Why, no, I haven’t added anything new in almost a year. How could you tell?
I knew I’d be bad at this blogging stuff. I always mean to keep a journal, but then I don’t and, well, you know, content is King. This post on craft is something I’ve been working on for a long time, trying to gel my thoughts and sift through how I really feel about it.
My question:
What’s the difference between an artiste and a craftsman, and is one better than another? I ask myself this on a daily basis because I finally came to the conclusion that I am not, and I am never going to be, an artiste. I’m a craftsman and I must be happy with that.
My original premise was as follows:
Artistes come up with original ways to solve the same ol’ problem. Craftsmen implement existing ideas.
Not sure I believe this now. I’ve spent the better part of the last year writing something that’s been cooking in my head for 14 years. It’s a riff off Hamlet, which was, in itself, a riff off someone else’s work, so is what I did art or craft? I took someone else’s framework and decorated it with vines and flowers and thorn bushes and other more savory and unsavory things, but in the end, I didn’t create the framework.
In terms of needlework, I’ve taken a completely unrelated art (pixel dollz) and translated it into fabric and floss and beads. Is that art or craft? Suzy’s skill at creating the dollz gave me the original framework. I just dressed it up with fabric and floss and beads.
I don’t have an answer to this question anymore. Yes, I used to, but now I think there has to be a measure of both art and craft (skill) involved in each, most likely at different percentages along the spectrum.
Not just anyone can do what Suzy does. I can’t. Not just anyone can do what I do. Suzy can’t. Is that a difference between art and craft (skill)? Dunno, but I will say this: Without Suzy, there would be no needlework dollz at all. At least, not from me, and I depend on her art to give mine wings. Perhaps I’m more craftsman than artist after all.
