When the hands are engaged...

When one's hands are engaged in seemingly repetitive tasks, the mind is neither numbed nor silent. Folks at work with their hands are often engaged in thought and thoughtfulness unapparent to the observer. Just as students in a lecture hall can be surreptitiously engaged in checking their face book pages and the professor will not know whether they're listening, the casual observer of a craftsman at work will know nothing of the inner workings of a craftsman's mind, unless he or she has taken time to make an investment in the development of skill, and knows by extension the depths and complexities of a craftsman's thoughts. Make, fix and create...

An onslaught

Artificial intelligence is going to take most of the fun out of the internet if there's any left. I became (without my permission) subscribed to a substack on artificial intelligence due to my having used the term in an article and post and its use of an AI tool for mining the internet for email advertising targets. The subscription was not voluntary. The substack about AI was promoting a subscription service to greatly multiply your number of sales contacts, which it had used to vastly increase its subscriber base. It bragged about how they'd greatly increased their subscriber base using a tool called Scop. Give Scop a keyword and it will scan the whole of the internet for related contacts, and put them in a format that you can use to blast others without their permission.

The powers of AI may bring a few good things in medical research, but to casual use of the internet, forget it. We'll soon be overwhelmed by junk if that's not already the case.

All that reminds me that there is a real world to attend to in which people do real things... attempting to create useful beauty in service to family, community and self. 

Today I'm getting ready for the White St. Art Walk here in Eureka. It is an annual event and I'll have a few pieces of work set up for sales.

Make, fix and create.

better off?

 

After a wonderful three day class at ESSA, and with a five day class coming up in just over 2 weeks, and while we're in the midst of a presidential election campaign, I'm reminded of the question asked every four years, "Are we better off now than we were four years ago?"

Four years ago, Clear Spring School where I taught woodworking K-12 had been closed down but for on-line classes. ESSA was trying to move its classes online as well. My class making Viking Chests with forged hardware had been cancelled.

At home we'd buy groceries to be picked up and then would carefully wash the outsides of packages before things would be put away, as we were all fearful of catching and passing it on to family or friends. My daughter, soon to be son-in-law, his brother, his cat and their dog had joined us here in Arkansas, as Covid had run amuck in New York City and their healthcare system was on the brink of collapse. Unemployment was spiking out of control as folks could no longer work.  

A bipartisan economic rescue plan was put in place to prevent a total economic collapse. We knew people in our own community that were dying or on the edge of death.

We had a president that claimed that Covid would just magically disappear and that maybe just injecting a disinfectant like bleach in our veins would provide a cure. Some folks tried and died.

That president won twice in Arkansas and will likely do so again in our state. 

Have folks become so tribal in world view that they're willing to put themselves, our communities, and others at risk of death? In my home state of Arkansas this presidential election that will likely be the case. Candidate Trump claimed that one or the first things he'll do if elected will be to eliminate the CDC Office of Preparedness and Response. And if he's not elected, he'll claim fraud and proceed to take over by force.

In the meantime, I received a near final full cover design for my new book Designing Boxes, showing both the front and back and a review PDF for an article in Popular Woodworking that goes to print today... their next issue.

box making jigs

Today we finished a 3 day class at ESSA making various jigs for box making. We made sleds for crosscut and miter cuts, keyed miter sleds, finger joint sleds and router setups, and  a few other miscellaneous devices to make box making safer and more accurate.

It was great to hang out with friends.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

uguisu no tani watari

In response to my article, "Maybe Even Build A Boat" in the Hedgehog Review, Douglas Brooks, builder of Japanese boats, sent me this article about a boat he and students built at Harvard.

 https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/02/first-lesson-in-japanese-boatbuilding-dont-speak/

Brooks describes a feature that sets apart Japanese boatbuilding: edge nailing. In the West, “we tend to send the plank of the fastening through the planking into a frame or rib. There are no frames or ribs in Japanese boats. We’re ‘edge nailing’ the skin of the boat to itself.”

The percussive hammering method “has a very evocative name,” said Brooks. “It is called uguisu no tani watari, which means ‘the bush warbler flits back and forth across the valley.’ There’s a great risk of splitting the plank. It’s a really frightening way to drive a nail into a plank … It injects a kind of playfulness into the workshop.”

The article is well worth sharing.

you can help

We are facing a crisis in American education. Students are disinterested. If it were not the quelling effect of neurohormones provided through their addiction to social media and gaming, they would be disruptive. At the university level, some are. 

Many schools that serve the poor in rural America are suffering from a lack of teaching staff, as professional teachers are driven from the profession. Instead of teaching, they're faced with challenges of "classroom management." And while teaching has always been a noble enterprise, administrations attempting to comply with right wing political whims have diminished the respect that teachers traditionally received in our communities. Even librarians have been the targets of foolishness.

In the midst of all this, I think I have a grip on things... a handle that could be used to shift things back in the right direction. I keep writing in the hopes of having effect. 

In the Front Porch Republic I wrote a lengthy piece about AI, Misinformation and the Forgotten Value of Manual Arts Training. 

 In the Hedgehog Review, I have a just released essay, "Maybe Even Build a Boat Rediscovering the lessons of craft."  Both the Hedgehog Review and Front Porch Republic are small media with limited reach. Because this is true, you can help by sharing these articles and this blog with your contacts.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.

A grand opening

Yesterday we held the grand opening of the Museum of Eureka Springs Art, attended by over 200. Many were old friends. If you were unable to attend, you may get a glimpse of our new museum through a drone fly through on our museum website. https://museumofeurekaspringsart.net/ 

While many museums host works from places far flung, our museum hosts works from artists deeply connected with each other, and whose works  and work were influential in each others lives. Many visitors are impressed by the diversity, and quantity of museum quality works.

As a founder and first president of the Eureka Springs Guild of Artists and Craftspeople, many of the artists featured in the museum were friends of mine, and it gives me great pleasure to see their works honored.

Yesterday I was quoted in an article about digital technologies in school in the New Republic. 

Unplug the Classroom. Or Reboot It. Just Don’t Do Nothing, by Antón Barba-Kay

Today I have an article coming out online at Hedgehog Review.  Check for it after 10 AM. The Hedgehog Review is published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. 

Make, fix and create...