It’s not that kind of catamaran.

12 thoughts on “It’s not that kind of catamaran.”

1. What other kinds of “quilting” are there then?Report

   1. What I believe the woman in question was alluding to is the long-running argument about what constitutes Art vs what constitutes craft, and that a Mennonite quilting circle produces works of craft; where as she and the quilter who’s works were on display in the gallery we were in produced works of Art.

      My (admittedly uncharitable) take on this distinction is that Art requires a sort of self-conscious awareness of the great Meaning of what one is doing; that Art is a sort of social sorting of the maker of and audience for a work, rather than any meaningful comment on the aesthetics of the work itself. Hence urinals, bags of garbage, or even cans of human feces, properly contextualized, can be recognized and celebrated Art.

      I’m breaking no new ground in say this, either personally or in social criticism generally. The above has been said by others before, and better.

      What is new is the evolution of my own class-consciousness and concerns. At the outset of my transition from creative profession to service worker I worried about how I would feel about a) no longer enjoying the prestige of being a creative professional, and b) whether there might be aspects of the social power dynamics of being a service worker that rubbed me the wrong way. I feel another installment of the Thermomixed Up series of posts coming on… 😉Report

      1. This makes me like craft better than art. Or better to say, I see no reason why art would be superior to craft if it lacks the quality of craft.

         (Full disclosure: I have a quilt–I suppose by now it could be called an heirloom–made by my Mennonite grandmother.)Report

      2. James,
         I totally agree.

         Anyone who needs to sneer in order to prop themselves up, generally isnt’ worth much.Report

      3. Is writing about how you no longer identify as a writer some kind of performance art thing? Maybe it’s just performance craft.Report

      4. By the way, my comment was meant to be playful not jerky.Report

      5. I didn’t think you were being jerky, Jonathan. My wife and I both laughed! 🙂Report

      6. Oh good. Also, I would love to see the Thermomixed Up series resurrected.Report

2. My thought on reading the woman’s reaction to your comments went to a friend of mine who is legit Mennonite, works at a quilting shop, and makes amazing quilts. Some of them are what I think you’d call art quilts (makes far more sense to hang them on the wall than to keep them folded up next to the couch; I’m pretty sure she’s had some gallery shows). And the workmanship is, of course, excellent.

   Unless there’s something I’m missing about what qualifies a quilt as an “art quilt”…Report

   1. Well, at the Fiberarts International, they had a pair of knit socks… made out of glass.
      Of course, I doubt anyone there would have the chutzpah to dismiss craftart.Report

      1. http://wp.fiberartinternational.com/exhibition/Report

3. I just read about this young woman who was gunned down in Detroit in (what appears to be) a(nother) case of self-defense gone horribly wrong. Not surprisingly the incident is profoundly colored by race.

   I am reminded that privilege is not just access, it’s also protection; and certainly the desire for protection was a big part of my motivation to set my filmmaking in the privileged class of art. No wonder people say things like “It’s not that kind of quilting.”Report

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