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March 26, 2006
Links of Interest Related to the Conference Theme
From Kelly Searsmith:
The Fantastic in Outsider Art Panel Follow-Up
At ICFA-27’s Fantastic in Outsider Art panel (session 36), Gary K. Wolfe and Peter Straub mentioned the work of Henry Darger (1892-1972), who was then unknown to many of us present. Since returning home, I’ve been reading about Darger around the web, and want to share some resources with others. I’ve also collected some Outsider Art resources, some new and some that I’ve long enjoyed.
These are prefaced with the Emily Dickinson poem I attempted to quote at the session’s Q & A, as I made the case for Dickinson’s counting as an outsider writer in her time:
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.
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Darger Resources:
Sara Ayer’s excellent Henry Darger Page serves as a good first stop.
Chicago’s Carl Hammer Gallery currently has an extensive online display of Darger’s art, to accompany an installation. An approximate chronology of Darger’s life, and a short essay entitled REALMS OF THE UNREAL by Stephen Prokopoff, are available there as well.
General Outsider Art Resources:
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.
The American Visionary Art Museum gives a fine site for online exploration.
In the UK, Henry Boxer Gallery does similar work (an online artist list is provided).
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More Outsider Art in Other Media:
Two media of outsider art I especially love, but which we did not discuss in detail, are architecture (sometimes called “extreme homes”) and automobiles (also known as “art cars”).
The extreme homes that would count as outsider art (rather than as insider architectural experiment) are those that are, of course, hand built by untrained, impassioned, and often eccentric folks who just have to manifest the vision in their heads. I especially like these media because the home and car are American icons for masculine success and family values (the home at least, and cars of a certain, sensible kind). So, how subversive of these outsider artists to give such status symbols their own spin.
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Examples of Outsider Architecture:
Leonard Knight’s Salvation Mountain in Nilund, California
Edward Leedskalnin’s Coral Castle of Homestead Florida (not far south of Ft Lauderdale): (with a moving story about Ed’s motivation for the project)
Earl Young’s Mushroom House in Charlevoix, Michigan
Howard Solomon’s Homemade Castle in Ona, Florida
Mary Lou Gulley’s Mystery Castle of Phoenix Arizona(with a particularly moving story about why her father may have built it)
Links to Art Car Examples:
Fairy Tale Studies and Fictions
Attending the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts always inspires me, especially to the return of a subject of central and lasting interest: fairy-tale studies and new fairy tale art. In honor of this renewed burst of inspiration, I'm sharing a list of good starter resources in this area:
Professional Contacts and Contexts
Scholarly Journals
Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies (published by Wayne State University Press)
The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (focuses on international and interdisciplinary treatments of the fantastic in the arts; housed at Idaho State University)
Extrapolation (housed at University of Texas at Brownsville; focuses on popular, contemporary fantasy and sci fi criticism)
Folklore (international journal of folklore and folkloristics)
Journal of the American Folklore Society (book reviews available online)
The Journal of Popular Culture (published by Blackwell; bi-monthly)
Organizations
Mythic Imagination Institute (with annual Mythic Journeys Convention); for the Mythic Passages newsletter, see here
The Mythopoeic Society (also holds an annual convention; prints Mythlore, Mythprint, and Mythic Circle; and runs the Mythopoeic Press)
Endicott Studios (with an online journal in the mythic arts), the creation of Terri Windling
SurLaLune fairy tale pages (with an introduction to fairy tale studies, discussion board, list of fairy tale authors, online store, and electronic texts of selected annotated tales), the creation of Heidi Anne Heiner
The Folklore Society (based in London; awards the annual Katharine Briggs Folklore Award)
The American Folklore Society (which publishes a journal under its name)
Academic Discussion Lists
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (based in the USA)
Fantastic: Fantasy and Science Fiction Research Network (based in Australia)
New Fairy Tale Fiction and Popular Columns
Realms of Fantasy (with its famous, and very good, Folkroots column)
The Fairy Tale Review (Kate Bernheimer’s new contemporary literary fairy tale annual, with an outstanding Board of Directors to recommend it, in addition to her own presence as editor)
Cabinet des Fees (online and soon to be in print literary review of fairy tale fiction – you go Helen!)
Mytholog (quarterly review publishing mythic and folkloric poetry and fiction, essays, and illustration)
The Mythic Circle (review of The Mythopoeic Society, publishing poetry and fiction)
Ellen Datlow (editor of many fairy-tale oriented and friendly fantasy anthologies)
Electronic Traditional Tales Archives
Grimms’ Tales (all 209, but rough copy)
D.L. Ashliman’s Folktexts (folk and mythology, with a special section on Germanic sagas and legends)
Rick Walton’s Folk and Fairytales library
Les contes de Madame d’Aulnoy (twelve, en Francais)
University of Maryland (includes selected texts of Hans Christian Andersen, Arabian Nights, Grimm, Tom Thumb, Irish Fairy Tales, and Lang)
Other Electronic Resources
Irish Literature, Mythology, Folklore and Drama (created by the web editor of the Luminarium, Anniina Jokinen)
Mythology Web (which bills itself as is the premier spot on the web for information about folklore, myths and legends)
Bibliography of Folktale Motif Indexes (Sith Thompson's multi-volume compilation is the standard reference)
Posted by ChrissieMains at March 26, 2006 06:27 PM