Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I read a book recently that said there are two types of writers. I'm not sure if the book included these names, but I use the terms Crafter and Artist.

Both types will use both Craft and Art in their work, but their motivation and goals are different.

The Crafter looks toward writing as a profession and income source.

The Artist looks toward writing as a creative outlet for self-expression and communication.

Which one are you?

Also, Artists and Crafters tend to give each other a hard time, so I have a follow-up question:

Can't we all just get along????

As for me, I'm an Artist, but some of my best friends are Crafters.

Margo, front and center!

I confess that I am an artist. I do fine arts, too. Expression is my number one motivation.

This doesn't mean I ignore craft. I consider myself a craftsman, too. I was a carpenter/cabinet maker for many years. I make my living as a craftsman now.

I respect both enough to incorporate them (in almost everything I do), but I am an artist at heart.

Hmm...

Is it possible to be a bit of both?

My writing stems out of artistry -- I have stories stuck in my head that I need to get out on paper. I write because I'm compelled to write.

At the same time, being a bit of a dreamer -- I'd love to make a living as a published novelist -- so I guess that makes me a bit of a crafter, too.

I am an artisan poet, attempting a merge of art and craft writing. And artisan in other fine arts as well. I believe form follows function, and that functional utility and artistic expression are equally appealing. A bland appearing meal is unappealing even if nutritiously complete. A significant fraction of meal presentation and appreciation is visual appeal aesthetics, visual form following taste appeal function.

Quill wrote:Margo, front and center!

Geez, Quill, you like to live dangerously, don't you. Speak of the devil and who but myself should appear. I was going to leave this one alone entirely until you summoned my dark apparition.

Okay, I'll make it brief then. Reformed artist. Current crafter. Direction added to magnitude.

Can we all just get along? Well, I haven't drawn any blood since the last time this topic came up, so possibly. I'm also fresh out of Buicks, welcoming baskets, and hand grenades.

P.S.: Quill, that's a lovely soul you have there. Interested in selling it?

Mira wrote:The Artist looks toward writing as a creative outlet for self-expression and communication.

Self-expression and communication also apply to crafters. I dare say communication is more crafter than artist; it acknowledges an audience and the need to take the audience's language as much into account as the writer's.

Artist, all the way. Writing as a crafter is something I CAN do, and something I am occasionally asked to do (writing things for other people on request/demand)....writing as an artist is something I WANT/NEED to do---big difference. Some people seem to think of it as the difference between "right" and "wrong"---I don't. I view it as knowing what is right (or wrong) for you.

Discourse has two basic principles, method (art) and message (craft). How what's said is often more appealing than what's said. Or content and form, logos and lexis, res and verba as discussed in depth at Silva Rhetoricae topic Content and Form.

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Enco ... 20Form.htm

polymath wrote:Discourse has two basic principles, method (art) and message (craft). How what's said is often more appealing than what's said. Or content and form, logos and lexis, res and verba as discussed in depth at Silva Rhetoricae topic Content and Form.

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Enco ... 20Form.htm

I'm afraid I don't agree that method = art and message = craft. Quite the opposite.

To be more precise in my thoughts, craft is a method for delivering a message, just as art is. Craft, in my opinion, is more concerned with the method of delivery in that craft is about creating the message in a form that always keeps the audience in mind. Art is more concerned with the message, whether the audience understands it or not (though hoping, perhaps expecting, that it will).

I'm a middle-brained sort of person, so I'll say both. I write first and foremost for me, art as exploration. But I have practical ambitions, and have no compunctions about considering craft in terms of audience, marketing, sales, etc. The Practical Artist. Isn't that a good title? I'm a sucker for good titles.

Bryan Russell/Ink wrote:The Practical Artist. Isn't that a good title? I'm a sucker for good titles.

That is a good title.

P.S. Are you using that soul? I'll cut you a good deal.

I'm kind of a hybrid, really. Seems to me it's part of the job requirement to be a little of both, though I understand some people lean one way more than another.

Ha! See Margo, I told you I'd post the thread. :)

And stop trying to buy other people's souls. I think your soul is just lovely as it is. We need both warriors and peacemakers. I'm a warrior, too. Sometimes I have to play peacemaker, but it's not my natural role. So, I compromise and use diplomacy in my fights, because most people don't like conflict (I'm very comfortable with it, myself.)

And I thought you had good points.

I realized I probably titled this wrong. I should have titled it: Are you in this for an Income or something else? Maybe that would make it less intense, because of course both Crafters and Artists use both craft and art. You can't create without both. I think the difference is in the motivation.

Mira wrote:And stop trying to buy other people's souls. I think your soul is just lovely as it is.

Lovely is such a subjective word. ;)

I'm not looking to change souls. I'm just hungry.

Margo wrote:I'm afraid I don't agree that method = art and message = craft. Quite the opposite.

To be more precise in my thoughts, craft is a method for delivering a message, just as art is. Craft, in my opinion, is more concerned with the method of delivery in that craft is about creating the message in a form that always keeps the audience in mind. Art is more concerned with the message, whether the audience understands it or not (though hoping, perhaps expecting, that it will).

I agree that analogy is imprecise. A main point of the Silva Rhetoricae article are the limits on distinguishing where the divide falls and the indivisibility of method and message, content and form, form and function, and so art and craft. Art relies on method and message as much as craft relies on method and message.

What's the message behind a well-crafted bird house? Welcome? Do the birds taking up residence get the message? No, if they don't consciously respond to it; yes, by their action of instinctively taking up residence. On the other hand, if artistically ornamented, the birds probably couldn't care less. The decoration is for human appreciation of method and message.

A pitcher artistically crafted is likely to have a message if the pitcher only holds half as much liquid as a glass intended to be filled from it. Form for artistic purposes over functional purposes. It still fulfills its intended utilitarian purpose, but its artistic purpose prevails.