Appalachian folk art

[citation needed] Many Indian tribes were pushed out of the land, but some continued to reside in the Appalachian region, furthering their effect on the culture and art through their fondness for wildlife.

[6] The customs continued as the generations passed but the practices used for blacksmithing, weaving, and woodcarving no longer were necessities but rather they became art and began to be preserved.

[7] Groups such as "hillbillies", who were immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany, created a stereotype for Appalachian society in that they were thought to consist of white people who are independent yet selfish and intense.

[10] Appalachian women used affordable and easily attainable raw materials, such as home-grown wool and flax or cotton purchased by the bale, to create their art.

They colored their hand spun fibers with natural plant matter or purchased packaged dyes and also used bits of their home-woven fabric to piece quilts.

Despite the availability of cheaper and easier bed coverings, artistic weavers in Southern Appalachia chose to continue following the handcraft traditions of their foremothers.

This type of quilting is a fusion of various folk traditions from Scottish, Irish, and German cultures, with local influences from Native American, Amish, and Quaker communities.

Native Americans in Tennessee used baskets made of locally available river cane and white oak for a variety of needs, such as carrying water, cooking, sifting corn meal, and weaving footwear and hats.

As white explorers moved into the area, they found that Native Americans substituted baskets for many articles that Europeans made of metal or wood.

The Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw tribes used vegetable dyes made from roots, bark, leaves, hulls, flowers, fruits, stems, seeds, or the complete plant to color their baskets.

Ethnographers identified and named nearly two dozen basket patterns traditionally woven by the Eastern Band of Cherokee, many of which are dyed with plants to create color contrast.

[17] One prominent modern Appalachian folk painter is Mike Ousley, whose work draws on stories and folklore he has heard and experienced throughout his life in eastern Kentucky.

Despite a life shaped by segregation and oppression, Rowe created a joyful and colorful body of art that transformed her home and yard into a realm she called her "Playhouse."

Her art was a way for her to convey gratitude and recover a childhood lost to labor and poverty, and she crafted a world that embodied the richness of life.

[21] Mose Ernest Tolliver was a celebrated folk artist from Alabama, known for his vibrant and colorful paintings of fruits, vegetables, animals, and people.

[22] Artist Jimmy Lee Sudduth uses mud mixed with sugar water and natural dyes to create paintings that feature a wide range of subjects, from self-portraits to cityscapes.

He built Paradise Garden, an everchanging environmental sculpture made from cast-off pieces of technology, to honor human inventors and create a "Memorial to God.

Fields decorated his house with various patterns, his favorite being polka dots, and covered everything inside and outside with red, white, and blue.