Maud Lewis has become one of Canada's favourite folk artists, and her buoyant winter pictures of nature, pets, farm animals, and people at work and play are among her most charming. Her hands were twisted with arthritis, but Maud earned her living by painting Christmas cards and pictures and selling them from her tiny, gaily painted one-room house beside the highway near Digby, Nova Scotia.Originally issued in 1997 and now available in this updated edition, Christmas with Maud Lewis paints a portrait of how this spirited woman celebrated the season in her life and art. Maud's vision of Christmas embraces skaters sliding every which way, passengers leaning over the box of a horse-drawn sleigh, smiling oxen in their best harness, and bluebirds beside their snow-covered house. The paintings in Christmas with Maud Lewis are from the large collection of the Woolaver family.

A new approach to the work of self-taught artist James Castle that focuses on how his drawings and practice resonate with earlier masters Drawing on the collections of the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation and the James Castle Collection and Archive, this volume features more than 90 of James Castle’s (1899–1977) landscapes and architectural-interior views, including works that have never been published before. Broadening the discussion of Castle’s work beyond the common emphasis on the role of the artist’s deafness and isolation in rural Idaho, Larry J. Feinberg places the self-taught artist in a larger artistic and cultural context and foregrounds Castle’s prowess as a draftsman. He shows how the artist’s evocative and unconventional images use techniques such as a “bending,” intuitive perspective and subtle shifts of focus. Comparing the descriptive and expressive effects that Castle achieves in his soot drawings with studies by Rembrandt and showing how Castle’s manipulation of space has much in common with Piranesi and M. C. Escher, this study expands our understanding of the artist’s evocative and unconventional images in new and exciting ways. Distributed for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Santa Barbara Museum of Art (June 25–September 17, 2023)

Celtic Art is the only indigenous British art form of world significance and this book is a graphically eloquent plea for the establishment of this great national art to its rightful place in schools and colleges where the history of ornament is being taught. Until recently, the classical orientated art-world has regarded the abstract, iconographic and symbolic style of the Celtic artist as something of an enigma, a mysterious archaic survival largely ignored in histories of art. The modern trends away from realism and the interest of the younger generation in psychedelic and art nouveau styles provides favourable ground for the Celtic art revival which the widespread interest in this new edition seems to indicate is possible. When this book first appeared, it was hailed as a 'veritable grammar of ornament'. It is certainly an indispensable reference book and practical textbook for the art student and craftsman seeking simple constructional methods for laying out complex ornamental schemes. The entire chronology of symbols is embrace from spirals through chevrons, step patterns and keys to knotwork interlacings, which are unique to this particular Celtic school. There are also sections dealing with zoomorphics, authentic Celtic knitwear, ceramics and other areas in which the author pioneered in his day. This book deals with the Pictish School of artist-craftsman, who cut pagan symbols like the Burghead Bull, and in the early Christian era designed such superb examples of monumental sculpture as the Aberlemno Cross, the Ardagh Chalice and the counter-parts in the Books of Kells and Lindisfarne. Knotwork Interlacings, owing much of their perfection and beauty to the use of mathematical formulae, are unique to Pictish Art and are found nowhere else than the areas occupied by the Picts. The outstanding achievement of their art was the subtle manner in which they combined artistic, geometric and mathematical methods with magic, imagination and logic, the function being both to teach and adorn. Although incidental to the main educational purpose of this book, there is also an implicit challenge to the art historian and archaeologist. The author frankly admits that the evidence such researches into the art have revealed of a hitherto unsuspected culture of much sophistication in pre-Roman Britain, pose as many questions as are answered. Who were the Picts? Whence the Asiatic origins of the Celtic Art? The instinct to ornament is one of the most basic human impulses that seems to have atavistic roots in the primeval creative and imaginative characteristic that separates man from beast.

A major new look at the work of one of America's foremost self-taught artists Bill Traylor (ca. 1853-1949) came to art-making on his own and found his creative voice without guidance; today he is remembered as a renowned American artist. Traylor was born into slavery on an Alabama plantation, and his experiences spanned multiple worlds-black and white, rural and urban, old and new-as well as the crucibles that indelibly shaped America-the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Great Migration. Between Worlds presents an unparalleled look at the work of this enigmatic and dazzling artist, who blended common imagery with arcane symbolism, narration with abstraction, and personal vision with the beliefs and folkways of his time. Traylor was about twelve when the Civil War ended. After six more decades of farm labor, he moved, aging and alone, into segregated Montgomery. In the last years of his life, he drew and painted works depicting plantation memories and the rising world of African American culture. Upon his death he left behind over a thousand pieces of art. Between Worlds convenes 205 of his most powerful creations, including a number that have been previously unpublished. This beautiful and carefully researched book assesses Traylor's biography and stylistic development, and for the first time interprets his scenes as ongoing narratives, conveying enduring, interrelated themes. Between Worlds reveals one man's visual record of African American life as a window into the overarching story of his nation. Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Thousands of artists have exhibited and sold their work at the Traditional Spanish Market of Santa Fe, New Mexico in the sixty years it has been in existence. This book is a record of the 186 artists who participated in the 2010 Market. They stand as testament to all who have been there before. Donna Pedace has been the National Director of OASIS (Older Adult Service and Information System, Inc.), based in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Executive Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. Before joining the Spanish Colonial Arts Society, sponsor of the Traditional Spanish Market of Santa Fe, she was the Executive Director of the New Mexico Multicultural Center.

