Craft Vs. Art
In an effort to boost the profile of working with clay from craft to fine art, artists will often change the verbiage to assist in that end goal. For example, pottery becomes ceramic art and a pot becomes a vessel to help differentiate the two. Where do I stand on this issue? I think the lines between craft and art are blurring and there’s just too much happening in the art world to draw a distinction. Traditional mediums are being stretched and manipulated beyond historical norms. I would like to think that the cream will always rise to the top – and that’s true for any medium. There will always be great painters and then there are those who love to paint but just aren’t that good at it. Should that stop the challenged but equally passionate painter from making art? Hell no!
I feel a tangent coming on that I had better stop dead in its tracks! Think about the words though. I’m looking at galleries nationwide that I would like to submit work to be considered for representation. But, I’m paying attention to how the galleries are marketing themselves. Does “craft market” or “fine craft gallery” sound better? Clay work is still put in the craft category, although, I have noticed more of the high end galleries who deal in clay do away with the nomenclature such as The Garth Clark Gallery in NYC who specifically represent ceramic work and artists or AKAR, a architecture firm and gallery in Iowa. Each of these galleries features the work of some of the really big names in the Ceramic Art world.
I think I helped sort it out in my mind as to what consititutes the difference between pottery and ceramic art. To me, the word pottery denotes anything that is functional such as dishes, mugs etc. that we use everyday. The term ceramic artwork applies to anything that is non-funcitonal or that could perhaps stand on its own with no regard to function. Could a wheel thrown mug be art? I suppose so – but it had better be really special. And, finally good craftsmanship is paramount regardless of medium. Who wants their painting to warp or fall off the stretcher bars? Unless of course, it’s suppose to do that as some sort of statement on decay or something. Feel free to weigh in.
I’ve been thinking about how to accomplish the “pot a day” challenge that I posed for myself. I do think that I will make work in advance; the challenge will be in the surface treatment of each piece. I even thought I could bring pots with me camping – some will end up in the fire pit – just to see what will happen.
Meanwhile, my husband and I celebrated 18 years of marriage yesterday with margies on the patio. We were trying to remember who sang “Happy Anniversary Baby” back in the ’70s. I guessed Little River Band, he wouldn’t commit but didn’t think it was LRB. Lo and behold, he had loaded Best of LRB on the iPod and guess what? I was right. It was quite the coup for me, since my husband is “Mr. Music”. He likes to stump me all the time playing “name that band”. Every so often, I can pull one out of my hat. We played the song, and decided that it wasn’t such a good anniversary song. The lyrics are about a woman who leaves him and he’s still singing happy anniversary baby, got you on my mind.
Have a good week,
