Dull Tool Dim Bulb: January 2024

Antique American Folk Art Sculpture Mickey Mouse Whirligig circa 1928 collection Jim Linderman

A fantastic “abstracted” Mickey Mouse whirligig from the Steamboat Willie days! I don’t have to worry about Disney’s battery of litigious lawyers thanks to the recent copyright situation allowing us all to “own” the mouse. Mickey was supposed to enter the public domain long ago, but the “Sonny Bono copyright extension law” passed in 1998 bought them more time. Don’t blame Sonny…they just tacked his name on the bill after he tragically skied into a tree. (I love this piece) Handmade folk art “Mickey Mouse” whirligig circa 1928. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb. #dulltooldimbulb #whirligig. #folkart #folkartsculpture #mickeymouse #jimlinderman #disney

Ionel Talpazan UFO Alien drawing c. 1990 Art Brut

An early Ionel Talpazan work circa 1990. I met the artist on the street and have many pleasant memories and stories…but mostly he just wore me out. He didn’t draw too many faces…but this is a good one. Untitled 20 x 24. Private Collection. Dull Tool Dim Bulb Archives. #dulltooldimbulb #artbrut #outsiderart #ioneltalpazan #ufo #alien

The Rolling Trade Sign ! Goodyear giant Airwheel Tire on Tour in the 1930s.

A rare original snapshot of the Goodyear Airwheel, the first low pressure aviation tire. To celebrate the invention, this rolling “trade sign” was built to roll around the United States in 1930. (Back then “going viral” was the same as “hitting the road” I guess) I don’t believe any of these 12 foot monsters were put into production for use…but they COULD have been and that is the point. Goodyear’s promotional material at the time envisioned a giant tour bus for the desert bounding along on a set. Original snapshot rolling advertisement for the Airwheel circa 1930. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb #tires. #tradesign. #goodyear. #snapshot. #dulltooldimbulb

Dance Till You Drop ! Vintage Dance Contest Couple Real Photo Postcard c. 1935 Collection Jim Linderman

Head with Negative Space. Bronze Industrial Head Thing

Brass industrial head thing. 15" tall. Circa 1960. I have absolutely no idea what it is. Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb / Jim Linderman

Cayuga County Folk Art Sculpture on a Tree New York Carved Tree by Civil War soldier

Former Civil War soldier George E. Carr carved this high-rent neighborhood for birds in 1911, it was situated at Barber's Corner, a mile west of Sciopioville, three miles east of Levanna in Cayuga County. It was 18 feet high. The reverse indicates it was “built on a well-kept lawn” and “there are forty figures…which are painted in various colors to make them prominent.” Cayuga County Totem Tree Postcard 1912 collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Large Strange Group of Hand Decorated Vintage Pinup Clippings

Among my strangest finds…a large group of scissor cut pinups from the 1940s to 1960s, each bizarrely decorated with red dots. Even I find them creepy. Interestingly, the larger color cutouts often had original red polka dots. Too weird not to show. I guess "obsessive" is the proper term of description. Large group of cutout printed images enhanced with red marker. Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

Carver's Traveling Museum : Weapons and a Horned Chicken on Display

Carver’s Traveling Museum. On the reverse “Money received from the sale of this post card, thru this exhibit. Will help a disabled Veteran” printed on the reverse. Seems counter-intuitive to support vets with a moving gun museum…but this contraption also traveled with a Horned Chicken (!!!) seen in the small inset upper right. World War One was too long ago for me to find details on the operation, but a different version of the card indicates “this outstanding gun exhibit travels from coast to coast collecting old guns. Operated by Barney Barnett” and printed in Arizona. Carver’s Traveling Museum postcard circa 1920 collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Folk Artist Willie Massey of Kentucky Master of African-American Iconography

I’ll call Kentucky artist Willie Massey (1906 - 1990)an under-appreciated and under-recognized folk artist. A textbook example of African-American iconography in every work. This miniature chest is an early piece. Later works were more primitive but just as beautiful and came with slapdash gorgeous color, often including tinfoil animals and adornment. Musician, songwriter and collector Kevin Gordon has several additional examples of Mr. Massey’s wonderful work,both early examples and later. Make sure to scroll down to see his birdhouses and airplanes at this link! https://www.gordongalleryart.com/willie-massey Willie Massey Dull Tool Dim Bulb Archives. #folkart. #africanamericanart. #blackfolkart

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times

"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

Fair Use

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Although most of the images here are original photography and objects owned by the author and in the author's personal collection, we cannot absolutely guarantee the exact copyright status of the items or offer written assurance that every or any aspect of this work is completely cleared for all usages. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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