William Clark

Here's the text for the Found Artists exhibit panel that was developed for William Clark, along with some photographs taken on site of his work.

Figure in Motion

William Clark grew up in rural Newtonville, outside Hammonton, on a sprawling property littered with the cars that formed his father’s junkyard, a rusting jewel set amidst acres of fields.  From an early age, William launched excursions into those fields, riding cars when he could, working in the basement as neophyte welder when rain or darkness fell, later displaying his handiwork on the Atlantic City boardwalk in order to ask the one big question all artists must ask: “What do you think of my work?”  For William, cars were vehicles towards a personal vision, and he cannibalized them to achieve ever more elaborate sculptural forms.  Driven by an unceasing need to do art, he transforms disparate arrays of junk into novel assemblages, producing a series of welded metal figures, all the while chasing that grand but elusive goal of sculptors: movement.  Delving into a deeper past, William excavated brass, copper, and steel parts from old typewriters and cash registers, their subtle sheens lending subdued but suggestive color to a growing flock of fantastical metallic birds, whose joints and junctures are formed from the simple tension of superimposed angles.  His garden now a favorite laboratory for his art, William grows flowers from seed, scrutinizes their foliated shapes, marvels at the jazzy colors, and muses on ways to propel his art forward.

Bird in Motion

Jacqueline Stack Lagakos

Here's the Found Artists exhibit panel text developed for Jacqueline Stack Lagakos, along with some photographs taken of her work.

Jacqueline Stack Lagakos has been making art from found materials since she salvaged throwaway chairs, repainted them in jazz images, and furnished her Lindenwold home with them.  Some of her chairs later found their way into a museum auction at the Stedman Gallery in Camden -- and she was on her way: On her way, though not yet a self-confirmed artist.  That came later.  Sojourning in California, then returning to New Jersey, she enrolled as an apprentice in the bricklayers union – one of the very first women ever admitted for that training – and then crossed over into the world of bottle walls, inspired by the work of visionary folk artist Grandma Prisbrey.  Jackie’s art continued to evolve, incorporating a delight in color and joy in working with her hands, all the while branching into other media.  Deeply influenced by Zen Buddhism, friend and collaborator of such notable figures as Edward Espé Brown at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California, and Isaiah Zagar in South Philadelphia, she established herself as a capable and versatile artist.  Today, her mosaics and bottle walls, founded on expert masonry skills, coalesce to form subtly compelling built environments -- microcosms that gesture, in their meditative quality, toward a practical Buddhism at work within the abundant living universe. 

Bottle Wall Shrine

Mosaic Enso

Brian Ackley

Here's the Found Artists exhibit text that was developed for Brian Ackley, along with some photographs taken on a visit to his shop in Deerfield Township, near Bridgeton.

Brian Ackley is the fifth generation to grow up on the family farm in Deerfield Township, though he hardly ever milked a cow.  Tapping an entrepreneurial spirit not uncommon among farmers, Brian’s grandfather had gotten hold of a small portable sawmill in 1947 and began sawing timber, which gradually morphed into the commercial operation that prospers yet today.  Brian grew up working in the mill, chainsaw in hand, shearing bark from logs and cutting them down to size for milling.  Handling wood on a daily basis, he became the wood’s familiar, noting and internalizing the many subtle variations of grade and grain.  So when his wife came home one day with a chainsaw carving of a bear, roughed out by a local carver, he was ready to claim, “Hell, I could do that!”  He carved one bear, then another, his skill developing well beyond that early framework.  Today, he carves simple or elaborate figures to order, ranging from Celtic Knots to tortilla factory avatars to whimsies sprung from his own head, such as an imaginative rendering of “Henry the Fifth Having Tea”.  When not on the road demonstrating at festivals and fairs, he makes forays onto local properties to transform standing stumps into his own blazing brand of figurative art.  Standing barefoot amidst the dust and danger of the spewing saw, he acquires a rough patina of chippings, embodying his own process; working with a nearby Native American tribe, he’s earned the wry honorific, “Walks with Ticks”.         

