"Crafter"?!?#@$*&(*#&%!

[Aryana B. Londir]

Prior to working in glass, I was fairly well-known as a "fine artist working in gourds." My pieces sold for $300 to $1200. Imagine my chagrin when I was approached to be a VENDOR at a show!!!!!!! So the two words that really get me are "crafter" and "vendor." Not quite sure which is more insulting...........

[S. Klein]

This is a quote that I have in my notes. I think it's from the ceramist Ruth Duckworth. "I make objects that feel comfortable to me. Whether it is art or craft is not important. That will be decided by history. The work must speak for itself and convey a sense of purpose."

[Carol Cohen]

Actually, in my website it says "I started within fine arts and found myself involuntarily shifted sideways into a crafts label because of my material."

Thanks, Cynthia Oliver, for perceiving my work as "art" which is how I perceive it myself. The labeling of it as "craft" came about simply because it is made of glass and I've been showing it in glass galleries and in museum glass exhibitions.

Pardon me if there are any misspellings herein because it's hard to see the monitor screen when I'm rolling my eyes so much at the mere question of arts vs. crafts. I wish we'd go back to the Good Old Days, i.e., the Renaissance days of guilds when artists served apprenticeships, learned the CRAFT of their materials and media, and were eventually allowed to make creative, expressive ART.

Functional? Dysfunctional? Under a hundred bucks? Over a zillion at a Sotheby's auction? We'll always be labeled and categorized somehow, just don't let it take over what you do and make. Anyway you can make it, baby....

Carol Cohen
<http://www.carolcohen.com>

[Amy on Salt Spring]

Carol I just went to your website for the first time--I don't know how I've missed it. WOW!!!!!! Incredible!! I am just dying to see a piece in person. Its so unique and..well..cool! Awesome. Everyone go and look!
Amy
P.S. I have a black Bikee recumbent--love it!

[Paul Tarlow]

I'd rather be known as a crafty artist.

And, for those who missed it last time around, here's the answer:

[Don Burt]

Why does this bother me so much? I just got an email from someone (undoubtedly a nice person who has never pulled whiskers off a cat)
who is looking for some crafters to fill a show in December.
"Crafters", I shouted! "There are no "Crafters" here!"

Actually, I replied "thanks, but I'm booked for that weekend".

A question for the Fuzen Glassers: how do we bury that term?

I know something of this because of where I hang-out on the internet. The term 'Crafter' is used to contrast with the 'Asian Import' . It is important to differentiate between the people who make copper-foiled glass stuff for sidewalk shows, and the people who work in the assembly lines for lamps and panels in China. Its a dilemma that troubles the folks on the stained glass bulletin boards. The term is just now meandering over into the warmglass board. These Chinese people who make tiffany-looking stuff are the scourge of the neighborhood craft show, usurping the right of handy retiree-age Crafters in the USA to make a decent living off-of copper-foil piecework. I'm beginning to understand that the term also implies a certain quality of solder-line smoothness, which is a primary value quality in such work. The Asian Import has less satisfactory solder lines that the Crafter-Made, and also rips-off the design from a different, less worthy source that the Crafter does. SO the term has a useful purpose, but its applicability to warmglass is less useful because of the lack of solder lines and lack of agreement about bubbles being a flaw or enhancement.

[Dani]

Well, I have to say I've seen some Asian and Mexican imported glass, cold-work and even some fused, that's pretty darn good craftsmanship including in lamps. I tend not to be very protectionist, figuring that competition just keeps us all sharp and the best way to compete is to make highly original work, a lot of new work, and work that is difficult to copy by just anyone. That way you stay ahead of the game. And, frankly, where I'm from, I get treated like I'm from a foreign country anyway when it comes to coastal galleries and shows! Colorado is like a Third World nation to some of the snoots... I've considered putting labels on my work stating, "Imported from Colorado, USA".

[Bill J.]

good craft pays the rent

good art can collect dust till it turns to dust

rodney

I have to agree with Rodney. I am both a craftsperson (not a crafter pleeease) I make my living pursuing excellence in a line of control draped vases and candle holders. These pay for my mortgage and pay for my studio. I also create one of a kind art. I struggle with the art part. For me it has to say something, it has to say it well and it has to be a complete idea. This is hard to do when your mind is wrapped around the repetitve and meditative work of fine craft. I have to do all those exercises we learned through drawing from the left side of our brain, etc, etc.
So the art mostly collects dust in my head.

Then there are the shows where people sell imported schlock from a company whose logo is "Concieved in the heartland, crafted around the world." Ughhhh! Keep me away from those shows please.

Ciao

Bill from Mayne Island, B.C.
(Next door to Saltspring for those in the know. Hi Amy.)
P.S. you can always sell the lace bowls as pasta strainers.

