Painter, advocate, furniture maker

Gale Hart is my hero. This self-taught artist is a highly visible animal rights activist, and her paintings and constructions are well known and exhibited. Her show "Why Not Eat Your Pet" has received rave reviews and raised the consciousness of droves of onlookers. And she is one hell of a furniture maker! This painting called "Blinded for Your Good Looks" takes on the cosmetic industry and their unconscionable use of animals for product testing. The two tables need to be in my living room ASAP! Such energy and raw talent!

Duck, duck, duck, tape!

According to Marshall McLuhan, "art is anything you can get away with", and Pete Warburton's show at the University of Michigan's Taubman Health Center, is proof! Don't get me wrong, this clever work is definitely art, and successful art at that. Warburton utilizes an unusual art material called duck tape, which is ordinarily used for many types of painting and fix it yourself projects. In this artist's hands, the lowly material becomes so much more. "Night Route to Gallium" is proof of his talent. Click on the title and read more about this exceptional artist. Or contact him directly at haloclub@netscape.net

Outsider from across the Pond.........

Self-taught and Outsider artist, Ian Pyper from the UK makes doodles that go to another level. His whimsical art has a great lighthearted appeal and is held in many international collections. Here are a few new pieces, which I'm sure you will agree, are delightful.  

Doodles to die for.......Ian Pyper

As it succinctly says on his website," Ian Pyper creates drawings; he induces visions. Pyper uses marker, watercolor and paper, like a caveman used burnt wood, spit and a hard rock wall, to show us clearly what he sees." This entirely self-taught and outsider artist from the UK wows his audience with a cacophony of color and line, dots and doodles, and wins an ever larger audience each time. Paper saturated with watercolor and ink mesmerize the eye and spirit alike. I like!

Squeakie turns to folk art........

"James Stone has been called "Squeakie" for as long as he can remember. He was born in Georgetown County, South Carolina, in 1951. When he was growing up, the family moved every few years or so because his father was a sharecropper and carpenter, and they moved where the work was. Squeakie started work at "handing" tobacco (passing the leaves on to a worker who strung it for drying) when he was just five or six years old. As he got older, he was involved in all aspects of the operation, from pulling plants, setting tobacco, hoeing, cropping. And he picked cotton. He worked in a few factories and grocery stores over the years, and then began working as a house painter about thirty years ago." Check out his website to hear the rest of this self-taught artist's story and see more of his work.

Collage artist, Jocelyn Prosser

Jocelyn Prosser, originally from Toronto, Ontario, lives and creates her brilliant work in Neath, South Wales. She is a self-taught painter, using watercolor as her medium and Paul Klee, Frida Kahlo and primitive Haitian images as influences. Jocelyn is an eclectic collector of all types of 1940's dolls, Shona carvings, and objects trouves salvaged from home sales and flea markets. Sometimes these treasures get a second life as this artist also creates striking assemblages and jewelry. In the Spring of 2008 her assemblages were first shown in recycled wooden boxes and drawers at the Washington Gallery in South Wales.
She has a presence on the Saatchi site filled with many excellent examples of her watercolors and is an artist worth noting. Her work has a musicality to it and a painterly esthetic. The work on the top is entitled "Silver Lined Cloud" and the collage on the bottom is called "Lighthouse".

Outsider Artist, Maurice Hansen, Jr.

Maurice Hansen was discovered by my friend and fellow dealer, Chris Butler. Recognizing a major talent, she immediately arranged for a one man show of his paintings at the prestigious Aetna Gallery in Hartford, CT. Hansen's canvases are loaded to the edges with all kinds of biblical symbolism, as well as reflections of the daily news. They are masterful works, held in many private collections as well as museums.