Making. Art or Craft?

Many people consider rug hooking a craft, not an art. Craft is considered skilled work achieved through practice.  Many say art comes from the heart and is an expression of emotion. A craft is considered something easy and art is difficult. I disagree.  I believe rug hooking can be art, so I was pleased to read something Deanne Fitzpatrick wrote this weekend.

Deanne sent a Sunday morning letter relating rug hooking to a meditation and she also wrote about a rug she hooked with love for a friend. She wrote:

"Often when I start a rug I start with one idea.  There is a part of me that wants to hold fast to that idea and see it through.  But then there is the other part of me, the part that knows to make art you have to be open and flexible and responsive and willing to listen to your soul...

But I also think about what I need.  It's like a meditation. Just like our hooking is a meditation. It calms. It soothes. It generates. Generate. That time with yourself is generative. It leads to more. That's the beauty of any meditation. It brings us closer to ourselves, to our art spirit. It deepens the generosity inside of ourselves as we prepare to give to the world the beauty that only we can create.

Making is so misunderstood.  It's seen as a past time. It's a hobby. It's sometimes seen as the lost art of the lonely and the bored. These are the words of fools of course. For we who make and only we, know the power between hands and the mind as they work together and soothe the soul."