- Wilho Saari in Concert
I wasn’t quite prepared for what I saw last night at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum. It was the opening of “Working With Tradition: Folk Artists of Washington State.” The exhibition includes fourteen illustrated information panels sent from the Washington State Historical Society– a traveling show to which local museums add their own artifacts and examples of their area’s “folk art.”
Each of the panels featured a Washington State artist working in what I would characterize as an “ethnic tradition.” Folk art, yes, but basically from other cultures and brought to our state from the rich traditions of other countries. A much different look at folk art than what I expected.
According to the exhibit’s introductory information, the term “folk art” came into use in the early 1950s and originally described objects such as weather vanes and cigar store Indians. Perhaps I was stuck in that era – or at least overly influenced by several visits to the American Folk Art Museum in New York years ago. I think my expectations were of those sorts of things that are now termed “antique folk art” – items never intended to be ‘art for art’s sake’ at the time of their creation, often made to serve a specific purpose in the lives of everyday people. In my mind weathervanes andold store signs, carousel horses and scrimshaw, duck decoys and, yes, cigar store Indians and weathervanes were what folk art was all about.
From my limited viewpoint, then, thank goodness for the artifacts from the CPHM collection that rounded out the exhibit! There were the colorful models of Seaview cottages made by Dr. Robert Blancher and by Ruth Mustola. There was the tiny model of the gone-but-not-forgotten Loomis mansion by Gil Diaz and the model of the North Beach ferry – that particular ferry before my time, but bringing back nostalgic memories all the same.
I loved Otto Oja’s wood sculptures and Theodore Lugnut’s knot decorated frames. And how about that intricately fashioned bouquet of hair, much like the ones still hanging in the Red House in Oysterville done by my great-grandmother! And then, the colorful beaded costumes that were of unknown origin and given by unnamed donors. Talk about “folk art!” Perfect!
Best of all, of course, was the display about Wilho Saari and his kantele music. It was a thrill to realize that our Naselle neighbor was one of the featured folk artists in the traveling exhibit but the extra bonus to us last night, of course, was that Mr. Saari was there in person giving a kantele concert.
He not only played – and for one number, sang! – but he told about this national instrument of Finland and shared stories of his family’s long association with it, from the time of his great-grandmother back in the ‘old country.’. When Mr. Saari was a child, seven-plus decades ago, his father was probably the only kantele player in the Northwest, he told us. Now, thanks in large measure to the teaching of Wilho Saari, himself, there are many more kantele musicians in this region. Last night, however, I knew I was hearing the best – living folk art right here on the peninsula. Fabulous!
