A year later, and what have I got to say for myself?! A new lovely reddish, groggy paper clay has been discovered and successfully become my number 1 choice for new sculpture. My adult students seemed to have enjoyed their Summer Salon ("the most fun I have had all summer!"), and my young art students are teaching me more than they will ever know. I am thoroughly happy to awaken or encourage the creative process in others, no matter what their age.
For those of you who contemplate the state of creativity in our country, I will relate to you an issue as I see it, pose a question and hope a few keyboards are wildly tapped in response.
Yesterday in the business section of the Los Angeles Times, there was an article about women entrepreneurs. As a l-o-o-o-o-ng time member of Women in Design-LA, my loyalties to the creativity and entrepreneurship of womenkind have been established. Neither should you be concerned about my enjoyment of well conceived graphics. I even use store-bought birthday cards most of the time these days as the paper base for sending personal greetings.
But I was taken aback by the business example that was used to describe the kind of product a successful home-based "mom entrepreneur" has launched. Her company creates love notes for busy mothers to slip into lunch bags.
What strange phenomenon. That a mother would feel her love and care is conveyed to a child by such a purchased thing strikes me another "epitome of a super-consumer society" marker. A "dying culture" touchstone. Honestly, I do not hope this product is successful. If a mother, even in the frenetic rush to get everyone off to school and work, cannot have a note pad and Sharpie on the counter to write an "I (heart) U" to slip in next to the sandwich, perhaps we are worse off in the realm of "creative confidence" than I thought.
Here is my question: Am I just naturally slipping into late middle age and just cannot see that a product like this one is a boon to a new generation of mothers? Or do you sense, like I do, that a product like this could only exist in a country where we are teaching children in every aspect of their lives, that if it doesn't cost money and come from a store shelf, it isn't valuable?