The sale of goods falsely represented as authentic Indian-produced arts and crafts has been a persistent and potentially growing problem in the United States. At least 1.9 million members of federally recognised Indian tribes live in the United States, some of whom are artisans who create pottery, baskets, rugs and other types of arts and crafts for sale to wholesalers, retailers or the public directly at Indian art shows and markets. Misrepresentation by sale of inauthentic products created by non-Indians, including imports from foreign countries, is a matter of great concern to Indian artisans, who may have to reduce their prices or lose sales because of competition from lower-priced imitation products. This book explores the misrepresentation problem of American Indian artisans which extends beyond tangible arts and crafts to include other types of traditional knowledge and cultural expression, such as song, dance and writings.

From the dusty workshops of village potters to the pristine assembly lines of modern factories; from the makers of pottery to the producers of porcelain in selected areas of Mexico and Denmark, the authors observed, interviewed, and photographed ceramic artists at their work. The result is a story of persistence, inspiration, collaboration and intrigue, success and failure, along with individual eccentricities in the process of making ceramic art for an international market. The story is not only that of the potter's wheel, but of the wheel of time over which the lowly village potter evolves as professional artist who eventually, in some instances, rejects making corporate porcelain in favor of returning to clay and kiln. The Mexican communities are near Guadalajara. The Danish settings include the towns of Naestved, Sorring, the island of Bornholm and, in Copenhagen, the porcelain giants Royal Copenhagen and Bing and Grondahl contrasting large scale corporations with small pottery factories. Researched in the 1970s, the abandoned manuscript, recently rediscovered, appears here as written then with current material added to inform and update the historical ethnography, providing a rare opportunity to follow up on people and predictions, after thirty years, to identify change, decay and fulfillment.

This book offers complete step by step fully illustrated instructions, clearly showing how you can create three very different types of wire tree sculptures. All material and tools needed to create these tree sculptures are readily available through easy to locate sources, such as craft stores, hobby shops, hardware stores and florists. This book is the calumniation of years of creating wire trees, and other natural forms, using only different types and grades of wire. Clearly written and profusely illustrated by Sal Villano, the detailed instructions are very easy to follow. You will be guided step by step, in the creation of a Willow Tree an Oak Tree and a Wind Swept Tree sculpture.Upon completion of the three small trees you will then be able to create many of the other larger wire tree sculptures shown on the authors web site at: http: //www.salvillano.com">salvillano.co

A fascinating new look at an extraordinary artist whose deafness led to an acute visual awareness and near photographic memory Self-taught artist James Castle (1899-1977) is primarily known for soot and saliva drawings of meticulously rendered domestic interiors and farm scenes, along with fantastical figures, animals, and architectural constructions made of cardboard and stitched paper. Castle was born into a family of homesteaders in Idaho, and his visual world comprised variations of seemingly ordinary subjects: rural landscapes, houses, barns, and outbuildings; interiors with closed and open doors, beds, bureaus, tile floors, and minutely patterned wallpaper; and color copies of illustrated advertisements for food, fuel, and matches. Castle was a deaf artist who by most accounts never learned to read, write, or speak. In this remarkable book, author John Beardsley discusses how these limitations led to the development of an extraordinary memory, an ability that enabled him to create a large number of distinctly intelligent artworks. Beardsley follows Castle's work as if through a series of rooms (a "Memory Palace")-interiors, exteriors, objects, books, and words-reproducing many previously unknown works and referencing other documents made available for the first time from the James Castle Collection and Archive. Published in association with the James Castle Collection and Archive

This book features the largest collection of Mr. T memorabilia in the world, including over 150 homemade soft sculpture dolls collected and documented over the past 25 years. The dolls were made from a pattern book by Miss Martha Originals from Gadsden, Alabama, that in 1983 could be bought at thousands of craft stores in the country, including Walmart. Inspired by the Cabbage Patch Kid craze of the 1980s, the dolls were made in an unknown amount but probably exist in the thousands. Each doll is a labor of love and represents the skill level of each artisan. As modern-day folk art they have been recognized as such by the American Folk Art Museum in NYC, and they have toured the world in art exhibitions, including in NYC, San Francisco, Toronto, and Paris, France.

