thoughts on being an artist and a crafter… and is there a difference ?

Some time last year I came to the conclusion - the idea - to stop fighting the art vs craft thing I was doing to myself. That in fact I am both an Artist and a Crafter. Both together and separate things. Sometimes I'm one, sometimes the other. Sometimes both at the same time (sometimes neither... and I'm just having a nap, or being a mama). 

Why.. you might be asking... did I need to make this differentiation for myself? Well, a few reasons. And most all have to do with me, and how I perceive myself as a creative. 

In the art world, craft is often looked down on. Crafters being mostly those that are hobbyist or untrained, or stay-at-home-mums just making little things for their kids. Well... When I say in the art world, what I actually mean is in the online blogging / Instagram sort of circles I have spent the last more than 10years being part of. Also, I made those actual words and definitions up... what they constitute is the feeling that I've felt as a 'crafter' over the years from some 'artists'. 

And the truth is.. that to be a true crafts(wo)man takes skill and dedication and practice, and lots & lots of training and time and continuation of learning and refining. And many many crafts(wo)men are indeed artists. (And some artists merely display the craft of art/painting/whatever). 

So.. I was getting myself caught up in these definitions and sometimes prejudice against crafters, and I was working hard on trying to define what I made and if it was craft or art, or both .... or neither. And was I a crafter, or an artist, or a maker, or WHAT!?

Really. I can be what I want. But a name does help. A lot. And since I've started calling myself a 'textile artist' is feels more than a 'creative maker'. People can better understand what it is I do, and better put me into a category - and I don't honestly mind if people find it easier to have a category to put me into. I guess it's what we all do some way or other. 

Instead of battling these words and definitions, I just took them both on. And now, for me - I know that some pieces of what I creatively make are a craft, and others are an art. My personal definitions. I don't need to explain to others why or how, but by explaining to myself has helped me through phases of creative difficulty.

*these photos are from a workshop I taught earlier this year, where the craft of stitching & hand sewing became an art form.