The 22nd Annual Folk Fest

August 16th, 2015

Atlanta, Georgia

Taking a hint from P.T. Barnum, the “World’s Greatest Folk Art Show and Sale” took place in Atlanta August 14-16. Going well beyond Barnum’s three rings, the 2015 Folk Fest featured 86 dealers and artists occupying nearly 150 booths.

Attendees at the 22nd annual Folk Fest were greeted at the entrance with a “quilt” composed of the decorative panels from every prior Folk Fest commemorative T-shirt. Created by a longtime show staffer, it was prominently displayed at the entrance.

The first booths engulfed attendees with the world of folk and Outsider art. To the left was Duff Lindsay of Lindsay Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, with the in-booth presence of one of the gallery’s featured artists, Bill Miller. Miller’s unique work utilizes vintage linoleum, cut into pieces and assembled into collages creating landscapes, portraits, and historical scenes, most of which resemble stained-glass windows. He began this work as a founding member of the Pittsburgh Industrial Arts Co-op, which focuses on utilizing scrap industrial materials. Miller has been to Folk Fest before and benefited from returning buyers. He nearly sold out of his works this year. Prices ranged from Lady Bird at $400 to Frick Woods, a large complicated image, for $4000. Miller has been featured in the arts sections of the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

Lindsay Gallery also featured the memory paintings of Kentucky’s Helen LaFrance—nostalgia in vivid color. LaFrance (b. 1919) also paints visionary (religious) images. Her works are in the collections of Oprah Winfrey and Bryant Gumbel as well as numerous museums. A number of her works were shown.

Across the aisle was Ridgefield Gallery, Ortonville, Michigan, featuring wooden papier-mâché molds and a strong cross section of contemporary American folk art. Also seen were a group of Panamanian Darién Gap rainforest baskets. These are tightly woven from very thin grasses into geometric or pictorial motifs, typically tropical birds, butterflies, plants, and flowers. Prices ranged from $100 to $900.

This was a year for new artists. Most of these artists honor and practice the established folk art techniques and media while portraying traditional subjects. Like the generations of folk artists before them, they came to art from totally unrelated backgrounds and experiences, and most of them are self-trained in art.

Ernest Lee’s story may be best summarized by a single painting in his booth. The image of a bespectacled woman is his homage to his grandmother. Lee had some art training as a youth but now is experimenting with different styles. Memory paintings of Florida sites (he is from near Gainesville, Florida) as well as colorful “Florida Highwaymen” style light-filled landscapes were offered. Now a few abstracts are beginning to be included in his portfolio.

Lisa Cain is a classic example of a folk artist. Her background training is totally unrelated to art, and her art draws on her memories of growing up in Canton, Mississippi. Cain holds a Ph.D. in biology and teaches anatomy to medical students at the University of Texas. But it is her growing up in the rural South that inspires her art. Her paintings, in the mold of Clementine Hunter and Helen LaFrance, colorfully show farm scenes, family reunions, quilts hanging on a clothesline, and the like. Most are priced in the $200 to $300 range.

Jackie Haliburton of Jackie’s Folk Art, Katy, Texas, added a new subject group and 3-D technique to her previously successful Folk Fest image suite. Applying tufts of cotton to cotton field images makes these images leap off the canvas. Two such examples were offered at $900.

Bill Clark of Clark House Pottery, Greenville, South Carolina, has added a few more museums to the list of places displaying his folded pottery creations. He also is now recognized by the state of South Carolina for the use of what he calls “Ohr-agami” (a play on the word “origami” and his directly inspired copies of the work of George Ohr). In spite of much success, prices remain moderate, with many examples from $135.

Returning to Folk Fest after an absence of a few years was Jan Raber of Jubilation Antiques, Tampa, Florida. She always presents vintage, frequently anonymous objects that are reminiscent of the old antiques shops that were an unorganized accumulation that encouraged searching for your treasure. A number of special items included a carved and painted football team group at $450, a walking cane with a carved African American head handle for $1250, and a doll-size carved round table with two chairs for $175.

