Be an Artist

As an artist, I believe that I have a responsibility to my community. The role I have chosen to fulfill this responsibility is to train willing artisans to work with their hands. I am personally dedicated to helping our village transition to a more locally based economy that will provide work for local residents. artisanat is an experiment that could lead to change in our society.

Whenever I have resided/worked in other cities around the world, I have taken on the responsibility to train local youth. My aim is to instill in them the love of working with their hands and to teach them the skill of seeing in three dimensions. This is my activism against the two-dimensional mania of the internet, texting and Facebook that has infiltrated, overcome and about to ruin our culture, especially our youth.

By making the original carvings for the molds for the first Portrait Vessels, I shifted from a self-driven “artist in his studio” model to a community-based paradigm. It was richly rewarding and I encourage all local artists to help train the future artisans of this important program.

~Kardash Onnig