner of the World

Isabel Allende's message to women: Be passionate and change the world!

Isabel Allende

I have loved Isabel Allende's books over the years.  Blending that special Latin magical realism with history, both real and imagined, her stories capture the passion possible through characters that mirror our world.

She was a guest speaker for a TED conference.  These 18 minutes will make you laugh and will inspire you towards the change that most of us are wishing for our world:  justice, freedom and kindness.  This was filmed in 2007 but is more than relevant for today.

See her books and learn more about Isabel Allende on her website.

Isabel Allende's message to women: Be passionate and change the world!

Steve Jobs Leaves Us a Challenge: Live Fully

Steve Jobs, Apple Genius and Visionary

The sad news that Steve Jobs has died is a top story on the news today.  Can one man or woman change the world?  Steve Jobs did.  And, he did it in an elegant and dignified manner.  I don't know how he passed his last weeks or hours, but imagine that he did it with similar grace, as much as that is possible as a body succumbs to cancer.  I know so many people right now who are also facing that inevitable transition we must all go through someday: when death closes the final door to life as we know it.

A couple of quotes from Steve Jobs:

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me.  Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me."

"I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."

Most of us will not make the headlines when we die, but we can impact those around us with our talents and gifts.  We can be a light in our small corner of the world.  Steve Jobs strove to keep things simple and light, to make things functional and useful, and to enjoy the process and make it meaningful. 

I wonder what else he would have brought the world if he had lived to old age.  A candle that burned too brightly and too quickly?  In the end, all of the money in the world, all of the medical knowledge we now have, the resources and technology, cannot save us when it is time to go.  

Life is precious.  Live fully!

Steve Jobs Leaves Us a Challenge: Live Fully

Comfort Quilts Requested for Japan

TAFA Member Terry Aske

We have a long tradition of charity knitting, quilting, and sewing in the United States.  Women, especially, gather together or work independently to send clothing and bedding to the needy around the world.  I have a friend who knits for both soldiers in Afghanistan and children who have been orphaned by the war, two separate organizations.  I call her the "Yin Yang Knitter" as it seems like she is comforting both sides of the coin.  Even men and boys came together and learned how to knit in World War II, sending socks, mittens, sweaters and hats to the boys in the trenches.

TAFA Member FolkWear

Now we have this horrible tragedy unfolding in Japan.  TAFA member, Valerie Hearder, received a call for quilts which can be handed out to those who have been displaced from their homes.  The Japanese have been avid partners in quilt events, exhibiting in shows, visiting, forming alliances, and sharing techniques.  We normally have a large contingent which comes every year to Paducah for our quilt show.  This year?  I doubt very much that a quilt show will be on the list of priorities...  But, perhaps some solace and comfort can be offered from us to them through these quilts.

TAFA Member Peppermint Pinwheels

Valerie's contact is Naomi Ichikawa, Editor of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin Magazine.  Naomi lives in Tokyo and her mother and brother survived the tsunami in Sendai.  Here is Naomi's request:

Dear Valerie,

It is still bad situation now in Japan.  We are still nervous about shaking and radiation, but no way to escape.

I start to announce to the quilters to send us comfort quilts for the people who are suffered. I would like to do it to the world quilters.  We will deliver the comfort quilts to the people who are very difficult situation.  Could you please help to announce it to the quilters in Canada?

We accept any size of quilts(baby to adult), new or unused.
The deadline would be the end of May or later.

Send the quilts to:
(until the middle of April)
Naomi Ichikawa, Editor of Patchwork Quilt tsushin Patchwork Tsushin Co., Ltd 5-28-3, Hongo,Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan    zip:113-0033

(after the middle of April)
Naomi Ichikawa
Patchwork Tsushin Co.,Ltd
2-21-2, Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan zip:113-0034

I will appreciate it if you help me.

Naomi

TAFA Member Victoria Gertenbach

Valerie sent a follow-up e-mail reporting that there has been a tremendous response to her email and that she has heard from groups as far away as Norway who want to help.  That is wonderful news, but I imagine that the need exceeds our ability to respond at this point, so all efforts will be greatly appreciated.  Remember, too, that we tend to think of tragedies at the moment they occur, but the aftermath of rebuilding lives and homes lasts for years and years.  Remember New Orleans and Haiti?  Not much in the news these days, yet neither has recovered from their disasters.