Brian Ackley with Sally Willowbee

Brian Ackely at Work

EXHIBIT OPENING SOON!

Found Artists

The Folklife Program at Perkins Center for the Arts, in conjunction with guest curator Sally Willowbee and Perkins Center staff, is putting the finishing touches on a major new project entitled "Found Artists: On Country Roads, Side Streets, and Back Alleys of South Jersey".  The project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.  It will explore public art-making in South Jersey communities by a variety of artists, some with formal arts training and experience, others with more purely native talent, aspirations, and worldview.  Over the years Sally has identified a spectacular array of art made and consumed within communities, all across the landscape of South Jersey.  As Sally wrote in her introduction to the book, these grassroots artists create "art gardens, embellished and decorated buildings, artistic signs, unique mailboxes and hand-made sculptures" which cumulatively "reflect the region's natural, cultural and economic heritage".


In preparation for the exhibit, Sally and I toured some of the sites she's visited and photographed for her book, and along the way we met and talked with some of the artists who've created the pieces and installations depicted in her book.  Serendipity was also at work that day, because we also came across artworks situated on the landscape that Sally hadn't seen before, and also identified new installations by artists she'd already discovered.  All of which testifies to the fecund artistic energy of everyday people everywhere, operating within the always surprising and continuously evolving artistic landscape of South Jersey.  Later, I returned for separate visits with the artists, and to interview them to record the evolution of their work and discuss its significance.

Sally Willobee at work in Deerfield Township, near Bridgeton

Since then, Sally has been working with me and a team at Perkins Center to put the exhibit and related programming together.  The exhibit will open at Perkins Center's Collingswood facility, 30 Irvin Avenue, on 14 June 2014.  The facility is convenient to the Collingswood PATCO station, and there's ample street parking available (some are metered spaces) for those who prefer to drive.  However you decide to travel, please make a point of visiting the exhibit -- which will run through 23 August 2014 -- and consider signing up for one of the workshops or the guided tour.  Take a look at the flier below for details and contact information.  You won't want to miss this one!

Folklife Center Update

There's been a longish gap since my last post, without any new entries in several months.  The hiatus is mainly because the fieldwork component of this project has predominated, leaving little time for other pursuits. And of course, fieldwork continues to preoccupy us at the Folklife Center.  Readers of this blog will know that I've been spending time in various places throughout the project region, such as Roebling in Burlington County, and in Camden City and County among other places.  Roebling is a fascinating town, and I mean to revisit it in future posts.  And of course, Camden City and County are vitally important to the overall mission of the Folklife Center too.

Speaking of Camden, I've done fieldwork there for more than ten years, have spoken and passed the time with many residents of the city neighborhoods, visiting them in their homes and shops, dropping in on informal gatherings as well as organized events, especially in North Camden and parts of East Camden. That work continues whenever I can schedule time there, along with time spent in other parts of the project region. As many people know, Camden is a troubled and deeply scarred place.  But it is a dynamic place.  It has a vibrant history and diverse neighborhoods, and its people embody the full array of human possibility. What's lacking are the opportunities and means to realize the potential that continues to percolate there. Achieving that would require thoughtful planning for structural change -- and the political will to follow through -- not temporary fixes, however well-intended.  Which is to say that the underlying problems are complex, and do not originate with the people themselves.  I'll write more about Camden in future posts.

I opened this post intending to report on new developments of the Perkins Folklife Project, rather than report on fieldwork per se.  Without doubt I'll continue doing fieldwork, because fieldwork is the lifeblood of the folklife center concept.  But we've reached a point in our work where time has to be allocated in other ways as well.  Having done four years of fieldwork for Perkins, we have a grasp of the extraordinary amount of cultural energy circulating in communities and neighborhoods of this region. We also appreciate that there is ample opportunity, not yet fully explored, to support, sustain, and channel that abundance into cultural programming not only at the two Perkins facilities, but at venues and sites throughout the region, working, as always, in close partnership with community members.

