Folk Art and the Validity of Revival: a Contemporary Example

Abstract

It is widely accepted that folk art can offer great sources of inspiration to the contemporary artist or designer, and the importance of an understanding of tradition to the development of artistic genres is generally acknowledged. Equally widespread is concern with, and study of ‘revivals’ of various traditional practices and skills, folk drama, storytelling, music among them.

The activities of a Devon carver offer an opportunity to compile a case study of the revival of a specific folk art form, that of the love spoon. When in 1985 he retired from working in the Post Office, Alan Trott took up the carving of love spoons as a hobby, working primarily to his own intricate and beautiful designs. Alan modestly explains,

I had only a Primary School education, where carpentry was one of the practical subjects, and as I remember I was not very good at it, in fact I still find it difficult to saw a straight, square cut in a piece of wood. However, I have always had a hankering to carve wood, even as a lad I would often pick up a piece of wood and hack away at it, most of the time with no specific purpose in mind.