Now This is Folk Art!!!

Introducing a breath of fresh air...Jen Hardwick,  Jen is a Seattle-based artist that specializes in art assemblage pieces using a combination of new and recycled materials. Her work is just so fresh and creative. This is the kind of artist that I want to be when I grow up (...lol I am probably older than her.) And of course, Jen is self-taught. Amazing....

 

The Bee Collector

 

Scrap Bot

 

Man or Machine?

 

 

Salvage Bot

 



Paper Owl

 



 

Fish Fish

(This is my favorite one)

 

For more information about this incredible folk artist:

Jen Hardwick/redhardwick~Mixed Media
jen-hardwick.com
redheadhardwick@gmail.com

 

It is a weird time of year....

It is like we hardly know what to do with ourselves.  School hasn't started but, a lot of fall activities have.   We are trying to gear up for next year while not wanting to let go of the summer. It was glorious.

I am working on a new website devoted to all American Folk Art. What it is, it's history, famous artists and contemporary artists, and galleries. It will be very comprehensive. Like nothing that is available already. Not promoting my work just American Folk Art.  Let me know what you would like to see there.

The picture above is a scene from my husbands last fishing trip to Canada.
Here is a link to my most recent Ebay Auction http://tinyurl.com/3q2sub9


'Til Next Week,
Kori

Where has the time gone?????

I am happy to be back in the studio painting. Sometimes I think I get bored or less than motivated painting the same type of painting all the time, no matter how well received they are. When this happens I always start crafting or painting something totally different. This time it was ghosts and buttons. Then, like clock work, I find myself drawn to the primitive folk art again. What is meant to be, shall be. It feels good to be selling paintings again. Blessings, Kori

Okay, I can't wait anymore!!! I love primitive HALLOWEEN!

That must be why I have joined the group AHQU. Standing for Artistic Halloween Queens Unite. Here is our bootique!

But seriously, I know that summer just started (not officially) but, I can't wait for to start painting Halloween paintings. I love the feel of Halloween. To me it is the night that you can be whatever you want to be. I have never been one the bought into the whole scary, ghouls, zombies with fake blood thing. After all, who wants to dress up in something that is not going to make you look better!

So anyway, I just wanted to give you a sneak peek at my very first Halloween painting! A work in progress....

Working away...

This is what I am working on for Sunday. I finished the small quilt painting that I was working on last week which will be posted tonight on EBay.   Jesse's Tree that I posted a couple days ago is not for sale.  I am having a lot of fun in the studio this week because, I am working on a class schedule for my drawing class. I want to include a lot of the exercises included in "Drawing on the Right side of the BRain" by Betty Edwards. This book has made the connection from the brain to the paper.  I can't wait to share this with my classes.
I am still working on starting the online drawing "skype" classes. They should be up an running by the fall.

I am sick of painting snow people!!!!

 

Okay, I am ready to escape winter to a more colorful season. I am working on this piece to put up on Ebay tonight 8 pm est.
ID mylittlecornerdesign
I am going to be adding a lot of fun and excitement to the piece with people and animals. So, be sure to check it out on Ebay this week.
Stay warm!
Kori

I had a little time on my hands....

  

What a wonderful weekend!!! We stayed close to the house to let the kids recoup from their various illnesses.  I finished this piece that I painted last year. I stopped the painting in mid paint, so to speak.  It started as a acrylic paint on canvas.  Then, to change things up a little, I used colored pencils on paper to make the skaters. I wanted to make it a little more interesting. Then, I affixed the paper to the background. At that point, it was just two trees, the sky and the clothesline with a heart. For a year it sat in my studio like that......... What to do, What to do? ......... Today, I was feeling it. I put in a house a fence, dog, and some mittens and we have a story. The story is "Firsts." This is their first house, first winter, first skate, and first dog.  The firsts in life aren't always the best but, they are memorable. Hopefully, for these two, the first is magical!!!!  The original painting is for auction on EBay right now under my id "mylittlecornerdesign" Check it out!

What kind of people????

This is a piece that I am working on to place for sale at my website. I am not selling it cheap on EBay so, I can afford to take a little more time to add lots and lots of detail. This is what I love, the detail. However, I am having a hard time figuring out what kind of people I want to include and what they would be doing. I have a black lab, some swans, and a horse drinking from the lake already. What else should I include? Let me know if you have any ideas.

Inspiration

     People ask me all the time where I get the ideas for my paintings. Well, that is something that has never been hard for me to find because, it is all around me. Small towns have always fascinated me.  As a child my father was a candy wholesaler. He would have routes all over western Pennsylvania.  All of the kids had to take turns going with him to work. It was kind of a hated chore but, it did have it's perks. For me, one of them was riding in his big truck and enjoying the townscapes.  I loved to see all of the different houses and wondered about the lives of the people inside.

     It is funny how things stick with you. I now ride along with my husband and look for eye catching houses. The one pictured above we found on our vacation to Ohio. I know that southern Ohio is not the normal summer escape for people but, we really enjoyed it. Bremen Ohio is one of those towns that has very little commercialism. Similar to a modern day Mayberry, very quaint friendly and clean.  I am using  a similar house in a painting I am working on now. 

What is FOLk Art?

   When I started to think about this blog, what it was going to be about,  what would drive it.... I decided that it would be important to define for my followers...What is folk art? It seems to me that there is some confusion as to what makes folk art different from the rest of the art out there roaming the world.

According to Webster's Dictionary, folk art is defined as artistic works, as paintings, sculpture, basketry, and utensils, produced typically in cultural isolation by untrained often anonymous artists or by artisans of varying degrees of skill and marked by such attributes as highly decorative design, bright bold colors, flattened perspective, strong forms in simple arrangements, and immediacy of meaning. Unfortunately, I find some problems with that definition.

Although, they are correct in stating the different mediums used in folk art, today's folk artists are highly skilled, some with or without formal training and the colors and arrangements are not primarily bold or simple.   There are many professional artists that made their entire careers using a folk art motif in their works. For example, Charles Wysocki and Jane Wooster Scott. Both artists were formally trained but, their work flourished in a folk art style. 

No I don't believe that folk art can be defined in the same way that it was even twenty years ago. Throughout the last decade, I believe that it has taken on a new attitude perhaps borrowed from it's cousin "outsider art." Folk art can now be defined in much looser terms. For instance, a style that is not influenced by movements in academics or fine art circles and not restrained by the tight grasp that the fine art world may consider art worthy.  

Todays folk artists are totally free to express their love of anything from angels to cute little puppies (yes even cats), whether or not it is deemed appropriate in the mainstream "art world."  That is the folk art that I love.  A true visual expression of thoughts, feelings and ideas of day to day life, a true power to the people story!  Folk art is art of the people, for the people!!!!