Valerie also added the following info:

Naomi has advised that it would be better for the quilts to arrive at the end of April and into June. They have found that lines of distribution are so difficult that it will take longer.  Also, it is not cheap to mail quilts to Japan. Some fundraising for the shipping arranged will probably be in order. If you're working in a group to ship quilts to Japan, a newspaper article about the effort could help to generate donations for shipping.

Channel 4 News: Save the Children

Save the Children reported that 100,000 children have been displaced due to the tsunami and earthquake.  This article talks about what they are doing to help.  The comfort quilts are a wonderful, long term project that will bring show support and care from the world community.  But, many other needs are a priority right now.  Check into your favorite charities and see what they are doing to help with this crisis.  Money is desperately needed to fund the many efforts that seek to address evacuation, water, food, shelter, and clean-up.  I have added a banner at the top of my blog that links to "Doctors Without Borders", one of my favorite organizations.  If you can afford to help, send in your donation to the organization you support and then get to work on that quilt!

TAFA Member My Sweet Prairie

You don't quilt?  Here's another idea: 

Buy a quilt from one of our TAFA members and send it to Japan.  

You will be helping an artist AND contributing to the cause.  The gift that keeps on giving!  

Visit TAFA's quilters and quilt artists.   

(Keep hitting the "see older posts" at the bottom of the page to see all of them.)

Comfort Quilts Requested for Japan

The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Natural Disaster

Evelyne Alcide, Port Au Prince, Haiti, Seisme (Earthquake), 2010

(Santa Fe, NM - March 15, 2011)—The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Natural Disaster explores how folk artists helped their communities recover from four recent natural disasters: the Haitian Earthquake; Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast; Pakistani floods; and the recent volcanic eruption of Mt. Merapi in Indonesia.

Opening July 3, 2011 in the Museum of International Folk Art’s ‘Gallery of Conscience,’ The Arts of Survival will be the gallery’s second annual exhibition. Last year’s inaugural exhibition Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities showed the successful efforts of women folk artists to raise their communities from the ravages of war and worse to build clinics, provide education, and the basic necessities of life. The Arts of Survival runs through May 6, 2012.
The Arts of Survival opens International Folk Arts Week and culminates with the 8^th Annual International Folk Arts Market running July 8 - 10, 2011. Highlights of the week will be artist demonstrations, artist talks, lectures, and more.

_______________________

This timely exhibit comes from one of the places I long to visit, The Museum of International Folk Art.  Maybe this will be the year!  You can find more information on this page.


The Arts of Survival....  Such an appropriate title to describe our times.  It seems like the world is exploding all around us.  The exhibit zooms in on Haiti, which is still suffering so much from its earthquake last year, and now we have Japan.  There are no words to express the horrible tragedy that continues to unfold there.  It is absolutely awful.  A friend of mine is convinced that this is the beginning of the end, referring to the predictions of the Mayan calendar of 2012: total destruction of the world.

I do not feel so pessimistic.  Yes, there is a lot of chaos in our world right now.  There is nothing we can do about natural disasters except to help the survivors, pick up the pieces and try to be smarter about where we build, what we build (nuclear reactors on earthquake prone land?), and how we impact this earth with our consumerism.  Then there is all the chaos caused by human friction: protests and confrontation all over the Middle East (and Wisconsin !!!!), human slave trade, the continued subjugation of women and children, poverty and starvation caused by greed and mismanagement of resources.  It goes on and on and on...  Survival can definitely become an art!

How do we handle all of this?  One can be tempted to just shut the news off and go about life in a little bubble, a cocoon of personal happiness. 

I think that the way to respond and to feel like there is hope is to pick a couple of issues where you can feel like your time, money and energy will make a difference.  Perhaps one that is local to where you live and one that has an international focus.  Giving leads to receiving and as we engage with the other, we find ourselves and realize that we are all connected.

Artists have recorded history through the ages: the good the bad and the ugly.  We have had war and natural disasters all along our human story.  Recording these through the survivor's narrative has such an important role in our future as one thing also remains constant: we forget.  We don't learn from our past mistakes.  We keep seeing the same dynamics played over and over again in history: power, greed, oppression.  And, out of the ashes, come those voices of hope.  I know I will want to see this exhibit and if you can make it, I'm sure that you will, too.