Presidio Arts, Floyd, Virginia, invited a serious search with piles of quilt tops, whirligigs, folk art paintings, wood carvings, and dolls. Prices were realistic, and the booth stayed busy. A 3' long Tanzanian carved natural wood canoe with rows of occupants with their wares including pottery and other items drew a lot of attention at $275. Quilts ranged from $55 to $265. There were even burlap produce sacks with colorful graphics for only $12.

Assemblages in art could be described or defined as a form of sculpture composed of found objects arranged in such a way that they create a single object. Some refer to assemblages as 3-D collages. Assemblages have drawn much interest at most recent Folk Fests. Funkyjunkassemblage, Owensboro, Kentucky, had a continuous flow of traffic. Many of the creations had a spaceship, alien perspective. Most prices ranged from $275 to $1200.

Jim Shores of Rome, Georgia, calls himself “a self-taught artist creating sculpture/assemblage and environmental art from found objects.” His often humorous subjects frequently have patriotic or scriptural themes. Many are large, life-size pieces that command attention. He utilizes old license plates to form small fish at $25 and metal auto parts and advertising signs for larger, more expensive objects, such as a panel from a Jeep tailgate for $175 and a large Coca-Cola “fish” at $500.

New Depression Guitars, Pensacola, Florida, creates and offers assemblages of stringed musical instruments using everything from cake tins to old metal chemistry set boxes. Prices begin at $250; the chemistry set guitar was $450. James Floyd was constantly playing one or another of his creations in the booth.

Scriptural and Biblical themes are a constant subject in much folk art material. Vivid examples in polychromed, deeply carved wood panels are Mark Mason’s specialty. These familiar Bible stories are seen in his versions of Jonah and of the Crucifixion.

Lou Sparks Smith of Atlanta also utilizes scripture, especially Nativities, the Christmas story, as the subject for shadowbox dioramas. These dioramas frequently include painted river rocks as people. There is also a heavy emphasis on animals as subjects. Priced at $110 was So Tender and Mild, a board with a painted starry sky, the donkey, and Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus. Painted rocks serve as the baby and also as a few additional animals. At $425 was a larger Nativity scene with many more characters.

The general line galleries were present with broad offerings of established and new folk artists. These included Cotton Belt Gallery, Montgomery, Alabama; Around Back at Rocky’s Place, Dawsonville, Georgia; and Haitian art specialist Le Primitif Galleries, Atlanta.

While there is some turnover in the galleries and artists represented at Folk Fest, there does seem to be a return to true folk art as opposed to decorator art.

For more information, visit the website (www.slotinfolkart.com) or call (770) 532-1115 or Steve Slotin at (404) 403-4244.

An anonymous assemblage of whisky bottle and bottle caps made into a hobo vase was $150 at the booth of Ridgefield Gallery, Ortonville, Michigan.

This display-mounted collection of four 1940s clothes brushes with black valet figural handles was offered at $400 by Ridgefield Gallery.

This large crab appropriately has lobster crackers for pincers. Stephen Marks of  Funkyjunkassemblage, Owensboro, Kentucky, priced it at $350.

The anonymously constructed hot pad of old clothespins, 1930s, was $95 in the booth of Jubilation Antiques, Tampa, Florida.

This old rag doll of a Seminole Indian was found in Jubilation Antiques’ booth. Jan Raber always has an interesting mix of vintage and anonymous objects. This rare doll with display stand was $525.

Usually tramp art boxes have some faults on the raised points. This particularly large tramp art box was nearly mint and bore the carved-in name “Joseph Weck.” It was $550 from Jubilation Antiques.

Lisa Cain’s Fishing ($300) was one of dozens of her memory paintings offered at Folk Fest. This was Cain’s first appearance at Folk Fest. Her works previously had been represented by a gallery that was not present.

James Floyd not only builds the strange stringed instruments from found materials, he also plays them to demonstrate their usability. Prices ranged up to $1500 for a showpiece that was built from a piece of driftwood.

Originally published in the November 2015 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2015 Maine Antique Digest