Tramp Art Folk Art Relief Carved Religious Sculpture Dated 1904 collection Jim Linderman

A very good piece of Tramp Art, and one dated on the bottom 1904.  It is uncommon to find dated tramp art, though through old cigar box labels and notes, it is often possible to estimate.  This piece is for more complicated than most as it is covered with figural relief carvings AND has a little church scene carved on the inside!  "This is the church, this is the steeple, open the door, see all the people."  Nearly 20 inches tall.

Tramp Art Relief Carved Folk Art Sculpture 1904 Collection Jim Linderman
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Some Exciting Images from Arcane Americana the Book Vernacular Photography

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Who's a Liar?

 

 Unknown illustrator  1960  (A post today on the old time religion blog)

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White Lines on a Chalkboard The Work of Ella Marie White Protege of Harlen Tarbell

 

White Lines on a Chalkboard 

Ella Marie White used white chalk to communicate.  That, and her own rhymed "patter" which she performed as she entertained her audience.  The young Miss White started drawing in the style later abused by loud mouth nut job Glen Beck, but Ella had no particular agenda.  She wished only to entertain and share her talent. 

Before Miss White was nine years old, she hooked up with Harlan Tarbell, a more accomplished instructor of the skill.  Tarbell became quite famous in the magic and illusion racket.  In fact, Harry Houdini was asked to write a series of correspondence courses in magic, but he suggested the publisher use Tarbell instead.  The tricks are still being done today.

The poems, or "patter" which she performed while drawing on a chalkboard, in perfect time along with her art,  include "The Girl and the Scarecrow" and "The Girl and the Rose" which are shown here...enjoy, and imagine a more refined past.

"Love is blind" is a saying I've heard
But with that I don't quite agree
For a man in love sees more than he ought
He sees things that others can't see

No matter how homely his sweetheart may be
Or how pointed and long her nose
No matter what faults the others may see
To him she will look just like a rose

 

















I've tried and tried to keep this crow
Away from my garden patch
She eats my lettuce and my kale
Her wits I cannot match

But at last I've found a man who can
Who'll guard it night and day
Though his brain is naught but straw and hay
He'll keep that crow away.

 



















Unfortunately, Chalk Talkers performed for small gatherings and church groups for the most part, so I can find no trace of appearances or documentation other than that here, but it would have been a lovely show to see.  Tarbell, however, is HERE.  
 

Photo portrait and examples of performances by Ella Marie White come from chalk talk stunts by Harlan Tarbell  1926.

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Unknown Photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald Found FIFTY YEARS After the Assassination of JFK ?

 

Yep,  Lee Harvey Oswald turns up FIFTY years later, right where "they" wanted me to find it…an antique mall in Muskegon, Michigan!

The 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination is coming up in November, and already the documentaries proving "one bullet" could do all the damage are being shilled.  They are rolling out the head-sized watermelons, gelatin-filled pigskins and closing traffic in Dealey Plaza again.  Unseemly?  They did it, not me.  I have more respect for a man elected president of my country than to squash his sit-in noggin for ratings.  But I'll watch them.  I always do.  Unless Tosh.0 is on.

At this point, with so much publicly available information, that ANYONE would base their conclusion on the ballistics alone is so absurd, it would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.  You know?  Maybe John Wilkes Booth was a disgruntled loner too…no need to hang the dozen other conspirators, and let's see if his puny little pirate's derringer could do the job.  While you are at it?  Go dig up the bones of the woman who sat for Da Vinci's Mona Lisa too, that is if she WAS a woman.  (They are…I think today.)

Oswald, who just happened to study Russian while in the United States Marines, who just happened to drift to the Soviet Union during the cold war,  who just happened to meet the relative of a big shot KGB dude, just happened to marry her,  just happened to come back and contact the feds,  just happened to be friends of mobsters in New Orleans,  just happened to be on the route, (disgruntled, of course…disgruntled…and with the curtain rods to prove it) and then happened to be murdered by a Carlos Marcello associate.  Who just happened to run a strip club in 1963 while running guns to Cuba.  Oh…and just before he happened to be disgruntled, he took a picture of himself nearly falling down from the weight of all his weapons and the commie newspaper he happened to be holding.  Which Life Magazine happened to receive just in time for their big assassination special in which they also happened to reverse the very two Zapruder film frames with the head shot.  Maybe an intern did it.