The Arts of Survival: Folk Expression in the Face of Natural Disaster

You make stuff. Are you an artist or a crafter?

My friend Neddy Astudillo's self portrait.

Ah....  the big can of worms!  What is art?  What is craft? 

Recently, several discussions about this have made their way into my little world and I felt compelled to bring the problem into the public arena.  As people who make stuff and try to make a living at it, we often run into trouble when we try to define what we do to our audiences and peers.  "Artists" are often snobs who look down their noses on "crafters".  Why the big divide between people who should have common concerns about materials, marketing, and achieving a receptive audience?  I believe that the main struggle has to do with money.  "Art" has traditionally commanded a higher price point for similar work and skills than "Craft".  As an example, a quilt made by an Amish woman might be priced at a tenth of what a quilter in the fiber art world might charge for work that is less skilled and that took less time to make.  How can that be fair?

A mola blouse worn by the Kuna Indians 

could be classified as "folk art" or as a craft.

First, let's take a look at the words, art and craft.  Craft originally referred to a specialized skill.  This could include writing, blacksmithing, doctoring, or any professional activity.  You could excel at your craft or fail at it.  In time, crafts became synonymous with handwork: embroidery, carving, sewing, pottery and other activities that refer to the making of functional and decorative objects.  Art, on the other hand, traditionally refers to work that somehow taps into the soul, that has a muse.  It is expected that art is a journey of the spirit that explores originality.  So, a writer or musician who has this muse is as much an artist as the painter.  In the last century, access to arenas that had been traditionally inherited or mentored became available to anyone who was curious.  Books, videos, kits, ready supplies and workshops all made it easy for the novice to experiment and compete with the traditional keepers of the arts and the crafts.  Flooding the market confused the words.  Arts and Crafts became lumped together as one category.  This created tension as now anyone could be an artist, anyone could practice the craft.

Paint by numbers: are they art or craft or what?  

They have become highly collectible.  

Read this interesting article about why.

My background has been a long journey of working with ethnic crafts along with my own thirst for following my muse.  I have witnessed the disappearance of many traditional crafts around the world as wars, famine and industrialization push people out of their cottage industries into formal occupations dictated by their local economies.  As I struggle with learning new skills and experiment with producing my own body of work, I am always humbled by the techniques and creativity I see in the textiles I sell.  I will never be as good as these women are who made these embroideries in some far off village, yet their work is sold for peanuts, while I can determine that my inferior work has a certain value based on hours worked, materials and originality.  This discussion of what is art and the value of craft has international repercussions and also boils down to that basic question of price point.

There have been some attempts at resolving this problem of value by adding words to art and craft that specialize the product.  So, now we have "fine art", "folk art", "outsider art", "fiber art", "abstract art", "wearable art", and so on.  All of those extra words increase the price point of what was otherwise just "art". We also have "functional craft", "designer craft", "studio craft", "American craft", "handicraft", and "country craft", which also increase or decrease the market value of the product.  We are now experiencing a revolution in the United States that embraces all things hand made as a rejection of the cheap commercialized products available in large retailers like Walmart.  This discussion encompasses all of the crafts including food, housing, and transportation.  Getting back to basics and having intimate knowledge of many crafts has made the "Renaissance" man or woman into a superhero who can go into the woods, drag out the trees that nature felled on its own, build a hut, make rain into the water supply, grow food, spin wool, and have a virtual zero carbon footprint on the environment.  This modern Thoreau will also have an overactive muse who will help him or her write, compose, and make everything into spirit-filled canvases.  Thus, the true artist.

I could go on and on, but let me share a few vignettes and that make a conclusion.

