{"id":6668,"date":"2020-12-02T16:34:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T21:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6668"},"modified":"2020-12-02T16:37:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T21:37:03","slug":"episode-175-wooden-quilts-folk-artwork-what-was-the-motivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6668","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 175 ‘WOODEN QUILTS’ FOLK ARTWORK – WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION?"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 175   \u2018WOODEN QUILTS\u201d  FOLK ART<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec. 2020<\/div>\n

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IN THE BEGINNING<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
IN the beginning of my dabbling into folk art I picked up  a piece of weathered snow fence at<\/div>\n
the Norman Skeoch farm near Fergus.  Wind scoured, rain soaked, man handled \u2026 each piece of lath<\/div>\n
looked like the sky on stormy days.  Or did it look like a plowed field on a winter morning?<\/div>\n
Whatever!  Those pieces of abused snow fence had a patina and appearance that my mind<\/div>\n
saw  as metaphors of farm life.  Disappearing  farm life.  Family Farms were as fragile as weathered snow fencing.<\/div>\n

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Note:  This Episode was triggered  my Marian Kutarna who sent me a very<\/div>\n
flattering request:  \u201cAlan, could you describe the motivation behind your folk art creations?”<\/div>\n
So here you are Marian.<\/div>\n

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This log cabin was my first effort at translating old lath pieces  into a piece of folk art.<\/div>\n
Marjorie liked the effort and that flattery launched me into larger and  larger pieces  <\/div>\n
of folk art.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat do  you call them, Alan?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWell, they look a  lot like pioneer patchwork Quilts.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWood quilts?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSounds  like a suitable name\u2026Let\u2019s call them WOODEN QUILTS<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s gather as much old snow fence as we can.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSometimes rolls of the stuff are auctioned at farm sales.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMost times it is simply burned  in a  field a few days before the auction.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow much do we need?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot much.  I\u2019ll just make a few pieces of folk art.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Well,  the few pieces  multiplied into dozens and dozens.  And  they got larger and  larger.<\/div>\n
Initially I made them just for our house and workshop.   But people wanted to buy them<\/div>\n
so  a small art business was launched.  Dozens  and dozens.   All a bit different.  But<\/div>\n
some kept the rural theme\u2026a red  brick rural gothic farm house.  Our farm house in<\/div>\n
Wellington county.  Patterned after the art image titled \u2018American  Gothic\u2019.<\/div>\n

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I bought a big band saw and an industrial stationary belt sander.   The bandsaw  could cut<\/div>\n
out the shapes.  The sander could polish  the pieces.  Then I would assemble the pieces<\/div>\n
as my mother did when she made our clothes.   Patchwork quilts. Mine  were made of rescued<\/div>\n
wood from Ontario\u2019s disappearing family farms.<\/div>\n

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Large  wooden  quilts  like the \u2018village\u2019 above our fireplace were rather interesting to construct because  I made<\/div>\n
many of them on slabs of first cut white pine which had  been save for a century or so in barns or drivesheds.<\/div>\n
Often these slabs were nearly two feet wide so you can  imagine how tall those white pines must have been  when<\/div>\n
the land  was cleared for farming.  The timbers in Ontario barns tell the same story.<\/div>\n

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DETAIL OF PICTURE ABOVE FIREPLACE<\/div>\n

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Elements in this closeup <\/div>\n
1)  Apple orchard  made from wooden beads<\/div>\n
2)  Base of house made from age old plank chewed by rodents or chickens.<\/div>\n
3)  Sky from old snow fence<\/div>\n
4)  Field made from old barn siding<\/div>\n
5)  House roof made from farmhouse shutter<\/div>\n
6)  Smoke made from piece of aromatic cedar from chest<\/div>\n
7)  Apple trees made from lath spacers used in lumber aging <\/div>\n
8)  porch supports and  decorative roof edging made from old picture  frame<\/div>\n
9)  Large backer board was top of large pioneer chest or perhaps a   slab<\/div>\n
door to granary.<\/div>\n

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The large home in this picture was made from cast off lath used on our farm<\/div>\n
house walls before the wet plaster was applied around 1870.  Really old lath<\/div>\n
was made of fine pine, knot free.  Later lath was thinner and less interesting.<\/div>\n
Piles of old lath appeared occasionally where farm houses were being wrecked or<\/div>\n
renovated. It was free for the taking usually<\/div>\n

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TRADE SECRET:  HUSH\u2026DO NOT TELL ANYONE!<\/div>\n

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My apple orchards were made from the little wooden  balls that used to be strung<\/div>\n
together for Christmas garlands.  No need  to paint them.  If you look closely<\/div>\n
you will see three kinds of apples\u2026red, green, white were good\u2026purple had<\/div>\n
to be painted as there are no purple apples.<\/div>\n

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OLD MILLS\u2026.GRIST, LUMBER, FLOUR MILLS WERE ONCE COMMON ON ONTARIO RIVERS<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n
BLACK CREEK GRIST MILL<\/div>\n

