The outsiders

I love outsider art. Yes, I appreciate art produced by learned and accomplished artists but for me, the best art is art made by people outside the mainstream, the ones outside of the insular and suffocating masturbatory modern art world.

And by outsider art, I don't necessarily mean folk art, although some of that is cool too. The thing about folk art is that it's been co-opted by pretentious arty hipsters who have art training or went to art school and yet they ape the style of art made popular by Grandma Moses and Howard Finster. My definition of outsider art is art, be it painting, video, drawing, illustration, sculpture, fiber based, that is produced by people who are outside of the art world and who very often have no choice but to obsessively create. It's art not made necessarily for the consumer market, although if it finds a market and the artist can make a living off his or her art then that's great, instead it's art made from the heart and for no other reason that for the sheer pleasure of making art. Outsider art is not necessarily beautiful, don't ever fall into the trap of thinking that art has to be beautiful, some art is, but some art is downright ugly and hard to appreciate at first, if at all.

The term 'art brut' is a French term for a genre of outsider art and what it refers to is art made by mentally ill people. The literal translation is 'rough art.' And the outsider art world is littered with people who were mentally ill and who still managed to create masterpieces. My father would fall into that category. He suffered from schizophrenia and depression most all of his short life and he made art. It was fitting that his artistic idol was Vincent Van Gogh, dad used to paint copies of Van Gogh's work and on the back he'd usually write in pencil, 'A forgery by Ray Denton.' He also loved the pointillists as well and I remember many pointillist paintings he did. He did originals as well but I think his mental illness had convinced him that they weren't as good as those done by recognized 'masters' so he painted mostly copies of other artists works. Unfortunately, I have only one of his paintings, a copy of a Van Gogh. I wish I had more but they all got tossed or destroyed along the way.

Some of my favorite outsider artists are:

Karl Haas

Fred Phillips
Here's a link to a blog post our own Diva Jood did about Mr. Phillips.

Henry Darger.

There is a great documentary PBS aired about the late Mr. Darger. His story is one of creation and madness that is extremely sad. On his death bed Darger finally got a small amount of praise for his lifetime of obsessive and lonely art making.

Donald Mitchell is an African American artist I've just discovered. I found out about him through the magazine Raw Vision, which is a magazine dedicated to the world of outsider art. I discovered this magazine back in the mid '90's and it spurred my interest in art but I had quit buying it a few years back, but then over the holidays this past year my friend Keith, who also shares my interest in outsider art, gave me a bunch of back issues of it that he had laying around his house. It was in these issues where I discovered the art of Donald Mitchell. I love the off kilter patterns and the repetition in Mitchell's works.

Tyree Guyton.

Here's a link to a great little article about him. He makes me almost want to go back to my home town of Detroit. Almost. But not quite.

I dabble a bit in the art myself but I'm not in the same league with any of the folks I mentioned in this post, either talent wise or output wise. I make art because I enjoy it and because it helps satisfy my creative impulse. I used to do theatre and improv comedy to satisfy it but I do neither anymore, I quit theatre because I got tired of the bitchiness, the back biting, and because I was missing too many cues. I quit doing improv due to health reasons. So now blogging, gardening, and making art fill my need to create.

Finally, one of the first things I'm going to do when I hit the Powerball and/or the Mega Millions jackpot is I am going to buy an empty shopping center, refurbish it so it's as environmentally friendly as possible, and then open a center for outsider art in it. I'll also have a pop culture gallery/museum as well and I'll hire Samurai Frog to run it. That is if he'll consent to do it.