Art versus Craft

A work of art is one-of-a-kind. Take the Mona Lisa, for example. She is one-of-a-kind.

Repeatedly painting the same Mona Lisa would be considered forgery. At least it would be considered a mental illness.

Can you imagine any great artist, after creating a great work of art, saying, "Hmm, I think I'll do that same thing over again." What would you think of Beethoven if, after he writes the Fifth Symphony, goes and writes the same symphony again?

That would be, my friends, a mental illness.

Works of craft, on the other hand, are by definition many: pottery, quilts, fine furniture, woven baskets, origami. This time of the year, there is wreath making.

We have several friends who make their own greeting cards rather than buying them at the Rite-Aid. When you get one of their cards, you tend not to throw them away, even weeks later. Ever.

Cooking, for those who love to do it, is a craft. As is gardening. As are many many activities that, for whatever reason, people decide to take up and, over long periods of practice, do well.

If you repeatedly create the same object in craft-making, you would not be forging. You would not be mentally ill.

Instead, it would be a sign of your moral character.

If you devoted yourself to pottery making, to cooking, to tending your garden lovingly, tenderly, repeatedly, you would be well respected -- instead of being sued for forgery.

Our friend Mary W, well on in years now, makes floral arrangements with orchids. She grows the orchids in a small greenhouse in her own home. She then makes the arrangements, again, again, again. The other day she fought her backpain to get back into her beloved greenhouse -- to practice her craft. Again.

Mary is a godly woman, and her children now bless our community with good works.

God is not after one-of-a-kind great artists, famous to everyone.

He is after craftsmen, known to only a privileged few.

Logos2Go

Zechariah 1.18 Then I looked up--and there before me were four horns! I asked the angel who was speaking to me, "What are these?" He answered me, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem." Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. I asked, "What are these coming to do?" He answered, "These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people."