To correctly perceive this work, one must take off one's fine art glasses, open one's mind, and try not to approach this art in the same way as you have thought of art in the historical sense. Only then will you understand the view point of these self taught artists.

This art is generally created by individuals who, when first discovered, did not consider themselves “artists.” Often it is created by individuals who cannot spell “art.” --by individuals who have been brought up in homes where they were not exposed to fine art. These individuals that we call “artists” set out, not to create art, but instead to fulfill a burning desire to express something that was very important to each of them.

For some of these artists, this motivation was to record and to honor memories--experiences from their life that they wanted to save for the future, their children and grandchildren. These artists are often referred to as “memory” artists. Most of the “memory artists” I refer to as contemporary folk artists. These are frequently the unacknowledged documenters of the way life is lived, whether yesterday or today. They exemplify the importance of the art of the everyday in America.

Another group of artists under the self taught umbrella is referred to as “Visionaries.” They have experienced visions or vivid dreams that they were compelled and driven to express. These visions were quite often of a religious nature. Yet another group of artists who are most often referred to as the “Outsider” artists represent artists who experience life outside the mainstream due to mental illness, psychological and physical handicaps, geographic isolation and even imprisonment. Some of these name labels overlap and there is just too much continual debate and current discussion in this field concerning what to call it. The term self-taught art is broad, non-specific and is an umbrella term that really includes it all and seems to ruffle the least feathers in the field.

It is a credit to our various media, museums, schools and especially art educators today, that only a small segment of our current population can honestly fit this “self-taught”label. It is rarer still that these particular individuals are moved to create art. One of the fascinations concerning this art in the field is that this art exemplifies the basic urge of the human spirit to create and to innovate often without any suggestion or encouragement-- more often like a well spring overflowing and spilling out.

These expressions are as unique and varied as the personalities behind the art. What these individuals are expressing from their nearly extinct viewpoint is truly extraordinary! It is much more likely for such a person’s sensitivity to have been worked right out of them and yet it blooms into expressions that are often riveting and spellbinding.

This art shines with examples of creativity and the need within all humans to express it, even if it takes recycling garbage to have materials to work with. Many of these artists turned to creating art after a great tragedy, an injury or an illness in their life. Sometimes the artists do not begin creating until very late in life when they finally have time and their life’s memories are welling up inside of them and must pour out somehow.

This is art that arises from unheard voices which in the past were dismissed as unimportant expressions, sadly misunderstood, dismissed and cast away. Thus antique examples of this art today are exceedingly rare. Also growing more extinct are the large environmental creations that some of these artists filled their yards with, encircling their homes.

The rarity of genuine examples of this art has increased its collectible nature. Various market pressures have also taken their toll in a different ways on this art, at times, compromising its very nature and unfortunately continuing its path toward extinction.

So let’s examine a few specific works and now I’d like to add some information about these individual artists, some of whom I’ve known for many years.

Let’s start with two of Alabama’s most highly regarded patriarchs in this field, Bill Traylor and Mose Tolliver. Bill Traylor was born a slave on a plantation near Benton, which is between Selma and Montgomery. Most of his works were created when he was a homeless, handicapped man, in his 80 ‘s on the streets of Montgomery from l939 through l941. To quote one newspaper account written about him during his life time, “He drew his pictures on whatever the wind blew his way.” Incidentally, his works have sold at Sotheby’s recently for more than $170,000 each and is highly sought after.

Mose Tolliver was born the son of a sharecropper. He still lives in Montgomery and was a gardener who was an artist with flowering plants before he found time to paint. This happened after being injured and handicapped in a nearly fatal accident. His work and Bill Traylor's were included in a major landmark exhibition called “Black Folk Art in America” in l982 at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington which was the beginning of an upward trend of interest in this field. Mose’s daughter, Annie Tolliver, paints with her own style rich in color, encouraged and influenced by her father.

Jimmie Lee Sudduth also spent much of his life as a gardener in Fayette, Alabama. The son of a Choctaw Indian shaman, he began painting with mud and sweet mixture when he was a young boy, often coloring his earliest works with berries and grasses. Today he still enjoys painting at the age of 92.

