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this week in outsider art includes a happy father's day, the dickeyville grotto, a palestinian wedding dress and a shout out a ukrainian artist

Jun 16, 2024

My boys taking a “serious” photo outside the Dickeyville Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconisn

Shout out to all the dads and grads out there, especially my dad who continues to be one of my biggest fans. Thanks to all for all you do. And shout out to my wife and my boys, who gave me the greatest job ever.

THIS WEEK IN OUTSIDER ART

for daily postings of outsider art visit folkartwork.art or follow on Instagram

**UNKNOWN** Jolly Roger of HMS Unruffled (c. 1943) via *National Museum of the Royal Navy*

"Jolly Roger from HMS Unruffled (U-Class submarine); Black flag with white skull and crossbones in centre. Symbols with the sleeve on left are: Top left: crossed gunbarrells with 4 white stars, 3 daggers. Top right: red horizontal bars with white circle at its centre. Left side: lighthouse, bomb (rectangular with taper), 1 Eugene the Jeep (a character from the Popeye cartoon) in lifebelt (which symbolises the rescue (lifebelt) of a Chariot (which were nicknamed Jeep in the Second world War). Right side: 12 horizontal white bars. Bottom centre: train."

**FATHER MATTHIAS WERNERUS** The Dickeyville Grotto (1925-1930) // Stone, mortar, and bright color eked objects collected from all over the world: including but not limited to colored glass, gems, antique heirlooms of pottery or porcelain, stalagmites and stalactites, sea shells of all kinds, starfish, petrified sea urchins and fossils, a variety of corals plus amber glass, agate, quartz, ores such as iron, copper, lead, fools gold, rock crystals, onyx, amethyst and coal as well as petrified wood and moss.

Learn more and see more photos of the Dickeyville Grotto here

**FRIEDRICH SCHRÖDER-SONNENSTERN** The Fate Duplicate (1956) // Colored Pencil on Paper; 50 X 71 cm via *Zander Collection*

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**ARTIST UNKNOWN** Palestinian Wedding Dress (c. 1900) // Linen, silk, and metal wrapped thread via *The Met Museum*

Thobes are well-known and well-loved traditional Palestinian dresses that are wrapped in intricate embroidery, or tatreez, to give each dress a unique pattern. The colors in each thobe are usually an indicator of where the person wearing it is from - with different colors indicating different areas of Palestine.

An untitled stunner from Raquel Albarran's 2022 solo exhibition at *Summertime Gallery,* "You Could Die At Any Age" 💀

**SARAH MARY TAYLOR** Mr. Fletcher Quilt (1990) // Cotton and cotton blends; 77 1/2 × 62" via *American Folk Art Museum*

**MARIA PRYMACHENKO** Petin Bars (Петін Барс) (1986) via *Maria Prymachenko Family Foundation*

**CONRAD P. LAFRANCE** Ghost Town (1988) // Acrylic on canvas board; 21 × 16 3/4" via *American Folk Art Museum*

**ARTIST UNKONWN** Diablo Mask (Mexico, Region unknown; third quarter 20th century) // Wool, leather, polychrome wood, horns 19 x 16 x 7 in. (48.3 x 40.6 x 17.8 cm) via *Cavin-Morris Gallery*

**URANIA P. CUMMINGS** Grandmother's Rocking Chair (1974) // Acrylic on canvas; 16 5/8 in x 12 5/8 in via *American Folk Art Museum*

**RONALD COOPER** Hell Air Line (2000) // Wood and paint; 24 × 10 inches via *High Museum of Art*

**ARTIST UNKNOWN** West African Barber Shop Sign (date unknown) // Paint on Board; 27.5 x 21” via *The Ruffed Grouse Gallery*

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FEATURED ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Artwork courtesy Elizabeth Loveday whom, along with artists from Cornwall participated in a program called "Hello Stranger" and created artwork inspired by their meetings.

Elizabeth shares, "you meet people who were not born not in the United Kingdom and the goal is to make 3-D portraits of them... I had a Palestinian woman who is a mother, I made her this piece combining all her components in a dance called the Dabka. The central figure is dressed in her home lands traditional dress, the sun mask represents her being a mother. The woman on the right has a Cornish lugger and is in a Morris dance pose. While the person on the left has a vine mask and olive branch representing her home, her love of cooking and her green fingered husband... this one also wears the keffiyeh."

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WATCHING AND READING

Here are a few things I’ve been watching this past week:

Here are a few things I’ve been reading this past week:

How a Father-Daughter Duo Changed the Course of Textile Art
Behind the Scenes: A Closer Look at the Actors, Artists, and Writers Who Brought to Life Edith Wharton's World
Odd Man Out
- this is a history of the Odd Fellows — not necessarily the art of the Odd Fellows, but on it’s orgins and current ongoings of the organization… and also it is for paid subscribers
- to hear an interview with Benjamin Y. Fong talk about this, listen to the latest episode of Left Reckoning

OH WORD?

» Dickeyville Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconsin «

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve seen a few photos of the Dickeyville Grotto. If you’ve been around a while, you know it’s not the first time I’ve made it to Dickeyville. But I recently took the family on a trip and as I normally do, look for any art environment within 50 miles and luckily — this one was only fifteen minutes from where we were going!

I’ve shared a lot of photos of the entire art environment, which is really hard to capture in photos. The entire place is spread out over a church grounds and cemetery, and you could spend hours there looking at everything.

This time, I took my parents and my children. And outside of asking a two and six-year-old to please don’t touch anything, it’s really great to take kids to see these things. One because I enjoy experiencing it with them but also because they have a different vantage point! They’re small! And extremely curious! So we counted colors, looked at textures, and tried to find plates and seashells throughout the entire grotto that took four years to make.

So I give you, some of my favorite up close pictures of the details of the Dickeyville Grotto.

I tell my art students to go stand at a museum and stand in front of a piece of art for five minutes. People will think you are crazy. I can’t remember exactly who gave me these pointers in life, but look at the details and then look again. Look at the back of artworks and look at it upside down. Things are always more interesting!

I hope you enjoy these details as much as I do!

*Car parts donated from Henry Ford himself*

As I wrote the other day:

Took my boys to the Dickeyville Grotto in Dickeyville, Wisconsin and we counted all the colors and shells, lost track at 500. The colorful details and lavish textures that make up this one hundred year grotto would make a Baz Luhrmann film blush.

From broken commemorative china, sea shells from the Mississippi River, stalagmites from local caves and donated car parts from Henry Ford himself -- Father Mathius Wernerus created a must-see art environment that has to be seen to be believed.

If you’re looking for more photos of the entire place, you can check out a recent Instagram post or go to the art environments page on FolkArtwork.art.

SHOUT OUT

Shout out to Danil Krasnobaev, a photographer, musician and beginner tattoo artist living in very harsh conditions in Kyiv, Ukraine due to the continued war and shelling happening in the region. His works are available for purchase by reaching out directly on Instagram.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

» MEET THE COLLECTOR SERIES PART SIXTY-NINE — Adam Oestreich, Iowa «

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

JORDAN SULLIVAN is a self-taught painter who was born in Houston, Texas but raised in rural Ohio and Detroit. Before becoming a full-time artist, he worked a number of odd jobs including dishwasher, housekeeper, graphic designer and on construction crews in Texas, New York City, and Los Angeles. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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