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.

Portrait de Genocide: A Political Statement

Sal Scolara, an esteemed professor emeritis from The University of Connecticut, wrote these thoughtful words about a mixed media piece created by Pedro Martin DeClet. It was exhibited by my gallery at the American Visionary Art Museum. This large, prestigious work, featured in the museum's catalogue, is available for sale at the gallery.
"Some artists, like Pedro Martin DeClet, have chosen to create political statements that suggest a new-found kinship with oppressed cultural groups and the positive and affirming act of presenting a political statement for the consideration of viewers. DeClet's Portrait de Genocide is a powerful media related work which chronicles the U.S. government's genocide of native American Indians. The artist has lain out a loose grid of some 50 photocopied images (the number corresponding to the number of states in our country) made from archival photographs of famous Indian chiefs and related imagery. Atop this strong, historical gallery of Indian history, the artist has painted a bold, blood-red graphic image suggestive of rock hieroglyphs found in Indian areas of the Southwest. This blood-red colored sign seems to be a target and a tribute, a marker of the passing of these great leaders. DeClet aligns himself with those that would remind us of these ugly scars upon our nation's history. Make no mistake -- it is not simply an artwork of rebellion one sees here, but a truth laid bare -- and some artists have traditionally used their art to comment on society and its ills. This is a positive act of growth and concern, a connecting to something greater that one's immediate situation."

Inga Moijson, From Childhood to Here

Although as a child, Inga Moijson attended art lessons on the weekends, she is basically a self-taught artist. She delves deeply into her childhood for subject matter and emotions. In her bio she writes:

"To me painting is a way of expressing my innermost self. By giving it form, I give others an opportunity to share that sacred space. I allow the beholder to peer into a subconscious parallel world that coexists with ‘reality’. Naturally, there are points of contact with reality; we are all influenced by what happens around us. But my soul is strong enough and wilful enough to retain its individuality. For the outsider, it is difficult to remain indifferent. With a little luck, my work will grip him to such an extent that he will truly feel it and be able to make my world his own."

Moijson's complex, brightly painted and edgy works are sometimes confrontational, but always appealing. Their fairy tale exterior belies a deeper and profound meaning, and yet the works are accessible on many levels. You can tell yourself the story or search for that of the artist. Either way, they are fascinating paintings with a lot of staying power. The artist lives in Belgium with her husband and two talking parakeets, and has been painting full time for eight years.

Engineer, Fighter Pilot, Painter

Bill Rabinovitch was an engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute when we first met. Then he went on to become a fighter pilot, and then a hippy painter living in the Haight Ashbury section of San Francisco. He came to visit once and left the kitchen sink filled with unwashed paintbrushes sitting next to my baby's sterilized bottles. I was not amused.

Eventually he moved to New York and created over 2,000 hours of video archives of all the museum, high end gallery and alternative space openings in the city. This invaluable footage included interviews with the top artists, their collectors, the gallerists, the directors and the curators. This footage became fodder for Bill's cable show "ArtSeen" which proved highly popular for many years.

Our paths crossed again while waiting for admission to the Outsider Art Fair one bitterly cold winter day. I learned that he had become somewhat of a NY legend. He had just written a film called Pollack Squared which was to open at the New York Independent Film Festival. His very appealing paintings now hung in NY galleries. He composed respectable music. I forgave him for the mess in my California kitchen and we resumed our friendship. I learned that Bill also wrote some exceptional screen plays about artists, including the highly acclaimed Picasso and the Weeping Women. If you can get a copy of his films, or watch them on the internet, you will be delighted. In the meantime, here's one of my favorite Rabinovitch paintings for you to enjoy. I think I remember that shade of orange in my sink!

Mail Art Show About Jesus!

