Thanks to everyone from the LGDA (Louisville Graphic Design Assoc.) for a fun event last evening. What a great group – a mix of everything from students to veterans.
If the technology holds up, it looks like I’ll be releasing part of my talk as a podcast next week. (Fingers crossed.) The recorder ran out of steam before I did – key learning: if I must stay within 60 minutes, I can’t be given access to a whiteboard…it’s an impossible task.
…to a craft.
Leading into Easter each year there are fabulously elaborate ceremonies and processionals in Antigua Guatemala . As part of this ceremony, dozens or hundreds of people set about crafting this:
What appears to be a woven carpet is actually painstakingly created from…(ready for it?)…sawdust. (It’s not really sawdust, it’s a material derived from a plant, but it looks just like sawdust.) The carpets take 6 people about 10 hours to make. They are respected and revered throughout the course of the next day, then they are swept away. We caught one in mid sweeping.
Here’s another view:
When Pope John Paul II was visiting Guatemala City several years ago a sawdust carpet was made that stretched from the airport terminal to the main cathedral. The carpet was over 23km long!
So here’s a question for you:
How do you measure your devotion to your craft? If you knew that everything you worked painstakingly to create tonight would be enjoyed for a few hours and then destroyed by tomorrow night, would you work with the same energy and focus?
