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There is something about my present state of mind that lets me enjoy fiction, poetry and paintings. Not a dark night of the soul that would let me understand Dante, but a quiet afternoon of the soul that allows for more emotional resonance than my usual non-fiction state. Wednesday, we went to the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth for Judy Belasco's opening.Judy lives in Stockton Springs and is all about the sky and the sea. Among other artists showing there, I liked Alison Rector's comforting perspectives of ordinary places, and the emotional volume of John Neville's studies of the red boat in the blue water. They made me think of listening to music loud in the car by myself.
It started with an article in the NYT about Clementine Hunter and ended with the book I've just finished, Visiting Hours, stories from her time as a volunteer in an AIDS hospice in Baton Rouge by Jennifer Moses. Moses does outsider art herself, which make you wonder how outsider is it. Other older and pejorative names for it include naïve art,
art brut, raw art, grass-rootsart, primitive art, self-taught art, psychotic art, autistic art, intuitive art,vernacular art, folk art, contemporary folk art, non-traditional folk art,mediumistic art, and marginal art.
Here's someone's favorites list; it wouldn't be my list.
I hope to visit some of the museums she cites next time I'm down there which I hope will be November. Other things on my list are a drive to Montegut and Bourg and paddling with family in Lake Martin and Blind River.
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