Is cross stitch "art"?

Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

I've always felt it more of a "craft". Once you learn how to do it, it's just repeated mechanical motion. But it can *produce* art..but I'd argue that the person who created the pattern is the artist, not the person who did the stitching. That's just glorified paint by numbers.

That said, I didn't exactly know where to put this :) Saw this posted on reddit a few days ago:
1591233800594.png

Someone asked for the pattern, and I said "Dude, it's cross-stitch. Just open the pic at full size and count the stitches and write them on graph paper." Then, I decided I liked the art, so I decided to follow my own advice. I haven't done cross stitch in maybe 37 years. But picking it back up again was like riding a bike--a little rusty at first, but it's coming back pretty quickly.

1591233912634.png
 
Sara_2814

Sara_2814

Is doing freeform embroidery from a pattern art? Is it the grid and relative simplicity that makes cross-stitch “not art”?

Does art only exist in the idea, but not in the execution of the idea? Does that make the Bayeux Tapestry/Embroidery “not art”, only the original design is art? (It was probably not embroidered by its designer).

Speaking of rude cross stitch: Years ago, while I was looking at cross-stitch patterns at the store, my husband complained that most of them were way too sickly sweet, so I made him a cross-stitch of Tom Servo saying “Bite Me!”
 
chris

chris

It's pixelart before computer existed.

I also remember how my father printet out templates for someone on a dot matrix printer.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Y'all are reading way too much into my "is cross stitch art?" commentary. It basically was a way to downplay the fact that I was, yet again, showing off ;)
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

When I was a kid, like 8 or 9 years old, my mom got me this book: "How to be a show off and impress your friends" or something like that. It was full of all kinds of little things you could do to show off make the people around you think you were cool. I was surprised she knew me so well, and I just loved the gift. I imagine she was also subtly teasing me a bit. I've always been an incurable show-off, and I've never grown out of it.

Whenever you see a little kid going "mom! Mom! mom! mom! MOM! look! look at what I can do! mom!" That's me. Still. (sigh)
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

I did my fair share of latch hook as a kid. I did lots of crafts. My mom was even into making stained glass art for a while, which I really enjoyed.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Tinwhistler said:
Y'all are reading way too much into my "is cross stitch art?" commentary. It basically was a way to downplay the fact that I was, yet again, showing off ;)
Click to expand...
We should get you and @GasBandit together on Discord for a "Showoff-off" and have the two of you compete to see who can show off the most.

--Patrick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top