Good Life Project - Can You Feel a Maker’s Heart Through Their Art?

Episode Date: August 13, 2014

Have you ever picked up, looked at or listened to something so beautiful, it left you in a state of awe? And then thought… I wonder what the person who made it is like? Is what I’m looking at just an extension of their heart and soul? And, if that soul is dark, will you […]The post Can You Feel a Maker’s Heart Through Their Art? appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Good Life Project, where we take you behind the scenes for in-depth, candid conversations with artists, entrepreneurs, makers, and world shakers. Here's your host, Jonathan Fields. So it's a gorgeous summer afternoon, and I've just driven these beautiful mountains from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Abington, Virginia. And I find myself at the Hartwood Artisan Gateway. It's this stunning facility out in the mountains where I stumble upon a video of this luthier guitar builder named Wayne Henderson. Wayne lives about an hour away, maybe an hour and a half in Rugby, Virginia, and I've been researching building guitars for the last few years and become kind of obsessed with the craft, but actually never heard of Wayne before. So watching the video of him and his

workshop, I'm kind of mesmerized and I have to know more. And it turns out that Wayne is also a National Heritage Award recipient and a bit of a legend in the guitar building world, really for two reasons. One, he's a true master. He's been honing his craft as a player and as a builder for more than four decades, plays like a savant, and he builds some of the most sought-after guitars in the world, which leads to number two. And that is that he once made Eric Clapton literally wait 10 years for a guitar, not out of spite or ego, just because he's one guy. And he still does most things by hand. And the list of people who want guitars from him is about 10 years long. So I had to know more. And I did some digging. I discovered this book

about Wayne and his life and this really deep devotion to guitars and music and the craft and the Clapton story. The book is called Clapton's Guitar and it's written by an author named Alan St. John. For anyone with a deep appreciation for sort of a humility-driven mastery, by the way, it's a must read. So something at the end of the book really grabbed me though. Something I'd believed for a long time, but it was written in a way that really hit home. St. John was talking about

guitar making with legendary guitar builder and repairman T.J. Thompson. And he asked T.J. a question. He said, what is it that separates a magical guitar from a merely great one? So T.J. says back to him, well, it's a combination of about 600 things. And then follows up with number one. Is the state of mind of the person building the guitar. And Alan replies, in a single sentence, he had articulated the hypothesis I had gradually been creeping towards. An instrument is the sum total of not only the builder's experience, but his experiences. You need to be a good man to build a good guitar. And then Thompson adds, be a better person. You can't keep your personality out of the work. It's impossible.

If you're rigid or you're distorting reality, it goes into the guitar. And when you play it, it comes back out. It's disturbing. I used to believe that, but I never had any proof of it. I played enough handmade guitars and then later met the maker. And sure enough, it's inseparable. So for a long time, I felt the same about business, about the craft side of entrepreneurship, about art and the process of making anything for anyone. Craft isn't just about craft. It's about essence, who you are, how you live your life, the way you engage with the world. it all flows through you and into what you create. So when you're working to figure out how to get to the next level, how to transcend that cap on what you put into the world and the impact it has, look at skill, but maybe important, look at you.