U.S. 11 as it runs between Birmingham and Bessemer, Alabama, is an outdoor vernacular art gallery that gives even the beloved Western Avenue in Chicago a run for its money.
I’ve never made it to Carhenge in Nebraska but my colleague Svilen recently did. View his gallery.
Sublime Spaces And Visionary Worlds: Built Environments Of Vernacular Artists, By Leslie Umberger, Erika Doss, Lisa Stone, Jane Bianco and Ruth Kohler. Princeton Architectural Press, 424 pages, 650 color plates and 100 black and white illustrations, 2007. ISBN 1-56898-728-5
This is a blockbuster catalog for a blockbuster show, and perhaps the best book yet published on the subject of art environments.
The structure is conventional—a handful of essays bookend a set of illustrated biographical vignettes (22 in this case, with exceptionally rich photo reproduction). But intelligence and serious intent distinguish this effort from the usual run of coffee table books. The straightforward biography focuses on understanding how the environments and their artists developed, which is especially relevant in a context where the work’s physical evolution illuminates both its meaning and its current state of being. This is a non-incidental consideration for nearly every one of these sites, given their exposure to the elements and to a sometimes-hostile populace. Read the rest of this entry »
Some first-rate signage from the funky Chicago suburbs of Waukegan and Kankakee.
Great lodging images from motel matchbooks.
Here’s a selection of my 100 favorite signs from the pages of Interestingideas.com’s Roadside Art Online section.
Three great gift ideas from the pages of interestingideas.com
2008 Diner Art Calendar
Gyros Project Calendar 2008 Edition
Matchbook covers can be tiny masterpieces of vernacular commercial art. This set covers a favorite subject from the mid-20th Century, the roadside diner.
Although the glory days of fairground art passed with the last of the true sideshows, county fairs and carnivals still offer bits of visual interest even if most of the imagery is blandly commercial. These are from the Lake and Kane County Fairs in Illinois, the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee and the Rosholt Fair in Wisconsin. Plus, a bonus image from the gloriously named Temple of Food in Amstersdam.
Some views from the very pleasant art environment.
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