Interpretation challenge 2010

[Roland Martin]

Anybody up to a friendly challenge & have a great time while we're at it?

With the recent and interesting threads by Glenn & Curt on the subject of craft verses art, I had a thought that just may be a potentially fun excercise that would be an individual challenge for everybody that would like to participate. Why not push ourselves to express what an art piece is to us, an individual and personal interpretation of a turned art piece.
My initial thought is that we set a timeframe, lets say 3 months, given that the summer months are generally busier for everybody and people may turn less often. During this timeframe, we could search our souls and create what we think as individuals to be a turned art form. I think this would be a very interesting personal challenge for many of us and a great learning opportunity. Participants would post thier art piece and a short description of why they think thier piece is an art form. A two-day window would be allowed to post in order to keep this a personal interpretation rather than a collaboration.
I would like the moderators to weigh in on fine tuning details, maybe have a place to post this in a "sticky", etc.
Any interest in something like this? Who knows, this could open the door for some talented turners in this great forum to sell thier art for thousands of dollars:D. There could even be voting on the "Best Of Show", yes, I know, John Keaton is a shoe-in:D:D:D!! Respectfully joking John:).
Any Thoughts?

[Frank Van Atta]

Count me in.

[John Keeton]

Roland, I can screw up with the best of 'em!!:o No shoe in here!

But, count me in. I think you will find some extremely talented folks are out there, with widely varied tastes. It should be interesting and inspiring.

If there is a vote, I believe the polling feature is limited to a certain number of options, so if there are more participants, that may not work. The mechanics would need to be worked out, but sounds like a fun idea.

[Mike McAfee]

Sounds like a good time as well as a "push" for me personally to step outta my comfort zone!

I'll play!

MMc

[Brian Greb]

Count me in... I love the idea of a personal challenge to open my mind to new concepts. Plus it's a good excuse to play!

[Roland Martin]

Roland, I can screw up with the best of 'em!!:o No shoe in here!

But, count me in. I think you will find some extremely talented folks are out there, with widely varied tastes. It should be interesting and inspiring.

If there is a vote, I believe the polling feature is limited to a certain number of options, so if there are more participants, that may not work. The mechanics would need to be worked out, but sounds like a fun idea.

There is an extreme amount of talent in our midst, and I thought this would be a fun way to pull all that talent out. I'm sure there are a lot of mechanics to be worked out and putting our minds together, I would assume we can figure out something that will work. No need for a complicated set-up, hopefully.

Brian & Mike,
I think that is precisely what many of us need, a good push to get the creative juices flowing:)

[Thom Sturgill]

Count me in too, sounds like a good chance for some of our turners to challenge themselves to try new forms. But remember that while an art-form is *often* not designed to be utilitarian, that is far from universally true.

[Paul Atkins]

Sounds good to me too. I've been turning so many things for customers, I haven't gotten the time to do something for myself. There must be 100 blanks sitting around here just waiting.

[alex carey]

O my this does sound like fun, it might even be a good enough motivation for me to use some of my more figured wood, i've always been afraid to use the good stuff. Count me in.

Just a thought, but perhaps since the opinion poll is limited a certain more notable turner could look at all of the turnings once they are turned in and choose 5 and then an anonymous poll could be set up and everyone could pick which they think is the best. Just one way to go.

[Phillip Key]

This sounds fun to watch, even if I'm not yet ready to try my hand at turned art.

For the Best of Show, An offsite poll could work if the forum's built in polling won't. Pollpub.com, for instance, allows you to set up a free poll with a maximum of 20 choices.

[Frank Van Atta]

Just a thought, but perhaps since the opinion poll is limited a certain more notable turner could look at all of the turnings once they are turned in and choose 5 and then an anonymous poll could be set up and everyone could pick which they think is the best. Just one way to go.

I know where you're coming from here, but I have to disagree with this approach. You'll basically end up with the best and worst of what one person thinks put out for others to "select one." Those that participate should be the ones to be polled - if indeed we want to try to pick out certain pieces for accolades. Personally, I think not. This should be a way for turner's to put their work "out there" without worrying about some kind of "competition." The whole point is to get the thoughts and ideas of a cross section of turners. Each piece would be posted separately for whatever comments folks care to make.

I know! I know! We're liable to get people who don't like a certain piece and criticize it. Well . . . so what? When I post pictures and description of a piece I certainly don't do it expecting everyone to love my work. Especially once it diverges from "round and brown" into the "art" category. But, I have learned a lot from people who don't like a piece and take the time to post their reasons why. Some I take with a grain of salt ("everyone has their own opinion"), some have led me to make changes, and some just make me go "Hmmmmmm" - but all are valuable.

This type of thing has been done "non competitively" on other forums and worked out fine.

[John Keeton]

I agree with Frank on this. It needs to be a challenge to inspire, not compare.

[Mark Burge]

Great idea. I was already going to post an "art" piece that I had done but I don't show any of my turning friends because it breaks too many of the "rules" of good turning. I'll post it as soon as I find the camera (which may be a while, I think it got taken to church). So, count me in.

[David E Keller]

I'm in for a try... I may post a failure, but I'll post something. Sounds like fun.

[Dennis Ford]

Count me in also. I would prefer that it not be competitive but will participate either way.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Folks - I have no problem with a thread that showcases everyone's idea of Art. As long as it remains such that each individual can post something they turned that meets their personal definition of Art - we do not have a competition - we have a gallery.

Also, do not forget that we already have in place a means to rank turnings. Every time you post - you have the option of clicking on the 'RateThread' button and assigned a star value of how much you liked what you saw. Might be a good time to put it to use....

Let me know what I can do...