In Caruaru, Brazil, a whole town mass produces little clay figurines that were started by folk artist, Mestre Vitalino.  The video below is a short documentary on Vitalino.  It's in Portuguese, but has good photos of his work.  The town recently celebrated the 100 years since he was born.  So, this guy developed an interesting style in clay, became sought after and collected, and the local people wanted a piece of the action and now replicate his work over and over and over.  It is fine that they do this because they are giving continuity to both a craft medium and recording local folklore that is rapidly disappearing.  I tried to import a bunch of these clay pieces, but they were low fire and I lost about 30% of what I bought due to breakage in transportation.  But, while I was there, I was wandering around through the different houses, deciding what to buy.  I happened into one where this little old man was making huge sculptures of bizarre mythological figures.  Many were over six feet high and they would be impossible to transport.  Each had a handwritten story attached as these were all images he had seen in his dreams.  Conclusion:  Vitalino and the crazy old man both had muses.  They are artists.  The villagers mass producing the clay figures are artisans or crafters.  Vitalino and the old guy deserve more recognition and more money because of their vision.

When I first lived in Chicago, I had many friends who were studying at the Art Institute, so I went to lots of art openings in those days.  Almost every senior show was peppered with photos, collages, sculptures or drawings of vaginas.  If you were a female art student, it was a given that the vagina had to be an "in your face" subject.  It got very old fast.  Conclusion:  The art world can push an original subject into mass production, thus losing its value.


At a fair trade conference several years ago, a whiny woman from South America (Bolivia, I think), got up to testify that the artisans in her community were like everybody else.  They were grateful for work, but what they really wanted to be were doctors and lawyers and teachers.  They wanted nice houses, cars, televisions and all the amenities of the developed world.  Conclusion:  Making stuff is just another job for many people.  The market has a demand for it, but there is no muse there.  This is craft and it can be very good, but can also be shoddy and of inferior quality.

There are all those issues of child labor and sweatshops.

Read about orphans working in Kashmir.

I never really liked Picasso until I visited his museum in Barcelona.  Surrounded by his body of work and following the processes that he explored, I was overwhelmed by his genius.  I still do not like a lot of his later work, but I understood why he made it big.  Conclusion: Art demands a body of work that shows growth, experimentation and maturity.

The Zulu of South Africa make wonderful baskets that are very similar to Navajo baskets.  Technically, they equal each other, but the Zulu baskets sell for a fraction in value to the Navajo.  Why?  The art community has elevated Navajo traditional work to art status.  Native Americans who still employ ancient techniques are relatively few and are considered masters while most other Native American crafts have resorted to mass production for tourist consumption.  The Zulu basket makers still have their village structures intact and are capable of maintaining production standards because they have community support.  Conclusion:  Art is subjective and changes depending on availability.  What is now considered a handicraft might be art as that culture is disseminated.

Is this Zulu woman an artist?

Visit Zanzibar Tribal Art for more info on Zulu weavers. 

That's probably enough to get some reactions from you, the reader.  Am I an artist?  It's easier to say that to people than to go into the tiresome descriptions of how I sell online, have a bunch of odd jobs, and jump around between what some might consider art and others will define as craft.  If I say that I am an artist, it will be assumed that I am odd.  The IRS considers us to be whatever we make our money at.  So, I am an online retailer as that is where I make the bulk of my living.  Several years ago, I heard a statistic that said that less than 2% of people who had their master's degrees in art ended up in an art related field. Most of us do something else to pay our bills and explore the muse in our free time.  But, there is a spiritual element to my process, whether making a hat or a quilt.  When I am engaged in the process, the rest of the world falls away and I am the closest I can get to a state which others describe as prayer or meditation.  The end result is not as important to me as the actual making of stuff.

I think I'm an artist because I am odd.

(Rachel Biel Taibi having fun with a photo editing program)

I find this discussion especially frustrating because in the long run, I don't really care about these labels.  All of it is subjective, the market is whimsical, and what I think is really important is that people are excited about making stuff.  We are so far removed from where things come from (food, clothing, machines, furniture) that anything we can do to try to relate to the materials around us (paper, pen, ink, wood, paint, dirt) is a good thing in my book.  But, my frustration comes in wading through all the junk to get to the good stuff.  I can't sell any new, fair trade items on Etsy because it is considered a commercial product.  Yet, someone can sew a sequin on a pair of jeans and sell it as handmade.  I find this extremely limiting on a non-juried international site.  It creates a divide between those of us who are creating handmade stuff, whether art or craft, but may not have computer skills.  People like me do a great service to those who do not speak English or who cannot access larger markets.  I can sell vintage ethnic crafts, but the artisans who made them are dead, so they don't benefit from it.  Language and perceptions of what these words mean do have a powerful impact on not only how we perceive the "stuff", but also what opportunities we grant to the people who made them.

