For reasons I can't explain (or at least, I won't take the time to over-analyze and explain right now), it's important to me to call myself an artist and mean it when I say it. I've suggested that artists make art and art is what you make. (It says so right on the Pondering Acres home page.) But still, I know there's noise out there about what legitimately does and does not qualify as art and debate about the difference between art and craft. So am I really a soap artist? Can I say that with a straight face?
Soapmaking, first, is a science. Soap is a product that results from a chemical reaction (saponification) between an alkali (I use sodium hydroxide more commonly known as lye) and triglycerides (the stuff that makes up fats and oils). Even though I'm applying science to make a bar of soap, I wouldn't call myself a scientist. That rudimentary description of the chemical reaction is proof enough that I am not.
You could argue that all artists apply science to their art. Painters apply chemically derived materials to canvases and rely on reflected wavelengths of light to enter the retina of the eye and be translated to color by the brain. Sculptors and potters use physics to carve and shape hard objects (at least, I think its physics). Anyway, the point is that the sciency-ness of soap making is irrelevant to it as art.
The artistry of soap making comes in the choice of ingredients, the technique of mixing color and fragrance, the molding, cutting, and stamping of the bar. Even the design of the packaging can contribute to soap as art. (Wait, is design art? You see how unnecessarily complicated this can get.)
There are soapmakers out there who do create truly beautiful, artistic bars of soap. They use advanced skills and techniques to combine colors and textures and shapes to make soap look like something other than soap. I care less about a fancy looking bar and more about function (it gets a person clean) and enjoyment (it appeals to the senses through scent and texture).
I think the problem here is not about soapmaking. It's the problem with the definition of art. Or I should say definitions. Hundreds and hundreds of definitions. Here's the one that rose to the top of a Google search:
The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.
I think I could cram soapmaking into that definition, though it is an atypical non-visual form.
What about this definition from Ad Reinhardt, an abstract artist from the mid-1900's:
“Art is art. Everything else is everything else.”
Super helpful, Ad. Thanks a bunch. I'm only certain of one thing. I'm over-thinking the hell out of the questions of what is and isn't art; who is and isn't an artist. Thinking way more about it than Ad did, anyhow.
Soapmaking is science and craft and art. It is a creative act that for whatever reason, brings me joy. And it's not the only creative act that I love. Right now I have about half a dozen projects in the works. I'm hooking a rug, block printing Christmas cards, designing a repeating pattern for wallpaper, weaving coasters, writing this post, and curing bars of soap. And there's the stuff on the back burner like making an online course, designing and publishing journals, writing books, and baking cookies. And I have a full time job that boils down to creative problem solving.
And so, I've decided to care less about my artist title. I'm happy being a creative generalist. A creative rover. A creative multipotentialite. According to Wikipedia:
Multipotentiality is an educational and psychological term referring to the ability and preference of a person, particularly one of strong intellectual or artistic curiosity, to excel in two or more different fields. It can also refer to an individual whose interests span multiple fields or areas, rather than being strong in just one. Such traits are called multipotentialities, while "multipotentialites" has been suggested as a name for those with this trait.
Creative multipotentialite. I think it's time to order new business cards.
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