What's "Emerging"?

This is an exciting week at Antiques on Cannon – it’s the debut of our new radio interview show “Emerging” on WCTR AM 1530. Now what’s an antiques shop doing on hosting a radio show, you might ask. Good question.

My interest in antiques is deeply rooted in my love of folk art; objects made by everyday people, untrained in any form of art, but whose drive for self expression and fundamental need to create compels them to make objects that are often thought-provoking, whimsical, sentimental – and always created with passion.

It is the spirit of the folk artist that intrigues me. It is true that in the days when people made their own entertainment, much time was spent whittling, sewing, making baskets, carving and so on. The folk artist took that task one step further by making functional objects and then embellishing or crafting them in such a way as to become works of art. They couldn’t just make a pitcher, for example. They had to give it eyes and ears and a snout so that it took on a character of its own. In contemporary vernacular they were proclaiming “I gotta be me!”.

I see this same spirit in today’s entrepreneurs. Here in Kent County we are fortunate to have a significant number of hugely talented young people who have struck their own path – as retailers, in the service industry, as artists, artisans and authors, as restaurateurs. They have chosen the road less traveled over what others would perceive as a safer, more secure path. Their work is their art.

And frankly, I think that’s fabulous. It is that spirit that turns the wheels of this country. And just as our antiques shop preserves the creations of folk artists of generations past so that their attempts at self expression continue to bring joy to others, so do we wish to recognize those who are doing just that today.

Emerging will air at 10:00 a.m. every Friday. Each week we’ll interview someone who has set their own course or whose passion has led to something extraordinary, and we’ll find out what makes them tick.

This Friday, as a preview of our First Friday festivities, we’ll interview Bonnie K. Connelly, artist/author of Everything’s Coming Up Sock Monkeys, and Philadelphia sock monkey collector Elaine Golak whose collection of vintage sock monkeys has taken on a life of its own, inspiring paintings, greeting cards, calendars, photographs and gallery showings.

I hope you’ll join us – on the air and at Antique on Cannon. Did I remember to say we just got in some wonderful furniture and decorative accessories?

Here’s to seeing the world from the eyes of a spirit unleashed –
marilyn