Our own government belatedly admitted (once J. Edgar Hoover had croaked and the members dared) in 1979 that... "The Committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The Committee is unable to identify the other gunman or the extent of the conspiracy. "

Then they also concluded to give up.

November 2013 isn't the date to pay attention to anyway.  2017 is.  Because the National Archives a year ago decided to keep 1,171 spook documents secret until then.   Umm…to wit:

“We recognize that the remaining records are of high public interest and historical value, and we appreciate your stated desire not to have to wait five more years to obtain access to these records. Given this public interest, we have been consulting with the CIA to see if it would be possible to review and release any of these remaining documents in time for the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination in 2013. Although the CIA shares NARA's interest in wanting to be responsive to your request, they have concluded there are substantial logistical requirements that must take place prior to the release of these remaining records and there is simply not sufficient time or resources to complete these tasks prior to 2017. Accordingly, we will not be able to accommodate your request."

Now I'm not too good at my own documents.  I might leave the credit card bill sitting on the table a few days before paying the minimum.  But it usually doesn't take me FIFTY YEARS to open my mail.  Give those arthritic civil servants a couple black rubber stamps and let them at 'em.

At this point I don't even care.  It is moot, and there is more than enough already released, for any to read, to show and know,  that Kennedy and his brother were swimming in dangerous water, some of it apparently with the very same woman mobster Sam Giancana was dipping into as well.  

I'm not going to read them anyway.  It has been 50 years since the actual event gave me nightmares of a president not able to escape his limo.  Nightmares I still have once in a while!  I give up, like the Senate did 30 years ago.  I give up, like the Warren commission did 50 years ago.  Like the fellow who served on the Warren Commission and later wrote a book titled "Portrait of THE Assassin" once said, "our national nightmare is over."   

The National Archives has ALREADY released a document which quotes mobster Carlos Marcello saying "YEAH, I HAD the son of a bitch killed. I’m glad I did. I’m sorry I couldn’t have done it myself!"  It was published in an 848 page book five years ago and no one cared.  Within a month of the assassination, the FBI questioned 14 Marcello associates.  The FBI put a freakin' informant into Marcello's CELL in PRISON to learn it, and still no one cared.

We are seemingly waiting for a deathbed confession which happened years ago.

Roll out those cantaloupe heads. Let's see if physics can prove a pristine bullet can cause a dozen wounds again.   This bullet passed through Kennedy’s neck and Governor Connally’s chest and wrist then buried itself into the Governor’s thigh. 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone. The bullet was found on an abandoned gurney in the corridor at the Parkland Memorial Hospital, in Dallas, after the assassination.  It caused all those wounds and fell out.  Looking it it, maybe it ROLLED out and shined itself up a bit too.  

Now let's hire someone with shooting creds, put him in a cherry picker six stories up and see if he can do it, AGAIN...for the folks watching TV.

Now take a computer and draw a line directly down through the guy's nose above and see if it matches the shadows in Oswald's mugshot.  I don't care anymore.  That it appears the automobiles in line all look a bit like the one Johnny Rosselli used to make payoffs means nothing to me now.  "Here, kid...your dough and your caps.  You aren't practicin' today?"   In retrospect, I should have done this post the day Seinfeld told the truth using fat Newman as the grassy knoll.

 Who cares?  It's over.  It's OVER, Johnny.t

Photo of questionable Dummy Oswald, or Oswald Dummy, or just some carefree teenager, dated on reverse 1955 (which it is) collection Jim Linderman

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Folk Art Nude Sculpture (Abandoned)

 

Looks to me like a carver wore out...certainly that CAN'T be her hair?  Actually, what happened, I believe, is while carving the right arm,  a tool slipped, an arm was cracked and a project was abandoned. 

Large folk art carved nude woman circa 1940?  Collection Jim Linderman

Serving Time with Father Time Prison Art and Clock Hands which Don't Move

Plenty of nothing, but plenty of time.  Paraphrase of the Porgy and Bess song.  If anyone had plenty of nothing and plenty of time, it would be someone serving it.  Hence Prison Art.  Akin to the branch of institutionalized outsider art  (oxymoron) which existed before psychoactive drugs sapped some of the fevered creativity.  Folks in small living quarters with nothing on their hands BUT time…and sometimes an object of art results.

