Folk art is the art of the common people. It is not refined, and its beauty lies within is in its crude nature. Grandma Moses was the premier folk artist of her time. Her work was of her daily experiences. She mostly painted life as it should have been and maybe not the reality around her. It was crude by today’s standards, but it captured her world through her eyes. I grew up in the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties. My world changed much more rapidly than that of Grandma Moses. She painted quaint rural scenes; I paint growing up in the chaos of modern times.

Artists today can paint photorealistic work that would rival the old masters. I paint from the heart. I do not follow the rules because folk art has no rules of thirds, depth, or proportion. Rules are limiting and can choke the life out of the creative process. This is not to say that a duck should not look like a duck when intentionally painting a duck. My last statement is not a slam of abstract painting. I enjoy the work of abstract painters. I have on occasion wandered into their camp. They too have freed themselves from the constraints of the classical painter. Ironically, many of the great abstract painters were classically trained.

My critics are many, and my lack of competency in their opinion is without measure, but I do not paint to please my critics. I paint because I cannot stop the creative process that drives me to the canvas. There are countless artists in America today. Most are like me in that they do not have the skill level of the classically trained painter. Folk art allows artists like me to continue in spite of the criticism.

My path was like most folk artists in that my beginnings and influences are nothing special. They are the same as all of us living in the so-called modern world. I began drawing from the time I could hold a pencil in my hand. I drew on any scrap of paper available. In my teens I experimented with ink, tempera, and watercolor. My paintings were different and reflected my childhood. I grew up in the Duck and Cover years, so I painted images that reflected those times. When I began to paint in oils, was when my creativity opened up. My paintings are of my life. Yes… there are a few exceptions but mostly about the crap I’ve seen. Grandma Moses didn’t see friends and family addicted to drugs, commit suicide, see her children go to war, struggle with PTSD, and survive divorce. She never saw the chaos that modern men and women walk past daily without so much as a glance to the side. The modern folk artist lives with a belly full of pain, and their best therapy is to place that hurt on canvas.

My work was not appreciated by my family and friends. I came home one time and found my roommate had removed my refrigerator art from the walls. He said, “It creeps me out,” so the refrigerator art went into the trash. I think it was more that it freaked his girlfriend out than that it disturbed him. I experimented with acrylics after a girlfriend introduced me to the medium. My first attempt was so horrible that I did not paint again for twenty years. When I began to paint again, it was once again with acrylics and the work was not much better, but I was painting again. I called my mom to tell her the good news and she said, “Not that weird stuff are you.” Yes… mom, the weird stuff. She sighed and wished me luck. Most of my critics when forced to say something nice about my work simply say something like “Nice frame.” Once I had an encounter, when I was feeling down, and said out loud “Maybe I should just stop trying.” and the critic said, “Maybe you’re right.” One friend that is a counselor said that the colors I use are too angry. Unfortunately, I feel the colors that are applied to my work. In the words of those sages of wisdom, The Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.” This song lyric describes Modern Folk Art succinctly.