Art v Craft: putting art on the bed

I have written before about the art vs craft debate, and actually thought it was dead in the water. However minds loftier than mine are still discussing the issue. Check out Ragged Cloth Cafe (and all the comments) for an interesting discussion… I didn’t add my two cents worth there, because as I said…loftier minds and all….but I will reiterate my thoughts on the subject here because I bet no-one wants to revisit what I wrote ( here and here) all the way back in December!

I think a lot about the idea of art vs. craft, where an item seems more worthy if it is made by an artist, rather than a craftsperson. Reference is made to quilt artists, fibre artists and the like, and I guess this is to, in some way, ‘legitimize’ the process. I think we need to embrace the term ‘craft’ the way other grass roots movements have embraced pejorative terms and make it our own!! We need to stand up and be proud. Seriously, I think it is an area which gets people riled up too easily – An artist or a craftsperson both essentially do the same thing – they make objects of beauty and meaning, using a process that suits them or their objective, which they get pleasure from doing, and they hope will give others pleasure and something to think about.

After writing this I started to think about the points of difference (and similarity) between art and craft. At what point does a craftsperson become an artist? Is it a progression, or are the two different?

I looked up the definitions of art and craft. Art is (among other things) defined as: ‘any form of human activity that is the product of, and appeals primarily to, the imagination’. Craft, on the other hand, refers to a ’special skill’ in a particular area. The term artist ‘..emphasizes use of taste, imagination and creative ability in addition to skill’; whereas the term craftsman (sic) is ‘an artist or professional whose work shows technical skill but not necessarily (my italics) aesthetic merit’.

Back to my original thoughts: the point of difference appears to be the use of imagination/creativity, rather than skill alone. Craft emphasises skill, art emphasises creativity. Is there a cross over? How little skill does an artist require before they can produce a work of art? (I am thinking of a nice children’s book we have called ‘the dot’ by Peter Reynolds in which a child who “can’t” draw submits a blank piece of paper and the teacher calls it a polar bear in a snow storm!). Does a person with high skill level in quilting (say making Baltimore album quilts full of needle turn appliqué) ever identify, or be identified, as an artist? If the Baltimore quilt maker copies a design, but uses colour creatively, does this make it artistic? Or, is it artistic simply because the maker thinks it is?

Do you need to work through a rigorous application of technical skills in traditional quits, before you can apply them to art quilts, or can you ‘jump in at the deep end’ and learn the skills on an art quilt? Are the skills in an art quilt as important as the intent? Is the process as important (or more or less important) than the outcome? *

I can’t believe I’m referencing children’s books for this discussion, but back to ‘the dot’. In it Vashti, the child who can’t draw, is encouraged by her teacher to make a mark on the paper (in this case a dot) and then to sign it. She does, and goes on the create dots of all colours, and sizes – which cause a stir at the school art show and inspires a little boy, who calls her a great artist, to start on his own process. Vashti found her niche, and presumably the boy will too, she has not only created something admired by other people but also inspired someone else to follow in her path – thus, Vashti is an artist. However, is this more important/aesthetically pleasing/ thought provoking, than the craft work produced by a child using toilet rolls and sticky tape? One is a child’s art, the other a child’s craft, however they both produced something, they used creative processes, they used their imagination, and they produced an object which ‘appeals to the imagination’. So perhaps there is a crossover. Perhaps the use of traditional quilt patterns does count as art (whether or not the person making it, or their peers, think so), because it is producing something aesthetically pleasing, and appeals to the imagination. Perhaps not copying a pattern in a magazine in its entirety, including fabric choices, colours etc, to replicate something done by someone else, but rather an interpretation of a traditional design.

So what makes an artquilt art? I guess the purpose for which the quilt is made has something to do with it …. do people ever use art quilts as bedcovers, for example? I assume the definition has to do more with the intent behind the making of the quilt – an art quilt is made to say something about, or for, the maker, rather than the prosaic nature of keeping us warm. Could then a traditionally designed quilt, to be used as a bedcover, made with scraps of fabric which have meaning to the maker or recipient, be considered art?

Perhaps the term craft could be interchanged with art: I would argue (and I’m sure quilt artists would too) that art quilts require and display (for the most part) a high degree of skill (the major definition of craft), I think that anyone who considers quilting as a craft, would consider that the quilts they produce show ‘taste, imagination, creative ability and aesthetic merit’. Maybe, after writing all this, the notion of art and craft being different is a non-issue… but I’m glad I am thinking it though. I would love to know what others think.

* I am writing this, not as an exponent of traditional or art quilt making, but more of a beginner (in both areas of quilt making) who is trying to get my head around the wealth of information, images and ideas out there. I am trying to gather ideas on what it is that makes the two schools (or is there more?) of quilt making different. I realise that my use of the words ‘traditional’ and ‘art’ in reference to quilt making are rather narrow, but I am trying to stop this becoming a thesis.