EPISODE 271 FOLK ART by my Uncle Frank Freeman
alan skeoch
Mach 2021
There is a deep desire in many probably most human beings to create something
with their own hands and minds. Some human beings follow the fine art tradition
that involves training…creating artistic objects in a sophisticated manner.
Folk artists on the other hand do not worry about fine art, sophisticated art.
Folk artists do not worry about fine lines. Often folk artists use items of everyday
life and do not particularly care about accuracy of line and shape. Nor do they
worry about critical comments. Utilitarian art in this instance…to be handled.
My Uncle Frank Freeman created two early example of folk art that intrigued
me. He seems to have made both piece in March 1942. And they are objects made
as toys for his six or seven year old son Ted. The objects are not made
to be submitted for comment by a jury of accomplished lovers of fine art.
They are made to be used. They are made from scrap materials found here and there on
the farm. They are imaginative. Unique. Tangible. Unsophisticated. Joyful.
Uncle Frank loved to talk to people. He was tall but not silent. Warm hearted. Certainly not wealthy in the monetary sense
but rich in other things particularly the natural world around him. He always had time for other people. He loved his very difficult farm
composed of glacial till …rocks, boulders, sand and soil…piled up forming fields that slanted in such a way that little pockets retained pools of water
that some call swamps. And all these pools drained into a big swamp in the centre of the farm. The farm owned by Lucinda
and Frank Freeman would be 100 acres of headaches to most farmers. To Frank, his farm was a wonder of creation.
How do I describe him best? I can do that with a short comment he made to me decades ago.
“Alan, I love farming with horses rather than tractors. Do you want to know why?”
“Why?”
“A tractor never stops working. Now horses, on the other hand, must take a rest part way
through a job. And when the team rest I get to rest and consider the world around me.”
Another anecdote: One year Uncle Frank thought he was about to die from cancer. He was not…but
he did not know that. “Alan, I took my last walk around the farm today. Every trail, field, swamp and forest.
Just to say good bye.” (These are my words but they accurately cover what he said to me.) He lived for many
more years. I expect he took that walk again.
Made with these hands…for a reason. Made from things cast aside. Made to be touched and handled. Made to be useful, to entertain, to be;
alan skeoch
FEb. 2021
(Fifth Line, Erin Township, Wellington County)