A nuanced reassessment that transforms our understanding of this self-taught artist Arguably the most successful African American artist of his day, Horace Pippin (1888-1946) taught himself to paint in the 1930s and quickly earned international renown for depictions of World War I, black families, and American heroes Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist John Brown, and singer Marian Anderson, among other subjects. This volume sheds new light on how the disabled combat veteran claimed his place in the contemporary art world. Organized around topics of autobiography, black labor, artistic process, and gift exchange, it reveals the range of references and critiques encoded in his work and the racial, class, and cultural dynamics that informed his meteoric career. Horace Pippin, American Modern offers a fresh perspective on the artist and his moment that contributes to a more expansive history of art in the 20th century. Featuring over 60 of Pippin's paintings, this volume also includes two previously unknown artist's statements-"The Story of Horace Pippin as told by Himself" and "How I Paint"-and an exhibition history and list of artworks drawn from new research.

What do exotic area rugs, handcrafted steel-string guitars, and fiddling have in common today? Many contemporary tradition bearers embrace complexity in form and content. They construct objects and performances that draw on the past and evoke nostalgia effectively but also reward close attention. In Rugs, Guitars, and Fiddling: Intensification and the Rich Modern Lives of Traditional Arts, author Chris Goertzen argues that this entails three types of change that can be grouped under an umbrella term: intensification. First, traditional creativity can be intensified through virtuosity, through doing hard things extra fluently. Second, performances can be intensified through addition, by packing increased amounts of traditional materials into the conventionally sized packages. Third, in intensification through selection, artistic impact can grow even if amount of information recedes by emphasizing compelling ideas-e.g., crafting a red and black viper poised to strike rather than a pretty duck decoy featuring more colors and contours. Rugs handwoven in southern Mexico, luthier-made guitars, and southern US fiddle styles experience parallel changes, all absorbing just enough of the complex flavors, dynamics, and rhythms of modern life to translate inherited folklore into traditions that can be widely celebrated today. New mosaics of details and skeins of nuances don't transform craft into esoteric fine art, but rather enlist the twists and turns and endless variety of the contemporary world therapeutically, helping transform our daily chaos into parades of negotiable jigsaw puzzles. Intensification helps make crafts and traditional performances more accessible and understandable and thus more effective, bringing past and present closer together, helping folk arts continue to perform their magic today.

What do exotic area rugs, handcrafted steel-string guitars, and fiddling have in common today? Many contemporary tradition bearers embrace complexity in form and content. They construct objects and performances that draw on the past and evoke nostalgia effectively but also reward close attention. In Rugs, Guitars, and Fiddling: Intensification and the Rich Modern Lives of Traditional Arts, author Chris Goertzen argues that this entails three types of change that can be grouped under an umbrella term: intensification. First, traditional creativity can be intensified through virtuosity, through doing hard things extra fluently. Second, performances can be intensified through addition, by packing increased amounts of traditional materials into the conventionally sized packages. Third, in intensification through selection, artistic impact can grow even if amount of information recedes by emphasizing compelling ideas-e.g., crafting a red and black viper poised to strike rather than a pretty duck decoy featuring more colors and contours. Rugs handwoven in southern Mexico, luthier-made guitars, and southern US fiddle styles experience parallel changes, all absorbing just enough of the complex flavors, dynamics, and rhythms of modern life to translate inherited folklore into traditions that can be widely celebrated today. New mosaics of details and skeins of nuances don't transform craft into esoteric fine art, but rather enlist the twists and turns and endless variety of the contemporary world therapeutically, helping transform our daily chaos into parades of negotiable jigsaw puzzles. Intensification helps make crafts and traditional performances more accessible and understandable and thus more effective, bringing past and present closer together, helping folk arts continue to perform their magic today.

Art, Observation, and an Anthropology of Illustration examines the role of sketches, drawings and other artworks in our understanding of human cultures of the past. Bringing together art historians and anthropologists, it presents a selection of detailed case studies of various bodies of work produced by non-Western and Western artists from different world regions and from different time periods (from Native North America, Cameroon, and Nepal, to Italy, Solomon Islands, and Mexico) to explore the contemporary relevance and challenges implicit in artistic renditions of past peoples and places. In an age when identities are partially constructed on the basis of existing visual records, the book asks important questions about the nature of observation and the inclusion of culturally-relevant information in artistic representations. How reliable are watercolours, paintings, or sketches for the understanding of past ways of life? How do old images of bygone peoples relate to art historical and anthropological canons? How have these images and technologies of representation been used to describe, illustrate, or explain unknown realities? The book is an essential tool for art historians, anthropologists, and anyone who wants to understand how the observation of different realities has impacted upon the production of art and visual cultures. Incorporating current methodological and theoretical tools, the 10 chapters collected here expand the area of connection between the disciplines of art history and anthropology, bringing into sharp focus the multiple intersections of objectivity, evidence, and artistic licence.

