Life With an Artist

Riding a creative wave, Jon won't sleep for days. Sometimes weeks. Another new idea turns into an obsession. Jon Anderson, best known for his Fimocreations fimo animals, isn't just a polymer clay artist. He's a competitive man, an artist so driven by a need to be original, anything less than breaking new ground to perfection slays him, strips him of a reason for being. And, in some weird way, I envy his all-consuming passion, even though, more often than not, that leaves me the mistress to his first wife, fimo.

A new fimo animal, the right marriage of polymer clay and copper on an animal bowl idea. Yeah honey, he says, I'm coming to bed in a minute, as soon as I work out this fish sculpture, that can also hold water for flowers!

The trajectory of his creative sparks aren't easy to predict. Will he burn at a low intensity, only partially consumptive, with little danger to the environs, ie me? Or will it play out like a crown fire, with intense heat rising in a fever pitch, again dangerous, predominately, only to the host. Or will this new obsession du jour tun into something akin to a ground fire, an intense blaze with the potential to destroy all in its path. (Actual ground fires create their own winds and weather, increasing the flow of oxygen and "feeding" the fire.) You read that right. Jon's working on an impossibly intricate fimo chicken. Pack a bag!

When I'm lucky enough to merely observe, I wonder, is it ego? Is it fear? Fear of being technically surpassed? Fear of resting on his laurels?

In the (surprisingly vast) world of polymer clay, Jon Anderson is a fimo creations star. The "man". The man to beat. And in his 20 odd years among the few (certainly few men) at the top of the heap, Jon has gained a few imitators, or, to put it in art school terms, artistic appropriation. Perhaps it's the pain of that gain that keeps him up all night. But who could keep us with this insomniac workaholic?

Jon Anderson is a passionate artist. A perfectionist. And living with any artist can be a bitch. Of course it's possible that I de-constuct his rhythms so easily, because, as an artist myself, he is my mirror. And maybe you see yourself in it too.