Folk Art

Artist Spotlight

George A. Olsen, Jr., practices the art of wood turning to craft tools, including rolling pins, spatulas, and pepper mills.

Drawing the Line

Throughout history humans have responded
to a profound need to translate the experience of life into marks, signs, and
symbols onto an infinitely varied number
surfaces, using an equally varied number
of tools and materials, ranging from compressed
charcoal on a cave wall to a rod
of gold on specially coated parchment.
The medium of drawing has chronicled
the history of humankind—a rich and varied tapestry comprised of countless
interwoven threads, each one bearing the
mark of an individual in relation to a series
of larger wholes. For the novice, the
act of drawing can prove irresistible: give
someone a pencil and a sheet of blank paper,
and they will likely leave their “mark.”
For the accomplished draftsman, drawing provides the satisfying experience not only
of exercising a well-honed skill, but also of
giving eloquent form to a vision.

Artist Spotlight: Noah Khoury

Artist Spotlight: Noah Khoury

Noah Khoury is  a second generation blacksmith, as his father was a blacksmith and a welder.  In his teenage years, he worked alongside his father,  teaching middle-school aged youth at a summer workshop program in Altamont, NY called the Helderberg Workshops.  After...

Artist Spotlight

A portrait of Jianling Yue, Chinese papercutting artist and Professor of Communication at Rensselaer Polytechni institution (RPI).

A Grove of Folk Art on Staten Island: Documenting the Carvings of W. Dixon

The author introduces the concenpt of dendroglyphs and the 1930’s work of W.Dixon who carved on five separate beech trees on Staten Island, NY. Dendroglyphs, or tree carvings, are an ephemeral art form that has been documented to be practiced by Haudenosaunee tribes in the 17th century and by Europeans arriving in North America.

A Reading Life

A review of “Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle,” by Clare Hunter.