Al Mohler Rustic Painter of Slabs of Wood

 

The Rustic Paintings of Al Mohler.

Did you ever wonder the story behind those paintings on slices of wood which are essential for a rustic cabin in the woods?  Brother to the saw paintings, and sister to the slate paintings for sale in Jackson Square, New Orleans?  Here's the guy!  It's AL MOHLER and his wooden slab paintings!

If you follow this blog (gosh…6 years now)  you know I love to elevate the lesser to the greater.  So let's look at the king of the knotty pine painters!  He picked an unusual medium, but he used it half-a century and created a serious body of work.

A Minnesota master, like most folk art painters Al painted on anything, but the most familiar are the oval shaped pieces of pine.  He would paint animals for the most part.  The bigger the better, and the Al Mohler tribute site mentions a painting of a bear on a slab 39 inches across!  THAT is a big slice of tree.  He did small ones too, and the little one here shows the reverse.  Look for  the authentic Al Mohler studio stamp.  His career lasted over 50 years.

There is a creepy, right wing evangelist named Albert Mohler spreading ignorant venom around the south currently…needless to say that ain't the guy.  I am going to guess the Al Mohler we are interested in here was a wonderful man who loved everyone and brought considerable joy into the world with his paintings. 

Mohler sold his paintings from the little studio with the big sign shown in my photo above!  I am hoping the photo is worth more than his paintings, but I doubt it.  They are collected, and it seems every one on ebay sells. 

The go to guy for Al Mohler paintings is Kirk Schnitker who runs the Al Mohler Art site from which I took the lovely logo here.  He will do appraisals, may from time to time have work for sale and is documenting the work.  Check out his site HERE.
Original photograph of Al Mohler and his studio Collection Jim Linderman

Books and Ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE

Wheaties Meets Tony the Tiger in a Bizzare Art Breakfast of Champions Snapshot collection Jim Linderman

Wheaties Champion hovers in tree to escape Tony the Tiger???  Your Guess is as good as mine.

Original Snapshot circaa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Dancing Man Articulated Figure in Original Mustard Paint collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Dancing Man in Original Mustard Paint collection Jim Linderman

A Book I Worked on Being Repaired at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

"IN REPAIR" Good.  It's worth saving.  736 pages of Solid Gold Punk. 

Holiday PARTY PLAY Cocktail Napkins

Stuck at home with the family?  While you check flight status, here is a few things to keep you all friendly while under the same roof.  


Party Play Cocktail Napkins Har Va Corp. 1954

The Birth of Rock and Roll Holiday Edition

Number three in the series The Birth of Rock and Roll comes from Cleveland, so I finally have to agree with the choice to locate the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame there!  Undated, but certainly 1940 or earlier, an obvious trouble-maker participates in planning for the Thanksgiving dance!  I hope it got out of hand.  An unusual early photograph of desegregated dance for the kids!  On the reverse the person I HOPE chooses the music is identified as "Pete Owens African-American Young Man" at Thomas Edison High School Cleveland Ohio.  It comes from a photo book, but I am going to guess it was taken for the High School Yearbook. 

Original Snapshot Undated Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Jesus Sculpture

Antique Folk Art Jesus Sculpture 11" Tall collection Jim Linderman
(Also posted on old time religion the blog)

Hell Money of the Slain President Kennedy Hell Bank Note

A John F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note! "Hell Money" is a traditional Chinese offering to the dead.   Hell dollars are burned as ceremonial offerings at funerals and near the graves of the departed. In this case, a Hell note which I assume dates to 1963 replaces the Jade Emperor. This looks like play money, but it's the real deal. I don't know how many were produced as tributes to the fallen president, and I see them for sale on ebay now. The Wiki story of Hell Money is HERE. 

John. F. Kennedy Hell Bank Note circa 1963? Collection Jim Linderman 
BOOKS AND $5.99 EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE

Michigan Squiggle Street Photograph Republican Road Repair

One of my closest friends, the brilliant Kate Bloomquist, was riding around town with me when we both saw this "Squiggle Street" a few blocks from the beach.  I loved it, but guessed out loud before I had a chance to take a picture, they would pave it over.  To my surprise, Kate went BACK, took a picture and sent it to me from 750 miles away.  THAT is a friend.

