Hi,
I would like to add that I have noticed a strange disparity about
the kind of skills they do teach at a University. My prof was
mostly interested in casting…at the same time, there was little
emphasis on fabrication. On graduation I have to start teaching
myself the finer points of fabricating. At the same time, one of
the grads who came into the program had come from a school where
they never cast, and didn’t really consider that fine art. It was
all fabrication. Her professor constantly asked her what her work
was about. My professor never asked me what mine was about…and
seemed a little startled when I decided to tell him one day. Even
more startled when I told him that I really thought that in order
for a work to be “art” there had to be more than fine craftsmanship
involved there had to be some kind of point to it. A meaning, a
reason, something other than another shiny image.
So for those that don’t wire wrap their own pieces…don’t make the
findings and don’t even string the beads I wouldn’t call it
handmade, I mean, if you can’t spare the time to choose the
individual stones that hang side by side in a piece you really
don’t have control of how the piece ends up. But if there is
something you are trying to represent beyond the attractivness of
the piece, a point you are trying to get across to the viewer, then
despite the manufacturing process it may well be art.
That we feel so strongly about these things keeps out
work strong,
Karen