Mexico is home to some of the world's most extraordinary folk art, and the majority of its highly acclaimed pieces were created by women. Looking closely at eight types of Mexican folk art, including votive paintings, embroidered exvotos, cardboard Judas dolls, reproductions of Frida Kahlo's paintings made of clay, and clay figures from Cumicho called "alebrijes," this beautifully illustrated volume is one of the first to trace the role and effects of gender on both the objects of Mexican folk art and the knowledge and life experiences that lie behind them.

This book offers a visual celebration of the Islamic pilgrimage on house facades all over Egypt. Since the seventh century, the Hajj, or Great Pilgrimage to Mecca, has been a lifelong goal of devout Muslims throughout the world. Egyptian pilgrims traditionally celebrate their sacred journey by commissioning a local artist to depict their religious odyssey on the walls of their homes. "Hajj Paintings" is the first visual record of the richness and variety of this naive art form. Photographer Ann Parker and writer Avon Neal spent a decade exploring towns, villages, and isolated farm communities along the Nile, across the Delta, down the Red Sea coast, and into Sinai. On the walls of buildings ranging from alabaster factories to mud-brick farmhouses they found brilliant murals illuminated by the desert sun, portraying beloved icons of the pilgrims' faith and scenes from the Qur'an. Their nearly 150 color photographs and accompanying descriptions record the radiant palette of the mostly self-taught artists.

Dress helps us fashion identity, history, community, and place. Dress has been harnessed as a metaphor for both progress and stability, the exotic and the utopian, oppression and freedom, belonging and resistance. Dressing with Purpose examines three Scandinavian dress traditions-Swedish folkdrakt, Norwegian bunad, and Sami gakti-and traces their development during two centuries of social and political change across northern Europe. By the 20th century, many in Sweden worried about the ravages of industrialization, urbanization, and emigration on traditional ways of life. Norway was gripped in a struggle for national independence. Indigenous Sami communities-artificially divided by national borders and long resisting colonial control-rose up in protests that demanded political recognition and sparked cultural renewal. Within this context of European nation-building, colonial expansion, and Indigenous activism, traditional dress took on special meaning as folk, national, or ethnic minority costumes-complex categories that deserve reexamination today. Through lavishly illustrated and richly detailed case studies, Dressing with Purpose introduces readers to individuals who adapt and revitalize dress traditions to articulate who they are, proclaim personal values and group allegiances, strive for sartorial excellence, reflect critically on the past, and ultimately, reshape the societies they live in.

African-American art has made an increasingly vital contribution to the art of the United States from the time of its origins in early-eighteenth-century slave communities. This major reassessment of the subject discusses folk and decorative arts such as ceramics, furniture, and quilts alongside fine art -- sculptures, paintings, and photography -- produced by African Americans, both enslaved and free, throughout the nineteenth century. It explores art and politics, the influence of galleries and museums, and examines the New Negro Movement of the 1920s, the Era of Civil Rights and Black Nationalism through the 1960s and 1970s, and the emergence of new black artists and theorists in the 1980s and 1990s. African-American Art shows that in its cultural diversity and synthesis of cultures it mirrors those in American society as a whole.

`a much needed text. . . breaks down the barrier between folk and formal art, and articulates an interrelationship of both concepts to African-American people and their culture' Keith Morrison, Artist and Dean of the College of Arts, San Francisco State University.

`a fine survey of contemporary African-American art and ideas... a volume, which, like no other, can be used both as an unusual reference book and a good read' Emma Amos, Artist and Professor of Art at Rutgers University

Celebrating two collectors' passion for Americana and the window it provides into the everyday beauty of the past Becoming America offers a multifaceted view of one of the foremost collections of 18th- and 19th-century American folk and decorative art from the rural Northeast. Essays by leading specialists discuss the culture of furniture workshops, exuberant painted decoration, techniques of sewing and quilting, and poignant stories about the families depicted in the portraits. The collection itself includes Shaker boxes, a beaded Iroquois hat, embroidered samplers, metalwork, scrimshaw, handwoven rugs, ceramics, and a weather vane. The majority of these works have never before been published. With lively essays and profuse illustrations, this handsome volume brings to life the aesthetic of early Americans living in the countryside and is an essential exploration of the period's taste and style. Distributed for The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Exhibition Schedule: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA (October 22, 2016-ongoing)