I was at SFO recently to drop-off Mijo for his trip abroad. While waiting for him to finish check-in, I had time to walk around the International terminal and had an enjoyable time looking at the airport's art displays about American Folk Art near Gate A.
I didn't really know what folk art means so I looked up online. According to the Museum of International Folk Art, folk art is the art of everyday. Even with that definition I just learned that evening, I still didn't have an idea what sort of art is folk art until I browsed through SFO Museum's exhibit.
I learned that folk art, unlike fine art, is for practical purposes. It is utilitarian and decorative rather than purely for aesthetics. It is usually made by master crafts and trades people and it is rooted in the local culture and traditions with techniques and styles passed from one generation to the next.
Growing up in a small town in the Philippines, I remember seeing a few pictorial needlework, pictorial wood carvings, domestic kitchenwares, and whimsey bottles depicting local life and thinking how traditional, odd looking, too-Filipino looking they were because I didn't have an appreciation for folk arts at that age. Now that I am older, I now wonder whether there are genuine folk arts still being created today with local traditions being diluted due to globalization, internet and social media. I wonder if a so called local style still exists? I can only hope.
Here are the ones on display when I was there.
It was educational to view these folk arts depicting the regions in the U.S.A. where they were made and the styles of that time.
The American Flag
Duck Decoys.
Domestic Kitchen wares.
Windvanes.
School children's copybook.
Carved Stone books.
Southern Folk Pottery.
Pictorial Wood Carving.
Pennsylvania Pottery
Pennsylvania German Furnishings.
Maritime Folk Art.
Fraternal Folk Art.
Fraktur.
Folk Houses.
Whimsey bottles.
Windvanes.
The Bald Eagle
Samplers and pictorial needle work.
Presidential Folk Art.
The American Folk Art exhibit is on display through July 15, 2018. It is located at the International Terminal near Gate A.
~rl
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