folkartcanada.ca

[cassyroo]

Who is your favourite Canadian folk artist and why?

[Wilbur Willick]

Anon is probably my favorite and that isn't a joke even though it is probably very funny. So much of the art I have found has no name on it so I just say it is from Old Anon. He is very prolific, I have found. Of course, I love the sculptures my niece, Winnifred, builds out of my empties. She made a 1952 Packard that runs very nicely and a model of Casa Loma, that big place in Toronto, that sleeps 12.
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Feel more like you do now than you did when you got up this morning, drink Wiser's.

[Zooey57]

I know it's a cliche since she's the only folk artist most Canadians can name (if they can name *any*), but I will always love Maud Lewis. A few years ago I was able to see a few of her paintings in a private collection. They were so charming - not childish but innocent... hard to explain. But I loved them and if I had the money I would invest in her work. Of course, there is plenty of other great (and cheap) folk art out there, but you asked about my favourite.

Oh, and Wilbur - lets see some pictures of the Casa Loma made out of empties! That sounds like museum quality work
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Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

[Guest]

I have a few favourite folk artists, but at the moment, I am thinking about Edmund Chatigny. He lived in the Beauce region of Quebec. When he retired as a cattle farmer, he started doing a type of constructive yard art, which employed many little carved additions to a main figure. as in many lttle birds added to a larger mother bird etc. All chipped carved economically and simply. He was basically a yard artist, not interested in selling hs work,but rather interested in creating an artistic statement on his terrain, and each year he would have a colour theme to his splater painted additions to his yard. One year red and green splatters over white, etc. The assemblage pieces were always complex and changeable. When he cut his grass it would take two days. One to take everything off the yard, and the next to cut it and put everything back. His sculpture was always nature based. Flowers, birds, deer, etc. The were assemblages which could be put back together in any number of configurations and still be effective. This, I believe puts him at the forefront of contemporary art. He transends the catagory of " folk art", and can be compaired with the great contributors such as Matisse, Picasso, etc. He is a true master, and deserves our greatest recognition and respect.