American Folk Art

"Log Cabin Quilt: 'Pig Pen' " by African-American Pecolia Warner has something in common with traditional American log-cabin quilts, especially the building up of small rectangular strips of cloth into larger rectangles that are then put together in a pattern to form the completed quilt.But where other log-cabin quilts may be more regularly patterned and colored, this one is notable for its creative idiosyncrasies. What's that long, dark band going down the quilt three-quarters of the way over to the right?

The Carroll County Farm Museum is offering traditional-arts classes starting next month. "18th-Century American Painted Tinware": The cost is $40 for one day. Students will learn painting techniques on tinware projects from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. as follows: May 19 and June 3, round tin canister (intermediate level); May 29 and June 17, tin tray (beginner and intermediate). "American Folk Art Painting": Students will learn techniques of folk art painting from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. as follows: May 8, "Hearts & Flowers" painted planter (beginner and intermediate)

Cody, Wyo. -- America is in love again -- this time with a tried and true pardner.The rediscovery of the American West has blazed its way into the popular culture with the resurgence of movie Westerns, the development of a new genre of Western literature and an "Out West" look to everything from fashions to furniture.Log cabins suddenly are chic. Contemporary Western art is selling at premium prices. Shopping catalogs have taken names like "Uniquely Montana " and "The Last Best Place," which fills its orders from Wisconsin.

Recession and low inflation have taken their toll on the collectible market, deflating the overblown prices of the 1980s. Which could make 1991 a good time, if you have the money and inclination, to seek out art, vintage cars or other collectibles that haven't been this low in price for quite some time.Keep in mind that the value of any collectible is always subject to fluctuation based on economic and market circumstances. So, if you aren't careful to do your homework as you shop and instead enter with stars in your eyes, you can get badly burned.

Before today's yuppies and the Hollywood crowd discovered expensive hand-made cigars and elevated them to cult status, Baltimoreans went about for years puffing on such now-vanished brands as Iraba, which they insisted on mispronouncing "Irabia" as they do "Patapsico" for Patapsco today.Nacirema, Fire-King, Caton, Monument Square, Clifton Park and Uncle Willie were other brands favored by smokers, who made their purchases in tobacco stores whose premises were often guarded by colorful, hand-carved, cigar-store Indians.

You know the feeling. We all do.You're standing in the museum in front of a work of art -- a smooth, polished marble sculpture, say -- and there rises this almost irresistible urge to touch it, partly because it looks like it would feel good and partly because you know you're not supposed to.After all, what harm would a little touch do? And who would know? All you have to do is wait until the guard turns his back or leaves the room and then, just for a second. . . . But you don't, partly because you're scared a camera may be watching or an alarm will go off, and partly because you know you're not supposed to.Now you can. "Access to Art: Bringing Folk Art Closer" at the Baltimore Museum of Art (through Nov. 11)

The Hawk has "walked the dog" for the last time.His "shim sham" will shake no more. And he's tapped his last sentence on "the typewriter."Baltimore's Louis Hawkins is dead at 78.The unrivaled dean of the city's small tap dancing community, "The Hawk" started hoofing in front of a Howard Street shoe store when he was 12 and ended up dancing for change in Fells Point bars.In between, the longtime resident of South Carey Street danced with the Count Basie Orchestra, won a string of amateur night contests at the fabled Apollo Theater in New York, and worked with comedians Redd Foxx and Slappy White.

Time has turned the table on painted furniture which used to be favored by thrifty buyers willing to put up with fakery. Today, genuine old paint-decorated pieces bring a premium over comparable ones of polished wood."

The most successful collectors aren't trendy. They seek no approval except their own and keep quiet about what they're buying to have the field all to themselves. Then, a decade ormore later, when they show off their accumulated treasures, latecomers gaze enviously. "Why didn't I think of collecting that way back when it was cheap and plentiful?" is the common refrain.One trick to building a collection that can be savored privately, exhibited publicly or, if you're lucky, sold for a handsome profit, is to find a neglected field.

In the next 10 weeks, the American Visionary Art Museum must raise $250,000.Without the money, the gently curving museum at the foot of Federal Hill may not be able to install its next exhibition. Without the money, the fledgling institution will face a decision: go into debt or close.Fourteen months after opening in its gleaming $7 million building, AVAM -- the museum -- is an unwilling example of how hard it is for a new cultural institution to build a national audience, find allies in the intensely competitive world of nonprofit fund raising and create a clear voice for itself.