Jim Olarte: Crossroads between art and craft

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​    Some call it by its Swedish name, konsthantverk, artcraft that is, but when Jim Olarte, a designer by trade, now an artist; no, a craftsman; regardless, a dream-maker… imagines his work, the idea is everything.
    “Doesn’t that make it art by definition?” I asked, watching Jim finish a knot on the ten-foot high column of rope that made up the black macramé hanging from his ceiling . The object projected an aura of oriental mysticism, and, was neither purely decorative, nor functional. It has to be art, I thought.
    “Art is such a big term,” Jim replied, “I am a craftsman.”
    The issue has been debated for centuries; art or craft, craft or art. Experts say that when a functional object communicates an idea, it is art. What does one make then, of Jim’s lifelong collection of discarded lead fishing weights, found while roaming the beaches near his home in Southern California, now tied end to end and hanging in galleries and corporate lobbies, or of his fiberglass wasteland; pieces of multicolored sun-bleached fiberglass washed up on the shores after years of being thrashed by ocean waves. These orphan pieces are now strung together to form inspirational hanging sculptures that decorate, yes decorate, living rooms and luxury boutiques alike. 
    “I still don’t get it Jim,” I said, “this has to be art. What do you think of Jeff Koons?”
    Olarte laughed, pointing to a curtain made using spinal plates from hundreds of chiton shells . “I found these one by one during years of searching,” he explained. “See how decades in the ocean made the edges straight and smooth? Straightness is not natural.” I imagined the curtain would look fabulous strung across my living room wall.
    “These rocks have holes in them,” I exclaimed. On a nearby wooden table was a tray filled with what I learned were the prior homes of a clam. The Piddock clam, Jim explained, starts its life as plankton, chooses a rock, sits tight, and grows a shell so it can burrow into the rock to secure itself a permanent home.
    “Who knows how old these are,” Jim said. “I find them on the beach; it’s as if my eyes are trained to focus on the details. I can see one from among hundreds of other rocks piled on the shore.”
    I listened intently to the soft-spoken, kind-hearted man with a peaceful, almost melancholic soul. In his eyes, everything in the world was positive and beautiful. His inspirations gave new meaning to the French term objets trouvés , but Olarte’s art was livable, in fact, as in the case of the chiton curtains, had oftentimes been lived in. 
    “My life has been consumed by a knot,” Jim suddenly said. I thought he meant the knots holding the pieces of his found objects in place, each one hanging precariously, yet attached to the other by a slender piece of string or fishing line. Instead, he led me to a hand-sewn canvas bag with black macramé finishings. It hung luxuriously on the wall, a true representation of wearable art. “This,” Jim said humbly, “is Octopus bag #6. There are no more than six, and there will be no others.” I’m a guy, and not usually into bags, but this object, this piece of art, this shoulderbag…whatever you call it, was gorgeous. 
    Macramé is an art form that dates back centuries. It is based on the square knot , a knot that sits flat when tied, but comes loose easily. You know it: right over left, left over right… that makes a knot both tidy and tight. 
    Jim Olarte’s giant macramés are happenings onto themselves. His installations, like the one hung between the rocks overlooking Cameo Shores, are not well publicized, nor highly attended. They are private events, yet inspiring, and when the sun sets above the horizon, and a faint orange glow reflects gently between the hundreds of individually and lovingly tied knots that connect dozens of loops of thick nylon cord, the question of art versus craft is answered as surely as Nature’s functionality is beauty personified.

Notes:
    Chitons (placophora) are carnivorous mollusks that have the hardest teeth known to nature. Like snails, they use their tongue to rasp food from cracks and crevices found among rocks on the ocean floor.
    Found objects art is created from undisguised but often modified objects not normally considered art because they have a non-art function (the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp, for example).
    Probably dating to before the Pharaohs, the square knot was used to tie off a sailing craft’s mainsails. It comes undone easily (the expression is it capsizes), so it is never used in rock climbing.

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