It has been years since I spoke with David Ellsworth and I doubt if he
remembers my name or could pick me out of a crowd unless his memory is a lot
better than mine. I found him to be certain of his abilities and still
humble enough to learn. In my experience this is a remarkable combination.
He has also done a lot to make turning the growing hobby that it is today as
well as a growing niche in the art world. The grind is an "Ellsworth grind"
because people made it so in their thinking. In his tape on hollow turning
he states that he first saw it with Liam O'Neil. If Liam had been either the
first to market a jig or thefirst to show it on a video, it would likely be
the "O'Neil" grind. So what? That and a buck buys a cheap cup of coffee.
Both of them like to turn, like to see others turn, like to teach others to
turn, and are sure enough of their own abilities so that the rest of us
making mountains out of mole hills really does not matter.

Back to the topic of the thread:
Arch, for a long time some if not all forms of art have been made by one
person or by teams. Some pieces are so huge that it takes more than one
person to produce them, but under the guidance of one artist who gets the
credit because it was his or her idea that sparked the work and his or her
ideas that governed the work and his or her decisions that decided when the
work was done. Besides this, some works call for a selection of methods and
talents that the artist may understand but not do. The works of Henry Moore
come to mind. Some of his large sculpture required teams to move rock and to
remove a great deal of the bulk before he finished the work that he had
begun from inspiration taken from works of nature and then produced models
of in clay or wood before going to the larger rock. Others required casting
in various metals, a work he did not do, no owning a foundry himself. No one
would question whether he was the artist of note.
The question of art seems to me to come from inovation and beauty (I am not
into "ugly art). A new form is difficult to come up with but some seem to
achieve it. It may be art. Some find gorgeous grain in a piece of wood and
produce a lovely bowl. Unless the bowl is artistic in its own right from
its form, I would say the artist is God and the turner is a craftsman.
However there is still room in the craft for that little extra that makes
the craftsman an artist. Just as there was something that made a good Ming
vase art and an average Ming vase a flower holder, there is something that
makes some forms art and others just weed pots.

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com