I missed the art vs. craft discussion--it must have been before I joined the list. Those lines get very blurred for me. How much difference there is between a fine artist and a fine craftsperson, I can't say . . . for me, in most cases, the terms are almost synonymous.
I can see differences in the production frames I own: my early 80s Fuji Del Rey [vintage content!] is a nice enough bike, though it's not quite the ride the Bridgestone is. To my eye, the Bridgestone is built better (despite the fact that the decals are a bit sloppy). While I don't have a hand-crafted frame (yet, that is!), I know there's a difference. I remember a Zunow I saw in the early 80s . . . I'm figuring with its price tag (over 2 grand, back then) it was hand-made, and it looked it. And I've seen some nice Italian and British steel, so I know the difference between them and a well-made production bike such as my Bridgestone, too.
But I guess it's easy to overlook these things. A friend of mine once flatly stated that there was no reason a bike should cost more than $200. That was before his Free Spirit (which he'd been given for free) fell apart; I think that taught him something!
I think part of the problem is that the finished product should seem effortless: if it draws attention to every little step that was taken to achieve it, then it ceases to be successful as an object in its own right. This doesn't mean that we can't wonder about all the steps, all the work that went into the end product; it's just that the product has to stand alone at some point. Which may be why some things seem easy to folks.
Sometimes I think that leads to biases among relatively informed folks, too, Last summer I asked at the local art gallery if they ever showed photography. The answer? "No, we don't show photography; too many people look at photographs and say, 'I could do that.'" Perhaps . . . but I think the answer was telling of the gallery owner's bias against photography.
Almost anyone can do anything. But to do it well. . . . I feel pretty good about my work in the darkroom (and behind the camera, too), but I know there's so much I don't know. Sometimes I wonder what John Sexton would do with some of my negatives. . . . Of course, what *he* might do wouldn't be *my* vision, and shouldn't be. Still, there's no question in my mind that John Sexton is a master printer, and I'm most definitely not.
You can buy kits to build a guitar, too. And you'll likely wind up with a very useable instrument, one you can be proud of. But will it be on the level of a D'Aquisto, a Collings, or a Bourgeois? Nope. But the more you build, the more you'll learn.
I'm pretty sure the same holds true with frame building. There's a mindset that first leads some folks to do something, and there's another mindset that leads an even smaller group of those people to doing it again, and again--and in doing so, understanding more of the relationships between the materials and the planning and everything else each time they undertake the task. That's part of what makes someone a master at what they do.
But there--I've managed to mix bikes and guitars and photography into one post. At least there's vintage content. . . .
nath "i've built a guitar, but not a bike" dresser spring green, wisconsin