Does folk art belong in a museum?

What is folk art?


First of all, I find out the definition about folk art at the internet.
It said “Folk art is Art originating among the common people of a nation or region and usually reflecting their traditional culture, especially everyday or festive items produced or decorated by unschooled artists”.
Literally, it is about folk. The subject could be person, things and their life.


From museum, I saw "Gee bend’s quilts" and "Theora hamblett's trees".
I think they belong to 'folk art'.


Gee bend’s quilts


Gee's Bend, also known as Boykin, is a very poor tenant community in Alabama, United States of America lying at the edge of the Black Belt in Wilcox County, about thirty miles southwest of Selma. It is named after Joseph Gee, a planter, and the first white man to settle in the area.
Exhibit in the museum brings to light the brilliant, bold and dynamic quilts created by a group of women who live in the isolated, African-American hamlet of Gee's Bend.
I think this is kind of folk art. Because, it presents her life style.
As other folk art, this isn’t made for art but for necessity at the first time. That means that they made it because they have to live with that. They are isolated, so it is hard to buy things they need. That’s why they made their necessity by themselves.
According to Gee bend’s quilts, we can imagine their lives.
And the another reason that we can call Gee bend’s quilts as “folk art” is that it isn’t just one but all woman in that places, making quilts together.
So it could be their customs. Customs and the folk art are related very closely. Customs can be folk art, and folk art can be customs.


Theora hamblett.


Theora Hamblett was born in Paris, Mississippi in 1893.
Most of Her works are about trees. She loves trees since she was young.
As a child, she loved to draw landscapes and other scenes from nature.
After she moves to Oxford, Mississippi in 1930, she enrolled in an art class at Ole Miss in 1950. This class, taught at night, was her first training in art.
Since her house was located at countryside, In front of her house in oxford, she can find lots of trees easily. From impression from trees, she starts to draw trees.
Her pictures present her region where she lives and usually reflecting her traditional culture. Also her pictures present landscapes and other scenes from nature.
That’s why we can call her works as folk art.
“Folk art” get inspiration from our lives; location, surrounding.
She gets inspiration from her surrounding and the location of her house. She likes trees and she draws trees because there are lots trees near her.
And she has her own style of painting; pointillism and bright colors.
Those things represent that her picture is different from others.. So we can distinguish her pictures and the others from her own technique very easily.



In conclusion, I think both of them in the museum are belong to folk art.
They represent their life style, their reign in their works.
We can find many folk arts not only in the museum, but also around our lives.
And I think everyone can be folk artist. Because it doesn’t need not only exact subject but also, trained skills. That doesn’t mean that folk art have no entitlement of naming “art”. I think folk art is the most meaningful arts in the worlds.
Because, from folk art, we can learn not only, art, but also, their life style.
And it doesn’t have difficult technique, so we can understand very well even though we are not artist.



From my picture, there are many dots on the trees. It is called “pointillism”.
And there are bright colors. Those techniques are from Theora hamblett.
My picture represent that ‘it is spring ‘. In olemiss, we can see lots of flowers from the trees. It is very beautiful. Now I can catch that why Theora hamblett loves trees and draws trees. During working on my picture, I was so excited because colors are so beautiful. And it makes me imagine real spring. Even though, I am not good at art, various colors make my picture as masterpiece.