George
You wrote that

"Where it gets to be fun is when the "artist" has to make statements,
descriptions and apply clever titles to speak for the art, rather than
letting it speak for itself. Makes you wonder if he's really trying to fool
someone, sometimes"

The other side of the coin is the face that critics put on the work. Some
years ago I was in Saint John, New Brunswick, attending a lecture with a
friend of mine. The lecture dealt with the gothic novels of a particular
writer who wrote under the pseudonyms of several women. While the writer
shall remain nameless, he, not she, considered himself a craftsman not an
artist although he had at one time over 275 books in print. The lecturer
considered him an artist and found a lot of symbolism and hidden meaning in
the works. While I forget the exact wording of a statement he made during
question time and just before we both left, it was under the impression of,
"This has been a facinating lecture. I wrote all of those books and did not
realize any of those things were in them. All I wanted to do was to tell a
good story."

Sometimes a nicely turned pretty piece of wood is just a nicely turned
pretty piece of wood and a pleasure to have and to hold.

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