So, this is my story and I'm sticking to it!  Let the food fight begin!

Saturn, by Goya

You make stuff. Are you an artist or a crafter?

Murder in Paducah. My Neighbor is Dead.

Don't Shoot, By Miles Tebbutt

There is a house across the street that is full of people. It's a problem house. Dogs run around without a leash, scaring the postal worker and kids walking by, fights break out between the tenants and other neighbors, and there is just a sense of chaos around that place. Last night it escalated into real violence, ending up with the death of one of them. My relationship with them has centered on frustration around their lack of dog control as they cross the street and provoke mine, who are fenced, into a frenzy.

At 4AM last night, a loud bang woke me up and my dogs went out of control with their barking. The noise sounded about the same as when the electrical terminals exploded during the Ice Storm we had in February, so I thought another one had shorted out. When I opened the door, I found that there was a firetruck, ambulance and around ten cop cars out front. There was a lot of action on the front porch on that house across the street. I watched for about an hour, knowing that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. There was a lot of screaming and crying. I saw the medics go to the back of the house and come back with a body on a stretcher. I finally went back to bed and had nightmares for the rest of the night.

In the morning, the cops were still there. One of the tenants crossed the street and told me what had happened. Some girlfriend of some guy who didn't live there was at the house, the boyfriend came and when one of the guys opened the door to him, he was shot in the chest with a shotgun. Dead. Gone. I kept having images in my head of him playing with his dog, joking around. He was very sweet in his own way.

Canadian Poster Campaign for Gun Control

I moved to Kentucky four years ago from Chicago. Big city to small town, USA. Lots of differences, but all of the same social problems, although there is less organized gang violence here. Still, there is plenty of good and bad in both places. I was in the heart of the inner city in Chicago and had seen my share of bad stuff. I was at a pastor's house once and we ducked as a bullet came in through the kitchen window. I saw a teenager walking around with an ouzi. My apartment was broken into twice and once I nabbed the burglar. He slipped out of my grasp and jumped out of the window and ran, duh, TOWARDS the police station a block away. They caught him with my camera and boombox in hand. When I first moved to Chicago in 1984, I made a decision that I would not live in fear. I would try not to be stupid, but I knew that I was not the probable target and that if I were sensible, I'd probably be OK. Same thing here.

But, when I first arrived in Paducah, I had a part-time job at Hancock's of Paducah, one of the largest suppliers of specialty quilt fabrics in the world. As I cut fabric, I enjoyed the stories told by the sweet women who worked there. Repeatedly, they warned me that if someone broke into my house, I was to make sure to kill, not injure. Apparently, a thief can sue you if they come on to your property and your dog bites them. Later, I kenneled my dogs when I went out of town with this tiny, little, blond woman who had a bunch of horses, labs, and birds. When I picked them up, I told them that I was going to take the dogs to a forest preserve, Land Between the Lakes, so they could go swimming. She said she never goes there without her gun, but I should be OK with four dogs to protect me. It's a very strange thing to move from a place where the criminals have guns to another one where the citizens also subscribe to being armed. Feels like what my friend Abdul describes in Afghanistan, where everyone has rifles hanging from their kitchen ceilings.

Peace Art Project Cambodia (PAPC)

Like most things in my life, I have contradictory feelings about all of this. I have no interest in owning a gun, I know that I would never defend myself that way, and I believe that the argument for owning these weapons are flawed and unconvincing. We live in a violent society which has violence on a pedestal. I'm part of it, too. I love well-done war movies, I listen to murder mysteries all the time, and I understand the need people have to feel like they need protection. Without my dogs, I would feel terribly vulnerable here. Yet, anyone with a gun could come in and shoot us all down in a few seconds. It's all a very sad and hopeless state of affairs. Friends report on the escalation of violence in large cities in South America where homes are now protected with high walls and topped off with electrical fences. They say it feels like one is a prisoner in their own home. I really don't see how we can change all of this except to choose peace and conflict resolution in our own small circles and hope that it will become contagious. I know that the law of the land here will never support gun control as it is in other industrialized nations, so I just have to hope that when a bullet comes my way, I can duck fast enough... By the way, the cops here in Paducah are really great. I have seen them deal with several crises and they are always calm, cool, collected and they get their job done. They caught the suspect!

