Anyone Else Have This Problem With Unsmoked Estates?

[voorhees]

I've not had much to weigh in on this until lately, as all of my pipes were smoked estates or brand new purchases. But I now have the dilema in two pipes I recently aquired. One is a Growley artisan pipe I won at the Chattanooga Pipe Show. I plan to smoke it during the holidays with some Peterson Holiday blend. The second is the Comoy umsmoked Volcano I bought today. I will be smoking it within hours of getting it. I don't expect my pipes to move on past me, so I don't intend to save them for anyone.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Uggg, the art-v-craft misunderstanding. Craft is the technique, skill, or manipulation of the material. "Art" is the value one may (or may not) find within the object. Ex- painting, sculpture, woodworking are crafts. Some may find value in the finished object, or may not. This is where the term "art" may be applied. Something may be merely deemed to be a "craft" if the value of art is not deemed appropriate. But, this is all subjective to the individual.
Ok, that aside, I buy pipes to smoke them, usually puffing away before I get back to the house from the mailbox. But, I have picked up a few pipes that have given me pause. Mostly, I pause when I there is something so special about the pipe that I want to save it. I have put two pipes so far into my igloo coolers with my canned tobaccos to inaugurate when a certain batch of tobacco come of age. I have an older "hoarder's estate" Tiger Savinelli, unsmoked, waiting with a batch of PS Luxury Twist, and a minty fresh Ferndown that I've just picked up waiting it out with an infantile batch of Vas.

I know, I know, but I figure that if I am going to wait for over a year for these tobaccos to come of age, then I will have a special pipe awaiting the event. I have plenty of pipes in my rotation to keep me busy. Now, I just have to slow down mt PAD problem, LOL.

 

[pipingruotsi]

But, this is all subjective to the individual.

This is exactly why I stopped caring about the art community. The term "art" seemed meaningless to me because it had infinite meanings. "I call it art, so it's art", or "It's not art because I don't like it." The fact that I could creatively line up four shits and install them in a gallery and have some fool wax eloquently about how expressive my shits are is ridiculous to me. All they really express is the state of my colon. I know that's an extreme example, but things of the sort are done.

As far as I can tell, the closest thing to an objective guideline for art is that it makes me feel something. Well, four-way stops make me feel something, too. Damned frustrated. They certainly aren't art.

I know I'm using broad strokes here and not all of the art community is like that, but enough of it was that I no longer wanted any part of it.

I still believe art exists and think there should be at least some objective guidelines about why it's good/bad, art/not art.
@ cosmicfolklore, I'm not arguing what you said, just adding on my experience with it. so no offence intended.
Sparrowhawk, if you see this post, I like your drawings a lot. Please keep posting them! :D
@captain, sorry for mucking up your thread. I should of just said, Smoke the sunzabitches!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The term "art" seemed meaningless to me because it had infinite meanings.

I hope that we aren't encroaching on the string in an unwelcome way, but this is why I find aesthetics fascinating. It is way better today, rather than when an "establishment" told us what art was. Sure, some people have a taste for the silly, but under the old regime, we would never have been able to call something like a pipe an art. Tolerate the stupid, and we have the freedom to chose our own godheads.

 

[captainsousie]

@captain, sorry for mucking up your thread.

Derail away. I'm enjoying where this is going. The debate between art and function is age-old and this is an interesting take on it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I think the whole debate got muddled in the 60's, when artisans met the artists on the traditional battle grounds of "who is the higher caliber." Pre-60's there was a clear line between the "craft" being a medium and "art" being a term of quality. But, then they all took drugs and blurred the lines in how the term was used. Whether one considers something art is extremely personal, and this was the victory of this battle. Before the battle, something was deemed a "Fine Art" (or I prefer FArt) when the establishment of academia deemed it so. However, I think it's time to take back the terminology and redraw those etymological lines in how the terms are used.
Ooops, did I expose my nerdiness )

 

[pipingruotsi]

Derail away.

Well, alright then, lol. My thought this afternoon, that I decided not to post at the time, was...
Why does it even matter if something is art? Isn't being moving, intricate, beautiful, etc. enough without giving it this classification, especially since the classification seems to do more to obscure than than clarify? The first people to make "art" didn't do it searching for the status of artist. They did it because people love to make beautiful and awful (using this word in the original sense) things.

For me, calling something art does more harm than good. If you appreciate something that I've made and it is in some way transcendent for you, by all means admire it, show it off to your friends, contemplate how it was created and what it makes you feel and think. But, for God's sake, don't call it art!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Well, I put some art on my head this morning packed a bowl of art into my art, and arted off to work to talk about art all day, before I arted up a bowl of art for my drive home to art it up some at home. :nana:
Eh, its a word. I agree with you more or less. It can get more tooty fruity without the word also. I buy pipes that "move me," "speak to me," or "conjures the divine." The words "Art Fair" beats the heck out of going to a "stuff that moves me" fair. It's a term of quality, and in a perfect world we would be moving closer to the term in our every day lives in our jobs or leisure. I strive to be an artist at my metalsmithing and lapidary work. Just being content with making stuff, just doesn't suit me.
However, just because a particular pipe is a work of art in my own opinion, doesn't mean that I'm not going to smoke it. Heck, I would love to cover the hole on my bathroom wall with a Da Vinci, eat off of a set of George Ohr's, and dump my dottle in a Ming vase. :D Not smoking a particular pipe, and worrying over value sort of feeds into that old academic principles of some esoteric elite telling us what art is or not.
Just my 2 cents, feel free to use the words in whatever way you want.

 

[pipingruotsi]

Lol. True the word holds a certain stature. I think they should be called "Damn Good Stuff" fairs. :lol:

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I prefer the term FArt, but hey, "Damn Good Stuff" sounds good too :D

 

[sablebrush52]

Back when I used to show I came to the conclusion that the "art world" was chiefly comprised of that which, when properly composted, can grow flowers. My view hasn't changed in that regard, only intensified. I walked away from that career because the surrounding environment left me feeling like continually vomiting.
If one finds meaning and satisfaction in dropping a deuce in a Cellini cup, fine.
Believe what you want. Find meaning where you will. I'll do the same. Freedom isn't a bad thing.

 

[pipingruotsi]

the surrounding environment left me feeling like continually vomiting

Exactly how I felt!
While I agree freedom isn't a bad thing, freedom without boundary is anarchy. I've never seen anarchy go anywhere good, except maybe to bring a better set of boundaries. A lot of what is good in art may suffer from artistic anarchy?