Entry# 4 Folk you

   

Tiffany Holman, Watercolor, Swimming through The Pines, 2013

"Provisionally 'I' practically alive
Mistook signs for signified
And so since I’ve often tried
To run them off a cliff like Gadarene swine
and tied my thought-ropes in anchor bends
wondering whether we were someone better then,
or maybe just better able to pretend
(and what better means to our inevitable end!)"

- Mewithoutyou, Fox's Dream Of The Log Flume

       Down the crooked paths, winding through history. Music and art playfully embellish our past through folklore.  These story's passed through generations creatively put a spin on life. Some tales intended on teaching the young, and some to tell of current life experiences. Most of folklore takes form orally, and is shared through song, stories or chants. The music culture is deeply rooted within folklore as country, bluegrass, and the blues all are derived from traditional American folk music and consequentially also from Europe. There is a great chance that a percentage of the music you are listening to through the radio in your car has some connection to this background.

       Today, this genre still leaves an awakening trail through our history. Artists have a way of surfacing the truth in blatant honesty. One of my favorite artists that holds to this nature is a a band called, Mewithoutyou . You wont find cheesy love or breakup songs on any of their albums. Only stories that tell a witty unmasked truth. I had a chance to see them in the city of roses, Portland 2014. While in the audience I noticed there was a sense of brotherhood; as we all stood together, chanting, and fighting for the same cause. This is a band that is not only masterfully impressive on all of their albums, will blow you away at a live concert. 

       Visual, art also leaves its mark in history and shows us stories of the past. The art piece you see at the top of this post is a piece I made in 2013.This work is an optical illusion, if you look closely you can find 10 different animals hiding within it. The style is my interpretation of a folk type of art. To the left you see a painting one of my best fiends; Ross Christensen (to my right) and I collaborated on for our friend Micah's (The stripped dread head to my left)  van. We used inspiration from a song called "The Fox The Crow and The Cookie" by  Mewithout you for the design. As Micah makes his journey down the West coast, our history touches the life's of many people. I wonder if one day in the far future someone will come across van and recognize it as a piece of folk history.