[Jeff Nicol]

I guess the thread would have to be started and then go from there. Maybe it would be good to have a utility piece and and "ART" piece from each person to see the comparison from the so called mundane to the flash and flair of the art. Then like Steve said make sure you rate the post. It could get crazy, it would be nice if it were like the AAW site has the gallery and the ratings for each piece. But that would be lots of work.

Count me in,

Jeff

[Roland Martin]

Folks - I have no problem with a thread that showcases everyone's idea of Art. As long as it remains such that each individual can post something they turned that meets their personal definition of Art - we do not have a competition - we have a gallery.

Also, do not forget that we already have in place a means to rank turnings. Every time you post - you have the option of clicking on the 'RateThread' button and assigned a star value of how much you liked what you saw. Might be a good time to put it to use....

Let me know what I can do...

My intent when I started this thread was to create a personal challenge for anybody interested, that would help draw out our individual creativity and to find out what we feel may be an "art form". I certainly didn't want this to be a competition. I threw in the voting thing at the end as an example for further thoughts on how this could be done, seems though that example backfired on me:eek:.
I appreciate all the comments and input. I really like Jeff's idea of a utilitarian piece and an art piece.
Steve, as you reallize, I'm fairly new to this forum and am not sure what the best set-up would be for this type of a challenge. Could it be set up as an ongoing Sticky? Would this type of a challenge be more beneficial as a continuous scenario, or a timeframe as I mentioned in the initial post? I've been here since January of this year and never even reallized that threads could be rated, sharp as a tack:D.

[alex carey]

Anybody up to a friendly challenge & have a great time while we're at it?

With the recent and interesting threads by Glenn & Curt on the subject of craft verses art, I had a thought that just may be a potentially fun excercise that would be an individual challenge for everybody that would like to participate. Why not push ourselves to express what an art piece is to us, an individual and personal interpretation of a turned art piece.
My initial thought is that we set a timeframe, lets say 3 months, given that the summer months are generally busier for everybody and people may turn less often. During this timeframe, we could search our souls and create what we think as individuals to be a turned art form. I think this would be a very interesting personal challenge for many of us and a great learning opportunity. Participants would post thier art piece and a short description of why they think thier piece is an art form. A two-day window would be allowed to post in order to keep this a personal interpretation rather than a collaboration.
I would like the moderators to weigh in on fine tuning details, maybe have a place to post this in a "sticky", etc.
Any interest in something like this? Who knows, this could open the door for some talented turners in this great forum to sell thier art for thousands of dollars:D. There could even be voting on the "Best Of Show", yes, I know, John Keaton is a shoe-in:D:D:D!! Respectfully joking John:).
Any Thoughts?


Hmmm, I think im understanding more but still a little confused. Whats the point of the time frame or the 2 day window for posting?

[alex carey]

o oops, just saw your question above me Rolland, I think a continuous would be better.

[Scott Hackler]

OK, Im in. I just dont know what form I will end up with that I will concider "art". :) 3 months will give us plenty of time to have a few "trial and errors" until we come up with our submission.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Roland - the challenge still exists - just have it so folks have to turn something within the given time frame in order to be included. The whole competition thing surfaced once voting was mentioned.

A sticky is easy enough to do but you will need to come up with entry rules or some means to note what gets added to the sticky. I hope everyone realizes that the 'Art' thread will rapidly become very difficult to navigate due to the number of entries and resulting comments.

Maybe start another thread and come up with a time frame, entry rules, etc. I do feel that there should be some limits on this as you don't want folks still adding to the thread 2 years from now! Do what you can to work out the details. Let me know if you have any questions about what can/can not be done.

[GLENN THOMAS]

Roland,

This is just another spin on your idea but what if someone were to pick out a theme and everyone has say a month or two or whatever to come up with something. After the first challenge someone could pick out a different theme for us all to try. The theme could be anything, no competition just a way to see how everyone is different and how we each would approach any given subject. There have been many times I've put a blank on the lathe and stared at it wondering what I should do with it. This idea or yours might help with that problem, guess its like writers block.

GT

[alex carey]

hmm, definitely like that idea Glenn, the woodturning guild im a part of does the exact same thing. It would be interesting for instance if the challenge was "candle holder" and everyone tried to step outside the box and do a candler holder that one might consider art. Or perhaps like jeff said make both, a utiltarian candle holder and an artsy one. Maybe we are straying too much i dunno.

[Curt Fuller]

Great idea Roland. I'll give it a go.

[Steve Vaughan]

I like this.

[Mike Golka]

Sounds like fun, I think I'm in

[John Keeton]

Maybe we are straying too much i dunno.Alex, this doesn't have to be the one and only time we do this. Let's see if we can get good participation on the first one with a fairly open theme, and then "stray" a bit!:)

[Thom Sturgill]

This is more for Steve. If we submit individual threads on our 'submissions' and mention the 'challenge' then could the original post be copied to a separate thread that only moderators can post in? I know that puts work on the moderators, but it would give one thread that is ONLY the submissions, no comments, and others that are normal threads with comments and critiques. As an aside, it would be great if a thread showed the original creation date.

[Roland Martin]

Roland - the challenge still exists - just have it so folks have to turn something within the given time frame in order to be included. The whole competition thing surfaced once voting was mentioned.

A sticky is easy enough to do but you will need to come up with entry rules or some means to note what gets added to the sticky. I hope everyone realizes that the 'Art' thread will rapidly become very difficult to navigate due to the number of entries and resulting comments.

Maybe start another thread and come up with a time frame, entry rules, etc. I do feel that there should be some limits on this as you don't want folks still adding to the thread 2 years from now! Do what you can to work out the details. Let me know if you have any questions about what can/can not be done.

Thanks Steve, I just sent you a PM with some thoughts