Semantics in Art
I’ve been fighting a dilemma over the last few days. It’s why my posts have been a little more infrequent as of late. Quite truthfully, it’s been revealing as it’s been hard.
As channel editor for the Arts and Crafts channel with b5media, I have a certain responsibility for the direction of the channel, with what new blogs come into b5 in my channel, etc and so on.
We are experiencing growth in b5media, in a great way. Things are happening. New blogs, new bloggers… in short, it’s been good growth.
But I find that certain titles constrict rather than encourage new growth. Any artist deals with this at some point.
Am I abstract expressionist or more impressionistic with my art?
Well, the same is true of “Arts and Crafts”. Here’s a wikipedia entry on “Arts and Crafts” which demonstrates that “Arts and Crafts” as a title is fairly specific as to what areas are included.
Just by the Contents of the article listed below you can see this even.
Contents
1.1 Crafts involving textiles
1.2 Crafts involving wood, metal or clay
1.3 Crafts involving paper or canvas
1.4 Crafts involving plants
1.5 Other crafts
Nowhere in the contents is “Art” actually mentioned. No room for other arts, Performing Arts, or even photography.
There is a reason for this. Art defines crafts. Crafts are in fact an art. Art on the other hand is not a craft. It can be, but usually only with small children and some “Elmer’s Glue Sticks” in Sunday School or Kindergarten.
It’s been a long fight with this with the channel bloggers and other channel editors and mainly with myself to come to this conclusion.
I thought, Arts, Design and Crafts but it was too long and “crafts” seemed redundant in nature because art was already included and “design” influences crafts.
So I went back to my original thought. Arts and Design
These are two broad categories that leave room to grow, incorporate every aspect of what we are trying to accomplish with the channel and aren’t redundant with their focus.
I hate labels and titles. I think from now on I am just going to make my categories all “uncategorized” and posts without names, on a blog hosted without a domain name and just an ip address. I might even post in gibberish after all that.
signed,
djasgfk.jsadfljfsdljknfadslknfsd @ 192.168.254.254
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POSTED IN: Brain Shavings
6 opinions for Semantics in Art
Jul
Mar 3, 2007 at 5:48 am
Labels can be enfuriatingly constraining at times. I keep having to resist calling myself a ‘portrait artist’, lest I get stuck doing nothing else for the rest of my life (although I’m really enjoying it now).
Artist Hideout » Arts vs Crafts - The (friendly) debate rages on. - About Art and Artists
Mar 3, 2007 at 3:15 pm
[…] I recently wrote about some different things we were beginning to look at in terms of channel name changes with b5media. Specifically this channel, Arts and Crafts. […]
Tangled Thread » Arts and Design?
Mar 3, 2007 at 5:41 pm
[…] William, over at Artist Hideout, has some interesting thoughts on the matter. In fact, he IS the channel editor of this channel. The decision is to change our name to Arts and Design. Pretty spiffy, isn’t it? I like it and think it shows the forward thinking nature of our bloggers. In fact, I did a post at Christmas about this very subject titled Are You An Artist? And an article of the week titled Is Sewing A Forgotten Art? […]
Curtis Verdun
Mar 4, 2007 at 3:59 pm
William, I share your frustrations. I typically tout my work as simply “Abstract” since that’s how many would refer to it, even though I know full well that the term has evolved over several decades and across several social classes. The meanings of terms change, depending on who you’re speaking to and there’s not much you can do about it. How people view the terms ‘art’ as it compares to crafts is also somewat troublesome.
William Lehman
Mar 6, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Curtis, did you get a chance to take Tammy’s poll and see what her results were?
There was some really good comments on her post over there. I think in a lot of ways there is a reformation going on within the art community that will be realized in the near future. We’ve come a long way, but to some degree our motives must now be deconstructed as we move forward so that we can continue to innovate the field without losing meaning.
Arts and Crafts: The Movement and What it Means Today.
Mar 8, 2007 at 3:11 am
[…] William Lehman from ArtistHideout had his own take on the subject via this article which explains why the phrase “arts and crafts” doesn’t necessarily work as an inclusive title for a group of diverse creative people. […]
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