Tea and Crafts

Part crafting blog, part idea journal with a cup of tea on the side. You'll find art, crafts, history, and anthropology in here.

[fluffygif]

Fantastic art

[teaandcrafts]

Things I wish they'd taught me in art class

[kjscottwrites]

[consolecadet]

These remind me of this drawing by Franz Kafka from the 1900s. We've been feeling this way for a long time.

[smol-civet]

prev, i'm sure you mean my guy Leonid Pasternak

[likeafieldmouse-deactivated2015]

Luis Camnitzer - The Photograph (1981)

[gastronauticsyd]

The Screenshot (2014)

[fredersen]

The Reblog (2014)

[toratiger-deactivated20211204]

Bahahahaha love this

[processintegrated]

The Unnecessary Comment (2014)

[grumpygreenwitch]

The Revival (2026)

[theroguescientist]

The Tags (2026)

[doityourselfproject]

Paint primary colors on fan wings

[blah-blahs]

BRILLIANT

[firehouselight]

Did we just discover how to paint with all the colors of the wind?

[teaandcrafts]

To the people complaining it doesn't work ....

You've learned a valuable lesson in color theory ... All the colors together makes dirt.

[teaandcrafts]

Ugh the feed is full of site change commentary.

What are they screwing with to justify their jobs this time?

🫩

The fact that Fountain is pissing off trads over a 100 years later is so fucking funny

[fairyhaven13]

As an art major, while I know Fountain is a valid piece of art that accomplished exactly what it set out to do, I also think it’s one of the stupidest things. We have a urinal in a museum display. I have yet to see a work I think is dumber.

[inthefallofasparrow]

[punk-a-cat]

The thing I love most about Duchamps urinal piece is that it was so “low cost” in terms of creative labour (compared to say, a large scale oil painting or sculpture for example), but it’s absolutely FULL of rage against the traditionalists and the world at that time and it’s SUCH a statement, it’s like, “oh just a mass manufactured item with a signature” but the reality of it is so many layers of meaning and without understanding the history at the time you don’t get it.

It’s an incredibly clever “fuck you” and I love it

[xanderwithanx]

An old professor of mine, an expert in Duchamp who has written several books, has a theory. In part, “Fountain” was a prank, a personal “fuck you” to the organization looking for artworks. It’s importance cannot be overstated, and this importance stems from the fact that “Fountain” is /ridiculous/. It is enraging, it is hilarious, and it is very fascinating.

Aside from Duchamp’s readymades, I love “Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors Even”. Pictured below, the work invokes a complex machine, one my professor spent a great deal of time studying. Eventually, he reached his conclusion. My professor had been pranked. He believes “Bride Stripped Bare” is a joke about masturbation, hidden to all except those study it excessively.

At first blush, Duchamp’s works are stupid. Upon further study, they’re very complex. And, upon true understanding, Duchamp is laughing at you. To me, it seems the closer you come to truly understanding Duchamp, the more he slaps you in the face with a large fish.

[xanderwithanx]

Let me rage about “traditionalism revival” here. This is a dogwhistle.

As a lover of art, there are many complex and technically impressive works being created today, which both embrace different artistic traditions and break from them. To ignore those is to ignore contemporary art.

Here, OP is raging against conceptual art, which stimulates thought and challenges tradition. He wants his followers to believe that art has “degenerated”, because the West has “degenerated”. OP is intentionally engaging with fascist ideas of “degenerate art”.

If OP wanted to be accurate, he would seek to restore the Salon System, the Beaux Arts Academy, and classical training in the arts. The collapse of this specific system allowed for Modernism to evolve. Of course, that’s not what OP is talking about. He’s evoking beauty as a moral standard, telling his followers to “restore Western tradition”, to fight against aesthetic “degeneracy” in culture.

(By the way, Duchamp is commenting ON MODERNISM with “Fountain”. Duchamp submitted the work to the Society of Independent Artists’ salon in New York, who would accept any work by any artist, for a small fee. In part, Duchamp is saying, “Is this what you Modernists want? A urinal? Look me in the eyes and prove this is not art.”

If OP dared to use his brain, perhaps he would agree with Duchamp here.)

[riotsquirrrl]

The thing is that it isn’t even a urinal! It doesn’t match any model manufactured at the time. Also Duchamp was an accomplished ceramicist. It’s likely that he made the sculpture and absolutely everyone is like “I know what a urinal looks like. This is sufficiently urinal-shaped for me to assume it is one without looking at it closely!”

Duchamp had other readymades, like his snow shovel, where if you actually look at the photos, the handle is square and the bowl is way too flimsy. Why would manufacturers make a snow shovel with a squared-off handle? It’s impossible to hold! Duchamp slapped the “readymades” label on all these items and the hoity-toity art people who were so good at looking at things didn’t see it (probably because they’d never had to do labor like shovel snow imo, amongst other things).

Marcel Duchamp. In Advance of the Broken Arm. Museum of Modern Art. (4th Version [Ed.!!!] after lost original of November 1915)

[the-real-seebs]

wait what. there… what?!?! IT ISN’T AN ACTUAL URINAL?!? or might not be anyway. what the fuck.

if the dude seriously did that, his troll game is out of everyone’s league except Leader Kibo.

[foone]

My favorite thing about Fountain (besides the fact it has been pissing off fascists for over a century, natch) is that the original was lost and he made a bunch of official editions to sell to various museums (after the original was lost, possibly on purpose).

