I really really really like making things. I have probably said this a million times to many people, but I rarely explain why. I’m not entirely sure, but I know it has to do with being in the moment of making. You would assume that its all about the final product because that is what we see and what we idolize, but I just realized how important it is to cherish the moment of making. The final moment is important, but its the process of getting there that really characterizes the making, the story behind the thing. Sometimes you can even tell how something was made just by looking at it, like the dents in metal from the pounding of a hammer or the form of a pot after hands shape it. The making is the intimate connection between the thing and how we perceived its creation whether that be with our hands, tools, or machines.

Maybe I have only just realized this because I am now in the field of construction. For five years as an architecture student I focused on that sexy final image, idolizing the end. But now I am exposed to every decision, material, texture, and thought that goes into making many many many things. The end is shown, but no one really knows what it takes to get there. We flip through magazines and see finished products, but how many people did it take to get that thing there? Where did it come from? How was it made? Where did it start?

I recently heard a show on NPR about an exhibition of artists tools at a museum. I apologize I don’t recall the exhibition name or the museum, but hey! We are in the moment not the end right? Feel free to post below if you know it. Anyways, this exhibition displayed not the art of famous artists, but their tools, like their stubby chalks and their beat up brushes. HOW COOL IS THAT?!? Maybe I am weird, but I thought it was fascinating to imagine standing in front of the very things that created masterpieces and to think I had the same exact tools in my desk.

Detroit is in its moment of making. I am not sure any city really is at its beginning or end of development so maybe these are words for other cities as well. So frequently in this city I hear the past or future idolized. I hear about how wonderful and decadent its past was and how opportunistic and exciting its future is. Which is great. But what about this city’s making? What is the value in this moment of making? What and who did it take to get us to this point? And how is what we are doing right now affecting what is here right now? I’m not saying don’t look back or forward. Like I said in the beginning, I’m not really sure why the making is so special or what the secret is, but what I am saying is it has quite a bit of value and if you cherish it, it can produce really beautiful work.

P.S. My intention was to water color images that I took while in Detroit, but I thought (since I haven’t finished yet) you might like to see it being progressively made in its moment of making. In a future post I will show it done! So stay tuned. The image was taken and then reproduced as a water color of the Belle Isle Conservatory.