There are distinctions (and similarities) between craft people and artists. Artists are dedicated to their work. It is their life calling and their intent is to pursue that calling as a career. They not only create a final product, but they create its shape, color, the medium, the finish, the title of the work. It comes from a deep emotional need to express themselves. And the outcome is one of a kind. They may have to get a second job as a means to continue their art, but what they produce is often seen as more valuable than a craft, albeit not always in their lifetime. The finished piece may have little in the way of practical purpose, but you cannot look at Van Gogh's Sunflowers without feeling that the world is a better place because of his emotional, uplifting contribution to the human spirit.
A craft person also has a need to create. He or she learns and develops a skill, but often limits his or her passion to the weekend or as a hobby or even as a way to supplement income. It is not their career and, thus, does not often command the same price as art. A craft person knows what his end product is going to be from the beginning, whereas, an artist does not. The object being crafted comes from a pattern created by someone else, whether knitting, crocheting, quilting, woodworking, sewing, pottery, etc. The end product is more often something you can play with or wear or use in some way. Craft people can expand their skills and reach for a more artistic result by going beyond the pattern and producing new objects and new ways to reach that final result, but they know what the final result will be even if it is one of a kind.
Craft people may become artists, if there is no longer an element of practicality and purpose in what they are creating. The motivation to create is more practical for a craft person and more emotional for an artist. The artist experiments and his work evolves as he or she shares the audience's reaction to the final piece.
Perhaps the best way to understand the difference is that an artist makes infinite decisions, explores a multitude of possibilities based on the knowledge of his craft and then clarifies and defines the result based on an emotional need to express himself and have others experience that emotional release. The fact that the work is so tied to the artist that many do not get it, is exactly why craft people and crafting continue to be appreciated and emulated. You don't have to get a craft, but when you do, you have something enjoyable that speaks to you in a way you can understand. Ultimately, the individual assesses and defines the work through his or her own eyes and determines whether it is art or craft. The important thing is that someone appreciates the work, a small piece of someone else's life.
Copyright 2014 by Linda K Murdock. Linda has many interests, including crocheting and going to craft shows. Go to her namesake website and follow her blog or visit her publishing site, which describes her four books at http://bellwetherbooks.com/
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