Prompt #14: Folk Art Flavours
Cultures are kind of like ice cream flavours. In Eastern Kentucky, things “taste” the same to me. Lilting fiddle tunes and old ballads and quilt patterns and whimsical folk carvings have some kind of existential relationship that is difficult to describe. The same thing is true here in Scotland. Whirling Celtic patterns (see below), tartan, sorrowful airs, and old tunes all taste like mint chocolate chip. Or blackberry cream. Or chocolate caramel. I don’t know, but you take my meaning! Music and visual art/architecture have many shared qualities, particularly when they emerge from the same place, informed by the same cultural context. “Place” is immensely important to the development of folk. As the mountainous Appalachian landscape informs folk art and music, so too does the Scottish highlands and coastline inform Scottish culture. In the Kelvingrove Museum, I spent an hour perusing a collection of work by a group of early-20th century painters who referred to themselves as “The Glasg...
