I make them every day!   They are handmade things,  paintings,  inventions,  stories,  letters,  all of them conceived by my little brain and executed with my little hands.

This seems a narcissistic sort of approach, I suppose, until you think about the swarm of people in the world and realize that no two are alike.  It might have been simpler for us all if evolution had produced clones.  Everyone the same,  a place for everyone and everyone in their place.  Consensus City!

But we are not clones.   And we would not like it if we were.

I believe we are all elements of a very large puzzle,  a complicated invention that has a mind of its own, and a will.  If we play nice with each other life is beautiful.  But we don’t always play nice.  So we have reactions and actions happening that make our world dynamic, and volatile, and delicately balanced.

What does that have to do with One-offs?   My decisions today are based on today’s status.  I made a mock up for my Friday Art Walk show.  No one has anything like either the display or the elements of the display.  I rubbed color on the wood surrounding a small mural-like painting set in a tray.  I used my thumb!  It’s the way I could feel how much paint I was putting on, and how it was distributed on the wood surface.  It’s drying in the garage now.  Tomorrow, if it has dried enough, I shall put some oil wax finish on it and buff it some.

My fluted vase with belfrey neck carving will debut this week.  No one has ever seen anything like it.   People will like it.  Maybe buy it.  Maybe think it’s too expensive.  But I will price it high anyway.  It’s pretty special.  

That’s the way I like it.  Why would I want to make something someone else has already made?  Why would I want to copy this vase?  It is rare…I made a rare piece that didn’t exist before.   It is famous before it is even seen!  It may not be famous in my lifetime.  If it burns up in a house fire of a new owner, it will not be heard of much at all.    Doesn’t matter.  It’s one of a kind, and that is because I made it with my own hands.