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?
