ART

ART OR CRAFT

the problem's in the glass

By Tanner

BEAUTIFUL GLASS

There is a divide in every medium between art and craft. In film, there are popular movies made for the masses and high art, independent films. In painting, there are house painters and contemporary, abstract painters. In photography, there are wedding, portrait, and product photographers, as well as fine art photographers. So where does the line between art and craft fall? In glass the line is much starker than others. Depending on whom you’re talking to, an abstract strand of glass could be considered a work of art because of the concept behind it, while a well-crafted cup is nothing more and a utilitarian object you could find for a fraction of the price at Ikea. If the divide in painting were the same as in glass, it would be the difference between painting your house versus painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.

I’m interested in the theories people have about this divide in the tight knit community of glass. There are widely varying opinions from, art above all else, to art wouldn’t exist without craft. These mindsets help people justify and pursue goals that would be obvious in other mediums but are much more fraught in glass.

Isn't that beautiful?

That being said I have yet to conceive of a way to create art with glass without utilizing craft. It is a technique heavy, 3D medium that requires knowledge of how the material moves and flows, and how it reacts to gravity and temperature. To make anything you need to understand the craft.

Many glassblowers make goblet forms that have been done for years: is it art or craft? Those with untrained eyes will undoubtedly say yes, it is a beautiful object, much more interesting than an Ikea glass. But is making a beautiful utilitarian object the same as creating art, especially an object that has literally been created millions of times over. Is art only art the first time it’s made? Is art only art if the person who first conceived it makes it? Is copying the aesthetics of a work of art, art? Is someone that forges a Picasso or Giacometti piece an artist or merely a craftsman?

It took craft

I believe design is the all encompassing, first step to producing a piece of art. Next comes craft and lastly comes art. To design something all you need is an idea. Theoretically, a design never needs to be created. It exists as an idea. To make that idea real you need craft and it’s at that point that whole new problem comes into focus. What is the reason for bringing this idea to life? Is it art for art’s sake or making for making’s sake?

Photography has a similar divide of art and craft as glass does. In glass there are fine artists and production workers. The parallel to photography is that there are fine art photographers and photographers who shoot weddings, portraits, and products. The first is about expressing your inner thoughts and the other is about taking aesthetically pleasing photographs for a client. There is not a lot of conceptual thought to wedding, product, and portrait photography. The emphasis is on technique, taking technically perfect, clear shots. Fine art photography relies more on ideas. It may consider all the issues of technique and so-called good photography, but that is not the main focus.

Maja Heuer, the Museum Director at The Glass Factory in Boda, Sweden is certainly on the art side of the question. When asked what is the difference between art and craft in glass, she responded, “I think there are no real boundaries and if so I am not super interested in them, today it is not important anymore for the art historian.” This is an interesting response, because within the world of glass one of the most important distinctions is between the conceptual and the purely aesthetic.

Maja Heder has some interesting ideas

Heuer mentions, “It is still important for the artists though because of the galleries. If you are making art you get paid much better.” This brings up an interesting point. To art historians and the general public, it doesn’t matter what your work focuses on. Whether it is art or craft hardly matters. But in the eyes of gallery patrons, the difference between art and craft has a tremendous affect on value. Simply put, craft is worth less than art and that tells you that this divide is not just a glass world debate, but an economic and social one as well.

Glass major, Trista Zhou, studying at California College of the Arts states that “people want to force themselves to add something to fill a concept that doesn’t really work out well. They force their audience to believe that it is good art, but the fact is it’s just design or craft.” This outlines a problem that is very apparent in academia of glass today. Many artists take up the mantle of the artist because it offers economic benefits.

Many students love working with the medium of glass and want to start by learning technical skills. If the first time you are using the material is in art school, it can be hard to hone these skills due to a heavy emphasis on conceptual work. This can lead to students forcing a concept onto a piece to please professors and meet assignment requirements rather than using a concept to inform the physical construction of the work.

Beautiful, but is it art?

This cheapens both aspects of the work, the physical object and the concept. If a piece is purely ascetic but has a flimsy concept, the viewer will lose the meaning in the flaws of the thinking. Conversely, if a piece is purely conceptual but crafted poorly, the viewer will be put off by the sloppiness of the construction. I believe students do this to try to break out of the craft realm and into fine art because there is more money to be made, as Maja Heuer is keen to point out.

So again this raises the question of whether a glass worker would rather be considered an artist or a craftsperson. I asked established glassblower and the Executive Director of Public Glass in San Francisco, California, Nate Watson exactly that. Would you consider yourself an artist or a craftsperson? He split the difference and said, “Simultaneously both. They are not the same, but I think that one person can contain more than one idea at a time in the same way that I can carry a thought or two or three."

Nate Watson at work

To be a craftsperson does not mean it’s impossible to be an artist and visa versa. One can inform the other: a great craftsperson is capable of producing conceptual work just as artists are capable of being great craftspeople. Watson is sharp about this distinction: “A lot of people separate the two. They say, ‘craft is doing, not thinking,’ I think there’s a craft of thinking. You have to think about what you are doing, why you are doing, how you are going to doing it.” I think he’s right—even the artistic mindset involves the craft of thinking and thought process, just as the mindset of a craftsperson involves navigating through the technical process.

And like an investigator, Watson, as I am, is always interested in motive: “You have to look at your objective, what is the work about, what does it require. If it does, you better do it, if it doesn’t, you’re dumb for doing it. …Art often times includes craft. A great artist knows exactly how to get to the end game and sometimes the end game is delivering that idea and making people pause. If you need a lot of craftsmanship to catch someone’s attention and make them look at what you are doing, so that they understand why you did it, then that’s what it takes.”

If your objective requires a high level of craft to articulate your ideas, it’s important to pursue, but if it doesn’t require a concept then why attach one to it. Some artists are capable of getting their message across to the viewer without a high level of craftsmanship. This is perfectly fine; just as some craftspeople are able to make extremely technically advanced and aesthetically pleasing work without a concept.

The Fire of Creativity is a Mystery

I think this debate is based on the goals of the person working with glass. If their goal is to master the material, learn techniques, and hone their skills, they will utilize the craftsperson mindset to uphold their style of work. The same can be said about artists whose sole concern is conceptual and message-based. They will take the stance of the fine artist to protect the value of their ideas.

To my eyes, both are valid, and while some in the glass community try to separate the two, as Nate Watson said, a glass worker can be, “Simultaneously both.” Although some artists who work with glass are already accomplishing this, a piece of art that holds a meaning beyond making for making’s sake, but is also crafted at a very high level should be more highly sought after. By sought after, I do not mean fiscally but rather intellectually. Students should be striving to do both even though it can be a longer road.

©Tanner Reyela and the CCA Arts Review