Liaudiškumo tradicijos lauko balduose
ENSkilful and gifted artists are and will everlastingly be acknowledged and honoured. The concept of art remains relevant in folk art. Merely those artists who are highly qualified and perfectly master craft secrets as well as those who have innate creative powers may become creators. Among such types of applied art as textiles and ceramics, furniture making is a sufficiently important field of art. Lithuanian folk art is particularly distinguished in this field of art. Hand-crafted furniture of much more complex shapes emerged in the 18th century when the cross saw was applied in the furniture making process. Craftsmen improved the design of furniture, its proportions and decorative elements, thus it did seem like they were competing with each other. Craftsmen of older generations transferred their singular and extremely valuable properties that involved their concern about the shape, design and refinement of the material intended for furniture making from generation to generation. Shortly, chairs woven from willows, pine tree roots and hazelnut trees emerged. In the sixties willow weaving art recovered and it was immediately popularized in Lithuania by the family of Kuršėnai resident Aleksandras Stankus. Small household decorative items were emerging along with woven outdoor furniture and the furniture for recreation sites. A good mastery of weaving craft as well as excellent equipment and technology for willow preparation were the factors that have led to rapid creative explorations and discoveries.Before long, the folk artist Irena Bučiūnienė mastered the craft of weaving and enriched national traditions with distinctive artistic furniture making solutions accordingly. The weavers Zita and Juozas Sobutai, Antanas Povilaitis, Česlovas Kybartas, Laimutė and Zenonas Tomkai are distinguished for their original furniture. The works of Eligijus Zickis can boast for his singular, original and skilful weaving. The craftsman likes to surprise and astonish others as well as to freely interpret and experiment. At present, wood carvers are particularly concerned with outdoor furniture making. They are influenced by the legacy of craftsmen of older generations who transferred an ordinary stump or a plank of wood into outdoor benches that were placed near the wayside crosses, window sills or gardens; moreover they incorporated the natural shape of wood or branches and created an organic entirety with the environment for minimum labour costs. Though the furniture made by Egidijus Impolis is new, it preserves the spirit of folk lore. A large number of garden furniture has been made by the wood carver Vaclovas Adomavičius. The craftsman is distinguished for diverse forms of his works. He prefers massive and monumental shapes of oak logs obtained from cutting oak trees and purposefully enhanced natural and lightly floating tree lines that reveal the refinement of the silhouette, wood texture and the log-type construction. In his outdoor furniture Kęstutis Samalionis has ingenuously used materials and design likewise combined functionality and anaesthetics, therefore his furniture naturally takes root into the environment.Considering a long-term experience in folk art craftsmen are discovering original solutions for outdoor furniture making that helps to design distinctive and highly attractive contemporary outdoor furniture that is reborn to a new life as well as convey a unique national character. Craftsmen employ local materials, namely long-lived oak trees and a simple design that can be distinguished for attractive pliant shapes and a singular and playful decor. Furniture is functional and not merely meets demands of people but also helps to create a harmonious entirety between the creative process and the natural environment. The furniture that is made of natural local materials becomes part of nature, is visible and has an impact on the environment and a person. The perception of Lithuanian national traditions, the continuity and creative transferability of the traditions demonstrate that gifted craftsmen are aware of the fact that they are not merely successors of the Peasant arts but also the creators of contemporary traditions.
