The unidentifiable beauty in the values of talent.
It’s a question that pops up every now and then; “What am I worth?” Well, maybe not me as a person, but the talents I received when I was born and the effort I made to improve those skills. There were times that all these years in school, evening classes, practising and the months of unpaid internship were appreciated and the value of knowledge and craftsmanship was rewarded with a job or, later on in life, paying customers and realistic contracts with companies. In my case restoring frames for Dutch and German museums, designing and making picture frames for galleries and artists. No, I didn’t know right away what my talents were, although I knew at a young age that it had to be something creative, it took the famous twelve jobs and thirteen accidents to figure it out. However, working in all these different trades gave me an idea of how things were done and how the hare run in the corporate world of massively baking supermarket bread, truck factories and multinational warehouses. As a young man with a positive work mentality, learned and copied from hard working parents, I would do any course, evening class and exam to get better. In the days of solid contracts and economic prosperity, it was much appreciated and I made it to executive manager of a garbage-truck plant at the age of 24. A bright future was laying ahead…
I can’t remember the exact moment or day but at some point, I suddenly realized that the skills I’d learned were drifting me away from that handbag of talents I carried around and which content was recognized by my parents and some teachers when I was a kid. It took me a while to say goodbye to that, so much appealing, a world of corporate dinners, nights out, driving a nice sports-car and getting a big paycheck every month. At the age of 24, these things seem to be of importance, especially the fast shiny new car. It’s a scary process, but next to the long hours working for that secure life I lived, the investment in learning another trade gave a certain peace of mind. It took 3 years as an apprentice to become a frame maker, but finally, I found a carrier which brought the joy and satisfaction of creating exclusive items, using my creative talents and actually seeing the result of my efforts. It took more than ten years to win the “Dutch Art and Frame Award” for being the best frame designer and maker of the country, but the journey was great, even though it came with all the insecurities and downsides of running your own business. However, even when you’re working in the field where your talents brought you, there’s always that need for being creatively challenged.
Yes, finally it got out of hand. Three companies, several cultural contracts, commissions, voluntary work and a fully booked agenda. Taking stressed managers on field trips, learning them how to “relax”, running a recording studio, organizing festivals and cultural events, following courses in studio engineering and video editing next to being a frame maker and restorer, chairman of the council cultural board, accompany the local youth on their first steps in making music in our own studio and working as an art appraiser at an auction house. It all became a bit too much and after traveling around the globe in the little free time we had, looking for opportunities in Canada, Gambia, France and Turkey (a country that I worked also for while in between all other jobs and adventures) we finally dared to take that decision of starting all over again. Almost all was sold or given away and with a van full of tools, a little caravan and a small pickup truck we crossed the border into Portugal a few months later. Portugal because of all the places we visited it seemed the most obvious one for a somewhat odd but creative couple.
It turned out to be a different world. Well, more like several parallel worlds in which reality is excepted or denied by the grade of naivety or greed. Of course, there’s a corporate world with highly underpaid slave-like workers, ass-kissing managers and tax-avoiding international companies. There’s the traditional grey economy in which small businesses, farmers, traders and often local gouvernment officials keep society going by using creative and mysterious ways to pay workers, deal with customers and get things done. Than there’s another parallel world of immigrants, who, for different reasons came to this beautiful country, try to fit in and learn the Portuguese way but in many occasions are bound by the rules and economic consequences of having a “world” income, being mostly a pension of some kind from their native country.
In the last decade or so, new kinds of communities came to life. There’s a group of people who try, some more successful than others, to live parallel or even outside modern society by going off the grid and sometimes even below the radar, taking all consequences for granted. The fact that there’s a more or less free health-care system available for all, made possible by the Portuguese working-class people’s tax payments, seems to make it possible to benefit from society without being a member of it. Any small business owner, freelance working craftsman, self-employed individual or even small farmer, pays over a hundred Euro’s a month on social security premiums, no matter how low their income may be. Being off-grid, self-sufficient is like being self-employed, farmer, builder and craftsman at the same time with all the consequences that come with the trade, including a full responsible membership of the society. Lately, there’s another group of people upcoming and growing, attracted by the few success stories they read about on the Internet, thinking that just a balanced state of mind and some meditating will take care of all problems and that the beautiful vicinity will provide them with everything they need to survive. Building a dream without permits or a budget, having craftsmen voluntarily taking care of repairs or technical projects they can’t do themselves, thinking creative people or artist will perform their tricks just because a friendly thank you and a meal could somehow pay their bills. The few that actually are successful are the ones that didn’t lose their view on the reality of the world, kept things to proportions when needed or found the niche in an overgrowing market of tourism-related projects, already under fire because of the economic state our, still beautiful, world is in. Fata-Morgana's in the middle of a rural nowhere, only to be seen by the ones believing in it, only searched after by the ones didn’t find peace of mind in daily realities.
