The Apocalyptic Art of Norbert Kox
posted on Aug 14, 2008 - View this thread

Timothy Klein gets art. I mean, he really gets it. And he likes cars. So when he decided to become an artist, he covered a 1967 Chrysler Imperial Crown luxury car with yarn. Correct, yarn. Then, Tim didn't just show his car off to the local cruzers at the Dairy Queen. No. Tim took it to Artscape at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore in 2002, where he met other famous automotive artists like Harrod Blank and Chris Hubbard. He took it to the Outsider Art Fair in New York in 2003. Wherever he takes the Yarn Car, he documents the trips on his site. He got featured in Reader's Digest and "made Diane Sawyer giggle". Tim will be in Houston on May 10 for the 2008 Art Car Parade. Don't miss the yarn phone in the car.
posted on Apr 10, 2008 - View this thread

Beyond the Lanes is a website devoted to using old bowling balls for art. Paul Livert is an artist who likes to add metal to old bowling balls. Giant Rosaries made of bowling balls. Bowling balls can be used to demonstrate scientific principles, as in this huge Newton’s Cradle. Nowata, Oklahoma boasts a bowling ball fence. Bowling balls also make useful cannon balls, as well as durable dog toys. (YouTube)
posted on Apr 4, 2008 - View this thread

I first stumbled across Leoncie in open-mouthed disbelief about two years ago. When her website disappeared I imagined that we'd lost her forever, but last month she returned with her own YouTube channel. While our unfiltered, unmoderated internet has pushed a lot of "outsider art" into the mainstream, Leoncie has remained firmly stuck in obscurity; maybe these gobsmackingly low-rent videos will change that? Until today, I'd only been able to imagine the full glory of songs like Radio Rapist, or the beguiling Man! Let's Have Fun, or indeed the frankly exhausting Invisible Girl. But Sex Crazy Cop and Killer In The Park, with their carnivalesque spin on the grim world of law enforcement, are probably my favourites. Astonishing.
posted on Mar 10, 2008 - View this thread

Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal
posted on Feb 28, 2008 - View this thread

Jail Finds is a flickr set of art found stuffed inside books by the account holder at the jail where they are a volunteer running the book cart.
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - View this thread

Louis Wain became one of the most famous British illustrators of the late Victorian and Edwardian era after trying to cheer up his wife Emily by drawing portraits of their pet cat, Peter. In addition to publishing a popular children's book about kittens, he was a founder of the U.K's National Cat Club who was instrumental in promoting the Cat Fancy movement, which encouraged Britons of all classes to view cats as lovable pets instead of household pests. Unfortunately, after Wain's wife Emily died of breast cancer, Wain gradually went mad due to psychosis and late onset schizophrenia, ending up in London's notorious Bethlehem Hospital (the etymological origin for the word bedlam). While at Bedlam, Wain continued to draw, but his cat portraits transformed into pure geometric abstraction and psychedelic fractals, but some see harbingers of madness in cryptically titled works, such as Early Indian Irish and The Fire of the Mind Agitates the Atmosphere. For more insight on Wain, check out this 1896 interview and this short film dramatizing the progression of Wain's schizophrenia through his art.
posted on Aug 12, 2007 - View this thread

Alexander Pavlovich Lobanov was a Russian deaf-mute confined to psychiatric institutions for over 50 years. He liked to draw pictures of himself with guns. Lots of guns.
posted on Jun 12, 2007 - View this thread

Flickr user gandibacardi really likes women's cardigans. So much that he takes pictures of himself wearing cardigans and puts heads of models over his own face. He then writes (presumably) fictional mini-stories in the captions. He also likes to talk about cardigans. Sometimes he posts links to his pictures asking people what they think of his pictures. Sometimes he gets answers, but most often not.
posted on Apr 22, 2007 - View this thread

One of pop music's trailblazers was tone-deaf. Even if you've never heard of Joe Meek (previously), you've probably heard his 1962 single "Telstar" many times. This online compilation offers an exciting glimpse into Meek's unconventional way of composing, as he recorded and rerecorded in an attempt to communicate the music in his mind to musicians. Hear "Telstar" in various levels of completion.
posted on Jan 16, 2007 - View this thread

Outsider art is exposed for what it is: beguiling and incredibly enticing. Henry Darger continues to capture new fans and his frighteningly gorgeous mindscapes continue to sell for thousands of dollars. "I found myself hastening past great Dubuffets, and lingering in front of vast ugly works produced by people who, to be honest, didn’t know how to draw…" (first link NSFW)
posted on Jun 19, 2006 - View this thread

