craft culture

i’ve been doing a lot of meditating on my grant project. and it occurred to me…why is “craft culture” important? why do i feel this need to make a documentary film about it? when i think about the art going on today, arts and crafts stick out. sure, it’s not "high fine art" and arts and crafts might never be shown in the moma (unless they’re under the guise of the bauhaus or the arts and crafts movement started by william morris….) i feel that this resurgence of handmade goods is an antidote for modern life. lets get on the same page here. to me, “craft culture” is one like etsy.com: a perpetual craft fair. they have jewelry, baked goods, wedding needs, clothing, furniture, art….anything and everything you can think of that is handmade. they recently allowed vintage finds to be sold as well. also an influence of modern life.

for me, modern life encompasses this “cut and past culture,” where everyone has a computer with information at their fingertips. everyone can create art or learn about world war II or watch a youtube video about the "battle of the oranges." so, what makes your art, and your life, special? arts and crafts allow for an individual touch. a feeling that in this world where everyone has access to anything, we can have something uniquely ours. made for an individual by an individual.

modern life encompasses the alienation we’re feeling by our government and our economy. they make decisions “with” us but in actuality – i don’t feel like we really have a say. our senators and congressmen don’t represent our diverse populations and i fear they make decisions based on party line issues and not what we, the people, need or want. “i fear.” as if this is a new issue. this is a feeling people have had for years and years. driving through new mexico two years ago with my sister we saw a bumper sticker that summed up how i feel about america: “i love my country but fear my government.” amen. craft culture gives a sense of connection. it gives us a face, a name, a location as to where our product came from. and if there is a problem? we can e-mail the seller, call them, go back to the store where we bought it and say to them directly “hey, something broke here….” it is immediate gratification, which we all love so much, and, at the same time, it’s uniquely ours. etsy.com and buy crafts online, in general, can be a global thing. but i also feel that the craft culture in america might be a good way to build a sense of pride in america.

what does it mean to be “american” anymore? what is our identity as a culture? as a nation? as an individual within this culture? the arts and craft resurgence allows us to form, what I call, an external individualism. you can decide where and who your clothing, or plates, or furniture, or art work comes from. this sounds materialistic and not at all what i'm stressing. arts and craft culture relies on people to buy and want material objects. but i think this new culture gives us an outlet to buy something unique.

craft culture can give us a link to this new sense of community - the individual within the community. the individual within america. maybe, just maybe, this d.i.y feel and the desire for it will help bring some pride to the people of our nation. we're standing in the middle of a new and diverse creation of an american identity. let's embrace it.