There are visionaries that live, and create, among us.
Folks,
men and women,
who see and experience the world differently;
those who are driven by some instinctual impulse to create
with whatever material they can find in their immediate environment
and then end up creating entirely original universes of their own making.
I'm sure neighbors, family members
and those most intimately connected with them
have had a myriad of reactions
to the collecting, assembling and placement
of the finished art they produced.
It can't be easy -
for either the artist or those closest to them.
For a more exhaustive exploration of the worlds of these artists,
I would refer you to
Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds:
Built Environments of Vernacular Artists
Leslie Umberger, editor.
Luckily, for those of us without the knowledge of these environments
and/or the time and money to travel to the original sites,
many of these environments have been saved
and preserved by the Kohler Foundation
and now have a new home in the
Kohler Art Preserve in Sheboygan, WI.
Of all the wonderful creations housed in this building,
3 artists stood out for me:
Dr Charles Smith
Nek Chand
and Emory Blagdon.
Their personal histories are rich with details that provide clues
as to what drove their art
but no human can be reduced
to something as complex as the interplay
between personal, spiritual and historical factors.
Dr Charles Smith was a child of 14
when his father was killed by white people
in which local authorities termed "a ferry accident".
His sculptures speak directly to the Black experience in America -
including his memories of attending Emmet Tills funeral,
his experiences in Vietnam,
his drug addiction ,
the fight for Civil Rights
and the larger impact of racial violence
from the Middle Passage to the present.
His home in Aurora, IL was the original site for his work,
although he has now moved to New Orleans and continues to create there.
____
Nek Chand,
a municipal worker by day and artist by night
(in India)
created a whole garden on unused municipal land
near his home
that was, at first his secret kingdom
which has gone on to become the most visited attractions in India,
second only to the Taj Mahal.
in one space
is breathtaking.
Have to admit though that my favorite is Emory Blagdon
and his Healing Machine.
Emory was the oldest of 6 children, born to his parents on a farm in rural Nebraska;
in the Sandhills, specifically.
As many of you know, I've driven through the Sandhills every summer for 25+ years
while on my way to the Rosebud Reservation.
It's an exceptionally beautiful, remote and desolate area of the country;
also known for its electrical storms and tornados;
so it's no surprise that Emory became fascinated
by the power of nature and electric 'energy' to impact the physical body.
He watched both his parents die of cancers and, over time,
turned a two room 'shack' on his property
into a Healing Machine that he believed conducted electrical currents
into the body which resulted in relief from arthritis and other ailments.
Kohler Foundation took apart and then reassembled his shack and the Healing Machine
in the Art Preserve.
Even in this setting, it's magical.
I would have loved to see it in situ.
(of cancer that doctors speculated had been ravaging his body for a decade)
who's to say that the Healing Machine didn't heal something
deep inside him
that had been broken.
Art can do that.
If you ever get the chance to see this treasure trove, take it!
The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.
It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of art and science.
Albert Einstein
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