Are you an Art Snob or Craft Connoisseur?

I admit it. I was an Art Snob. I didn’t consider crafts an art form. Yes, glass blowing, metal smithing, maybe even pottery, but I turned my nose up at cropping, stamping and needlework. I saw them as “housewife” or ‘granny-crafts”, color-inside-the-lines for those who had no imagination. And collage, well, that was just something for people who couldn’t draw or paint.  That was, until I saw some of the amazingly creative things artists do with fiber, paper and glue. Now, I’m a convert.

My old attitude came from a misguided background in fine art. Actually,  I was a misfit in a competitive Design , Art and Architecture College at a large university.   It was immediately apparent they’d made a mistake accepting me into the art education program. I’m a creative idea generator but this was pre-computer and to say I’m not a perfectionist is an understatement. Several of our design courses were combined with architecture and industrial design students and, well, let’s just say,  I didn’t fit in.  Another part of the curriculum was classic training in the fine arts of drawing, painting and sculpture. It was unacceptable if not laughable to even consider creating anything functional. The only time I felt in my element was the one semester we got an abbreviated sampling of jewelry and textiles. 

Decades later as I walked the aisles of the Buyer’s Market in Philli or the ACC show, I thought, “Why didn’t I know in the early 70s that this was a option? And as I looked around my gallery full of  delighted customers purchasing “functional” art (craft), I visualized the disapproving face of my old college painting professor and smiled, happy I that I’d followed my heart and opened my mind to the world outside of fine art. 

Yes, I’m still in awe of painters and sculptors and I do have fine art hanging in my home. I’m also proud of the funky, fun, functional craft I own. It makes me happy and I know that the crafts people I purchased it from are artists as well.