Taking Back Control

Christi Friesen injects a little humor into a stressed out world with her latest ghoulies for sale. Click the image to learn more.

Life has changed. How have you changed what you do in this new reality? Is it already affecting your art work or are you just escaping into your craft? I do have to apologize if you wanted to read this as an escape from our surreal and alarming reality but it’s hard to just talk about art like nothing else is happening so I decided I’m not going to do that. We can talk about both.

First I need to tell you that I just got the news as I was writing this that one of my girls likely has the virus. She can’t get tested (small town Kansas) but she’s sick and her symptoms are just like what other 20-30 year olds with the virus are reporting. Her doctor has her on quarantine and the usual list of to-dos for the flu. She’s strong and I know in my heart she’ll be fine but she’s got two girls and walks a fragile financial line. She also has a grandmother at high risk that they spend a lot of time with. It’s all so scary but, still, I think we can make things a bit better regardless of the bad news. And we are all likely going to have bad news hitting close to home at some point.

Crafting a Brighter World

I know some people (not you here!) feel that art is the last thing we need to be concerned about in a time of crisis but, actually, art is the thing people first go to when either there is nothing else they can do to mitigate or control their world, or when they are as secure in terms of food and shelter as they imagine they will be for a while. Why is that? I think it’s because we find solace in creativity but not because it helps us escape.

Creating art is kind of like playing god in the sense that we create and control a tiny world of our own in our creations. Not having control in a situation is what causes trauma, depression, and anxiety. When you can assert control somewhere else, that makes you feel a bit more secure, at least in the sense that you have control over something rather than control over nothing which is exactly how many of us feel right now. That is why people turn to art even in the midst of a difficult and life-changing situation. Creativity is a form of control.

You’ve probably recognized that “doing something” when a difficulty or bad news presents itself makes you feel better. It’s that same concept – doing something makes you feel that you have control in a situation that seems beyond your control. So, I’m going to suggest that we “do something” and use our creativity to assert some control while making the world a little brighter in the process.

Below are some ideas to help you control, to some little extent, the world you live in. Even if you are in self isolation, there is so much you can do to cheer up the lives of others and your life in the process. There is nothing quite as uplifting as the joy you get from knowing you have helped make someone’s life just a little bit better.

Here are just a few ideas for using your creativity to make people smile:

• Create little surprise gifts to leave in your neighbors’ mailboxes.*
• Make a supply of gifts for people who help you out or that you see or hear of doing something really nice.*
• Hang beautiful, eye-catching pieces with encouraging notes in your front windows.
• Offer to teach or demonstrate easy craft projects online for kids or adults stuck at home using Facebook video or Skype.
• Invite fellow crafters to an online clay play day and just yap and laugh with Skype or Facebook video on so you can share what you’re doing visually.
• Make cheerful earrings, pendants, or pins and send to nursing homes, or to shut-ins in your area.*
• Make art cards or send letters with little arty gifts to friends and family who may feel isolated or particularly anxious.*
• Share and encourage outdoor art ideas to get families to go outside and have fun but not to socialize. Here’s a few ideas to get started:
  • Create designs with sticks, leaves and flower petals in the yard that can be photographed and shared online.
  • Try basket weaving with grasses and reeds
  • Decorate a front walk with sidewalk chalk. (If there’s no sidewalk chalk on hand, it can be made with plaster of Paris, water, and tempura paints or if there’s a spare piece of drywall, strip off the paper and you will at least have white chalk.)
  • Get neighbors to make and hang a specific type of thing in the front window or front yard (such as hearts, signs with cheerful words, a collage of your favorite things, etc.) and families can take their kids out for a “Scavenger hunt” to spy and count up all the pieces people have hung up that day/week. (My neighborhood has been doing this. It’s arranged among us through NextDoor.com.)

*Keep in mind, the medical community believes the virus can still live on plastic and metal for 3 days and on paper and cardboard for at least 24 hours. So, if you create something out of polymer or other plastic or metal mediums let them sit for 3 days before delivering them to others. For anything on paper or cardboard wait 24 hours. (Don’t share fabrics or cotton paper, including money—they suspect the virus can live on cotton for 9 days.) Then when you handle these items, you should either have washed your hands very thoroughly or use gloves to pick them up and deliver them. I know some people feel this is all a bit extreme but considering the gravity of this emergency, these extra steps of caution could save a life.

