The Art of Craft February

And so the exploration begins....

Welcome to the Art of Craft. My name is John McGeough, I am a craft artisan working in wood. I am a musician. I am a teacher. I am a teacher because I “have to do” teaching. I am a musician because I “have to do” music. Why do I call myself a craft artisan? I do so by virtue of the fact that I “have to do” craft. All artists or artisans do so because of a need. We have to do so. We can no more deny our instincts any more than we can choose not to breath. Throughout history artists weren’t often formally trained. We are the products of our gifts and our drives. I am an artisan out of need. I want to write about craft because I am fascinated by “craft”. I am drawn to it. I am addicted to it. I can’t pass by a craft gallery or booth without looking at what a fellow crafts artisan has done.

My medium is wood. I seek to speak the languages of form, color, texture, and theme in a way that lets art and purpose be consumed one in the other. I want my work to be both artistically beautiful and functionally purposeful. My boxes are hopefully beautiful yet they can hold either treasures or paperclips.

Craft artisans work at the interface of function and beauty. That interface is the place where fine craft resides. Fine craft rises above the purely functional when the maker uses the vocabulary of the arts to create an expression within a form. The form can be a bowl, a table, a box, a chair or wall hanging.

Fine craft is a fully human expression like all great art. What we think of as pure art, to me, lives in that place where the message is expressed in some degree of abstraction. Art speaks its secrets without the imperative of practicality. The message may be literal as in a realistic painting. Or, the message may be communicated within the pure idioms of color, texture, form or symbolic meaning. While fine craft embraces symbolism, its birth is in function. It is a branch in the rivers of expressive flow that is pure art.

So how is the tributary of fine craft different from fine art? Fine craft might be conceptualized as a “purpose” worked through the mill of artistic thought to create an object of usefulness and great beauty. Fine craft still uses the vocabulary of pure art. A bowl has a “purpose”. The purpose is to “contain”. But the bowl may also be an expression of the varieties of color or the intricacies of form used to fulfil the “purpose” of containing. A work of fine craft may also be about the larger concept of “bowl”. Such a work might push the line between practicality and art while still falling into the realm of craft.

I try to live in the world of fine craft. I frequent galleries where wonderful works of craft can be seen. I purchase works when I can afford them. Being a retired teacher and working craft artisan is a reality. I study craft and design. I can’t pass up a magazine rack that features the magazine Craft or any of the other media specific publications. I find myself walking through galleries looking, absorbing and finding inspiration. I aimlessly wander the aisles in art supply stores sometimes staring at a new kind of media until I discover the reason it calls to me. Precious metal clay has been calling to me for some time. I just don’t know what it is trying to tell me. I want it to say where I can get the money to answer it’s call. But, so far it hasn’t. Oh well.

Even though there has to be a way to combine precious metal clay with wood, my medium is wood. I am in love with wood. The textures, colors and forms make my mind spin. The very name of a species can take my mind to the far corners of the Earth. Pink Ivory, Tulipwood, Bloodwood, and Zebrawood get my creative blood flowing. And, they are just a few of the species that cause me to long to see them where they grow. When I hold them I see in my minds eye the jungles of Africa, the rainforests of South America and the vast hardwood forests of the Appalachians.

Many craft pieces are utilitiarian. They have a specific or generic use. They are not abstract. Craft is the interface of practicality and art. Fine craft is art transforming function so that a basket speaks a language. A box creates a mood. A pot is thrown to speak of color and texture. But, it is still a pot. It is still elemental, still of the Earth.

So, I am a craft artisan. I work at the interface of function, beauty and abstraction. My work tries to say something while it holds a piece of jewelry. Hopefully it was made by the hands of an artisan jeweler. For that is what craft is. Craft is utility combined with beauty. And it is the interface between pure art and fine craft that I hope to explore with you through this column.

JM

John McGeough is a craft artisan working in wood. He shows his work regularly at the Yale St Arts Market. John is fascinated with craft whether it is wood, ceramic, textile, metal or any of the many available media. He can't pass up a gallery or a booth. This column is an exploration of fine craft. Read more about John

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