The Case for Handwork: Balancing Art and Sport in Figure Skating

[skylark]

Maybe Matthew's title, asking for a definition, is just a hair's-width off. Maybe figure skating isn't about whether it's sport and/or art.

I think the key words are in the old Second Mark, for Artistic Impression. What does a skater's or team's program make you feel, during and at the end of it. A figure skater expresses his/her/their feelings through their movement, and those movements transfer those emotions to the audience. It's about whatever in the skating comes from the heart. That's all of it. The word "art" is part of the word "heart."

I like Yuzuru's answer that he's an artistic athlete. That puts both qualities side by side and equalizes their importance. To me, it isn't a question of the juxtaposition so many use: are you more interested in the number of revolutions in the air, or in what the skater does on the ice (stroking, edges, etc.) Those are all techniques, and they're important. They're tools. But artistry doesn't exist in the tools. Artistry is in what a person expresses, with the tools. Matthew Lind spoke of the needlepoint worker's skills, time, and care. That "care" means the heart, the love the person put into it.

I like Lind's example of the moment he fell in love with figure skating: watching, on 1992 television, Paul Wylie' magnificent spread eagle, and the moment he moved his arms through the movement, through the moment. "Right there, what I connected to was art," writes Lind.

 

[Mathman]

I like Lind's example of the moment he fell in love with figure skating: watching, on 1992 television, Paul Wylie' magnificent spread eagle, and the moment he moved his arms through the movement, through the moment. "Right there, what I connected to was art," writes Lind.

I agree that what we treasure about figure skating is not really captured by a discussion of "What is art?". I am happy for Mr. Lind that he was moved by Paul Wylie's skating. Yet Wylie's performance was exactly the same as it was whether Lind (or anyone else) was moved or not.

I personally am not moved to any particular emotion by the Mona Lisa. Nevertheless, it is great art. That is how I know that I do not know what the word "art" means.

Edit: OK, I Googled it. Here is the first result that came up when I put in "What is so great abput the Mona Lisa?"

"...The subject's softly sculptural face shows Leonardo's skillful handling of sfumato, an artistic technique that uses subtle gradations of light and shadow to model form, and shows his understanding of the skull beneath the skin."

So now I know. Skating Skills rule!