PJLewing@aol.com on mon 11 nov 96
"Art is signed on the front, craft is signed on the back. Case closed."
Jeez, People, it was a joke! Wasn't even my joke- it was Don Reitz's, so go
rag on him. And remember, you only saw the responses that were posted to the
list! I can't believe anyone was actually offended by that comment.
Of course, I can't believe people are actually still discussing and arguing
about this art/craft thing anyway. I've been doing clay for over 30 years
now, and the argument has been going on this whole time. And I haven't heard
a new idea about it in at least 25 years.
Who cares what label somebody else puts on what you make? Would you change
what you make because somebody called it a different word? Why would anyone
care if there even IS a difference between art and craft, much less spend
even 2 minutes trying to figure out what that difference is? That's for
critics to make a living trying to figure out. And why would anyone care
what critics think?
What do you get when you cross a Mafiosi with an art critic? Someone who
will make you an offer you cannot understand. That was a joke, too, in case
you couldn't tell. Wasn't even my joke. I read it in Ceramics Monthly, of
all places.
Well, now I've offended another whole profession. I apologize in advance to
all the Mafiosi on the list.
Besides, everyone knows the real definition of art is anything that hangs on
the wall and costs more than $500. Unless, of course, it matches your sofa.
And, please, no more BS (Breezy Speculation) about arbitrary valuation
cutoffs in a materialistic society, or what if it's 3-dimensional, or what is
it if it DOES match your sofa, or even why can't the SOFA be art? Nobody
needs it. Just go to your studio and make stuff. Besides, it was a joke.
Wasn't even, etc. etc.
Yesterday at a really great slide show at Seattle Art Museum by Rudy Autio
and Pete Voulkos, Pete said "There is no such thing as art. There are only
artists". There, that should be good for at least 2 weeks on the list.
Maybe it was a joke. Wasn't mine, though, so you'd have to ask him. I
couldn't help thinking while I was listening to both of them, how little
patience either of them has for this argument. I'm sure neither of them
cares one whit whether anyone calls what they do art, craft, or something
else.
Besides, everybody missed the really interesting philosophical questions
raised by determining art/craft by where it's signed. And that is, can an
object change its classification by simply turning around? Would that oil
painting be craft if it were hung facing the wall? Would plates hung face
outward in a craft gallery have to be displayed with the foot facing out in
an art museum? Is a mug craft while you're drinking coffee out of it, and art
while it's upside down in the dish drainer?
Maybe we need some new words. My wife makes 3-dimensional small things out
of combinations of many materials. Sometimes she enters them in shows as
craft, sometimes as sculpture. Sometimes she enters one category, and the
show switches her to the other. The same piece has been rejected in one
category and given a prize in another. We've taken to calling them
"crapture". Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? That's a joke, too, and this
one's even mine, but it does sort of sum up the work. Takes in the highs and
the lows of making stuff, the yin and the yang, the agony and the ecstasy. I
might even say it expresses the mind/body dichotomy, if I didn't think people
who say things like that should have a bucket of cold water thrown in their
face.
So I was hoping my original statement would stop this ridiculous art/craft
discussion for a while, but I guess that's not going to happen. What I
really meant by "case closed' was...
GO TO YOUR STUDIO AND MAKE STUFF!
Paul Lewing, Seattle
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