Two points on this subject under discussion:

(1) we had a long and very good discussion on the subject of "Outsider Art"
and buildings (I initially referred to such things
as "folk" culture and got attacked for doing so) on HISTARCH some time
back. I am no good at using the HISTARCH
Archives but if someone would let our student friend know how (off line) he
will find a lot of good sources suggested by
the list members. He can look under my name as I started the discussion or
under "Folk Art" or "Outsider Art".

(2) we may be confusing two different things here, although they could overlap:

                 (a) recluses and other marginalized people and the
archaeological records they leave. Such individuals
may be mentally ill or perfectly sane and they may have isolated or
marginalized themselves or society may have done
it to them (e.g. because they are very poor),

                 (b) people who are not usually recluses at all but who
(again because they may be mentally ill or
just have strong personalities) create "unique" things - works of art (have
you seen the Watts Towers - they are very
beautiful), buildings, fantasies etc. It is often the case that such people
are very public and want  people to come,
visit, see and appreciate and is some cases pay a small entrance fee.

                                                         Robert L. Schuyler






At 08:11 AM 3/9/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>THere certainly is. There was Millard Tawes(wrote a book
>called Creative Sculpture) from Maryland who put a two and a
>half ton ferrocement diplodicus in his front yard (now sadly
>gone) a 28foot hand hammered sheet aluminum American Eagle
>above his garage and an 18 foot high statue of Chief Crazy
>Horse in front of the dinosaur(sold and now in front of a
>restaurant somewhere on the way to Rehobeth Beach in Delaware
>(i have pictures if anyone needs them).When death claimed him
>in his late eighties he was hard at work on a twenty foot
>high statue of the emperor Constantine the Great(he did a
>wonderful wooden model of it).
>
>Incidentally the man who did the "Throne of the Third Heaven
>of the Nations Milennium General Assembly" is James Hampton
>and has to be seen to be believed. Talk about Grand design.
>Portions of it were exhibited in The Museum of Fine Arts in
>Washington D.C. (S.I.)(Is it still on exhibit?).It is
>pictured and described in Elinor Lander Horowitz,
>Contemporary Folk Artists. Lippincott: Philadelphia and New
>York, 1975.  pp. 127-132. Words fail me to describe this
>great masterpiece of "environmental(?)" art. Hampton's
>immense effort was still incomplete at his death. It was
>housed in a garage and fortuitously saved.
>
>dgorr

Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324

Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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