A recent blog post by another artist and author had an excellent, thought provoking series of comments. The one I focus on brings up the question: “What is art? How is it differentiated from a craft?”
Perhaps craft is a smaller portion of art. It seems silly to argue over words, but why not when those words stand for such important ideas? In the end, I think there are varying degrees to which something is artsy. I also believe there is both quality art and art that doesn’t seem to be worth much.
Art is about human intent, process, purposeful creation. A mathemetician who solves the world’s problems with the most beautiful equation is an artist. A musician who learns to deliver the most heart wrenching aria to your ears is an artist, not coincidentally, so is the maker of their instrument. A log in the forest is not art. A painted log is art. A plumbing system, intuitevly designed and based upon logs is art.
I hope artists can appreciate the human nature of other people’s work, and the time it takes to achieve something miraculous through intent study and design.
But there is nothing more true to art than to create something solely for the purpose of enjoying its human creation.
See the original blog post at http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/2011/10/two-questions-answered-followed-by-some.html