Arch, which comes first the crafsman or the artist? Can you be one with
out the other or will one turn into the other. Are there natural born
artists and craftsman or does one start as the craftsman and turns into an
artist? What about us that are artistically challanged are we destend to be
coppiers and forgers? For myself I think I have no imagination. As a
painter I am looking at a blank canvas or writer with nothing on paper. I
have a hard time with language and music. I think the toutchy feely part of
my brain is small but the anyalitical side is much larger or is the more
dominant. I also tend to look at the tools and the process of turning and
I am delighted when something is completed and works. Could that be because
I am at the begining of my craftmanship where things do not tend to work
well. It is natural as skill develops one looks for the more difficult as
one needs the challange. Will the artisticlly challanged ever see the art
piece in the wood or must they depend on what others see. To the artist is
the carftmanship a means to the end. Do they care how they got there or
what shape their tools are in. I think the craftsman looks at the tools,
loveingly cares for them, loves the process of the work for it's own sake
and the product he makes is a bonus. As a craftsman I love being in my
garadge shop with my books and videos. It is fun to read and then see if I
can do that as a turner. I know I will never be an artist and I am happy at
my level of craftmanship because I know it will get better and my enjoyment
comes from the journey.

Bruce
"Arch" wrote in message
...
My daughter is a professional artist and she is paid surprisingly high
(it seems to her dad 'G') prices for her paintings by international
clients. She seems to pay little attention to the 'tools of her trade'
while I spend hours thinking about, trying out and agonizing over
turning stock, equipment and turning techniques. She is a success as an
artist, I'm a journeyman.

Things concerned with the making seem more important to me than the
objects I make. I guess that means that woodturning is a hobby for me,
but is this also true for workers in other media where art resides in an
object? If art is in an object, craft must, of necessity, be involved.
Unlike music, poetry, and painting, wood art demands that an object be
made; Utilitarian or not; no object, no object of art.

Embellishing by adding something not natural to the wood and/or
ornamenting with coves, beads and such are part of crafting an object of
wood art. How much or if any, of each is a world class FAQ, but it has
no answer. The old adage: "Ornament the construction, don't construct
the ornament" is sound advice, but hard to follow in actual practice.

If I aspire to be a wood artist as well as a wood turner must I learn to
execute, in depth, all the techniques needed to turn wood before I
attempt to turn wood art? It seems obvious that there can be no mutual
exclusion of either, but to some extent does an excess of one endeavor
tend to diminish the other? Ain't I artful?

Yep, I know this is beating a dead art/craft horse, but one hasn't been
beaten on the ng all week and there are early signs of irritation and
other withdrawal symptoms on rcw. My musing is a bad tasting antidote,
but hopefully it's palliative.

Turn to Safety, Arch

Fortiter,


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