"Gran calavera eléctrica" by José Guadalupe Posada, Mexico, 1900-1913

Island of Salvation Botanica, Piety Street, Bywater, New Orleans

Darrel Mortimer holding 8' tattooed bamboo chillum; photograph by Sally Larsen, 2009

Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic.^[1] Folk Art is characterized by a naive style, in which traditional rules of proportion and perspective are not employed. Closely related terms are Outsider Art, Self-Taught Art and Naïve art.^[2]

As a phenomenon that can chronicle a move towards civilization yet rapidly diminish with modernity, industrialization, or outside influence, the nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture. The varied geographical and temporal prevalence and diversity of folk art make it difficult to describe as a whole, though some patterns have been demonstrated.

Characteristics[link]

Characteristically folk art is not influenced by movements in academic or fine art circles, and, in many cases, folk art excludes works executed by professional artists and sold as "high art" or "fine art" to the society's art patrons.^[1] On the other hand, many 18th and 19th century American folk art painters made their living by their work, including itinerant portrait painters, some of whom produced large bodies of work.^[3]

Other terms that overlap with folk art are naïve art, Arts Primitive, Pop art, outsider art, traditional art, Tribal art, "tramp art", "self-taught" art and even "working class" art. As one might expect, all these terms have different connotations; but they are all at times used interchangeably with the term folk art, for which a satisfactory definition has proven hard to come by.

Folk art expresses cultural identity by conveying shared community values and aesthetics. It encompasses a range of utilitarian and decorative media, including cloth, wood, paper, clay, metal and more. If traditional materials are inaccessible, new materials are often substituted, resulting in contemporary expressions of traditional folk art forms. Folk art reflects traditional art forms of diverse community groups — ethnic, tribal, religious, occupational, geographical, age- or gender-based — who identify with each other and society at large. Folk artists traditionally learn skills and techniques through apprenticeships in informal community settings, though they may also be formally educated.

Antique folk art[link]

Antique folk art is distinguished from traditional art in that, while collected today based mostly on its artistic merit, it was never intended to be 'art for art’s sake' at the time of its creation. Examples include: weathervanes, old store signs and carved figures, itinerant portraits, carousel horses, fire buckets, painted game boards, cast iron doorstops and many other similar lines of highly collectible "whimsical" antiques.

Contemporary folk art[link]

Many folk art traditions like quilting, ornamental picture framing, and decoy carving continue to thrive, while new forms constantly emerge. Since the 1960s the embellished bamboo pipe or chillum has become an American folk art form. These pipes are hand made, meant to be used, and often sold by the artists on street corners in places like the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco and the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. As designs these contemporary smoking pipes recall traditional decorated bamboo pipes from Africa and Borneo,^[4] however, the American carved bamboo design often employs a brass lighting fixture for a bowl. Since the 1970s, street artist Darrel "Pipeman" Mortimer of San Francisco has made nearly 10,000 bamboo pipes with incised, tattoo-like lines, each signed, numbered, and sold personally. Hemp is a frequent motif while Native American themes and designs reminiscent of Victor Vasarely or M. C. Escher are also common.^[5]

Contemporary folk artists are frequently self-taught while their work is often developed in isolation or in small communities across the country.^[6] The Smithsonian American Art Museum houses over 70 such artists. In early 80s other uncanny artistic talent of well known contemporary folk artist exist one of these is Elito Circa as amangpintor the famous Filipino folk painter, his paintbrushes created from his own hair and uses his hair as texture of his canvas, uses his own blood as paint and signs his name with his own blood on the right side of his paintings. He developed his own styles without professional training or guidance from the masters.

Influence on mainstream art[link]

Folk art, and styles and motifs, have inspired various artists. Pablo Picasso was inspired by African tribal sculptures and masks, while in Russia Natalya Goncharova and others were inspired by traditional woodcuts called luboks.^[7] In music, Igor Stravinsky's seminal The Rite of Spring was inspired by paganism.