And they’re different! If it was a real “readymade” he could have just bought some more at his local hardware store, but no. He changed them in OBVIOUS WAYS.

See the triangle of holes?

Here’s the one from the Tate Modern:

Oh hello, cross-holes. Fancy seeing you here.

SFMOMA’s edition has the triangle holes, but it also has a line of holes at the top that are completely different from either other version.

Here’s one from Moderna Museet. Line and a circular set of holes!

Duchamp definitely intentionally made these different on purpose. It’s a “readymade” but it’s not, really, each of these is a specific custom creation.

It’s not even clear if he made it! He wrote a letter to his sister claiming that a female friend sent it to him, and he just enrolled it in the art exhibit under his own name. There’s also a possibility that that female friend was himself, since he later had a female pseudonym of Rrose Sélav.

This whole piece of art is a fractal troll, and it’s a beautiful one.

[teaandcrafts]

To the people who think it's dumb.... Yes, and sometimes the only way to respond to human stupidity is with more human stupidity.

I love those dumb urinals (plural).

So much other art would not exist if this so called prank hadn't gone over. So much art still isn't given the value it deserves because someone refuses to accept either the country, class, color or gender of its maker.

[teaandcrafts]

It's very "annoying" when in the middle of your afternoon, you get messaged by your father who's out and about, concerning a newish dollhouse shop you can't immediately drop everything to do check out because you've got work to do and it's half way across the state.

[eethok]

*opens my heart shaped book of hours to show you my medieval yuri* mi'lady

[bebs-art-gallery]

Albert Square, Manchester (1910) by Adolphe Valette | Contemporary Art (2015) by Emily Allchurch

[bread-making-vikings]

the top is an original, from 1910, the bottom is a new version painted in 2015

[spacedouterri]

THE BOTTOM IS A PAINTING????

[open-sketchbook]

also does a really good job reminding the view just how much air quality has improved since we stopped burning coal in every building lol

[teaandcrafts]

Yummy! Look at that majestic 1910s view of England under a picturesque sky of black lung inducing coal dust smog... Behold it's beauty!

[cparti-mkiki]

"hephaistion made this" in a beautiful trompe-l'oeil piece of paper half unstuck by the wind still some of the rawest stuff ever put in a mosaic (2nd century bc, pergamon)

[inevitablyuncertain]

article and video

[thesilicontribesman]

The Lewis Chess Pieces, 12th Century CE, National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh

[death-s-head-moth]

Original References & Artwork by Alphonse Mucha

[teaandcrafts]

Taking the time to have a craft day with one of my best friends was wonderful. I don't know if I actually accomplished more than I would have on my own but I definitely feel more fulfilled doing it.

I've got a bed sheet petticoat hanging to dry. Just needs ties and an ensemble to wear over it.

Note to future me, pleat with the sewing clips it's so much less fussy than a trillion pins.

[teaandcrafts]

Friendly reminder.

Context is everything.

Context Is Everything.

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING.

[ycidu]

doubtingsickness‌:

doubtingsickness‌:

crying about cave paintings at 7:51 pm is a good exercise that i recommend

there’s something so horribly, painfully human about cave paintings, particularly negative handprints like these

here are people, thousands of years ago, their hands stretched out in greeting. here are people who painted the world around them and saw fit to put themselves in there too. here are people who only said, “i was here. i was a person. i existed. don’t forget me.” here is a person reaching thousands of years into the future, saying “im alive. im alive”. and there’s nothing more human than that.

[thenightking4000]

What gets to me most is that now, thousands, even tens of thousands of years later, in a world they could never have imagined, we reach back. We say, “who were you? what were you like? we want to know you. we will remember you.”

[teaandcrafts]

Yo.

I just had a thought....

AI art is totally legit.

....

It's a high tech form of surrealism.

...

Think about it.

Here's the (lol) AI generated definition of surrealism.

Surrealism is an artistic and literary movement that originated in the 1920s, aiming to liberate the imagination and explore the subconscious mind. It's characterized by illogical and dreamlike imagery, unexpected juxtapositions, and a rejection of rational thought.

Now think about what AI art looks like. Even the highest fidelity examples under serious human scrutiny start to break down into illogical placement of elements, dream like imagery and juxtapositions that don't make sense to rational thought.

Ai art should be classified as Surrealist Art

[teaandcrafts]

I'm about to say something.

Don't entirely care who I insult.

Anyone who unironically likes to talk to AI chat bots is.... Not strictly bright if you catch my meaning.

And further more anyone whose job is threatened by an AI chat bot is doing a job particularly clever children could handle on their own.

Why do I say this?

1. My phone spazzed out recently over an update. The chat bot could tell me nothing I had not already read myself online by doing an intelligent person's logical search of the appropriate sort of help threads.

2. I just image searched a pair of vintage Wiss scissors to try finding out how old they are.

Guess what deep thoughtful insights the Google AI bot had for me?

-the scissors look old (you don't say!?)

-they are probably considered vintage (I'd have never thought!)

-they appear be made of metal (fascinating observation)

-they are tarnished (no kidding. You forgot to mention there's something like dried glue crusted on them, but you don't have opposable thumbs so you can't actually even open them)

The scissors in question. Still not sure their age.

Oh yeah, I fixed the phone issue by letting it nap for half a day. (PSA if you have a Pixel and it fails to unlock at random, give it a nice long time out, before you go factory resetting it. )