The Great Stalacpipe Organ. This unique, one-of-a-kind instrument was invented in 1954 by Mr. Leland W. Sprinkle of Springfield, Virginia, a mathematician and electronic scientist at the Pentagon. He began his monumental 3 year project by searching the vast chambers of the caverns selecting stalactites to precisely match a musical scale. Electronic mallets were wired throughout the caverns and connected to a large four-manual console. When a key is depressed, a tone occurs as the rubber-tipped plunger strikes the stalactite tuned to concert pitch. (scroll down for mp3).
posted on Mar 22, 2006 - View this thread

The Original Rhinestone Cowboy. "I was laying on my bedside just as lonesome as I could be. I was by myself and so lonesome the tears just come in my eyes. I was so lonesome I prayed and said: 'Lord, give me something to make me happy' Now, you won't believe this, but the Lord told me to make an outfit. I went downtown and bought me a suit and became Rhinestone, and I ain't had one moment of lonesomeness since."
posted on Mar 10, 2006 - View this thread

Take a back-road south of Palmyra, Tennessee, and you'll stumble across the remains of E. T. Wickham's concrete statues, worn by time and broken by vandals. Since being documented online by chroniclers of outsider art, they've found a new set of admirers. A 2001 photography exhibit showed off their former glory; family members now hope to preserve what's left. To learn something of their creator, read the personal tribute by Wickham's grandson.
posted on Dec 29, 2005 - View this thread

Making fun [banner ad may be NSFW] of Furries sure is fun, isn't it? Pointing out over and over again some of the worst examples of what the the fandom has to offer seems to be an activity almost as old as the Internet. In the rush to point and laugh , though, it's easy to miss entirely some of the more beautiful and amusing examples of what the culture's emphasis on art and imagination has wrought upon the world. And even if you aren't impressed by the talent on display, someone is -- Further Confusion, one of the largest Furry conventions in the world, has had for two years running an art show bringing in over $60,000 each year, with portions of the convention's proceeds going to organizations such as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund , the Coyote Point Museum , and the Oakland Zoo.
posted on Nov 26, 2004 - View this thread

Singer Wesley Willis was an artist as well. I'm not generally a big fan of "outsider art," as this might be called, but as raw as these pictures may be, they have a quality to them I don't think I've seen before. Enjoy. Via Monkeyfilter
posted on Apr 26, 2004 - View this thread

Two galleries of future-primitive/outsider art. "...An innovative vision of art: simple, non-academic, emotional, on a human scale."
posted on Jan 10, 2004 - View this thread

Savant art: the amazing work of Richard Wawro.
posted on Dec 19, 2003 - View this thread

Southern Folk-Art, Outsider Art & Self-Taught Art • Ginger Young of Chapel Hill, NC who runs this eponymously named art studio, says: "Despite their lack of formal training, these artists have tapped into a powerful wellspring of creativity to render their worlds with passion, pathos, and immediacy." Truly beautiful, unfiltered, vibrant stuff. How could you go wrong with artists named Tubby Brown, Minnie Adkins, Mose Tolliver and Woodie Long? On another note: is this school of thought/art, which comes in and out of vogue every few years, as pure as it seems, or is there an air of exploitation and corniness that comes with fetishizing The Other?
posted on Oct 17, 2003 - View this thread

Ladies & Gentlemen, George Vlosich, the world's greatest etch-a-sketch artist. I'm nervous that I've seen this on Mefi before, but search came up blank...
posted on Aug 28, 2003 - View this thread

Interesting Ideas. Roadside and outsider art: prison art, Chicago's lakefront, anonymous portraits, ruins, motels, etc.
Related Outsiderart.info.
posted on Aug 10, 2003 - View this thread

serial killer art I was doing some research on the Rockefeller Laws when I came across this little pet project. Disturbing?
posted on Jun 3, 2003 - View this thread

Florida Folk Art. 'Welcome to my online Outsider Art Gallery. I collect outsider art, also known as Folk Art or Visionary Art ... '
More folk art :- Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, a Kansas City Public TV project about the art and oddities of roadside America; the Yard Dog Folk Art Gallery ('folk art of the South'), a nice site from Texas; the Garde Rail Gallery; Folky Art; Four Florida Folk Artists (via Interesting Ideas). Not quite folk art but an interesting idea nonetheless :- the Miniature Book Library, an ongoing mail art project (which invites participants).
posted on Apr 7, 2003 - View this thread