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Home Highlights – Building a Room Around Folk Art

admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

There are two ways to build a room around folk art. Either use the art as a theme setting to decorate the whole room or use it as the focal point with the room’s contents directing the viewer’s eyes to the art.

Using art to establish a theme means one might look at the art and seek out things to mirror into the room’s decorations. If there is a predominant season, color or subject matter in the art presented then that is a good place to start.I was looking for more information and found it here. If the art is a painting of a mountain in the wintertime then the decorator can take colors reminiscent of winter or mountains capes and use that to choose colors, fabrics and wall decorations for the room. Perhaps a low coffee table in cool colors arrayed with a spread of landscape focused books showing photographs of mountains.

To decorate a room in the second manner with the art as a focal point the decorator would choose more sedate decorations or furniture so as to keep the rest of the room low key. The art would hold center spot in the room with all the furniture and decorations drawing the eye to the art.

Visiting the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

admin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is located in New Mexico. This folk art market is the largest in the world. When you visit The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market be prepared for a lively, colorful and generally fun event. There is usually well over one hundred artists that represent nearly fifty countries. They are energetic and talented. More than twenty five thousand people attend every year. Interestingly enough, nearly half of the artists are there to represent women’s cooperatives. This has a major impact on women because it give a home for their crafts and it helps them rise out of poverty.

When visiting The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market there are many different places to stay. There are local vacation rentals that you can rent that will allow you to live like a Santa Fe native and there are many native American owned hotels as well. There are many different places to eat. Depending on the mood you are in you can have a salad and pizza sub or a fine elegant and professional sit down dinner. The cuisine is superb and you will enjoy every mouth watering bite. There is something for every taste bud.

Artistic Past Times – How Practical Craft Becomes Folk Art

admin — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Back before such thing as internet shopping or even physical stores every day items were hand crafted from necessity. Today’s novelty folk art was yesterday’s winter project for do or die. Clothing was needed for protection as well as social status. Hand made garments were the norm. The artistry depended on the ability to purchase or weave fabric and obtain supplies such as looms. To vary color natural substances were used such as berries, bark and sometimes dirt. While in the earliest days some bartering of products was done, for the most part each household created its own clothing line.

Wealthy estates could purchase professionally woven fabrics yet most of the construction was done at home by seamstresses. As with today’s Folk art items were one of a kind. Since hand making was time and cost consuming, the results were long lasting carefully fitted costumes with multi-purposes. In modern times a knitted or home spun piece of clothing is a rare almost novelty item often found at craft shows and artists booths. Pottery, jewelry, clothing, quilts and much home decor is now mass produced. Its counter part, the home constructed piece is considered an art form rather than a required work.

Folk Art in the South – Reflections of Southern Culture

admin — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Folk Art is rather unique in that among all other art forms it is most prone to be influenced by the culture of the area in which the artist is producing. This is true because by definition, the folk artist has little to no training in the formal art world, techniques or art history, therefore they have nothing to go on other than their heritage and background. In the South, such artist currently draw much of their knowledge and experience for that of slavery and rural life or ancestors that were actual slaves or farmers. This viewpoint, being so en-grained in the culture for such a long period of time is relatively unique to the southern region of the United States, allows these artists to produce distinctive work that many have considered valuable and collectible for just those very reasons. The subject matter commonly found in such folk art includes laborers in the fields or marshes, landscapes of farmland, or naive reproductions of various livestock. These are the items and activities that have engulfed the lives of the majority of people in this region for the large majority of recent decades. These elements are often collected by folk art enthusiasts and displayed together as a singular motif or grouped based on the efforts of a single artist.