Sunday, August 5, 2007

Can a sweater be art?





It's a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I'm listening to This American Life. The subject is Art and Artists (capital letter 'A' Art and Artists). This poses the question- What is art? This is a question that has popped up in my life several times in the last few weeks. Am I an artist, or a crafter? I would suggest I am a craftsperson, maybe even in the journeyman portion of my career. I am not a master-crafter, and not an apprentice anymore (thank god).

Recently a friend with whom I had lost touch -for almost a decade- and I reunited. She came to stay with me for a few days on her way to a new life in NYC. She has proclaimed me an artist, living an artistic lifestyle. So now I find I am questioning what is art and what is craft?
When is knitting and dyeing yarn an art? Can sweater be art? At what point is the practical artistic? Maybe the answer is -if Gap can't or won't reproduce it next season-it's art. Maybe not.


That was a little too deep. Let's offset it with some yarn I've been dyeing. It's a dyeing art.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Eloquently (sp!) put Katie. Something to think about. Would it be a mass produced art if the Gap did make it?