Classic Antiques ~ Americana ~ Obsessive Folk Art: Our trip continues through Louisiana

Well it's been a couple of weeks since my last post which was unintended but a necessary break.

The lack of posts started in the very southern part of the Louisianna Bayou where Verizon just doesn't have any broadband coverage. I kept writing but couldn't post. We found Louisiana was a fascinating state with lots of things for us to do and see.

The Lousiana Bayou was fascinating to us. Following our favorite website http://www.narrowlarry.com/ we went south looking for the Kenny Hill Sculpture Garden in Chauvin. This was high on our list of visionary folk art environments.

From the website I learned: this fellow was a bricklayer by trade, born around 1950. In 1988, he settled on some property on the bayou in Chauvin (pronounced show-van), Louisiana — population 3,400. Hill pitched a tent as his home and, over time, built a small rustic home that demonstrated an interesting use of space and attention to detail. Then, in 1990, without explanation, he began transforming his lush bayou environment into a fantastic chronicle of the world as seen through his eyes.

Less than a decade later, more than 100 primarily religious concrete sculptures densely pack the narrow, bayou-side property. The sculptures are a profound mixture of Biblical reference, Cajun colors, and the evident pain and struggle of the artist’s life. Most are guided, supported, or lifted by seemingly weightless angels — black, white, male, female, baby, or soldier. The angels, each unique, some inviting passage, others prohibiting, vary from blue skinned, bare-footed, and sightless to regal angels clad in medieval garb with the black boots of the local shrimp fishermen.
The most prominent piece is a 45-foot-tall lighthouse, composed of 7,000 bricks, with figures clinging to the outside: cowboys, soldiers, angels, God and Hill himself. A walk through this sculpture environment is an emotional experience, evoking a sense of deep spirituality but also personal pain.

Hill placed himself in many of the scenes: he rides a horse; carries Christ’s cross; stands with long hair and a beard, his heart bleeding; and shows his face painted half black and white, suggesting the artist’s struggle between good and evil.
During the ten-plus years he lived on the property and created his art, he was adamant that the work was just for him — he felt no need to share it. Hill repeatedly denied requests for access to photograph or publicize his work but reportedly declared it a “story of salvation” for the local residents.
Neighbors have created a picture of Hill as a man who, by the time he abandoned his art in early January 2000, was deeply troubled and left not only his art and his home, but also abandoned the religion that had come to dominate his life. The saddest part of this man's life was that he was evicted by the parish (county) for not keeping the grass and weeds under control, Hill disappeared on foot.

Fore more information and pictures you can check out the website of the foundation which now supports this gallery to make sure it is kept perpetually for the people of Chauvin and those others like us, who fill our hearts with the work of angels like Kenny Hill - http://www.kohlerfoundation.org/chauvin.html

After the Kenny Hill Sculpture Garden, we headed deep into the Bayou which is an interesting stretch of road with close to 100 miles of shacks and trailers all facing the Bayou from which they make their living. We enjoyed seeing the variations of trailers, many of which were on permenant flood supports, high off the ground. We also got a kick out of seeing the local Church and Post Office both in trailers. The landscape consisted of Shrimp boats on the rivers and a rich golden yellow created by the
sea-oats and grass. It was very beautiful country.

We also visited the UCM Museum and Abita Springs Louisiana this day. Once a Choctaw Indian village, this community near New Orleans is now widely recognized for its attractive historic district. We had lunch here in an interesting pub which was highly decorated with collections such as a collection of beer pulls from different kegs. The town also featured a restored Rail depot which has been converted to a musuem, a beautiful Pavillion, circa 1884, with a handsome bronze statue of an Indian in the center.

We sought out the UCM which claims to be Louisiana's Most Eccentric Museum - This roadside attraction near New Orleans is a folk art environment with 1000s of found objects, and home made inventions. I especially liked the use of painted bottle caps everywhere to decorate doors, windows etc. and also computer key-boards attached to the ceiling (like what else would you do with them). It was interesting, but a bit on the commercial side with a gift shop of made up whacky stuff. We like Folk artists who do this as a visionary passion and not necessarily from financial viewpoint. Still, it was most entertaining. For photos other then mine you can visit their website at http://ucmmuseum.com/exhibits.htm

The area was interesting as well. We found a small town that still had a beautiful Rexall Drug with an original porcelain sign. We also saw 2 polka dot cement trucks and a wicked googy limo on big wheels. I just can't imagine going mud driving in a limo.

