There is a part of me that feels like I’m being pranked being asked to write about joy at this particular time in the world. Feels like some college fraternity-level hazing to be more specific. This is early days 2024. Anyone rolling around in bucketfuls of joy out there is completely oblivious or completely next level, like Elon/Bezos level psychopath. I’m not here to point out the obvious, dear reader, but I am here in search of something. And I ask that with zero judgment and genuine curiosity. I need to know how you make art and present joy when the world is falling apart.
Judge me for this, but I just don’t feel that many rich CEO management types run their business on a mandate to create joy. I would suggest however that there are many in the arts/creative community who do seek ways to present joy to others. But are we any good at it? And really how do we do it? Can anyone teach me a workshop on joy? I wish I could buy it by the gallon from the pottery supply store. Joy makes you feel better than the best kiln full of the most exquisite pieces that will sell out in minutes on your website for twice the price. That kind of joy. When we are struggling to see joy in the world, beyond the headlines of humanity failing itself, it seems even more elusive a concept, and perhaps more frivolous a need.
I can’t actually think about joy as a maker without bringing to mind Marie Kondo and looking at the world as a myriad of objects and events that either spark joy or don’t. I’ve never read her book because as a maker of objects, I fear it will frustrate me. And besides that, I’m a full-blown hoarder so for me joy isn’t found in simplicity. It exists in the patterns and colors of my mug collection in my overflowing kitchen cupboards, and in the air outside at midnight under the moon while walking my dog. Joy isn’t always the object, it’s the associations, it can be the object in relation to something else, it’s memory and indicators of our personal value structures. But I get it, simple premise, only keep in your life what sparks joy for you. We should all be so privileged to have the choice and extraneous things in our lives to so easily part with. We have marketed the shiny/sparkly/ease of joy often through toxic positivity as though it were something to pluck from the air if we just so choose to. We need more joy in our lives, but the hours of labor and the reality of economics in the world just don’t allow us to. Find it, we must! The only thing holding us back is clicking the purchase button to buy it. We are walking like zombies through our lives asking everything we see if it sparks joy or not. Joy as linked to capitalism is legit ruining the concept for me.
