Tag Archives: Phil Ross

Art

Exploring Outsider Visionary Art

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For the last couple of decades the term “Outsider art” has come into popular use as a catch all phrase to describe the work of those who live “outside” society.  Prisoners, religious visionaries, the institutionalized, and hermits all fall into this category.

It is quite often grouped together with folk art in that it is also primarily work by an untrained hand, but it differs in that the work is often more wildly imaginative,  or “edgy”.

Back in the early 90’s, I was fortunate enough to participate in the second and third Outsider Art Fairs  in New York.  I was struck and amazed at the high levels of both positive and negative energy  generated by the various works from around the world on display there.

Everything from giant nightmare fantasies to what could best be described as visions of heaven fighting it out side by side.  It was intense and worthwhile.   It was also an interesting lesson in marketing, in that I observed how a handful of powerful art dealers control and establish who is “hot” and how much these works were going to cost.

The newly found amazing collage/paintings of Henry Darger were presented initially at about $4,000 for a small one.  The second year the price was $40,000.

The book had come out on the Chicago recluse who spent all his days writing his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story.  Beautiful and disturbing.

Betwixt and Between: Henry Darger's Vivian Girls
Betwixt and Between: Henry Darger’s Vivian Girls

[This is a picture of Elsie Paroubek who was murdered at the age of five in 1911 in Chicago. The picture is most likely to have come from the Chicago Daily News. It was one of many newspaper photos of children collected by artist Henry Darger. According to his autobiography, his copy of Miss Paroubek’s photo was in amongst some items that were stolen when his locker at work was broken into, and he was unable to locate the picture in the newspaper archives. The tragic death of Miss Paroubek and the loss of her image inspired him to begin writing his monumental fantasy novel “The Story of the Vivian Girls.” Miss Paroubek was a central character in the novel, under the name Anna Aronburg. Photo is in the public domain. Text excerpt from wikipedia CP]

In Canada, there are just a few documented artists who could be considered “outsiders”.   There is Clarence Webster who drew interesting childlike pictures to cheer up the walls of his institutional room.

A very interesting visionary artist was Alma Rumball who lived in a rural Muskoka cabin. Following a vision of Jesus, she became a clairvoyant recluse, at age 50, creating prolific, intricate, coloured pen and ink drawings.  She watched, as “The Hand” drew by itself, unfamiliar forms, faces, and characters, separate from her consciousness.

There is a good Vision T.V. documentary on this artist.  Another example is Gilbert DesRochers, who after a religious vision moved to his brother’s farm near Perkinsfield, where he lived in a small trailer and attended church regularly, producing many religious based sculptures.  He was discovered and documented by artist John Hartman in 1980 and a solo exhibition of his work was held at the McMichael Canadian Art Gallery from November 3, 1991 to March 1, 1992. For the Silo, by Phil Ross. 

Featured image- The ascension of Gilbert DesRochers. Beaverbrook Art Gallery. 

Vintage

Prix d’Ami -Discovering Antique Pickers Barns

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Kojak’s young helper. image: courtesy of P. Ross

Discovering the Picker’s barns…after visiting Marcel Gosselin [last issue- http://tinyurl.com/7g4oxnk CP ] we went on to a large picker’s barn we had noticed on the way into Victoriaville which is where we met Jean (Kojak) Deshaies. As we arrived, the place was buzzing with activity as several pickers clamored for the attention of a completely bald man; pointing at, and demanding prices of items still being unloaded from his pickup truck. Not being used to this type of “pressure” buying we went inside and started to peruse the rows of furniture and items there.

Nothing was priced. We made note of several things of interest, and waited.

After several minutes the bald man came in and approached us introducing himself in a distinctive, low raspy voice as Kojak, and started simply “how can I help you?”. I was slightly taken aback by the intensity of his voice, abrupt manner, powerful short build, and the fact that he had absolutely no facial hair including eyebrows. He seemed….slightly hostile. We explained that we were dealers from Ontario, and that this was our first trip to Quebec. He immediately broke into a big smile and grabbed my hand and gave it a firm shake, and after introductions asked us what we found interesting. As we pointed out several pieces of early furniture, rugs, carvings, etc., he would offer a short description and then bark out the prices. As we said yes to an item, a young helper would grab the piece and haul it off to a place by the entrance where he started to make a pile. Kojak wrote the prices on a piece of scrap paper. He warmed with every item chosen and before long would sometimes follow the price quoted with a second lower price he called “prix d’ami” or “friend’s price”.

After awhile I noticed the large pile we had accumulated. I expressed my concern that I might not have enough cash for everything, but he said not to worry because a cheque would be fine. I was surprised at this sign of trust but he joked that he knew I would be back, and besides if the cheque was not good he would soon be at my door to collect, and I wouldn’t want that to happen.

He told us that he and a few of the other local dealers were just back from New York City where they had marched unannounced into the office of a downtown lawyer who had bought several items in the area with bad cheques, and had not answered their calls. “We just walked into his office, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and told him we wanted our stuff back.  We didn’t have to do more. He took us right to the warehouse. We were back home ten hours later.”If you had trouble covering a cheque it was fine as longs as you were up front about it, and made it right. No problem.”

Getting all of the stuff we bought into the truck was another thing but we managed. For the Silo, Phil Ross. Visit Phil’s blog at www.shadflyguy.com

Culture

Folk Art In Cyberspace

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It is interesting to consider how the development of the World Wide Web has affected the work of the untrained artist.  Like all artists, folk artists reflect the world they see around them, and have always been affected by the media.  An example is in the work of Ewald Rentz who liked watching Sesame Street on t.v., and so produced sculptures of many of the main characters.   But internet access does not have the same effect as watching television.  Television focuses our attention, sometimes helping to create cultural icons such as Kermit the Frog.