Sharon Silverman is hosting a fantastic Mail Art show in Haverhill, MA from March through May 2011. The subject is The Face of Jesus and below is the information so that you, too can be part of this exhibit. Outsider artists, tattoo artists and graffiti artists are also welcome to submit your art. When this show is over, Sharon will search for another city, and another state.
She writes to me, "Since none of the work is for sale and it is shown to the public for free, I can usually get great press and large audiences....which ultimately gives both me and my fellow artists more publicity. I can't do these shows all the time, but it certainly has proved very worthwhile for me to do them once in awhile. I always choose a topic / theme that interests me as an artist or some kind of message I am interested in putting out to the world...staying true to myself gives me the energy and stamina I need to sustain moving this show around."

Here are three mail art pieces which have come from Greece, Kentucky and Belgium. Come join the fun! This will be a marvelous and powerful show!

An International MailArt Gallery Exhibition

Theme : The Face of Jesus

Medium : Open

Size : Open

All works must be sent by mail. No email entries. Artists may submit up to 4 pieces. No fee. No jury. No returns.

All works must be signed by the artist and include the artist's address or some sort of contact information.

The Gallery Exhibition will take place March-May 2011 at Angles and Art Gallery, 80 Wingate Street in Haverhill, Massachusetts. This Show is a traveling exhibition. All artists will receive printed documentation, as well as the names and addresses of all participating artists from around the world. Artists will receive publicity online, as well as through the mail. The Show will be open to the public FREE of charge. This is art for art's sake... to be enjoyed by everyone. I am not looking for your political views on Christianity or the Catholic Church. I am specifically documenting the creative ways contemporary artists / mailartists depict the Face of Jesus in the 20th & 21st Century. Do not send shock art or Jesus humor to this mailart call or artwork promoting hate or intolerance. Please pass this on and invite other artists to participate.

Send work to:

The Face of Jesus – An International MailArt Exhibition

c/o Sharon Silverman

P.O. Box 1212

Haverhill, MA 01831

USA

Using Both Sides of The Brain

Saturated in color, humorous in theme, the paintings of self-taught artist Thomas Chat are a complete delight. His background is unexpected. In 1997 he attended a university in London where he studied chemistry. He began painting in 2004, and this UK artist, who was raised in Hong Kong, has been heavily influenced by the Colonial melting pot of his youth. He spent his summer holidays often walking around the street and hills alone, absorbing this unique culture.

Thomas continues to travel the world and has returned to Hong Kong often and thrives in it's familiarity. He acknowledges that painting is his first love and his work certainly reflects the joy he finds.

Another View Through the Glass

A dance instructor in a mental institution, a fortune teller, a restaurant owner, a carpenter, all these words describe Richard Lee in various periods of his life. But this 77 year old man is best known world wide, as one of, if not the best artist who works in reverse glass painting.

All of his zoomorphic pieces, done on antique mirrors and cabinets, start with the details and then move forward. After making a black and white draft, and stripping the mirror of all it's old silver coating, he starts creating his intriguing images backwards onto the surface, painting in highlights first. He also strips the wood, covering it with unique silver, copper and/or gold leaf, making wonderful frames for his highly delightful and complex paintings.

Barefooted most of the time, Richard works, when he's not on the beach, in a small gallery hidden behind his wife Claudia's jewelry store. Most of his masterpieces are in the $10,000 to $20,000 dollar range, but the gallery was lucky enough to score a small example, under $1000, which he donated to the once yearly and highly anticipated Chicken Alley Flea Market Tag Sale. Organized by his friend, and well-known art collector and humanitarian, Olga Hirshorn, this sale is a huge draw to those in the know, who live or summer on Martha's Vineyard. Thanks to the cooperation of my entire crew of children and grandchildren, I was able to get a place quite close to the front of the line, and grabbed the Richard Lee, along with an overlooked bakelite bracelet. Oh happy day! This work will be posted on the Beverly Kaye gallery site shortly.