Shotgun Chair by Alex Reh of Texas

The following facts are from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence:

FACT: In 2006, there were 30,896 gun deaths in the U.S: 12,791 homicides (41% of total deaths), 16,883 suicides (55% of total deaths), 642 unintentional shootings (2% of total deaths), 360 from legal intervention (1.2% of total deaths) and 220 from undetermined intent (.8% of total deaths).

(Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2009.)

"Standard Issue Smith & Wesson," by Stephanie Syjuco

FACT: Suicide is still the leading cause of firearm death in the U.S., representing 54.6% of total 2006 gun deaths nationwide. In 2006, the U.S. firearm suicide total was 16,883, a decrease from 2005 total of 17,002 gun suicides. Total gun suicides in Illinois for 2006 were 372, a decrease of 12% from the 2005 number 424. Over half of suicides in the U.S. are committed with firearms.

(Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2009; and the American Association of Suicidology.)

FACT: While handguns account for only one-third of all firearms owned in the United States, they account for more than two-thirds of all firearm-related deaths each year. A gun in the home is 4 times more likely to be involved in an unintentional shooting, 7 times more likely to be used to commit a criminal assault or homicide, and 11 times more likely to be used to attempt or commit suicide than to be used in self-defense.

(A Kellerman, et al. Journal of Trauma, August 1998; Kellerman AL, Lee RK, Mercy JA, et al. “The Epidemiological Basis for the Prevention of Firearm Injuries.” Annu.Rev Public Health. 1991; 12:17-40.)

pistol own skin 2004 by Joanneke Meester, Netherlands

FACT: 59% of students in grades six through twelve know where to get a gun if they want one, and two thirds of these students say they can acquire a firearm within 24 hours. (Harvard School of Public Health.)

FACT: As of 1994, 44 million Americans owned more than 192 million firearms, 65 million of which were handguns. Although there were enough guns to have provided every U.S. adult with one, only 25% of adults owned firearms. Seventy-four percent (74%) of gun owners possessed two or more firearms.

- National Institute of Justice, May 1997

Precita Park memorial bench. Made with 130 melted guns in honor of a young couple gunned down by an unstable relative. Guns into Art.

FACT: Every two years more Americans die from firearm injuries than the total number of American soldiers killed during the 8-year Vietnam War. In 2003, the total number of people killed by guns in the United States was 30,136.

- Based on data from CDC National Center for Health Statistics WISQARS online data collection system, 2006.

Peace Art Project Cambodia (PAPC)

And, this one is from the American Bar Association:

"The overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children younger than 15 years of age is nearly 12 times higher than among children in 25 other industrialized countries combined."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1997;46:101-105.

"He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."
-Isaiah 2:4

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Murder in Paducah. My Neighbor is Dead.

Mohammed: A Citizen

Mohammed: A Citizen

The last three weeks have been full, especially with travel. My husband and I visited my family in Wisconsin, spent a few days seeing friends in Chicago and then made a long awaited trip to Louisville, Kentucky for his citizenship ceremony.

Me with my husband, calling my parents.

I documented the event with my new cameras, a Pentax digital SLR (love it!) and a Canon Videocamera (don't really know how to use it yet...). I made the following video for him as a gift. It's my first attempt at using Windows Movie Maker's editing tools. Aaaargh! It took three days to get it down to this. If you watch it, you will see that I have a lot to learn! It's also a bit corny... But, it's a gift for a sweet, corny kind of guy!

Mohammed came down to Louisville from Chicago with two friends, Don and Betty, who are 89 and 85. I met them, driving from Paducah. The day was marred by a horrible accident. A car ran a red light and a pickup, attempting to avoid that car, lost control and ended up upside down on the back of Don's car. We were told that we had just left the car, so we were grateful that nobody was hurt.

The ceremony itself was very interesting and multicultural. After speeches of various pundits and notorious leaders, we all processed to an international festival, a few blocks away. It was obvious that this was a moment of great joy and accomplishment for all of the new citizens who joined in this melting pot that is the United States. Legal citizenship means years of paperwork, fingerprinting, documenting, and quite a bit of money.

New Americans.

