Goldie 1971 sculpture in University of Alabama Woods Quad. The sculptor is Joe McCreary, and it was made in 2009 and purchased by the College of Arts and Sciences in 2010. Made of iron and steel, approx 23 feet long, four feet tall, five feet wide, and between three and four tons, the sculpture commemorates Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham.
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Joseph Jilbert’s sculpture on display in Baton Rouge (4808 Government Street area)
I was at the Angela King Gallery in the Quarter when a couple of tourists came in looking for Peter Max works (he’s coming in for a reception at the gallery tonight from 7-9p) and when they asked where else to go in the city, I mentioned that if they liked Peter Max, they’d probably really enjoy the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at NOMA. One of the curators, who I’d been talking with, was really sweet but asked me why I’d direct them there. I answered that if they liked Peter Max’s style, there were several pieces at the garden that they’d probably enjoy some of the bright/pop/fun pieces…
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(oh wait, here’s me and some guy at the garden!)
…like Robert Indiana
…George Rodrigue
…Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
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and although I was able to quickly mention Robert Indiana and George Rodrigue and Ida Kohlmeyer and some others, when it got to Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen’s piece, I could not recall their names and said, “and then there’s that great big safety pin…ummm…”.
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And I’m thrilled to report that as part of Peter Max’s coming to New Orleans, Av got to talk with him on the phone and as a special gift, he did a cover for the magazine including my suggestion of using cotton stalks! How great is that!?!
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At Angela King, I was there admiring the Woodrow Nash works that they feature.
which I’ve followed since visiting Whitney Plantation
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though Angela King also has other works showing his ceramic work, like this ‘Earth Mother’ — fabulous
In honor of Election Day, these pics we took on a visit to Adickes SculpturWorx Studio in Houston from 2012
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In Chattanooga, the St Elmo (A History in Steel) sculpture by Charles Pilkey. This is in front of 1885 Grill.
There are 37 figures, going from pre-Columbian times, to a conquistador (shown here)
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The Cherokee War
to slavery and the Civil War, the yellow fever epidemic, blacksmith W.B. Smith,
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and this, the St Elmo Corgi parade (is this person on their phone?)
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At the Pinnacle in downtown Jackson, Rod Moorhead‘s sculptures of Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, and William Faulkner
from HottyToddy.com:
“…it was about Richard Wright for me,” he said. “Native Son is a killer story, a real Greek tragedy. You have to do Faulkner and in Jackson you have to do Welty, but I was doing Richard Wright.”
Av and I visited Joe Minter, Sr. a couple of weeks ago….I would have posted this sooner, but I wanted to finish his book, ‘To You Through Me: The Beginning of a Link of a Journey of 400 Years’ first.
We spent a little over an hour in Joe’s yard, and about an hour more talking with him and getting a tour of other pieces he is working on currently.
Okay. Joe is a straight-up genius visionary artist.
Joe Minter is a very different, very motivated person. His message isn’t 100% about “salvation” like so many other visionary artists, but rather it’s more about the American experience of Africans who came to this country. This is part of how he explains his art’s mission in his book:
G-d gave me the vision of art, to link that 400-year-journey to the Africans in America, link that truth to the children who are turning away from us, and I decided to name what I create ‘The African Village in America.’
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A few years ago, Av and I met Lonnie Holley and bought one of his pieces of art. I don’t remember if Av asked him what it was all about or if Lonnie offered, but he turned the piece around in his hands and explained what every single thing represented. Each angle was different, and it showed a different aspect of the story he was telling.
Joe is this same way. It’s very sincere, and it’s very understandable, and it’s many-layered. Sometimes it’s very obvious and sometimes not so much. Either way, what Joe does is pure genius.
I’ve got a few pics of his yard/art environment here and over a hundred more pics at my Flickr set here. He and his wife invited us to come back whenever, especially when the plants start blooming, to see everything again. We will.
These really great carvings are at Orr Park in Montevallo. Tim Tingle, who works at a local coal mine, carves the dead cedar trees there into all sorts of things:
Isn’t he great? More about Tim Tingle and Tinglewood (the path among all these trees is called ‘Tinglewood’ now) here.
On Highway 231 between Troy and Dothan is ArtWurks, a gallery of Larry Godwin’s artwork – I think his brother, Ronald, does some of the artwork too.
Larry Godwin graduated from Auburn and became the first artist-in-residence in the Alabama school system (he installed a 12′ eagle made out of car bumpers at Goshen High School in 1972, and has other pieces at Troy Junior High and Alabama State University).
Out front is this huge rooster, made out of car bumpers.
On Hwy 43 between Eutaw and Demopolis (AL)…just south of Forkland and really just before you get into Demopolis, are Jim Bird’s hay creations.
You know you’re getting **really** close when you see these three signs:
Acta
Non
Verba (Acta Non Verba means : “actions speak louder than words”)
Jim Bird has been working on the hay creatures and other neat folk sculptures since 1993, when he said he wanted to make something for bored drivers to look at:
Driveway
Interstate Sign
Racecar (has #3 on side)
Plane
This is an elf on a unicycle with a jumping dog. I think this might have been used on his lead boat for the ‘Christmas on the River’ water parade that happens each year.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil
Kilroy
Tin Man – this is supposed to be the only piece that he spent over $5 on, because of the aluminum paint.
Caterpillar
Spider
Scary Mailbox
Rudolph and another reindeer
B and O Railroad
Party Clock (supposed to be set to 5pm – I think it’s more on 4pm right now)
A woman being chased by a bull
Roll Tide!
Betty Boop
These, and more pics, can be found here at my Flickr set.
