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When did the consumption of our culture become more valuable than the creation of it?

“I have been teaching for close to 10 years and as time goes by I am realising what I can and cannot do.  I certainly can’t change people – I can’t give people things they have never had and I can’t make ‘things better’. My ambitions of help, are lost in a sea of complexity way beyond my control.  I often find teaching endeavours blossoming into both beautiful and stupid fruits. One of the more ironic harvests of this pursuit is that it’s changed me far more than it’s changed anyone else.

Maurice Sendak (a noted children’s book author) received a drawing from a little boy who was a fan.  Maurice was so touched by this, that in return he drew the little boy a ‘wild thing’ and sent it to him.  A few weeks later Maurice gets a letter from the boys’ mother saying “dear Maurice ……….  was so excited and overjoyed to receive your drawing, so overjoyed in fact the he ate it!”

And since hearing that story it has repeated in my head many times. I first had to double check my response because it was one of both joy and horror. As an adult I saw the horror in the destruction of a precious gift – as a child I felt the joy of freely expressing oneself. It took a second to reconcile these two but ultimately I realised the child’s joy and excitement – their right to express themselves  – was worth far more than the object.

Why as adults do we invest so much value in pieces of paper?
When did the consumption of our culture become more important than the creation of it?

In the same ten years of teaching art I’ve also been making it – and the only lesson I have gleaned so far is this – give up on the outcome. For every piece made there has been its equal number unmade -  for every good idea had there has been an equal number of blanks.  Yet still a truth emerges that I can call a vocation. And this is not because I am ‘good’ at it – it is simply because I have been gently persistent long enough to see a story. Or to put it another way – I have now made a long enough trail of marks by which I can edit these things together and call them books or pictures. None of this has come to me by obsessing over bits of paper or looking to others for answers.

Only when we are able to take responsibility for our own creative gifts -  can we say we’ve learnt something.”

2011