Michigan, with a millionaire, former venture capitalist Republican Governor, "can't afford" to fix the roads, so they tar them up and hope your car suspension isn't remembered at election time.  He isn't the worst politician, but he sure isn't the best.  I would vote for Mark Schauer,  a Democrat in the upcoming election anyway, but now that I was gifted this photograph, It's a definite.  Maybe HE can fix the roads.

I hope his campaign uses this photo in an ad…and the incumbent, who can well afford to buy me a new set of tires, will hear from me too.

Original Digital Photograph 2013 by Kate Bloomquist

Spark Magazine Magazines Aren't what they Used to Be (continuing series)

Magazines aren't what they used to be.
Two issues of Spark, one of numerous Life magazine imitators which didn't last as long.  

Spark 1940s

Mexican Comic Book Fantasia Horror Mystery and Gore Which Knows No Border!

 



Fantasia Ad circa 1954 Scanned by Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Fantasia from Mexico!  Mexican Comic Book Graphic Novel Fantasia 

There was a Fantasia not produced by Disney, and it was a comic book which came from south of the Rio Grande.  This one had "all the imagination of the most extraordinary and rapporteurs of the fantastic real, poured in..." according to the pitch and my translator.  From the illustrations I can believe it.  A graphic novel or comic book from Mexico circa 1954.  I don't find a copy on my least favorite auction site, but I had to scroll through plenty of hits for the one in which Mickey runs from brooms.

Horror, Mystery, Fantasy and Reality you will find on the creepy pages of Fantasia!  It makes me want a time machine and a border pass to go find some issues. 60 years ago.  I don't know if the Mexican comic book industry had a "golden age" but it seems the illustrations are universal, as these resemble all those Dr. Wertham found offensive.  Gore knows no border! 

MAKE SURE TO BROWSE THE BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN BELOW.  ALL AVAILABLE FROM BLURB.COM HERE 

 

Tintype Occupational An Actor

I'm not sure if "occupational" counts when it comes to photographs of actors, as they spend more time in lines hoping for a gig than working...but this Shakespeare performer takes HIS work seriously.  Thanks and a nod to painter J. J. Cromer who found this for me, if I am not mistaken. 

Tintype Photograph circa 1870 Collection Jim Linderman

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946

Virginia climbs the Aeromotor windmill 1946 Oregon
Snapshot embellished by hand collection Jim Linderman

Bettie Page and Dog visit Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Bettie Page Original Contact Print signed by Bunny Yeager on reverse and photograph from the same session on the cover of Sunbathing and Health Magazine March 1956.  
Photograph Collection Jim Linderman

The Slipper Shaped Calling Card of Pearly White collection Jim Linderman

The Slipper Shaped Calling Card of Pearly White, signed by hand circa 1880
Collection Jim Linderman

BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN ARE HERE

Girl with Purse in Painted Backdrop Tintype

Now available in eBook for $5.99

THE PAINTED BACKDROP: BEHIND THE SITTER IN AMERICAN TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPHY by Jim Linderman
The previously untold story of 19th century painters and their influence on American photography during the tintype era. Never before examined in detail, the book contains over 75 rare, unpublished original tintype photographs from the Jim Linderman collection. A Grammy nominated writer and collector who has been called "the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic" this book is informed with Linderman's wit and continues his examination of previously overlooked art and photography subjects. 80 Pages, 8' x 10" with essays by Jim Linderman and Kate Bloomquist.  ORDER HERE

Salman Rushdie and Snakes and Ladders

"All games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner, and for every snake a ladder will compensate. But it's more than that; no mere carrot-and-stick affair; because implicit in the game is unchanging twoness of things, the duality of up against down, good against evil; the solid rationality of ladders balances the occult sinuosities of the serpent; in the opposition of staircase and cobra we can see, metaphorically, all conceivable oppositions, Alpha against Omega, father against mother."   Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children. Random House. p. 160.