Bernice Sims expresses many memories from her long life in Brewton, Alabama. She did not begin painting until after rearing six children. She was very involved in the civil rights movement and often paints scenes depicting that struggle as well as daily life in her community as she remembers it. She suffered a stroke in l995 and worked hard to successfully rehabilitate.

Woodie Long was born into a migrant family of 13 children. His family traveled around to wherever there was field work to do. He never attended school because of his family’s nomadic way of life and the fact that he was expected to work in the fields beginning at the age of three. He became a house painter and during a period of convalescence his daughter asked for some family history. He answered her in the only way he could, through painting about it. He has traveled to New York several times in the last eight years to attend exhibits presented by my gallery, tand he now has even incorporated memories of New York in his large body of works.

Lonnie Holley and Chris Clark are Birmingham artists who both use cast away found objects in their own unique way in some of their work. You may have noticed that angels abound in these artists works. Former preacher, Howard Finster, is one of the best-known artists of this genre and there are several different books devoted to just his life and art.

Myrtice West of Centre, Alabama has created riveting visionary works. She spent seven years depicting the entire book of Revelations in a series of paintings. In l991 during a visit that Miriam Fowler and I made to her house, she made the comment that “God kept after me to paint Revelations." She said that she knew she had to find something big to paint on and she had to get started if she was ever going to get another good night’s sleep again. She took some huge old window screen frames from her antebellum home and stretched upholstery material over them to fabricate some of these surfaces on which to paint this incredible set of works. The are also documented in a book called, "Wonders to Behold."

Annie Lucas is another of Alabama’s visionary artists who has painted “Revelations” among other Biblical depictions. She has a unique way of combining her own intricate kind of embroidery to emphasize and add detail to her amazing works. Sometimes she uses just paint. Her works are all Biblical narratives. Annie’s husband is Charlie Lucas, also known as the Tin Man. After Charlie broke his back in the early 80’s he turned his life over to creating art. He is a sculptor using found metals, a lot of old car parts and is a painter as well. He often frames his work with garden hose.

Sarah Rakes creates homages to nature in her colorful works which she also frames with her own painted frames. She is a native of the Arkansas hills and now lives in a remote area in the hills of north Georgia. That’s how far her used car got her traveling when she was seventeen having quit school and left home trying to find New York where she had heard you could be an artist. She had already painted compulsively on every surface and drawer bottom in her childhood home after having visited a museum on wheels that traveled to her underprivileged area. That was her first exposure to art at the age of 11 and she “connected” right away and realizing she was an artist.

Hope Atkinson, a artist from northern Wisconsin began creating art from papier mache also after a debilitating accident. Hope has spent many years as a recluse, plagued with mental illness and has many powerful works of art which now includes paintings.

Jane “in vain” Winkelman also exhibits a great deal of anguish in her work. She is extremely sensitive to world happenings, feels impending doom and is compelled to express herself as a current world visionary.

Benjamin Franklin Perkins, a patriotic preacher who lived near Bankston, Alabama. He painted the Ten Commandments on his studio door greeting everyone who entered. His greatest work of art was an amazing environment which expressed his religious and patriotic passions. He died in l993. Unfortunately, his rural environment is now in ruins.

Ab the Flagman is a natural born patriot. His fascination with the American flag developed early in life at the age of seven, when his father, who was in the military, died and was buried in a flag-draped coffin. Ab became a carpenter and began creating his own simple renditions of the flag from his carpentry scraps. When a bad accident with a saw rendered some fingers useless, he began making art full time. Today he does simple flags as well as intricate masterpieces which sell for thousands of dollars.

This is just a very small sampling of the Outsider, Self-taught, and contemporary folk art that is being created today nearby and far away. This is a global phenomena. I encourage you to do your own exploration from this point on. Go find that artist that may be down a dirt road near you or one that may be a handicapped recluse in your neighborhood. Open the eyes and minds of your students with what you have learned of today.