What is Art?

[jennythereader]

(Post inspired by a back episode of the Overthinking It Podcast)

How do you define art? Where do you draw the line between art and craft?

Personally, I define art as any creative work that lasts. That is, anything that people are still talking about and responding to years, decades, or even centuries after it was originally created.

A craft, on the other hand, is any work of creation that the person did with their full effort and skill.

Someone can be a craftsman* without being an artist, but it's rare for an artist to not also be a craftsman. In fact, I would suspect that many of the people that we now think of the great artists thought of themselves more as craftsmen.

What do you guys think?

(*Gender assigned because "craftsperson" looked clunky.)

Comments

[inaurolillium.livejournal.com]

May I suggest "artisan" as a gender-neutral option instead of "craftsman"? Plus, I just like the word.

I'm personally pretty insistent that I am not an artist, I am an artisan.

[jennythe-reader.livejournal.com]

Artisan works. The connotations are a little bit more specific* that I was going for, but it's close enough.

*To my mind an artisan is someone who creates tangible things (like a wonderful dinner), as opposed to a craftswoman (or craftsman) who is someone who practices a craft which can result in either tangible or intangible things.