Spring Break
Flat Penny Folk Art embraces the 'ugly'
MARIA DANELLO
Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: Out & About
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Prohibition ushered in a new era in American history in 1919.
The new era also ushered in a relationship between potters and bootleggers.
"The potter, as conflicted as the rest of the South, joined the Prohibition movement by creating more ugly jugs to visually show their support for Prohibition, while at the same time continuing to produce whiskey jugs for the bootleggers," Flinn said.
The idea behind the face jug was that a person consuming whisky would look at it and, as he got more drunk, would think the jug was becoming uglier and uglier.
The hope was that the image of the "ugly jug" would scare the person enough to stop drinking.
The face jug saw its second heyday in the summer of 1968 when folk artist Lanier Meaders arrived on the Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Smithsonian Folk Festival with a carload of face jugs.
Since that point in time, the face jug has again begun to thrive and continues to grow throughout the south as a collectible item.
The cost of the workshop at Flat Penny Folk Art Gallery is $40 and includes a hand-turned Lizella jug by Tim Flinn and all of the materials needed to put a face on the jug.
The workshop begins with a brief history of the face jug, a demonstration and then participants are free to go to work.
Flinn and Imbrogno said they have only one requirement. "Just bring your own towel and a sense of adventure," Flinn said.
The new era also ushered in a relationship between potters and bootleggers.
"The potter, as conflicted as the rest of the South, joined the Prohibition movement by creating more ugly jugs to visually show their support for Prohibition, while at the same time continuing to produce whiskey jugs for the bootleggers," Flinn said.
The idea behind the face jug was that a person consuming whisky would look at it and, as he got more drunk, would think the jug was becoming uglier and uglier.
The hope was that the image of the "ugly jug" would scare the person enough to stop drinking.
The face jug saw its second heyday in the summer of 1968 when folk artist Lanier Meaders arrived on the Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Smithsonian Folk Festival with a carload of face jugs.
Since that point in time, the face jug has again begun to thrive and continues to grow throughout the south as a collectible item.
The cost of the workshop at Flat Penny Folk Art Gallery is $40 and includes a hand-turned Lizella jug by Tim Flinn and all of the materials needed to put a face on the jug.
The workshop begins with a brief history of the face jug, a demonstration and then participants are free to go to work.
Flinn and Imbrogno said they have only one requirement. "Just bring your own towel and a sense of adventure," Flinn said.
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Debora Bailey
posted 10/21/07 @ 7:50 PM EST
How exciting for me, an elementary art teacher researching Ugly Jugs as background for my upcoming lesson on Ugly Face Jugs to find an article in the Red and Black, bringing me a short history of these jugs. (Continued…)
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