Friends will tell me that I’m an artist. This is because they are my friends and are perhaps slightly biased. I always counter that with no, I’m a craftsman. Then I jokingly tell them it’s because I didn’t go to art school. Still, I feel uncomfortable calling myself an artist and I’m not sure why. If I had a clearly defined definition of the difference. . …
What, to you, is the difference between an artisan and a craftsman?
I’ll take a shot at it. If a person takes a some wood, tools and set of instructions and creates a beautiful chair, that person is a craftsperson. The person who creates the instructions (and design of the chair) is an artist.
To me the difference between a craftsman and an artist is whether they make things (craftsman) or create things (artist). I see making things as looking at something or plans for something and being able to produce a fairly good facsimilie of that item. I see creating things as being able to come up with that item from scratch or looking at an item and changing it in such a way that it becomes something more than it was before.
I consider myself a craftsman but I know people who do the same kinds of things I do that I consider artists.
300% markup.
Then I must surely learn how to be an artisan!
An artisan is a crafstman–at least as I’ve ever heard the word being used. You’re asking about the difference between an artist and a craftsman.
So, what is the difference between an artist and a craftsman?
If they were trained in Italy (or by and Italian) or somewhere else?
I think it’s just a label some people give themselves.
No way to argue with this post.
So the question is:
are you an artist or are your friends lying (but loyal) bastards.
Show us the evidence.
Here’s the first definition for artist that I found:
One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts.
and here’s a definition for craftsman:
A man who practices a craft with great skill.
So from a strictly definitional point of view I think they’re pretty similar with the caveat that the craftsman definition requires skill but not imagination. (Although some could argue that in order to be skilled at most crafts, you must be imaginative so, eye of the beholder and all that.)
Me, I’d use craftsman to refer to people who make beautiful functional pieces like a beautiful chair or rug or clay pot while an artist makes beautiful things that don’t necessarily have a purpose beyond hanging on the wall or decorating an end table. But I don’t see them as exclusive and a craftsman can certainly be an artist and vice versa.
I have linked to my Etsy in the Marketplace. I’m not absolutely sure that it isn’t against the rules to link to it in Cafe Society, since it’s a site that sells things. Would a link to the Marketplace thread be against the rules? Hmmmm.
An old saying goes:
A laborer is one who works with his hands.
A craftsman is one who works with his hands and his mind.
An artist is one who works with his hands, mind and soul.
Of course, another old belief is that artists were all homosexuals who created art out of frustration at their inabilites to give birth, and women’s hormones made them incapable of anything better than second-rate imitations of men’s accomplishments.
Gruesome, but now replaced with the Andy Warhol belief, followed by Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, which holds that creativity and craftsmanship is stupid, and art is just a business model to capture the highest level of market share.
I would say that an artist intends to make something that is beautiful and original, while a craftsman intends to make something useful. This is not to say that something beautiful and original cannot also be useful, or that something useful cannot also be beautiful and original, rather it is the intent that matters. For example, if someone builds a chair thinking, ‘This would look incredible in an art-deco foyer, and I suppose people could sit on it.’ that person is an artist. If someone builds a chair thinking, ‘This is going to be one comfortable chair, and it looks nice, too,’ that person is a craftsman.
When referring to what I produce, I use “art” and “craft” interchangeably. I tend to call myself as a crafter because saying I’m an artist may come across as pretentious to some people. But I acknowledge that I am both. I think people have needlessly imbued special significance to “art”. A crafter is an artist. But an artist is not necessarily a crafter.
Not to say it’s not complicated when you think about it too hard. If I simply refurbished an old flower pot, fixing the cracks in it and cleaning it so that it looked brand new, then it’s kind of hard to say that I’m an artist rather than just a “fixer-upper”. However, if I take an old flower pot and turn it into something totally different, while still maintaining its function, then it is more clear that I am an artistic crafter*. If I take an old flower pot and install it on a wall with a dead cactus in it, then I am most certainly an artist. But not a crafter. I would say that the functional aspect of the artwork makes it craftwork. But that’s it.
But even still, I think “functional” is defined by the individual. F’instance, I take soup cans and glass jars and beautify (or weirdify) them. You can use them for a number of purposes. Holding pens or loose change. Floral containers or flower pots. Or you can just put them on a coffee table and stare at them until you go crazy. Just because they can be functional does not mean they have to be functional. They are whatever the consumer wants them to be. After all, I can scan a Picasso work to decorate paper napkins with. Does that reduce the quality of the work? Does it make it not art? And I can take a quilt and hang it up on the wall, transforming it into the nebulous category of “folk art”. We sometimes make things harder than they have to be, with all these words.
You are an artist, Biggirl. You don’t have to have a college degree or be a professional to be an artist.
*A non-artistic crafter would be someone building a model using directions, or someone who simply reproduces something that they themselves did not design or create. An architect is an artist. The contractor who’s following his blueprints is not.
An artist creates a chair that’s enjoyable to look at.
A craftsman creates a chair that’s enjoyable to sit in.
The two terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Artists create. Craftsmen perfect.
ETA: The two are not mutually exclusive.
One is named by a French word which makes it sound more distinguished, thereby allowing him to charge more for his goods. This because a fair number of people with too much money and a desire to be seen as sophisticated are quite willing to buy overpriced status-raising goods.
“Artisan” is just French for “craftman”. The use of distinctly French words, especially when the French pronounciation is somewhat retained, is often an effective marketing technique to give people the impression that something is better than it is. Beware when you hear that.
“Artisan” can also refer to people using old techniques to make a good in smaller quantities than their competitors.
I’m an artist.
Because I decided to be one.
(Yeah, there was some work involved. But, mostly, it was a conscious decision. Made a huge difference in the way I viewed myself and the standards I held myself to…and how much I could charge to do a logo for a friend of the family).
So… are you an artist?
It’s your call.
I’m going to somewhat repeat what other people have said here, but I’ll do it anyway!
An artist creates the form, a crafter creates the function. They are not mutually exclusive.
I always thought of an artisan as a skilled laborer like a carpenter, machinist or blacksmith.