From: shannon stoney (sstoney@pdq.net)
Date: 10/19/01-12:01:44 PM Z
Carl wrote:
>It sounds more like a complete lack of exposure to craft and craft
>discipline. About ten years ago I taught a couple college photography
>classes and was dismayed to find that nearly all the students had something
>I would consider a sort of learning disability: they had no idea what
>craftsmanship was. As though they had never seen a skilled carpenter at
>work, never considered how a master machinist has to practice to be able to
>use a lathe, never seen a skilled backhoe operator dig a ditch half an inch
>from a vulnerable building.
I guess I'm glad, then, that I came to fine art from the world of
craft where such things matter. I was a fiber artist for ten years
before I went into "fine" art.
This learning disability you speak of may have something to do with
the general denigration of working with one's hands and of working
class people that you find in academia, even though a lot of the
students at U of H come from working class backgrounds. Everybody is
trying to get away from that and be all intellectual.
--shannon
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 11/02/01-08:55:27 AM Z CST