lately, i have been pondering the meanings of the terms art, fine art, and craft. apparently, i have found something here worth exploring, but i cannot yet put it into words in a satisfactory way.

my friend, ruth, and i have had several discussions about my choice to use the term artcraft for my little glass geometric mosaic technique... she does not think that the term artcraft is appropriate... i think that she thinks that the craft part of it is a bit beneath what she considers a beautiful... and artful... mosaic technique. i don't think that she, in general, thinks that craft work is necessarily less beautiful, valuable, or even artistic... of course, some is. but she and i are both aware of the challenge of promoting mosaic art as a fine art, especially here in the good ol' u.s.of a.

i am pretty sure that i once saw a quote by maestro lucio orsoni, and he referred to mosaic as artcraft. i am curious as to what meaning craft carries in italy... is it the same as here. and, exactly what is the meaning of craft... here?

currently, i am thinking that craft can be art, and art can be craft, but fine art cannot be craft. so, applied to mosaic... mosaic can be craft, and mosaic can be art, and mosaic can be both art and craft at the same time... but fine art mosaic cannot be craft. i haven't a clue, however, how to support this view with words... not yet...

at the 2007 sama conference in mesa, az., i heard artist and maestro enzo aiello say something to the effect of "... someone asked me what i thought of the exhibit, and my response was, 'is mosaic an art or a craft?'"

in my opinion, the exhibit was very interesting, and had many outstanding pieces of mosaic art, mosaic craft, and mosaic fine art. it was my first conference and exhibit to attend, so i had nothing to compare to. even the two pieces that i had in the exhibit would qualify more as artcraft than fine art, in my opinion. i was really surprised that one of them was accepted, as i did not think it fine enough, but i thought... oh, what the heck... might as well give it a shot and go through the process. as it turned out, my piece that i thought of as mosaic fine art was not accepted, but the other two pieces were.

sama has updated their mission as primarily "...educating, inspiring, and promoting excellence in mosaic fine art." so my question remains... how do we define mosaic fine art? and why is it that i do not think that my artcraft technique is fine art?

still pondering...