Mountainair - Outsider Art Destination / Folk Art Environment

Detour Atlas ("outsider art, discoveries along the backroads") carries 3 listings for Mountainair, The New Mexico section is fascinating and quite large.

• Gordon McMath (artist)
• Shaffer Hotel (site)
• Rancho Bonito (site)

From the National Register of Historical Places document nominating Rancho Bonito and the Shaffer:

"Like other artists The Folk Art Environmentalist seems to be driven by the need for expression, but in this case the expression often takes the form of a lifetime, single project which is guided by the desire to form an environment over which the artist has complete control. The unity of the artist's vision is readily apparent but the underlying motivation is much more difficult to discern. On the whole, works by American Folk Environmentalists seem to share no direct relationship with the art of the past or awareness of developments in the art of their contemporaries.

They work outside the mainstream, intently focusing on a inner vision, the content, scope, and style of which is the sole product of the artist. What the forces were that motivated "Pop Shaffer" to begin work on his small animals and decorated buildings are not known nor do we know what guided the creation of such a unified vision. We do know that there are no other examples of Folk Environments on this scale in New Mexico and that efforts should be made to preserve this humorous and impressive monument to one man's vision."

Gordon's Critters in his front yard are not just a display but as much a folk art environment as the other two sites. Local house art - creating environments - surely falls in the same category.

There are also Photo sets for each at Flickr in Kelly Ludwig's collection "southwestern self-taught artists & folk art environments" .... "dedicated to the sheer joy of outsider, folk, visionary, self-taught, vernacular art and environment discoveries found all along the back roads (and side streets) around the world."

• Gordon McMath
• Rancho Bonito
• Shaffer

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Kelly Ludwig (queenodesign) who did these describes herself as "a graphic designer by trade, a collector of self-taught art, and road trip fool by passion..."

I am crazy about this stuff called outsider art, visionary art, art brut, folk art or whatever you want to name it. I think it is a pure root art form, like a visual blues or jazz.

It’s the spirit of both the art and the artists that is so captivating. If you are lucky enough to venture off of the main highways of this country, you can encounter the most amazing folks and environments. People who create just because they have to. Not for recognition, or to satisfy a client, but because it is in them to create. Maybe they have retired and have some time on their hands, or maybe there has been a personal tragedy, or sometimes the Lord has spoken to them, or they had some left over paint, but whatever drives them to create is a pure as it gets.

Kelly's Websites...

• Ludwig Design... an adventure in graphic design (& portfolio)
• Detour Art... self-taught art discoveries along the backroads (and side streets) all around the world. Over 3700 listings for artists, sites, environments, galleries, museums and more...
• Detour Art flickr photos...

and Blogs...

• Detour Art Travels... personal musings from the road and the latest news from the outsider art world
• Geeky things I did today... notes from the cyber-road and all it's detours
• Bright shiny objects... daily distraction