I know a few people from my previous years of blogging who get pissed off if you refer to them as practicing a craft.
From Dictionary.com: Craft means “an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill, especially manual skill.” That’s not bad, right? It doesn’t indicate you’re doing something important with colored paper and paste in a kindergarten classroom, does it? The verb craft is even better: “to make or manufacture (an object, objects, product, etc.” with skill and careful attention to detail.”
The definition of art is ominous. From Dictionary.com: “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” And “the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings.”
The word “craft” is the one that resonates with me. If you’re practicing a craft, you’re creating something (possibly art) from skill and dexterity acquired through practice – also known as work.
“Art” lost me at the “more than ordinary significance” part of the definition. I love my “art” but that doesn’t mean you do. Is something only “art” if someone else says it has merit? What about chainsaw carvings? I love those things. And why was writing not mentioned as an art?
Let’s give “craft” the respect it deserves. It’s a great word.
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Sources:
craft. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/craft (accessed: May 26, 2016).
art. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/art (accessed: May 26, 2016).