Main entry:

Umberger, Leslie.

Title & Author:

Sublime spaces & visionary worlds : built environments of vernacular artists / Leslie Umberger ; with contributions by Erika Doss [and others].

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication:

Description:

427 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 32 cm

Notes:
Published on the occasion of an exhibitions presented at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, June 2007-Jan. 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 416-421) and index.
Taking the road less traveled / Ruth DeYoung Kohler -- Wandering the old, weird America : poetic musings and pilgrimage perspectives on vernacular art environments / Erika Doss -- The heart of the real / Leslie Umberger -- Levi Fisher Ames : natural curiosity -- Albert Zahn : heaven bound -- Carl Peterson : a little magic -- Sam Rodia : upward spiral -- James Tellen : woodland messages -- Nick Engelbert : no place like home -- Fred Smith : not just another roadside attraction -- David Butler : in good company -- Emery Blagdon : properly channeled -- Loy Bowlin : the road to my horizon -- Eugene Von Bruenchenhein : once upon a starlit midnight -- Mary Nohl : interplay -- Stella Waitzkin : lost library -- Nek Chand : a tale of two cities -- Tom Every : magnetic force -- Dr. Charles Smith : remaking the world -- Ernest Hüpeden, Clarence Mosteller Powell, Jacob Baker, Peter Jodacy, John Ehn, and Frank Oebser : heartfelt and handmade : six artists who made their own way -- The Kohler Foundation and site preservation : a road well traveled / Lisa Stone.

Summary:

"The need to personalize our surroundings is a defining human characteristic. For some this need becomes a compulsion to transform their personal surroundings into works of art. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, has undertaken the mission to preserve these environments, which are presented for the first time in Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds. This colorful and inspiring book features the work of twenty-two vernacular artists whose locales, personal histories, and reasons for art-making vary widely but who all share a powerful connection to the home as art. Featured projects range from art environments that remain intact, such as Simon Rodia's Watts Towers in California, to sites lost over the years such as Emery Blagdon's six hundred elaborate "Healing Machines," made of copper, aluminum, tinfoil, magnets, ribbons, farm-machinery parts, painted light bulbs, beads, coffee-can lids, and more." "Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds is the first book to explore these spectacularly offbeat spaces in detail. From "Original Rhinestone Cowboy" Loy Bowlin's wall-to-wall glitter-and-foil living room to the concrete bestiary of "witch of Fox Point" Mary Nohl, each artist and project is described in detail through a wealth of visuals and text. Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds reminds us that our decorative choices tell the world not just what we like but who we are."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description
Table of contents only
Publisher description
Contributor biographical information

ISBN:

9781568987286 (alk. paper)
1568987285 (alk. paper)
9780971070356 (softcover ; alk. paper)
0971070350 (softcover ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Rodia, Simon, 1879-1965.
Smith, Fred, 1886-1976.
Butler, David, 1898-1997.
Blagdon, Emery, 1907-1986.
Waitzkin, Stella, 1920-2003.
Chand, Nek, 1924-
Nohl, Mary, 1914-2001.
Every, Tom, 1938-
John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
Outsider art United States.
Art, American 20th century.
Outsider artists Homes and haunts United States.
Outsider artists United States Archives.
Art américain 20e siècle.
Artistes bruts Résidences et lieux familiers États-Unis.
Artistes bruts États-Unis Archives.
Art, American
Outsider art
Outsider artists
United States

Form/genre: