Wednesday, April 22, 2015

a visit to clyde jones

clyde jones is an outsider artist who lives in bynum, north carolina. my mother is a folklorist so we used to visit him when i was a kid, and recently i had the chance to go back again. he told us to come back any time because everything's always changing. here is his website of sorts.

his paintings are beautiful but the best are these animals made out of logs, often with silk flowers for eyes. clyde only has nine fingers because he cut off one with a chainsaw. my favorite clyde jones story is that once a museum was planning to show his work (relatedly, you can go see some of his pieces at the american visionary art museum in baltimore) and the curators came with a truck, padding, gloves on, etc., to transport his work with the utmost respect and care, but one of the animals wouldn't quite fit in the truck, and the curators tried it this way and that, being oh so very careful, and then clyde came out with his chainsaw and just cut the thing in half. 

my mom's map for finding clyde's house--not so helpful, actually (but bynum is about one neighborhood big)

"the north pole is melting so santa done got hisself a new canoe"




eve







this rotting/back-to-nature swan makes me feel both sad and happy








that's me


clyde on his porch


 afterwards why not drop by allen & son...



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