[Ron Bell]

The Nation's Most Prestigious Juried Exhibition and Sale of Contemporary American Crafts

This from the

Smithsonian CRAFT Show

[Peg]

Craft is a repeatable process. The craftsperson uses craft to create art. or Art.
In the UK there is a tradition of the Artist using craft to make their own creations - this dates back to the Arts and Crafts movement (William Morris etc).
In other cultures (such as in Germany) the Artist commissions Craftpeople to make their art. The Artist still gets the credit, but doesn't get his/her hands dirty.
I think 'Craft' therefore can be used to describe items made with no individual design input - I'm sure we all have a 'design' or two that we can put together with minimal effort that helps finance our more 'Artistic' endeavours.
'Craft' in the UK is also used as a shorthand for 'handcrafted' - think crocheted doilies and knitted toilet-roll holders -do these appear in the US too? - who on earth makes them?!

[Bert Weiss]

Carol I just went to your website for the first time--I don't know how I've missed it. WOW!!!!!! Incredible!! I am just dying to see a piece in person. Its so unique and..well..cool! Awesome. Everyone go and look!
Amy
P.S. I have a black Bikee recumbent--love it!

Amy

Photography is not an appropriate medium to convey Carol's work. In this case a thousand words would do a better job. "Seeing" the finished peices requires a moving eye.

[Carol Cohen]

Aw, shucks (blush) -- thanks, Amy & Bert!

Carol

[lohman]

a note to Rob Morey: It's Paul Soldner and Peter Voulkos

[Bill J.]

Photography is not an appropriate medium to convey Carol's work. In this case a thousand words would do a better job. "Seeing" the finished peices requires a moving eye.[/quote]

Carol:

I have to agree. I saw your piece in the studio artists show in the MFA in Boston several years ago now. It still stands out in my mind as one of the highlights.

Best wishes.

Bill

[Debinsandiego]

Simply put, Art is what an artist makes.

Or is it, an Artist is one who makes art??

Art is what YOU say it is. If you want to call it Art, so be it. If not, that's OK too.

I do believe the term of ART has expanded over the past few years to encompass cyber space and digital art; then why not other media? I do believe that definition is passé.

I also believe that GLASS ART was considered an APPLIED ART, some thing artistic in nature, but you would then use the bowl, vase, window, what ever for a practical function. Much of the glass art I've seen does not have a function.

(LOL on the comment that if the bowl has holes in it, then it's art. That's one of my FAVORITE things about "modern" art. The consternation of the philistine!! I LIVE for that.)

[Dani]

I've always been quite comfortable with Webster's definition of "art".

[Alice DeGraff]

I know I know let it rest But I just had to add this little bit.
My dh put this thought for today on my desk for me to fine....

"A man (woman) who works with his hands is a laborer, a man who works with his hand and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hand, and his brain and his heart is an artist."

Louis Nizer, American Lawyer 1902- 1994

Thanks for your time.....

Alice De

[Lorelei]

sooo funny!

This whole thread I mean.
I just finished a show where I sold..*drum roll* ONE piece.
And THAT was cold flat work. *sigh* I had many people complimenting, but no one buying. (NEVER do a 4th of July show where they have a parade. It's too soon after they've paid the mortgage and their bills.)

One fellow said "Wow! a REAL artisan at an art show! Amazing!"

[Geri Comstock]

sooo funny!

This whole thread I mean.
I just finished a show where I sold..*drum roll* ONE piece.
And THAT was cold flat work. *sigh* I had many people complimenting, but no one buying. (NEVER do a 4th of July show where they have a parade. It's too soon after they've paid the mortgage and their bills.)

One fellow said "Wow! a REAL artisan at an art show! Amazing!"

Heh! That reminded me of a laugh I got at a show. It was a really big show in San Francisco that a friend convinced me to do...he makes bronze sculpture that's spendy ($1100-$15,000). Anyway, I figured if they were going to risk getting a double booth at this show, I'd get a single booth behind them. I think the booth fee was like $600-$700...that's kind of high for a street show IMHO so I figured it would probably be decent.

Anyway, we got there and most of the other work was total garbage...buy and sell or junk. My friends got totally disgusted and left after the first day. That was the last show they ever did. HA! They're selling his work other ways now.

Anyway, the promoter replaced my friends with 2 women wearing skirts so short you could see their thong underwear if they bent over even slightly. They were selling....SEEDS! HA! At an Art and Craft show.

Anyway, another promoter for a different set of shows came by my booth and said, "Oh my god, here's some real art finally!" I had to laugh. She wasn't kidding or trying to flatter me. Needless to say, I haven't been back to that one. What a horror.

By the way, I've never heard of a good 4th of July show. I've tried 4 or 5 of them and they were all pretty bad. People don't seem to be in an art/craft shopping mood then. The successful people I've seen at those shows were selling things like sunglasses and model airplane kits.

Geri[/u]