A little catch up for those in the back row chewing gum and not paying attention…
The tree on top of the studio is finally removed. A crane, a chainsaw, and one very agile, risk taking man later. It now lays cut up into eighteen inch long sections ready for the wood splitter and next years heat. I can breathe again. Watch The Hammer Portal today to see the tree man in action.
The Ruins Beehive Reveal Event will happen on May 1st at 2PM EST. It will be a LIVE online experience hosted by Mosaic Arts Online and will feature me narrating a series of videos, both from afar and close up, of the almost 400 individual Beehive Color Studies made by all of YOU. This event is FREE. All you need to do is click on the above purple magenta link a few minutes before go time.
For those familiar with the annual Ruins Virtual Tours…this will be the 2024 episode.
The People Who Build and the People Who Tear Down
I have always been dismal at being a critic. And I have decided that is a strength.
Over the years, students and colleagues will ask directly for a critique of their work. Or a mentorship relationship. Mostly, the invitation inspires a low-grade panic in me. I don’t find the words. I can’t see a way to communicate what I usually see or understand unconsciously. How can I explain to someone else what is mostly a mystery filled series of acts that get strung together and end with a piece of something that I like? Or love? Or to which I have an emotional connection?
I can lean over your shoulder and adjust an out of line tesserae. I can help you see the exact spot where your andamento goes astray. But I can’t tell you how to build your voice. I can’t tell you what the missing link is that will help your art move people’s souls.
And I really, really don’t want to.
The Builder
The nature of builders is to be in motion. Making mistakes. Laughing at the mistakes while they learn from them. Block by block. Tesserae by tesserae. Motion and vision working together. Builders are the people who are embracing the tragi-comedy of being alive. They understand that it’s really all ephemeral art, but they layer on the thin-set carefully anyway. They are the opposite of the consumer looking for the next thing to acquire. The next entertainment or passive distraction. Happily, the consumer can interact with the builder in a meaningful way. By careful, calculated consuming.
Builders obsess over getting a mission statement right, even if it never gets written down. As they age, they learn to quickly identify other builders. The website designer and the ambitious gardener have more in common than you think. The mosaic school founder and the restauranter. The engineer and the stay-at-home mom who loves her job.
They share the obsession of the next step. What comes next to make the world more interesting? But maybe most importantly, they take the risk.
The biggest difference between the creator and the critic is the former takes the risk and latter does not. The first risks ridicule. Finger pointing. Failure. You should have done it this way. Why weren’t you more sensitive about so and so? But also, financial risk. Sometimes health and family risks. Somewhere along her way, the creator learns to shield herself from the critic. Because she realizes that the criticisms are based on tearing down. Deconstructing, if you know that term from the art world. And that is the ultimate assault to the builder. A tear down takes minutes. Seconds. No time at all. A thoughtless battering ram through the carefully built castle wall.
While I answered questions from an enthusiastic audience the other night after The Ruins Movie premiere, a phrase came to me that I think is good to roll around in the mud with for a bit.
The Ruins is strong and fragile at the same time.
It is strong in its slowly built, cherished relationships. It is strong in its philosophy of leaving politics on the front stoop before you enter its sacred space. It is strong in its three rules. Rule #1 is to Honor What Was. Acknowledging the worthiness and wisdom of those builders who came before us is a skeleton key to understanding the complicated modern world through which we are stumbling.
The incredible response of the almost 300 Beehive artists is a clear signal of The Ruins’ strength. But every Achilles has his well-hidden heel. If The Ruins has a vulnerability, it will be attracting the attention, and criticisms, of people who don’t take the time to understand it. This may will eventually happen. I am doing my best to keep its growth spurts small. I have said many times that tour buses and big crowds will never be welcome. Our twenty-person limit for tours and our limited schedule of tours in general is my way of holding the smallness close, cherishing these years of its undiscovered gem-ness. The tours are a courtesy to the seekers. Not a given for the casual passerby.
You can read more deeply about my thinking on this in Building a Beautiful Moat. Or you can listen to me reading it in the audio clip below. Please leave notes for me in the comments if you like the read-alouds. I am enjoying making them and it seems like a fun way to re-discover The Archives. The older pieces are hidden behind my paywall, so this is today’s gift to you.
The next time you cross paths with a builder, building his thing, even if it’s just a sandcastle, nod to yourself and say that person is doing his work. The work of his life, maybe.
Smile at him and acknowledge the risk taking.
Thank you for being here as I keep digging for optimism. Some days with a hammer, some days with a shovel. And some days with a pen.
That was beautiful to listen to Rachel! I love your writing! I am a beginner at mosaic and was so scared to participate in the beehive project but I did so anyway… trying to ignore my inner critic . I’ve taken your classes on line and am a member of Rachel Davies mosaic group. All of these things have helped me grow. Thank you for letting a beginner into your castle / ruins . It’s an honor to be part of it. 🌻
The need to build, to grow,
is like the energy hiding in a tiny seed..
Irrepressible.
🙏❤️❤️❤️