I did go out in the field yesterday afternoon. Not sure if I will be doing that again (I mean - going out to research after a full class day). For one thing, pollinators seem to be less active late in the day. And also, it was kind of exhausting - less physically than emotionally. (I was pulling in my drive, done for the day, at 7 pm. I had left at shortly before 7 am). On the other hand, I did get some samples taken and I have decided that one set of trapping per week is probably sufficient, which means on Friday or Saturday I can just go and record insect activity.
But I did have a reward waiting for me at home - the two most recent issues of the Pony comics (the next installment in the "Nightmare Rarity" storyline and the "micro comic" one-off story about Fluttershy) had arrived.
I will say I still think the Rarity micro-comic is my favorite of that series, but the Fluttershy one is a close second.
Fluttershy has a "Chamber of Extreme Knitting." Heh.
Fluttershy, it turns out, is a knitter. (I don't know if the comics are supposed to be "canon" with the tv series, or if they are their own canon unto themselves, or something else). No, I will not speculate on how she manages to hold the needles without thumbs.
Without giving too much away, it involves an art competition, and Fluttershy entering one of her large knitted installations. And a snooty pony, looking at her work, says, "It's not art, it's cr.....craft." (I am sure that ellipsis, and the fact that "craft" actually appeared in the speech bubble in the NEXT panel, was intentional. Sort of a "shaving cream song" moment)
And I grinned, because the authors of the comic have seen the "art vs. craft" discussion. Which regularly makes the rounds of knitting and crochet boards. And you know? I don't really care any more. At least in my own world, I'm not applying for grants to make my knitting (wow, writing a grant for yarn.....for someone in the sciences, used to doing things like requesting whirl-pak bags and large volumes of ethanol, that's different) or entering art competitions or anything like that.
Actually, I think the problem of "art" vs. "craft" and "craft" being seen as lesser comes down to a problem in the definition of "craft."
When I use my own, personal Humpty-Dumpty ("When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less") definition of things, "Craft" is an item that is useful but also beautiful. More in the "Arts and Crafts" William Morris sense. For example: You need a cabinet to store stuff. You could go to the discount store and buy the cheapest simplest cabinet made of pressboard or whatever, and use that. (Heck, you could use a cardboard box to store your stuff, for that matter). Or you could go to antique stores and search around, and if you're lucky, you find something nice that someone made maybe around 1920, that is real wood, that has some surface design on it, that has a nice finish. Or if you're talented and have the right tools, you go buy some wood and make a cabinet that is just exactly what you want. Or if you're rich, you commission a cabinet maker to make the cabinet of your dreams.
And yeah, all of those last three options are going to be more expensive than the cruddy pressboard cabinet, but if you can afford it....well, I think there's some kind of value in having things that are at least a little nicer than the bare minimum. (And also, with the cabinet maker option, you're providing work for someone, and with the antique option, you're using something that already exists and therefore not using new resources....)
Or with sweaters. You can go and buy a sweater where maybe you don't know exactly where it was made (with the couple of Bangaladeshi sweatshop stories of late, maybe we're becoming more aware of that) or how, or sometimes of what fiber. Or you could sit down and knit one, if you knew how to knit. Or you could find someone who knows how to knit and hire/barter with/befriend them and have them knit you one. And the sweater you get will probably be nicer than the one you can buy - unless you are going to a VERY high-end boutique, where it once again reaches the point where it would actually be cheaper to buy the yarn and knit the sweater yourself.
But the problem is, "craft" has other meanings as well. I grew up in the 1970s. I remember the "craft" magazines from that era, that contained things like ideas for making dolls in antebellum-style dresses from coffee filters or some such. A lot of it is kitsch. And while there's some kitsch I openly admit I like, there's also a lot of it that is just....well, it's neither useful nor particularly beautiful to me, and so I don't really see the point. And I guess lots of people also don't see the point, and so, things like Etsy notwithstanding, most people, when they hear "craft," they think of "stuff you give kids to do to keep them busy when they're bored, and the finished product isn't that great."
And therein lies the problem - when I say "craft," I am thinking of the long tradition of skilled people who make stuff by hand, especially stuff that is useful - potters and knitters and weavers and cabinet makers. But when I say "craft" I think lots of people hear "novelty loo-roll covers" and get turned off.
I don't know. I don't know if it's possible to "reclaim" the term "craft" or to come up with something new. But there needs to be a term for something that's not really art in the sense that it's something you might use every day (most art, I think of as being too fragile or precious to use) but that is beautiful and well made.
***
I also got to thinking again about something I was speculating about a while back: if each of the Mane Six did a craft, what would they do? Rarity has her couture, of course, and she's been shown with yarn, which might suggest she knits or crochets.
And, based on this comic, Fluttershy knits. (I was actually earlier thinking, "hand quilting." Because it's quiet and because you can look down at what you're working on and not have to talk to people. But knitting works for that too).
Twilight would probably do beadwork or counted cross-stitch - both crafts I think of as being so precise and requiring so much attention I'm actually not much good at them. (Also, with counted cross stitch, if you make one tiny counting error, your whole pattern is messed up). Or maybe she does book-binding, given her fondness for books and literature.
Applejack, I thought because she seems such a practical pony, would do something like pottery or basket making - to produce things to hold the crops her family grows. But then again, she gave Spike a new quilt for his birthday, and she has Granny Smith, who is herself a quilter - so perhaps she quilts.
Rainbow Dash is tough. The inclination is to give her some kind of "tomboy" craft like metalworking because she seems so brash, but I wonder if maybe, just as she has an "egghead" side, she also has a softer side - so maybe she does something like tatting - which would be super portable for a pony-on-the-go. Or maybe she makes sculpture.....Or weaving. Somehow, I think Rainbow would enjoy the physicality of weaving on a large loom.
And Pinkie Pie - well, I suspect she's quite a baker, so maybe that's her craft. Or maybe she enjoys more ephemeral things, like creating balloon animals. I'm not sure I see her as having the patience or un-distractability for something like quilting that takes a long time to complete. Or maybe she paints, seeing as she can manage to sit and watch paint dry....
***
I even had a dream involving Ponies. Well, not "real" ones, one I had crocheted. But it's welcome to have a dream that's not a work-stress dream, even if it's one of those weird mash-ups of stuff. Part of the dream was that I was traveling on Amtrak (that is actually a frequent dream for me; I think it represents freedom or escape to me because it's how I travel almost any long distance I go, like to go visit family). But I also had with me a toy pony I had made - not a show-pony, but an Elinor Dashwood pony. (Her cutie mark was a drawing pad and a pencil). I don't know why, that's one of the odd things about dreams. She was a pale peach color with a turquoise-ish mane and tail. Not a particularly felicitous color combination but I do think it shows that not everyone dreams in black and white (I once had a friend who claimed that). I perceive color in my dreams, however one perceives color in something that is entirely happening inside one's brain....
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