outsider art Archives - Interesting Ideas

Damaged statue from E.T. Wickham art environment

May 15, 2019 Bill Swislow

E.T. Wickham: Well that it is as it is

The E.T. Wickham site in Palmyra, Tennessee, is one of the country’s spookiest art environments, even in the open field to which the family has relocated most of the statues. Credit the vandals who wrecked the work, but even more the ghost of E.T.’s vision that survived their pummeling. The statues lining the north-central Tennessee back road were erected in the 1950s and 60s by Enoch Tanner Wickham to honor historical figures and family members. They did not fare well after his death in 1970s, but their state seems to have mostly stabilized. Thirteen years ago Wickham family members relocated

May 6, 2019 Bill Swislow

Danielle Jacqui: The House of She Who Paints

I wish I could add to the story of the prolific and ambitious artist Danielle Jacqui and her House of She Who Paints, but not being a French speaker I don’t know much beyond what’s been published in a few English-language venues, including a Raw Vision article here and a SPACES account by Jo Farb Hernández here. But I do have photos from a serendipitous 2018 visit to her environment northeast of Marseille. We were going to do just a drive-by and take some pictures, but it happens that two friendly French ladies were arriving for a tour just when I was

Street dominoes game, pastel by Quinten B. Smith

October 10, 2018 Bill Swislow

Quinten B. Smith’s Masterful City Scenes

These city scenes show a mastery of detail and a real feeling for people and place. Drawn by Quinten B. Smith in the 1990s and early 2000s, their precision and beauty make them wholly convincing.

Stanley-Szwarc-visionary-stainless-steel-cross-11282001-4x8-P1010443.jpg

April 20, 2015 Bill Swislow

Stanley Szwarc’s Visionary Cross Purposes

Stanley Szwarc (1928-2011), a Polish book keeper turned metal worker and then artist after arriving in the United States, gave no indication of being particularly religious, but he did like making crosses. A prolific creator of objects from scrap stainless steel, always demonstrating over-the-top imagination, Szwarc made hundreds of crosses, if not thousands. He produced jewelry, he made crosses to be hung on the wall, and he crafted cruciform objects with no apparent use other than to be carriers of his endless combinations of geometric shapes. Szwarc liked to say that no two of his objects, be they crosses, vases, key fobs or boxes, were alike. The evidence plainly supports that contention while demonstrating a virtuosic artistic vision