See also[link]

Visual Arts portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Folk art

• CIOFF: International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts

Donna S. Dewberry (born 6 November 1953) is an American Mormon artist and author. She claims to have developed an "One Stroke" painting technique.

Personal[link]

Donna Dewberry is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[1]

Television[link]

She has a public television show, One Stroke Painting with Donna Dewberry. In 2007, One Stroke Painting was replaced with The Donna Dewberry Show.

One Stroke Technique[link]

The "One Stroke Technique" is a double loading technique that consists of loading a brush with two separate colors. Dewberry claims that with her technique you are able to achieve the shading and highlighting in one stroke^{[citation needed]}.

Writing[link]

She is a columnist for magazines including Tole World, Painting magazine and Decorative Artists Workbook.

Books[link]

• Amazing Metallics
• Basic Strokes Workbook
• Clay Pots
• Decorative Furniture with Donna Dewberry
• Decorative Murals with Donna Dewberry
• Donna Dewberry's Complete Book of One-Stroke Painting
• Donna Dewberry's One Stroke Painting Course
• Flowers A to Z with Donna Dewberry
• FolkArt One Stroke Books - Beautiful Backgrounds
• One Stroke A Season of Glass
• One Stroke Bake-able Glass
• One Stroke Cigar Box Purses
• One Stroke Country Bugs
• One Stroke Donna's Favorites
• One Stroke Floral Bouquets
• Peaceful Landscapes
• Landscapes
• Cards and Greetings
• Painted Celebrations
• Season Delights
• Painted Glass and Ceramics
• Fountains and Birdbaths
• Garden Animals
• Small and Pretty
• Outdoor Decor
• Donna's Favorites
• Paper Pleasure
• I Believe in Angels
• Lifestyle: A Summer Garden
• Landscapes for the Home (HD)

References[link]

1. ^ Famous Mormon Artists

External links[link]

• Donna Dewberry's Official One Stroke Web Site

Howard Finster (December 2, 1916 – October 22, 2001) was an American artist and Baptist reverend from Georgia. He claimed to be inspired by God to spread the gospel through the environment of Paradise Garden and over 46,000 pieces of art. His creations overlap folk art, outsider art, naïve art, and visionary art. Finster first came to widespread notice in the 1980s with his album cover designs for bands such as R.E.M. and Talking Heads.

Early life[link]

Finster was born at Valley Head, Alabama and lived on the family farm as one of 13 children. He attended school from age six into the sixth grade. He said he had his first vision at three years old, when he saw his recently deceased sister Abbie Rose walking down out of the sky wearing a white gown. She told him, "Howard, you're gonna be a man of visions."

He became "born again" at a Baptist revival at the age of 13 and began to preach at 16. He gave the occasional sermon at local churches and wrote articles for the town newspaper, and became a full-time pastor at Rock Bridge Baptist Church in 1940. He later served at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Fort Payne, Alabama, shortly before venturing into full-time art.

Artistic works[link]

Finster started building his first garden park museum in Trion, Georgia in the late 1940s. It featured an exhibit on the inventions of mankind in which Finster planned to display one of everything that had ever been invented, models of houses and churches, a pigeon flock and a duck pond.

When he ran out of land in Trion in 1961, he moved to Pennville, Georgia, near Summerville, and bought four acres (16,000 m²) of land upon which to build the Plant Farm Museum "to show all the wonderful things o' God's Creation, kinda like the Garden of Eden".^[1] It features such attractions as the "Bible House," "the Mirror House," "the Hubcap Tower," "the Bicycle Tower," "the Machine Gun Nest," and the largest structure in the garden, the five-story "Folk Art Chapel". He also started putting up signs with Bible verses on them because "he felt that they stuck in people's heads better that way."

