Oct. 12th, 2005

jadegirl: (knitting)
Thanks to comments from [livejournal.com profile] firinel and [livejournal.com profile] danaewhispering, I've been musing on the dreaded 'art vs. craft' debate for most of the evening. Fin said With the mindfulness that you do them, you're less hobbiest, and more artist. I *like* this idea, which had never occured to me before, because it leads into questions of what the particular conscioussness an artist brings to something *is*, if such things can be described, and how that affects (effects? it's 1:30am, my grammar-fu is weak) the product. It also brings up a simple concept that makes me question how valid the name of 'artist' is, when applied to me.

I follow patterns.

Mind you, the patterns that I follow are *gorgeous* things, I've posted links to them dozens of times - Alice Starmore's Elizabeth I, Lavold's Menja, etc. Still, I'm following a blueprint, formming the stitches in the precise way I'm instructed to, going for and (hopefully) getting a result that is a replica of the creation of another. An act of creation, but lacking creativity.

I want to do my own designing, bring the creativity into creation. I even have ideas for sculptural knits - faery dolls. However, my designing skills are a bit weak, which is I think mostly a matter of impatience, and I'm regularly at war with myself over producing something that just *is*, rather than is *usable*. Those are my own weaknesses, and I think with some study and struggle I'll overcome them.

Now, I know there is a type of magic I bring to the creation of a pattern, a will and consciousness placed into the stitches, but I don't know what it is, or what it 'qualifies' as. I expect a lot of this is my own nervousness about my right to any label I admire, such as artist, but it seems the solution is clear - move past those things I consider blocks to that concept. Still, the first questions I mentioned about the idea are interesting, at least.
jadegirl: (Once upon)
I keep pulling this conversation out of comments and into entries because I'm utterly fascinated by it, and hope a wider audience will bring in more points of view. In response to my last post, [livejournal.com profile] firinel and [livejournal.com profile] salsuginous both bring up and *excellent* parallel - musicians. I'm listening to Lara St. John play the Bach violin concertos right now, they're some of my favorite pieces, and St.John's mastery of them is astounding - which leads neatly into the question of the moment - what *is* going on there? What is she bringing into the work of another that makes her playing transcendant, whereas another violinists rendition might only be pedestrian? There's something there, all right, but what is it? She plays every note as it is written, just as I ply the needles exactly the way I'm instructed to. In the music, though, it's obvious there is some ineffable quality that only she is bringing to it...Perhaps it's a sense of communion, a linking of mind and body through time. Hmmm. Some of it is obvious, I think - Love. If love is not an element within the act, love for the composition, for the act of playing, for the joy of sharing that love, then it all falls flat, one might be better served doing something else, instead.

I'm reminded of I Corinthians 13:13 "But now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." Faith in the act of communication, hope as well, that the shared experience of listening and playing brings beauty and joy, that the nameless wonders can be expressed. Hmmm. Yes, the parallels are here, I think.

On an unrelated note, red hair seems to be rare in these parts. I don't leave the house without hearing about my hair; "Help the lady with the pretty red hair", "Ooh, red hair looks so pretty in the sunlight", "Hey, red!". It's kind of funny.

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