"Those Who Wander" Ornament Collection
“Those Who Wander” Ornament Collection
Dedicated to the folks out there who are “living deliberately”.
Some of you may not know this about me, but I am not a classically trained artist. My Bachelor's degree is actually in English Literature! I am what is commonly referred to as a “Self Taught” artist, but I prefer to call myself an “informally trained” artist because I have learned from other artists, and still do, but I have not been trained in the classical, academic setting.
Making art was my first love, but creative writing and literature were my second.
This batch of ornaments is born from my love for the Romantic Movement of the 19th Century - a literary and artistic movement that came in contrast to the 18th Century Enlightenment Period.
The writers, artists, and thinkers of the 18th Century Enlightenment Period emphasized reason and the scientific rationalization of nature. Everything in this time period was viewed through the lens of reason.
But not all things can be explained with reason, right? Like the feeling you get when walking through the woods in the fall when everything is quiet and the colorful leaves are falling to the ground soundlessly like snow. Or the way you feel when the morning light is shining through the windows of your home and making the shadows of the blinds twinkle and dance. There’s not much to reason about those experiences.
And that is where the Romantics (with a capital ‘R’) come in.
The leading writers, thinkers, and artists of the 19th Century Romanticism Movement saw nature as a living, breathing thing and would often personify it in their works with feelings and emotion - something the scientists of the Enlightenment Movement could not reason to be possible. The Romantic Movement was a celebration of nature, intuition, emotion, and artistic freedom.
One of the leading and most commonly recognized writers of the American Romantic Movement was Henry David Thoreau (we’ll call him HDT for short) and his book, “Walden”.
Here’s a quick summary about Walden:
HDT gets tired of living in the city so he decides to go live in the woods near Walden Pond in Massachusetts taking with him nothing but an axe! He spent the next two years there in a little cabin he built for himself writing the book, “Walden”, which details what he learned from the experience.
One passage I always come back to when I remember this book is when he says, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
These ornaments are dedicated to the individuals that HDT would describe to be “living deliberately” - the individuals that are confronting what is in front of them, choosing their life “on purpose”, and living with intention.
These ornaments will be available at the Mill Spring Makers Holiday Makers Faire in Jonesborough this Saturday, December the 4th from 10 AM - 4 PM! If you can’t make it to the market, they will become available on my website on Sunday, December 5th! You can shop them here.