Are Builders Respected?

Are builders respected?


To explore this question, I'll draw on past experience with build teams. I've been approached by a few build teams. Not a lot, but a few. So far, I haven't stuck with any. Why?


I tend to look for three things in a build team or any commissioned project.


1) Good payment for organics.


- I build organics and only organics. That may not be you, but that's me. And I've noticed there usually isn't much in it, financially, for sculptors. Even if organics may generally take a small space and a short time to build, the amount of time sculptors spend studying form and function to create lifelike sculptures (which, if they're done well, usually turn out to be the most memorable part of a map) is rarely taken into account.


- Also paid poorly and under-sought are sculptors who don't specialize in the mainstream dragons & angels type stuff. That brings me to my next criterium. 


2) Freedom.


- You can tell me to build a warrior, and maybe even a certain style or pose of warrior, but it has to be compelling, and if it isn't, I'll put forth my own idea. With all due respect to the client, I might (key word: might) have experience in art and life that he/she doesn't, and have a better idea of how to thrill people with an organic. The "customer is right" ideology creeps its way into much of business, including Minecraft business, and it has this crazy way of making vendors assume they know what clients want, but only know half the story. Markets are more mysterious than 1 + 1 = 2. Clients react to weird, new ideas. Many builders understand and tap into this mystery, but are prevented from showing what they know. If you write off a builder's opinion like it's nothing, that says something about you. It might say you insist on boring, safe, and blandly satisfactory. And that would be a sad thing for all of us.


- Additionally, if you insist I sculpt a certain style or subject while knowing full well my specialties and preferences, why are you asking me to sculpt for you in the first place? Why aren't you asking the guy who sculpts Skyrim dragons and chibi angels? 


3) A team that's on my wavelength.


- Ok, ego parade. If you build in a way that regurgitates what is proven to work for quick & easy money, that says something about your skill. Really, it does. If you aren't able to produce genuine art at all, let alone on a commission basis, something's missing in your training.


- What do I mean by genuine art? I mean theme, symbolism, story, expression, emotion, evolution. Words that tend to go in one ear and out the other, not fit into the blueprint, or worst of all, get worn on the sleeve of a build but never taken into the heart. 


- Keep in mind that I'm delivering this lecture to myself. Something's missing in my training, too. When I'm really loving a build, I want to take my sweet, fat time with it and listen to nobody. I struggle to build art for commission. I'm missing one side of the balance – a balance between work and play – production and exploration. 


So, are builders respected?


Do I feel respected? No, not always.


But am I respecting myself? 


I can harp on all the ways build teams and clients don't treat me right, but if that's the case, why am I looking in these places anyway? Am I respecting myself by thrusting myself into situations that do me no service? Is there something better I could be doing to foster my unique gifts and talents? Whether in or out of Minecraft? 


Or can I go deeper? Does the solution lie in the hard, gritty work of doing what I hate? When I've dug enough, will the walls break and the light of freedom shine through? 


I have found that whatever you do, no matter how much you love it, doing it with consistency makes you suffer. At least a little. I've tried to come to peace with that. 


So ask yourself the same. Are you respected? And are you respecting yourself? Are you doing everything to thrive in the way your gift is guiding you?


Blessings,


Chimalus