b-b-bonus this week in outsider art // february twenty-first
never before seen works, mirrored ladies folk art, a weird faced kitty on wheels and black folk artists from the american south on dailyartmagazine.com
» Thanks again to Jennifer Gilbert for the feature in her Meet the Collector series, check it out here if you haven’t yet! «
B-B-BONUS
One of the perks of running this @folkartwork account is that almost weekly I get people reaching out to me to share their art. While I can’t get around to everyone’s, it has been a great way for me to learn more and discover artists I may never have encountered.
Last week, a woman from Los Angeles reached out to me regarding her father’s artwork she found cleaning out his cabin last year after he had passed. While I get to see a lot of great work, this work and this story were unlike any other, and I couldn’t believe what I saw.
✌️ every wednesday, this bonus newsletter with bonus outsider art content, including exhibit listings, personal collection highlights, and news of the week, will be sent to paid subscribers. The weekly ‘This Week in Outsider Art’ newsletter that goes out every Sunday morning continues to and will always be free of charge — enjoy ✌️
While I will be sharing more about their story in the coming weeks, I wanted to share these works here first. All works were painted in the past 10-15 years, most of them acrylic and some oil paint on wood boards or poster boards. The maker of these, James Ash, was a carpenter by trade and built frames for almost all of them, which measure almost 30x40 inches in size.
The works themself are singular. Beautifully vibrant and rich in imagery and symbolism. Inspired by magazine clippings like that of William Hawkins, and you can see expressive lines like that of contour master drawer Grandma Elizabeth Layton. The works are hard to describe and must be seen for yourself. Hopefully, one day, they will be on display at a gallery near you.
Until then, this week, paid subscribers will see a handful of these works created by self-taught artist James Ash.