Members of "Quilting Divas" and quilt display, Willingboro

Let me provide one or two brief examples of the cultural abundance I have in mind.  The "Quilting Divas", who meet in Willingboro to sew quilts and socialize, sometimes set up a magnificent display of quilts sewn by members of the group, as pictured above.  The quilts feature interesting designs and betray expert skill, produced out of a sort of collaborative activity among the Divas.  Members develop their own quilt concept and spend time at meetings working on their own quilts, while helping other members with their quilts.  The meeting site, located in Willingboro's Kennedy Center, is advantageous in other ways well -- the location makes it possible for seniors who attend programs and obtain services there to wander in and view the quilts.

There is a remarkable range of cultural activity in the Willingboro area.  Within the African American community, for example, there are quilters, doll makers, artisans, writers, actors, musicians, and many other cultural producers. The dolls displayed in the photograph below were all  made by Karmaya Lewis of Willingboro.  Many, many dolls have issued from Lewis's rich imagination and deft handiwork, portraying characters and themes from African American history and from contemporary life.  Of course, a similar abundance is found among other cultural groups in the area, with the various African communities, the Caribbean communities, and others in that area forming a rich cultural tableau.  This pattern is repeated throughout the project region.

There are many other localized sites of dynamic cultural activity throughout the region, often aggregating into notable clusters, such as Pemberton-Browns Mills, Roebling-Florence, Cherry Hill, the Black Horse Pike corridor, and the Paulsboro-Repaupo area, among others.  Not to mention the river corridor, and the many tributary creeks! And of course there are the urban zones such as Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Woodbury, and Glassboro, which contribute substantially to the overall mix.   

Dolls created and sewn by Karmaya Lewis

And so beginning this fiscal year (FY2014) the Folklife Center at Perkins will devote time and energy to program and exhibit development, participation in artist residency programs in local schools, and resource development in support of special programs and services -- in addition to fieldwork.  This diversification should position the Folklife Center more strongly with its various constituencies. I've already suggested that the communities we work with are culturally rich and diverse.  I want to add that Perkins staff are also diversely talented, and have amassed a substantial record delivering arts-related programming and services to communities throughout the region.  The Folklife Center exists at the intersection of these many diverse cultural communities, and Perkins itself.  It is dedicated to meeting the needs of the region's cultural communities, and to assisting Perkins staff in extending their already productive relationships with the people of South Jersey.

           

Focal Points II

Stud Barn at Helas Stock Farm, by Earl Akins, Jobstown

Earl Akins was born and raised in Jobstown, and still lives in that town, in a house not far from where he grew up.  As we talked, a place called the Helas Stock Farm entered our conversation, and loomed.  The stock farm played an important role in New Jersey horse racing history.  Thoroughbred horses were raised and bred at the farm, which was owned and operated by a succession of colorful characters.  They erected what have become iconic buildings on the site, which continue to inhabit the local imagination.  People in the area have vivid memories of the stock farm, even though, or perhaps because, race horses are no longer bred and raised there.  The farm was established in the 19th century by a man named Lorillard, was later purchased by a man named Sinclair (of oil company fame), and then by Helas, a company based in Louisiana.

Helas Stock Farm is a fabled place in local worldview.  Mr. Akins worked and played there as a boy, and that experience may have influenced his lifelong interest in horses, and horseriding.  I'll provide more detail about Helas Stock Farm, which is a good story in its own right, in a separate post.  For now, I'll note that memories of his experience on the Helas property have given rise to a series of  commemorative paintings.  These paintings embody personal memories of the buildings, the horses, and activities on the farm.  Earl Akins's paintings mark the stock farm as a focal point of the Jobstown area and surrounding communities.