Now we can put the process behind us and go about the business of making a life here. As any immigrant knows, life in these United States is not a path paved in gold, but rather one shaped by struggle. Yet, as these same immigrants know, we still have freedoms and opportunities here that have been lost in many places around the world. I welcome Mohammed to this country and will enjoy watching him develop his identity as an American. Being an American is like a double-edged sword: we are loved and hated, respected and feared, emulated and despised. Learning how to balance these perceptions reminds us that all nations are made up of people, individuals who may or may not endorse their leaders.

The great melting pot.

I am a citizen, not of Athens or Greece,
but of the world.
-Socrates

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Mohammed: A Citizen

Tithing for Textiles

Ralli Quilt from Pakistan

I recently had an Etsy customer buy three of my ralli quilts. She bought two the first time and then several weeks later, a third one. Most of what I carry in my shops are low end items, under $30. Textile stamps have the biggest following, but the remnants, beads, fabric and molas also get their share of attention. The higher end, vintage textiles (ralli quilts, suzani embroideries and kilims), sit for a longer period in my shops, but eventually, the right person finds them and they also sell. This customer mentioned that she was excited to spend money from her textile fund.

Textile fund? Interesting.... She set aside money every month until she had enough to buy something that really was special to her. That got me to thinking.... Most of the people that I know have lost a lot of money during these hard economic times. This lost money means that "disposable" income that could be used for fun, for impulse purchases, is gone. The belt tightens up and priorities (mortgages, utilities, food, etc.) take precedence over unnecessary purchases. Most would argue that buying a textile or art falls into that "unnecessary" category. Yet, even in hard times, most of us spend money on non-art things that we also don't need: a coffee, an electronic toy, a hamburger, and so on. $10 here, $15 there. I would argue that there is a place, a needed one, for beautiful, handmade things in our lives. So, what if we actually made that a priority and set up a fund for beauty?

Suzani Embroidery from Uzbekistan

Having limited income forces most of us to think more carefully about our purchases. I do think that this is a behavior that we, as a society, desperately need if we are to change how we impact this earth. We buy and sell so much junk, so much stuff that just ends up in a corner, eventually gets donated or thrown out. Stuff that will never biodegrade. Stuff that breaks the first time you use it. Stuff that becomes obsolete in two years. Stuff, stuff, stuff. When we don't have much money, we still have this urge to spend and this makes us go for what is cheap.

Banana Leaf with Butterflies, Mola from Panama

My mother is the incarnation of the practical woman who understands value as that what is lasting. She was a farm girl from Minnesota of Icelandic stock. When I was six months old, she and my Dad went to Brazil as missionaries and we spent the next 18 years there. Shopping was always a search for value. Not for what was cheap, but for what would last. We had one of those old wringer washing machines that would destroy anything that was poorly sewn. They boiled the clothes, so if dye was not set, it would leak on everything else. She would rather have one good sweater that would last twenty years, then 10 sweaters that would fall apart in a year. I learned that lesson from her and look at everything in terms of how it is built or constructed.

My mother reading me a story in 1962.

So, maybe setting up a separate bank account for beauty is one way to go. My customer also made me think of the concept of tithing. This is a practice many churches have of giving 10% of one's income back to the church in order to fund church projects and to help the poor. Jews, Muslims, and other religions have similar concepts. In the old days, this concept went beyond money and included one's labor: crops or products. At different points in European history, tithing was translated into taxation, overseen by the Church with political backing. Forced tithing or taxation resulted in imprisonment, land grabbing and finally, revolts. Tithing went back to a voluntary concept.

Handwoven kilim from Afghanistan

In thinking about this, I am attracted by the idea of not only setting up a beauty fund, but of also allocating a percentage of one's productivity toward charity. Those of us who are artists do have an asset that can be given back to society. We can volunteer our knowledge to a community program (after-school programs, nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters, etc) through teaching a free workshop or we can donate items that we make or our computer skills to fund-raising events or to the less fortunate around us.

Each of us has to find our place in this world and to choose how we spend our buying power and our productive energy. The handmade movement does have a huge impact on what is being made (is it junk?) and where these things end up. We can save for beauty, tithe for it, work for it, and slowly change the perceptions of what we need and want. My thanks to a wonderful customer who made me do a bit of thinking!

Tithing for Textiles