He retired from preaching in 1965 and focused all of his time on improving the Plant Farm Museum. In 1976, he had another vision to paint sacred art. According to Finster, "..."one day I was workin' on a patch job on a bicycle, and I was rubbin' some white paint on that patch with this finger here, and I looked at the round tip o' my finger, and there was a human face on it... then a warm feelin' come over my body, and a voice spoke to me and said, 'Paint sacred art.'"^[2]

His images range from pop culture icons like Elvis Presley to historical figures like George Washington to religious images like The Devils Vice and "John the Baptist" to his own visions. His paintings are colorful and detailed; they use flat picture plane without perspective and are often covered with words, especially Bible verses. Every painting also has a number: God had asked him to do 5,000 paintings to spread the gospel and Finster wanted to keep track.

He finished the 5,000 a few days before Christmas in 1985, but continued painting and numbering until the day he died. By 1989, he was already numbering in the ten thousands.

He first started receiving outside publicity in 1975. That year, Atlanta, GA television station Channel 5 ran a story and he also appeared in an Esquire magazine article that first dubbed his museum Paradise Garden. He made his first exhibition appearance in 1976 and painted four paintings for the Library of Congress in 1977. He was also selected to be part of the Venice Biennale in 1984.

Finster gained national fame after his collaborative work with Athens, Georgia-based rock band R.E.M.. The group filmed the video for the group's debut single "Radio Free Europe" in Finster's Paradise Gardens in 1983. The following year, the band's singer Michael Stipe and Finster collaborated on a painting for the cover of their second album Reckoning. After that the band made the song "Maps and Legends" (in its third album Fables of the Reconstruction) as an homage to Finster. Along with R.E.M., Finster also appeared in the documentary film Athens, GA: Inside Out, filmed in 1985, in which he tells the story of how he came to be an artist. Finster (and his art) also appears in the band's video for Radio Free Europe.

The band Talking Heads commissioned a Finster painting for Little Creatures in 1985 that was subsequently selected as album cover of the year by Rolling Stone magazine. Other artists to use Finster as an album cover designer include Memory Dean, Pierce Pettis, and Adam Again. In 1994, a portion of his Paradise Garden was installed as part of the permanent collection of Atlanta's High Museum. Bill Mallonee of the Vigilantes of Love (also a Christian from Athens, Georgia) wrote a song inspired by Finster's artwork called The Glory and the Dream in 1994.

Howard Finster was responsible for introducing millions to outsider art, but even with his fame, he remained focused on religious outreach. He said of the Talking Heads album, "I think there's twenty-six religious verses on that first cover I done for them. They sold a million records in the first two and a half months after it come out, so that's twenty-six million verses I got out into the world in two and a half months!"^[3]

The classification of his creations overlap folk art^[4] and outsider art^[5][6] for the origin, naïve art^[7][6] and visionary art^[8] for the content.

One of Finster's last portraits; Don Swartzentruber.

References[link]

• Beal, T. (Timothy Beal) (2005). "Folk Art Church: Paradise Gardens," in Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith. Beacon Press.
• Finster, Howard and Patterson, Tom. (1989). Stranger From Another World: Man of Visions Now on This Earth. Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-902-7.
• Turner, J.F. (1989). Howard Finster: Man of Visions. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-57961-5.
• Peacock, Robert (1996). Paradise Garden: A Trip Through Howard Finster’s Visionary World, Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-1197-2. ISBN 0-8118-0941-2.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Finster.com – official website
• "Mind on Heaven" audio recording with the Shaking Ray Levis, 1987
• Howard Finster article, Encyclopedia of Alabama
• [1] A Masters thesis which details the life of Finster and five other visionary environmental artists.

Joe Lovano
Photo by Ed Newman
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Salvatore Lovano
Born	(1952-12-29) December 29, 1952 (age 59) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Genres	Post bop
Instruments	Tenor saxophone Alto saxophone C melody saxophone Clarinet Flute
Associated acts	Saxophone Summit SF Jazz Collective McCoy Tyner Quartet Shades of Jazz
Notable instruments
Tenor saxophone

Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano (born December 29, 1952) is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players^{[says who?]}, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls. He is married to jazz singer Judi Silvano.

