Huub Niessen, A Bit of Dutch Brilliance

The other day I received an e-mail with an attachment of many intriguing images. It was hard to select just a few to share. But the text was an easier decision. I am letting Huub Niessen tell you about himself and his journey in his own words.
"I have been a journalist for about twenty five years, but, unfortunately, when I was about 45 years old I got deep depressions, that took about ten years of my life. After that dark period I started studying Arabic, and began to draw more intensively than before. By the end of the sixties I had exhibitions in well known galleries in Amsterdam. And now I am 70 years old (born 4 Feb. 1943) and I like to show my tiny works in Amsterdam (Galerie Hamer) and Lyon (Galerie Dettinger Mayer). The Guislain Museum has bought 8 drawings and it is important for me to be in the collection of that museum." Niessen's work is also in the Musee-Creation Frances, which has a world class collection of artbrut and outsider art.
The stories told in each piece are intriguing and the characters are splendid. This is highly original work with a wide appeal to both collectors of non-mainstream as well as mainstream art. Enjoy!

A Sculptor Unequaled, Joe DeMarco

After a back injury, Derby, CT resident DeMarco left the field of masonry and became a self-taught sculptor. His first creations were mailbox people made from rims of trucks and cars. Birds of all sorts were his next focus and many a fine eagle or stork is posed on the shore of CT ponds and streams. Metal masks, musicians, carved heads, birdbaths, ballerinas, lovers, and life sized horses and moose became is oeuvre in later years. The creativity of this self-taught man always was a delight to behold. He was proficient in stone, metal, wood, and even concrete.

Joe's property was a junk man's treasure, filled to the brim with aging school busses, old farm trucks, recycled tools and car and motorcycle parts. All became fodder for his work. He kept several projects going at a time, and miraculously many became finished works of art. At times Joe would drive into NY city in a truck which had holes in the floorboards, iffy brakes, and jerry rigged supports holding his precious cargo. He had no compunction about pulling right up in front of the Museum of Modern Art, or the Met, depending on which had less police attention that day, and sell work off the back of his truck. More than once he had to continue on to posh areas like South Hampton to deliver sculpture to delighted buyers who happened to be passing by.

Small in stature, big in spirit, his memorial service drew hundreds of people during a fierce New England snowstorm. The reception, featuring a grouping of his metal and stone musicians, along with live music, celebrated a life not soon forgotten. His works can be seen in private collections throughout the country and at the Marrietta Museum of Art and Whimsy in Pensacola, Florida.

The Women of Troy

Tough, edgy, tender, allusive, challenging, ethereal. All these adjectives can describe the stunning works and alter egos of Canadian self-taught artist Troy Brooks. As a young man he found strength in these female forms, which emerged in his earliest drawings. They became a safe haven from school bullies. They have transformed into an army of conquerors as Troy enters his forties. After just two years of showing these oil paintings, Troy had become a full time artist, with strong sales in still tentative times for the art world. It's no wonder!

A Toronto paper wrote these words. "Blending mannerist elements of figurative pop art, surreal distortion and symbolism, Troy Brooks presents an elaborate pageantry of female characters observed in allegorical settings. These towering yet fragile women play out scenes that explore the fringes of an internal landscape; caught in moments where something transformative has or is about to happen."