a quirky fiber artist writes this stuff

the thing that distinguishes the two have been on my mind a lot. and it don't think the distinguishing factor is an  easy one to pinpoint. clearly there are some mediums which make the distinction easier: oil paint, water color, bronze- in these cases we have good art and bad art. Even photography ranges from the home snap shot to the scenic tourist panorama to the REAL art of a Stieglitz or Mapplethorpe.

But when dealing with materials that fall into the craft/artisan realm it gets very tricky: clay, wood, fiber, glass, precious metals. So these are the materials and artists/artisans I am thinking about.

For example I have a friend who makes exquisite stuff with clay. porcelain, amazing glazes, all functional and when you look at her work you say "Oh I bet Celeste made that!" and Celeste is an impeccable artisan and maybe she  would even be offended that I don't call her an artist.

Because, for me,  the artist working in clay  takes that material just a few steps further and enters the realm of ART.   It's someone like Maria Simon who takes clay and makes it into a bas relief that tricks you into thinking she has spent months honing and carving wood. Or the late and beloved Bernie Marek from Boulder whose work ranged from the sublimely functional wedding bowls (I own one) to the Bosch like peeled globes writhing with small human figures beneath the surface.

Or the amazing perfectionist quilter who have a fabulous eye for color and design but it's still a quilt to the  black women who improvise  with color and shape and turn their quilts into jazz ensembles more like the ashcan painters than anything you have seen sewn at home.
 
Beads are really popular and there are wonderful artisans who make amazing jewelry and to me it remains with the realm of fine artisan ship vs Liza Lou who makes entire rooms out of peyote stitch so that even the eggs on her kitchen tables are all done in beads.

Glass- wildly popular and many fine workers are making bowls and plaques and lamp shades and then along come Dale Chihuly and throws all the concepts of what glass can do to the winds and brings you into another world- surrounded by the ephemeral sheen of liquid sand.

As a fiber artist this distinction lays on my mind as I was in show recently where two other women were working in silk and fabric. One painting exquisitely on silk. almost art but they were scarves dyed with a painting of an orchid. if she had tweaked it more and worked it more her  she would have made the leap into art. Or a woman who is an amazing stitcher making fabric vessels which i guess sit a top a table or a mantel and are wonderful 'garniture" ( a friend coined that name for the wonderful things that garnish our houses ans furniture like finials and tassels and even mantel adornment) and her work was incredibly made and she even had her "artistic statement" but she wasn't taking the medium of cotton /wool.silk much further than anyone else takes it and what emotional or felling did her work evoke? what story or whimsy or prophecy , controversy or  affect did her work transfer to the viewer? if she had done any of those things she would have lept into art.

Another example in the show I was honored to join was two women working with clay. One made quite competent vessel. cups bowls dishes- normal glazes and lots of brown and she sold a lot of stuff and then across the room from her is Willa Schneberg an amazing clay artist who has broken the boundaries of artisan and was making art: fantastic biological pieces, twisted delicate gilt pieces that were inspired by wire wisps. and miniature temples - the buddist  stuppa.... ok some might  call this woman an artisan - but to me her  work screamed A-R-T.

so where do I fit? Okay I will say it out loud I am an artist working in wool and felt. My pieces are intended to make you smile with their silliness, cringe with their raw anger, wonder about sexuality and mostly move you in some way. Now there are people who may not LIKE my art - like people didn;t like the action painters or (heaven forbid) the color field wonders. but clearly the purpose of my pieces are not to decorate- show my perfect skill- which is absent- but to make you think, pull you in deeper or maybe even repel you because one looks like a jeweled menstrual pad. But it does something. It's not garniture. it's not crafty flower pins. I know because I do craft and artisan work too. My weaving is artisan, my painted scarves, my tallitot, felt jewlery. I know where they fall. even my photography, some of it quite nice doesn't transcend the medium- but when small pieces of hand dyed wool and silk get formed into an abstraction that takes you somewhere else. then I am making art. get it?

And don't get me wrong I have enormous respect for the impeccable skill of a jewelry maker, glass worker, stitcher or  clay worker. And I adore craft. I own it in abundance. But it's not the skill that differentiates or the even the intention always, but  art transforms. plain and simple. Some movies are  a joy to watch : you laugh and cry and three months later hardly recall anything that passed your mind in the two hours you watched and then there are the films that change your view forever or enter your psyche and expand you experience permanently. and that's art.

So let me take you to some the amazing detailed painting I saw last Sunday - great technique and very very pretty flowers or pomegranates and compare them to the simple primitive watermelon painted my the late Mose Tolliver. and ask you... Is the finer painter the real artist or does Mose- with all his heart in that little fruit painted on recyled wood change  you more.?. I vote for Mr. T.