Tools in art, reflecting on a Seth Godin blogpost on tools

Seth Godin is an author and former dot.com exec. He has a daily blog offering snippets of wisdom of a broad range of topics, many of which are pithy and/or insightful. He recently shared the following thoughts on 'mediocare tools':

Lousy tools are dangerous. They endanger our safety (physical or emotional) and undermine our work. Lousy tools are pretty easy to avoid, because they reveal themselves whenever we use them.

Great tools are magical. They multiply our effort, amplify the quality of our work and delight us, all at once.

It’s mediocre tools that we have to watch out for. They quietly and persistently corrupt our intent and force us to work harder on the parts that don’t matter as much.

I was reflecting that the same is true for art - great tools make art-making joyful! However, it's interesting to me how little we talk about tools in art. Technique, yes, materials, sure, but tools, not so much. Perhaps in the traditional arts, tools are so mature and ubiquitous, people simply don't talk about them? Perhaps people simply don't make their own tools? That seems like a massive missed opportunity to explore.

Someone I follow on Instagram makes miniature sets of armour, and talks a lot about the joy of making awesome tools that make the job easier, and new things possible, but perhaps that's the exception that proves the rule? I guess painters do get excited about using new 'tools' to make new types of mark, but I guess when the 'tool' is a scrunched-up plastic bag, it becomes a matter of technique?

In digital art, tools do get discussed, but again, the answer is often Adobe Whatever. People's reliance on Adobe annoys me in some irrational way... It's like people who can't possibly word-process in anything other than Word.

Perhaps I am unusual? As a former techy, who can code (to no particular quality nowadays!), making my own tools is a joy. In general, in the coding world, people adore tools (often to a fault). However, even in my physical art, I love the possibilities unlocked by tools and materials. Creating a new tool or getting your head around a new material just opens up so many new things you can imagine how to make!