Oscar 'Buddy' Folk - Watercolor/Mixed 1927-2013
Oscar Monroe 'Buddy' Folk moved to New York where he was accepted at both Cooper Union and Pratt Institute. He graduated from Pratt in 1956 and worked for companies such as IBM and Sperry in industrial/commercial design, meanwhile, finding time for personal artistic expression.
Approximately fifteen years later, he left commercial design for the world of fine art. Inspired by several tours across Europe and New York City's East Village in the late 60's and 70's he painted and continued on his path of abstraction. "Buddy", also began experimenting and replicating colored glass and sharper images with defined lines in his work. This became one of his signature characteristics.
Oscar Folk's work has been seen in such locations as South Carolina Arts Commission, South Carolina National Bank, Carolina First Bank, Bank of America, as well as found in private collections throughout the United States.
Most of his work favor the abstract and symbolic over the representational taking shapes and geometrical forms from the environment and adding his perception into the work itself. "You can't make up new forms," he said. "All forms are based on things that already exist, that we have already seen. I'm just giving them new meaning, seeing them from a different viewpoint. Even though my paintings are abstract, they're still definite images, entities. They're real, not surreal. They're just abstract. They are suggestions of forms."
Folk listened to music as he painted, which sometimes influenced his art. He said the reason he liked abstract art so much is "it relates more to music. There is nothing more abstract than music."
