Are you an artist or crafty?

[Merry]

From the internet:

"a person who expresses themselves through a medium"

[grazhina]

I think of myself as an artist. In my case dollhouses are just another art form. I design and craft them the same way as I do a painting. I've never tried to consciously convey any sort of feeling or idea in my work, I just let whatever comes out come out. Other people tell me they feel certain emotions when they look at some of my stuff, so I guess that would definitely put it into the art category.

[mesp2k]

...if I serve wine & cheese at my dollhouse showings - then its ART. :lol:

Yes you're all invited to my next opening!

Hmmm, expect for these two...

:lol:

[dollfie63]

There's artistic value in everything, even the simplest of toys. Art is subjective, personally I see some miniatures as a work of art in their original execution and concept.

[grazhina]

Lots of the wine and cheese crowd in my area. if I ever opened a brick & mortar store I would be obliged to serve wine & cheese at the opening like everyone else I guess. DH prefers beer. I like a really good sassparilla, birch beer or root beer myself.

[havanaholly]

Yeungling & Warsteiner, here; or a good 18-year old single barrel bourbon; pepper jack or sharp cheddar.

[CatColorado]

Okay. I'll admit it. When it comes to dollhouses, I am not an artist... but I have a whole lotta fun.

I actually am an artist by profession (painter), which is more of a calling because I'm an artist whether or not I am making money at it; it's just who I am and what I do.

[what2craftnow]

I'm just a crafty artist, with a "side of surly"

[minime]

Holly came pretty close to the correct answer. Art is your interpretation of the world around you, whether it is good, amazing, or stick figures. Your 'craft' is the way in which you interpret that world. For instance, if you do oil paintings, then that is your craft, the technique you use, improve, and eventually excel at using. A child may use a loom and fabric loops to make hotpads, while someone else uses tiny thread and hook to crochet mini afghans. They both are crafting items, although not at the same level of expertise. it infuriates me when people refer to something as a craft, meaning that it is not something an artist would do, but something you'd make at summer camp quality.

So when you build a dollhouse, you are using many techniques to 'craft' a piece of art.-your interpretation of a house. How's that?

So the next time someone tells you that you are 'soooo crafty', tell them 'Yes, I'm pretty clever and cunning, and a fine artist as well', because that is what 'crafty' actually means!

And that is my rant about the use of the English language for today! Off to spend money! (at the vet, nothing exciting!)

With this definition, paint by number and camp crafts would also be art.

Let the less than nice comments go, do what you enjoy and enjoy what you do.

[Wolfie]

True art is in the eye of the beholder!

[Merry]

I believe we're all artists. This is the place where miniaturists meet. We build, paint, design, sew, decorate, create, imagine, dream, and end up with a real object, whether that's a house or doll or needlework or a flower.

Actually, we're all pretty brilliant, I think!

[Sherry]

Mineme-paint by numbers are kits that tell you what color to paint and where to paint it, and every one turns out just like the next one. They require no talent and no imagination, merely the capability to read numbers and hold a brush. In no way does that qualify as art .

Camp crafts can be art, if the child is allowed to change colors, materials, and such to make his piece uniquely his.

[Merry]

Mineme-paint by numbers are kits that tell you what color to paint and where to paint it, and every one turns out just like the next one. They require no talent and no imagination, merely the capability to read numbers and hold a brush. In no way does that qualify as art .

Camp crafts can be art, if the child is allowed to change colors, materials, and such to make his piece uniquely his.

But, I bet we could all paint the same one, and there will be some outstanding and extraordinary. Besides, I always paint outside the lines!

[minime]

Mineme-paint by numbers are kits that tell you what color to paint and where to paint it, and every one turns out just like the next one. They require no talent and no imagination, merely the capability to read numbers and hold a brush. In no way does that qualify as art .

Camp crafts can be art, if the child is allowed to change colors, materials, and such to make his piece uniquely his.

Oh, trust me, they don't all look the same.

