Do you prefer form, function or price?
Vitruvius states that all buildings should have three attributes: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas. If your Latin is a bit rusty then he was saying they should be firm or long lasting, have utility or purpose and be beautiful… oddly he never mentioned how much they should cost.
When I was designing business services I often thought about Vitruvius and even had a go at reading his works De Architectura. I always considered that not only should a service be resilient but it should make life more convenient (otherwise why have it) and it should be aesthetically pleasing. I would have liked to have had more money to spend on the aesthetically pleasing bit but as I worked for a corporation that had its soul apparently under anesthesia we often had to make do ( generally that meant pretending it looked good).
These days you are more likely to hear the maxim of 3 being fit for purpose, on budget and on time… with the jolly refrain of pick any two. Unless of course you are into agile in which case you get none of the above.
Vitruvius on the other hand is still referenced by architects today, even though he worked for Caesar and specialized in building war machines. Maybe his targeting eye was especially good as he knew how to pick a good spot for building and how to make them look great. Considering many Roman buildings still exist today he clearly didn’t believe in planned obsolescence. And those buildings still attract tourists from around the globe as they are beautiful so maybe he was onto something.
Great architecture was built by hand… often free labour to do the grunt work and then in would come the artisans… if you haven’t picked up on the word play of the Title of this post I am currently slapping it around like a wet fish…
Now that we have nailed our opening we can get on with talking about artisans. An artisan is someone who produces something with their hands. These handmade goods often fit into one or more of Vitruvius’ aims of longevity, usefulness and beauty.
You can probably find artisans at your local market, selling their wares just as humans have done since money was invented. Though that artisan bread looks good and likely tastes delicious I tend to slip into my modern brain and go… that’s 3x more expensive than the mass produced bread at the supermarket… I think I’ll go there… however my son just buys it as he loves the taste and treasures the experience… somehow I feel like I am missing something here…
Ah yes a picture…
… this is picture of a painting I’m working on… with my hands… which makes me an artisan… or is it an artist? Therein lies the rub… aha… pastels can be rubbed in… did Shakespeare know that? Probably not… but he did invent 1700 new words which he wrote by hand making him an artisan.
The difference some view between artisan and artist is that an artisan makes beautiful things for a purpose whereas an artist does so to make a beautiful expression… good grief… clearly those who believe that also believe artists only need the air that they breathe and to love…
Let’s go back to Vitruvius and his 3 pillars. Architecture needed to be long lasting. How about art? There are cave paintings that have lasted thousands of years. Egyptian art was sealed in order to make it last, though their dry climate helped as well. The Mona Lisa is over 500 years old, relatively a baby compared to the previous examples and is still well preserved and should last another 1000 years give or take a revolution.
Pastel art is often referred to as fragile yet Da Vinci’s pastel works still exist so boohoo to those naysayers. Pastel is of course made from pigment and often pigments are from the earth and the earth has been around for a very long time so those pigments tend to last a very long time as well.
Compare that to digital works… we now have a two new generations using PC’s who have no idea what the save icon represents. Data and code has been lost purely because the format of storage changed. When I built my PC last year I opted for a rare case that still used a DVD player, purely so I could access some old backups and play the odd game I still have on disc.
Here’s some tech that has come and gone… though not entirely.
Vinyl records were in peak use from the 50’s to the 80’s
Cassette tapes were in peak use from the 70’s to the 90’s
Compact Discs were in peak use from the 80’s to the 00’s
Each format lasted about 30 years before being surpassed. Which was annoying for those buying used cars as they either made do or invested in a new stereo system for the car which IIRC some of my friends had stereo systems worth more than their cars.
Let’s upgrade the picture…
In this progress update I have started on my 3rd layer of skin on the young man. From white to blue to shades of red. With each layer he changes and yet he doesn’t.
With music I had albums that I would have on cassette for my walkman… that thing was so cool at the time… then I got the CD and now stream it… the music is the same but the format has changed.
The music was created by artisans… by hand and yet we call them artists?
It’s a load of [insert your choice of adjective here] that artists are not creating things that have longevity and depending on your likes and cultural background are also beautiful but are they also useful?
Music is life.
I thought that was profound of me to write that but it is of course a meme so we’ll just pretend it is still profound and instead scale it up to…
Art is life.
Art in many of its forms transcends culture, age, gender, creed, and every other weird thing that humanity slaps up against a wall to make its section more special than the others.
Music transcends even humanity, not just in those who were tripping out while writing songs but if you refer to
he will be able to tell you about its role in connecting with spirituality.A lot of art has also been connected with spirituality, partly because those paying for it tended to be from the churches and they had quite specific scenes they commissioned.
The point is, art, whether in physical form or in music, was used specifically for purposes throughout human history. It wasn’t just a vague expression of beauty.
So, is an artist an artisan?
If they are doing it for the money, sure.
Vivaldi was a prolific writer of music, but that was because he was under contract to write 2 concertos a month. Good grief… I bet he could of added some good comments to
’s recent article on being productive. This was a man who didn’t have time to wait for inspiration he just had to get on with it.On a side note I used to be friends with a concert pianist who was also the head of NZ TV music and who wrote a lot of theme tunes to local shows. He explained to me that it was mainly a mathematical process of scoring music and once you knew the formulae the money was in the bank… he is alas dead now but his music lives on.
Time for one last picture…
You might wonder what the difference between this one and the last one is… about 2 hours or so…
I’m using pastel pencils which are incredibly lovely to use and also time consuming… you can have it on time does not apply to pencils… use pan pastels or pastel sticks for that… however, the pencils produce a different effect so we’ll stick to them on the skin for this painting and do the clothes differently.
This feels like baking bread… speaking of bread and baking if you haven’t already subscribed to her then check out the artisan that is
It’s like baking bread in that I stand outside the oven from the moment it goes in saying hurry up… are you done yet?! Eventually the aroma begins and you know something good is happening… here I am still thumping the dough on the bench wondering if I will ever get to thinking… have I overworked it?
Art takes time and it can last a long time, be incredibly useful and beautiful. Vitruvius would approve.
Ai on the other hand… is not artisan… bite me…
If you enjoy art and the meandering turns it can take then this sub is for you… you can even watch me in action on YouTube as I wrestle pigments by hand onto paper and talk about random things. You can even see me paint
- though I’d recommend reading her content as it is useful, beautiful and can last a long time in your mind.Thanks so much for reading… may whatever you put your hand to turn out to be long lasting, useful and most of all beautiful.
As usual, you give me content to ponder! Why do we devalue the importance of both the artist/artisan when their work lives on and provides so much joy? Books endure for centuries, yet those big presentations and PPT decks die the minute the meeting is over. And, AI...well... I fear it's teaching us how not to embrace our creativity or use our critical thinking skills.
I appreciate the art you are creating, and the various moments in time as it evolves. So beautiful, captivating, and sigh, romantic. I hope we are fortunate enough to see more of this creation over time. Great post!! I loved your optimism that the corporate soul is under anesthesia, meaning to me that it might awaken. Since they seem to be running countries: May the corporate soul awaken healed🙏🏽🤍🪽☄️.