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by Arlene Wright-Correll 

Artist, crafter, woodworker, Mark Allen Brent weaves them all using pieces of his and his ancestors past to create the most interesting works of folk art.

Folk art-art is usually made by people who have had little or no formal schooling in art. Folk artists generally make works of art with traditional techniques and content, in styles handed down through many generations, and often of a particular region. Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, metalwork, costume, tools, and other everyday objects all may be folk art then with this in mind; Mark Allen Brent is a true Folk Artist.

Mark, a native of Munfordville, lives in Cub Run with his wife Judy Lynn and his two daughters Kasey age 10 and Macenzie age 8.

Mark says he always drew as a child, especially cartoons. Though he took some art courses such as silk screening and advertising art design when a student in Munfordville High School, he basically is a self taught artist.

He enjoys bringing history alive in his work. When he makes his birdhouses, he makes two kinds. One kind is the authentic birdhouse which the birds enjoy and inhabit throughout the wooded area of his home. The other is the memorable decorative ones he makes that may signify the general store, homestead, church or building from one of his ancestors lives. These are quite intricate and elaborate and are usually made from a piece of wood or metal that came from the original subject matter. Thereby lays the historical thread he weaves into that piece of folk art.

He likes to utilize old antiques from his family’s past such as an old flat iron that belonged to his mother which he hand decorated when he painted a picture of her on it.

Mark hand paints gourds, makes Christmas ornaments and does just about anything you can think of. It seems no piece of wood, metal or glass can be passed by. He recycles history! He paints large wall murals and carves the smallest owls I have ever seen out of black walnut shells. He says the smaller the piece he is working on the better he likes it.

He showed me a hand painted wooden fireplace screen he made from wood from his wife’s homestead and it was in front of the mantel he restored from his wife’s family home that now graces one of the rooms in their home.

There are so many things he has made that it would fill a book to describe them and each one is a true folk art item with a story to it. He currently is teaching his two young daughters the art of Folk Art Painting and the history that surrounds it and the pieces he uses.

So the next time you have something from your families past that you are getting ready to discard, look long and hard at it. Then bring your dad’s old saw, shovel, ladder, your mom’s antique ironing board or whatever to Mark Allen Brent as he can be hired to turn it into an heirloom folk art memento for you. You can reach him at his studio shop by calling 270 524 2598.

(Contact Arlene Wright-Correll at 270 524 9567 or email her at askarlene@scrtc.com  if you want to be next week’s column of Who’s Who in KY Art’s and Crafts©)