In the mid-fifties, this sign was in one of the classroom-studios of Kunstschule Amsterdam in Hamburg. The gist of it is: Ideas like words are cheap, unless successfully translated into quality images and objects, supported by high intelligence and discipline, selection of appropriate and sensitive metaphors, choice of materials and tools and reflecting high skills and craftsmanship.

Here is a list of terms that should be used very carefully, because they warp and generalize the hard work of object and image-makers.

Art/Artist:

Many studio practitioners identify themselves as “artists”. They may aspire to lofty heights like these. “Art”, truths, beliefs, “beauty”, aesthetics are very generalized terms. It would behoof image and object makers to call themselves by a terms that declares their emphasis on tools and materials: painter, sculptor, printmaker, visual and product designer, fiber artisan, image-maker using bricolage or collage, etc. The selection into the “Art” annals cannot be done by the families of makers, but by society alone, represented by their cultural critics, sociologists and anthropologists.

Speech:

Words are dirt cheap, unless they are clearly defined, fixed, in attempting to specify contents and context for a work of image and object makers or to create boundaries, within which concepts are identified, and because of the clarity of directives, goals and tactics can be judged by others on their merits.

There are great  differences between ice cold, cold, lukewarm, warm, hot, red hot; love or hate; the vulgar and ordinary; the common, uncouth, and mundane speech; or speech that is measured, refined, sophisticated, clever, subtle, and ingenious and because of their uniqueness of smithing new metaphors allow for a new vision.

Dreams:

Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind and need to be cognitively harnessed; otherwise they are illusions and stay vague and undefined . . . for the studio useless.

Ideas/Concepts:

Ideas like words, come quickly and without much value attached. Having an idea just means to have the ability to build a castle in one’s mind, without any assurance that either idea or concept lends itself to a quality implementation. The proof is in the pudding, otherwise an idea stays just another idea.

Aptitude/Talent/Genius

All intelligent persons start with the “tabula rasa”, referring to the idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or observation, perception and contemplation. Proponents of tabula rasa generally disagree with the doctrine of Innatism, which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge. The question is: “What “certain” Knowledge; biological or social survival knowledge or abstract human knowledge like philosophy, critical thought?” Generally, proponents of the tabula rasa theory also favor the “nurture” side of the nature versus nurture debate when it comes to aspects of one’s personality, social and emotional behavior, knowledge and sapience.

For most, there is someone who wipes away the cobwebs and opens the door to certain knowledge – a relative, a high school teacher, an expert, a mentor, a friend. For some, the door is already open, with all social and cultural barriers and clutter removed, while for others, the gate must be crashed and smashed.

Personally, I don’t believe in “the genius”. I have seen too many young people who have been declared by the limited knowledge of their social circumstances to be “outstanding”, falter, while those depending on skills and achievement, representing knowledge, which is gained through learning, succeed.

Intuition:

Intuition functions best on levels of human biological survival. It is the ability of acquiring knowledge without proof, evidence, or conscious reasoning for decisions leading to flight or fight or avoidance of conflict altogether, even when without understanding how the knowledge was acquired. For artists/designers this means that intuition behaves haphazardly and unpredictably unless all observations of the machinations in nature lead to contemplation, recognition, and purposeful application in the process of sudden future decision making. Failure in solving a myriad of problems is the best teacher and collector of experiences for the “intuition” reservoir.

Creativity:

Only when something “new” and “valuable” is formed, does  “creativity” exist. The term is used indiscriminately by novice, autodidact, professional, amateur, without ever defining what is “new” and “valuable” in the work at hand. This means that the majority of artists/designers who continue in the same mode of their craft, may have been creative at some point in the past, but at present, they just reiterate their earlier work, which brought them acclaim and notoriety. This is not creativity.