The Game of Giving Gifts

A watercolor I painted as a present

Gift-giving has always had a political element to it. Tribal groups typically exchanged gifts in order to keep good relations, build new alliances, or repair tensions; from the Middle Ages through the Reformation and the Victorian Age, elements of charity and philanthropy evolved into various forms– but they were always based on the foundation of the Gift.

Today I might argue that gift giving has become less political, but no less strategic. In a globalized free market, our primary form of exchange is monetary, and certainly that economic element infuses our gift-giving: last year we spent $446.8 billion dollars on retail gifts alone during the holiday season.

But real strategy of the gift game plays out on an individual level:

• How well do I know this person? (How personal should this gift be?)
• What kind of a relationship do we have? (How much time or money should I spend preparing or buying this gift?)
• What is this person’s personality? (What the hell should I actually give?)

The political element hasn’t disappeared from gift-giving, though– especially when women complain how hard it is to buy presents for men. Or when men feel frustrated because they don’t know how to shop for women (or how to shop at all). Marketing and sales industries are primarily aimed at women; women are taught how and when to spend money from a very young age. Men, on the other hand, are given a small range of typical gifts for women they care about: flowers, jewelry, candy. It kindof limits their creativity, don’t it.

I’m feeling the strategy of gift-giving these days. All of the birthdays in my family but one fall within the October to December range (not to mention that whole Holiday Season thing…).

I recently made the painting at the top as a gift for one of my co-workers (a cheaper alternative than pitching in for a gift certificate). But now I’m questioning my strategy: is it appropriate; will she like it; is it her style…

I’ve also never done a still life before– I tried a lot of new techniques with this piece. A word of advice to artists: it’s REALLY FRIGGIN’ RISKY to experiment with a new technique when you’re planning to give away the painting as a gift.

Binding A New Journal, Courtesy of Exaclair

Exaclair Papers (except the blue)

This title is a bit misleading: I don’t really “journal,” in the traditional sense of the word. I use to write my thoughts, yes– but also for my creative writing and to write articles, and also as an art journal or sketchbook, and also for boring things like to-do lists and academic planning. Whew.

I always emphasize this to my friends ( it’s a BOOK, not a “DIARY”) who have this image of me sitting down, probably in Victorian clothing, to write, “Dear Diary, today I…”

So. I finished my Kunst & Papier Book with a really awkward amount of time left before graduation. I kept thinking, “Oh, of course this Book will last me until I graduate! and then I’ll make a lovely clean new one for my post-college life! Blank slates all around!”

But oh, no. I finished my Book with four weeks till graduation. So, what, should I start a new one that begins four weeks before a major life transition? That seemed really unbalanced and strange, so I decided against it. Instead I’m going to make a short little Book that I can use for the next month.

And how perfect! I received a lovely assortment of papers from Exaclair to review. Along with a Rhodia dotpad and some stationary, I received a Graf It sketch pad, DCP Digital Color Printing Paper, a Calligraphy Art Pad, and the Ingres Pastel Pad. So, I decided the best way to test them all would be to bind them into one multimedia writing-art-planner Book.

Clairefontaine Generosity

I’ll update when the book is bound!

Gifts are Everywhere

One of the things I love about Lewis Hyde’s The Gift (which I recently wrote about here) is that, after reading it, gift giving shows up everywhere. Hyde calls this phenomenon the “gift economy” — and considering this guy decided to do this after being laid off from his job, I think the economic comparison is entirely appropriate.

The gift economy can only exist in small groups: in tribes, religious communities, etc. I think part of what appeals to me about the gift economy is that it describes rurality– the way that rural areas develop communities of gift giving, with both the positive and negative traits. You can’t raise a barn by yourself, you know.

Yet Reed Sandridge (the guy in the article) is a perfect example of taking the gift economy into large cities– where it may not develop into a whole economy, but it can certainly surround an individual. Beautiful.

An Inky Return

I returned home to two packages. The first was an order from Jerry’s Artarama, on which I will provide a side note:

SIDE NOTE: I would much rather purchase art supplies from my local art store, because it’s dusty and trendy and it’s fun to get lost in there, but there’s no way I can afford to pay $33.00 for a block of nice watercolor paper, much less two blocks. So, my tactic is to purchase small and open stock items from them, and then I keep an eye for sales on art supply websites.

TANGENT TO SIDE NOTE: So, that’s one [more] reason to get rich: you have the power to funnel your money in good places, instead of being forced to feed corporations.

The other package was pretty much the antithesis to an internet order. That is, a super-generous gift from a fellow member over at the Fountain Pen Network, who had some ink samples and was looking to pass them on. I was expecting 4 or 5 ink samples, so let’s just pretend I didn’t make a cartoony eye-bulging face when I opened up the box and found twenty full samples of ink, none of which I’ve tried before.

Also generously included were twelve outstanding vintage nibs for dip pens. I’ve been using cheapo Speedball nibs to do my ink reviews (another financial compromise), so I got a little glow-y when I saw these. Almost all of them are flexible– the Joseph Gillott’s Public Pen has the most flex, I would say.

Okay, yeah, on to the sexy photos:

I love the Congressional’s cross-shaped vent hole, and the simplicity of the Joseph Gillott Public Pen. In fact, I just love the design of these in general.

I have clearly not mastered the art of flex nibs. But, now I have an excuse to practice