Dana's Interests: Arts and Crafts

I do not think that many people would consider my artwork art, but the definition of art has come under so much scrutiny that I do not really mind. I cannot even say that I would call what I do art - I just do what I want and perfect it until I think it looks pretty cool.

The following are part of my final project from my Papermaking class. Both projects used handmade paper that I stitched on.

The first three images are a series of Day of the Week Underwear. The names of the days are cross stitched into the paper directly and the detail was added by simply stitching. The last two images on the right are a series of Overhead Projectors stitched onto the paper. There are three sets in the series arranged as follows: neutral colors, primary colors, and complex colors.

I prefer to craft than to make art. In my opinion, the difference between art and craft is crafts tend to be things you can use in y

our daily life whereas art is typically hung up and looked at. This is an extremely debatable difference, but I do not think there will ever be concrete definitions of either word that everyone agrees on, so we will leave it at that.

A very cheap craft that became one of my hobbies last summer is cross stitching.

It is so easy to get the hang of, and embroidery floss is typically still priced under a dollar for a good amount. To the left is the first cross stitch I completed. The pattern is made for a bathroom hand towel, but at the time I unfortunately did not know that they made hand towels that you could cross stitch onto directly.

Another craft I thoroughly enjoy is sewing. On the right is a vintage half apron I made last summer. Most of what I have sewn is dresses. My next feat is to learn to make my own patterns so I do not have to keep buying cookie cutter patterns. I would also really like to learn to make felt hats.

I love looking at other people's art and crafts as much as I enjoy creating art and crafts. Mostly what I gain from others' art and crafts is inspiration and open mindedness. There are a lot of things out there that I do not consider art but it opens my mind and gives me insight into what other people think art is. However, I can gain inspiration from things I do not believe are necessarily art.

Another opinion I hold is that we all learn as children to be creative and imaginative, but if we do not work to further develop our creativity throughout grade school and adulthood, we will lose that ability almost completely. Therefore, I have decided I will always continue using my creative and imaginative abilities because I never want to be living a life where imagination is impossible. I also am a firm believer that if you exercise your mind you will be less likely to develop memory loss and related diseases. Granted there are most likely genetic variables to memory loss diseases, but I digress.

I am in love with the following music video, even though the song is not my all-time favorite. It shows how creativity and imagination can be... well, cool.