Details of the Dragon Painting

>>While I haven't read that comment, in a way, you speak my world.<<

It's in the main post.

>>All the things that I do to make a living are things that I love, that were hobbies before I decided to make a living at them. I thought long and hard about it first, too. Good thing that I can, too, in this climate in which I can't find a job to save my soul.<<

I've always been flexible about shifting things from "hobby" to "work" and back again. If there's something I can do, and someone offers me money to do it, I'll probably give that a try. If it works out, then it's a job. And anything that ceases to be profitable can get shifted back to "hobby" status. I have noticed that the widespread dearth of conventional jobs is forcing a great many people to try making a living from what would usually be just hobbies for them.

>>But back to your last sentence, I am appalled that these creative arts aren't apparently being taught at all. <<

Well, we've hacked up our society until there's very little family left, and little time for leisure. There often isn't much money available, which limits some crafts. So it can be difficult for people to find an opportunity to learn and practice crafts, even something as basic as cooking. That bothers me because it makes life less rich -- and less sustainable, as people depend on outsiders for more and more. I've seen people flip because they couldn't so much as sew on a button when one popped off shortly before an a public appearance. And then flip again because I had a travel-repair kit in my suitcase and knew how to use it.

>>Now I want to go find that comment...<<

It's part of the original post.

>>The way I grew up, crafts and art and talent were ... just there. Things you did. You had the thing that put money on the table, and if it was also a calling (my mother teaches; my father eventually became a massage therapist), that was wonderful. <<

Same here. My grandparents had various handiwork skills; so do my parents. I've got all sorts of things I do for fun, or practical uses, that don't make money or do so only on rare occasion.

>>...talent fills your life with beautiful things. A snug house built by hand. Clothes sewn with love. Food made from scratch. A boat... because Dad wanted a boat. A stained glass jewelry box made as a christmas gift.<<

Sooth.

It bothers me that so many traditional skills -- cooking, sewing, woodcarving, tinkering -- have gone out of fashion to the point that fewer and fewer people can do them at all anymore.

For me, it's a little different. Between them, my parents can do darn near anything. But it's Mom who's the mechanic and computer expert of the family. My partner and I have many practical skills, but not all the same ones as our parents. We're short on most of the repair and maintenance stuff, alas. Could seriously use a good handyman in this household.