{"id":19832,"date":"2022-01-25T21:10:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T02:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19832"},"modified":"2022-01-25T21:15:15","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T02:15:15","slug":"fwd-episode-520-folk-art-by-frank-freeman-moms-brother-also-episode-271","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19832","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: EPISODE 520 FOLK ART by FRANK FREEMAN (MOM’S BROTHER) ALSO EPISODE 271"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 271     FOLK ART by my Uncle Frank Freeman<\/div>\n
REPEAT AS EPISODE 520<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Mach  2021<\/div>\n
January 25, 2022<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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Last night, I thought of my uncle Frank Freeman specifically two of his folk art pieces<\/p><\/div>\n

that he made in winter evenings in 1942 when his son Ted was about 6 years old.<\/div>\n
Pieces made from whatever he could find in his little blacksmith shop on the farm.<\/div>\n
So tonight, January 27, 2022, I thought I would like to make an Episode out of<\/div>\n
those pieces of folk art.  To my surprise I found Episode 271\u2026the story had been<\/div>\n
done a year ago.   Do you remember?<\/div>\n

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Folk art is a theme I would like to expand upon.  Why?  Because we can all do folk art<\/div>\n
if we want to\u2026just thinking about a shape is a lot of fun.  Perfection is not a goal.<\/div>\n
Imagination is the goal.<\/div>\n

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REPEAT EPISODE 271<\/div>\n
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There is a deep desire in many probably most human beings to create something <\/div>\n
with their own hands and minds.   Some human beings follow the fine art tradition<\/div>\n
that involves  training\u2026creating artistic objects in a sophisticated manner.<\/div>\n

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Folk artists on the other hand do  not worry about fine art, sophisticated art.<\/div>\n
Folk artists do not worry about fine lines.   Often folk artists use items of  everyday<\/div>\n
life and do not particularly care about accuracy  of line and shape.  Nor do they<\/div>\n
worry about critical comments.  Utilitarian art in this instance\u2026to be handled.<\/div>\n

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My Uncle Frank Freeman created two early example of folk art that intrigued<\/div>\n
me.   He seems to have made both piece in March  1942.   And  they are objects  made<\/div>\n
as  toys for his six or seven year old  son Ted.   The objects  are not made<\/div>\n
to be submitted  for comment by a jury of accomplished lovers of fine art.<\/div>\n
They are made to be used.  They are made from scrap materials found here and there on <\/div>\n
the farm.   They are imaginative.  Unique.  Tangible.  Unsophisticated.  Joyful.<\/div>\n

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Uncle Frank loved to talk to people.   He was tall but not silent.  Warm hearted.  Certainly not wealthy in the monetary sense<\/div>\n
but rich in other things particularly the natural world  around him.  He always had time for other people.  He loved  his very difficult farm<\/div>\n
composed  of glacial till \u2026rocks, boulders, sand and soil…piled up forming fields that slanted in such a way that little pockets retained pools of water<\/div>\n
that some call  swamps.  And all these pools drained into a big swamp in the centre of the farm.  The farm owned by Lucinda<\/div>\n
and Frank Freeman would be 100 acres of headaches to most farmers.  To Frank, his farm was a wonder of creation.<\/div>\n

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How do I describe him best?   I can do that with a short comment he made to me decades ago.<\/div>\n

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\u201cAlan, I love farming with horses rather than tractors.  Do you want to know why?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cA tractor never stops working.  Now horses, on the other hand, must take a rest part way<\/div>\n
through a job.  And when the team rest I get to rest and consider the world around me.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Another anecdote:     One year Uncle Frank thought he was about to die from cancer.  He was not…but<\/div>\n
he did  not  know that.  \u201cAlan, I took my last walk around the farm today.  Every trail, field, swamp and forest.<\/div>\n
Just to say good bye.\u201d  (These are my words but they accurately cover what he said to me.)  He lived for many<\/div>\n
more years.  I expect he took that walk again.<\/div>\n

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Made with these hands\u2026for a reason.  Made from things cast aside.   Made to be touched and handled.   Made to be useful, to entertain, to be;<\/div>\n

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Am I running out of steam?  Nope.  Got lots of stories to come.  The next one is taking a lot of time\u2026.trying to find the unfindable.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
FEb. 2021<\/div>\n

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(Fifth Line, Erin Township, Wellington County)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


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EPISODE 271     FOLK ART by my Uncle Frank Freeman REPEAT AS EPISODE 520 alan skeoch Mach  2021 January 25, 2022 Last night, I thought of my uncle Frank Freeman specifically two of his folk art pieces that he made in winter evenings in 1942 when his son Ted was about 6 years old. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}