As a child my gran used to take me to walk through the gardens of the famed Old Word Concretes that have in existence since 1919. This place was my place of enchantment. The little fat cherubs and elves. I still have their pots in my garden. Well I had... I think my landscaper son has taken them away. He too is an artist and, how bizarre never having told him this story, his sculptures are in the category of outside art.
One of my lecturers many many years ago now (circa 1970s} told me that I belonged to the "uncharacterised few who bordered on the alternative" (I think he meant mad) as I revere the freedom of expression that very few people are able to conceptualize and carry forward, ignoring the rigid notion of art, or what is acceptable.
He challenged me to enter a competition and submit a thesis on art which I did and I won R200.00 (a fortune then). It paid for my 1955 Morris Minor car and two terms at tech, art school. I called it 'Outsider Art' - Helen Martens from the Owl House, Nieu Bethesda, being a prime example. Her renditions of people and animals are for me, perfect.
Helen Martens' ‘bottle lady (top) and others (Bev Young)...
