ETERNAL MOMENTS

Who of us, especially in childhood or adolescence, was not terrified and not despairing at the sight of a woefully immense pile of wood that should be sawed first and then chopped and put in the woodpile? Or a vast field, which you must plow? Or a dozen fat wool tows, which must be spun by the holiday? My heart sank at how much had to be done. But, as always, there is a consoling and encouraging proverb. It is like this: "The eyes dread, but the hands do."
 
 One of the elders mentions it, and behold- it is not so scary to begin a task which has no end in sight. So much for the material power of the word…
 
"The initiative is more valuable than the whole affair," - recalls another, no less critical, saying later: "It should be a beginning, and an end will come." If, however, you undertook to do something, you can see how much is done and how quietly the result grows and grows. And suddenly, you'll be surprised to see what has not yet been made has departed, though not by much, it became less!
 
You did half, and the second half has its half. The eyes dread, but the hands do ... But this proverb is accurate in terms of volume, the quantity of work, and its quality, that is, on the skill, ingenuity, creativity, and - not afraid to say - art.
 
The young beginner could be afraid, and the other not-so-young could be frightened, even having natural talent. But how do you know whether there is a talent, if not, to start doing something? In art, the risk is necessary for the beginner, even to a certain extent - the folly!
 
It may be one way for the initial identification of gifted people. Need courage and the daring impulse to understand whether you can do something. Try to start, to dare! And there, in the course of work, there is an inspiration and a worker, if nature invested in him a talent, at once or gradually becomes an artist.
 
Of course, you should not try without ending all your life, turning persistence into dull stubbornness. The uniqueness of the Northern peasant labour code was that all tried to do everything, and among these, many were born and original masters.
 
Skills are the basis on which great masters develop. But for a man who already believes in himself, convinced in his ability every time something is done, needs to take the risk of heart, justified, and every second controlled by the mind, he needs boldness, balanced by a careful unhurriedness. Only then would inspiration come to him, and precious moments stood, cast in advanced art forms.
 
It is not true that these moments, this high enthusiasm and inspiration are possible only in certain specified types of work and professional work! Art can live in any profession. Another thing is that, for example, a plowman or a farmer's work is not embodied in art. Because of that, people respected artisans and artists who create art.
 
Peasant artisans and artists from time immemorial have been nameless. They created their art pieces to meet only aesthetic needs. Art of Craft was born on the border between man's aesthetic and economic conditions, when the master begins to create art, not for himself, and not as a gift to friends and family, but by the order and for sale.
 
Art of trade… The combination of words lays a contradiction: trade involves mass, serial, that is, sameness and art is always a unique way, never duplicated. And whatever we come up with for the salvation of artistry in the trade, the trade will always seek to erode it, and art will always resist occupation. The image dies in the multiplicity of identical items, but this does not mean that art objects cannot be created in different ways in their diversity. At least until there is little difference between objects, trade can be called art...?
 
For crafts, it is typical to use traditional technologies and imagery with the obligatory artistic individuality of a craftsman. A master journeyman whose work is identical to his neighbour, a man indifferent to his art, who mastered the traditional techniques and the images but strives for quantity - a man impels artistic craft to degeneration and extinction. With machine production, creative individuality disappears, dissolving into mass production and kitsch. Amid all this, the seemingly miraculous existence of crafts overcomes the "gross" mentality.
 Accountants and economists plan not to interfere with beauty and aesthetics in their business. Nothing often exists for their "gross" psychology except the cash payment and the bottom line. Is the survival of beauty in such conditions not remarkable? Nevertheless, some Northern crafts are unwilling to concede the onslaught of gross anonymity and pressure of aesthetic dullness.