Our last poll, concerning the element of craftsmanship in our assessment of artistic merit was an interesting one. Over 90% considered craftsmanship to be relevant to artistic merit. Seventy eight percent considered quality craftsmanship to be "essential".

But there is an interesting divide in America. The poll was a biased thing. My respondents are all people interested in the hands, and there is a difference. Joe Barry informed me that he abandoned his membership in the American Craft Council because they failed to recognize the value of traditionally crafted furniture, and embraced designs largely abandoning traditional values. So we have the traditional venues for expression of craftsmanship abandoned and then filled by works attempting to meet the assessment criteria derived in the academic instruction of graphic arts. These are the "principles and elements of design." Color becomes as important as ease of use, and the shape becomes as important as the integrity of craftsmanship.

In the meantime, there are some that do know a bit more. World famous art critic Robert Hughes proclaimed Providence furniture maker John Townsend as the foremost American artist of all time. We seem to be a long way from seeing the American Crafts Council finding arms long enough to embrace the craftsmen and women who make things from the John Townsend branch of the family. Truly fine craftsmanship is incomprehensible to some.

It is an interesting thing that won't be resolved in this blog.

The hands, when we begin our process of exploration and creation through them directly, unclouded by academic distortion, provide a different view... Things are made by hand and tested in reality, and the earth shifts. Embark on the path of craftsmanship and the world will never be the same again.