Indie, traditional, or “Shadow:” more ways of looking at craft

I posted earlier (here and here) about “new wave” vs. “traditional” crafting, and mention in passing the American Craft Show’s “New Wave” section this year, which Crafty Bastard found a little problematic. Among the exhibitors in that section was Handmade 2.0 subject Circa Ceramics.

Here’s what their blog has to say. While Nancy goes out of her way to say that it was all in all a wonderful experience to be around great peers… well, this:

But there was a bit of a dark cloud hanging over our little 35x35ft space at the convention center, and it held bad vibes. There was a lot of rumbling coming from some of the veterans of the show, and most of it was beyond cranky – To the point where it almost came to fistacuffs. There were times when you’d see a few come in to check us out, saying out loud ‘Well I DON’T see what the fuss is about!” – I even caught a few artists taking off their badges before coming into our pen.

As she says: “Unfortunate.”

But I want to be careful not to characterize her post as purely negative, so I’ll highlight the closing thought:

I am excited and giddy that this is all the talk at the moment, all this ‘indie vs. traditional craft’ – It needs to be discussed because it’s been lingering in many crafters & artists minds. And perhaps someone will bring up the genre of artist that is what Andy & I and so many of our peers fall into: The Shadow Artist. The artists who have been traditionally trained, but have, through necessity, curiosity, fear of boredom or other, gone down a more adventurous path, taking their knowledge and adding some twists to it, and not being ashamed of it.

Cultivating that way of craft, always experimenting & perfecting methods, and making it work for you. Being able to comfortably hover over that line between Old Skool & New Skool, like a shadow :)