Illustration: William Morris. Rose textile design, 1877.
One of the most consistent and widely reflected inspirational points used by creative individuals of any discipline is that of the natural world. It has stimulated untold generations of work and continues to do so, and will no doubt be the source of countless future generations. There is something about the world around us that constantly reconnects in our creative experiments. This connection can be interpreted in a number of ways, but mainly through ideas of observation and empathy.
Observation can never be a truly group experience but always an individual one. Every human sees the external world around them, as indeed they do the internal, differently from the next individual. A tree for example, will appear in seven billion ways depending on the eye construction of each human on the planet and the connections to the brain from the eye, and also the links within that brain. We may all think that we share the same experience, but of course we never can, nor should we. It is our uniqueness, despite a world population of seven billion that allows us to interpret and reinterpret in so many ways and levels, the world we inhabit and see around us.
Illustration: William Morris. Tulip textile design, 1877.
In that respect, creativity can only ever be personal and identified to the individual through their own practical observations and experiences. The way this is then interpreted externally through art, design or craft is yet another unique level of understanding between the individual and their surroundings. Line and colour are just as personal as initial observation and there are just as many variations of colour and line as their individuals on the planet.
Therefore, all art, design and craft by its very nature is unique and individual and although mass production has taken humans beyond the realm of a contained connection with each individual product, there is still the initial individual and unique connection with the original. In textile design for example, the surface pattern may well be printed or woven in staggeringly large numbers through mass production, but the pattern itself will always have a small and intimate connection between the original human creative and their surroundings. This relationship is an important and often vital one for creative people, the connectivity between themselves and their surroundings being a lifelong one.
It is sometimes hard for us to see ourselves within the midst of the complexity of nature, rather than standing aside from it as we are often portrayed. We tend to regard nature as an entity that we are somehow excluded from. This disconnection has led to a belief that the natural world is a commodity that needs to be both exploited and coveted. In some respects, the process of commodifying everything around us, whether it be plant, rock or fauna, ultimately reflects back in on ourselves and we start to see our species not as seven billion fellow individuals, but as a conglomerate mass, a market to be as equally exploited and coveted as the external natural world.
Illustration: William Morris. Evenlode textile design, 1883.
The creative interpretation of nature brings us both comfort and a sense of belonging. Whether expressed through tapestry or embroidery, through surface pattern or lace, or indeed any other discipline where decoration or ornament is used. It would be very hard to find an individual that did not own something within their home or amongst their personal belongings that did not reflect the natural world in some form or another.
This connectedness and obvious emotional relationship that we all have in some form with the natural world around us, whether we see that world as a creative or not, begs the question as to why then can we be so dismissive and destructive of that same world that we admire so much when seen in a small piece of fabric.
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