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Just barely visible in the light of the moon is the towering old Black Creek<\/div>\n
grist mill in full operation with the mill pond water rushing through the flume<\/div>\n
to drive the giant overshot mill wheel providing more than enough power<\/div>\n
to grind North Toronto Grain in the late 19th century.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
SOURCE OF PARTS<\/div>\n
1)  Old  shutter provides the mill pond<\/div>\n
2)  Elm shingles found in Ohio are carved  to simulate moving water<\/div>\n
3)  The Iron Mill wheel comes  from a farm corn grinder<\/div>\n
4)  The dark sky is lath from Norman Skeoch\u2019s snow fence<\/div>\n
5)  The Massey Harris curved top board was  once protective<\/div>\n
shield on a corn cutter that made ensilage as cattle fodder.<\/div>\n
6)  The moon is a hardwood disc cut from a roller from an<\/div>\n
old grain binder.<\/div>\n
7)  The red  house was  inspired by the Freeman  farm house of<\/div>\n
which there were once hundreds built on the same model with<\/div>\n
plans purchased from the Timothy Eaton catalogue.<\/div>\n

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OTHER WOOD QUILTS<\/div>\n

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I made this piece for my brother and sister in law.  The old hotel still exists<\/div>\n
in the village of Flesherton.<\/div>\n

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I made a larger version of this one for the MacMorrin family in memory of their grandfather<\/div>\n
who was the Anglican minister of the church in the village of Wales on the St. Lawrence<\/div>\n
Seaway.  The village now lies beneath the rushing waters.  Church and Manse.<\/div>\n

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Below are copies of  paintings  done by Kierstead  who had  similar motivation to mine<\/div>\n
only he used oil paints to capture the disappearing rural architecture of Ontario<\/div>\n

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MISSISSAUGA LIBRARY SYTEM<\/div>\n

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Three of my wooden quilts were bought by the Mississauga Library System. Two  were <\/div>\n
very large.   One hangs in the South Common Mall  library, now protected by a sheet of solid  plastic<\/div>\n
because children loved to pick the fake maple leaves.  Another hangs in the Frank McKechnie Library featuring<\/div>\n
the rural landscape that once existed there.  The other, a small one, represented the first Port Credit library\u2026<\/div>\n
a small cottage like building in faded yellow.  That wood picture disappeared when the new <\/div>\n
library was  built a  few years ago.  Maybe Marian Kutarna can find it.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Two people who influenced me must be mentioned.  Don  Mills, the top man at the Mississauga<\/div>\n
Library and  Aileen Whortley whose enthusiasm led me beyond the Wooden Quilts to the<\/div>\n
writing of  a history of Mississauga titled \u2018Where the River Speaks\u2019, a book now out of print<\/div>\n
and offered at high cost through eBay and others.<\/div>\n

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HERE ARE A BUNCH OF OTHER WOOD QUILTS<\/div>\n

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I Made quite a bunch of these engines.  Why?  Because I had  all these sprocketed gears taken from old farm machines.  The engines  made<\/div>\n
no operational sense which was why so many people wanted them for their children\u2019s bed rooms.  Imagination is something to be encouraged.<\/div>\n

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Barn interiors were also very popular.  We did  quite a number of art shows across Ontario.  I  remember one show<\/div>\n
done in the Distillery District of Toronto where I asked<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
 \u201cDo you have any rats or mice?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNone whatsoever. was  the answer<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Well that turned  out  to be a lie.  The real grain in my imaginative granaries<\/div>\n
was gobbled  up in one night.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\\<\/div>\n

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Not everybody likes these interpretations.  How do I know that.<\/div>\n
?  Because I made a large quilt from lumber where cattle had taken their last<\/div>\n
long walk at the Toronto Stock yards.   I liked it but felt the general manager of the yards should have it.  A year later<\/div>\n
I noticed it hanging in the window of a  North Toronto antique shop.  I should have bought it back.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I really do not give a sweet goddamn whether you like or hate these creations.  What matters  most is that I liked doing them.  Most<\/div>\n
artists must feel that way.   Today we have moved  on.  The movie industry likes our things some movies even rented  some of<\/div>\n
our wooden quilts.  Why?  Because art directors have imagination.<\/div>\n

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MY WORKSHOP\u2026WITH PIECES GLEANED  FROM RURAL FARM SALES WITH \u2018VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS DANCING IN MY HEAD\u2019<\/div>\n

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With the money from my first sale I bought this wonderful  band saw which allowed me<\/div>\n
to cut shapes into cows, horses, chickens, ducks, people, fanning mills, steam engines.<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
MOTIVATION<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
A lot of the motivation came from three sources.  First, there was Marjorie who like the creations and refused to sell some of them<\/div>\n
Second, from my mother who was a seamstress who made our clothes out of scraps and old coats \u2026 when we were kids.<\/div>\n
Third, from my grandparents whose farm provide all the imagination I   would ever need  in life.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec. 2020<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 175   \u2018WOODEN QUILTS\u201d  FOLK ART alan skeoch Dec. 2020 IN THE BEGINNING IN the beginning of my dabbling into folk art I picked up  a piece of weathered snow fence at the Norman Skeoch farm near Fergus.  Wind scoured, rain soaked, man handled \u2026 each piece of lath looked like the sky on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}