What interests me about British folk art.

Tolkien wrote the lord of the ring allegedly because he found that the british had a lack of their own mythology. Lots of people disagree when you bring this up and site lots of different stories that are considered 'english' folk tales. The reality being that the majority of them spring from french mythology (mostly brittany for obvious reasons) or are pastiches from other ideas around the world that 'we' as a nation have adopted. And this is true of folk art in Britain which is usually side lined to landscapes and other relatively reserved forms of expression in keeping with the inherent dishonestly of the stiff upper lip. Another issue that plagues the idea of British folk art is that 'you have to do something' so people who might be folk artists tend to try to be 'proper' artists rather than just expressing themselves in an honest way and revelling in their mishmash of cultural identity and not repressing their hand in creating something that could be beautiful innocent and childlike, but rather they create something trite, dishonest and catered.

It's interesting when you think of Tolkien's statement when you look at at American folk art or outsider art, there is a hot bed of exciting and uninhibited work that comes from a 'country' that is actually a modern version of where the Britons were hundreds of years ago. Meaning that the indigenous people were forced out of the mainstream by the invaders and a great deal of the original culture was lost or marginalised.

There is more openness in American folk art, in England there is a marginalization of the mentally ill that seems less prevalent in America and indeed Europe. Van Gogh being a startlingly obvious example. Somehow I get the feeling that in modern britain Van Gogh would be stuffed full of lithium and his work would end up crammed in the over filled cupboards of an art therapy room. Outsider art is just that, it's creative work from those outside of the mainstream of art, and there lies a treasure trove of beautiful, terrifying, honest and absorbing work.

The current British trend for 'abstract' art is a ridiculous notion and many of the people creating this work are simply plagiarists with their slant and no real concept behind what they call their abstraction. People feel disconnected from the notion of art, they get behind a package like banksy because it contains identifiable icons and is market worthy. Graffiti and community art is a form of folk art but grows less so in it's packaged form. The honesty of the painted Walls in northern Ireland during the troubles and primary school murals have a deep and beautiful honesty. Or the tea towels from schools where the kids used to draw their own picture. I've digressed so far from my point that I'm not sure of the point I was trying to make. But I think the British trend in mainstream art for clinging to conceptual garbage is a factor to consider maybe why the majority of british people 'don't like art'.

In which case forget that stupid word and paint. Make stuff. Draw. Ignore your inner voice that tells you what you are doing is crap and try and remember that bit of you where a line was a portrait of your parents and a box was where you lived.

And for gods sake ignore this rant of bull crap.