Cash Woes

For some of us the overriding thought is about how to survive this financially. It’s not going to be easy but if you need to get whatever you can, however you can, here are a few ideas that don’t require simply trying to boost your Etsy shop. I’m trying to take into consideration that not all people can pay much if at all but, also, those who can pay will feel better donating right now versus buying. That way it feels helpful for you rather than selfish for them.

• Set up a raffle for a really cool piece or two of yours. You can use a PayPal button if you have a website or maybe use a raffle service like this one: https://rafflecreator.com/pricing (Haven’t tried this service; just heard about it.) Or if it’s mostly friends and family or another social circle, use Venmo or give a PayPal ID to send to.
• Sign up to teach art online (this can actually be great money). OutSchool is desperately looking for teachers for kids in all kinds of subjects and you don’t need a teaching credential. Teachaway lists online teaching and tutoring jobs from all over. You can also create and list your own classes online at sites like Teachable and Skillshare.
• Make and sell inexpensive items that other people can use to do the little gift-giving things listed in the previous list. Let people know about them in your shop, on social media and/or by leaving a note with neighbors, possibly with a little gift/sample. Take only digital payments. No cash (see caution note at the end of previous list).
• Sell off extra clay and no-longer-used craft supplies particularly to neighboring parents looking to entertain kids stuck at home. Use com, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist.com or the like to advertise what you have and, after getting a digital payment, leave items outside for pick-up if possible.
• Offer to trade your art for things you need. (Here’s a catchy social media headline: “Will craft for toilet paper!”)
• Conduct a casual kid’s or adult’s craft hour for friend and neighbors a few times a week online and ask for a modest or “pay what you can” amount, sent digitally.

These ideas that I came up with or dug up from already active things going on in my area is only scratching the surface of possibilities. But collectively, I bet we could come up with a insanely long list of great things we all can do. Shall we try? How about you list just one additional thing in the comments on this blog that people can do to either cheer others up or to help them make a little cash in these difficult times. I and organize list of everything sent if you all help me out there. Then we can circulate that to the community. Just imagine what we could do with a wealth of creative ideas like that!

So, this list making is all I can manage for this week. Between the distractions on the news, the many, many phone calls and texts between family and friends, and kicking my homesteading into high gear (other people hoard toilet paper when insecure, I grow food!) it’s been hard getting work done this week.

I do hope all of you are doing well and staying safe. I know this whole situation seems unreal and for some people it sounds like everyone is overreacting. I have to admit that it seemed over blown when we first heard about it coming from overseas but there’s nothing like educating oneself with reliable information to realize just how dire this is. I’m not saying this to scare anyone or increase anxiety but my experience here in California is that a lot of people are still not taking this seriously and we really all have to.

As the meme going around says – During World War II people were asked to go to war. We are being asked to sit on our couches. We can do this! Well, let’s also spend time at the studio table and make this a brighter world. Yes, we can do that too!

Please do take every precaution, help each other out, and let’s ride the storm with a united determination. I know some people may not think that this is the place to have such a conversation as we just had but if my words, reaching the thousands of you that read this every week, make just a few people just a little bit more cautious, perhaps that will save a life. Isn’t it so wonderful that the things we create have the potential to change somebody’s world or even save them? It is truly a bright spot in the world we have right now.

Notes from Home

So yes, I am worrying about my daughter but I am also worried about all of you and my longtime friend and brother-in-law with stage 4 cancer, my darling mother-in-law who lost part of a lung to cancer last year, close friends with chronic lung disease and diabetes, and my 85-year-old mother in a nursing home 1100 miles away from me. My story is not unlike your story, I know. My worries are not unlike your worries. Just take back control where you can. There are a lot more ways to do so than you might think.

Besides making art, you can also grow some of your own food. Look up how to sprout and make microgreens at home. It’s pretty fun and all you need are some dried beans or lentils, things you may already have. If you can’t find yeast at the store to make fresh bread so you don’t have to run out and buy it, you can make a sourdough starter with just water and flour and yeast from the air. Plan for future food by buying seeds online and sprout them in egg cartons or shallow bins so you can plant them outside when it warms up (or cools down if you’re down under). Dust off the sewing machine and make new clothes from old clothes. Or make masks if you have spare, tightly woven fabrics, for the national mask making call if here in the US. (I dug out some duck cloth and am getting to work myself. Just need to find more elastic!) Or at least give blood. They are in desperate need here in the US and elsewhere. I have an appointment this coming week myself.

But mostly, do whatever makes you feel less anxious and keeps you safe at the same time. We have got this!

Don’t forget to share your ideas. Go to the bottom of this post online. I just know you have something great to share!