Sunday, April 20, 2008

American Outdoor Folk Art

As aspiring rednecks, we want to fit-in to our rural community, and we have been debating the merits of using lawn decorations.



Travis Carter - American redneck folk artist

Janet and I support the arts, and we are happy to help aspiring folk artists, such as Travis Carter with his bold "doe bell" creations. The "Assquatch" art movement is taking hold, and investment quality American butt art is in high demand.


But it's not just deer butts. Creative American artists are finding their voice with a variety of hinnies:



Outdoor American Folk Art

The goal of my research is to find a uniquely American rustic redneck art form. Lawn ornaments sometimes come with negative commutations, and they make a bold statement about you, so great care must be exercised. It's well known that different cultures have difference taste in lawn art.

You also have to sensitive to cultural "poultry stereotypes", and their nationalistic connotations (e.g. "Ever hear old joke about the Flamingo's who to moved to New York and put little plastic old people on their front lawn?")



A little research shows that the styles on 21st Century American lawn folk art ranges the gamut from simple to ornate. Here are some distinctly American lawn art forms:


Redneck Outdoor American Folk Art

Janet and I set-out to hit the road in search of investment quality yard art. In Montana we came across this great place called "Aluminum Critters".

No highfalutin bronze here, just re-cycled engine blocks, carefully melted and re-cast of southern American folk artists ( i.e. "Mexicans"). Once painted with a faux bronze paint, they kinda-sorta look like bronze, and at a fraction of the cost.

They have the best select of folk art lawn pigs that I've ever seen. We had to get this wonderful American folk art horse statue.

It's "green", since the metal comes from chop shops in Mexico, who melt-down engine blocks for the aluminum used in their art. As you can see, the base of the statue is a pre-cast well-cap, so we don't need to waste no money on something fancy.

The art is done locally and the molds are shipped to Mexico for casting, so it's a distinctly American art form. They also ship anywhere in the USA, with no extra charge for shipping additional items, quite nice:



Click here for my full research on 21st Century American Folk outdoor art.