Forgive me if my passion is expressed in over emphasized examples in my writing. Writing is my least proficient skill. But this is a topic I am passionate about.

Woodsong builds boats for a niche market of well-heeled folks who
: are more interested in aesthetics than function.

That's just the issue, anyone with any training in aesthetics/design would recognize what a cheap trick the exotic wood/all over gloss is and pass it by.

Niche market of well-heeled folks = people with more money than brains who are looking to impress the like minded. "Oh Muffy let's hang it next to your gasoline powered turtleneck sweater!"

Let's recognize these boats for what they are, flypaper for the wealthy.

That’s fine, I've got no problem with that, as long as there are people out there willing to buy these boats Woodsong will stay in business.

I do have a problem with the common American equation, More Bucks = Better

Hey, you're not going to buy one. Why not? Oh, you actually like to paddle, not just wear LL Bean cloths and drive around in your gas guzzling SUV looking outdoorzy.

It's when I hear, “pinnacle of canoes" and "high water mark of craftsmanship" I have to voice an educated opinion to the contrary.

It does take some background and training in art and design to understand how to integrate the parts of an object into a cohesive whole creating beautifully designed object with depth.

My training is in art and aesthetics. I have a Master's of Fine Arts degree, was a professional artist, and taught art and design at the college level. Art, aesthetics, and design have been a life long passion. Unfortunately, it's even harder to make a living as a artist than as a boatbuilder.

Most Americans are visually illiterate. And why shouldn't they be. There is no visual training mandated in most schools. When the school budget needs cutting what gets cut first? The value and need for visual training is not understood in our culture. However, most Americans do recognize the term "sofa sized painting".

To the trained eye every object revels much more, it revels the heart and meaning behind the product of the maker’s head, heart and hands.

Woodsong boats are like a cardboard cutout covered with glitter. They have one purpose, they are one dimensional, they are eye candy. They kick you in the pants visually. To the young and naive they will be irresistible. They are meant to be. In this Woodsong has certainly succeeded. But, they have no “heart”. They have one note to play.

But because their only purpose is to sell, these boats don’t have the constrains of having to be useful. To be light enough to carry, to be made strong enough to take abuse, to have a hull design specific to a task. All these limitations present problems in engineering and visual design that reflect the solutions of craftsmen passed one to the next, whether literally or by emulation. This gives an object “heart” the visually apparent depth and complexity what we think of as “form follows function”. The superfluous falls away.

Don't use the term "art" unless your meaning is limited to a useless object meant for decoration, (see listing for "sofa sized painting"). Believe me these objects fit no other definition of the term "Art" which usually includes some kind of expression of an idea.

I don’t mean to hit you on the nose like a bad dog and say “no!”

My desire is to ask you to look more carefully at a canoe like those made by Jerry Stelmok and begin to see how simple unpretentious cedar glows like gold and melts into beautifully shaped individual parts; ribs, gunnels, thwarts, but all are in harmony with an overarching design of the canoe form itself. The beauty, design and heart of this boat rings like a bell.

Hey someone's got to rock the boat now that George is gone.

All the best,

Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.LaughingLoon.com