Is creative woodworking art – true art?

Though there are some exceptions, no, building woodwork is not true art. It is about much more than art. 

Does it involve or use art?

That is a different question. The answer is yes, virtually always! That is what’s important. Thus, woodworking is virtually always, at least partly, art. 

Let’s think about the issue and why it matters at all.

Imagine that someone is painting an outdoor scene being viewed. The land, water, trees and so forth are all there available for the painting. The painter, however, changes natural details, color, angles, even entire sections. It is rarely an effort to simply duplicate the naturally existing scene. All is done to make the painting become just what the painter wants on the canvas. 

The painter’s choices are entirely unrestricted by anything the painting “should be” and any practical function of it, such as an identifying record of the scene which could be done easily and more accurately with a photograph. 

So what makes the painter create and “build” his painting? Art. There is no other designing function. Of course, this includes beauty, joy, excitement, sharing, and more. It is surely “art” and not an other overall function or direct necessity. 

All this makes it, nonetheless, valuable and cherished. 

Now to the woodworker designing and building a cabinet – a beautiful cabinet that is going to be useful. 

If it going to be used, the design cannot be made only for good appearance and other sensory criteria. The doors need to open and close securely, the joinery needs to work and hold, and so forth. Wanting the cabinet to look good is only part of the choosing criteria. It must be workable, durable, etc. 

Yet, at every step of the designing and building, the woodworker certainly can and should make artistic choices! Unlike that painter artist, these choices cannot be independent from, or fully govern, the construction criteria.

Is this woodworker doing pure art? With the exception of, perhaps, a carved or lathed figure or piece, the woodworking is not pure art as was that painter’s. Nor could it be.

And so, fellow woodworkers, we are neither purely constructers or artists. Yet we are and must always employ both skills to make things. Do not neglect or underestimate either task!

Enjoy the designing and building!