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The Taos of Folk Arts

taos of folk arts considerably considered
In for fair wisdom -
THREE CONCEPTS: Art is skill acquired by experience, study, or observation. It can be a branch of learning, such as one of the humanities, liberal arts, etc. It is an occupation requiring knowledge or skill. It suggests conscious use of skill and creative imagination in the production of aesthetic objects and works. There are fine arts, graphic art.
      Craft may imply expertness in workmanship, and also stands for executing well what one has devised, whereas art implies a personal, somewhat creative power.
      Tao (it can be used in the plural), suggest ways and means, among other things; they include 'source and guiding principle' to be followed for a life of harmony etc., 'process(es) of change', 'path(s) of virtuous conduct'; and first and foremost 'art or skill of doing something in harmony with the essential nature of the thing'. What we are dealing with below is the skills of folk arts.

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Frieze
Take care: Supporting "well medleys" are presupposed throughout:

The Tao of Folk Arts

Obscurity is the price for greatness?
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AGRICULTURAL, pastoral, or maritime pursuits can produce distinctive styles and objects for local tastes where many men and women had to rely on their own plunging, innovations and inventions to create new styles and products at need, whim, or pleasure. The term folk art is used to refer to many outputs of such kinds. However, the distinction between folk and popular art is not absolute.
       Folk art was at first limited to the so-called peasant art of Europe, the "art of the land." The terms folk art (Volkskunst) and popular art (populaire, popolare) have been used interchangeably in the art field, yet the term folk art has increasingly been adopted in many languages. All the same, in our days, the heritage of home-produced products is greatly undervalued in the mass-industrialised society.
       Folk art may still be created among groups that exist within the framework of a developed society, but separated from the cosmopolitan artistic developments of the times. If these conditions are met, various folk arts could still emerge under the stimulus of a different environment and through contact with other cultures. (2)
       The folk artist typically creates by hand or with limited mechanical facilities. His items or products are hardly widely used, are not products of commercialism either, nor are they severely mass produced to meet popular taste. What is more, after genuine folk arts have succumbed, subsequent sponsored revivals of them are no longer the same thing, it is firmly held.

THE BUILT-IN pligh is this: As sophistication advance, localism and its various folk arts began to melt away. Folk arts may still continue on the periphery if a periphery is found in the "global village of MacDonaldism" in the end. Only in some periphery folk art has an opportunity to survive and also to elaborate in various areas - as long as it is ignored in the large society.
       It is now recognized that products of simple tools, utensils, and crafts do have aesthetic aspects. And along with this recognition and that of folk art per se, a true folk art tends to disappear. However, many amalgamations between folk arts and ware-production may prove productive for a long time.
       The built-in tension between localness and obscurity on the one hand and perhaps consumerism-ridden, exploitive, and too shallow large society recognition on the other, is no good basis for folk arts in the years to come, also when allowing for cultural variations and occurrences. (4)

Main source: Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. "Folk art: Visual arts of the folk tradition".

- Tormod Kinnes

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