Craft as Personal Development Notes

Interior Orbits
Craft as personal development


 “Creativity through crafts is a wonderful way to express yourself and build self-esteem. Children can be successful through craft projects designed just for them and learn that there is no right or wrong way to be creative.”
 
The general public believe that art students don't do a lot, because they consider art to be "play" and not work.

Modernism
In the history of art, the term ‘modern’ is used to refer to a period dating from roughly the 1860s through the 1970s and describes the style and ideology of art produced during that era. The term ‘modernism’ can be thought of as referring to the philosophy of modern art.

Art is divided into separate boxes (this fits into that category), Modernism is one of those boxes.

Modernism is heavily criticsed and covers a wide range of art mediums.

History of Modernism
During the Renaissance period the idea that humans rather than Gods, could make their own judgements and places began to emerge. Rather than the idea that God or religion would tell you your place. 
No point striving to be different as god has made you a certain way, poor for example.
Thinking and understanding the principles of nature and the universe.

"I think therefore I am"

The bill of human rights is made.

People began using art to show the ideas of truth

• ‘Truth’ could be discovered through the application of reason; virtually everything could be submitted to reason: tradition, customs, morals, even art.

• ‘Truth’ revealed thereby could be applied to ‘correct’ problems and ‘improve’ the political and social condition of humankind.

• The ‘truth’ discovered through reason would free people from the shackles of corrupt institutions such as the Church and the monarchy whose misguided traditional thinking and old ideas had kept people subjugated in ignorance and superstition.  Concept of freedom became central to the vision of a new society. Through truth and freedom, the world would be made into a better place (excerpt from Mary's presentation)

The idea of truth and freedom become more important as people have less and feel marginalised.

The Rose


 Modernists paintings used symbols and meanings to incite progressive thinking and the ideas of radical change. Portraying certain ideas and promoting a way of life.

Conservative modernists selected subject matter that showed examples of righteous conduct and noble sacrifice virtues that the public could emmulate.

18th century: modernist claims to freedom of choice in subject matter and in style in terms of choice of brushstroke and colour.

19th century: practice of artistic freedom fundamental to progressive modernism. Artists began to seek freedom not just from the rules of the Academy, but from the expectations of the public. It was claimed that art possessed its own intrinsic value and should not have to be made to satisfy any edifying, utilitarian, or moral function. It was claimed that art should be produced not for the public’s sake, but for art’s sake.

Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde stated that "the moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist, and becomes a dull or an amusing craftsman, an honest or a dishonest tradesman." Suggesting that art should not be used for social change.

Art for arts sake was used as a tool to stop modernist ideas and make people focus on the formal elements.
Modernist art was being subverted from its origins, to become completely detached from the ordinary world, its ordinary people and their problems.

Formalism controlled art and ignored any unruly or disruptive art.
Hence why we still only look at the formal elements and not who the artist was or why they painted that way.

In an attempt to move away from formalism some artists like Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian removed the formal elements of their work to simple colours and lines.
 They were both interested in art as spiritual 

Goals of the modernist movement
To reject tradition and look forward
Challenge to false harmony and coherence
In some cases form superseded function, focusing on the materials and the shape of the object itself.

Modernists sought to defy expectations mainly in order to make their art more vivid, or to force the audience to take the trouble to question their own preconceptions. This aspect of modernism has often seemed a reaction to consumer culture:  whereas most manufacturers try to make products that will be marketable by appealing to preferences and prejudices, high modernists rejected such consumerist attitudes in order to undermine conventional thinking.

Some modernist work came as a reaction to the first world war.

H. R. Gieger

There has always been some infighting in modernism, with some artist taking the ideas in vastly different directions to others.

Truth to Materials
The Modern Movement removed all ornament and permitted a constructional form to emerge, paying full attention to the qualities of the material and honesty in the use of it.

 The idea that machine made was the way forward, and that Industrial and Handmade designs were just as legitimate as each other.

Bauhaus
In 1919 the Germans opened a new school under the tutelage of Walter Gropius to teach experimental methods of designing for the machine. This school, whose influence has been pre-eminent, was called the Staatliches Bauhaus.

The idea of the genius emerged.
Genius is something above skill, something that cannot be explained, contained, or diagnosed
Babbit:  Truly great works of the imagination are such not by virtue of their intuitive coherence alone but by virtue of the moral quality of experience they convey.