Some of the original structures on the stock farm have been lost to fire, or were considered "attractive nuisances" by the owners and were taken down.  There was a bath house, located on a part of the farm right across the street from Earl Akins's home, which by all accounts was a splendid building.  A few small cottages stood near the bath house, and these were destroyed too -- all but one, that is, which was moved to a site on Saylors Pond Road going toward Wrightstown, where it now serves as a private residence.  The pretty little cottage is evocative, I believe, of the original bath house complex.

Relocated Bath House Cottage

    

To make a segue here, I learned about the cottage from Raymond Gaskill, whom I met at Creekside Glass one Saturday morning.  Creekside Glass in Pemberton is owned and operated by Lester Gaskill -- Raymond's son -- and members of his family.  Raymond Gaskill grew up on a farm in Jobstown, and he has memories of Helas Stock Farm too.

Creekside Glass is a place where community members gather to talk about local history, events, and people.  It's also the home of a very significant collection of artifacts -- bird and fish carvings, mounted trophy fish, and an array of signs collected from local shops that have gone out of business over the years.  The sign collection commemorates those businesses in a unique and interesting way.

Mr. Gaskill has gradually put this collection together, which reflects the business history of Pemberton and nearby places.  Some of these businesses were cultural businesses -- Bill Lucas comes immediately  to mind.  Some of the old signs have an artistic quality as well, which heightens the impact of the collection, and suggests the relationship between history and culture.  The signs are an inventory of local business history, abstracted from their original setting and brought into a new focus.  Bill Lucas's shop sign, which stood on the edge of his property in view of passing traffic, has recently been added to the collection (Bill died in December 2011, but his business activity had ceased some time before that).

Another very intriguing artifact on display at Creekside Glass is a hand-drawn map that was created by a fishing guide in Tuckerton.  Tuckerton is located to the east of Pemberton, just 30 miles or so as the crow flies, at Little Egg Harbor on the Atlantic coast.  I mention this because I believe that the fishing map, appearing as it does in a Pine Barrens setting, suggests the complex and enduring relationship between the Piney woods and the coast -- connections which aren't always obvious but are deeply significant.  I'll explain more about this relationship in a future post.

Fishing Map drawn by Capt. Russ Albertson

I said I'd mention one more place, and I want to do that before closing this post.  Ken Davis at East Street Art led me to Earl Akins, but besides that, Ken is also a member of a Pine Barrens hunting club, with property and a hunting camp located deep in the woods in Pemberton Township.  Ken arranged for me to contact a longtime member of the club, who goes by the name of Bones. Bones and I talked briefly on the phone one night a couple of weeks ago, and made a plan to meet.  We met in Whiting on a Saturday soon after that, and after brief introductions, climbed into Bones's truck and drove off to visit the camp.

BBB Hunting Club, Pemberton Township (rear view, with bonfire fuel in foreground)

I can't take time or space here to discuss the camp in detail (I'll try to do that in a future post), except to say I believe the club is an indication of the highly significant hunting culture of the Pine Barrens, one which, due to lack of interest on the part of local youth, may be weakening and perhaps even slipping into decline.  The BBB Hunting Club is trying to buck this trend. The club is a focal point for people who continue to participate and respect local hunting ethics and traditions. Club members and their guests gather at the camp during the various hunting seasons, they gather there for shooting practice and shooting competitions, they gather there to socialize.

An especially important feature of the club, apart from the fact that the members hunt collectively using a method called "driving", is that they involve young people in their activities, train them to the hunting life, teach them the appropriate use of firearms, and enforce strict safety regulations.  These factors combine to create an atmosphere of cooperative endeavor in pursuit of -- in pursuit of what?  Bones says the object is not to kill deer, and his statement rings true.  I've heard as much from other hunters here and in other parts of the country.  In my view, I think the "game" being played here is the enactment of local history, the preservation of a deeply significant feature of the local culture, and the maintenance of the social life of the community. And for a community who value the natural world as much as Pineys do, it's finally all about getting out into the woods.