Storytelling Tradition / Supernatural British Folk Themes

Storytelling Tradition / Supernatural British Folk Themes

The first of these images reflected the insights of Alan Lomax that British folk song tradition had been kept alive in Appalachia due to the regions topographic isolation. A memory of learning the murder ballads in the woods of western Washington state, and an imagination of how such spooky songs might be told for greatest effect back in their heyday became the subject of the painting.

This also built on the theme from my last post about the metaphorical landscape of the places where these songs were played. We wonder how ballads about misogyny, brutal murder and betrayal might have ever been so popular, but without considering the context it is easy to misinterpret the motive of the songs. In the setting of the misty mountains of Appalachia, one can imagine that these tales were often told for entertainment values - entertainment in the way that we are still fascinated with horrifying stories and criminal intentions, reflected in our television and film media, as well as the way news is biased towards sensationalizing stories about violence, particularly towards those who are deemed helpless. There is minor moral redemption in some of the songs as well, in that the perpetrator is often brought to justice. The painting tries to capture a setting where I imagine the tales might have been told for the greatest possible drama, but I imagine on the porch of an Appalachian cottage would be just as spooky a place to hear these songs.

The second image looks at the point of departure from which Appalachian traditions evolved from British folk song tradition. While the themes of murdering helpless women carried on into Appalachian tradition, the overtly supernatural world  in which the British folk traditions take place is not. I tried to experiment a little with cante and a silver paint marker to "supernatural vibes."