I Couldn't Resist This Little Trio of Sculptures by a Folk Artist Named Gaines

Gaines? I did like a two second Google search and didn't see anything. But I didn't really care, because the pieces were so charming.

They're miniatures and they remind me of traveling in the family a la Russell Edson. Mom has a bird in the center of her skull; so does junior. Dad is always leveling his head to make sure his mind is okay.

I wish they were larger, but you can't have everything. The boy is missing one of his wings, but I suppose you just make up a story to explain that. They'll be good muses in my writing station upstairs.

They're totally the sort of carvings I'd expect to see in the Visionary Arts Museum. I felt a little twirl in my heart the moment I saw them.

The Distance from Shep Shapiro to Medardo Rosso

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.

Suggestion for Sculpture

A Hall of Presidents display in which all the presidents stand in blood, which rises to different levels, depending on their records in office. Some presidents might only be up to their thighs in blood, whereas with others you would just see their eyes peeking above the surface.

(photograph for Mother's Day)

This is from back in the summer, taken with an Ilford disposable camera.

I love this particular configuration in my little town.

Madonna and Child (child aged perhaps four years old).

They were preparing to cross the street and he was afraid So she waited for him, with him. A century or so.

I like the strange aureole that formed.