Art or Craft?

BWG when I have an emotional reaction to a piece I believe that it is the soul of the artist speaking to me. For me sometimes I can feel the neurons fly around in my frontal lobe.

This reaction in me can cause great embarrassment to the people that I am with if I am accompanied. Because I get so excited I start in look, look, look, at this expecting everyone to feel what I feel. It is interesting to note that if I am alone no one is embarrassed and frequently strangers will ask me about what I am seeing.

It is interesting to me that people who have no connection to me are so interested in what I think. While people I know tend to want to back away and pretend they do not know me.

My favorite example of this type of behavior would be a curator who during his lecture on Chou Dynasty Celadon suddenly when a certain vase came up exclaimed before discussing the piece, "this is so beautiful I would like to eat it". Meaning he wanted to have more of it that just a visual emotion. I like that in a person.

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I react to paintings that way. In the 60's I went to a showing of DeKooning in LA and my companions were not exactly abstract art savvy. I would stand transfixed in front of one of his paintings and there was no way I could describe what mental processes were going on. I think I first reacted to the perfect balance of color and form but there was more to it than that. It rather discouraged me from painting. that's for sure.

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I did laugh it off and continue to paint. I guess I purposefully tried to develop a style as departed from DeKooning as I could but his colorways always manged to seep in.

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(He really made me think in color).

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(If that's something like dreaming in color which I also do).

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JoanneDorel wrote:

BWG when I have an emotional reaction to a piece I believe that it is the soul of the artist speaking to me. For me sometimes I can feel the neurons fly around in my frontal lobe.

This reaction in me can cause great embarrassment to the people that I am with if I am accompanied. Because I get so excited I start in look, look, look, at this expecting everyone to feel what I feel. It is interesting to note that if I am alone no one is embarrassed and frequently strangers will ask me about what I am seeing.

It is interesting to me that people who have no connection to me are so interested in what I think. While people I know tend to want to back away and pretend they do not know me.

My favorite example of this type of behavior would be a curator who during his lecture on Chou Dynasty Celadon suddenly when a certain vase came up exclaimed before discussing the piece, ?this is so beautiful I would like to eat it?. Meaning he wanted to have more of it that just a visual emotion. I like that in a person.

absolutely; i think that is why art holds such a claim on the 'sensitives' of the world; emotional response is far more 'extreme' than intellectual response (and frequently that is a good thing!), and people who do not quite share your 'intensity' are often a little 'frigtened' by it.

Look at political disagreement; it is the 'passion' that provokes riots, and rebellion, not the 'ideas'!

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Lightwizard wrote:

I did laugh it off and continue to paint. I guess I purposefully tried to develop a style as departed from DeKooning as I could but his colorways always manged to seep in.

we 'absorb' what we love, we do not 'copy' it! :wink:

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That's not entirely true of all artists -- commercial print artists copy like bandits.

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that could be another key to the difference........

commercial print 'craftspeople' "copy like bandits!"

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They're marketed as artists and I suppose one could call them decorative artists because of the lack of originality. Another trait is they have a "hook" like a popcorn movie. They paint for an audience and almost immediately begin copying themselves. It's rewarding in monetary terms but I wonder how they really feel about this form of prostitution and pimping?

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to be fair all forms of 'commercial' trade are basically 'prostituting one's 'talents', be they bodily, artistic, or intellectual.

the important thing is you get what you 'pay' for!

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A small portion of the works is viable as far as originality -- it's a tricky business and it's easy to get caught up in fervor of the marketing. In too many cases as I've outlined in this forum, you do not get what you pay for.

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This morning I went to see the work of a young painter at our town's principal library. It is pleasantly decorative, with a strong emphasis on line (each work is entitled "thread painting--followed by a number") but seems to be an example of an artist copying himself. I don't know how to distinguish this from "finding one's voice." Each work varies a bit in color emphasis and size and shape of canvas, but I don't see that he is discovering much with each new painting. He seems very influenced by Brice Marden, which is not a fault, of course. What do you think? www.nickfrancoart.com

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I see the Marden influence but I find this artist is stylistically rather scattered. There's a difference in exploring a theme and variation opposed to actually copying oneself and the difference is almost always subtle. It has something to do with not just knowing when to stop on individual painting but when to stop on a series of paintings. There's a diffusion of concept in the thematic ideas of the work. Subjective painting suffers most from painting a subject and than merely rearranging the composition over and over. Abstraction should develop some thread of progress over an indeterminable span of time. That recognition of an artist having a "period" (no jokes, please) really made sense with an artist like Picasso. Likely because he went through such dramatic stylistic changes.

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Thanks, LW. Good information. If you think he's scattered stylistically, wait til you see my work.

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I recently reread this topic and want to bump it up in case any new readers want to comment - I find it a good thoughtful thread.

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Artist or Craftman?
I am still unshure of art or craft and now I don't know whether to call myself an artist or craftperson? I just normally call myself a humble student because everytime I take a course in art I realize how little I know, and would never want to cheapen the name of either. My last teacher (Harold O'Conner) called himself a Master craftman, but his work was so incredible I don't think in this lifetime I would be able to match his work. I was so honored that he would even teach me. I would just love to have my voice heard and maybe move someone if I was lucky.

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I can certainly relate to alot of the points made on this topic. The art school teachers who are all trying to get you to do THEIR work (if they are not hung-over or coke-d out of their brains, as they jilt around the room)...
People telling you in one camp "don't go and study that..." and others asking you where is your diploma...

On the actual topic...
I get kind of offended if someone refers to the work I do as "craft"... craft sounds like macrameé teapot covers to me, or crocheted toilet roll ornaments :wink: I don't know, maybe I should get over it?

I can understand something is so beautiful you want to eat it. There is a sculpture, if you can call it that, it is a cast by Yves Klein in the NSW Art Gallery, I forget the name, and it is not the topic, it is the colour! It is a deep undescribable blue body (it is to the upper thighs) suspended over a gold background. It is the blue. I believe it is referred to as belonging to Klein, and I forget the exact term for it.

http://83.243.20.58/Photos/00/00/05/57/ME0000055706_3.JPG

it is simular to this one.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's as simple as that. By doing what you love, you shall be rich for eternity. And art is something that is always original. It is a form of expression. I believe art school skews your mindset and distorts your perseption of your true self...

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