Why does Scrapbooking need validation?

I had the pleasure of reading 2 stories that covered the now "old news" introduction of the Martha Stewart line of scrapbooking products...and I am pretty much dazed and confused:

Wall Street Journal Article

The Gawker.com

Mind you, I've had my own personal crisis to deal with so I am a little behind the ball on this one, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't put my 2-cents worth of grumbling out there~

First of all...the whole notion of the "white trash" and "frumpy, time frittering" stereotypes are simply ignorant. Who the heck are these people and why do they feel the need to debase a tradition that dates back hundreds of years? The fact that I am commenting on these articles months after their release is irrelevant when you think of all of the scrapbooking stereotypes that are still flying around the arena:

• Scrapbookers are primarily SAHM who have nothing better to do with their time or spouse's money.
• Scrapbookers are fat, homely, and living a life vicariously through their pages.
• Scrapbookers are people who lack substance in their lives and therefore fill that void by reliving the past memories in Technicolor.

Ever heard those? If not, you've probably heard something similar. I don't often hear such things about people who sew for a hobby, or paint in their leisure time. Why?

Is it that the end product of our scrapbooking is so personal (to ourselves) that others have a hard time making a connection and therefore seeing the beauty and value of what we are doing? Is it the typical "those who can, do and those who can't, criticize" thing again?

I've seen the looks that some people give my pages and I think that there really is an underlying failure to understand the true essence of scrapbooking festering out there. I have some of my favorite pages cycling across my computer monitors as a screen saver at work, the reaction is mixed, but mostly positive. I've been asked how I find time to do what I do, WHY I do what I do and why don't I just put my pictures in an album like "everybody else". I don't typically honor those questions with an answer. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... they wouldn't understand, so why bother?

What I disliked the most about the articles is the way that they spun Scrapbooking up to be a hobby that somehow beneath worthy mention and that Martha Stewart is going to somehow "rescue" the dowdy craft. Now, we scrapbookers know that this industry is a huge cash cow and that Martha Stewart simply wanted to grab hold of one of it's utters before it dried up. I don't fault her, I don't fault anyone for opening the door when opportunity knocks. I do find fault in the ignoramus' who think that they can take an outsider glimpse of our time honored tradition and pass such a crude and baseless judgment on it in an attempt to do what ever it was that they were trying to do (it still boggles my mind).

So, where did this negative stigma come from? If you look at all of the grumblings going on, you would think that the light that was cast on scrapbooking would've been one of over indulgence and fame seeking...but frumpy and trashy? I don't see anything trashy about a $10 pack of rubons and long gone are the days when the primary staples for creating a scrapbook were bits of ribbon, lace and newspaper clippings. Perhaps the reasoning for the derogatory spin was based on a need to cast Martha as something other than just another scrapbooking entrepreneur? What ever the reasoning, I think that it may have done more to hurt her by creating a bigger divide between her fledgling company's ventures and the "typical" scrapbooker. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time that I was wrong.

I think that I AM right in thinking that scrapbooking needs to be recognized for it's intended value...something that I don't see happening any time soon. I guess once again, it will have to start with us. As tired as I am of being questioned about why I scrapbook, I think it's time that I spoke up to the masses of people who seem to be okay with allowing their memories to fade into nonexistence. The next time that I am asked about my pages, I will be sure to ask the inquirer whether his parents were able to recall every memory that was attached to those albums full of featureless photos or if they remember the first joke their kid ever successfully pulled off...then I'll take it from there.

In retrospect...

I took a trip up to New York to see my FIL this past weekend. It was a good trip, and it was a bad trip. It was good because my kids got the opportunity to meet 7 of their 1st cousins that they'd previously never met. It was bad because it broke my heart to see how much cancer had taken from my FIL.



I packed for the camping trip (my FIL is spending his last few months embracing his love for the outdoors) with intentions of documenting everything. Those plans went out the window when we got there and I saw him with my own eyes. I didn't want to remember his pain or his suffering, and after talking to him for a while, I gathered that he didn't want me to remember it either. I have tons of pictures and memories of him while his vibrancy still over out shined his illness. Those are the pictures that I want, those are the memories that I will cherish. It broke my heart to hear him say that he didn't want me to see him like that, not because of misplaced rejection, but because i found myself agreeing with him. A man with a heart as golden as his should never be touched by anything as vile and evil as cancer or illness. I will forever remember him as the spunky, hilarious, "dirty old-man" that offered to walk me down the aisle if my father couldn't because that is the man that I made room in my heart for.



The entire weekend wasn't as somber as my last paragraph. I found out that my BIL, Doug, stumbled across my gallery at SB.com and he emailed the link to everyone in the family. I was bombarded with tons of praise from family members about the layouts that I didn't even know they'd seen. The funny thing is that that praise meant so much more to me than what I received from my fellow scrappers. Don't get me wrong, I like that people like my pages, it's just that I often get family recognition for them. It's a different type of validation, different, but no less/more appreciated...well...sorta. Anyway, hearing the positives really motivated me to keep putting my pages up. It was kind of weird because I've been struggling with keeping my motivation up while not allowing myself to put much stock in external validation. I totally feel like a kid who just got to have her cake and eat it too. I've reconnected with the whole "scrap for your family thing" simply by finding family outside my immediate who are interested in seeing my work. One comment in particular that struck me was made by my SIL. She mentioned that she felt as if she'd actually watched my copies grow up simply by viewing my gallery of layouts.

"Wow!" That was all I could conjure by way of a response.



Well, now that I'm back and refocused, I need to recommit to this hobby. Having battles some nasty demons and lived to tell about it, I think that I am ready to reclaim my enthusiasm. I have some painful scrapping to do, particularly some documenting of my illness...just to purge the poison that fear has left in me. I plan to scrap until I am emotionally raw and bare...I need to...it's my poor man's therapy. One day, I might be able to share those pages, but for now, it's just for me.



BUT before I get to the therapy I'm concocting a page about my FIL that I think he'll love.

It's going to be about how much of a hottie he was and the picture that I'm going to use is an old black and white one of him in his 20's. In the picture, he's holding this huge fish he'd just caught and he has a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. I swear he was channeling James Dean in that picture! I was awarded that picture a few years ago when my FIL had had his fill of my talking about how hot he looked in it, he presented it to me while lovingly giving me permission to kiss it every night before I went to sleep so that I could have "studly" dreams. Is it any wonder that I love that man so much? This weekend he made a comment about how he's no James Dean anymore, to which I responded that he would always be my hottie.



And you know what? He will...



TFR