The art in distraction…

‘Things I don’t need nor have space for’ is a fair description of most of this Canadian distraction, rather I’d prefer to say adventure. Why then am I always chasing rabbits down deep holes? That is what a logical assessment might ask - but then my model making isn’t rational or scientific, it comes from the heart - not in a Hallmark card sense, but from inside of me, the results then a physical manifestation of that process, and hence of myself…

So I could describe the feelings of child like wonder for these small models, or I could describe my memories of a Canadian holiday as a child - I could perhaps even mention craft and meditation… but none of these concepts really explain what is happening on my bench. 

I make sense of the world - and more accurately, my feelings and my place in it through craft. My chosen ‘intense interest’ happens to be model railways but in the past I’ve painted and in my teens wrote mediocre indie music. Replacing the brush and guitar with a craft knife and paints, I’m still using the process to find a sense of calm, solace in a busy world to try and explore, understand and perhaps articulate life experiences.

So whilst you might find an article about how I made this latest ‘caboose’ in the pages of a magazine on the news stand and perhaps marvel at the finesse or finish of this tiny model; you would not find me describing the work in this manner. Just the cold hard facts. Emotion and feelings, ooof, we mustn’t explore those…

And so something of the societal expectations that helped shape the way I am continues to shape how I am. I consider myself lucky to have found confidence and a space to reflect and think about these ideas with like minded souls on my blog, in Ribbons and here at Layout Club. 

The art in distraction then isn’t so much a story of the next rabbit hole and more the about my search for meaning. It’s good fun too…

For those interested, this is a 54’ Canadian Pacific caboose, representing a later rebuild with plywood sides, assembled from a heavily modified Kaslo shops kit.