Art vs. Craft
This has been on my mind lately. I am concerned with how we throw around the moniker "artist" so loosely. So often we assign the title to those who have not utlized imagination at all.
When we look at a painting, we do not call the individual who hung it up on the wall an artist. The paints, the canvas, and the frame, heck, even the gallery lighting, all contribute to the effect of the artwork, but the artist is the one who wielded the brush and layed the paint (or whatever medium) onto the canvas.
So it goes with the performing arts. Yes, the performers have a talent which many do not possess, but the true art comes not from the performance, but from the idea of the performance. It is the choreographer, the songwriter, the playwright, the composer who is the artist. The performers are merely the paint on the canvas wielded by his/her skillful hand.
When I knit a sweater from a pattern, no matter how beautiful it is, I employed very little imagination to craft it. I may have a skill that others lack, but I've not contributed to the idea of the finished project except in my chose of yarn colors. Same goes with my dancing--I am skilled at the craft of ballroom dancing, but I am only an artist when I choreograph.
Tags:
rant
