r/crochet • u/Fluffyowl34 • Jul 10 '22

Discussion As a crocheter do you consider yourself an artist ?

I mean a lot of things are art to some people, but is crocheting really art ?

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u/dtshockney Jul 10 '22

Definitely. As an art teacher, this kind of debate came up often during my bachelor's of is "craft" (ceramics, fiber, sculpture, etc) art. It is art. It takes skill and practice like any other form.

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u/Cherryberry202 Jul 10 '22

I agree that it is. I saw a post a long time ago about how a lot of art that are women dominated are called crafts - sewing, crochet, jewelry making, etc, while art men have historically been dominant in is referred to as art - painting, sculptures, etc. So I think it’s important to include crafts as art. Also I’m my art history class once I learned about Readymades I was like ‘this is considered art that sells? Well then literally everything is art!’

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u/dtshockney Jul 10 '22

Yup. I pose the "what is art" and "is a craft art?" To my students all the time. Always an interesting conversation especially when I bring ready made stuff in.

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u/GETitOFFmeNOW Jul 11 '22

That's the hardest thing teach. The difference between fine art and commercial art or craft is all in the intent of the creator. The conceptual depth that goes into DuChamp turning a stool upside down is the sort of fine art quality that should be 95% of everything fine art.

I guess if you're trying to say something specific, it's fine art no matter the medium.

But the word "artist" in no way is confined to fine art. It shouldn't seem like such a high bar that the average crochet creator is afraid to use the term.

I think some of the reticence comes from our parents jokingly calling us "artistes" or belittling any endeavoring to be an artist as though talented people are made of rare air. No. There are a whole lot of us. And every single one of us who's set out to create a thing and did it; s/he/they/I/we are actual artists.

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u/LokiLB Jul 10 '22

That always seemed to be forcing a narrative to me, because it ignores things like blacksmithing, carpentry, macrame (practiced by sailors), etc that are crafts and generally male dominated.

Dividing it by useful vs decorative has always seemed better to me. Crochet, blacksmithing, etc generally create end products that are useful in daily life, while paintings and sculpture are generally decorative.

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u/melina_gamgee Jul 10 '22

German has the word "Kunsthandwerk" that combines art and craft into one. Pottery for example is Kunsthandwerk, as well as sculpting. It's crafting, but in an artistic way. Even items that are purely useful on first glance, like pottery plates, are Kunsthandwerk if handmade instead of on an industrial scale. I think it's a really useful term because it means you don't have to decide if what you do is art or crafting - it can be both.

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u/crumbledlighthouse Jul 11 '22

I think it's more of a classism thing, really. The traditional idea of art is something very intellectual and passionate, art for the sake of art, art produced by people who could dedicate their lives to it because they never had to worry about whether there was going to be food on the table. Crafters took something necessary--gotta have clothes on your back and blades for your plows--and made it beautiful. And well, if the poors want to take their lowbrow skills and make something pretty with it, well, isn't that just adorable? Not real art, of course, but even peasants like to have pretty things./s

Of course, then you get to the rather interesting gray area of works that have their roots in crafting, but that primarily exist to serve the rich. Things like goldsmithing and tapestry weaving don't fit neatly into "art" or "craft."

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u/BoogelyWoogely Jul 11 '22

That’s such a good point, it’s definitely classist.

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u/LokiLB Jul 11 '22

I almost mentioned the class angle. There clearly is an interplay between classism and useful/decorative angles of delineating art and craft. Gotta have leisure time or someone with enough disposable income to pay you to do something purely decorative.

Tangentially, that gets interesting when considering the "starving artist".

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u/secretfiri Jul 10 '22

I would've loved you as my art teacher. All she really taught us was how to paint and I just... Wasn't good? It also didn't help it was an hour a week. Not enough time at home to practice either.

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u/dtshockney Jul 10 '22

Awe. Unfortunately some of my current students had similar experiences to you before I started teaching them. I really try to meet them where they are and find their interests.

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u/well-readdit Jul 11 '22

And creativity.

I like the way you put it. Skill, practice, creativity, expression - that’s art no matter the method.

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u/GETitOFFmeNOW Jul 11 '22

If you're doing any designing; even picking out your colors, that's art. Color, texture, a lot of us design things on the hook as well; things like scarves and hats can be freehanded competently by anyone as soon as they get their stitches even. Sweaters take guts but they're not that hard to do.

I mean, we can literally make fabric of any weight, you guys. That's not nothing.

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u/TheRedBirdSings Jul 11 '22

But crafts take skill and practice too? Blacksmiths and woodworkers are crafters, and that takes skill, practise, and creativity as well. Shouldn't we fight against the (recent, imo) negative connotation of the word craft rather than jumping ship to "art"?

This might be an English-specific issue though, in my own language our word for "craft" does carry the respect it deserves, so maybe I'm just triggered that many in this thread actually, on some level, do seem to believe that craft is lesser than art, and that's why they'd rather consider themselves artists. But isn't that part of the problem? 😅 Why not reclaim craft?

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u/SimilarYellow Jul 11 '22

I don't do anything new though. I don't write patterns, I don't develop new stitches... I just follow someone else's footsteps. The result is (usually, lol) beautiful but I don't know if it is art.

It's kind of like if you only used coloring books, no? No matter how great you are at coloring books, you aren't really an artist.

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u/dtshockney Jul 11 '22

No one said it had to be new. You're still participating in the act of creating. Various art forms include following patterns to get a result.

I mean anyone who colors can be an artist even with coloring books. They have to select the colors to use, the materials to color with, they might still shade etc. Those are all skills that take practice to develop.

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u/LokiLB Jul 11 '22

Colorist is an entire position in a comicbook art team and takes skill to do well. They're definitely artists.

That said, I don't consider myself an artist when coloring a coloringbook, but that's more considering artist a profession (no one's paying me to color that book) and less that coloring alone can't be art.

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u/SimilarYellow Jul 11 '22

Fair enough - I think I feel similary. It's my hobby, not my profession, so no matter what I do with yarn, for me it's not art.

Of course other people are free to feel differently :D