Women Outsiders
Ekphrastic editor Lorette C. Luzajic has been interested in "outsider art" for more than 30 years, beginning with an unexpected stop for water in Vicksburg Mississippi, where she happened upon a folk art environment. The world of self-taught art from people living outside of art's mainstream is full of fascinating people, intriguing beliefs, and an array of talents and expressions. Outsider art is perhaps a problematic umbrella name for self-taught artists in psychiatric or penal institutions, artists working with limited literacy, artists living with mental illness, eccentric artists, artists living with severe trauma, differently abled artists, and visionary artists. Other terms have been used including art brut, raw art, psychiatric art, self-taught art, vernacular art, and visionary art, but none of these terms is ideal or encompasses the field accurately.
In this seminar, you'll meet a variety of interesting and inspiring women, including an itinerant evangelist, an artist in an imaginary marriage with a duke, a sculptor with downs syndrome, an artist who decorated her house and barn exterior with thousands of dolls, and much more.
The first half of this two hour session will focus on the story of women outsider artists. The second half will include creative writing exercises contemplating several artworks.
Tuesday, March 11 from 2 to 4 pm Eastern Standard Time