Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The "Average" Scrapbooker...

Let me open this entry by saying how much I dislike the use of the term "average" in scrapbooking... well, when it used as a measuring stick for skill/talent base.

When I say the "average" scrapbooker, I'm referring to scrapbookers who fall into my basic peer group. I'm referring to the moms (or not) with more things to do than the stingy hours in the day provide for. I'm talking about the scrapbooker who is scrapping for the primary sake of memory preservation (but if a publication comes out of her efforts, so be it) and thus, sets her goals with that in mind. I'm referring to the scrapbooker who scraps more than she surfs and who is clinging for dear life to the notion that scrapbooking is all about the pictures and the story behind them. Now if that goddess of paper and glue manages to crank out Louve worthy layouts, kudos for her!, but she's still the average scrapper to me because of the criteria that I attribute to that title.
I am an average scrapper.

It has nothing to do with my style of scrapping, my DT experience, or contest wins. It has to do with the fact that I resemble many of those attributes listed above. I live my life and therefore I have moments to scrap, I don't scrap so that I can live...if that makes sense. I now measure my success in scrapbooking on the basis of whether or not I can get a layout finished without a tiny chocolate laced finger print or kitten epithelials stuck to it. The only way that I would ever change my personal designation as an average scrapper would be if I were to make the decision to scrap primarily for external gain (i.e., magazine publication, manufacturer design teams).

It ain't gonna happen, at least not until I've scrapped all of the graduations, weddings, and births that I hope are coming. I should note that my youngest is 3...so it'll be a while.

"Average" does not, at least to me, mean "less than", mediocre in talent base, untalented, disdainfully simple, or any of the other derogatory definitions that many in the online community attribute to it.

Point please?

I was the Jolly Green Giant's outhouse when I came across a thread in which the posters were trying to make sense of the constant complaints about the content of scrapbooking magazines. There were a plethora of complaints about the mags losing touch with its readers and almost as many rebuttals in defense of the way that the scrapbooking magazines are doing things. In a nutshell, my opinion is that if your readers are complaining about the content and your readership is failing as a result of your ignoring the demands, it's time to stop trying to convince the readers that they don't know what they need and to start convincing yourself that maybe, just maybe, you don't know what the readers need. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, during the course of the thread, a couple of people (including the OP) made a comment about not wanting to see a magazine full of "average" layouts and that the magazine would be boring. The consensus of several on that thread was that, despite the fact that the majority is walking away from mags (those who had even turned to them in the first place, that is) their complaints were nonsensical, jealousy based, and otherwise invalid. There were two things in that thread that got my "goat", so to speak:

1. A poster made a comment about her "average" scrapping buddies who didn't use the magazines for the "inspiration" that "seasoned" scrapbookers did. She said that they instead sought to CASE the layouts that they liked instead of trying to pull design elements from it to inspire their own original creations. The impression that I got from her comment was that she felt that her buddies were somehow creatively crippled because of their desire to use representative layouts this way. Huh?

I sew, from scratch and from patterns. When I first started sewing with patterns, I would assemble the garment, exactly as the pattern specified. As I honed my skills, I developed the confidence and know how needed to modify those patterns and to incorporate my own design preferences into the garments. Until I mastered my confidence with a technique, I was operating under a cloud of confusion and apprehension and that's no way to make a pair of pants.

Why should it be any different with scrapbooking?

Does it really matter that someone CASEs a layout that they see in a magazine or an LSS? Is scraplifting really an affront to the people who created the original layout? Unless you are talking about getting into the publishing arena, I don't think so. The way I see it, that woman's buddies probably wanted to master those techniques used before venturing off on their own with it. Have you ever tried to pick up a technique and use it in your own way? Have you ever cringed at the end result because you're not sure you did it right? I know I have. Inking was one of the things that I failed miserably at simply because I bought into the myth that there was something wrong with copying a layout. I ventured, on my own, to gain mastery the technique and I messed up many a sheets of paper...and t-shirts because of my ignorance. It wasn't until I resorted to emulating inking techniques from other scrappers that I became confident enogh about the technique to incorporate my personal preference into the application. Now my inking doesn't look like I used my paper to clean my stamps; now I am happy with my technique.

