Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Dangling Conversation

A long time ago, in the 1970s and 80s, there developed a rather lively conversation between those who practiced art and those who practiced artisanry, or craft. The conversation talked around the boundaries of each of those disciplines. What is art? What is craft? We'd crowd around wherever we could find a flat surface and discuss this every which way over endless meals and drinks. At one point, in the field of furniture design, an informal term was coined--art-iture--to describe furniture that was considered as sculptural as it was utile. Furniture such as shown in the book below. Visionary in nature, the book didn't tell you HOW to make a piece of furniture, but how to make the design decisions needed to create what you wanted to express in the process of the making.

Yes, that is my name, pre-Holmesian, at upper right. The book was published
in 1989 by The Taunton Press, and is, sadly, long out of print. 

From the book: "All American Make Up Mirror and Dressing Table," Paul Sasso (photo by Paul Sasso)
"Roadrunner Chair," Mark Hazel (photo by Seth Stem)


From the book: Table inspired by gems and architectural buttresses, Seth Stem
(photo by Gary Gilbert)

I feel an undercurrent of a similar conversation brewing today. What is art? What is craft? This time of year, especially, you'll hear it while browsing holiday markets. Your friend the photographer carping about the number of tables containing crocheted toilet-tissue holders and such like. Still, the discussion is rather more underground than in the past. In these days of enforced inclusivity, it's not exactly polite or politic to draw perimeters around anything.

I've made no secret of my feelings that, with few exceptions, the publishers and editors of the magazines and books of mixed media have dropped the visionary ball that once they carried. I do not subscribe to Somerset Studio (I do have an extensive collection of way-back-when issues), yet I occasionally flip through the pages at my bookstore, as I did several days ago. As always, the magazine was chock-a-block full of projects that mostly looked the same to my eye, but then...an interesting twist. Not long after a project on making gift wrap from dryer sheets appeared a breathtaking selection of works by Mary Beth Shaw. These were fascinating in composition, and oh, the color!

Reading through the article, a profile piece, it was revealed that Shaw had at one time read every book on color theory she could get her hands on. Aha!

When I got home from the bookstore, I took a look at the book review (not favorable) of Shaw's recent book that I had posted here on my blog (on the Book Reviews page http://lauratringaliholmes.blogspot.com/p/book-reviews.html ) and on Amazon. “Wouldn't it have been great,” I thought to myself, “if the editorial perspective of that book had been reframed to share Shaw's knowledge of and passion about color?”

Which got me to thinking. If that first book was from the artisan's approach, how awesome would be a book from the artist's insight.

To describe itself, Somerset Studio magazine uses, on its website, promotional language thus: “Paper crafting, art stamping and the lettering arts are elevated <italics and underlining mine> to an artistic level <italics and underlining mine> in Somerset Studio!”

"Elevated.” Hmmmm. "Artistic level." Interesting word choices there. What exactly do they mean? Somewhere, perhaps, there is indeed a conversation going on, and if not, I suspect there needs to be one begun.

Thanks for listening.




12 comments:

amy of studio four corners said...

wonderful and insightful points you bring up...I feel at times that I creep into the "craft" mode and shutter to think that I will be ostracized by my "artist" friends...but I'm just doing whatever motivates me with the materials at hand...I haven't yet put wings on photos of babies or glittered anything so I'm thinking I'm safe...

Laura Tringali Holmes said...

Art and artisanry are in all of us, I believe, amyd. As you say, it's where you're going at any given time. To me the growth is important, the questing, and the working toward mastery. Which involves challenging of self and, in my opinion, others. I'm working with old printer's tin at the moment, a big step from paper. Challenging, yes! But the pushing toward some level of mastery...ahh. Now that's satisfying! As is the dialoguing--again with self and others--along the way.

Unknown said...

This quote sums it up in my opinion:

The one who works with their hands is a laborer
The one who works with their hands and their head is a craftsman.
The one who works with their hands and their head and their heart is an artist. (Louis Nizer)

Heart-work .... And whose to say whether it is good or bad art?

Carole Reid said...

Great post Laura. I think will always be a topic discussed. I like Kimmie's quote by Louis Nizer. Thanks Kimmie.

Laura Tringali Holmes said...

I hadn't heard that quote before, kimmie, thanks. About the time I was working on the furniture design book, I was with a friend in a warehouse of mass-produced baskets, trying to choose one to hold supplies. My friend, a wooden boat-maker, told me that if I looked carefully enough, I would be able to find the one basket in the pile in front of me that displayed pride of workmanship. And I did. I don't know if that elevates the basket to art, but it certainly inspired my day.

Laura Tringali Holmes said...

I enjoy good discussion, especially now, Carole, when it gives my hands time to heal from the sharp edges of all that bloody tin I'm knocking!

Anonymous said...

...and syncopated time...rhythms of our mind...

Isn't this how those lyrics go? I'll need to dig out my old S & G and give it a listen!!

Good questions! No answers, really. For me art is any honest self-expression. I agree with your thoughts about such publications like Somerset and Cloth Paper Scissors...yet I look to them all often for ideas and inspirations. Like Amy D, I haven't bought any glitter...but it's been tempting! (o:

Thanks for bringing this up...we all need to think about it often!!!

Laura Tringali Holmes said...

Old S&G fan here, Dave! Lyric wonderfulness in every bite!

Thanks for reading the blog, and also thanks very much for commenting. If you ever give in to the temptation to buy glitter, I recommend the stuff that's sold as glitter glue. If you use it to glue down light paper (like tissue), it's possible to obtain some subtle luminous effects from the undershine. Just sayin'!

Bill said...

The same conversation continues on whether digital art is truly art or must it be physical to be considered real art. I personally feel art is any expression a person is able to make that allows them to display what they are feeling and what will fulfill their need. Art should not be what others expect, but an expression that will make the creator of it feel whole.

Laura Tringali Holmes said...

That's a good point about the wholeness, Bill. One of my favorite books, David Pye's "The Nature and Aesthetics of Design," talks about workmanship of risk (as opposed to workmanship of certainty), the "risk" part being that which is dependent upon the decisions of the artist at any given time. Those risks--small or large--can lead us to move forward to a wholeness in life as well as in art, I think.

Denise Aumick said...

I know I've said it before but - maybe - it's worth repeating...so much of what is out there in regards to magazines and books related to mixed media are the NEW AGE expanded renditions of past Ladies Home Journal 'make it yourself' sections. I know I sound like a snob here...but really, decorated dryer sheets as wrapping paper?
And...just to throw in a monkey wrench...that Nizer quote is thought provoking but what if the producer of decorated dryer sheets is using all their heart and soul while creating the coolest wrapping paper ever for a gift that will mean so much to the receiver.
Nope, the craft or art is never an easy debate.

Laura Tringali Holmes said...

So very well-articulated, Denise--thanks so much for sharing. About your "monkey wrench," well, that is at the heart of the question, isn't it? During my days as an elected Board of Education Trustee in my school district, I sat through many a presentation where the sum of the argument, when boiled down, turned into "well, we worked so long and hard at developing this recommendation." But "long and hard" doesn't necessarily equal a successful recommendation, does it? It's tough, for sure.

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