Look at that title!! They don't call me a writer for nothin'! OK, bad rhyming aside ...
I love country roads, not in the John Denver sense so much, as for the people and their houses that dot them. B. and I are always taking the backroads, and when I ride with him, I get to look out the window and imagine who is it that lives in the house with the "Fresh Eggs for Sale" sign or what it would be like to live in the North Carolina town of Tyro. And sometimes, there are houses decorated with paint and signs and all types of homemade sculptures. I never stop. My new friend in Greensboro, Mike Smith, ALWAYS stops.
I met Mike while working on an article about his At Home Gallery in Greensboro. I have been interested in outsider art since coming across a book about it in the UNC Charlotte Library while avoiding my real research for a long forgotten undergraduate paper. That book, Signs and Wonders, is out of print now, but it really got me interested in the whole phenomenon, and so I've always been interested in learning/writing more about it.
Mike got interested in outsider art by driving the back roads of the South, and wondering just like I do. He went a step further and instead of just driving by, began to visit these folk artists with sincere interest in their work and motivation. That interest has led to a 20-plus-year career in the folk art/outsider art world, which made him a worthwhile subject for my cover article of Go Triad! last week. We were both thrilled.
Meanwhile, here's a little show and tell for you -- my piece of outsider art I purchased years ago with my first paycheck from The Highlander. I love the iredescent nature of this piece, and of course, its self frame. The first picture is a personalized piece on the back the artist doodled for me when he found out I purchased the piece, a generous added bonus.
No comments:
Post a Comment