It was the perfect Sunday morning bright, sunny and cold as Vernon, Pam Owens, Jennie JlK Jewellery headed out to Small Street Cafe and Folk Museum for breakfast. The Owens said that they often see my favourite outsider artist Clyde Jones there with his neighbour. Clyde wasn't in the building but his work was everywhere.
It was amazing to read how some of these folk artists would use soda, sugar, syrup to get the pigments they would gather from the ground to stick to the canvas which was most often a board, a piece of plywood, or some other found object. Is this not sophisticated glaze chemistry. I love this work not only because it is so direct, raw, imaginative but there always seems to be humour. I well imagine most of these outsider artists live in poverty and yet there is humour. The welcome sign at The Small Street Cafe says it best "Make America Kind Again."
"Take Cindy Tames a Bully" for instance. There is a bunch of stuff in this painting that cracks me up. First of all it ain't PC. Cindy you can't hit the bully you have to talk to him with love and kindness even if he has been terrorizing you and your friends. Ya gotta love the bus driver. I've seen guys like this around town.
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| Cindy Tames a Bully |
Clyde's dogs are signature pieces and there was a big painting of two sea turtles that reminded me of my two snakes painting of his that hangs over my bed. I would love to peer inside these artists heads. They see it in a way most of us would required psychedelic drugs to put this pallet together.
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| Clyde Jones dog |
Check out this painting of a water mill. It is so free and yet so tasteful in the colour palette. I'd love to have this painting. Well, I would have liked to fill my house with most of the stuff in the Small Street Folk Museum.
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| Gawd, this is a wonderful painting |
Often in Outsider art the snake presents itself. I don't know why there is this reference but some how my fear of snakes is put to rest in this work. In my wildest dreams I would never have thought I'd hang 2 snakes over my bed. It is a Clyde Jones piece and somehow I see the snakes as guardians.
This one I didn't get although I saw it as a powerful sculptural piece. I would need some time with it. It was made by a preacher in Mississippi. Man his sermons must have been so kinda experience.
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| Crawlin' King Snake -well Elvis was King |
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| One button says "Make America Kind Again" |
This one I didn't get although I saw it as a powerful sculptural piece. I would need some time with it. It was made by a preacher in Mississippi. Man his sermons must have been so kinda experience.
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