It is the idea that best encompasses my artistic ideals and most accurately defines the creative substance from which my imagination rises. My reluctance to settle on any one medium or craft has often merited me the title ‘jack of all trades’ while my refusal to settle for the simple or mediocre makes me an ambitious perfectionist. Not always the best combination, it’s the only one I’ll accept. Ma
nufactotum is an amalgam of a couple different terms:
ma·no (mä'nō)
n.
1. The upper or hand-held stone used when grinding maize or other grains on a metate. man·u·fac·ture (mān'yə-fāk'chər)
n.
1. The act, craft, or process of making or producing something
v. To concoct or invent; fabricate: manufacture an excuse. from Medieval Latin *manūfactūra : Latin manū, ablative of manus, hand; see man- in Indo-European roots + Latin factūra, working of a metal, from factus, past participle of facere, to make. fac·to·tum (fāk-tō'təm)
n.
1. A person, as a handyman or servant, employed to do all kinds of work around the house.
2. Any employee or official who serves in a wide range of capacities, or having many different responsibilities. from Medieval Latin factōtum : "do everything," from Latin fac, to do; + Latin tōtum, everything,
from neuter of tōtus, all. A natural object or an animate being, as an animal or bird, assumed as the emblem of a clan, family, or group.
2. Anything serving as a distinctive, often venerated, emblem or symbol. from Americanism; < Ojibwa ninto·te·m my totem, oto·te·man his totem (prob. orig. my clan-village-mate, deriv. of s. o·te·- dwell in or as a village; cf. o·te·na village)
In metalurgy, one learns which combination of metals produces the best ore for a particular job. Linguists are all too familiar with the similar dificulty of language; which word best communicates a particular thought? When that word isn't available, one is forced to make invent it. But precision demands that an idea be delivered with the deliberate splice of acutely chosen words. Manufactotum (also spelled Manofactotem), then, is an almost alchemical mixture of symbols that defines an exquisitely abstract notion. One that is new, personal to me, and defined only by the sum of the symbols it conjurs in the mind. Which of them best represent my ideals, and to what extent, well… take a look at my work, and decide for yourself!
