Recently I noticed something I hadn't paid much attention to before. After completing the National Model Railroad Build Off diorama I got mildly and briefly depressed. Not enough to require medical assistance or psychological intervention (no shame to anyone who needs help from either) but enough to make me take notice. I had heard Adam Savage speak about this feeling he gets following the completion of a big project, and sure enough, that was what I was feeling. He talks about it at length in this video:
Here's what I can add from my recent experience; my post-project depression reminded me that I really enjoyed the process of making that diorama. I loved all four months of that work and part of the depression was knowing that after the work was done I'd be occupied with the greater life project of moving from one house to another, helping my Mom move in with us, and all the reorientation that goes along with that change of address. Not only was that diorama done, but making similar models was on hiatus indefinitely. That I am now even more excited to begin work on the next project is a good sign. Success breeds success and joy builds on joy.
To those folks out there who might say this is just a bunch of psychobabble because "It's just a hobby"...sorry, that's selling it short. That loaded phrase probably has a hundred reasons for why a person would say it and any time you hear it - whether from someone else, or echoing in your own head - don't believe it. I can't speak for anybody else, but this hobby is important to me. I feel great satisfaction being creative. Anything we create, great or small, is an expression of ourselves. While we do take a risk investing our resources, time and energy into such an thing that will be viewed by others, the work is worth the risk for the joy of creating.
For some folks to say hobbies are trivialities or unimportant luxuries doesn’t know much. Making miniatures is an activity that stretches back thousands of years. The anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss claimed making miniature representations, whether as 3D objects or drawings or whatever, was the root art from which all others sprung. It’s something humans have been compelled to do - I don’t know why. These days for many people the ‘hobbies’ concerned with making miniature things - from model railroads to plastic kits to dolls and the many, many other activities - are the modern expression of this ancient activity. This certainly isn’t an activity to be dismissed, and given how deeply rooted this activity is in the human psyche, I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising that the apparent estrangement and depression brought about by concluding a project exhibits itself.
ReplyDeleteOne explanation for why we create comes from theology: the concept of "imago dei", or "image of God". This is to say that we're created in the likeness of a creator with similar attributes, though diminished because of our humanity. The created thing or creature is always lesser than the creator but endowed with similar drives and desires; for this topic, that would be creativity. So we garden, care for one another (especially children and animals), and make things. Why we make them small...for that we may have to delve into the psyche and I'm not qualified to do that beyond the armchair.
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