METAPHYSICS FOR THE WORKSHOP
Questions & thoughts for students of all ages.

"...there seems to be only one business at hand - that of finding workable compromises
between the sublimity of our ideas and the absurdity of the fact of us."
- Annie Dillard
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Don't work to make money.
Make money so you can work.
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As you design, remember that the trashcan is your most excellent tool.
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"Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add,
but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint Exupery
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If you love their work, do not be afraid to copy a dead artist or designer for a time.
But close the book and work from your own memory.
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Principles and procedures may bring you into range - or not.
Only looking and responding to what you see will
set you on the mark.
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Three essential questions:
What shall I make?
How shall I make it?
Why am I making it?
Each question supports the other, but a brutally honest 'why?' is critical in moving forward as an artist.
This is a scary question which always reveals my superficiality.
But since it may awaken me to the secret place where soulful design begins, I welcome it.
It is this question sustained over a period of time
and answered by the body, not the head, or the emotions,
that separates the usual from the extraordinary.
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There is something haunting, sorrowful, hopeful, and full of longing (all at once) about great minor key Music.
In the case of Design, what might be the equivalent of the minor key?
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Don't work a detail into your design that you merely like.
Wait until you feel the inner truth of something before you give it a place in your work.
"Like" evolves boredom & distraction. Truth evolves power and soul.
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An artist spends some time in profound remorse and awe that his work
will never equal the uncanny fractal structure of the Grand Canyon
or the ugliest little bug for that matter.
Allow yourself this long, very interesting humiliation.
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To learn a craft, your precious illusions must be destroyed without mercy:
"A table has 4 legs."
"Metal is a solid."
"Wood can be explained."
Walk away from your opinions.
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Two opinions the artist/craftsman must walk away from:
"I know how."
&
"I don't know how."
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Often, more attention needs to be given to the process than to the results.
Nevertheless, an eye on the results enables us to correct a process.
Never question the value of either.
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"One must be faithful to oneself, almost believing in what one does,
yet faithful to the knowledge that the truth is always somewhere else."
-Peter Brook in The Shifting Point
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Tools are ideas.
Ideas are tools.
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A shop without a few thoughtful books might as well be without a screwdriver.
("How to" books don't count.)
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Try to understand that Art is not about Art;
and Craft is not about Craft.
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Quiet yourself and feel the inner life of every work, every detail.
You will then see that some detail here is pure joy,
while the same there is a deadly pretense.
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Don't make a habit of playing the radio while you are working in the shop.
Too many things are trying to get through to you.
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Don't make objects.
Make windows and maps.
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They say you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
But the truth be known, half the time you can.
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Serious, veteran craftsmen resolve a dozen philosophical and theological paradoxes by lunchtime.
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"The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist."
-Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy
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Listen to your material. Listen through your material.
Build. Study. Deconstruct your work.
Allow the work to deconstruct your mind and open your heart.
Begin again. And again.
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The spiritual key to craft is to understand that it is all about the transformation
of raw material into finer material,
early assumptions into understanding,
emotional reaction & sentimentalism into true feeling.
Working on a craft always implies working on yourself.
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But what is it that can do this inner work?
Something tells me it will take a thorough going honesty about myself & my projects
countered by great longing & expectation.
This almost contradictory interplay between vigilance & openness
forms the inner hand (the prehensile opposition) that guides the outer hand.
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At first there will be all this excitement about mastering tools and forcing wood or metal around.
You should work hard at this, but then notice the fact that it is just as much about
watching, waiting, and relaxing - learning to follow the wood, learning to listen to the tool.
You must do this with an eye to your place on this earth, under these stars.
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Consider the arch: It is perhaps a board or a collection of stones, but not just a board, not just stones.
It is firmly on the ground, but not just on the ground.
The arch lifts up from the ground, but does not leave it - it does not seek to levitate or leave the premises.
It seems to be a board (or pile of rocks) firmly on the ground, but somehow transformed by the gentle pull of overhead stars.
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Must the inner arch form in the soul, before the outer arch can be drawn?
Or is it the outer arch rendered by some architect or bridgebuilder that first haunts me with this inner thought of lifting/reaching/crossing/connecting?
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Don't romanticize your art.
Don't belittle it either.
Work hard. Work honestly
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Don't love art, love what makes for art.

- D. Orth