Art-Craft Model

013-Art_Craft Model
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

By observing how people deal and speak about Art and Craft, i decided to create a simple model that combined their views with my idea of the separation of Art and Craft. Assuming that any Art and Craft action at any moment in the history of mankind can be rated as being between zero and a hundred percent quality, I was able to plot on several interesting points.

The green band at the top is 'Fine Art', a concept I am sure is different for everyone, but which in the practice of society (as opposed to mental idealising of what we might be taught), Fine Art is merely any manufactured (in the loosest sense) article that people generally think of being 'good quality'. Actually, while I have drawn the limit line horizontally, maybe it should be canted at angle to capture more Art at the right hand end, and less Craft at the left hand end. Possibly the more someone knows about the art world, the higher and more to the right the green Fine Art area may be.

I have also plotted on three points: Mona Lisa (top right), Photographic Eye (top left), and My Art (bottom right).

Mona Lisa: I chose this painting as being a generally known and accepted work of art that is also done with a high level of painting skill, or Craft. This work contains a lot of thought in terms of Art and a lot of practiced skill, the opposite would be a point in the bottom left of the graph where someone daubs paint on a sheet of paper with little skill and little thought beyond wanting to create an image of a person, house or similar - which we could call 'juvenile' in terms of Art and Craft.

Photographer's Eye: Most people take photographs and either like them or not for what they show, but there appears to be a body of photographers who are highly skilled in the use of their equipment and choice and manipulation of their subjects such that they produce extremely competent images, but, to be honest, these images could be compared to very well designed, expensive, craftsman-made furniture - nice, but the craftsman is knocking out similar pieces every day. However, if you asked average people on the street (by which I mean not a street full of artists), they would see no real difference between the Photographer's Eye work and an Art piece because they lack experience in Art in these terms.

My Art: I am not a photographer, photography is not my 'medium', I express my Art through whichever medium is to hand and which seems to fit that idea i have in my head. A lot of what i produce is not really recognisable as Art by many people because our education systems give relatively narrow definitions of what Art is. This graph is a piece of my Art, although I would admit it is an early test piece, my Art in my head has not fully formed this concept yet, I am still working on it as I type. Many artists produce series of related images as they try to express that idea they have - and it is worth observing that Art is not the piece that is produced, but the idea that is in the head of the artist. Hence the artist can make many attempts to reproduce that idea, and each time different influences occur.

The three large arrows are different possible directions one can take in developing an idea - improve ones skill in reproduction (Craft), improve the quality of the basic idea (Art), or a combination of both. i am not suggesting that the actual path one takes is straight, or that one cannot go backwards or go in circles as one adds or removes artistic or craft content.

Education tends to lead one in the vertical direction, to improved Craft. Any movement to the right is very hard and has to be one's own effort - although the encouragement of others definitely helps. Hardest of all is to move horizontally - to improve one's Art without improving Craft, as the very use of tools to reproduce the idea improves your ability to use those tools. The tendency to move vertically up is natural, and it takes deliberate effort to stop sacrificing your Art as you get caught up in the intricacies of learning to use a camera or photo-editing software. People who end up at the Photographer's Eye point may have originally set out to produce or improve their Art, but in the end confuse the improved quality of their images with producing better quality of Art.

If you really want to improve your Art rather than your ability to produce your current level of Art in pieces demonstrating better quality of manufacture, i suggest you forget all ideas about a Leica film camera shooting black and white producing 'better' art than a cheap digital camera can achieve - Art is about refining your ability to think up new ideas that have never existed before. The Leica may eventually give you better Craft, but the throwaway digital may force you to think your ideas through and to innovate more simply to achieve even a half decent piece. You might even find it helps to define your own Art, rather than you becoming a pale shadow of some Leica diva.