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Created: June 19, 2003
Latest Update: June 19, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Folk Art on "How Shall I Live?"

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, June 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

Folk art often captures folk philosophy as it exists "out there" in our culture. All of us, not just philosophers, ask ourselves Socrates' famous question: How shall I live? Mark Betcher's folk art, paintings and three dimensional structures (boxes, tables, etc.) offer some of his answers to that question. You might like to go back to Socrates to Psychoanalysis to Teaching to read what Jonathan Lear says about "How shall I live?" and compare that to Mark Betcher's philosophy.

Not everyone takes their philosophy from academic studies, and yet, still we do, most of us, with some ideas about what life means and how we should live it. Folk art captures much of that philosophy and shares it with us in the streets on the walls in the products we buy and the advertisements to which we respond. To be sure, by the time it hits the advertising agencies, it's hardly in its folk art form anymore. But all these indicators of our values, ethics, and philosophy of life are out there to the social scientist who has learned to see.

One of Mark Betcher's three dimensional structures that incorporates his philosophy of life: Sun Shine Land

Sun Shine Land

And here's Mark Bletcher's statement of the philosophy Sun Shine Land represents:

"Front door depicts a magical place where everything is OK.

"The outside walls of the box feature mostly good stuff like, The Gay ButteryFly People, The Dove O Peace and Mother Mary holding Baby Jesus,

"Then you open the doors to see Adum and Ebert and a bunch of happy interracial angles.

"Then you can open yet another door to find the poor Everyman Man who is trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

"Of course the back of the box features SunShine Land, My Ass Land. Needless to say, My Ass Land is the place where stuff mostly sucks.

"Your basic rethinking of life as I know it."

Visit Mark Betcher's site. Many of his paintings and structures are for sale, and his site offers stories and art that will lift your spirits when the fast track gets you down. I included a link to Uncle Grumpy's Dance for all us grumpy kids.

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