I don't know if this giant fake grandfather clock (Father Time) constructed of hundreds of wooden matchsticks was made by a prisoner, but it does have a time motif.  It even has a fake pendulum and weights which move, but the the hands do not.  He's stuck.  Time keeps dragging on.  A lifer.

One way to tell if your wooden object is tramp art versus prison art?  Did it require a KNIFE?  Most hoosegows frown, as general policy, of giving the inmates knives.

Tramp Art or Prison Art Grandfather Clock of Matchsticks.  No Date.  Collection Jim Linderman

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Uncle Sam Points the way to Uncle Sam's Cabins

Uncle Sam points to his Tourist Accommodations.
Original Snapshot No Date Collection Jim Linderman

DIRT Collection

Collectors and Collecting.  Presenting my Dirt Collection.

I won't say this is the first time I have paid for dirt, as my garden needed soil to counteract the sand.  I felt stupid buying dirt, as there is so much of it around...

But this is the first time I can honestly say I have owned a collection of dirt.

Seems like every state was swept up here, then specialty items started appearing.  Dirt from Disneyland.  Dirt from the highest point in so and so, the furthest point in somewhere else. Well over one hundred examples, each one numbered and labled with a hand-typed "cursive" red font from a typewriter.  Each little plastic pill bottle scooped full and carried home.  

We used to have our choice of two fonts, but they could have gone with the dymo labelmaker too. 

Said to have been collected by a husband and wife team of traveling CLOWNS!  The estate sale had their costumes and such too.


DIRT collection Jim Linderman  No date (ancient...dirt is really old)  

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The Wind Worn Whirligig The Part of a Wind Toy One Can Not Make or Fake Folk Art Whirligig Wear

 

The part of a whirligig one can not build is the wear.  The familiar "man sawing wood" whirligig, inescapable  when antique hunting.  The pattern I have here helps anybody build a wind machine about the same size as the one shown, but you can not create age.  Wind and weather does that, and the saw here has been worn smooth as butter by some fifty years of frantic movement.  Want to fake the age of a whirligig?  You can not.  You can trick a buyer, but you can not trick a wind machine.  My brother in law found me a good one.


Saw portion of a wooden whirligig, circa 1940-1950


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Jim Linderman Named FIRST COLUMNIST for Paraphilia Magazine

I am really pleased to have become the first columnist in the Art and Culture magazine PARAPHILIA.  My first two columns are linked below.   I'll be putting a banner on the side here soon!

                                FULL ARTICLE IS HERE

                                FULL ARTICLE IS HERE

Orvil Richards Snow Car Ready for Winter

Orvil Richards (who bears an unfortunate resemblance to Shemp Howard) hauls freight in his "snow car" which John Deere would be jealous of.  Check out the skis in front.  Orvil is ready for winter.

Anonymous photograph (On reverse "To Grandma Orvil Richardson's Snow Car" No Date)
Collection Jim Linderman

Folk Art Tramp Art Chewing Gum Wrapper Chain Collection Jim Linderman

Chewing Gun Chain.

The average price of a pack of gum is $1.58 according to the Wall Street Journal. Consequently, the gum market is flat. Not that you can use a gum wrapper to make a chain anymore. The manufacturers have eliminated your raw material!

The fellow below recommends using Starburst wrappers. Watch carefully and you will see he also recommends throwing away the gum. My chain here is ten feet long. Not bad, but record holder Gary Duschl, who seems like a nice guy, has one 74,216 feet long. For a professional competitor, Gary seems awful nice to share his technique.

This really doesn't fit the definition of Tramp Art, as not many fathers would like anyone calling their gum-chewing kid a tramp, but it is clearly related. A dying Folk Art? Yes.

Ten foot long Chewing Gum Wrapper circa 1960? Collection Jim Linderman 

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Andi Gustavson and the Personal Pin-up Project Love and Humanity During Wartime in Photographs

What could well be among the most meaningful uses of photography has gone all but undocumented, but doctoral candidate and researcher Andi Gustavson is compiling AND sharing the humble objects in a remarkable new database. Gustavson has created THE PERSONAL PIN-UP PROJECT which is a remarkable way to collect, archive and share that most precious of photographs.  The ones carried into war by loved ones.