I think that the whole CASE/Scraplifting as a means of developing as a scrapbooker is justified and acceptable. I wonder if the negative stigma didn't arise out of the proprietary attitude that a some scrapbookers have about their 'intellectual property'? Perhaps, the feeding frenzy over scrap fame and riches has people gnashing their teeth at the idea of someone borrowing their creativity for what ever the reason?
Imagine a preschool teacher trying to teach kids to write the alphabet but expecting that they use little more than a visual interpretation of the letter as a guide? The kids wouldn't be allowed to trace the letters to get used to the strokes, the would just be allowed to look at the representative letter and interpret it until they got good at it. Fortunately, it doesn't happen that way because 1.imitation is one of the better, proven learning tools, and 2. the kids need to gain confidence in their strokes before they can form them into letters...they can't all be doctors you know. As it stands, the little kiddies are allowed to trace those letters until they have confidence in their own pen/pencil strokes, next they are tasked with writing without the tracer dots...and ultimately, by the time they get to high school, they've managed to mangle each letter into their own personal interpretation of the alphabet. Simplicity is bliss i'nt it?

Scrapbooking has become so complex that I don't blame anyone for needing to copy a layout in order to understand how to use the wacky stuff that's bombarding the "average" scrap-shopper.
In a lot of today's product rich layouts, it's sometimes hard to get your mind around the design intent of the layout, let alone to garner any kind of confidence in your ability to maneuver that much stuff around a page without a map, a rope, and a loaded survival kit. The complexity of the layouts that many of the mags present to the 'average' reader have done much to make scrapbooking harder than it has to be. Is it any wonder that people who just want to preserve a darned memory run from them?

2. Throughout the thread, and throughout the online arena, the "average" scrapper is often seen as some poor soul who lacks what it takes to be a "real" scrapbooker. CM-type, uninspiring, simple, unpublishable, fugly, lame, and beginner are just some of the terms that get lopped on the "average" scrapbooker's head. That's average by industry definition and not mine. This isn't everywhere, but it's a point of view that is becoming more and more prevalent as people lose their ability to accept each other's differences.

One poster used the war-beaten jealousy card and justified it by saying that the "average" scrappers who complain about the complexity of the magazine layouts are jealous because they don't have the time or know-how needed to create the masterpieces that are presented to them. Thhhpppbbbtttttt!

I just don't think that it's all about sour grapes, not for everyone. Yes, there are a lot of scrappers who are jealous. But the majority? I can safely say that there are only two scrappers that I've ever been jealous of: K, because she set a goal for herself 3 years ago and has managed to work through all of her obstacles so that she could realize them, and J, who is so sought after by her LSS owner that the woman won't let her step down from her responsibilities. My jealousy has nothing to do with my inability to emulate their creative works...I've tried to and I almost wound up in traction for my efforts. No, my jealousy has more to do with the fact that they jumped life's obstacles like an Olympic hurdler and kept going until they reached their goals. It has a lot to do with the fact that my trail leg always hits my obstacles when I try to jump over them. It has nothing to do with the way that they scrap because we are as different as night and day. I refuse to believe that every person who's ever felt intimidated by a complex layout is intimidated out of jealousy. I really wish someone would just declare the "J" word off limits already.

I do however, believe that there is a little bit of truth on the part of there being a lack of creativity needed to create similar layouts. I'm not talking about creative skill in general. What I am referring to is the individual creative spirit that inhabits every layout we create. Anyone can copy Starry Night...down to the colors even...I mean...it's swirls right? But none but van Gogh can create that painting as an artistic extension of his/herself. It's his creative spirit that leaks from that painting, it's his mind that flows from his pallette.

So, where as I won't agree that average scrappers often have a problem with the magazine offerings because their lack of creativity prevents them from making sense of the layouts, I will say that the clashes of creative spirits can serves as a barrier between the incomprehensible layout and the average scrapper. Does this make the self proclaimed 'designers' better scrappers? I don't think so...nor does it put the "average" gal on a pedestal for her simple convictions. Rather, it puts them on opposite sides of the same fenced in yard...so to speak.

I think that as a whole, we (scrapbookers) need to figure out a way to communicate our differences without putting each other down, maybe that will be the key to the path of acceptance.

TFS