2024 Getty Intern Announcement
Hello everyone, my name is John Davillier (I usually go by JD), and I am very excited to be starting the Digital Communications Intern position for Craft in America through the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program! I am currently going into my senior year at the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design studying BFA Art with a minor in computer programming. I am mainly interested in telling stories with my work, so I am interested in a wide variety of fields whether it be animation, painting, fashion, or design.
I was born and raised in New Orleans, where I was constantly surrounded by artists working on their craft and expressing themselves, so it became very apparent how art can be used to express ideas with a level of spirit that is often not possible with logical understanding alone. The power that art has to make someone not just learn things about someone else’s human experience but to actually feel those things is what makes it such an effective method of communication. Craft is one of the areas where I feel this the most, as it has been a core area of human experience since the beginning of our existence. We as humans have always stood out because of our ability to merge with the tools nature provides us and create something new in tandem with it. A large topic of interest to me at the moment is how this core experience shifts and changes as a result of the heavily digital world we live in today.
Craft in America has offered complete immersion into that topic, and I consider myself very lucky to have joined the team in time to see some of the background work for the upcoming show and help participate, which has exposed me to the work of a group of very skilled woodworkers. Although I have just recently started, seeing the show and the various online content I have worked on so far has already significantly demonstrated how important the connection the artist has with their craft is, and how the spirit they pour into it translates into a unique final object. I really enjoy Craft in America’s emphasis on showing process for that reason. Often from the perspective of a consumer, the final product is everything. However, for the artist, the process: the feeling of using their tools, the texture of the objects they’re working on, the sounds that reverberate through their studio, might be more important than any possible result.
As I continue to work this position, I am very excited to learn more about the connection all kinds of people have with their craft, and how that can lead them to connect with each other. For my generation, the threat of alienation and overconsumption seems to loom over the heads of many. There is a fear that the work we as humans do will become irrelevant as technology takes on more and more roles in our place. Still, for me personally, I have hope, and I feel that working with an organization like this one, where I am surrounded by artists who are passionate and longing for connection, only further strengthens that hope. There is no better demonstration of the idea that, no matter how hard it gets, humans will always have a desire for and love for the act of creating things and expressing themselves than experiencing the communities that are based around those very acts.