SPOTLIGHT | Tasia Craig
Tasia Craig 2016.
Tasia and I have known each other for six years and over that time I have watched her work develop and grow and have loved it in it's entirity. She has one of those laughs that makes you laugh along with her. Here are her words on herself, creativity and beyond. TAISA CRAIG WEBSITE
1. How would you describe yourself?
Passionate. I’m a whole heart in, everything or nothing, kind of gal. I don’t know how to do things without meaning. If it has no meaning to me I have a hard time forcing myself to do it. I spent many years wishing I were more robotic, because that’s easier and more efficient, but I have learned that life to the fullest is a life with highs and lows and feelings and messiness and emotions.
2. What role does creativity play in your life?
I was raised by an incredibly creative woman who saw budgets and meal plans just as much a creative endeavour as her weekend projects. And I am in love with a man who is an incredible artist but does not identify as creative, but rather as hard working. I dance on that line of believing every task in life is a creative pursuit and yet realizing that creativity ultimately is achieved by simply putting in hard work. Life, to me, is a series of challenges and puzzles, games that can be trudged through to “mediocre” or can be approached from every possible angle until one unique solutions feels more right than the others. This is true for me solving a math problem or designing an object. I have to explore and that is both creativity and mundanity in one.
3. What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on designing and making a line of small household objects. It is fun and exhausting and full of trial and error like any creative pursuit. It involves doing it wrong as many times as I need to before I do it well enough. There will always be a way it could be better and as I learned all too deeply in architecture school: nothing is ever done, there is just “done enough.” I’m not there yet with this line, though I expected to be by now. Other than the housewares, I work on smaller things like a blog, design projects, and dream up wild and crazy schemes with you, Amy.
4. What was the last book/movie/podcast etc. that left an impression on you?
The person of Cheryl Strayed. Her book Tiny, Beautiful Things is my devotional. Her words make life make sense and I consult them often. I also recently rewatched her Super Soul Sunday episode and was reminded that her life was simultaneously as tiny as struggling to pay bills and as huge as have a national best seller and being on Oprah. She balances the absurdities of life in a raw way and it really speaks to me. Also Abstract on Netflix, beyond being fascinating I think it is a designer’s paradise to soak in how different disciplines approach design. All of it is useful and applicable to our own practices. We are more alike than we are different.
5. What advice would you give other creatively driven people?
Only pursue the things that make you happy, because life is too short to be an accountant if you hate numbers or a painter if what you really prefer is sculpture. Money, or fame, or stability are useless if you are not in love with your life. You only get one, fall in love with its past, its present, and its future possibilities. Love is a choice and is worth it, work hard to stay in love because being creative isn’t exclusive to people who recognize their creativity. I believe everyone is creative, some have just been blessed enough to embrace and pursue it. Remember to love that.