Every now and then you see this little adverts popping up on social media sites, “Support your community, buy Local!” It really is a call out to do what used to be the norm before transport and mobility became available to the common people. Buy your vegetables locally at the market, use the village shop for daily needs, let the local carpenter have a go at making you something instead of travelling half the country to buy some third-grade particleboard, called Billy. Sharing big statements about living sustainably, but then getting a volunteer flown in from another country instead of using the services of Portuguese craftsman, proving these are hollow phrases. There’s an unidentifiable beauty in the value of craftsmanship, artists talents and tricks of trades. They come at a price, mostly well balanced between effort and materials, between creativity and know-how, cheaper than a mysteriously priced facial massage, yoga classes or some guru telling you it all will work out with a right amount of mindfulness……
I can’t remember the exact moment or day but at some point, I suddenly realized that the skills I’d learned were drifting me away from that handbag of talents I carried around and which content was recognized by my parents and some teachers when I was a kid. It took me a while to say goodbye to that, so much appealing, a world of corporate dinners, nights out, driving a nice sports-car and getting a big paycheck every month. At the age of 24, these things seem to be of importance, especially the fast shiny new car. It’s a scary process, but next to the long hours working for that secure life I lived, the investment in learning another trade gave a certain peace of mind. It took 3 years as an apprentice to become a frame maker, but finally, I found a carrier which brought the joy and satisfaction of creating exclusive items, using my creative talents and actually seeing the result of my efforts. It took more than ten years to win the “Dutch Art and Frame Award” for being the best frame designer and maker of the country, but the journey was great, even though it came with all the insecurities and downsides of running your own business. However, even when you’re working in the field where your talents brought you, there’s always that need for being creatively challenged.
Yes, finally it got out of hand. Three companies, several cultural contracts, commissions, voluntary work and a fully booked agenda. Taking stressed managers on field trips, learning them how to “relax”, running a recording studio, organizing festivals and cultural events, following courses in studio engineering and video editing next to being a frame maker and restorer, chairman of the council cultural board, accompany the local youth on their first steps in making music in our own studio and working as an art appraiser at an auction house. It all became a bit too much and after traveling around the globe in the little free time we had, looking for opportunities in Canada, Gambia, France and Turkey (a country that I worked also for while in between all other jobs and adventures) we finally dared to take that decision of starting all over again. Almost all was sold or given away and with a van full of tools, a little caravan and a small pickup truck we crossed the border into Portugal a few months later. Portugal because of all the places we visited it seemed the most obvious one for a somewhat odd but creative couple.
It turned out to be a different world. Well, more like several parallel worlds in which reality is excepted or denied by the grade of naivety or greed. Of course, there’s a corporate world with highly underpaid slave-like workers, ass-kissing managers and tax-avoiding international companies. There’s the traditional grey economy in which small businesses, farmers, traders and often local gouvernment officials keep society going by using creative and mysterious ways to pay workers, deal with customers and get things done. Than there’s another parallel world of immigrants, who, for different reasons came to this beautiful country, try to fit in and learn the Portuguese way but in many occasions are bound by the rules and economic consequences of having a “world” income, being mostly a pension of some kind from their native country.
In the last decade or so, new kinds of communities came to life. There’s a group of people who try, some more successful than others, to live parallel or even outside modern society by going off the grid and sometimes even below the radar, taking all consequences for granted. The fact that there’s a more or less free health-care system available for all, made possible by the Portuguese working-class people’s tax payments, seems to make it possible to benefit from society without being a member of it. Any small business owner, freelance working craftsman, self-employed individual or even small farmer, pays over a hundred Euro’s a month on social security premiums, no matter how low their income may be. Being off-grid, self-sufficient is like being self-employed, farmer, builder and craftsman at the same time with all the consequences that come with the trade, including a full responsible membership of the society. Lately, there’s another group of people upcoming and growing, attracted by the few success stories they read about on the Internet, thinking that just a balanced state of mind and some meditating will take care of all problems and that the beautiful vicinity will provide them with everything they need to survive. Building a dream without permits or a budget, having craftsmen voluntarily taking care of repairs or technical projects they can’t do themselves, thinking creative people or artist will perform their tricks just because a friendly thank you and a meal could somehow pay their bills. The few that actually are successful are the ones that didn’t lose their view on the reality of the world, kept things to proportions when needed or found the niche in an overgrowing market of tourism-related projects, already under fire because of the economic state our, still beautiful, world is in. Fata-Morgana's in the middle of a rural nowhere, only to be seen by the ones believing in it, only searched after by the ones didn’t find peace of mind in daily realities.
Every now and then you see this little adverts popping up on social media sites, “Support your community, buy Local!” It really is a call out to do what used to be the norm before transport and mobility became available to the common people. Buy your vegetables locally at the market, use the village shop for daily needs, let the local carpenter have a go at making you something instead of travelling half the country to buy some third-grade particleboard, called Billy. Sharing big statements about living sustainably, but then getting a volunteer flown in from another country instead of using the services of Portuguese craftsman, proving these are hollow phrases. There’s an unidentifiable beauty in the value of craftsmanship, artists talents and tricks of trades. They come at a price, mostly well balanced between effort and materials, between creativity and know-how, cheaper than a mysteriously priced facial massage, yoga classes or some guru telling you it all will work out with a right amount of mindfulness……
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