We need to recognize the folk art talent in our own backyard

From Jefferson is the late Tubby Brown whose paintings and woodcarvings are sought by collectors across the country. His wife, Betty, was also a folk artist in her own right.

But that’s just the tip of the area’s artistic folk heritage.

Some of the folk artists working from the Jackson County area today are: John Sperry in Maysville whose art spans traditional folk art to edgy “outsider” style paintings; Jeff Payne from Jefferson whose colorful work is unforgettable; and Kevin Burchett from Commerce whose folk art has an “Americana” flavor.

In the Commerce-Banks County area is the renowned Marie Elem who echoes rural farm scenes with bright colors; Mary Hardman, Carly Hardman and Sam Hardman; Mary Greene, Edna Armour and Amy Payne paint from the Northern end of Banks County; Homer’s Alex Chambers puts a red bird in all his paintings; and nearby is Kenneth Woodall from Cornelia and Annie Cochran from Franklin County.

From the Athens area is Jimmy “cap man” Straehla who puts bottle caps on his work; Steven Chandler who does Georgia Red Mud paintings; and the late Annie Welborn. From Barrow County is Philip Chandler who reflects the area’s history in his work (one of his paintings hangs in my office.)

From Madison County is Peter Loose whose colorful work has been featured in movies. From the Gainesville area, among others, is the late RA Miller whose whirlygigs became famous from an REM video. A little further north in Lumpkin County lives John “Cornbread” Anderson whose iconic “big-eye” paintings are perhaps the hottest paintings in today’s folk art world; and in Rabun County is one of the country’s most unique “outsider” artists, Eric Legge, whose pastel landscapes and dreamy faces are very popular.

But the area’s folk art isn’t limited to just paintings. Perhaps even a bigger aspect of the folk art world in Northeast Georgia is its traditional folk pottery, which is sought by collectors all over the world.

And that history runs deep here. In the mid-1800s, in what is now the town of Statham in Barrow County was the community of “Jug Factory” which pulled in many pottery families to the area. As some of those families intermarried, several migrated north to the Gillsville area at the junction of Jackson and Banks counties.

Also in the 19th Century, a major pottery center grew in the Mossy Creek area of southern White County. Potters from that area also migrated to the Gillsville community, and combined with the Jug Factory migrants, made that area one of the largest and most intense areas of pottery production in the South by the early 1900s.

Today, the traditional hand-thrown folk pottery is still strong in the Gillsville area as family members several generations deep continue the art.

Among the pottery families still working in the North Georgia area is the Crocker family, Michael, Melvin and Dwayne. There’s the Ferguson family, Stanley and Mary; Roger Corn; Mike and Joe Craven; Steve Turpin from Homer who organizes a yearly folk pottery show in Banks County; and the large and extended Hewell family whose pottery roots go back seven generations — Wayne, Grace Nell, Chester, Nathaniel, Matthew, Kurt and now young Eli Hewell among others.

While the greater Gillsville area may be the center of the folk pottery universe in Georgia, other area potters also play in the folk pottery mud. In Madison County, there is Georgia Mudcat pottery and Jerry “Yardbird” Yarborough.

In Nicholson is Sheila and David Chizan. In Habersham County is Clint Alderman, one of the rising stars of the folk pottery world.

And of course, there is the famous area of Mossy Creek in White County from which so many famous potters have come, including Clete Meaders of West Jackson and the rest of the Meaders family in White County who are folk pottery legends (too many names to list here.) They are joined by Charlie West, Rex Hogan and Lin Craven among others from the area.

This critical mass of major folk potters in Northeast Georgia hasn’t gone unnoticed and several years ago, a museum of Georgia folk pottery opened in the Sautee Nacoochee community of White County. It features the early work of Georgia folk potters from Jug Factory in Barrow County, Gillsville potters and of course, White County potters. That museum is a major investment in keeping alive this traditional art for future generations.

But all this folk art talent in paintings and pottery wouldn’t survive without the infrastructure to get that art into the hands of the public. In that regard, the area is also fortunate.

Our Town Antiques in Commerce carries a large number of folk art pieces from area artists, both paintings and pottery. The antique stores in Braselton also carry area folk artists’ works.

Over in Madison County is Visionary Growth Gallery, which supports folk and “outsider” artists. Further north in Dawsonville is Around Back at Rocky’s Place, a major folk art gallery that carries hundreds of paintings and folk art pottery from Northeast Georgia and from all over the South. (And one of the owners of that gallery is an art teacher in Barrow County.)

In Clayton is Mainstreet Gallery which features folk art paintings, pottery and other aspects of the folk art vernacular and which is a major gallery of Southern art.

And then there are area auction firms that often feature folk art work, especially pottery. Cagle Auctions in Jefferson recently had dozens of pottery pieces for auction, including a major old piece from South Carolina made by “Dave the Slave” that sold for several thousand dollars.

Perhaps one of the biggest area purveyors of folk art is Slotin Folk Art from Buford. Slotin hosts “Folk Fest” each fall in Gwinnett County, one of the nation’s largest gatherings of folk artists. Slotin also organizes several major auctions of folk art during the year.

That our area is a major center of the folk art world is becoming recognized. On March 2-4, a folk and fine art festival and expo will be held at the civic center in Commerce. That event will hopefully draw from the area’s large contingent of our regional artists and could be the precursor to bringing more attention to the area’s broad depth of folk artists.

Throughout 2012, the various publications of Mainstreet Newspapers will be making an effort to highlight the region’s folk art tradition. If you are a folk artist, or know of a local folk artist, let us know. If you’re an art teacher in a local school and you have students who do folk art, let us know. We’d like to write about those who produce this special kind of art.

Folk art, perhaps more than most other kinds of art, is both accessible to the average viewer and surprisingly affordable for those who want to own a piece of our area’s unique artistic traditions.

It’s time we recognize just what a treasure we have here in our own back yards.

Mike Buffington is an owner and co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.