Art Knives and Working Knives

Let's don't confuse art with aesthetics,... two different things.

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy. Art is a field unto itself. It’s a common misconception that the two are one and the same.

Which one are we talking about?

If we're talking aesthetics,... I don't think it serves any practical purpose (outside of the brain) whatsoever.

You can think of art as a practical application and/or synthesis of aesthetics and science.
 
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I love this thread, some very deep thinking here. And I think I am finally starting to understand. Knives are kinda like women. Some appear to have perfect form and function. But you may find in practice the function aspects may not meet the perceived anticipations. Maybe doesn't do anything well and some things not at all. On the other side you might find the woman who not having perfect form does have the perfect functions you searched for and does everything well and still cooks. If you are lucky enough to find a beautiful knife that you find impossible to put down and it will do everything you ask of it without complaint, that to me is art. My goal is to make a knife I feel that way about. Once I do it will be interesting if anyone else will feel the same way. Jess
 
Ha, ha...as if the discussion weren't complex enough already. Tai had to bring the question of aesthetics into it too!

Heck, even hard using knives have aesthetics--lines, proportion, ratios, balance, geometry, ergonomics, etc--which are of considerable consequence to function, thus extremely practical.
 
Phil, what makes it confusing is that the words “art” and “aesthetics” often get used interchangeably. They are really two different things.

You can think of art as a practical application and/or synthesis of aesthetics and science.

By synthesis I mean: The combining of often diverse conceptions into a coherent whole or the composition or combination of parts or elements so as to form a whole.
 
Pat, you mean we're supposed to understand this stuff?!

I believe a good question is the kind you can spend a life time with deepening and broadening, honing and sharpening. You started this thread with such a question. If I knew French, this is where I'd add a phrase to the effect of...well done, my friend...to try and make me look more erudite. ;)
 
This is why I got into knife making. Admittedly, none of my knives even come close to qualifying as art, but maybe some day. The thing is, I like how such a pretty piece can be useful. You can't use a painting to save your life, but a knife definitely will. And I suppose all knives are beautiful in their own way. :D Kind of like shoes, different shoes for different purposes.
 
I guess by my definition of art,... we're all aspiring artists, to some degree in one way or another. :)

Another art professor of mine once told me, "It's not what you do,... it's when you do it and how well you do it.".

Whatever it is,… it has to be convincing.

And yet another one told me, "In terms of grades there is no "C" in art, only "A" or "F"... if it's average it doesn't even qualify as art."
 
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Whether or not what we do will ever be considered art,... is up to history to decide.
 
History can perhaps decide the greatness or endurance of art, but the artist and the consumer (beholder) decide the moment. But that is containing the defining of art to being a product.

I have a nearly 90 year old friend who was an enamel, bronze/copper and fresco artist of some small renown. She was Jean Charlot's right hand for many years. Hanging out with her can be quite illuminating as one of my students discovered when interviewing her for his senior project on the meaning of art. He said it wasn't just what she had created or said, but the way she saw the world that moved him most. When they were visiting installations of her monumental art she frequently stopped to behold patterns of light and shadow through trees or window shades or reflected off of puddles onto walls, etc.

Art can be a way of life. One can live artistically into anything, whether anyone is there (then or later) to proclaim or validate it as genuine art or not.

The trick is to capture that quintessential way of creative being in your chosen medium in such a way that your artwork moves the beholder to experience life in that way too.
 
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One of the things that attracted me to knifemakeing early on, was/is that it has all the “earmarks” of an art, but remains outside the sphere of conventional art… at the very least, is/was a “fringe art“, a fluke of human nature…. The dark side. It’s ”taboo” in every sense of the word.

I mean,… HOW COOL IS THAT?
 
Let's not get too Fruedian about it, though. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
 
...We could talk about the knife as a "symbol" of creativity, judgment and human nature...
If you can get that across in your knife, than you probably have achieved art.

Actually, this is well worth pondering; and, I believe, perhaps at the heart of Patrice's question.
 
Knifemakers were some of the world’s very first neuroaestheticists.
 
Let's not get too Fruedian about it, though. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

A Freudian slip is when you say one thing, but mean your mother...


...I think we're talking about something different here.
 
Never mind my dear sainted Mom, you sumbiscuit! Them's fightin' words!

:D

I was referring to... oh, never mind. Carry on, y'all.
 
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