{"id":129,"date":"2001-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-01-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/?p=129"},"modified":"2026-03-14T00:24:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:24:54","slug":"7-whats-the-distinction-between-art-and-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/7-whats-the-distinction-between-art-and-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"#7: What’s the distinction between art and craft?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The craft renaissance in this country over the past 25 years has fueled a raging debate among academicians, curators, impresarios and artisans about the distinction between “art” and “craft?” I recently put the issue on the WoodCentral table for discussion: “In your estimation, what is the distinction between ‘art’ and ‘craft’ as they pertain to work in wood and other media? Do you consider yourself an artist or a craftsman, or both?”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Woodworkers are both craftsmen and artists. It takes craftsmanship to prepare the wood and assemble a project. The artist in us comes out when we design a piece.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When someone hands me a scaled drawing and asks me to build it for an agreed price, I’m a tradesman, with little license for creativity. When handed a rough sketch and asked for input as to materials, dimensions, finishes and such, I’m a craftsman. If I provide a design to fit a budget, I’m a designer, whether I do the work or not. If I suggest a project and the client agrees, and I quote him a figure without accounting for time and materials, I’m an artist. Whether the project suits the clients or whether I make money depends on whether I’m a businessman.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Art is more expression, and craftsmanship is more technical skill. My philosophy is that there is no such thing as bad art, but there is such a thing as lack of craftsmanship.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a craftsman, I would be concerned with how well an object is made, while as an artist, I would concentrate on the impressions the object creates. I also think every one of us wears both hats at times.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have always avoided this problem by considering myself a mechanic.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The two are forever linked. The difference is in the eye of the beholder, whether a particular piece has more artistic value or skillful construction value.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“… the craftsman is one who uses skill to follow instructions, and the artist is one who uses skill to create an original design or a fresh interpretation of another design.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“An artist is one who conceives an idea, refines it, and then executes it in the medium of choice. A craftsman is one who executes someone else’s idea in the medium of the other person’s choice. Often, the two are combined.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Art is that which pleases one or more of the senses. If woodworkers were only craftsmen (a highly honorable title in itself), furniture would be square and heavy-quite functional but not very pleasing to live with.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The injection of the word ‘art’ into a description of woodworking seems to be an attempt to unnecessarily and pretentiously distinguish one work from others. A piece of furniture has two qualities, function and beauty; and the degree to which it satisfies those qualities determines its success. The term ‘art furniture,’ popular with galleries and some woodworkers, is an oxymoron.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is an exogenic reaction in creating something of wood. Who has not felt the energy draining from yourself as you make a piece? Who has not stepped back to survey the work and seen yourself in it? Who has not wiped on the last coat of finish, felt that rush of energy from your work, and walked away satisfied? Who has not received compliments and accolades for their work from other people and wondered to themselves, ‘It’s just a box; what do they see?’ These folks are seeing and sensing the person in the piece. This is what I hope to achieve; this is why I work with wood. It is a euphoria like no other.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I consider myself a craftsman but my wife tells me I am an artist. She usually prefaces it with bull– !”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#7: January\/February 2001<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your thoughts on this? Add your comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The craft renaissance in this country over the past 25 years has fueled a raging debate among academicians, curators, impresarios and artisans about the distinction between “art” and “craft?” I recently put the issue on the WoodCentral table for discussion: “In your estimation, what is the distinction between ‘art’ and ‘craft’ as they pertain to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-views"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodcentral.com\/-\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}