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Comments: Art in difficult times

Please post your comments here on the front page news article Art in difficult times.


re: Comments: Art in difficult times

Elizabeth,

Through this board a few years back, meeting face to face at the AGG conference in Providence, RI and staying in touch from then on by e-mail, I think we know each other as well as our own work pretty well.

I too believe that work as we know it has fallen off. For me it opened the door to deciding to slow down and ponder some other options I had been looking at. In November I took the leap, shut down the beveling operation and got rid of a lot of equipment that was very dear to me and my life as a beveler. Kept enough to still do my first love, custom hand beveling but not the "bread and butter" bevels the trade feels it can't live without.

I feel the trade will come out stronger in a few years. Like a lot of areas in this life, art needed an adjustment. Not to beat around the bush, a lot of junk is out there, always will be, but I believe now more will realize that what they have been doing is not art. It may take the effect of folks being a little tight with their money, looking and spending only on items, which are well designed and well crafted. This will leave little room for the peddlers of the repeated junk.

The very positive thing will be that those who are truly gifted will dig deeper and make some good glass and have a shot at selling it for what it is truly worth. There is always work for those who will not compromise their work for the almighty dollar. It is hard, but you sleep well and are ready again in the morning to do it all again.

Glad you climbed your temple, when you think you reached the top, found there is a whole lot more out there. Hope the trip down was easy!

Dennis Swan