I have been a professional designer for 25 years. Designing
identities and products for large corporations and governments
recently I have turned to jewelry to rediscover simple joy of
creating and sharing my work with patrons and friends.
I my experience there is no such thing as a completely original idea.
We are all deeply indebted to the individuals and cultures that make
us who we are. To worry about people stealing our designs is small
hearted. In doing so we contract within ourselves become small minded
and mean.
Here in Thailand and also around the planet large corporations have
been gathering up genetic materials from agricultural species that
have been developed by communities over perhaps a thousand years and
copyrighting the environmentally successful and marketable strains.
I believe the same concept of ownership is being applied by the
cultural community especially in the western world. Those who have
the resources to claim ownership of a particular form or process do
so sometimes only because they were the first to have the necessary
mind frame and resources to do so.
I have worked with artist in Asia who have come from a very long line
of masters. Each new apprentice must undertake many years of training
learning the cultural forms that have been develop over perhaps a
thousand years. Once they become competent in a particular discipline
and if they have the necessary ability they contribute something
unique and innovative to the tradition. This is their very small way
of repaying a great debt to the community that afforded them the
opportunity to be able to give in the first place.
Perhaps this concept of community debt is very foreign to modern
western thinking but I think if we look not to far back in our own
respective cultural traditions we can find the same operative values,
something that is perhaps lacking in our attitude towards work and
each other.
Excuse me if I sound like I am preaching Cheers Pat