Why is it your obsession/field of study?

Post Reply New Topic

I have had multiple obsessions. The current one is handweaving. The newness hasn't worn off of it yet, so there is a huge potential for learning ahead and I could be at this very happily for years to come, perfecting one new weave after another. What really amazes me is that I'm a far more prolific weaver than I ever was at 2D art and that's where my degree work is at. I'm really quite happy doing this. Now if I can just make decent money quietly doing what I love I'll have it made!

Other obsessions: Iron Oak Gall Inks & dyes (just made fresh batch...for calligraphy), medieval gilding adhesives, corded trapunto knotwork quilting, herbs and nutrition, & canine social behavior.
The lists of interests is interesting itself.

Oh, I missed the "why" context... The handweaving, the ink, the glue...is all art originated, and then I got a medieval interested to my art, except for the weaving. The weaving is inspired by Matisse (a story unto itself). The trapunto thing is because I'm from a long line of quilters and I learned to do the stuffed kind as a kid, then I found with my medieval interest that there was a decorative corded kind of trapunto that nobody had apparently worked out how to do as knotwork, but I found period paintings showing it had been done (ooohhh... a challenge!).
Herbs was because I lived in the rural Ozarks as a teen and an herbalist saved my sick grandfather when we got locked in by a blizzard, and he explained the plants/roots outside had medicine and vitamins in them. I learned them.
Paid attention in college when we found I had a major digestive/allergy problem and a Prof quietly gave me one of her teaching editions of a Nutrition Textbook (one with all the answers in it), which I still have 20 yrs later, with lots more information on the subject that has come in very handy over the years.

my biggest obsession is how the human mind works. what inside people's minds, how they perceive things, why they are the way they are, what are their biggest fears and hopes, I just want to be everyone for 1 minute.
my second obsession are words and the connection between how one word sounds in one language and how it does in another. If I hear a word once, in any language, I pretty much never forget it or what it means, but just a few words, I don't think I am super talented in learning whole new languages, I speak 4 of them but I am only fluent in two.

Foreign language grammar. I don't care about learning the language or any vocabulary -- I'm just fascinated by how a language works. I did spend 10 years though learning to speak Italian, but the most fascinating part of that was learning all the details of how the grammar evolved from Latin to modern Italian.

Psychology! I love learning about how the mind has so much influence. For example, we were learning about whether health problems in old age were biological or psychological, and I was convinced it was biological but then there was all this evidence to suggest that it was due to the reduced level of control and responsibility they had, such as having less indepence in terms of taking care of themselves, not going to work or having looking after children. Apparently, the stress of losing all that responsibilty causes their mental and physical well-being to deteriorate.

Buffy the vampire slayer!! !! ! It is the best show ever created!! !! Buffy is a heroine!! !! ! She inspires me to be the best I can be, and not be afraid to be different!

Other special interests have come and gone for me but I only really seem focused these days on geography, maps and demographics. I really can't identify why. I had this special interest from the earliest age I can recall, it was just there, so as far as I know I was born with it.