By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — As the world has slowed to a crawl because of global orders to shelter-in-place, billions of humans are living in a much-reduced footprint, often confined within the walls of their own homes. For those of us used to busy lives full of social activities, it’s a bit like being sealed inside a bell jar, or perhaps a large glass bottle—our lives go on, but their framing has drastically changed. A century ago, during times like this, self-taught craftspeople might have spent this required time at...

Homespun Beauty: Jim Linderman on Folk Art’s Authentic Appeal

By Maribeth Keane and Bonnie Monte — My interest in 20th-century American self-taught art came about after I had gone through a million other things—from stamps to bootleg records to books about who killed JFK. I had been at CBS News in New York City for about 8 or 10 years, and I was kind of burned out from working too hard and drinking too much. So I just stopped doing both for a while. It was 1981, and the art scene was exploding. The most entertaining thing to do in New York at the time was to go gallery hopping....