art vs. craft

I started my new job this week. At ETSY. I love etsy for many reasons...

- they (we!) make posters that say "end mass production" and have pictures of a boy throwing a brick at a factory

- they (we!) have a manifesto that says, in part: " ...together, our intention is to create viable alternatives to ecologically unfriendly, mass-produced objects in the worlds marketplace, and give all independent artists the technology they need to make a living, making things."

It's been interesting for me to have my feet both in the world of "fine art" or "contemporary art" or whatever you want to call it - the world comprised of galleries, grants, my MFA program, museums, big art fairs (not that I have been involved in those -- just describing that world!) with its epicenters in the big coastal US cities --- and the world of crafters, artists selling work online, untrained and folk artists, who are decentralized and everywhere. They are two very different worlds with really different value systems, though the overlap/boundary zones are big. I'm really interested in what's happening in those overlapping spaces. There is great resistance amongst artists in the "art world" to associate themselves with creative communities outside of it (unless it is for the purpose of co-opting, assimilating, etc which happens all the time). I have found the opposite to be true in the crafting communities...there is a big welcome for all kinds of artists.

I have a lot of confusion, some clarity, and a lot of ideas about how these art worlds are made and what they say about the class system, mass culture, the role of artists in post-industrial (whatever that it) society. I hope to use this blog to explore such things, in little easy-to-bake bite sized chunks.

Comments

[Andrew Thornton]

Hello! I am a fan of your work. I saw on your Etsy shop that you now have a blog and I thought I'd check it out.

Did you see the High Times, Hard Times show that was traveling around the country recently? I noticed that there were many parellels both in the work that is being made now and the work that was being made then, and the cultural climate. Much of the work in that show addressed the question you proposed in your post about art vs. craft. It is also interesting to note that over 80% of the artists featured in that show have had teaching experience, have interns, or teach to this day... perhaps there's a correlation with what is being taught and what is being made now and how it harkens back to the question, "Is this Art?"

[Andrew Thornton]

Hello! I am a fan of your work. I saw on your Etsy shop that you now have a blog and I thought I'd check it out.

Did you see the High Times, Hard Times show that was traveling around the country recently? I noticed that there were many parellels both in the work that is being made now and the work that was being made then, and the cultural climate. Much of the work in that show addressed the question you proposed in your post about art vs. craft. It is also interesting to note that over 80% of the artists featured in that show have had teaching experience, have interns, or teach to this day... perhaps there's a correlation with what is being taught and what is being made now and how it harkens back to the question, "Is this Art?"

[Andrew Thornton]

Hello! I am a fan of your work. I saw on your Etsy shop that you now have a blog and I thought I'd check it out.

Did you see the High Times, Hard Times show that was traveling around the country recently? I noticed that there were many parellels both in the work that is being made now and the work that was being made then, and the cultural climate. Much of the work in that show addressed the question you proposed in your post about art vs. craft. It is also interesting to note that over 80% of the artists featured in that show have had teaching experience, have interns, or teach to this day... perhaps there's a correlation with what is being taught and what is being made now and how it harkens back to the question, "Is this Art?"

[Andrew Thornton]

Hello! I am a fan of your work. I saw on your Etsy shop that you now have a blog and I thought I'd check it out.

Did you see the High Times, Hard Times show that was traveling around the country recently? I noticed that there were many parellels both in the work that is being made now and the work that was being made then, and the cultural climate. Much of the work in that show addressed the question you proposed in your post about art vs. craft. It is also interesting to note that over 80% of the artists featured in that show have had teaching experience, have interns, or teach to this day... perhaps there's a correlation with what is being taught and what is being made now and how it harkens back to the question, "Is this Art?"

[wonderamy]

HI ANdrew...going to google shat show now...thanks for pointing it out to me!

[Meredith]

As Andrew said, I am also a fan of your work. Great topic. I'm a painter, and since I just retired from teaching art for ten years to work on my career, I've been thinking, do I try and do the gallery thing or the craft show thing---and why do I feel like I shouldn't do both (although I think I am).

The popularity of craft revolution was huge with my high school art students, silkscreening or making sock puppets was much more accessible as opposed to drawing,which is hard.

Anyway, there are lots of "gallery" artists blending the craft 'thang into their work, Dana Carlson, for example.

[Andrew Thornton]

Oh, I just saw the most recent issueo of Craft Magazine. http://www.craftzine.com/
They've got an interesting article on Art vs. Craft.

Just thought I'd mention it.