“Get certified”

Date: 1st April, 1659

I’m sitting with the master craftsman along with other designers, painters and sculptors. Only last week I had finished my two day “Certified Master Sculptor” training and I was selected to produce a number of masterpieces for the Royal family, just based on my certification.

These days many Royals and the rich noble families are looking for enhancing their art collection and they are spending large amounts of money and gold to procure a fine piece of art.

I’m happy that my certification will be useful. The course I did was approved by Artisan Alliance and was taught by a Master Certified Artist.

In recent years the Artisan Alliance has gained more popularity than Royal Institute of Masterpiece Engineering, where the emphasis is on the process and style than on the final Sculptor or painting. They used to rate artists by their productivity, which is measured by the number of chisels strokes per hour for sculptors and number of brush strokes per hour for painters (they also note down amount stone, the colour used). Some artists from my county/village are still learning there. But these days many Royals are not happy about the amount of money being spent, they are upset that in spite of spending large sums of money upfront to procure sculptors/paintings they are delivered late and/or costing more than the initial estimates.

This has caused some kind fear among the community of artists that Royals will stop spending on art collection.

Clearly all the artists are disappointed and moving towards getting trained by Artisan Alliance which is committed for the “Artisan Manifesto” which has one of the key principles as “completed artwork is the primary measure of progress” they don’t believe in measuring the amount of paint/stone used nor expect us to work more hours per day. Due to this shift in paradigm, many craftsmen are able to create more paintings and sculptors. This has given the confidence to Royals and rich families to spend money again on procuring.

This change is definitely good but the only challenge is, I need be “certified” in many areas like handling canvas, mixing colours, handling rasps and rifflers. These certifications have validity for only 2 years (some just 1 year) and they don’t consider my 20 years of experiencing being a skilled craftsman at my village. The certifications are becoming expensive as well.

I was well known around my village, in fact, I had many people willing to join me as an apprentice. I’m in a dilemma of whether to spend more on certifications or focus on enhancing my skill.

I’m trying to think and make a decision but in one corner of my mind, there is a voice saying “get certified” another voice is saying “no.. You are good”… I don’t know who will win. They are fighting and the noise is becoming louder and louder…

Bang….Bang…bang…

“Daddy .. daddy .. wake up we have to go to the park” my daughter is shouting from the door. I woke up from my dream, It is a bright Sunday morning and time to take my little daughter to the neighbourhood park to teach her to balance with her bicycle.

Note by author: This article is inspired by Masterpiece Engineering by T. H. Simpson, I personally believe that we all should have some sense of humour and an ability to laugh (at least smile :-)). We can’t keep taking everything very seriously.

I’m certainly aware that as a society our ‘tolerance’ levels are at all-time low, and if any of the readers find this article as offensive — my apologies for causing that for you. For others hope you enjoyed this article!

Peace.

Im also conducting a session on Agile Certifications on 25-May-2019 from 4PM-5PM UK time.

Register here (closed)

You can write to me at mithare@gmail.com for guidence on Agile Certifications.

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Raghavendra Mithare

Written by

seeker, traveler, photographer, engineer, consultant, trainer, father, son, brother, husband, blogger, thinker, bystander,writer, coach, student and a friend

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