Find Inspiration in Art Outsiders Creations

Have you ever stumbled upon a piece of art, something you didn’t expect, that shakes up your relationship to the place you stand in? As a child I marveled at the kite my father held as it bobbed in the sky and suddenly realized how that space was carved by string, paper and stick. It had a shape that I hadn’t related to before. Today art outsiders inspire some of the same wonder.

I can’t help but stop and stare at paintings wired to chain link fences, crocheted yarn, painstakingly wound around a neighborhood stop sign, and, most recently, strange static figures discovered along the shore of Salton Sea. Most of these were created by art outsiders, (see quote below) and they’re part of a pantheon of pieces spread across the US. It’s the kind of art that either resonates or it doesn’t. Some of my favorite artworks are simply labeled weird by others – and that is fine. It would be a shallow, boring world if we all liked the same things. Note: I am not an art critic but an art appreciator.

Wikipedia suggests that:

Outsider art is art made by self-taught individuals who are untrained and untutored in the traditional arts with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds.

While art outsiders can be found around the world, in this post, I’m looking at those in the United States. The art experts at Christie’s Auction House compiled a list of the top artists in this field. Most of those in the collection triumphed from personal tragedies that included incarceration or years in mental institutions, from the traumas of living in the Jim Crow South. Some were encouraged by family, friends or spurred by the simple need to tell their stories.

Discarded TVs stacked and painted in Bombay Beach installation

Artists like Bill Taylor, turned to art as an outlet while scrapping a living together. ‘My white folks had died and my children had scattered.’ Painful rheumatism kept him from work as a laborer and he was elderly when the streets became his home. That environment inspired his creations on cardboard, scraps of paper and found materials. He began drawing in his 80s.

William Edmundson was born to former slaves and began making grave markers for the community later in life. In time he began to carve freestanding limestone sculptures of religious figures, people and animals. That work eventually led to international recognition. Judith Scott was born with Down’s Syndrome and lost her hearing early in life; art became her main method of communication, and her lasting legacy.

Outsider Art from Ordinary Objects

The movement towards repurposing, recycling, and an awareness of our throw-away society, has led to many art outsiders. Traveling back to nineteenth-century North America, quilters could be considered forerunners of the form.

Created by women from across the social spectrum, quilting was often a collective activity, as women came together in sewing circles. Many made blankets out of pieces of clothing, curtains, and other used fabrics to stitch together into quilts, and inadvertently created a new folk art form. Its recognition has spiraled out from there. A recent appreciation of family quilts morphed into the folk-art phenomenon of Barn Quilts. In 2001, Donna Sue Groves first painted a bright geometric square above her barn door as a tribute to her mother’s quilting. Now barns adorned with bright geometric squares can be found in 48 states.

Salavation Mountain as Leonard Knight created it and preserved today

In Harriet Powers, quilting became something much more significant than a blanket-making skill. Powers was a woman of African descent, born into slavery near Athens, Georgia in 1834. She was known for her technical stitching as well as her illustration talent. Two of her quilts, Bible Quilt (1886) and Pictorial Quilt (1898), are now in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Later, in remote rural Georgia, the Gee’s Bend Quilters rose to international acclaim after 2001 exhibits in major American Museums introduced their work to the public. I had the privilege of seeing some of the pieces at LACMA a few years ago. The quilts graced the tall white walls and they fairly trembled with the breath of all the women who created them.

Space for Outside Art

I’ve pulled over to study art outsiders’ work, like the famous Cadillac Ranch Cars. They’re carefully buried just off a frontage road outside of Amarillo, Texas. You have to stroll through a field to get close to ten Cadillacs buried nose-down in a field. I was most surprised to learn that the art group, Ant Farm, set them at the same angle as the Pyramids of Giza Pyramid. The cars have been stopping traffic since 1974 and the work keeps reinventing itself as a vendor sells spray paint, encouraging you to make your mark. I declined, but loved taking pictures.

The Art Outsiders of Bombay Beach and Salvation Mountain

Head east of San Diego to the far side of the Salton Sea and you’ve find a makeshift community. Anthony Bourdain stopped by the only restaurant for a Patty Melt and I followed his lead recently. The Ski Inn is a friendly place where locals sip colorful cocktails and pepper their conversations with expat tales. Expats from the rest of society that is. The streets are lined with trailers and small ‘museums.’ It seems that self-appointed curators are luring visitors to stop and stare. Perhaps its a scrappy entrepreneurship inspired to build an audience as much as make a few dollars.

Without spending days there (there’s at least one Airbnb) I can’t say. A tall, sand dike stands between the housing and the sea with a few breeches – dirt drives to the shore where art outsiders have let their imaginations run. A pirate ship made of cast off car parts sat on the berm. Characters crafted from lumpy sand cement sit in contemplation on rooftops around town but my favorite is a firefighter pushing a vacuum machine in the midst of clumping dirt. There are messages crafted in the pieces as well. They are different depending on what the elements have allowed. Much of the work is different than what I saw there several years ago and that’s part of the charm.

Author before the Bombay Beach billboard

Further south and east is the boondocking community of Slab City. On the edge stands an enduring creation by uber-Christian, Leonard Knight. The day I pulled into Salvation Mountain, a volunteer scooted near on a bicycle with a brochure and pointed to the donation box. It takes a lot of paint to keep the expanse bright and determination to maintain it just as Leonard created it. Part of the hill covers the hot air balloon he emblazoned with the message ‘God is Love.’ The balloon fell apart on its final launch and is buried beneath the hill.

Is it art? I think much depends on how it makes you feel. Wonder and a flood of questions fill me as I overlook the site. It’s a truly unique art outsider creation. Have you ever paused to take in a creative effort? I’d love to know more! Leave a comment and thanks for reading.