|
|
|
|
 View Images
USA
Southwest
|
Denver, CO
William "Bill" Potts
1936-
Carvings
|
|
Information:
Fish, dinosaurs, jazz and blues musicians and presidents by an African-American woodcarver.
In Denver, we caught up to Bill Potts. He's a big man, with perhaps the biggest hands I've ever seen, but when they wrapped themselves around one of his carvings, they were so nimble and careful they might just as well have been the hands of a surgeon or a concert pianist. With tools that range from power sanders to kitchen cleavers, he creates art with old scrap fence posts and discarded pieces of wood. Carving musicians and presidents, dinosaurs and fish, bar scenes and Zulu warriors, Bill's work is wild and widely varied. There was even a life-sized alligator!
He was invited to the White House once, where he'd presented President Clinton with a sculpture of the prez, playing his sax, and that was something! But two days later, I suspect he was back in his garage, listening to his beloved jazz and carving away.
Bill Potts isn't a rich man, but he is a happy man. I can still hear his deep- down-in-the-belly laugh when I close my eyes. And the alligator will undoubtedly be a visitor in some future dream of mine.
Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations
|
 |
Bibliography:
On DVD - Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, "Prowlin' the Prairie", KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1996-2000.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations" by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, 2002.
"20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art" by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.
"Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources" by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, 2000.
"American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies" by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia" by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009. |
| |
