Creekside Art Gallery Blog

FOLK ART.  For the vast majority of time that humans have been on Earth, they have left evidence of their amazing creativity.  The rich arts and crafts of early humans continue to tell us much about their evolving lives. Prehistoric cave paintings and stone monuments, bone carved implements and children’s toys are some of this creativity still in evidence today.  Early tools invented by man over 2,000 years ago include fish and duck hunting decoys.  The usage of these sometimes artistic hunting devices has been handed down through the generations.

More recently institutions were established which began teaching the fundamentals of ART. Always questioning "what is art?"  As a result, academics also began distinguishing between Fine Art with a capital "A"  and the  more recently defined Folk Art.  In simplistic terms, Folk Art refers to the creative efforts of people lacking formal art education.  And more recently further distinctions or classifications have been argued that suggest sub-dividing Folk Art into numerous segregated categories such as "grass roots," "outsider," "art brut," and "intuitive" art.  At any rate, the Folk Arts in its many forms and considerations generates loads of casual conversations as well as serious dialog.

Creekside Art Gallery has specialized for decades in both Fine Art work, as Gene is a practicing artist and retired art professor, and Folk Art in our collecting, research, and writing.  Gene Kangas’ public sculptures, functional woodturning and wood sculpture, and his various Digital Print Series are highlighted at CreeksideArtGallery.com.   Our love of the FOLK ARTS run through the entire site CreeksideArtGallery.com.