Road Trip Ideas<< RETURN TO TO THE ROAD TRIP IDEAS MAIN MENU Talking Folk: Traditional Trail Artistsby Jill Breit I consider myself a river rat. The old saying goes that if you cut a river rat you won’t get blood. You’ll get river water.” Dan Hoadley, a St. Lawrence River fishing guide, is not a folk artist, but the strong sense of regional identity expressed in his statement is inherent in the work of many folk artists of the Seaway Trail. Shared community values, group associations, family customs : all of these motivate folk—or traditional —artists, who take inspiration from everyday life and their immediate surroundings to produce functional and aesthetically pleasing work. Folk art provides access into the traditional culture of a region. When traveling, one of the best ways to discover the way people really live in a place is to seek out the work of its folk artists. Baskets, walking sticks, quilts, furniture, memory paintings, painted eggs, decoys, rugs, carvings, and seasonal wreaths provide clues to the ethnic makeup, traditional occupations and available resources in a community. Those of us who work in folklore and related fields distinguish folk art from folk-style art. The distinction lies primarily in how the artist acquires his/her skills. Folk artists learn from other folk artists. There is continuity as skills are passed down from one generation to the next. A papercutter I know tells me that “it all began with Grandma tracing around my hand on a sheet of paper.” If you learn to cook or make a scarecrow, for example, by working with members of your family or a special friend, you might very well be a traditional artist. A well-prepared pumpkin pie or a straw man could be folk art. Part of the pleasure of searching for authentic contemporary folk art is the element of investigation required. Few folk artists make their living from their art. Many sell their work if approached, but they may not have their name out in the marketplace at all. Or, when they are in the marketplace, their volume of production may be limited. There are many places to look for the work of folk artists: museum collections, gift shops, art galleries, farmers’ markets, and craft shows. The only way you will know if a piece is genuine folk art is by finding out something about the artist and how s/he came to the art form. Folk art is not necessarily primisweetgrass and black ash baskets made for generations by the Mohawks at Akwesasne. Black ash was plentiful in the landscape and baskets made from it are strong enough to hold up to heavy use, carrying and storing supplies. Sweetgrass was chosen for decorative elements in the basket because of its spiritual significance—a purifying one—to the Native Americans. Then, more than 100 years ago, Victorian market forces influenced the design of baskets, as souvenir markets in Niagara Falls and the Thousand Islands encouraged production of handkerchief baskets and other styles the Native Americans would not use themselves. Today, fancy covered baskets grace both fine art and folk art collections all over the country. Mae Bigtree is one of the premier basketmakers at Akwesasne. She learned to make baskets by watching and helping her mother. “ I used to make the bottoms for my mother and I used to braid [the sweetgrass] for her. And I used to help her put the rim on... She taught me how to do all that, and she taught me how to keep it straight, how you have to pack it [the ash splints], keep packing it till it’s all even. And if you make a mistake, she’d say, ‘Take it apart. Do it over. [That’s] the only way you are going to learn’.” Mae learned so well that one of her baskets was chosen for the collection at the Smithsonian Institution. She continues to work at her baskets daily and to teach others how to make them. Boats and decoys are examples of folk art originally developed out of occupational need. They have been both tools of the trade and sources of income for residents of the Thousand Islands throughout the history of settlement there. The Hollis family in Ogdensburg is noted for the punts they build and the excellence of the decoys they carve. Walter Hollis built the first “Hollis punt” in the 1930s because he couldn’t afford boat for hunting and fishing. Salvaging planks of wood from various sources, he crafted a sturdy flat-bottomed workboat. Today the pattern used for the workboat is still built by younger members of his family. If you ask Walter’s grandson, Dick, a boat builder and award-winning decoy carver about his techniques, he invariably replies, “I started carving birds when I was—I think I was thirteen. ‘Course I have a good coach, Dad—I just watched him do enough of ‘em that I tried my hand at it.” Though most of the decoys Dick sells are put on mantelpieces by their owners, Dick still likes to put out a set of his own decoys now and then when hunting. “It’s a novelty you know. . . It’s just good to catch a fish out of a boat you built, good to shoot ducks over your decoys... “ Another traditional artist, John Green, sells carvings of songbirds and other wildlife in art galleries, but he still makes working decoys and uses them as he learned to do from a friend when he was a teenager: “I start from scratch. I make a sketch and I take that sketch and sometimes make a cardboard cutout and sketch that on the wood I want to use. And then I take a band saw and cut it out. From there on in, it’s purely your knowledge of how a duck is supposed to look.” John gained that knowledge first-hand, as a hunter and wildlife enthusiast, watching the birds for hours at a time. Ethnicity manifests itself widely in folk art. Along the Seaway Trail you will find many different groups represented. For example, Polish Americans, long established in Buffalo, continue many traditional activities in their communities. As a child, Henia Makowski learned the traditional pin-style wax-resist methods of pisanki, making eggs dyed with onion skins and decorated with simple, bold patterns such as suns, pine branches, wheat and grapes. For years she taught others the skill. Now 70, she continues to make and sell the eggs. If you ask her why, she explains, “I want to keep the family tradition alive. And the beauty of the eggs.” From July 2 to November 19, 2000, Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University will present the exhibition, Across Borders: Beadwork in Iroquois Life. The comprehensive overview of Iroquois beadwork will include more than 350 historic, traditional pieces by living artists and contemporary works of art. For more information, call the museum at 716-286-8200. Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) often summarizes its mission as “celebrating the customs and creativity of everyday life.” That is the heart of folk art and the foundation of its appeal. Once you begin to consider the larger parameters of folk expression, examples crop up everywhere. Enjoy the search. Jill Breit is Assistant Director for Operations TAUNY. Note: The identification of traditional folk artists is on-going. TAUNY is at the core of efforts to document folk artists and welcomes information from Journey Magazine readers to assist in their efforts. SOURCES OF FOLK ART One thing leads to another in the quest for folk art. The following list will get you started. Don’t forget that farmers markets and craft shows hold good potential. Akwesasne Museum & Sweetgrass Giftshop Broadway Market Castellani Museum Niagara University Henia Makowski Seaway Trail Discovery Center Gift Shop Thousand Islands Museum Traditional Arts in Upstate |