ABSTRACT

Consider the words “art,” “artful,” “artist,” and “artisan.” The dictionary defines the first as “the production or expression of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance,” and attributes to it “skilled workmanship, execution, or agency.” But “artful” involves the crafty and cunning before the ingenious. Skill is included almost as an afterthought. While both the “artist” and “artisan” have “superior skill or ability [and are] capable of a superior kind of workmanship,” the artist is identified with the fine arts and the artisan with commercial or manual enterprise. Skill itself is “the ability that comes from knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc.”