A few years ago a group of artists in my area got together and decided to form an art group of “fine” artists. Well, everyone was a fine artist in their own right, but no one could come up with a definition of “fine art” that satisfied the entire group. I think some of the ones that were bothered most with the critical need to define “fine arts” have since left the group and those who remain probably have a just a nice time getting together painting, crafting, creating…whatever genre they choose; fine art or not. It’s their art! 
I think about the Native american art and some of the beautiful pottery that is done – even without a wheel to throw them on. The sides are a smooth as glass and some of these are made with coils of clay layers upon each other in a coil fashion, then the sides smoothed. This is art… and in probably every sense of the word is “fine” art. This bowl is from the late 1800’s and appears that the images were all drawn freehand and I am certain not done on a wheel. 
My Mother was a fond collector of Native American baskets and weavings. She particularly liked pine needle baskets and at one time even made a small one. On a trip to Wenatchee quite a few years ago she and I went out to one of hydro dams on the Columbia. In their visitor’s center was a display of some of the most beautiful pine needle work I had seen. It was done by a woman, local to Wenatchee. We loved her work and ended up buying some pieces. I gave my Mom a couple of the baskets and she cherished them. After she passed away, I had got her baskets back and have since passed one on to my friend Carolyn who appreciates artful things and I still have a couple. These were two of the baskets from “Joyce” of Wenatchee. She did something that I hadn’t seen before…utilizing the base of the needles as part of the decorative effect of the basket rather than eliminating that end.
One of the weavings that Mom had was a flat reed/grass piece. It was another thing that came my way from my mother’s estate and I honor it with a place on a wall of my dining room. It had hung in my mom’s office where she wrote and sometimes painted.
Woolen weavings are a classic of the southwestern Native Americans and certainly are an art. A long ago trip to the southwest was remembered with the purchase of a simple Navajo rug of about 3′ that I have always had hanging in my homes. Subsequent trips to the Albuquerque area brought some other small rugs; but the first buy in 1975 from a trading post in AZ has always been my favorite.
So I look at these sorts of art or craft as “ART”… there is a lot of heart and time and energy and talent that is put forth to bring one of these pieces to completion. And for lots of people creating art it isn’t about the fact that they are making a ton of money from their work…they do it for the love of the ART!…
I have a few pieces, a couple of small rugs, a Pendleton blanket that serves as a bedspread in a guest room. I guess what I love about these pieces is the use of color…they are bright, lots of colors and it doesn’t matter what the “seasonal” colors are in the fashion world…these pieces use the basics of color to play one off the other…just like a color wheel. It’s all art.
Define Art... 