Biography[link]

Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Sicilian-American parents. His father's family came from the town of Alcara Li Fusi in Sicily, and his mother's family came from Cesarò, also in Sicily. In Cleveland, Ohio, Lovano was exposed throughout his early life to jazz by his father, Tony "Big T" Lovano. John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Stitt were among his earlier influences. After graduating from Euclid High School in 1971,^[1][2] he developed further at Berklee College of Music where he studied under Herb Pomeroy and Gary Burton, then served a big band apprenticeship with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd and the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.

Cleveland tenorman "Big T" Lovano was his son's first inspiration, teaching him all the standards, how to lead a gig, pace a set, and be versatile enough to always find work. Joe started on alto at age six and switched to tenor five years later. He attended Berklee college of music before working with Jack McDuff and Dr. Lonnie Smith. After three years with Woody Herman's orchestra, Lovano moved to New York and began playing regularly with Mel Lewis’ Big Band. This influence is still present in his solos. He often plays lines that convey the rhythmic drive and punch of an entire horn section.^[3]

In the early ‘80s he began working in John Scofield’s quartet and a bass-less trio with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell. Steeped in the tradition of Ornette Coleman, Motian’s recordings show off Lovano’s avant-garde abilities. Lovano has enduring musical partnerships with John Scofield and Paul Motian, having participated in some of their more noteworthy projects over the years. In 1993, at the suggestion of musicologist Gunther Schuller, fellow Clevelander and bebop guitarist Bill DeArango recorded the album "Anything Went" with Lovano. "He was a major mentor for all of us round here," said Lovano. In 1999, having developed dementia, DeArango was taken into a nursing home, where Lovano visited him on December 26, 2005. Two hours after Lovano left, DeArango died. "He knew we were there," said Lovano. "His heartbeat raced. He knew we were there."^[3]

He is currently a jazz artist on the international level. His live work, specifically Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard, garnered a Down Beat "Jazz Album of the Year" award. Other releases include Trio Fascination and 52nd Street Themes. In the late 1990s, he formed the Saxophone Summit with Dave Liebman and Michael Brecker (now deceased, replaced with Ravi Coltrane). He played the tenor saxophone on the critically acclaimed 2007 McCoy Tyner album Quartet. In 2006 Lovano released Streams Of Expression, a tribute to cool jazz and free jazz. He did this with the help of Gunther Schuller who contributed his "Birth Of The Cool Suite". Joe Lovano and Hank Jones released an album together in June 2007 entitled Kids. Lovano also currently leads his quartet with Berklee Faculty and students Esperanza Spalding, James Weidman, and Otis Brown.

He has been the teacher of Jeff Coffin after the latter received an NEA Jazz Studies Grant in 1991.^[4] He currently holds the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance at Berklee College of Music.^[5]

Joe Lovano has been playing Borgani saxophones since 1991 and exclusively since 1999. He has his own series called Borgani-Lovano, which uses Pearl-Silver Alloy with Gold 24K keys.^[6]

He appears in Noah Buschel's film The Missing Person, with Academy Award Nominees Amy Ryan and Michael Shannon.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

Joe Lovano, Paul Motian and Bill Frisell

• Tones, Shapes & Colors (Soul Note, 1985)
• Hometown Sessions (JSL, 1986)
• Solid Steps (Jazz Club, 1986)
• Village Rhythm (Soul Note, 1988)
• Worlds (Evidence, 1989)
• Landmarks (Blue Note, 1990)
• Sounds of Joy (Enja, 1991)
• From the Soul (Blue Note, 1991)
• Universal Language (Blue Note, 1992)
• Tenor Legacy (Blue Note, 1993)
• Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1994)
• Rush Hour (Blue Note, 1994)
• Ten Tales (Sunnyside, 1994)
• Celebrating Sinatra (Blue Note, 1996)
• Tenor Time (Something Else, 1997)
• Flying Colors (Blue Note, 1997) with Gonzalo Rubalcaba
• Trio Fascination: Edition One (Blue Note, 1998)
• Friendly Fire (Blue Note, 1999) with Greg Osby
• 52nd Street Themes (Blue Note, 2000)
• Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition Two (Blue Note, 2001)
• Viva Caruso (2002)
• On This Day ... at the Vanguard (2003)
• I'm All for You (2004)
• Joyous Encounters (2005)
• "Streams of Expression" (2006)
• Symphonica (2008)
• Folk Art (2009)
• Bird Songs (2011) with Us Five