Andi is a P.H.D student at the University of Texas at Austin and a teacher of American Photography and visual culture.  As she writes, "I am collecting the private photographs that service members carried or kept with them during their time in the military. These personal “pin-ups” can be snapshots of loved ones taken by the soldiers themselves or pictures of women or men who posed for the camera and then sent that snapshot off to war. I am looking for the photograph kept in the pocket, or worn in the helmet, or hidden in the gear of each service member. These images of loved ones do not often make their way into archives or art galleries. And yet, if most military members had one special photograph with them when they went away to war, then there must be thousands of these snapshots—in shoe boxes under beds, tucked into the back of closets, left in journals or letters, or stored on cellphones. The Personal Pin-up Project brings together the private images scattered across thousands of homes into a public and digital archive."

The Personal Pin-up Project is a public digital archive of the private images taken and kept by many American veterans and their loved ones. There is currently no archival repository to collect such a specific subset of war-related photographs that were, nevertheless, very common.  It is also a practice not only never documented, it is the most profound and deep function of a photograph imaginable.  An image of a loved one, miles away, preciously saved as a reminder, a talisman, an object to be loved, shared and treasured.  What more important function can a humble picture have?

Ms. Gustavson has hit on a universal truth and heart-wrenching practice previously ignored.  She has the site up and running.  It allows anyone to upload a photograph of their loved one as a tribute and an honor.  The person who they carried with them during the most difficult and testing challenges they would ever face.  It is fair to say every single soldier, regardless of gender or rank, had a precious image they carried.  While Andi's emphasis is on Cold War images, she recognizes that with digital technology, the intimate and personal pictures may have changed form, but their purpose remains the same: a small bit of humanity in the least human situations.

Take a moment to browse the website Andi Gustavson has created which allows participation from any soldier or veteran.   The project is just getting off the ground, but it offers a splendid opportunity for anyone to create a tribute to their loved ones who helped them survive the unfortunate brutality of war.  You may wish to share the links with family members.

THE PERSONAL PIN-UP PROJECT IS HERE

FOR INFORMATION OR QUERIES CONTACT WRITE personalpinupproject@gmail.com

Scarecrow Snapshot 1924 Folk Art Sculpture

Scarecrow and Friend Photograph  Dated on Reverse 1924 Collection Jim Linderman

Musicianers Blues Musicians from the 1940s Original Photograph collection Jim Linderman

We'll never know who these guys are, but original period snapshots of performing blues musicians from this period, likely 1940 to 1950, are scarce.  

I'm way behind schedule, but THIS is coming one day. 

Anonymous Snapshot, circa 1940 - 1950?  Collection Jim Linderman


 

Rubble in Kennebunk Press Photograph of Religious Intolerance Enhanced by Hand

An anonymous artist has touched up the rubble before publication in this original 1940 press photograph of a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall which was attacked by a mob in Kennebunk, Maine.  I guess the photograph wasn't rubbly enough.  The mugs standing around are.  The photo editor has touched up a few creased pants too...pictures DO lie.

That year, the Supreme Court ruled a school district could require students to salute the flag.  The Jehovah's had a problem with that…and numerous mobs had a problem with the Jehovah's.  The ruling unleashed a torrent of attacks on those who practiced the religion.

According to Wiki, the case "... resulted in a wave of persecution against Jehovah's Witnesses. Lillian Gobitas later characterized the violence as "open season on Jehovah’s Witnesses." The American Civil Liberties Union recorded 1,488 attacks on Witnesses in over 300 communities between May and October 1940. Angry mobs assaulted Witnesses, destroyed their property, boycotted their businesses and vandalized their places of worship. Less than a week after the court decision, a Kingdom Hall in Kennebunk, Maine was burnt down."

Well, it's still standing, so it wasn't "burnt down" but it certainly looks like there wasn't a whole lot of religious tolerance going on.

Original Press photograph, Anonymous, enhanced by hand for publication 1940  Collection Jim Linderman