Working my craft

As I have been listening to my two new CD's from Italian singer Claudio Baglioni, it is amazing to compare his voice at the beginning of his career to the incredible sound of his voice now. I don't completely understand the nuances of what he is saying in his songs but I am impressed by how much his voice has improved. Compared to his first songs, his voice now 28 years later, is deeper, stronger and richer. Here is a man who has worked at his craft.

So, I ask myself, woman, have you been working at to improve your craft? Well, that brings up the question, err, what craft? Just what have I been working at improving? That question threw me for a loop for a while. I work at improving myself at work and I am a creative solution thinker and some of my work experience and work skills do transcend into my regular life but not in a quantifyable way. But as I think about the things I want to do, the things that excite me, there seems to be a dichotomy between my career and my life.

So, I came upon this post about Ruth Asawa, whose work I saw recently at the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco here. To quote the website, When asked about her life, she said, “that there is no separation between studying, performing the daily chores of living, and creating one’s own work.” And also “Sculpture is like farming. If you just keep at it, you can get quite a lot done.”

Throughout her life, Asawa remained true to this philosophy of no separation between her art and life. In a review of her work, art writer Shirle Gottlieb said, “Then as now, art is a way of living, an integral part of her life; less is always more; and the positive/negative elements of line, form, color and space must be kept in balance.”

I like what the artist has said, there is no difference between my life and work. I need to look at myself and say that I am my craft, the sum total of my experience and to keep working at it, whatever "it" is at the moment.