What is Contemporary Folk Art?

 

The purpose of this blog is to share with the world what is new and exciting in the contemporary folk art field. Before I do that, I feel it is best to define exactly what that is. By definition folk art is any art done by self taught artists. Historically, this has been art created by unskilled "naive." They would often recreate scenes of the rural country side or the environment of their culture.

Wikipedia defines folk art as:
art that encompasses artworks 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.

This art genre is alive and well on the internet and all around us. It is loved and cherished by many because of the warmth and whimsical feel that it conveys to it's audience. To me, it is art in it's purest form. It is not influenced by current trends in the popular art field. These talented artists are not encumbered by the rules that many art students pay thousands of dollars to understand. This is raw talent born in the minds of people all over the world and brought to physical reality by what ever medium is available, be it paint and brushes or gears and buttons.

Through this blog, I hope to share the talents of unsung artists all over God's creation that don't get near enough exposure because they don't follow the norms of the art world or popular culture. Through my years as a folk artist myself, I have had the pleasure of meeting and hundreds of artists of this genre, some making a full time income and some just filling their internal voices to create.

Please feel free to contact me with any suggestions of artists to feature here. Until next time, stay weird my friends.