[Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member

[Lynda Lambert]

Hi Laurie, 
So nice to see you here.  I did not start this group though, I am like you, I just came on to ask a question about something I needed to know and was so glad to meet Ann who helped me with my question.  I am furiously working right now (oops, split that infinitive!) getting work done for the opening of a two-person exhibition at a museum - the show is called _Vision and Revision:  Two artists with limited sight, not limited vision_  It is my pottery and mixed-media fiber works, and a legally blind painter. It opens one month from today, and if I stop to think about what else has to be done yet, I'll get nervous. So, I won't do that, but just will keep on working on the details. The show will appear at two locations this year and will have a video that plays in the gallery with the art works, Braille labeling, and artist's talks. I will even be teaching in the gallery one afternoon, for the Women in the Arts course at Geneva College. That is where I taught when I was a professor of fine arts and humanities, before I retired. I'll be lecturing on the historical context of my work and where the ideas have come from when creating it. 

To make matters even more difficult, I am scheduled to speak at a conference at Slippery Rock University of PA for two sessions, the day before we hang our show. So, I have those presentations to be working on every day now, too.  I officially retired from teaching 5 1/2 years ago, but I am still very much involved in everything but being in the classroom.

Here is my response to the question you have asked. The gap between an artist and a crafter is like crossing the ocean, it is that wide. Some basic things may be similar between the two, but most things are very far apart philisophically.

Both work with the hands, and both love working with the hands and most have done it all their life.  
Both love the materials, and the handling of them, and the satisfaction of the finished product that comes out of it. 

While the crafter will usually be satisfied with beginning something and knowing where the end will be, the artist begins with no notion of where the end will be or even if it will be.  the crafter has a clearly defined path to the finished product. The artist has only some inklings of possible outcomes, but has to find them as she works.

The other very big thing I see as a difference between them is that the crafter has 'rules" to follow and seldom will ever deviate from those rules, as they are set in stone in her mind. On the other hand, the mature artist has learned that there are no rules at all.  They may begin in the early stages by learning techniques, but eventually with the years of working, the light comes on in her brain when she discovers one day - she is free of all rules when making art. Everything can be challenged, everything can be changed, and everything is fair game, for the artist. Is there any other profession in this world where there are no rules? It's the most exhilerating feeling to know that there are absolutely no rules whatsoever for me. Wow, makes me take a deep breath just to say it. Free, free, free, at last! 

Laurie, the biggest difference between art and a craft is where the person eventually takes the techniques, I think.  

A crafter seldom takes things to a different level but is usually content to learn something then duplicate it endlessly, then moves on to learn something else and does that again with it. The artist can take crafts materials (which is what you and I both do) and techniques, and then take them far beyond because they will combine their techniques and materials with the imagination.  If you can teach it, it is usually a craft. If you cannot teach it, it is normally art.  Art can begin by learning some techniques, or using craft materials, but then the person begins to ask the "what if" questions, and takes lots of risks, failures, and bends in the road on the way to it becoming a work of art. It is a "mind set" that is never satisfied with just the learning of something new, but one that constantly questions, experiments, and never knows where the "end" will be, or even if it will be.  A "crafter" will never understand what I have just said and will most likely be huffing and puffing and angry with it.  An "artist" is standing and applauding what I have said. It is that simple, and that complex.  The artist thrives on change and making new discoveries and each work leads to other querstions and more change and more new discoveries. 

One can see the difference when you look at work in types of environments.  One will be setting at a craft show with a table full of things that are basically all the same while the other will have work  on display in a gallery or museum.  Each has decided where they "fit" and each is very happy with where they are. They are different animals, with different ideas, and different end results and outcomes. Each one has decided their own path and each one is comfortable with the decision she has made.

Lynda

Lynda


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Laurie Porter 
  To: Artists-making-art at nfbnet.org 
  Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2014 7:26 PM
  Subject: [Artists-making-art] arts or crafts new member


  Hi Folks:

  I’d like to introduce myself. I’m a blind person from wisconsin who is a fledgling and budding beginner artist. my medium is beadwork. I make pictures and tapestries out of tiny little seed beads  sewn together with thread. but most of my work is in making jewlry, but I have always looked upon my beadwork as an art form. 

  so, I have a basic question. What is the difference between an art and a craft? I do believe that all crafts are forms of art  but are all arts considered crafts? Thanks linda and all of you for getting this list going as it is something I’ve always dreamed of seeing in our efforts to bring blind people together who love to both create and appreciate the visual arts.     


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