Craft -v-Fad

Yesterday I went to see the Rover Thomas exhibition entitled 'I want to paint' in the Art Gallery. He is one of those painters of extremely simplistic looking works that somehow strike a chord in your heart and soul. Just lovely.

But the title set me thinking about the discussion on Sharonb's blog, Inaminuteago, about whether craft is a fad or a long term thing. I think like Rover Thomas that I want to craft. I have been embroidering, sewing, knitting since I was very small, that is for over 50 years now. During that time I have seen lots of fad crafts come and go, rather like the current knitting craze which I see as a fad craft, although knitting is not. If I see one more scarf knitted in Feathers yarn I think I might have a hissy fit right in the middle of the street So I divide craft into fads and crafts that border and very often teeter over into art in some totally unexplained way. It does not help that art galleries generally are very unwilling to feature women's crafts, although somehow such work becomes 'respectable' when exhibited by a man! This, of course, is crass generalisation, but I really think it is a common event.