Outsider Art Squirts and Nancy Mauerman

The picture below was commissioned by Brother Stanley in honer of this Grandson Talon. The lumpy shapes of the clouds are repeated in the brown mountains and trimmed trees, and the shape of the eagle is repeated by his shadow on the ground. The lumpy clouds, mountains and trees are all living in lines. The bushes are strongly lit on one side but the shadow of the second tree is eliminated so as to not clutter the ground and detract from the eagle’s shadow.

As a young artist I desperately wanted the marks I put on paper to perfectly REPRESENT objects. My goal was to impress others. Now I have other ideas. I’ve been wondering if there’s a difference between something real and a representation of that same thing?

Would children grow differently if every single day a bowl of plastic fruit decorated their dinning table rather than always changing bowls of real fruit? Real fruit moves so much faster. Yes I know plastic atoms move but not as exotically as those of real apples. Real fruit can be eaten, ripen, squirts out various smells, changes shape and color and hosts fuzzy mold.

Not only do real things move faster but they confront us with our mortality. We know we need to pause and enjoy them because they won’t be here long.

Picasso said African masks were magic. Their job wasn’t  to look like a person or animal but their job was to be magical items with power. Picasso said his pictures never represented objects but were real things, magical things. We quit looking at representations on a wall and plastic fruit,  but year by year as we change we see new facets in a real picture. Real pictures squirt too. nancymauerman.com

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Brother Stanley's Eagles

Brother Stanley’s Eagles

Brother Stanley’s Eagles

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