A Message from The American Visionary Art MuseumPhoto by Chris Myers Our Founder and Director, Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, wished to send a personal message to you, our followers, while not wanting in any way to minimize concern for the very real, too abundant, suffering happening now: For me and in all my 67 years... I believe that right now is the greatest globally shared awake experience since millions watched the first person walk on the moon. Just as that famed event underscored our potential and illusion of conquering nature, this COVID-19 stresses our inherent and interconnected fragility and dependence on Nature as well as serves as powerful reset to contemplate what is truly most precious in our lives... This is a new time of realizing we could globally cooperate and shift values, and positive wise actions can be won for all... I feel this time of pause and rewrite of collective reality is the first step... Stay tuned. There is ABUNDANT GRACE afoot. Rediscover family, friendship, neighbors, quiet hood. No hoarding. May gentle care and sharing light ALL our way. Yours, Becca Hoffman Becomes Managing Director for Intersect Art + Design FairsBecca Hoffman, courtesy Wide Open Arts Wide Open Arts, LLC, has announced that Becca Hoffman, Director of the Outsider Art Fairs in New York and Paris since 2013, has accepted the position of Managing Director for Intersect Art + Design Fairs, the producer of Art Aspen, SOFA Chicago and Art Palm Springs. A search for a successor is underway. All communications regarding OAF Paris or New York should be directed to assistant director, Allison Galgiani, at allison@outsiderartfair.com. Latest Work from Ray MatersonRay Materson (b. 1954), the creator of a multitude of tiny detailed and coloured embroideries, has his origins in Michigan, USA. He started creating his pieces during his time in a Connecticut prison. Orders came for various symbols, logos and flags, which Materson undertook enthusiastically, happy to have found something to occupy his time. Each 2.75 x 2.25 ins. / 7 x 5.7 cm image is meticulously constructed, taking 40 to 50 hours to complete. Since leaving prison in 1996, Materson has continued to create his tiny embroidered scenes of American life, preferring the nylon sock thread he used to stitch with in prison to thicker embroidery thread. Below are some of Materson's latest works. Babe Ruth before he was traded to the Yankees Above and below: copies of Pulp Fiction magazine covers. Materson became very enamoured of the art on these covers and simply wanted to see if he could duplicate the unique quality of the art. This image depicts a story from Materson's book Sins and Needles. A young man and fellow prison inmate with an advanced case of AIDS asked him to create an embroidery image of an eagle, because he said the eagle was his symbol. Unfortunately, he was taken to the infirmary about a week later and passed away shortly thereafter. This image is something of a tribute to him. La Ithonkaew's Coronavirus ArtOndřej Sekanina has shared with us the Coronavirus drawings of La Inthonkaew, a Thai outsider artist living in the Czech Republic. At the beginning of the current Coronavirus epidemy she started drawing a series of pictures featuring the virus. Sometimes, she produces as many as three of them in a single day and she rarely draws anything else. So far, she has produced more than 30 of them. It seems that she is half-consciously using the shamanic legacy of her father, trying to cast a spell on the virus, and to magically transform it – as if she was giving it a choice: either to be killed with her pencil or become friendly to people. The current Coronavirus series is one of the peaks of her oeuvre which she started creating ten years ago. "Woman with Face Mask" "Plant with Coronaviruses" "Better coronavirus" "View between legs" "Helicopter with Coronaviruses" Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts TrailerBill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts is an inventive feature documentary created by Jeffrey Wolf, Breakaway Films, capturing the vivid life of Bill Traylor, who in his late 80s, living homeless on the street in the thriving segregated black neighborhood of Montgomery, produced a body of extraordinary art. Tom O Every (Dr Evermor) R.I.P.photo by Ted Degener Visionary artist Tom O Every (1939–2020), aka "Dr Evermor", has passed away, at the age of 81. Every is best known for building Forevertron, a massive construction designed to travel in space. Located in Lodi, Wisconsin, the visionary piece of sculpture, made from scrap metal, machine parts from breweries, Thomas Edison dynamos, lightning rods, paper mills, engineering factories and even an Apollo decontamination chamber, weighs 300 tons and is 45 ft / 15 m high by 105 ft / 35 m wide. One section includes a spiral staircase and a wrought-iron gazebo. On the summit of the vast assemblage sits a copper egg, housing a glass ball, waiting to shoot Dr Evermor into space once it has been activated by a magnetic lightning beam. Around the structure sit various other constructions
and animal figures, including a 46-member bird band, After suffering a series of strokes, Every spent the final years of his life in a Sauk City nursing home, where he continued to draw and design. The future of his art park is currently uncertain. photo by Ted Degener photo by Ted Degener Raw Vision 105 Out Now!Half Price Back Issue SaleIn our special Spring Sale, we are offering a huge 50% off all back issues! If you are missing any copies in your RV collection, now is the time to order while we have stock! For a limited time only! For orders of 10+ issues please email info@rawvision.com for a reduced postage cost. |