Handheld Technology! Personal Stag Film Projectors from the Golden Age of Porn. Goofy Graphics from Vintage Advertisements

A history of handheld projectors is easy to pull up, but most omit that widespread acceptance of them can be attributed to porn. These little cartoony images for mail order stag films created for the market. Like all visual technologies, illicit images of woman created the demand.These images were common in men’s magazines from 1950 to 1960 or so. Dull Tool Dim Bulb the Blog

19th c. Carved Folk Art Puppet Head with original paint.

Two views of a painted carved wooden puppet head, 19th Century. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Two Old Goats on a Float ! Original photograph of an IOOF parade float with characters.

The IOOF Interlocking rings sybolize Frendship, Love and Truth. Independent Order of Odd Fellows here celebrate with the triple rings, a goat and a somewhat grizzled participant. Original Photograph c. 1900? Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

STICK YOUR HEAD HERE ! Antique Comic Foreground original photographs collection Jim Linderman

STICK YOUR HEAD HERE ! Antique Comic Foreground original photographs collection Jim Linderman

Statue of Liberty 34" tall folk art sculpture wood carving

Statue of Liberty 34" tall folk art sculpture wood carving. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Origin of the Christian Evangelist Right. Antique Tract Literature

As I am currently in a certain social media timeout, I was unable to do a regular “It’s Sunday” post from my collection. So it goes here. Pray AI will let me back on the platform, but if not, I’ll join another one. These tracts I pick up when I find them…mostly very early 20th century and indicative of the sometimes annoying invasion of christian evangelism. Cheap printing of these 4-pagers made everyman an evangelist. “In many ways, the modern history of the movement can be traced back to the birth of fundamentalism in the first decades of the 20th century, when conservative Protestants began to organize around their rejections of liberal and “modernist” Christian responses to the rise of science, biblical criticism, and secularism. Fundamentalists lost control of most church institutions to the liberals, but they largely retained control over who would be identified as an evangelical going forward” The Pluralism Project Harvard University. Original evangelist tracts circa 1930 - 1930. Collection Jim Linderman. Dull Tool Dim Bulb the blog.

American Voodoo. Pair of original photographs c. 1990

American Voodoo. Two original 35 mm Photographs of West African influence. One South Carolina, one New York. Photographs by Jim Linderman early 1990s.

Basil Merrett Outsider Artist article

As a collector of Basil Merrett’s extraordinary little drawings, I’m always happy to come across articles about his work I haven’t seen before. Here, Tony Burton of LakeChapaleArtists.com discusses his recent find of a drawing of a house D. H. Lawrence lived in. https://lakechapalaartists.com/?p=14057 #basilmerrett. #outsiderartists. #artbrut.

Rare Handmade Peg Solitaire games homemade by one John. M. Shaw of Milwaukee circa 1940 Folk Art Game Boards

Rare Handmade Peg Solitaire games handmade by one John. M. Shaw of Milwaukee circa 1940. Solitaire is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Invented centuries ago, these elaborate challenges are complicated and involve mathematics and considerable will to solve. The game is beyond me, but these homemade game boards of cardboard with elaborate construction and obsessive detail are my kind of thing. To find, not to play. I don’t have the patience. Remarkable relics of what people went through before television and the computer. Note reverse of one board which supposedly reveals “the solution” which means nothing to me. Three handmade and homemade Peg Solitaire game “boards” of cardboard by J. M. Shaw Milwaukee 1940. Collection Jim Linderman. Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Prison Art Al Capone portrait in pencil on paper from prison

Prison Art. A wonderful little tribute of the original gangster drawn by an inmate, I presume. Al Capone (aka Scarface) was connected to Chicago so I’m going to guess it came from there. It’s drawn in pencil on an 8xll piece of paper, but the size of the drawing is the size of a folded legal size envelope, so the artist had a client. Mr. Capone is one of the most notable sufferers of syphilis and while serving a sentence, it wore him down and he was allowed to go home after eight years in the slammer. He passed away in 1947. Original anonymous prison art drawing of Al Capone c. 1990? Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb #prisonart. #unknownartist. #anonymous. #alcapone

Aunt Lindy and the Three Types of Girls Peaches, Preserves and Pickles. Original hand drawn postcard 1908 Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Apparently there are three types of girls. Peaches, preserves and pickles…at least in 1908. Aunt Lindy here was probably the advocate of the belief, although here it is attributed to “my sis.” Anyway, it looks like Aunt Lindy had her hands full. I’m going to have to admit I spent more time with Peaches. Hand drawn postcard dated 1908. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb.

