What is functional art?
What is art?
What is function?
These questions seem simple at first glance, and they are, yet each opens an opportunity for deeper reflection.
Function, at its most basic, means something can be used. But usability exists on a spectrum. Anyone who works professionally with a tool—a hairdresser with scissors, a mechanic with wrenches, an accountant with software—understands immediately that being usable and being excellent to use are two entirely different things.
Professionals become intimately familiar with their tools. They feel subtleties most people never notice: balance, ergonomics, precision, durability. To the untrained eye, a pair of $10 scissors may look identical to a $200 pair. To the craftsperson who uses them every day, the difference is unmistakable.
So while many objects are “functional,” only a select few are exceptional in their functionality.
What Is Art?
Art is far more difficult to define. Cultures, eras, and thinkers have all shaped the meaning differently. Yet many definitions share common threads:
intention, expression, interpretation, experience, culture.
Some scholars describe art as:
- a transformation of materials
- a symbolic language
- evidence of a maker’s hand
- an act of skilled creation
My own understanding is close to these. Art is intentional. It is expressive. And it requires skill—skill of imagination, skill of hand, skill of execution.
The greater the mastery required, and the fewer people capable of achieving it, the more value we tend to place on the art.
But this raises an important question in the modern era:
Where does the art actually reside—in the idea or in the making? Or both?
If an artisan designs a decorative steel gate in their mind and then uses a CNC plasma cutter to shape the decorative elements before welding them into place, is it still art? Does the involvement of technology reduce its artistic value? Or is operating that technology just a modern extension of the same skills a 10th-century blacksmith needed to master the best forge and hammer available at the time?
This isn’t a new debate:
When the electric sander was invented, many traditional woodworkers almost certainly declared that using one meant the work was no longer “handmade.” Today, nearly every artisan—including the Amish—uses a random orbit sander powered by electricity or air. And no one disputes that their work is handmade.
So in 50 years, will work produced with the aid of CNC machines be considered handmade? Almost certainly. Especially now that AI is on the scene in a big way and creating “art”—including music as an example. As of this writing, the AI-assisted song “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust reached number one on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales Chart.
So again:
Is that art?
The definition is a moving target. And with every technological shift—from the camera to the synthesizer to AI—the boundaries are questioned, stretched, and redefined.
Defining Functional Art
Rather than try to settle the definition of art itself, let’s narrow our focus to functional art.
Let’s agree on two foundational ideas:
- Art is intentional and experiential.
- Functionality is the ability to be used.
To me, creating an object that is both deeply beautiful and fully functional requires an extraordinary level of craftsmanship. It is, in my viewpoint, the highest form of artistic ability.
Why?
Because it demands mastery of two completely different skill sets:
- The qualitative skill of the artist: designing something aesthetically moving
- The quantitative skill of the craftsperson: executing it with precision and accuracy
To create something structurally sound, dimensionally precise, and usable every day—while also making it unique, expressive, and beautiful—is a challenge to complete.
The craftsman who can create art is a rare craftsman.
The artist who can build with precision is a rare artist.
Combined, they produce something far more meaningful than either could achieve alone.They produce functional art.
Human Nature of Creating
Humans are designed to create. That is why we can be so moved by art. We are to shape, to build, to imagine, to transform raw material into something that carries meaning. This act of creation is deeply human—spiritual even. It echoes the nature of our Creator, whose work we reflect in our own.
At Lake Antler Works, this is the heart of what I strive to do: to build objects that serve with excellence and speak with the beauty of God’s creation. Objects that function as tools, as heirlooms, and as art.
This is what our creator intends with His human creations as well; that they be useful tools that do beautiful work for Him.