If we live a good life, we get to say that we met a certain number of people who were blissfully “one of a kind” — in one day, one day!, sweet Wade Wharton introduced me to his friends Tat Bailey, Bill Wilson, and John Farrer who all fully met that description.
The ridiculous part of this is that each of those men — each a close friend of Wade, was in his own right an incredible artist, and had an unmistakable, strong personality, undeniably a “one of a kind”. John was a sculptor with big public commissions. Bill was a poet, a pique assiette artist. Wade, well, Wade had an art environment and made all kinds of sculptures (when he wasn’t woodworking or making silly things from gourds). And Tat. Where to even start (with the covered bridge he built, his stonework, or what?).
I was thinking of Tat today and found this on Vimeo:
“he got more friends than anybody in this country. And he’s done more to help more people than anybody, any one person or any dozen people that I know of.”
The Only Sure Thing from Western Kentucky Photojournalism on Vimeo.
Here, just three the images I took from some of the visits I made to Tat’s home. What an incredible, incredible human being.
