So late last year I went to a bar with Anna, drank a few glasses of pinot and got up on my soapbox (barstool?) about the lack of credibility and respect given to craft - and I wrote a post about it. Craft as the ugly stepsister. And as is often the case with blogging, the really good stuff happened in the comments section of that post. The comments gave me so much to think about that I've been thinking/chatting about it ever since. And although that post wasn't really a craft v's art post I'm really curious about where the line is. What makes craft craft and art art? And then why is one deemed more XYZ than the other?
One comment I especially loved was Siri's paraphrasing of her sister Mim's thoughts.
“Art and craft are different. She suggests art is harder because it is about creating new frameworks that challenge the way we perceive and think about things. She likes craft because it is gentler and there isn’t this pressure on it.
She also suggested that whether people see craft as equal to art is a different issue.”
I totally agree with Mim. I think that the line between art and craft is very different to whether people see craft as equally deserving of their respect. The probably both deserve their own posts but for now I've found something that shifted the whole debate to another plane.
I've been moving on from my beloved podcasts this week, and upping the ante on my "ideas consumption", by listening to an audiobook by Seth Godin called the Icarus Deception. Chapter 3 talked about what art was - in Seth's opinion it isn't necessarily a painter.
“Oscar Wilde wrote that art is new, complex and vital. Art isn’t something made by artists. Artists are people who make art. Art is not a gene or a specific talent. Art is an attitude, culturally driven and available to anyone who chooses to adopt it. Art isn’t something sold in a gallery or performed on a stage. Art is the unique work of a human being, work that touches another.
Most painters, it turns out, aren’t artists at all — they are safety-seeking copycats. Seizing new ground, making connections between people or ideas, working without a map — these are works of art, and if you do them, you are an artist, regardless of whether you wear a smock, use a computer, or work with others all day long.”
Seth says many more things about art (in this book and others) which I found useful and which have transformed my thinking to some degree. I'll leave you with a couple more but I would love to hear what you think and whether this resonates for you.
“Committing to do work that is personal, that akes guts and that has the potential to change everything. Art is the act of a human being doing generous work, creating something for the first time, touching another person. ......
Art is frightening. Art isn’t pretty. Art isn’t painting. Art isn’t something you hang on the wall. Art is what we do when we are truly alive. If you have already decided you are not an artist it is worth considering why you made that decision and what it might take to un-make it. If you have announced that you have no talent in anything then you are hiding.
Art might scare you. Art might bust you but art is who we are, and what we do and what we need.
An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it, all of it, the work, the process, the feedback from those we seek to connect with personally. Art isn’t a result, it is a journey.
The challenge of our time is to find a journey worthy of your heart and your soul.”
Weigh in lovely peeps!
Felicia x