[jujurodgers]

this is such a complex topic for me! I know I am incredibly creative, and I do not have people telling me i am "crafty" (that would likely kind of irritate me LOL) but i am often told i am very creative (my dad used to say only God creates so i obviously have mixed thoughts on that too! LOL)....art in the past was usually something that trained people did...or people who made a splash, like Pollock, in the art world....seems the society labels something art or not....whenever I try to define it I come up with "art makes an impact on the viewer, good or bad, makes a statement...makes the viewer think" So really while dollhouses and minis, often in kit form, involve understanding a "craft" it is also very artistic...and i think hmmmm arent we all interior designers/contractors/architects? arent those artistic professions? not just a matter of putting spackling where it needs to be! minis require an artistic eye and i think we all have that if for no other reason than we do this!!!!

On a more personal note, minis and beyond? even with my dolls i question the art thing often....though I have done very abstract dolls I consider art, and although my mini dolls are normal/human the reactions I get from people make me know that I do often create art in my little people (i often feel I am nothing more than a conduit for the people that end up being sculpted) as people can be drawn to a particular one like it is truly talking to them, connecting with them. examples of artistic and just one of mini dolls LOL

[Sherry]

Oh, trust me, they don't all look the same.

Do you do paint by number pictures? You seem defensive about them. There's nothing wrong with them. They are good for learning eye-hand coordination!

[Gee]

ok, here's my opinion, fasten your seatbelts...

i believe calling yourself an artist, wether it is in dollhouses, paintings, jewelry, woodworking, you name it, is just a way to more then double the prices.

some people are more begifted then others, but its all craft.

[Sherry]

LOL! So if I call myself an artist, I can double what I get paid for cooking dinner or cleaning house! How much is 2x nothing? Good one, Gee!

[havanaholly]

Oh, well, then I'll start calling myself an artist!lol

[Sherry]

Me, too, Holly! Think what I could make every time I have to fish a grandkid's toy out of the garbage disposal..I'm an artistic plumber, here's my bill!

[minime]

You're right Sherry, I am a little defensive about what I think of as art. Sorry.

[Gee]

There is a painter living in Holland, he painted the Nachtwacht of Rembrand on his bedroom walls when he was 6 or 7 years old.

he perfected the way he paints in the years after that.

the light in his paintings is awesome.

when you see a painting done by him, you'd swear it was painted bij Rembrand or Vermeer.

But he simply considers it craftmanship and his talent a gift.

He studied for years on how to make his paint the way the old masters did.

On how he could play with light and fabrics.

on human atonomy.

His style of painting went out of fashion for years.

Now he is back and sells his paintings for a living and they are expensive.

He does not want me to tell his name but that is not hard to discover.

Karel Appel is a famous dutch so called artist.

he just threw paint at a cloth, called it art and sold his work for tenthousands.

now you tell me, who makes craft and who is the artist, no matter how they label themselves?

people pay money for what is in fashion, but does that automatically makes the

maker an artist?

or

is it all just craft, the one more appealing to some than the other?

to me, a craftsman is not less then an artist.

in fact, i prefer craftsmen.

[Sherry]

I think this is still all a case of semantics. The whole discussion was about people calling someone 'crafty', which is a term that has nothing to do with art of any kind. In English, it means cunning, clever, sneaky. I don't like to be called crafty-not just because it's insulting but because they are misusing the word.

The same is true of craftsman and artist. Any artist is a craftsman. If he wasn't, he would not be able to turn the idea in his mind into a tangible piece of art. Any craftsman who creates an original interpretation of something is an artist, whether we think it's good art or not.

We could go on about this forever, sounds like some of the pseudo-intellectual conversations we had in our hippie years at college, when we thought we knew all the answers!

[Nileke]

I think this is still all a case of semantics. The whole discussion was about people calling someone 'crafty', which is a term that has nothing to do with art of any kind. In English, it means cunning, clever, sneaky.

Good heavens, Sherry, I never knew. I'm grateful that you pointed that out, because I always assumed 'crafty' to be an adjective of 'craft'. It never crossed my mind to check my dictionary, because it seemed so obvious.

Luckily I've never called anyone crafty yet, at least to my knowledge.

[Sherry]

Don't feel bad about it. Most native English speakers don't realize that, only us anal retentive teachers! I certainly didn't mean to start any kind of disagreement, I was just talking about how much it irritates me to be called that! I'm off to pack and go home...everyone have a good day!