A few things we noted about the South:

A. There is a tremendous amount of Billboards - they totally overwhelm the scenery.
B. There are a tremendous number of Dollar Generals (and not too many Walmarts)
C. There are a tremendous number of murals everywhere. In restuarants, on dumpsters, on overpasses, water towers, etc. They are everywhere and really add an interesting dimension to these public places.

D. They have these bridges everywhere which at first glance look like you're going over the top into an abyss of nothingness. They are BREATHTAKING - SCARY!
E. The oil rigs, and support businesses have TOTALLY raped the south and left the environment trashed. It was disgustig! Four cops were poised to stop traffic on this no-nothing road so the parade of pick-up trucks could exit the factories at night. It was AWFUL! Certainl among the worst the USA offers.

Back on the Road, following Narrow Larry again, we visited Hammond LA in a very quiet neighborhood without any signs we found Dr. Charles Smith. Narrow Larry has information on this site http://www.narrowlarry.com/nlsmith.html. This site was messy and hard to take in as a piece of "art" but I did draw considerable inspiration from the faces of the sculptures he created. I like heads, faces and figures and there were a lot here.

In 1986, in the yard of his small home on the east side of Aurora, Dr. Charles Smith began building his vision: a sculptural monument dedicated to the contributions and experiences of African-Americans. Before his vision, Dr. Smith, a Vietnam Veteran, had felt lost in pain and anger. Then he received his inspiration: "God told me, 'Use Art - I give you a weapon', just like He gave Dr. King the Gandhi strategy." From that moment on and despite the fact that he had never received training in art, his house lot started to fill with sculpted tributes to the leaders and martyrs of Black America: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Emmett Till, and Martin Luther King among them. In addition, there are memorials to the 4,000 Black Americans who died in Vietnam, to victims of the Rwanda tragedy, as well as to whites that helped with the Underground Railroad.

By this point in the trip we jumped on Route 10 and made some tracks across the south. I was starrting to feel icky and wanted to move on to get to my Mom's in LasCruces and also to see our son Sterling who located about there while he attended University of Mexico. However, we couldn't help but stop at the Beer Can House - http://www.beercanhouse.org/ . Although I found this site to fall into the "obsessive category" and recognize it took a long, long time to create it didn't WOW me like some of these environments. I liked the walkways and entranceways with assorted pieces of found junk like marbles rather then the beer can art. Each to his own I guess.

John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, started his project now known as the Beer Can House in 1968 when he began inlaying thousands of marbles, rocks, and metal pieces into concrete and redwood to form unique landscaping features. When the entire front and back yard were completely covered because he "got sick of mowing the grass", he turned to the house itself and began adding aluminum siding – aluminum beer can siding, that is. Over the next 18 years the house disappeared under a cover of flattened beer cans for both practical and decorative reasons. Garlands made of cut beer cans hanging from the roof edges not only made the house sing in the wind, but also lowered the family's energy bills. Ripley's Believe It or Not estimated that over 50,000 cans adorn this monument to recycling. John considered his work an enjoyable pastime rather than a work of art, but he did enjoy people's reaction to his creations. He once said, "It tickles me to watch people screech to a halt.

Our afternoon in Houston was another story! Talk about inspired - The Orange Show was fascinating!

Not only because of the Folk Art Environment but also because of the nice people who work across the street preserving the Orange Show, The Beer Can Houe and managing the Art Car Association which has the biggest group and parade of Art Cars - one of my other favorite long term fantasy goals.

http://www.narrowlarry.com/nlos.html tells the story of this fascinating site. Built in a working class neighborhood of east Houston, Jefferson Davis McKissack's Orange Show is commonly described as a fun, colorful mini-amusement park dedicated to the power of the orange. It is, in fact, one of the most architecturally sophisticated of U.S. folk art sites, a multi-layered, multi-spatial, maze-like environment composed of the program elements of a classic Greek city (theater, museum, agora, & temple).

This folk art environment was being worked on the day we were there which is apparently a constant and on-going issue because of the cracks and movement in the concrete. At first we thought we weren't supposed to be there but alas, no problem, we throroughly toured and enjoyed this stop. Our only wish would have been to see this site in operation as a theatre.

Later this day as we headed out of Houston we turned down a wrong street and came upon a beautiful park. I decided it was grace that intervened here because this park was one of my favorite sites. The entire wall had been decorated with plaster casts of the children's faces of the class of 1988. I LOVED IT! This was both great folk art and a time capsule for future generations. How great!

This park also had a wonderful mural covering the entire side of a large, brick building and it also had a giant, cactus which hid the water fountains.