As sideman[link]

With John Abercrombie

• Open Land (ECM, 1998)

With Charlie Haden

• The Montreal Tapes: Liberation Music Orchestra (Verve, 1989 [1999])

With Steve Kuhn

• Mostly Coltrane (ECM, 2008)

With Paul Motian

• Psalm with Ed Schuller and Billy Drewes (ECM, 1982)
• The Story of Maryam with Ed Schuller and Jim Pepper (Soul Note, 1984)
• Jack of Clubs with Ed Schuller and Jim Pepper (Soul Note, 1985)
• It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago (ECM, 1985)
• Misterioso with Ed Schuller and Jim Pepper (Soul Note, 1986)
• One Time Out (Soul Note, 1987)
• Monk in Motian (JMT, 1988) trio + guests
• On Broadway Volume 1 (JMT, 1989)
• Bill Evans (JMT, 1990)
• On Broadway Volume 2 (JMT, 1990)
• Motian in Tokyo (JMT, 1991)
• On Broadway Volume 3 (JMT, 1993)
• Trioism (JMT, 1993) trio + guest
• At the Village Vanguard (JMT, 1995) trio
• Sound of Love (JMT, 1995) trio (live)
• I Have the Room Above Her (ECM, 2004) trio
• Time and Time Again (ECM, 2006) trio

With McCoy Tyner

• Quartet (2007)

With John Scofield

• Oh! (2003)

With Yōsuke Yamashita

• Kurdish Dance (Verve, 1993)
• Dazzling Days (Verve, 1993)

With Masada Quintet

• Stolas: Book of Angels Volume 12 (2009)

With others

• Unknown Voyage (1985) with Furio Di Castri
• Think Before You Think (1989) with Bill Stewart, Marc Cohen and Dave Holland
• Snide Remarks (1995) with Bill Stewart, Eddie Henderson, Bill Carrothers and Larry Grenadier
• Grand Slam (2000) with Jim Hall, George Mraz, and Lewis Nash
• Fourth World (2001) with James Emery, Judi Silvano, and Drew Gress
• Gathering of Spirits (2004) with Michael Brecker and Dave Liebman
• Kids: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (2007) with Hank Jones
• Silverslide with Dan Silverman

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Streams of Expression Video Scrapbook
• Borgani saxophones - as played by J.Lovano
• Joe Lovano at NPR Music

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2011)

Maud Lewis (March 7, 1903 – July 30, 1970) was a Canadian folk artist from Nova Scotia. She remains one of Canada's best known and most loved folk artists.

Early life[link]

She was born Maud Dowley in South Ohio, Nova Scotia on March 7, 1903 to John and Agnes Dowley.

She suffered from disabilities as a result of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She began her artistic career by hand-drawing Christmas cards. These proved popular with her husband's customers as he sold fish door to door and encouraged her to begin painting. She used bright colours in her paintings and subjects were often of oxen teams, horses, or cats. All of her paintings are of outdoor scenes. Her house was one-room with a sleeping loft and is now located in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.

