Always a treat to read, thank you! Perhaps it's my incapability, but I marvel now at how some of the greats of old could multi-task with nicotine! While grateful for the tobacco leaf in various forms, it seems that anymore I have to enjoy that simply on it's own. It's like how even popcorn can get in the way of a good film, or vice versa how a program in the background can rob the aesthetics of a fine meal. And also, the fine sculptures you've shown reminded me of the incredible SPACES those men could create! In my 3D class at Pratt in 89 I'll always remember Dr. Fogler trying to teach us how to go about creating a space in plaster and clay, and just how much a 2D guy like me couldn't "get it".
I appreciate the mid-essay little paean to the decorative and useful creations. My wife is a potter and makes her forms according to her pieces' functions, which are so unmistakable even at a glance that I can't help be a little jealous.
As to the art-craft distinction: I have a suspicion that it (and its attendant condescension) may owe more to the critics than to the artists?
Quite fittingly, I read this article with a cigar.
One of my ash trays has a painting of a fox hunt on it. Certainly not an arresting image, but charming nevertheless.
I have custom lighter inserts for my zippo shells just so that I can keep the aesthetic experience.
Even if we don’t quite have sculptures for smoking, at least we have the art on cigar bands. One of my favorite cigars is the Sucker Punch made by Punch. It has an illustration of a lady boxer on it that I am somewhat infatuated by. To my dismay, they have apparently changed the band to a simple, plain Punch logo. Sad.
Ooh, that's a whole category of smoking aesthetics I didn't even consider! And then we could start talking about intricately carved meerschaum pipes . . .
Always a treat to read, thank you! Perhaps it's my incapability, but I marvel now at how some of the greats of old could multi-task with nicotine! While grateful for the tobacco leaf in various forms, it seems that anymore I have to enjoy that simply on it's own. It's like how even popcorn can get in the way of a good film, or vice versa how a program in the background can rob the aesthetics of a fine meal. And also, the fine sculptures you've shown reminded me of the incredible SPACES those men could create! In my 3D class at Pratt in 89 I'll always remember Dr. Fogler trying to teach us how to go about creating a space in plaster and clay, and just how much a 2D guy like me couldn't "get it".
Indeed it is amazing. Sculpture is a lot more than "what you bump into when you back up to look at a painting."
I appreciate the mid-essay little paean to the decorative and useful creations. My wife is a potter and makes her forms according to her pieces' functions, which are so unmistakable even at a glance that I can't help be a little jealous.
As to the art-craft distinction: I have a suspicion that it (and its attendant condescension) may owe more to the critics than to the artists?
Most likely you are right. Matisse himself was a painter, but he might have absorbed that attitude from the critics.
Quite fittingly, I read this article with a cigar.
One of my ash trays has a painting of a fox hunt on it. Certainly not an arresting image, but charming nevertheless.
I have custom lighter inserts for my zippo shells just so that I can keep the aesthetic experience.
Even if we don’t quite have sculptures for smoking, at least we have the art on cigar bands. One of my favorite cigars is the Sucker Punch made by Punch. It has an illustration of a lady boxer on it that I am somewhat infatuated by. To my dismay, they have apparently changed the band to a simple, plain Punch logo. Sad.
Ooh, that's a whole category of smoking aesthetics I didn't even consider! And then we could start talking about intricately carved meerschaum pipes . . .