Speaking from Experience

Indiana Folk Art at the Waldron

By Jen Eberbach

Reprinted from The Ryder Magazine. (Bloomington, IN). June 2007

Currently on display at the John Waldron Arts Center, Ride It More Realistic features artworks created by four Indiana folk artists who come from a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences and occupations. Co-curator Edward Puchner, who planned the exhibition with Jerry Sinks, claims that although the artworks are informed by the artists’ wide range of aesthetics influences and artistic practices, they can be discussed together in the context of folk art “because all of these artists, in some way, have enacted some connection with larger communities that they live within and base their memories on and their work on.”

Rather than defining folk art as a cohesive tradition, the exhibition focuses on the creative tendencies and artistic practices of the folk artists represented in the show. Puchner explains that the artists’ “varied backgrounds indeed define the contemporary landscape of folk art in Indiana.” However, cohesive themes surface in the context of the exhibition. The artists’ works are informed by their immediate personal experiences and their exposure to aesthetics within their own communities. It is nearly impossible to consider each artwork’s meaning and aesthetic qualities without also considering how each artist’s life story contributed to its creation.

Portrait artist Lois Doane’s (1894 – 1988) artistic production included “memory paintings,” “dream pictures” and illustrated stories and poems. Her works record her experiences growing up and working at hotels and her family’s boarding house in Springs Valley, near West Baden and French Lick, when the area was experiencing its “heyday” as a popular vacation destination. Puchner relates that “there was a large turn-over of people that she saw over the years and she would just tell stories with her paintings of that community and of those people.” As a Quaker, Doane was concerned with honestly depicting her subjects and following the commandment “thou shalt not lie,” which carried over into her writing. She wrote, “keep away from statistics/ ride it more realistic/…make it interesting, make it shine/don’t forget the grime/write my story while I’m here to relate/because someday it may be too late.”

Donnie Bell’s artistic process of welding car parts together to create sculptures of people, animals, and mythical beings, was born from his technical expertise working as an auto repairman in Oolitic. The exhibition features a large-scale sculpture of a three-headed dragon that Bell constructed out of metal car parts that he collected going about his daily business. Puchner identifies “a specific continuity” between Bell’s sculptures and “the exhaust systems from which,” his sculptures, “arise.” He states; “Employing tailpipes and mufflers that originally began as one long system, works like the large dragon retain the same type of extension and ferocious attitude that make up exhaust systems. And, with the three heads that bite each other and show their fangs, Bell’s work embodies the power of engines and the solidity of metal.”

After undergoing open-heart surgery, Larry Whorrall took up collecting, scrap-booking, and doodling in order to occupy his time and benefit his spirit. Whorrall explained, “I think I [came] so close to death that I collect things to try to hold on to life, trying to grasp everything I can get, I guess, before it gets away. Not everybody gets a second chance.” Like Doane, Whorrall comes from a relatively “fluid” community of individuals who he connects with at flea markets throughout southern Indiana and at his own booth in Loogootee. Examples of his “miscellaneous jars,” which the artist assembles by collecting what he calls “useless pieces of junk” found at flea markets, as well as in nature, reflect his exposure to what Puchner calls “the community aesthetic.” Puchner explains that “the collecting habit, the collecting hobby really comes out of the community that he’s a part of,” and that by creating what are essentially “found art objects,” Whorrall gives “a context to, or a meaning to, or a beauty to” the materials he finds.

Rae Smith, also known by her nickname “Mona Lisa,” creates portraits of individuals who Puchner identifies as “her community, as well as her immediate family, all of whom served as the focus of her creative expression.” Smith is the most elusive of the artist’s represented in the show, living briefly in Indianapolis for an artist’s residency before returning to Alabama. According to the information gathered on the artist, it is known that she “was an eccentric dresser known for composing striking outfits from thrift store finds,” and had a “love for French style.” Aspects of Smith’s community can be gleaned from her portraits, poetry, and prose, which all include “strong imagery of a dark, sexy, and musical environment” that Puchner classifies as “bohemian.” If the artist intended a connection between her artistic and written works, it “links the distinctive outfits and accessories of her portraits to a coolness of sophistication that she perceived in those she knew.”