Last week I went to the always entertaining Maker Faire in San Mateo with a group of friends for a day of fun, sun, crafts, R2D2's, steampunk, and street meat. It was all there, same as last year. And therein lies my problem with the faire, it was all the same stuff that was there last year....and the year before that. The giant robotic giraffe was there, as was the tesla coil demo, and the mentos and diet coke performance. I am not sure if these things were different or improved upon this year, but across the board I saw nothing new. I feel like a faire like that is all about innovation, creating, and inspiring new ideas, and I guess I missed out on the change from year to year. I still had fun, I will still make it a point to go back next year, but I am going to really keep my eyes open for something new.

On another note, and what really got me to write this post, is my reaction after checking out the Craft Art section of the faire. I have noticed a trend in the art and craft world that my generation and the ones after it are not really investing in art anymore. But who or what is to blame for this? A huge contributor to this problem can placed at the hand of technology, consumerism, and shifting values. But a great part of the blame also has to fall on the artist themselves. It's a hard gig trying to sell your works at venues big and small, so to make this happen artist need to provide light, affordable products for that people can walk away with. This most often means a print of some kind. 11"x14" prints seem the most common, but I also saw a bunch of cards, t-shirts, and even some ties and mugs. What was missing from most of the stalls though was any original art. Now I understand that we cant expect to sell only one of a kind pieces of art or that all consumers would be able to afford such creations. But to have nothing original to show is feeding into the notion that we do not value it as consumers. And why should we? I can pay $20 and have an almost exact copy of the original.

I want to make a commitment to only produce original pieces of art from here on out. Better grab those $10 prints while they are still here.