Goals for the Pentathlon

[mmcnealy]

chargirlgenius asked me about the Pentathlon
What is your goal in entering this?
Is it to stretch your boundaries?
Is it to get your work known?
Is it the challenge?
Is it to show off the depth of your research?
Is it to show off the things that are your specialties?

Maybe I should post this on my own journal, but ever since KASF I’ve been thinking that I got the best idea of the artisan’s specialties and abilities from the displays, where breadth and new stuff wasn’t as important, but depth and showing real specialties were the goals.

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I suppose making cool new things that I've always wanted to make and have fun at the same time isn't deep enough of an answer? :)

Part of it is to prove to myself that I'm not just a one trick pony. I'm not just all about sewing or hats or research. That I have a lot of other skills and can do other things well, even if its at a novice level.

Displays are good for showing what you've done in a specific area and they serve a good purpose. You can show a spectacular piece of work that took years to make or a collection of works in one specific discipline. Its main purpose is to show the depth of the artist, their master works (or journeyman works depending on skill).

The Pentathlon can also show depth, but I think that its best at showing the breadth, the whole artisan, not just one particular facet.

I feel like I'm in danger of being pigeonholed, I'm afraid of being stuck in a rut, of only keeping to the safe things within my time frame. I keep wanting to break out into new disciplines, but without a real reason too, its hard for me to rationally justify the expense in time and money to myself.

So, yes, its to stretch my comfort zone boundaries and provide a challenge to myself. But why not chose a narrower scope for my entries? Why such a broad range of disciplines, including ones that I will be doing novice work in and won't show off my specialties so well? Perhaps its because my specialty is a time period and a place, not just a craft. I want to know the wide range of daily activities that my persona would have done, experienced, tasted; not just one aspect of the time, like sewing or cooking.

If my work gets known at the same time, if people notice the research depth, then that's great. But really, this whole thing is about me as an artisan, challenging myself out of my comfortable little shell and into a more rounded person.