Art VS. Craft

Many times we hear the term arts and crafts but should they be categorized into the same sentence? The Definition of a Craft is as follows :–noun an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill, esp. manual skill: the craft of a mason.(Dictionary.com) The definition of art is:skill acquired by experience, study, or observation. (Merrium-Webster.com) In both of the definitions there is the statment of a spceial skill so are they the same thing? I think pretty much anything can be called art. If there is someone who only makes crafts then that is a form of art. "She takes pride in her yarn for the yarn’s sake, without necessarily thinking ahead to what she might make out of it. In fact she often doesn’t like me asking her what she’ll make out of it. That’s not the point. The process of taking fiber to yarn is thrilling enough in and of itself.
She is crafting for a craft, something I only realized last week. The same thing happens in other media as well when a guy thinks about it though. A ceramic artist can make tiles for someone laying tile or creating a mosaic, for instance. "(the aestheticelevator.com) The lady who was making this argument has a good point who is to say if art cant be crafts. I think there really is no art vs craft because crafts can be a form of art.

What motivates me

What motivates me as a learner is having a teacher who is passionate about what they are doing. I could tell the teachers who really truly had a love for what they were teaching and those that were thrown into the position they had. When the teacher was passionate about what they were teaching it made me more eager to learn. When I had a teacher who was passionate it made me want to get as much out of that class as I could. My goal when I am a teacher is to really show through my teaching that this is really what I love to do. I think even kids in elementary can tell if you are passionate. It motivates me so much to do my best when the teacher is so passionate about what they were doing. Motivation always stems soley from the student. As teachers we need to inspire them to be motivated and I feel like the best way to do that is to show your passion through your teachings.

How to teach artist statments.

The defintiton of an artist statment is  It is a text composed by an artist and intended to explain, justify, and contextualize his or her body of work. Artists often have a short (50-100 word) and/or a long (500-1000 word) version of the same statement, and they may maintain and revise these statements throughout their careers.(ebsqart) We had to write artist staments on all of our pieces that we posted on our blog. I would say that the easiest way to teach artist staments would simply be by telling the kids to just write what ever their piece of art that they have created makes them feel. After you have had your students do this Molly Gordon an artist has these tips to help a students artist statement make more sense. "Read your statement out loud. Listen to the way the sounds and rhythms seem to invite pauses. Notice places where you'd like the sound or rhythm to be different. Experiment with sounding out the beats of words that seem to be missing until they come to mind. Do this several times until you have a sense of the musical potential of your statement. As you read your statement, some phrases will ring true and others false." By reading these things out loud you get to hear what they sound like. Often times when we are writing what we feel it sounds good to us in our head but by reading it aloud they can better their artist statment. "There is great satisfaction in witnessing the students’ growing independence. Watching them learn about themselves, develop skills, make historical and cultural connections and emerge as young artists with unique visions ultimately invigorates my own search." This statment said by Joseph Mannino shows the importance in really helping your students grow and by teaching them to write artist statments you are really helping your students grow as artists.

Everyday art

In this project we were supposed to pick something that you see in your everyday life. When we all brought pictures into class the things ranged from tv shows to toys like a ferby. What I ended up decideing to do was an alarm clock. No matter who you are everyone needs an alarm clock of some sort even if its on your phone you know the purpose of that alarm clock and how important it is. These things were thought of like how Andy Warhol did his art work. He used simple everyday things to make a piece of art. We did this by stamping much like the bugs we did but this time we did it with styrofoam. We then rolled paint onto the styrofoam then stamped it on different colors of paper.

Artist Statment

I did not know what an artist statement was at first and this was a definition I found,  a formal and concise statement of the meaning of a word, phrase, etc.  the act of defining a word, phrase, etc.  the act of making clear or definite. the state or condition of being clearly defined or definite. a measure of the clarity of an optical, photographic, or television image as characterised by its sharpness and contrast.(photo space) This definition was more of a text book one but I also found how to write an artist stament which helped me understand what it is.1. Take five minutes and think about why you do what you do. How did you get into this work? How do you feel when work is going well? What are your favorite things about your work? Jot down short phrases that capture your thoughts. Don't worry about making sense or connections. The more you stir up at this point, the richer the stew.
2. Make a list of words and phrases that communicate your feelings about your work and your values. Include words you like, words that make you feel good, words that communicate your values or fascinations. Be loose. Be happy. Be real. Think of these as potential seasonings for your stew. You don't have to choose which ones to use just yet, so get them all out of the cupboard.
3. Answer these questions as simply as you can. Your answers are the meat and potatoes of your stew. Let them be raw and uncut for now.

1. What is your favorite tool? Why?
2. What is your favorite material? Why?
3. What do you like best about what you do?
4. What do you mean when you say that a piece has turned out really well?
5. What patterns emerge in your work? Is there a pattern in the way you select materials? In the way you use color, texture or light?
6. What do you do differently from the way you were taught? Why?
7. What is your favorite color? List three qualities of the color. Consider that these qualities apply to your work.
8. 4. Look at your word list. Add new words suggested by your answers to the questions above.

5. Choose two key words from your word list. They can be related or entirely different. Look them up in a dictionary. Read all the definitions listed for your words. Copy the definitions, thinking about what notions they have in common. Look your words up in a Thesaurus. Read the entries related to your words. Are there any new words that should be added to your word list?
6. Write five sentences that tell the truth about your connection to your work. If you are stuck, start by filling in the blanks below. (Molly Gordon)
These steps really do help you see what an artist statment is. You must talk about texture and light and color and within all these things give your opinion on the piece. I reasearched online and actually found an example of someones artist statment. This statment is by an artist named Leslie Holt. "My recent work includes several series of paintings that weave inter-related experiences – including growing up with a mentally ill family member, pop culture and famous works of art. My work often displays an unsettling intersection of childhood and the adult world." As you can see in her statment she gives a description of her pieces and what  she liked about them and what inspired them. In my posts under my art work I tried to do this and convey how the art pieces made me feel and talk about the color and also what inspired them.