Common Cardboard Snakes and Ladders game, no date, no manufacturer Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll (Number Two) Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

The Birth of Rock and Roll Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman Undated circa 1960

Barn Raising (BIG Hammer) Vintage Photograph

Vintage Photograph, No date Collection Jim Linderman

Women Outlaws Seduce the Innocent Ladies of the Lurid West!

Women Outlaws Seduce the Innocent.   Ladies of the Lurid West!

Women Outlaws.  A "golden age" comic book, which means before the government decided kids should read Casper the friendly ghost rather than lurid crime from the Wild West OR downtown.  Whatever.  None of these were as bad as what is found through a gaming console today, and kids are even lazier, more sullen and more surly now.   Kefauver's censorship worked for a time, as the comics learned how to "self-patrol" with the comics code logo…but the kids are just the same, only worse!  

Sure enough, one of Women Outlaws was used as an example for Fredric Wertheim's expose Seduction of the Innocent.  And no wonder…check out one of the woman outlaws being served justice.  Still, I was a juvenile delinquent, and all I read was the Hardy Boys!
Some kids are going to test the rules, Fredric.  No matter what they read.  Plus now that I recall, the boys were always bullying Chet, the fat kid.

 
One of these issues (the one with what seems to be Marshall Dillon's platonic girlfriend and implied whore Kitty from the Gunsmoke TV show)  is currently listed on eBay for $600, so these have to be pretty scarce.  One website puts the first issue at $900.

Who READ these?  Little sisters who wanted their own action tales?  Let's face it, "romance" comic books for the girls were horrible.  Every single story was the same.  Guy with a buzzy haircut meets a girl, there is some confusion (usually Buzzy has to fix his car and forgets to call) and the last panel has them swapping rings.  Happy ending.  It gets old, even to impressionable young readers being socialized into accepted forms of happy women consumers.  So maybe some  "branched" out into hanging branches?

I guess they do strike a blow for women somehow…and Annie Oakley was a role model for tough girls. 

I really think Dad read these.  Illiteracy  rates were reported as less than 4% back in the 1950s, but I think that was propaganda to show the Ruskies we were superior.  In fact,  I think it was many times that, and even higher today.  Imagine how many returned soldiers wanted books with pictures…and a little bright colored excitement from the wild west (with dames) would have been perfect.

Below is a great one…all smudged up with age and rotten acid pulp and more…yet still so great the seller is asking the price of dinner for it.  It looks like "Dot" signed her name on it, so maybe girls did read them!  

Comic Book guys are, by the way, WAY too hung up on condition.  All things age, especially cheap comic books.  Get over it.  Live with the wear guys…art is supposed to change over the years through use and appreciation.  Let your comic books breathe.

Women Outlaws was published by the Fox Feature Syndicate, who also published "Crimes by Women"  and for some ungodly reason,  a comic called "General Douglas MacArthur (which adds some support to my theory the consumers were slow readers from the Greatest Generation.)  There were only a handful of issues.

The best site (and most information) is found on the FANTASY INK website, a place which also links to many things comic book.  It is edited by Tom, who doesn't provide his full name but should.  Nice stuff.   Further information is available on WESTERN COMICS ADVENTURES.   More information on Dr. Wertham and his curious mission is found HERE on Seduction of the Innocent the website, which is devoted to finding every damn comic book the good doctor was shocked by.

Books and ($5.99) ebooks by Jim Linderman are available HERE

Folk Art Toy Cannon in Original Paint

Folk Art Toy Cannon in Original Paint (Circa 1918?)  Collection Jim Linderman

My Little House Status Report (and reporting a guy who stoled my picture!)

The guy here stole MY picture of MY little cabin from the web and is using it to promote his business!  He didn't even ask.  25 Grand!  Mine cost 6 Grand.  He HAW.  If he had credited my photo and cabin, I'd help him.  On the other hand, his voiceover does call me "a progressive individual."    Progress on the inside is shown here. 

Folk Art Sculpture Man and Woman

Folk Art Sculpture Carvings.  Lacking Pitchfork. Collection Jim Linderman