When Gene Logsdon realized that he experienced the same creative joy from working on his farm as he did from writing, he began to suspect that farming itself was a form of art. Thus began his search for the origins of the artistic impulse in the agrarian lifestyle. The Mother of All Arts is the culmination of Logsdon's journey, his account of friendships with farmers and artists driven by the urge to create. He chronicles his long relationship with Wendell Berry and discovers the playful humor of several new agrarian writers. He reveals insights gleaned from conversations with Andrew Wyeth and his family of artists. Through his association with musicians such as Willie Nelson and his involvement with Farm Aid, Logsdon learns how music--blues, jazz, country, and even rock 'n' roll--is rooted in agriculture.
Logsdon sheds new light on the work of rural painters, writers, and musicians and suggests that their art could be created only by those who work intimately with nature. Unlike the gritty realism or abstract expressionism often favored by contemporary critics, agrarian art evokes familiar feelings of community and comfort. Most important, Logsdon convincingly demonstrates that diminishing the connection between art and nature lessens the social value of both.
Humorous and introspective, The Mother of All Arts is neither conventional cultural criticism nor traditional art criticism. It is a unique, lively meditation on the nature and purpose of art--and on the life well lived--by one of the most original voices of rural America.
Gene Logsdon, a writer and farmer in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, is the author of many books, including Wyeth People, The Contrary Farmer, and the forthcoming novel The Lords of Folly.
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