Art versus Craft and Kids

I started posting on this in the comments section of another blog - The Artful Parent - and decided it was something to expand on...


My kids don't ask me if we can "do a craft" they refer to it all as art and some of their art is "craft like" - like embroidery

I’m an artist (I have a degree in “experimental arts” and spent the 90’s doing installation art until schlepping TWO kids around city to city and sleeping on floors while I installed and opened and schmoozed got too hard to even contemplate) AND I used to work for the Ontario Crafts Council in their Resource Centre and the Craft Gallery - which highlighted the very best of international craft.. The Crafts Council defined craft partially by materials (fibre, wood, glass and ceramic) and through self identification of the maker. I suppose there is an issue of series production in it as well, and an issue of “usefulness” but I knew craftspeople who never did a production piece in their career, and those who never made anything more useful than something beautiful to look at or touch...oh there's an issue that seldom comes up - art is to look at, craft is meant to be touched, handled, there's no distance between a craft and it's "appreciator".

Several of my art school profs looked down on craft and had similar definitions as Mary Ann Kohl (art is the process, art is imaginative, craft is about the end product, craft is about rules and following a pattern). There’s some territorialism there.

But I’m not sure where the line is, having staddled it my entire career. Are glass blower Laura Donefer’s witchpots static? Are printmakers making something that is all process or is production an issue for them?

I’ve found my own way of approaching this in homeschooling, and in teaching art and creativity courses to other kids, and it has to do with MY intentions.

I use “craft” to teach skills that have nothing to do with the object they make. I look for teachable moments in their interest in craft - math skill development - counting, following patterns, measuring, geometry, etc, social studies - putting it in a historical context, regional geography and culture, reading and writing - practical stuff like reading and following directions, finding high interest reading material for them to encourage reading, motor skill development in doing the craft…I'm an unschooler at heart, but I take some geeky pleasure in categorizing what my kids are learning when they follow an interest and I try to feed those interests as best I can.

I use “art” to expose them to…the idea that imagination is more valuable than any thing I could ever teach them.

I make no assumptions about what they want from art - so I’ll teach them how to take good care of our art tools, I’ll provide lots of different materials, and then I’ll let them come to me with any particular skills they might want to develop - like drawing realistic looking birds for instance, but I won’t assume they want to know how to draw realistic birds.

My art classes are structured to expose kids to other artists and stories about them, "meet" new materials they might not have been exposed to yet, make materials from scratch, do some warm up exercises - games - that reinforce how differently we all approach the same thing, and then lots of time to PLAY with the art materials on their own terms, I'm there for technical support, and if they want to learn something in particular I'll guide them through it.

For myself…art is often about a message I need to get out there, an idea that is eating up my brain and needs out. I have a very wide and varied list of skills I've picked up to get that message out and I learned those skills for specific projects I had in mind. Craft is about the meditative qualities of the process - not the product, I have little attachment to the product. Sort of the opposite of Mary Ann Kohl huh?

Wild Thing and Dark Mirror doing the Wild Rumpus

The challenge "I your nightmare! You can't kill me!!!!"

"Arrrrrggghhhhh but I can disarm you!"

"I fight you back again!"

"Submit small one!"

"Never!"

Brotherly love at its finest.

Nature Girl's Score

Yesterday we braved the icy roads to go to the fabric store. Nature Girl came with, and was marvelling at the charm packs when the owner, an amazing quilter, came up with a bag STUFFED with fabric scraps for her. Nature Girl is in heaven, and I'm envious! She got atleast 4 metres of material out of this bag, and velcro, and ribbon, and cording, and satin binding, and some absolutely beautiful fabrics, including William Morris designs which I'm just drooling over! She said she'd share :-)

Garbage Day!!!

Enviro-geek that I am I must post about this week's garbage day.

2 bags of plastic/glass/metal/paper recyclables
1 composter bin filled with wet cardboard/greasy paper products (like waxed paper) and compost
1 medium sized bag of garbage - which includes kitty litter and Wild Thing's night time pullups as well as any disposable diapers I use with the Sprout, stytofoam packaging and plastic wrap.

Thats 2 weeks worth of trash for 5-6 people!

Getting the garbage down to *one* bag every two weeks was my goal.

So, give me a new goal!!!!

ANOTHER SNOW DAY YESTERDAY!!!

Pile up in Dark Mirror's bed...

Nature Girl in costume, with her dog, Wild Thing - eating shortening bread, but ours was made with butter.

Dark Mirror geeking and eating

Dark Mirror about to raid the fridge with the Sprout.

Dark Mirror eating...he does that a lot.

I don't want to ruin it with a flash...

Sprout is asleep in Dark Mirror's bed and the Wild Thing is asleep on the floor *by* his bed, on a dog pillow, wrapped up in the dog's blanket. Both of them absolutely idolize this big lovely gangly teen.

Where is Dark Mirror? He got picked up at 3 by a minivan load of teens to go play D&D, he'll be back at dinner time.

If you know Dark Mirror, you know how monumental it is that he's navigated friendships ON HIS OWN and is out there doing things with them like a normal kid.

I wish you could see the smile on my face!!!!!

Feeling settled deep in my bones

This weekend was all about being a primal monkey mama for me.

Dark Mirror arrived friday night, and settled right in. It is wonderful how easily we all slipped into our family "places".

Dark Mirror bosses around Nature Girl, and she doesn't listen and they stare daggers at one another. I smooth things out with humour and pushing the little ones out to play in the snow until they're exhausted...Emily Armstrong would have said "to blow the stink off", and yes it really does, they return rosy cheeked and calm and getting along.

Nature Girl doesn't complain that she's missing her weekend in Halifax (invited on a weekend long adventure with a friend) she's just so happy to have her big brother HOME.

Wild Thing absolutely idolizes Dark Mirror and copies everything he does and gets him to play with a Ro-Hawk - which is NOT a robot, it is a spiderman who looks like a robot, but can't be because Spiderman is NOT a robot. They understand one another.

Sprout puts on his best show of giggling and yelling. He smiles at every face Dark Mirror makes, and demands his airtime during the cacophony that is dinnertime here.

We all geek out reading the Darwin Awards book together and laughing altogether too much at other people's misfortune.

Saturday was as usual, the Farmer's Market and hooking up with people for a preschool coop, I love watching Nature Girl run off with friends and taking good care of Wild Thing, him holding her hand, and biding her as she mother hens.

We all went out to the Night Kitchen (community arts night) and my heart was about full to bursting watching Dark Mirror calmly take charge of Wild Thing, getting him to participate when appropriate and sit still when that was what was expected.

And Dark Mirror knows me so well, and gives me huge hugs and wonderful private moment mama and almost grown up son kisses and lets me get my fill of monkey mamaing with combing his hair and measuring him, and cleaning out his ears, and there's no eye rolling, and he loves it too...ohhh good stuff!!!!

He hooked up with the local dungeons and dragon playing boys and tonight is running a game that'll probably fill several evenings. All the boys are NICE boys here, and I love seeing him pick up where they all left off and see them calling him by his nickname right away ...and he's friends with more boys here in a few short days than he's ever had in his life.

Dark Mirror is doing the teen thing - sleeping late, but happily cuddling with the Sprout in his bed while I walk the dog.

And I just feel deeply settled and at PEACE, because my kids are all together - the way it should be.