OUTSIDER INSIDE ART – GALLERY FOR SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS, ATLANTA

This being my first real visit to Atlanta, I had to poke around, bien sûr. The Virginia Highland neighborhood was the first one recommended to help remedy my severe quaint-neighborhood withdrawal symptoms that I exhibit when I spend too much time in Las Vegas.  It did the trick and I got my fix. A good one to last at least four weeks.

My first stop was the very surprising and refreshing Outsider Inside Art gallery which features only the work of self-taught artists. The first glance inside the gallery revealed that this place was filled with treasure, but the “guided tour” offered by owner Kathy Schlesinger garnered more oooohs and aaaahs than I could have anticipated.

For this post, I will simply highlight my immediate favorite artist in the gallery (others all come in close second place) – Haley Prior. An excerpt from her bio reads: “After struggling through an art class at 10 years old, Haley quickly realized the standards of “what art must be” in order to be considered art escaped her as a child. She rebelled against those standards and her non-conformity sets her apart as an artist today. Ironically, her art is more childlike today than it ever was as a child”. Can you imagine failing art class when you are 10? That’s just too cruel. But if her art teacher could see her now…

The colors, the childlike quality and the rough-hewn texture of her pieces are the first thing that you notice. Then you look at the faces. Are they smiling? Yelling? Happy? Desperate? Look closely and you’ll see how her characters expose many social dichotomies. So innocent looking and yet…