The internet spreads our attention, giving us access to a much wider, but therefore more unfocused body of information.   Things go “viral” and disappear within days, being replaced by the next “flash in the pan”.  But more importantly the web also provides an interested individual the possibility to easily research any given subject. It is reasonable to assume that most modern folk artists will at some point use the internet to look at the work of other folk artists.

Previously this information would have been available only to those who had access to reference books, or could travel to an exhibition or sale. Overall this means that if they are so inclined, artists are being more influenced by each other, and if their motivation is to sell more folk art, they will look at and emulate what’s selling.  This encourages fashion or trends which might be considered a negative. However, to a large extent ‘twas ever thus.  Artists have always looked at each other’s work, and if they like what they see, they will consciously or unconsciously emulate it.  The more interesting affect therefore is on the potential for an artist to develop an audience or market for his or her work from their home by creating a web site, and/ or joining a communal web site specializing in their type of work.  This has the potential to encourage and support many who would otherwise never be discovered.  A real God send to those who live in remote places.  Of course it isn’t as simple as throwing up a few pictures up and waiting for the phone to ring.

One still has to promote and be reliable in transactions, etc., but the potential is now much greater for a talented individual to  be discovered by  their audience, and thus support their output. For the Silo, Phil Ross. 

Art

Finding Value In The Folk Art Of Maud Lewis

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Occasionally I will have a Maud Lewis painting displayed for sale in my shop, and it is sometimes interesting to get people’s reactions to a $6,000 painting that at first glance looks like their 12 year old niece painted it. “My goodness will you look at that,” and some covered up snickering, pretty well expresses their complete disbelief that something so simple could possibly be worth so much money.

Sometimes I give a brief description of the circumstances of her simple Nova Scotia life, and add fuel to the fire by informing them that while she was alive she sold paintings for 12 to 15 dollars from her tiny house by the side of the road. I then suggest it is probably simplest to think in terms of supply and demand. The supply of these paintings has stopped since her death in 1970, and there are many more people wanting them than there are paintings available. This of course skirts the main issue: how could anything like this be desirable in the first place? To find the answer you have to go a lot deeper.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and for some people—I include myself in this group—great value is placed on anything that manages to capture, or in some way manifest, beauty. I do not mean “pretty picture” beauty here. I mean creations that celebrate existence, or connect to a greater truth. I mean something that has energy.

This energy can be found in the works of trained and untrained artists alike. The real value in truly great works of art is in experiencing them, and in doing so being educated and transformed by them. Understanding beauty is our salvation. Money really just confuses the issue. Put in relative terms: $4 million for a Tom Thompson and $6,000 for a Maud Lewis—the Lewis is still cheap. For the Silo, Phil Ross.

 

 

Earth

Harvesting Wild Leeks

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The author 'hard at it'- digging Leeks.
The author ‘hard at it’- digging Leeks.

It’s coq-a-leeky time. For the past several years my friend House and I go out to our secret spot in a nearby woods and harvest wild leeks.

They grow three quarters of the way down a steep hill so the element of  danger grows stronger every year with aging limbs.  Let me tell you,  it’s damn hard using a shovel on a steep hill when you can’t balance on  one leg.  Jeanine’s advice as I was leaving “try not to fall down the  hill”  Exactly.  I had my cell phone with me but realized that if either of us went down there would be no immediate rescue.

We made a pact to leave the fallen man behind and press on should disaster strike.  The  soil was wet this year, so it was an easier job digging them out.  It  only took us about an hour to fill our recyclable shopping bags. When we had successfully dragged ourselves back up the incline we  paused to sit on a fallen tree and observe the moment.  We discussed as  we always do how it would be great to build a camping platform at this  spot and retreat here when our “other” worlds became too much.  The  annual pipe dream.

As the sun filtered through the trees we watched the  dogs for awhile as they ran around with noses to the ground.  Then, as every year we validated the ritual as something important to us that we will repeat faithfully for as long as we are able. Pause. Time to make our way back through the difficult new growth.

It takes Jeanine a long time to clean the leeks, and take off the little hairy  bits on the ends,  but she doesn’t seem to mind.  We both know what’s coming.  That night we make our version of Coq-a-leeky soup, a perennial spring favourite of many cultures including the Scottish.   We get a pot of chicken broth simmering and drop in about 8 full cloves of garlic, and a couple of cut up potatoes. We let  that simmer until the potatoes are quite soft ( about 15 min).  Next we throw in the  chopped up wild leeks (use everything) and give it about another 10  minutes.  A little pepper, or soya if want to give it an Asian flavour.  But not so much as to cover the subtle flavor of the leeks. No oil or fat is involved and we love the flavor.  Most importantly, it is an amazing spring tonic.  I notice I have  better energy the next morning.

Jeanine talks about how in France it is common for people to do a “cure” from time to time.  Short of an absolute fast which can be debilitating and potentially dangerous, they simply restrict themselves for a few days to eating small amounts of only one simple, nutritious thing .  Some use fruit, others fish or vegetable stock, etc. Currently it is not the only thing we are eating so it can’t be considered a full cure, but we have been predominantly eating just the leek soup since, and will continue until it’s gone.

By the way, we wrap the cleaned leeks in paper towels and store them in the crisper.  There are a lot of other creative and delicious ways to cook these little treasures.  I recommend trying to get your hands on some while they’re in season.  It’s worth the effort.  For the Silo, Phil Ross.