5.7.25 - arts and crafts

as many autistic people are want to do, i LOVE categorizing things to help better explain the world around me.
and as many artists are want to do, i LOVE deciphering what exactly it is that i love about art.
this post is an attempt to nail down this idea i have about the dichotomy of "arts" and "crafts", a phrase with a far less thought-provoking connotation than what i'm talking about. please keep in mind that this is going to be kinda philosophical from someone whose philosophical background is mostly from podcasts :3

definitions

the primary difference between arts and crafts is thus: "art" involves the creative expression of ideas about the self, world, etc. while "craft" involves the maintenance or improving upon existing ideas. some other ways to describe it would be "experimenting" vs. "perfecting" or "ideation" vs. "execution".
from this primary difference, we can draw out what "good art" vs. "good craft" looks like (good may be substituted for "quality" here).
good art, then, is art that is the best at being a creative expression of ideas, right? in other words, it is art that presents the most out-there, new ideas or presents known ideas in the most interesting, experimental manner.

• footnote: "art" may refer to the actual thing made as that creative expression of ideas, such as a film, painting, or song. but, it can also refer to the experience of the artist creating the thing or the audience's experiencing of the thing.
  see CJ the X's video on Subjectivity for more on the concept of art as the experience of engaging with the piece.

the great thing about this definition of "quality" art is that it enables even the most amateur aspiring artists to create some of the best, most compelling art out there! you don't need professional equipment or years of practice to express a weird idea in a weird way! this is especially good news for people who have experienced a very wide variety and/or depth of art in whatever field, including a lot of amateur art.
to be frank, one of the things that latched me onto this definition as i was developing it in my head was this realization that it allowed me—a lover of many genres of music and what i'll call for now "Youtube Art"—to create genuinely great art despite lacking particularly developed skills in any one medium.
i'd consider myself to very much be a jack of all trades, master of none in the arts considering i have a bit of practice in:

• drawing (digital)
• drawing (vectors)
• programming
• music production
• DJing
• and more

in the sense that i have at least a couple finished works in these skills that have (mostly) been released to the public, which is where i personally consider a piece of artwork to be "finished".

amateur art in particular excels at pushing the limits of weird thanks to...

• footnote: one artist who really helped solidify my thoughts on the unique beauties of "amateur art" and also just art and music in general is Rhyme/shitty kickflips, who's also an awesome trans furry with a website who i highly recommend as an artist :3

looks like i fell asleep at the keyboard lol. i'll finish this later for sure though.