art and wood

Christy Oates, 2011  -  12 various wood veneers  -  48 x 48”

From Christy’s website:
“The E-waste Project was inspired by discarded electronic equipment at an e-waste recycling center. Although this piece was assembled by hand, it was designed in a computer-aided drafting program and all the pieces were laser cut. The concept is to create a link between manufactured products and manufactured art. It poses the question, “Does the art hold less value if it is made by a machine?” ”

My answer – Christy’s project wasn’t made by a machine; it was made by an artist with a remarkable penchant for visualization and organization.  The laser cutting machine is simply a tool that performs the otherwise mind-numbing task of cutting all those little pieces of veneer.

Is an engineer’s work less valuable if he abandons the slide rule or the adding machine to use the highest and best technology available?  Of course not.  Any reasonable person would call him insane if he didn’t.   And he would be unemployed.  Why then should any artist or craftsman be expected to cling to what others consider to be historical or classical methods (i.e. executing all their work “by hand”)? 

Kudos to Christy for using the best technology available to accomplish her task.

I’m going out to buy a laser cutter right now.

(Source: christyoates.com)