It's Satire, Folks

I have posted a new video on YouTube. It is a joke (literally), but there's a serious point behind it. Lately I've seen a lot in the social media woodworking world about whether somebody's work is "art" or "craft" and even some stuff about what art is.

Here's the link: https://youtu.be/rclk1Sqbbt8

And almost always, the person making the pronouncements as though they're deep original thoughts has never read anything on the subject, let alone spoken with anyone halfway informed.

It bugs me, so I made this video.

Here is the description I put on the video:


If you follow wood craft communities online, you'll eventually hear some talk about "art." 99.9% of this talk is pure blather, even when it's from a skilled, experienced artisan, making beautiful work day in and day out. 

WOODWORKERS!!! I beg you: if you're tempted to opine about your process or the nature of what you're making, take some time to read what others have said before. Collingwood's Principles of Art? Risatti's Theory of Craft? Those are probably too abstract as starting points, but they are excellent once your reading brain is firing on all cylinders. Maybe start with Yanagi's Unknown Craftsman, or Pye's Nature and Art of Workmanship. 

But don't stop reading. NEVER stop reading! Who wants to hear an endless series of monologues where each speaker starts from scratch and makes it up as they go along? Not you, and not your Instagram followers! Far more interesting is to overhear a dialogue, a dialogue carried on in print and on social media and in person, where someone from 1940 gets to put her two cents in and then someone making bowls NOW responds to her but then, suddenly, Aristotle pokes his head in the door and bellows "But you're not accounting for . . . !" 

What I'm asking is, PLEASE, join your own voice together with the best of what the rest of humanity has figured out. You don't start your woodcarving practice by mining your own ore, making the steel, and forging the blade; why would you do that with your understanding of your craft? 

In this video, I am thinking about Art and Craft. I will make another, and (I promise) crank up the volume, when I have something new to add to the discussion.