Yes, it’s an overused word, inspiration, but I encounter it and rely on it, and seek to foster it as much as possible with regard to the realm of people who make things with love and devotion and goodwill. Lots of ands, and be warned there may be run-on sentences, too. This being an intermission (between the two robes, of course), it’s loose and unpredictable and does not adhere to rules of composition.
What matters to me is that people keep making things, high quality things, with their hands. It’s very important to me that I keep doing this, and keep learning and improving my skills, and I find that seeing other craftspeople, especially master (consider that word ungendered) craftspeople, is some of the most valuable food for this ongoing effort.
Josep Mercader weaving with willow. Vancouver, BC, 2014
Whoa, that took a while, finding that photo. Will try to stay on track and keep the topic focused. But Josep Mercader, the Catalan basket weaver, was one such person, observing whom I felt encouraged and fulfilled. It doesn’t matter whether I’m interested in weaving baskets - although I did make two willow trays that day, and developed a strong appreciation for willow as a material. It’s the work of hands, the mastery of those materials, that inspires and gives food for my own work.
Ok, that reminds me - here’s another one. This dry stone wall, being built in Kansas City last summer under the direction of Andy Goldsworthy. I got to watch the wallers work, and I could have stayed there all day. Again, it was that certainty, the confidence of people who know what they’re doing and enjoy doing it well. Somehow, there’s a connection between us as craftspeople.
Yes, that wall is walking down the steps. Do check out the link - every phase was beautiful.
Which brings me to the thing I wanted to talk about: the architect Abdel Wahed El-Wakil. By chance, I got to hear him speak, and see his work in the slideshow that cycled during his talk. It was in Doha in 2011, at a seminar hosted by the Qatar Foundation, and I don’t even remember why I ended up there, but catching Professor El-Wakil’s talk was one of those lucky, unrepeatable chances Doha tended to offer (others included seeing Venus and Serena Williams play against each other, and seeing Angelique Kidjo live, both of which were accessibly priced events - but I digress…)
The talk in the link may address some of the same points - I haven’t listened to it, but I’m happy to see from it that his work in Qatar went ahead. Someone was smart to choose him. The topic, using traditional materials in contemporary construction, is dear to his heart. He finds steel and concrete harsh and inappropriate, unsustainable in both their finished state and their creation. Traditional materials, those that are locally available in the Arab world, require and sustain traditional skills. So that when you build with them, you are supporting an integrated network of crafts.
He was speaking directly to me, addressing so many questions that were coming up for me about how to support traditional textile making - noting that crafts don’t survive in isolation. The spiritual, communal, and economic aspects all have to be involved. The work needs to be part of people’s lives, their character, their community. He spoke of the craftsperson’s generosity and nobility, that this person gives out of love. One of my notes says that man discovers his character through craft, and that manual work has been scientifically proven to be therapeutic.
The whole time he was speaking, a slideshow of his work was projected behind him, cycling through more than once. I kept trying to sketch certain arches, they were so serene and imperfectly beautiful, like a natural feature. I have never been able to find those same images, but his buildings all have a serenity, an integrity, that speaks through the lines, the shadows, the light, and the muted voices of earthy materials. I was utterly transported by this presentation, and felt uplifted as a person who works with my hands.
[Update! The arches that I kept trying to draw are from the Island Mosque in Jeddah, and the image is in the talk linked to El-Wakil’s name above - at 33:24. I took a screenshot for myself, but don’t want to put the image here because it would violate his copyright. Other stunning imagery throughout, especially at 27:45.]
A mosque built in Johannesburg, designed by El Wakil. He said that while people work, the Quran recitation is playing, so that the building is a spiritual process for all those involved.
Detail of same mosque, 2015
After the talk, I made a point of going up to him because I wanted to shake his hand, and I said only, “I am a craftsperson!” I felt full of honor, and he acknowledged my statement with happy confirmation.
I went looking for my notes on this experience because I have an urge to create, through reading and writing and gathering, an edifice: a multi-entranced, open-air dwelling place of the mind that would attract and welcome travelers walking similar paths. And in my imagination, it is something like the structures designed and built by El-Wakil. Clean lines and natural tones contrasting with the blue of sky, arches allowing a flow, and exchange, a flux of content. Nothing fixed and rigid here, except the commitment to keep learning and thinking.
