Blog
-
A Week in the Life of a Fellow Friday, September 18, 2009
For an editorial fellow, I haven’t done much writing this week. Instead, I spent a few days building our new mobile idea wall for Park(ing) Day.
I started working at CreateHere about two weeks after graduating from UTC with a degree in English. For the five years it took me to finish school, I worked as a carpenter for Brown Dog Construction, my family’s remodeling company. During this time, I did everything from laying tile to running electric to helping build walls and decks — but where I really found my place was in the woodshop, building cabinets.
Like writing, cabinetry requires a lot of flexibility. Because one project is never the same as the last, a good craftsman has to be creative and resourceful. Because every detail counts, she must also be meticulous in execution. And because the end result is never quite the same as the original idea, she must acknowledge and accept that a piece will never be perfect — that it will never truly feel “finished.” While some of these traits may come more naturally to me than others, they’re goals that I hope to achieve in everything that I craft, from words to relationships to clothing to walls.
On Monday, CreateHere’s Design Department handed me a five inch drawing and an idea. From this, we measured, planned, and in the end, built a wall from some plexiglass, PVC pipe, buckets of concrete, spray paint and zip-ties.
As I write this, I’m sitting on a couch in a parking space on Main Street. There is a rotating handful of my coworkers drawing their hopes and ideas with colorful paint pens onto the clear plastic wall. As it fills with words and imagery, I realize what a diverse and passionate crowd we are. Musicians, athletes, artists, activists, and craftsmen. In this place, we bring our various talents and perspectives together to see what comes out.
By Alison Burke, Editorial Fellow
Posted by
