I got, among other things today, an email that proclaimed that an organization I belong to, Studio Art Quilt Associates, has released a new definition of what an art quilt is:

…the SAQA Board has adopted the following definition of the art quilt:

The art quilt is a creative visual work that is layered and stitched or that references this form of stitched layered structure.

The Board sees the revised definition as a visionary
statement.

I will not mention that this was declared on a PDF, not an actual web page or that the title was some MS naming standard. Never mind about all that trivia.

I never got past the structure of the sentence. My brain stopped to ask “which form is ‘this form’?” I just couldn’t sort it out and neither could my favorite grammazon. Never mind that.

I think the inclusion of the word “creative” is just silly. Why include that in a description about art? So not just any visual work, but creative visual work. As opposed to non-visual work. (um like music or smellophones?)

The only good thing I can see here is that there is zero, zilch, nada to exclude the quilts that I make. And I’ll thank you not to sneer at my little squares.

Never mind that my experience in the world says that if you have to declare what you’ve done visionary, it’s probably… I’ll just say it’s probably not.

I spent today talking with co-workers about who we are and what we do. Several had been told various things about themselves that just didn’t really jive and they came to me for advice. I found this flattering and yet alarming and bordering on disturbing in some ways. I’ve been pondering similar things and I did my best to offer advice that wasn’t too motherly. I wonder about systems that allow other people to judge our individual qualities rather than the work we do. Nothing like hitting people where they’re least confident.

The question I ask the universe – why all the naval gazing and scrabbling for definitions of who we are and what we do. Just live it – Just do it. Shut up about it.