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USA
East
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Woodstock, NY
Journey's End, House Of Mirrors - Clarence Schmidt
1897-1978
Home environment
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Information:
I didn't live in vain if this takes the edge off a person's trials and tribulations of life."
Clarence Schmidt was born in 1897 in Queens NY. At the age of 31, he moved to an inherited property on Ohayo Mountain in Woodstock. By the late 1930s, Schmidt had built and sold his first house, called Journey's End. He began work on the second, a single room log cabin, at the same time.
By 1967, that single room cabin had evolved into a seven story structure with ramps, balconies and rooftop gardens. Schmidt referred to the original cabin space as his "Inner Sanctum" and to the gardens as his "Mirrored Hope."
The large house was a labyrinth of passageways leading to spaces covered in aluminum foil, paint, flowers, wood and shards of mirrors.
Schmidt resurfaced the house with foil over tar and added projections of aluminum foil-covered string. Outside, the branches of bushes and trees were wrapped in foil and small shrines and grottos were added in the area he called the "alleyway." Most striking were the shrines that incorporated rubber masks, hands and feet.
In 1968 a fire fueled by the gallons of tar Schmidt had used to "preserve" the huge house of mirrors destroyed it. He stayed at a motel for the winter, returned to the property in the spring, and began work on a second house.
This second structure, known as the Mark II, consisted of three rooms built over a station wagon. The walls were covered with tree branches wrapped in aluminum foil and the surrounding foliage was wrapped and decorated as well. In December 1971, the Mark II was destroyed by fire.
Clarence Schmidt moved back into town, sleeping in doorways and wherever else he could find shelter. A local agency placed him in a state hospital for observation and when he was found to have diabetes, Schmidt was placed in a nursing home in Kensington NY.
By 1974 only rubble from the houses, some fragments of the shrines and grottos, and the gardens with their stone terracing remained.
In the 1970s-80s, Schmidt's son Michael added some of his own sculptures to the remains of Journey's End. This site has vanished due to vandalism.
The information presented here is a short synopsis of "Clarence Schmidt: Toward Journey's End" by Gregg Blasdel and Bill Lipke that was included in an exhibition at The Walker Art Center in 1974. The essay and photos were published by E.P. Dutton & Co. in an exhibition catalog entitled Naives and Visionaries, currently out of print.
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Reference / Links: |
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Bibliography:
"Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments" by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.
"Clarence Schmidt: Toward Journey's End" by Gregg Blasdel and Bill Lipke that was included in an exhibition at The Walker Art Center in 1974.
The essay and photos were published by E.P. Dutton & Co. in an exhibition catalog entitled Naives and Visionaries, currently out of print.
These images are from"Clarence Schmidt" by Bill Lipke and Gregg Blasdel, published by The Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, 1975; out of print.
"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 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. |
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