There are plenty of “bountiful” things to see and do over the holiday season and the Columbus Museum of Art’s folk art exhibit, “A Bountiful Plenty,” is one that won’t leave you too stuffed for seconds.  The Bountiful Plenty exhibit is a display of 85 folk art pieces specifically selected from a collection of over 100,000 artifacts at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, home to the nation’s premier collection of folk art, as well as many other historical artifacts and artworks. Folk art, with no real concrete definition, is characterized by its diverse forms, varying from things like weather vanes to carved whalebones to elaborate colorful quilts. In many ways, folk art is characterized as being as functional as it is beautiful, including things like tavern signs, old clocks and cigar store Indians. These pieces once used for everyday purposes are now characterized as folk art, as a way of capturing the past.  The exhibit, entitled “A Bountiful Plenty,” is in fact just that. Folk art comes in many forms and from many places, but this specific exhibit is a representation of folk art collected by Electra Havemeyer Webb, the founder and creator of the Shelburne Museum where all of the pieces come from. Webb started her collection of folk art as a teen-ager, leading her on to a 50 endeavor on folk art collecting and preservation. Webb built the Shelburne Museum in 1741 to display her collection of artifacts. Originally a one-building infrastructure, it has now grown to 45 acres of land with 37 buildings housing historical artifacts and artworks. The folk art pieces on display at the Columbus Museum of Art are pieces representative of American folk art in the 18th and 19th centuries. The exhibit is not a complete representation of the different folk art forms considering there is such a diverse definition of what is considered folk art, but the exhibit does give an eclectic portrayal of American folk artists and creators. The exhibit begins with a very popular folk art piece, a weathervane. The piece is entitled, “Tote,”and is shaped like an Indian hunter. “Tote” sets the stage for the exhibit as well as conveniently pointing you in the right direction. The colorful walls of the exhibit are covered with paintings, quilts, carvings and other crafts. A large piece of an old sailor ship hangs on one wall, carved and colored to represent a story about a battle. Glass cases in the center of the exhibit display large whale teeth painted by sailors on their long voyages that were given as gifts to their loved ones. Sailors also carved whale teeth, a folk art form called “Scrimshaw.” These carved teeth were used for functional duties such as devices to wind wool or tools used for baking. Large, intricate quilts also hang on the walls with colors and designs so complex and jumbled that the name “crazy quilts” was created to designate this type of folk art quilting.  Wooden ducks are also a popular folk art creation. Originally used as decoys by hunters to lure fowl, these pieces are considered to be representative of the folk art craftsmanship of the untrained professional artist, an attribute of many folk artists.  Other pieces of art, like carved wood, paintings, old chests and chairs as well as circus memorabilia, surround the exhibit giving the feeling of taking a step back in time. The collection of folk art displayed gives the audience a sense of what visionary aspect folk art consists of as well as the functional duty it once held. The Columbus Museum of Arts collection of folk art will be on display until Feb. 4.