The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

For Those Who Ask No Questions, There Are No Mysteries

Posted in rantings and ravings on August 3rd, 2018 by skeeter

As Hamlet asked after his bipolar musings on being and not being, Is it Art or is it Craft? That is the question. Poor Hamlet, always a little flummoxed. The Small Craft Advisory is coming too late to help the Danish prince, but we can help you answer that age old question on Sat. and Sun. August 18th and 19th at the Floyd, Stanwood’s Historical Society Cultural Center. And no, we’re not raising a 3rd question: whether or not Stanwood has culture.

Uff da! Of course it does! In fact, that same weekend Art by the Bay has its annual show on the East side of Stanwoodopolis, something like its 26th or 27th anniversary. So okay, it’s not on the bay, but it’s a great show nevertheless. And the Small Craft Advisory fine arts craft exhibition isn’t a weather report. Let’s not get hung up on details, all right?

A bunch of us yahoos decided it was high time to bring fine craft out into the light of day. Back when we started the Ma Day Studio Tour, folks weren’t aware the artists had slowly but surely infiltrated the area with their mutating species of brush-wielding, paint spattered, plein air denizens, all quietly biding their time hidden in the nettle gulches and brackish backwaters of the area. Now they practically dwarf the number of realtors, and worse, rumor has it they may be intermarrying. God help you all!

But never fear — we have the appropriate antidote. Legions of artisan/craftsmen who have also been laying low in their dilapidated shacks or hiding out in sea caves, plying their crafts out of view, but now coming out of the eelgrass, bringing with them the nearly lost aesthetic of making stuff yerself.

Boats, banjos, beadwork, cigar box guitars, sculpture, pottery, quilts and fabric art, mixed media, ceramics, furniture and morel. Did I mention banjos. If I didn’t, be assured, homemade banjos will be in the show. Banjos will save you from artistic egos and crazed realtors.

Come on down Aug. 18th and 19th, 10-5 pm. Guaranteed a more effective cure-all than a polio vaccine, easier than fleeing the area. Small Craft Advisory. Hell, we don’t know if it’s art or craft. And that’s Hamlet’s answer too. You’ll have to figure out yourself where the bay is at Art by the Bay. But by all means, go see their show too. Art and craft will fill the streets those days like butterfly pheromones. Y’all come.