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USA
Appalachia
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Lucama, NC
Windmill Park - Vollis Simpson
1919-
Windmill environment
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Information:
Built: 1986-present
"After I’m dead—I guess someone will have a big yard sale."
("Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists" by Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, New York, 1990.)
Approximately 30 windmill-like sculptures which shine and reflect in the sun and whirl and spin in the wind, Simpson’s whirligigs are made from recycled machine parts, then painted and covered with thousands of small reflectors. Many stand up to 50 feet tall. Simpson began work on Windmill Farm in 1985, after retiring from a machine repair business he ran with friends. The "park" is Simpson’s farm, today filled with over 30 whirligigs of Simpson’s design and construction.
For Vollis Simpson, whirligigs had long been a practical solution to everyday problems. Serving in Saipan in the Mariana Islands during World War II, Simpson built a whirligig to power a washing machine. Years later, back at home, he looked to whirligigs to power a heating system for his house. It was not until 1985 that Simpson began to appreciate whirligigs for their less-than utilitarian qualities. He began making whirligigs on his farm from cast-off machine parts simply to see how they would move in the wind.
Simpson had started a machine repair shop with some buddies in the early 1950s. Together, they fixed farm and tobacco machinery, often building their own parts. From machines, they moved to moving houses, disassembling the structures and transporting them to a new location where the houses were reassembled. In 1985, his partners retired and Simpson found himself with a lot of free time and tons of miscellaneous machine parts. "I had to find something that was better than watching television," he remembers. So, Simpson began to transform his North Carolina farm into an Arcadia of whimsical windmills.
The novelty of Simpson’s whirligigs soon caught national attention. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta accepted Simpson’s fanciful and functional windmills into their collection in 1987. A decade later, whirligigs were sought for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Simpson made four sculptures–a man sawing, a man on a unicycle, a water pumper and a duck–all of which were placed throughout the city’s gleaming downtown.
At Home Gallery
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Bibliography:
"Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Folk Art Environments Coast to Coast, Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig" by Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.
On DVD - Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, "Eastern Weaseling", KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 2002.
"Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists" by Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, New York, 1990.
"20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art" by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.
"Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments" by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.
"Light of the Spirit : Portraits of Southern Outsider Artists" by Karekin Goekjian and Robert Peacock, University of Mississippi Press, 1998.
"Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources" by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.
"Contemporary American Folk Art - A Collector's Guide" Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, 1996.
"Flying Free: Twentieth-Century Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Ellin and Baron Gordon" by Ellin Gordon, Barbara L. Luck and Tom Patterson, exhibit catalog for The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, 1997.
"Raw Creation: Outsider Art and Beyond" by John Maizels, 1996.
"Weird Carolina" by Roger Manley, Sterling Publishing Co. 2007.
"Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia" by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009. |
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