RosettaStone: CRAFT A primary, secondary, and annotated source reader for functional craft. By: Randi O'Brien

This is an annotated evaluation of the following:

Labels, Lingo, and Legacy. by Paula Owen
Paula Owen, “Labels, Lingo, and Legacy” in Objects and Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft, ed. M. Anna Fariello and Paula Owen, 24-34 (Maryland: Scarecrow Press Inc., 2004)

Reviewed by Randi O’Brien
This is a noteworthy article on fundamental labeling and use of language within the craft field. Labels, Lingo, and Legacy: Craft at a Crossroads written by the president of the Southwest School of Art and Craft Paula Owen, addresses classifications within the crafting field that perpetuates ambiguity “leaving the field without a central base, theoretical framework, or ideological principles”. Owen presents a contention for scholarly documentation to examine the motives and a structure by which we classify or declassify craft which the author believes is significant for the integrity of contemporary craft and emerging hybrid artist/craftsmen. Owen is keen to point out the crossover of conceptual and tactile dimensions within emerging crossover artist and/or hybrid artist, yet warns artist looking to call themselves hybrid-crafters to address function as a primary objective within craft. My overall impression is that the author has developed this line of argument in a plausible way while expressing a simple and appropriate voice.

In this article, the author has relied on older writings none dating post 2000, and directly quotes prior articles on object and meaning to defend her position. Owen sites Janet Koplos (1992), Howard Risatti (1998), and other scholars of objects and meanings. The author contends that a crossroads is emerging in the craft field that may split or scatter crafting ideology. Artist and craftsmen crossing the divide and balancing both fields within there objects or concepts would find this article useful for reference of critics and writers documenting and supporting this hybridization; even though Owen may be biases against this hybridity, as would craftsmen who are looking to strengthen their general knowledge of crafting categorizations. Though lacking contribution to the larger methodological or theoretical debate of categorizations by means of solution or potential resolutions the article provides critical questioning to the overall debate.