The recent All Hallows Eve celebration got me to musing about woodturning ghosts and if they really exist. I've heard ghost stories about them, but I've never seen one lurking in the shadows of any turning studio-shop. This is not about the fuzz outlined on off-center blanks, it's about _invisible artisans who begin or finish the turned art of better known turners. Do these _invisible ghosts exist? If so, do they raise questions of ethics and authenticity? Do they endanger a fledgling art?
I emphasize 'invisible' because this is not about collaborations or occasional production runs in smaller shops or in similar situations where the assistance is 'up front' and usual. Interns 'close up' for prominent surgeons, bodies are 'added' to heads painted by elite portrait painters and designated hitters stand in for pitchers. Ghost writers are legion. I asume there's no ethical problem when assistence is openly proclaimed, but what about signing a piece of wood art that is finished by someone else or the form is a mere piece of canvas manufactured elsewhere?
I am no ethicist and I admit to being naive and uninformed re the rules of behavior in the art business; even more so in the emerging arena of turned wood art. That caveat aside, I think that openly acknowledging ghost turners is key to propriety and this elevates the practice of woodturning. What do you think?
Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter,