|
|
|
|
 View Images
USA
South
|
Bovina, MS
Fancy Roadside Art House Emporium - Earl Wayne Simmons
1956-
Artist and environment
|
|
Information:
As a child growing up in Bovina, Mississippi, Earl Simmons began making his own toys from cardboard boxes, lids of baby-food jars, and bottlecaps, using a Coca-Cola bottle for a hammer. Today, Simmons' toy jukeboxes may be found as decor in the House of Blues nightclubs in New Orleans and Los Angeles. Among his most popular creations, they are constructed from scrap lumber, flattened aluminum tubing, reflectors, and other "found" materials.
Simmons' exotic birds - roosters, peacocks, hawks - take shape from such salvaged items as metal ironing boards (legs), cedar branches (neck), metal joints (beaks), and folded and cut scrap sheet metal (tail feathers).
The earliest section of the building, constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
A fire mid-day Tuesday, August 20, 2002, engulfed Earl's Art Shop, destroying the residence of Simmons and his family, his gallery, a stockpile of his art and materials for future creations. An account has been set up in his name at BancorpSouth. Checks to Earl Simmons can be sent to him c/o The Attic Gallery, 1101 Washington St, Vicksburg, MS 39183. For more information, call Attic Gallery at (601) 638-9221.
April, 2007 - Earl is hard at work rebuilding his "art shop", making it bigger and better than ever. It is well over 5,000 square feet, without a square corner in it. While most of the walls and doors are in place, the recycled tin roof is still missing in places, making a spring rain a bit of an adventure. He is selling his paintings at the house, as well as at the Attic Gallery in Vicksburg.
Excerpted text and images are from "Earl's Art Shop: Building Art with Earl Simmons" by Stephen Flinn Young and D. C. Young, 1995
|
 |
Bibliography:
On DVD - Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, "Southern Flavor", KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1999-2001.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations" by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, 2002.
"Light of the Spirit : Portraits of Southern Outsider Artists" by Karekin Goekjian and Robert Peacock, University of Mississippi Press, 1998.
"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.
"Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments" by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.
"Earl's Art Shop: Building Art with Earl Simmons" by Stephen Flinn Young and D. C. Young, 1995, ISBN 0-878-05811-7
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia" by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009. |
| |
