The 19th century postman’s pastime is one of the world’s most important art environments, in the little town of Hauterives, France. Here are photos from a 2018 visit. For more information visit Spacesarchives. And see a collection of vintage postcards here. Near the Palais is the cemetery where Cheval built himself a mausoleum as remarkable as the Palais.
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The Big Peach
This roadside Trilon and Persphere on U.S. 41 near Vincennes, Indiana, promoting the Big Peach Orchard, was photographed in 2006 and 2019.
Continue readingThe Gemini Giant
The Gemini Giant is a muffler man customized as a spaceman to promote the Launching Pad drive-in restaurant on the former Rt. 66 in Wilmington, Illinois.
Continue readingMean Lean Disco
The Mean Lean Disco was on the main drag into blues-laden Clarksdale, Miss. There was so much to love about this building, photographed in 1994.
Continue readingMidwestern Roadside Treats
Here are some roadside treats from around the central midwest, photographed over the last dozen years. Be sure to click through the three pages of galleries to enjoy all the roadside goodness.
Continue readingThe Rainbow Beach Carvings
The revetment and jetty at the south end of Rainbow Beach and adjacent to the northeast corner of the Sawyer Water Plant host more than 700 rock carvings, many made by lifeguards in the 1950s and 60s. These carvings represent a rich record of summer life at the beach as well as including a number of significant individual works of art. It’s also the location with the largest number of identifiable carvers. These galleries feature highlights from the Rainbow Beach carvings. Read the Chicago Lakeshore Art Story
Continue readingThe Morgan Shoal And La Rabida Rock Carvings
Many of Chicago’s oldest lakefront carvings are on the badly deteriorated revetments along Morgan Shoal in Hyde Park. The more than 1,000 carvings there, between 45th and 50th Streets in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, are in imminent danger of being lost. This section of lakefront is in terrible condition, with many of the old rocks topsy turvy and falling into the lake. The condition of the revetments is such that they cannot be rehabilitated, but that does not mean the rocks and their carvings must be abandoned. The city is proceeding with a project to rebuild and expand the shoreline here,
Continue readingTemple of Tolerance: A Walkthrough
Here is a 2021 slideshow through Jim Bowsher’s welcoming Temple of Tolerance art environment in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Click here for a March 2023 story about the creator’s health and the status of his environment. You also can cruise through thumbnails: Jim Bowsher’s own Web site.
Continue readingA Joe “40,000” Murphy Update
I believe the first content I posted to this Web site was a piece about Joe “40,000” Murphy, the Chicago usher who created an art environment inside his South Side house and nearby five-car garage. That was in 1994, not long after I had acquired more than 700 pieces of art previously salvaged from Murphy’s property in anticipation of its sale. Murphy had died in 1979. Bits and pieces of the work have been exhibited in the years since then, most notably at Randolph Street Gallery in 1994, Aron Packer Gallery in 1997 (both Chicago) and in a traveling show
Continue readingReview: The Tom Patterson Years
The Tom Patterson Years: Cultural Adventures of a Fledgling Scribe, by Tom Patterson. Hiding Press/Jargon, 208 pages, 10 pages of photographs, 2021. ISBN 9781733709897. Paperback, $18 If you follow the literature of the folk/outsider/self-taught art field, then you know the name of Tom Patterson. He wrote the definitive book about Eddie Owens Martin/St. EOM and Pasaquan, and, with John Turner, the first major book about Howard Finster, among other achievements. Now he’s written a memoir that includes numerous interesting anecdotes from his encounters with Martin, Finster and other figures from the world of folk and outsider art, including the folklore professor
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