Folk Art and Aging Life-Story Objects and Their Makers [Paperback]

Growing old doesnt have to be seen as an eventual failure but rather as an important developmental stage of creativity. Offering an absorbing and fresh perspective on aging and crafts, Jon Kay explores how elders choose to tap into their creative and personal potential through making life-story objects. Carving, painting, and rug hooking not only help seniors to cope with the ailments of aging and loneliness but also to achieve greater satisfaction with their lives. Whether revived from childhood memories or inspired by their capacity to connect to others, meaningful memory projects serve as a lens for focusing on, remaking, and sharing the long-ago. These activities often help elders productively fill the hours after they have raised their children, retired from their jobs, and/or lost a loved one. These individuals forge new identities for themselves that do not erase their earlier lives but build on them and new lives that include sharing scenes and stories from their memories.

Drawing on case studies of five well-chosen Indiana artisanswood sculptor, rag-rug weaver, musical instrument maker, painter, and maker of wood canesKay offers a thoughtful, revealing meditation on the relationship between aging and art making. . . . Highly recommended.

Kay offers a valuable contribution to folk art studies with the nicely composed profiles of four men and one woman who took up folk arts intensively later in life.

Jon Kay is Professor of Practice and Director of Traditional Arts Indiana in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Folk Art and Aging
1. Bob Taylor: Stories in Wood and Words
2. Gustav Potthoff: Memory Paintings
3. Marian Sykes: Recalling Memories and Making Rugs
4. John Schoolman: Objects, Life Review, and Sociability
5. Milan Opacich: Life-Story Displays and Narratives
Conclusion: Life-Story Objects and Aging in Indiana
Bibliography
Index