Why I Love Folk Art?

Embroidery detail of my guinea pig Bea on an unfinished crazy aquilt.

Folk art is a joy to behold.  It reaches right down into me and tells me who a person really is or who a group of people are.  "Folk Art", whatever that means, takes guts.  It takes guts to put your insides on the outside of a cloth, wood or paper.  After a while you loose this sense of putting yourself on the line.  The process of  creating art takes central stage.  The story in all it's beauty and flaws takes on a life of it's own.

To me the process of making any piece of expressive art becomes my dialogue with God.  A quilt that I make should say, "Here it is God. Here is my life, nothing more and nothing less.  This is where I am".  The making of a quilt should be a Psalm in fabric; sometimes thankful, sometimes joyful, sometimes solemn, sometimes complaining (I'm big on complaining) and desperate, but always addressed to God.

"Folk art" is often made in the creation of a useful, humble everyday object.  To me it is important that I be able to use a piece of art.  In this way I am reminded on a daily basis of the realness of God in my life.   A quilt created, whether on a bed or decorating a wall says, "Look you, this is where you were on your inner journey with God.  It's time to move on and declare your feelings to God honestly, and better, by using new techniques, different colors etc.  It's time to thank God for being alive in the creation of a new object"