A synthesis of the thought of Eric Gill (1882-1940), sculptor, stone mason, wooden engraver:

1. Of holiness. To work is to worship.
2. Of the nature of man. Every man is a kind of artist (=craftsman)
3. Of the nature of work. “Art is skill in making; the good work is the skilful work.”

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Excerpts from A Holy Tradition of Working

Of holiness

To labor is to pray.

Holiness means wholeness…. The holy man is the complete man.

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Of man

‘The artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist.’

At the beginning of the fifteenth century the class of persons now called artists did not exist, nor was there such a thing as an architect’s profession. There were simply various grades of workmen, skilled or less skilled, well known and honoured, or unknown and unhonoured.

Thus in a normal society a man and a sculptor of images are simply different kinds of artist.

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Of art = craftsmanship

The word skilful does not mean well done, it means well made.

Art is skill in making; the good work is the skilful work.

The practice of art is called craft or craftsmanship.

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Of drudgery

Drudgery is not inherent in the nature of the work, ‘of itself’, but in the sub-human conditions consequent upon commercialism, industrialism, and the abnormal growth of cities.