I really enjoyed myself last week. I found the carving of the top & back plates to be both physical and meditative. I definitely had the sense that I was "removing everything that wasn't a guitar" I have always been fascinated with carving and can remember being particularly impressed with the masks & totems of the Haida nation on display at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver B.C. (my hometown) I can now say that I have the bug & feel that this first forray into the archtop guitar world will be just the first of many. I may even go back & try to finish the fiddle I started 10 yrs. ago then abandoned.
It has been really enjoyable to be able to focus on one project these past couple of weeks and to make some real headway. It is far more typical for me to be doing ten things at once, trying to get repairs done for people in a timely manner and squeezing in some time on building projects when I can. It is helpful to keep cash flow coming and pay bills but I can recognize that I need to have larger chunks of time set aside every month to make progress on my building projects. I am envious of the artists & craftsmen who had large commissions and patrons who understood what they were doing. Enabling them to work for years refining their craft. I am thinking of the stone carvers who cut the gargoyles for the great cathedrals. Working each day for a lifetime at their trade, knowing they would have their basic needs provided for.
I would gladly trade my skill for a comfortable humble living arrangement, just a small cottage with a little garden space and my shop. A bag of groceries every couple of days, some nice forest trails nearby to gather inspiration and the freedom to create instruments one after another out of the finest materials. What a liberation that would be, not to be wrestling with the wolves at the door.