Maude Lewis Memorial in Marshalltown

Marriage[link]

Maud married Everett Lewis, a taciturn fish peddler, on January 16, 1938 at the age of 34. They were poor and lived in a small thirteen foot six inches by twelve foot six inches house. Soon after they were married Maud Lewis accompanied her husband on his daily rounds peddling fish, bringing along Christmas cards that she had drawn. She would sell the cards for twenty five cents each. After some success with this, she started painting on various other surfaces such as pulp boards (beaverboards), cookie sheets, and Masonite. Maud was a compulsive artist and painted on more or less every available surface in their tiny home. It was Everett who encouraged Maud to paint and he bought her her first set of oils. Lewis lived most of her life in poverty with her husband in Marshalltown.

Paintings[link]

Most of Maud Lewis' paintings are quite small - often no larger than eight by ten inches, although she is known to have done at least five paintings 24 inches by 36 inches. Maud's technique consisted of first drawing an outline and then applying paint directly out of the tube. She never mixed colours.

Early Maud Lewis paintings from the 1940s are quite rare. The AGNS does have on display occasionally the Chaplin/Wennerstrom shutters(now part of the Clearwater Fine Foods Inc. collection) . The collection comprises twenty-two exterior house shutters that Maud did in the early 1940s. The work was done for some Americans who owned a cottage on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Most of the shutters are quite large 5 ft x 1 ft.6 inches. Maud was paid 70 cents a shutter.

Between 1945-1950, people began to stop at Maud's home and buy her paintings for two or three dollars. Only in the last three or four years of Maud's life did her paintings begin to sell for seven to ten dollars. She achieved national attention as a result of an article in the "Star Weekly" in 1964 and in 1965 she was featured on CBC-TV's Telescope. Unfortunately, her arthritis deprived her from completing many of the orders that resulted from the national exposure. In recent years, her paintings have sold at auction for ever increasing prices. Two of her paintings have sold for more than $16,000. The highest auction prices so far is $22,200.00 for lot 196 "A Family Outing". The painting was sold at a Bonham's auction in Toronto Nov 30,2009.

Later life and death[link]

In the last year of her life, Maud Lewis stayed in one corner of her house, painting as often as she could while traveling back and forth to the hospital.

A large collection of Maud's work can be found in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, which has restored her original house and installed it in the gallery as part of a permanent Maud Lewis exhibit. Most of the Maud Lewis paintings on display are on loan to the AGNS. A steel memorial sculpture based on her house has been erected at the original site of her house in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. An imitation Maud Lewis house has been built a private museum in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.

She died in Digby, Nova Scotia on July 30, 1970. Her husband Everett was killed when a burglar murdered him during attempted robbery at the house in 1979.

Further reading and other media[link]

Maud Lewis is the subject of a book, The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis and three National Film Board of Canada documentaries, Maud Lewis - A World Without Shadows (1997),^[1] The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis (1998) and I Can Make Art ... Like Maud Lewis (2005), a short film in which a group of Grade 6 students are inspired by Lewis' work to create their own folk art painting.^[2]

In 2009, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in conjunction with Greg Thompson Productions is presenting a new Maud Lewis play on stage at the AGNS. A Happy Heart: The Maud Lewis Story was written and produced by Greg Thompson, the same writer and producer who brought Marilyn: Forever Blonde to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in January 2008. Thompson wrote the one woman play while in Nova Scotia in 2008 and his newest work examines the life and art of Maud Lewis. The play will run until October 25, 2009.

References[link]

1. ^ "Maud Lewis: A World Without Shadows" (Requires Adobe Flash). Online documentary. National Film Board of Canada. 1976. http://www.nfb.ca/film/maud_lewis_a_world_without_shadows/. Retrieved 18 March 2011. 
2. ^ Churchill, Jane (2005). "I Can Make Art ... Like Maud Lewis". National Film Board of Canada. http://www.nfb.ca/film/i_can_make_art_like_maud_lewis. Retrieved 2009-03-26. 

External links[link]

• AGNS - Maud Lewis
• Several examples of Maud's work and short biography
• Maud Lewis - Short Bio
• Digby County Archives information about Maud Lewis
• Maud Lewis' Story