Great Stone Carvings by Henry Church of Ohio Antique postcard image

Ohio’s Henry Church (1835 - 1908) was a stone carver, a painter, a musical instrument maker and a blacksmith. His father discouraged Henrys artistic inclinations but to our advantage, he persisted. This is a rare period postcard of his “The Rape of the Indians by the White Man” but the town favored a more benign name. “The Famous Squaw Rock in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Charlie was right the first time. It’s still there! Original Postcard circa 1900 collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Primitive Calligraphy Folk Art Doves drawn by hand 1910 Larry Snead Antique

Larry Snead Folk Art Calligraphic Drawings (looking as much like tattoo flash rather than traditional folk art) on paper scraps 1910 - 1913. COLLECTION JIM LINDERMAN / DULL TOOL DIM BULB

CAT ! Antique Folk Art Drawing of a Cat c. 1900.

CAT! Late 19th / early 20th century drawing of a cat. Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Real Photo Postcard Wild and Wooly ! Mount Upton on July 4th with a monster aboard a cart.

It’s the WILD and WOOLY BANGAROO (!) I’m going to need some help explaining this one. Real Photo Postcard The Wild and Wooly Kangaroo at Mount Upton, NY July 4th 1909. Real Photo Postcard 1909 Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb #rppc. #realphotopostcard. #folkart. #monster. #devil. #dulltooldimbulb. #jimlinderman

Collection Of Sam Doyle Paintings ex-Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

With a family reaching back to slavery I have always considerwd Sam Doyle as nw of the the most important self taught artist we had. Sam was from St. Helena Island, South Carolina, and his vivid yard painting remember the Gullah African-American culture and community he lived in. He displayed his paintings—created on discarded materials like metal roofing and wood—in the yard of his home, which he dubbed the "St. Helena Out Door Art Gallery".  Doyle's art is deeply intertwined with the Gullah culture of the Sea Islands, where relative isolation made it important to remember the descendants of enslaved Africans and preserved many their West and Central African traditions. Doyle blended Gullah lore and his devout Baptist faith in his work, depicting both Christian iconography and figures from African folklore and spiritual traditions. It was oral history painted on scrap tin. I collected many…but have never posted them all at one time. The South Carolina low country allowed slaves to retain their identity. I collected as many as I could find (and afford) for en years, Sam Doyle Paintings 1975 to early 1980s. Dull Tool Dim Bulb Archives.

Not by Mark Rothko

Here’s what I call my amateur Mark Rothko. I remember posting it years ago and I got a some “That isn’t a Rothko” from people who don’t read. The same thing happened once or twice when I posted amateur drawings of Superman and such. “THAT ISN”T A JOE SHUSTER DRAWING when I never intended it to be. Well…comic book readers. Actually this piece was created by a schoolchild around the turn of the century making a collage out of colored paper…there’s not any paint on it and it isn’t a Rothko but it looks great framed. I’ve had it 20 years prominently hanging just out of direct view. I would put a hashtag for Rothko but I hate to raise the ire of art lovers. it IS luminous. c. 1900 - 1930 Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Large Sewer Tile clay frog. An early "end of day" sewer pipe piece.

Large sewer tile pottery frog, ex Peter Brams, Justin Enger collection. Likely early 20th century. Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Scoop made of galvanized steel c. 1930. Primitive Sculpture !

Absolutely beautiful handmade grain scoop of galvanized tin with brads and a wood handle. Sculptural! Collection Jim Linderman / Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Dull Tool Dim Bulb Basement

I've been unable to play outside for ten days...Canadian smoke. So I painted my entire basement. I heard it isn't so much that the forest is burning, it's that climate change has dried it up so that the MOSS is burning ten feet under and impossible to reach! We used to be allies (trump ruined that) so I don't know if we are helping, but we should. Photo Jim Linderman