Folk Art and Inuit Carvings

This was the summer I fell in love with folk art. I don't mean just American folk art, but all folk art,  the folk art of other cultures as well. I can't stop looking at it online and searching for it at flea markets, etc.

I really love theorem paintings and I want to try to update that idea for some contemporary projects involving recycling old clothing that would otherwise go to waste. Old shirts can become new theorem paintings.

Here is a set of folk art carvings I felt very lucky to find. (Photos not mine.)

And I found these burl wood carvings out of Ashbery's home town of Sodus. These remind me of De Chirico so strongly! These two figures really play on my subconscious. Strong in wabi-sabi! They refuse to resolve into the beings we sense implicit in them. More than a little sci-fi. They also remind me of that art show where the Futurists displayed a (natural,unmodified) tree root figure as art. (Photos not mine.)

Here is a small lot of pyrography plaques by Bettie Vretenar. I love the gender-fluid George Washington. Pronouns: they, them. And the spaceman is dishy too. These look even better "in person." (Not my photo.)

And this guy has such an interesting and flexible sense of balance! This piece of early kinetic art can be balanced numerous ways. The artist was quite ingenious. (Not my photos.)

I've started very slowly collecting Inuit carvings. Here are two I didn't nab for my collection, but whose beauty stayed with me. 

This first one is Levi Tetpon, who is just an amazing sculptor and totally under-recognized. (Not my photos below).

And this otter is attributed to Charlie Kasudluaq (b. 1927). This one also broke my heart in several places.

 I'll close with this nonpareil folk art carving of a Southern Baptist snake-handler. This went for over five hundred dollars even with the condition issues. I agree. It's going to haunt my dreams for years. Hard not to see a direct connection to those carved women of Knossos wearing the serpent-skirts. And yet the artist who carved this in the nineteenth century probably never saw those images.

I Love Outsider Artists

I love looking for work by interesting outsider artists.

Here are two watercolors by Chris Tsopanoglou (1949-2013) that I was so happy to find for my small collection.

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And here is a small mixed media work by Marion Scheller. It reminded me so strongly of Joe Brainard and folk art at once. I was so happy to find it.

My Gawsh, Kiyoshi Yamashita

Like, Wow.

1922-71.

Autistic savant and wanderer.

Painter. Also, he employed "the Chigiri-e method of sticking torn pieces of coloured paper together" to render scenes he recalled with eidetic precision (the savant part).

Actually, his Wiki bio doesn't even mention autism. It's clear there was some sort of disability and his I.Q was given as 68. But who knows with tests and people's inclinations or disinclinations to care about them.

Outsider Artists

Here is a list of outsider artists, many of them lesser-known for now, whose work wowed me recently when I began researching this subject.  Many of these are working artists. Several have passed away within the past few years.

Annette Labedzki (see previous post)

Andrew Mass

Chuckie Johnson

E 9

Edward Goss

Harold Plople

Hazel Kinney

Jean-Louis Moray (sells on EBAY)

Jeff Hughart (sells on EBAY)

John Goo-Goo Binn

Jon Strattan

Joyce Cairo

Justin Aerni

Karen Terry

Lee Van Gelder (Wally)

Mary Proctor

Melissa Monroe

Noel Hatfield

Patrick O'Brien

Purvis Young (pretty well-known)

Rick Borg

Steve Martinez

Steven Chandler (who feels like the rebirth of another, dead outsider artist! you'll probably recognize..bit spooky)

Steven Chesley

T-Marie Noland

William Washburn

Zebedee B. Armstrong

Obviously, this is just a cursory list of artists who happened to take my fancy. These are the artists whose work really impacted me on first encounter.

(little painting by Annette Labedzki)

Here is a little painting by Canadian artist Annette Labedzki.

I bought this because it felt like a magic little talisman (could use an apotropaic talisman right now) and because it was so affordable. Also, I wanted it because it is buoyant and beautiful to me.

The artist sells her work on EBAY and I recommend you check her out. You could own an original painting or mixed media work for a price that is sure to surprise you. The artist is very prolific and there is a really wide range of styles from which to choose.

I first discovered her work on a site dedicated to surveying American outsider art. Labedzki actually resides in Canada, so maybe the site is Pan-American in focus despite its stated intention.  I was surprised how many of the artists on that site regularly sell their work on EBAY. Most of these artists seem to be very prolific, which I suppose is in keeping with the archetype of the outsider artist.

This piece is in a style I think of as "shoegaze abstraction." (I love painting in that modality.) The work by which she was represented on the outsider art site was more art brut magical realism with a figurative base. The figures themselves are not always strictly human. Other creatures abound and the therianthropic is a recurring motif in this artist's work. The artist seems to favor creating a very energetic field. The works often feel jazzy, almost intoxicated.

This piece feels much more zen to me. But this is that "shoegaze abstraction." I'm guessing this style might be her yin to balance out her yang. We all need a good yang balancer.