#41: Who Cares About Craft

Contextualization

During the first residency of MA Craft Studies, the 2021 Cohort worked with Portland-based artist Lisa Jarrett to develop a list of “100 Questions” around practice, research, materials, and our relationships to craft. This exercise was revisited over the next two years, both as a way of developing our methodology through the act of questioning and as a marker for where we were at a place and time. Many questions remain unanswerable, yet still shaped the course of our research.

Further Readings

Albers, Anni, Brenda Danilowitz, and Nicholas Fox Weber. “One Aspect of Art Work.” In Anni Albers: Selected Writings on Design. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000. 26–28.

In this 1944 essay, Albers wrote the following about the process of creative work in forming and guiding our character: “If we want to learn to do, to form, we have to turn to art work, and more specifically to craft work as part of it. Here learning and teaching are directed towards the development of our general capacity to form. […] it teaches the process of all creating, the shaping out of the shapeless.” As someone who identified as an artist and craftswoman, Albers placed value on acts of care including curiosity, independence, material exploration, and courage to trust our intuition. She says that, in general, she feels too much emphasis is placed on thinking and intellectual training and that these must be grounded in our own experiences. Albers put a great deal of value in craft and its ability to aid in constructing both ideas and materials.

Richards, Mary Caroline. Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, Wesleyan University Press, 1989.

In examining the influence of craft on Richards’s life and work, it became clear to me the tremendous value craft can have on unexpected aspects of our life. In Centering, she explores the etymology of pedagogy through the meaning of two Greek words; “child” and “to lead.” Richards says “a pedagog is one who leads a child, and pedagogy is his craft as a teacher.” She further explores the definition of education through its Latin roots, which mean “out” and “to draw or lead.” Therefore, “To educate is to draw out, to lead out”on page 97. Both Richards’s writing and ceramics practices and her teaching philosophy focus on the centering of oneself and one’s craft. By becoming a potter, she learned and applied valuable principles of her craft to her writing, teaching, and life. Richards’s explorations of the overlaps between craft, writing, and education facilitated my deeper understanding of the overlaps in writing about and learning from my embodied experiences of craft.

Biography

Heather Powers

She/Her/Hers

By Mellanee Goodman

Entry into the Critical Craft Studies program was a serendipitous experience for fiber artist Heather K. Powers, who lives in the southeastern United States. Upon her first visit to the Warren Wilson campus for an “open classroom” discussion of the inaugural Class of 2020’s critical engagement with craft, Heather knew that she needed to enroll in the program. Heather’s research is not centered in one place but is an exploration of the physical spaces of craft studios. Her research approach includes close and conscious observation of textile practices as understood through her situated experience and embodied engagement with materials and processes. As Heather interacts with craftspeople around the world, she looks to their studios to better understand the stories and identities of craftspeople. Throughout Heather’s time in the program, tending to her garden, growing vegetables and flowers, and processing her own indigo have brought her joy and a sense of grounding in a disconnected time of pandemic. The act of tending to nature is an act of self-care, freeing her from the constraints of the virtualscape.