Artist Statement

My name is Sparkle Joy Arroyo and I am a student at Central Washington University working on my Bachelors of Fine Arts. At this point in time my art is really more about acquiring skills in multiple genre and practicing them. It is my hope that by combining different approaches to art I will be able to go beyond having a talent gained by practice in a craft or hobby and into being able to create 3 dimensional works that are about more than just being useful items. I also want to know what makes a work art instead of craft?
I want my ideas about what makes a work art to be more than just could I create the piece and is it chic or cliche. For example: I have always thought of ceramics as works of art. Originally, I think that it was about the idea that it was a skill that I admired and never had the chance to try so therefore could not do. Having taken classes now and learning how to throw and hand build I think that what makes ceramics art is that it is such a malleable substance and can be made into almost any shape, giving any artist one of the most ideal playgrounds for originality and creativity.
Over the last few years I have focused my art mainly on the projects created for my classes. Before school I was primarily a textile artist. I worked with cloth, threads, and yarns to create quilts and afghans for my friends, family, and the occasional purchaser. More than anything I was not just learning how to make useful objects but rather that there was a difference between craft and art. That what makes them different is how the artist thinks about their overall intentions when they are working. Yes, in some cases it is all about the intended use of the the piece and beauty comes as an after thought. But beauty itself is not what changes a work from craft to art or the other way around. Art also becomes art when an artist sets aside the usefulness or beauty of the object to cause the viewer to reexamine how they look at the world.
I could make a tea cup and paint it with flowers and sell it in the market and it would be useful and beautiful and in a certain set of eyes a work of art perhaps, however, that would not necessarily preclude it as an actual work of art. I could take that same cup rough up the edge in a shark tooth effect twist it and make it less than useful the questions still remains do I have a work of art or just a lump of clay. It is in the workman ship that we truly come to know the difference. This is where my work currently needs the most care in the attention to detail.
You might ask, "If your only goal is to acquire skills in different genre why incur thousands of dollars worth of debt then?" I am driven to create but I am also convinced that by having gaining as many different skills I can and continuously learning I can now begin to create any kind of art work my mind can come up with. Given time and the right tools I can do more than just make something that will be used until it no longer exists, becomes to shabby or take up space in closet and never sees the light of day again. I can create work that will touch the world and withstand it. I am headed down a road on which I can see the clay mixing into the textiles, the textiles with the metals, or a mixture of all three together in one or many pieces that come together to make one.
Drawing, sculpting, painting, encasing in jewels are just a few of the tools that now reside in my artist tool box along side the ruler. They are what makes an idea come together. Learning to consider more different material sources for future projects has also begun to churn up a new well of imagination within me. Now when I am considering what I need to complete a project large or small I look at the things that I have acquired over time as well for the found objects that I now make increasing use of as well. I have come to realize that art is like a well dressed room. It should be addressed on all sides and keep the viewer involved, interested, and moving while remaining physically in a relaxed state. I feel reborn and can not wait to get started on a new direction.
At this time like many artists I have several projects in the works. I have taken back out my textiles and started to work on new prospects. Thanks to the skills that I have developed in my design classes I can now write my own patterns and so have begun to create my own clothing from none pre-woven textiles. I have also gone back to work on some pieces that need care and attention to completion.