Slotin Masterpiece Auction

If you are anywhere near Buford, Georgia and you love this type of art, you need to attend the Slotin Masterpiece Folk Art Auction, held May 1st and 2nd. The owners are connoisseurs of outsider and folk art and have access to top materials in the field. The stunning and very informative catalogue can be accessed on-line, or delivered to your door, and you can participate at home or in person.
In person is so much more exciting! Collectors from all over the country show up for fun, food and fabulous art, much of which can be bought at affordable prices. And once you get two or three of them focused on the same prize, the real excitement begins. There are over 1000 works of art at this sale, including pieces by Mattie Lou O'Kelley, Bryan McNutt, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Elijah Pierce, and many more. I urge you to go to the link and be sure to let me know how you do!

Birds, fish, houses and of course, folks!

Mike Bailey is a self-taught MA artist , some of whose works definitely remind me in iconography and style of Rene Magritte. Mike's paintings have been shown in various alternative spaces and was recently been featured in two books, "Art in King Size Beds" and "Art of Everyday Joe". He generously takes part in various charity auctions and fundraisers every year, and can be found on eBay. Delightful work with a twist.

Laura N. James, praying out loud

With an Antiguan heritage and a love for detail and storytelling, in the year 2000, Laura N. James made a spectacular group of paintings for a Book of Gospels , for the Roman Catholic Church. There is a diverse cast of characters represented, of all shades and nationalities, and the artwork is gorgeous! But this young New Yorker also paints Jazz figures which seduce the eye with their colors and movement, and her series, "Nannies and Other Mothers" grabs at your heart. Women who leave their own families far behind to come to the United States to care for the children of others is a powerful and often neglected subject. She handles it with a grace and compassion for all involved and the paintings are luscious.

Mary Shelley, adrift in beauty

Folk art at it's best is carved by New York State's, Mary Shelley. She is a self-taught, visionary artist whose work fits into several other catagories.....Naïve, Americana, whimsical, Outsider, primitive and carved craft. If fact the work is simply glorious. She manages to paint a picture story of ordinary events and she brings the wood to life with each cut. Her themes range from waitresses, diners, animals, farms, and regional life, to events on the sea, which are my personal favorites. In the Summer months you can meet her at the Ithaca Farmer's Market, carving her latest masterpiece. She is an American treasure!

Definitions, just a starting point........

Both Raw Vision magazine and Wikipedia have posted this information before, but I offer it again as a good starting point for understanding the difference between many of the terms used to define outsider art.

A number of terms are used to describe art that is loosely understood as "outside" of official culture. Definitions of these terms vary, and there are areas of overlap between them. The editors of Raw Vision, a leading journal in the field, suggest that "Whatever views we have about the value of controversy itself, it is important to sustain creative discussion by way of an agreed vocabulary". Consequently they lament the use of "outsider artist" to refer to almost any untrained artist. "It is not enough to be untrained, clumsy or naïve. Outsider Art is virtually synonymous with Art Brut in both spirit and meaning, to that rarity of art produced by those who do not know its name."

• Art Brut: literally translated from French means "raw art"; 'Raw' in that it has not been through the 'cooking' process: the art world of art schools, galleries, museums. Originally art by psychotic individuals who existed almost completely outside culture and society. Strictly speaking it refers only to the Collection de l'Art Brut.
• Folk art: Folk art originally suggested crafts and decorative skills associated with peasant communities in Europe - though presumably it could equally apply to any indigenous culture. It has broadened to include any product of practical craftsmanship and decorative skill - everything from chain-saw animals to hub-cap buildings. A key distinction between folk and outsider art is that folk art typically embodies traditional forms and social values, where outsider art stands in some marginal relationship to society's mainstream.
• Intuitive art / Visionary art: Raw Vision Magazine's preferred general terms for outsider art. It describes them as deliberate umbrella terms. However, Visionary Art unlike other definitions here can often refer to the subject matter of the works, which includes images of a spiritual or religious nature. Intuitive art is probably the most general term available. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art based in Chicago operates a museum dedicated to the study and exhibition of intuitive and outsider art. The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is dedicated to the collection and display of visionary art.
• Marginal art/Art singulier: Essentially the same as Neue Invention; refers to artists on the margins of the art world.
• Naïve art: Another term commonly applied to untrained artists who aspire to "normal" artistic status, i.e. they have a much more conscious interaction with the mainstream art world than do outsider artists.
• Neuve Invention: Used to describe artists who, although marginal, have some interaction with mainstream culture. They may be doing art part-time for instance. The expression was coined by Dubuffet too; strictly speaking it refers only to a special part of the Collection de l'Art Brut.
• Visionary environments: Buildings and sculpture parks built by visionary artists - range from decorated houses, to large areas incorporating a large number of individual sculptures with a tightly associated theme. Examples include Watts Towers by Simon Rodia, Buddha Park and Sala Keoku by Bunleua Sulilat, and The Palais Ideal by Ferdinand Cheval.

