[Jewelry making - Article 00600] - Re: [Orchid] Artist definition

[Steven Holden]

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    David, Congratulations on a  very lucid and informative post, which
    I've saved for later reference and quotation....In my wranglings with
    my fellows here in Ibiza, the whole can of worms is complicated for
    me at least by being conducted in Spanish, and also by there only
    being two poles to the argument "artista" or "artesano"....the word
    "artesano" is the Spanish for craftsman, so there is no distinction
    between a craftsman, an artisan, and a "crafter", so here the debate
    centres on whether one's work (artesania)  is "artistic" or
    "commercial", with culturally conditioned preference and respect
    given to the former over the latter. I have long held the position
    that to be a contemporary artist one's priority of intention is to
    communicate a personal interpretation of or reaction to "consensus
    reality", to try and make sense of life, to make tangible the
    intangible or as you so elegantly put it ,"to codify an aesthetic", 
    whereas the craftsman is hoping to create a tangible object which
    satisfies the senses, and (coming back down to earth), make some
    money. A great problem that is arising here in Spain is that to which
    you allude in your post: 

    "The way the craft fairs are going, we're  going to have to start
    snubbing the so-called "crafters" the same way "fine" artists have
    snubbed craftspeople." 

    I'm seeing this all the time here, as the artistic artesanos are
    attempting to differentiate themselves from the commercial artesanos
    by co-opting the terminology of the art world, in order to exclude
    the latter from craft fairs.They paradoxically employ the vocabulary
    of art culture (aesthetic) to justify commercial decisions ( the
    exclusion of  certain artesanos from a commercial event)....I don't
    like it.... 

    I guess all these debates are ultimately down to our perverse
    attempts to "left brain" what is essentially "right brain "
    activity...but what the heck...it's interesting innit :-) Steve Holden 
    www.platayflores.com


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