I've been enjoying learning about folk artists lately.
I purchased a little Shep Shapiro sculpture today, largely because it's so creepy as well as sumptuous of surface.
Folk artists are particularly interesting to me when they do weird, sui generis things. Shapiro and his apple carvings would fall into that category. Granted, others have carved faces in apples since time immemorial, and there are those dried apple dolls and little kitchen witches, which I think were originally a Scandinavian tradition. But Shapiro's apple people end up reminding me of Medardo Rosso's sculpture (one of my last visits to New England coincided with a great Rosso show). I suppose it's that epoxy resin technique he brought to the table.
Shep is gone now, since 1993.
If you're looking for an interesting folk artist to collect, Shep Shapiro is a good bet. His pieces go for relatively very little right now on Ebay and similar sites. Yet you can see the prices incrementally edging up and you can see the interest remains strong. Probably because his is an outre art, and the wabi-sabi element in his creations is strong.
I think I wanted this one because the figure looks so evil and will suggest ideas for dark fiction.
Here's another weird Shapiro, face submerged in wax.
And one of Shapiro's girls.
I purchased a little Shep Shapiro sculpture today, largely because it's so creepy as well as sumptuous of surface.
Folk artists are particularly interesting to me when they do weird, sui generis things. Shapiro and his apple carvings would fall into that category. Granted, others have carved faces in apples since time immemorial, and there are those dried apple dolls and little kitchen witches, which I think were originally a Scandinavian tradition. But Shapiro's apple people end up reminding me of Medardo Rosso's sculpture (one of my last visits to New England coincided with a great Rosso show). I suppose it's that epoxy resin technique he brought to the table.
Shep is gone now, since 1993.
If you're looking for an interesting folk artist to collect, Shep Shapiro is a good bet. His pieces go for relatively very little right now on Ebay and similar sites. Yet you can see the prices incrementally edging up and you can see the interest remains strong. Probably because his is an outre art, and the wabi-sabi element in his creations is strong.
I think I wanted this one because the figure looks so evil and will suggest ideas for dark fiction.
Here's another weird Shapiro, face submerged in wax.
And one of Shapiro's girls.
