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   Which is more important, decoration or function.
    
    It is a question that has plagued artist for years and I recently heard a Haida artist, Tejas Collison, talking about art as reflecting life. There was no word for art in his native tongue. The distinction between art and craft is non-existent. Both are important and both can be creative in their production.

    Personally I think it comes down to the creativity of the individual and the purpose for creating the work. Function isn’t really a concern of art but it is a concern if it was made for a purpose. A Shaker quote encapsulates this conflict nicely. “Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful (functional); but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful (decorative).” The fin whale illustrates the decorative at the expense of function, where the fins are so long and floppy they become more decorative than functional.

    There have been movements  or artists who have sought to combine function with decoration. Groups  such as the Bauhaus furniture design, or Art Nouveau. The understanding of craft is often associated with the products of these movements but the lines are blurred and the term Art can easily be applied.

    A modern artist who was known for his decorative work was Matisse. Due to advancing age and deteriorating health he took the technique of cut outs from quality coloured paper. Originally it was a technique he had used as a compositional aid and he made them into his finished work. Some of his earlier work reflected this direction but he made it into a decorative method for producing art.

    You can look him up on Google or YouTube where there are some videos explaining his art.