Ugly folk art thing of beauty
Next generation reveals style at weekend festival
For the Journal-Constitution
For Steve Slotin, who founded and has been running Folk Fest for 14 years, familiarity breeds mystery.
“You never know what’s going to show up at our show,” he said. The paintings, pottery, sculpture, quilts and other pieces at this year’s event, which runs tonight through Sunday at North Atlanta Trade Center in Norcross, will spotlight the best of longtime folk artists as well as the next generation. And that was what Slotin intended when he created the event, which is touted as the world’s largest folk art show and sale.
Courtesy Slotin Folk Art
Woodie Long (‘Bike Rider’) is one of the most popular artists at Folk Fest.
Courtesy Slotin Folk Art
Jimmy Lee Sudduth (‘Self-portrait in White Overalls’) created paintings with mud and found materials.
Folk Fest 2008
5-10 tonight, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday at North Atlanta Trade Center, 1700 Jeurgens Court, Norcross (take I-85 to Exit 101 and follow signs). $15 Friday (includes Folk Fest T-shirt and admission for the entire weekend), $7 Saturday or Sunday. 770-532-1115, www.slotinfolkart.com
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“I think people are attracted to and see that this is really a disappearing part of our community. I think people are saying, ‘Hey, let’s not lose it too fast, let’s preserve it, let’s collect it, let’s cherish it,’” he said. “Our show is about finding new discoveries” among the mix of works from established and emerging artists.
The show attracts collectors from both coasts as well as folk artists, with a meet-the-artist party during the show’s opening tonight. Slotin said 80 percent to 90 percent of well-known folk artists, including Howard Finster and Mose Tolliver, have died since the shows began.
“The art doesn’t really get old,” said Lula potter Michael Crocker. “That’s why the show continues.”
Mixed-media artist Athlone Clarke, who grew up in Jamaica and lives in Douglasville, said the event reflects how the region has come to be known as the “cradle of folk art.”
“Atlanta, I guess, would be kind of considered [for folk art] what New York is to fine art,” he said.
Five things to know about Folk Fest
1. Watch the emerging generation of creators.
Slotin says collectors are getting excited about the next generation of folk artists, which includes Thomas E. Moses, the grandson of Grandma Moses.
“These are younger people who are being influenced by the folk art of their parents’ generation, and they’re building on that. It’s becoming fun and funky.”
That could be everything from “kooky photos” to pieces using historical references. Clarke said the next generation is taking on issues of gender, politics and the environment, while the unschooled, older artists were restricted to their immediate, often rural, surroundings. “We’re kind of moving away from what is considered the old-school stereotype of what folk art is supposed to be,” he said.
2. Prices vary.
You can get a piece by an established folk artist such as the late R.A. Miller for $100, or pay $50,000 for a piece by Bill Traylor, who Slotin called the “mack daddy of folk artists.” Traylor, a freed slave, started selling his work for pennies in Alabama, where he found scrap materials and drew on them. Now they’re in museums and in private collections of celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Slotin said.
Most pieces at Folk Fest range from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. “This art form has really become a pretty good investment for a lot of collectors,” he said.
3. There’s beauty in ugly.
Pieces at this year’s show will include a devil face jug by the late Lanier Meaders valued at nearly $20,000. The jugs, which Slotin has enjoyed collecting for years, are so ugly they’re beautiful, he said. The popular pottery of Meaders, as well as his parents and brothers, made around the North Georgia town of Cleveland, are featured in the Smithsonian and other museums.
4. Buy what you like.
That’s the most important tip artists Crocker and Clarke can give to new collectors. “Never buy art for the purposes of investment, or because it might appreciate as the years roll on. If you buy what you like, then there is almost no such thing as losing,” Clarke said. Also, buy in the range of what you can afford, so you can add pieces throughout the year, Crocker said. Slotin also recommends focusing on an area you want to collect, whether it’s African-American female artists or living artists, or a type of medium.
5. There’s music, too.
Artist, singer and songwriter Daniel Johnston, subject of the documentary, “The Devil and Daniel Johnston,” will perform Saturday night.
