As the appreciation for the handmade grows with the recognition that ‘art’ does not exist exclusively in a soho gallery, its time we reconsider our views on techniques that were previously considered “craft” as though that was a bad word.
CRAFT: /kraft/ noun, 1.an activity involving skill in making things by hand.
Notice there is no mention of pom poms or pipe cleaners.
While Michaels and Joannes across the country have taught us to assume that all things handmade are polyester or acrylic and only come in shades of tacky, an entire subculture of textile artists and designers have continued to create, their artistic practices unrecognized and considered overly domestic (which, btw why should we accept the concept of something being “domestic” as something that is less than?).
This is a conflict I’ve spent much of my adult life grappling with, knowing that it stems from dealing with judgement in critiques from my art school days. There were always a few better-than-thou intelligentsia folks who turned their nose down at anything that didn’t confuse or disturb, and my use of traditional techniques and classical symbolism was underwhelming for some.
I knew then and I know now that the best reaction to this attitude is to ignore it and create what I find passion in, but my strong desire to be liked by everyone (a biological skill that developed over thousands of years of evolution to keep me alive) made dealing with this incredibly challenging.
Luckily, with age comes a stronger sense of self, and developing resistance to the concerns of others. And in a beautifully cyclical fashion, the more I do the work I’m called to do, the less I give a damn about the critics.
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