Amazing find, tucked into a book

On an antiquing trip along the CT coastline, I happened upon a small store that I almost neglected. But a wise teacher once told me that unexpected finds sit waiting to be discovered in the most unlikely places. As I was thumbing through an old book, twenty one small drawings fell out! All were written on the backs of letters between two family members , and dated 1866. They were obviously made by small, but extremely imaginative children, and they were clearly worth much more than the $10 price tag on the book. So I made my way up to the dealer, showed my find, and we negotiated a new price for the lot. This all happened years ago, but these small childhood drawings remain one of my favorite collections. The one with the alligator looks like a Traylor to me!

Master Weathervane maker.....Anthony Holland

Travis Tuck made a weathervane for the movie Jaws, back in the day. It was stolen from the set and he had to make another. Stephen Spielberg became a fan and added one to his personal collection years later. Then Anthony Holland came to Martha's Vineyard and became Travis's apprentice and together they created some of the most famous weathervanes in the country. The Fall issue of Martha's Vineyard Style magazine has done a spectacular article about Tony Holland's work. Get yourself a copy. It'll be a great read and the pages of photos are stunning.

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness......AVAM

The seductive colors of Helga Hornung

Another German artist of note is Helga Hornung. A famous children's book author and illustrator, as well as a formidable artist in the gallery and museum world, her saturated colors and lyrical style seduce the viewer. After three weeks of rain, these paintings certainly brightened my day.

Alexandra Huber in America Show

The long awaited "Alexandra Huber in America " show is now open at the gallery in CT and on-line here

I met with her German agent in New York recently, and hand-picked these powerful and hopeful pieces which fit the climate of the day. Huber's newest museum catalogues are also available, and the gallery has a large portfolio of this international star's works. Dozens of works on the website will satisfy the hungriest of appetites for Huber's mesmerizing art.

Button Girl comes to sculpture show......

Sandy Mastroni's front door opens and I am entranced and delighted each and every time. Although I was there for new paintings to post on the gallery blog, several little figures popped into sight. Button Girl won my heart right away, and will be offered on a table of "smalls" at the 16th annual Sculpture in The Garden Show the first weekend in June. So will the wee ballerina. Oddities are always welcome here.

Moon over Miami?

In searching through some of the stuff under the bed, I rediscovered this goody from long, long ago. It's full bodied, probably plaster of paris or light weight wood, hand painted on both sides, and about 24" tall. The creator remains anonymous and this delightful moon will be posted on my site for sale in about a month, but you can have it now for $100. This is my version of spring cleaning!

Oodles of doodles.......

As it succinctly says on his website," Ian Pyper creates drawings; he induces visions. Pyper uses marker, watercolor and paper, like a caveman used burnt wood, spit and a hard rock wall, to show us clearly what he sees." This entirely self-taught and outsider artist from the UK wows his audience with a cacophony of color and line, dots and doodles, and wins an ever larger audience each time. Paper saturated with watercolor and ink mesmerize the eye and spirit alike. I like!