But speaking of tea cosies, take a look at the Museum of Arts and Design’s recent exhibition Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting, which shows that even the homiest of crafts can be reinterpreted in surprisingly original and innovative ways. Why can’t they be used for cultural commentary? Why can’t they be considered contemporary art? If you’re saying that the hearts and minds of the beholder need the attitude adjustment in order for that to happen, then allow me to stand up and make the case. When it comes to craft, curators are beginning to seeing the light. But I think the market (dealers, critics and collectors) lag behind.

In a pragmatic sense, one could compare objects that are considered to be “Art” (a pickled shark, a rumpled bed littered with condoms) with things that are considered to be merely “Crafts” (a knitted tea cozy, a wood carving of a New England sea captain smoking a pipe). The operative word here is probably “considered”. The perception of the viewer should carry more weight than the intentions of the artist. One should explore the thought processes of people viewing the Yosemite Valley with what they think when they observe a painting by Caravaggio. Too often the discussion revolves around what an artist or craftsperson is thinking when they create an object. If a person wants his creations to be treated as Art he should educate himself in the ways that people perceive art. Once an object leaves the artist’s studio and is in the hands of a buyer or museum, the thought processes of the artist are almost irrelevant; this is particularly true after the artist has died.

Ron Ratney