I was walking down old Route 66 near downtown Albuquerque the other day. Near the old KiMo Theatre, I passed a vacant store front whose windows are used by ArtStreet: a gallery, studio and workshop for ordinary people who are homeless.

The current exhibit is ironing board art. People decorated ironing boards to look like Santos (images of saints and other holy figures), fountains, fantasies, collages. Some were beautiful; some were remedial; some were funny; some were tragic. All were expressions of souls. It always makes my week to walk by there.

Outsider Artists. Yes, that's a real term, coined by, I suppose, insider artists --probably more like snooty gallery owners and critics-- to describe those of us who do art for arts' sake, not to be marketable. It's also called "primitive," which means we didn't learn it in school. Or it's called "folk art," which means they really think of it as crafts, but know they can sell it for a wad.

Most people passing by just think of us Outsider Artists as crackpots, coots, crazy ladies, junk collectors... and other unenlightened epithets. We know the City Zoning inspectors by first names. We face the Neighborhood Watch with varying degrees of tolerance. We watch the sanitation department haul away years' worth of hard work and careful thought and turn right around and start rebuilding. Read about Joe Furey's Grotto. Without us, the world would look too much like the subdivision in the movie, "Edward Scissorhands." In fact, Edward is an homage to the Outsider Artist.

We live in a disposable culture here in the USA. We throw away more than the gross national product of many nations. Well, some of us do.

Some of us know waste when we see it. Some of us are attracted to bright, shiny objects. And we convert those objects into intricate, whimsical and unique works of outsider art. Visit Recycled/ReSeen: Folk Art From the Global Scrap Heap.

Here, in the USA, the first country in history to drive to the poorhouse in cars (Will Rogers), we relegate outsider art to the quaint, the eccentric or even potentially hazardous.

Russia had a different response. At the end of the 19th century, folk artists emerged whose work couldn't be categorized. Unfortunately, thanks to a toxic blend of Communist and Freudian dogmas, Russian psychiatrists were called upon to do something about this. Each artist was analyzed. Most were found to be of above-average intelligence. Their work, however, was seen as a symptom of some pathology of derangement. Sigh. The Russian Museum of Outsider Art gives a fascinating and detailed history of this occurrence. Russia, of course, walked to the poorhouse and stood in line all day in the snow for a chicken or boots.

I do outsider art out of trash. My major influences are Watts Towers, which I was fortunate enough to tour as a child, and Tressa ("Grandma") Prisbrey, whom I met at the Women's Building in Los Angeles where she built structures in concrete, bottles, toothbrushes and dolls in the third floor exhibit space.

I have my "Madonna Phone," an old, white, rotary telephone I painted iridescent green and red and encrusted with rhinestones. I made a garden path and flower beds out of broken Mexican pottery. I had a bicycle whose fenders were covered in sequins and junk jewelry. I make wind chimes out of old beer bottles I find in the 'hood.

Car Art

I've never had a "normal" car. My first car, a '70 VW bug, had one purple door, a butt plastered with bumper stickers all the way up to the roof, a hood ornament made of an old bowling trophy, "eyebrows" over the headlights made of fake fur.... The inside was even better: campaign buttons and old broaches on the ceiling, grandma's quilts on the seats, stuffed animals and handmade throw pillows. But, as much as I loved her, she wasn't car art, not compared to these peeps.

Roadside Art

Have you seen the Cadillac Stonehenge? Ever drive past a collection of "trash," arranged into human forms, animals, weird signs, whirlygigs?

Fred Smith's Wisconsin Concrete Park: a retired lumberjack built two hundred fifty mosaic, concrete sculptures in the woods near his home.
The Walls of Pasaquan: "That Eddie Owens Martin, creator of this fabulous environment near Buena Vista, Ga., was a crackpot is hard to deny. A fortune-telling ex-street-hustler, he created a personal religion that enshrined himself as a saint and his family farm as a holy place."
E.T. Wickham's Memorials on the road to Palmyra, Tennessee.
Roadside Art: things on the side of the...yeah, you know.

On The Waterfront

NIMIS and ARX: to the unenlightened, humorless and unimaginative, these driftwood towers would appear to be the work of hyperactive super beavers.
Ted Ludwiczak's Easter Island on the Hudson: "Rocks talk to me. I pick the ones that have a face in them. Then I follow the shape of the stone. I can't wait to see how it will turn out." --- Ted Ludwiczak

Yard Art

Yard Art: you don't have to build things to create yard art; you can also just mangle the plants, a la Edward Scissorhands.
J.P. Scott of Lafitte, Louisiana builds intricate models, particularly of boats, in his yard. None looks like it would float on water, but they're lovely.
House Covered In Beer Cans thanks to Searcher's Outsider Art Quest.

Interior Decorating

Bottle Cap Baroque: intricate and beautiful household furniture and furnishings decorated in bottle caps.
Art of Ermilio Aili: almost "traditional," these objects decorate the home.
Elayne Goodman: intricate, sometimes small, sometimes large sculptures.
Gothic Martha Stewart: would I lie to you? Includes:

• Motifs: Themes and styles in gothic home decor.
  
• Shopping: Finding treasures for less.
  
• Goth 'Good Things': Projects you can do to further your gothic ambiance.
  
• Weddings: Projects, tips, examples, and suggestions on how to give your ceremony and reception a dramatic gothic flair. [Note: Help for teens, plus comments on smoke, fur, and other troubles.]

Also on this server: alt.gothic.fashion.faq, Home(Page)Time, Stranger Than Angels

This site is in no way connected to or authorized by the real Martha Stewart and is not intended as infringement upon her copyrights or those of her companies." That's for being so good and reading all the way to the bottom!

If you are interested in learning more about "Outsider Art", here are several books on the subject.

Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives	Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art: A Guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources	Outsider Art: Contesting Boundaries in Contemporary Culture
Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings	Recycled Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap	Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Folk Art Environments
Gardens of Revelation: Environments by Visionary Artists	The Temptation: Edgar Tolson and the Genesis of Twentieth Century Folk Art	Backyard Visionaries : Grassroots Art in the Midwest