Art vs Craft

The distinction between art and craft is an interesting one and I turned to ChatGPT for its thoughts and was pleasantly surprised by its response:

"Art is generally seen as a more abstract and intellectual form of expression, focused on aesthetics and the exploration of ideas. It is often created for its own sake, rather than for a practical purpose. Art can take many forms, such as painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and writing.

Craft, on the other hand, is typically more practical and hands-on. It is focused on the creation of objects or products that are meant to be used or appreciated for their functionality. Craft can include activities such as knitting, woodworking, pottery, and jewelry making.

While art and craft can be distinguished by these differences, there is often overlap between the two, and many artists use craft techniques in their work, while many crafts can be considered works of art in their own right. The distinction between art and craft is ultimately a matter of interpretation, and what is considered art or craft can vary depending on cultural context and personal perspective."

So an object can be either art or craft or a mixture of both. I'm largely ignoring conceptual art as little or none of my work falls into that category. There's a third quality that feels important and that's aesthetics. It's clearly possible to create an well-constructed table with immaculately joins and a fine finish and it still be unimaginative and dull to look at.

Based on this definition, most of my work would fall into the 'craft' category.

Once could query what some of the more obscure  intersection regions actually represent but the main purpose of this diagram is to suggest how a piece of work will have qualities of art, craft and aesthetics.

I would aspire to have my own work both well-crafted and aesthetic (see horizontal hatching above) as well as sometimes having an 'artistic' component as well. This happens fairly rarely though I would consider my Desselation to be an exception. It is a piece that comes from the heart and has the potential to resonate with anyone who has suffered from anxiety. The other area where I might suggest some of my work may stray into 'art' is in my poetry where some of the pieces address universal themes such as family conflict, child abuse, death of a parent and depression.

The heritage pieces are an interesting category. They are designed to have a layer of impact or resonance based on the provenance of the component materials. This, I think, allows the pieces to transcend craft though I've not yet figured out quite how to categorise them.

Perhaps craft is the language, and art is what you choose to say with it.