The Artisan State-of-Mind

The Artisan State of Mind

      The New York Times writer Stephanie Strom has offered a story, today claiming that the “Millennials,” that is, those in the age group of 18 -30, have cast a bit of a pall over the fast-food industry. According to marketing gurus and number crunchers, the Millennials are avoiding visiting fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King, and instead opting for a more artisanal form of dining where they have clearer understandings of the food that they buy and eat. The younger folks seem to care about what ingredients they are eating and where the food came from in the first place.

         There has been some hullabaloo about the word “artisan,” with some in the Advertising Industry claiming artisan is the “hot” word of the day. “Use the word ‘artisan’ in your next advertising spread and poof, sales will escalate by great proportion. At www.SaintsforSinners.com we love that the word artisan is inching up in popularity and becoming more ameliorative. After all, we have been artisans and crafts-persons since the day our company became even a gleam in the eye.

         Art. Crafts. Uniqueness. Distinction. Quality.  These words have been our calling cards. Our story cards about the saints have always said something to effect that our imported Italian saint medallions are all painted by hand and one-of-a-kind. Sure, as we have grown and flourished we have had to alter our presentations about the uniqueness of our hand-painted saint medals, because, as we started to work with companies like www.fab.com and Group On and the like, we learned that when presenting photos of artistic renderings, the men, women, and children who buy our hand-painted saint medals tend to want the product they see, and straying too far and sending designs that are decidedly different than those that have caught a buyer’s eye, can cause disappointment. We have been painting and improving our designs for nearly 20 years.  It should not have been such a surprise to me that sometimes we serendipitously hit near perfection.  That may be because we have the artisanal saints guiding us on our venture.

         Saint Veronica, Papal patron of photographers and laundry workers, has recently joined our fold but since we paint with a broader brush than those at the Vatican, we broaden Veronica’s scope and offer her medal as a patron for artists and illustrators as well.

         Saint Luke is well-known as the Papal patron of painters and stained-glass workers, but we take him further, offering that saint Luke is surely the patron of artists too!

         Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succor, is Papally inclined to everyone help not just when they need it, but at all times. That is indeed comforting, and our design of this Our Lady is nearly flawless in its beauty, but we had to add that Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a picture-perfect patron of artists and painters. Her wonderful story involved a magnificent painting believed to have been created in the 1200’s. It got lost and it got found and its rendering has been duplicated millions of times.

         And Our Lady of Guadalupe is all about a fantastically miraculous Tilma that was brought to the church by the peasant Juan Diego. The Tilma is such a magnificent and inspiring piece of art. How could we decline to present Our Lady as a patron of artisans and artists?

         Saint Elizabeth of Hungary is known as a patron of lace-makers and bakers. But doesn’t her reach extend to allow saint Elizabeth to be the patron of sewers and crafters and designers as well? We think so.

         We love the fact that the millennials seem to be bucking the trend of a “same ole, same ole” mindset.  They are embracing uniqueness. Saint Elizabeth of Hungary must be overjoyed that this new crew of people are rejecting cookie cutter sameness and embracing originality. At SaintsforSinners.com, we are doing the same thing and wonder, since we are over 18 years old but less than 30, are we not millennials too?