Sweethearts of the Rodeo Round Up Folk Art
With Valentine’s Day a mere week away, I want you to meet a group of folk artists I refer to as “The Sweethearts of the Rodeo.” What on earth could a fabric collage creator, a rug hooker, a scrimshander and an assemblage architect have in common? You’ll need to keep reading to learn the secrets they share.
European immigrants to America incorporated Old World traditions of artistic expression and applied them in their new culture of the 13 colonies. Folk art in America had found its roots. The progenitors of the movement created works of utilitarian and ornamental design. Pottery, textiles and statuary were the main branches of folk art with painting, rug hooking and even the art of reliquary scrimshaw carving, part of the varied mediums of the genre. Locally, there’s a small community of dedicated artists keeping those traditions alive. All are well respected in their fields as categorically their works represent the best of what is being offered to their specific form.
Art collage by Mary Kandray Gelenser (photo: Jana MacGinnes)
“Textile themestress,” Mary Kandray Gelenser of Millworks Studio 319 is always on the hunt for rare, precious and beautiful fabrics to create her captivating collages. She has a love affair, enamored of the role fabric plays, in the history of person, place and time. Through dedicated research in tracking down their roots, she finds a never-ending adventure of sourcing methods and materials. It is what she does with them that solve the whodunits in her signature style of panache and poetry, rolled into one. Inspired by vintage textiles, Mary’s collages are layer upon layer, with each frame working towards its final resolution. Taken as individual tales, they share a visual and emotional connection by the threads that stitch them into a unified whole. Even a moth becomes a constant collage co-conspirator as it undergoes metamorphosis, beauty unfettered, with nature’s noteworthy news. Every finished Gelenser “original” becomes a bestseller as her “novel” approach arrives apart, allowing an algorithm spun from color and texture to develop dramatically. She brings chapter and verse to her highly imaginative renderings of modern-day folk art. Her lexicon is purely her own. “Rescued clothing, stabilizing fabric stitching and padding, scraps, odd belts, lace from trim” all play a vital role in her art collages, according to the artist. Gelenser is a featured artist at the Millworks for 3rd in the Burg this month and her exhibit runs through March 12. Contact at maryrtk@yahoo.com and IG: marykandraygelenserart.
Fabric art by Susanne Robinson (photo: Jana MacGinnes)
It’s next to impossible to pull the wool over the eyes of rug hooker extraordinaire, Susanne Robinson of Arts on the Square at Market Square Presbyterian Church. Her journey with the medium began a few years back at Fort Hunter when the Woolwrights Rug Hooking Guild from Lancaster (no relation to the Lollipop Guild) was demonstrating their craft and, from that point on, she was hooked. Robinson is a fiber artist in a class by herself, using techniques that found their origins in 19th-century England. With ethereal woolens from Scotland, she weaves a spell of beauty and beyond in her tapestry wall hangings. If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, then her works speak volumes in each and every tapestry she creates. Susanne shared detailed knowledge of form and function with “patterns printed on a variety of backings most often done on linen, frames become essential as the needlelike strips hold the pattern in place. Hooks with wooden handles vary in size dependent on the size of the strips of wool. Wool is the very best material to use once washed and dried prior to hooking. It lends itself to dying with lush results in color and shades. The last necessary item is a cutter with blade.” Wool tapestries took their rightful place as a vital means of self-expression, capturing a narrative with one woven image. They are highly prized and collectible today among folk art lovers. For more info, refer to the periodical: ATHA.
Scrimshaw art by Roni Dietrich
One of the oldest living examples of folk art stateside and across the Atlantic can be found in the maritime practice of scrimshaw. The form harkens back to whalers carving pictures into ivory and whalebone. It’s a pastime dating to at least 1745. The art form evolved to become fine art and, today, collectors value the finely detailed beauty that scrimshanders create. “Yipee-ki-yay!” and “a whaling we will go” are all too familiar to folk artist cowgirl, Roni Dietrich, who is at home on a horse or on the open water, accustomed to sailing after decades of marriage to retired Navy seaman, Mark. Both are volunteers at the therapeutic riding academy of CATRA in Grantville. When engaged in carving and etching on knives, whalebone or ivory, Dietrich channels the whaling days of yore, following the elevated beauty of the past as a devoted practitioner of scrimshaw. The intricate etching may take months to complete with commissioned works being her forte. As a purist in that realm, she is a scrimshander of renown, written up in books including a Tom Clancy novel and art periodicals. At her craft for decades, her work has been featured at Brain Vessel in Mechanicsburg and two galleries in New England, where the medium is king. Roni’s camaraderie with other artists of her ilk subscribe to the adage, “Scrimshanders: 300 years behind the times.” And on a more serious note, she strongly feels that, “Everyone is born an artist no matter what they create.” Roni’s work can be found on IG at Wildhorsestudio9.
Sculpture by Charlie Feathers (photo: Jana MacGinnes)
Every rodeo needs at least one buckaroo. Bridging the tropes of folk-art assemblage in employing a modernity of found objects for a more sophisticated interpretation, Charlie Feathers straddles both eras in the collections he manifests. Part fevered dream, part scientific imaginings, always prescient in their completed state, the statuary of artist Feathers finds its home in outdoor garden installations and to pride of place in collectors’ homes. Incorporating elements of 19th-century weather charms and whirligigs, he builds amalgamations from his subconscious state of mind. Feathers pays homage to the iconic “Winged Victory” that resides in the Louvre in Paris with his “always reclaimed collages created from castoff parts and found objects” in a timely tribute to the Grecian statue. He employs brass and copper combined to create a sense of wonder in his barnyard rooster rendering, ruling the grounds suitable for any outdoor space. The 18-inch “squawker” sits atop a solid brass cylindrical canister, solid and sturdy, to become a stationary sentinel watching over its designated dais. Many of his inventions reside well connected to the landscape, otherworldly, once one enters the gated gracefulness found at the garden of the Art Association of Harrisburg. All of the other artists’ installations found outside of AAH speak to a group well familiar with the geography of setting the stage for the works found in the gallery. Feather’s extensive range of art mediums can be viewed at H*MAC, Facebook:CharlesFeathers, and IG:featherscharles
Folk art is alive and well in central Pennsylvania for Valentines 2023. This modern-day ensemble of “romancers” are truly “Sweethearts of the Rodeo.” Their aesthetic and approaches may be different, but they share the commonality of “storytellers” weaving a narrative form through their art.
Art Events for February
Civic Club of Harrisburg: “Rise Up: Honoring African-American Trailblazers.” 3rd in the Burg, Feb. 17. Art.Food.Vendors. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
New Cumberland Collective: Julia Mallory with Art in the Stacks, Feb. 1 to 28 at the New Cumberland Public Library
The Millworks: Featured artists are Kelly Curran, Mary Gelenser, Caleb Smith, Tami Bitner and Ann Benton Yeager.
Susquehanna Art Museum:
“Layered Artifacts” runs Feb. 8 to May 7
“Intent/Content: Celebrating Women Artists” runs Feb. 11 to May 21
“Valery Sutherland: Paintings” runs Feb. 22 to June 18
Art Association of Harrisburg: “Reinterpretations” (invitational exhibit) features the works of James Equality Brooks, James Gallagher, John Guarnera and Joseph Mayernik
Carlisle Arts Learning Center: “Green Energy Annual Members Exhibit,” runs Feb. 10 to March 11
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