Gallery
The Art Station’s Outsider and American Folk Art Collection
When we set out to transform Station #16 into the Art Station one of our goals was to create a space that supported our mission. We sought to create a space that was warm and encouraging…and to use the space to honor the power of creative expression. One surprising result of this effort is a growing collection of Outsider and American Folk Art donated by Founder Jane Avila and her husband John Avila. In many ways this form of art expression resembles the art therapy process–it is often created by individuals who suffer from mental and/or physical disabilities, lack formal training, or are socially and economically marginalized in some way. It is often deeply personal and spontaneously created. The artists often create for themselves–focusing on the process rather than the product. To view the Art Station’s Outsider and Folk Art Collection and to read about the artists click on the artists’ names.
Kevin Titzer creates three-dimensional busts, statuettes and figurines using wood, metal, and other debris found near his home by the Ohio River. A native of Evansville, Indiana, the 31 year old has been making art for most of his life and has established himself in galleries in Louisville and Nashville. Kevin says “Evansville is located [...]
Buddy, one of twelve children, was born in Macon County Alabama in 1943. Living a hardscrabble life as a sickly child, he began to make his own toys out of anything he could find. School lasted only 3 or 4 years and as he got older he worked at a number of odd jobs – [...]
Carolyn Mae Lassiter was raised in Ahoskie, North Carolina where her family worked as share-croppers until she was twelve years old. Picking cotton, tobacco and peanuts alongside her family, she spent very little time in school. Carolyn developed her interest in art during the early 1970′s when she and her husband, Edmond Rabkin, lived in [...]
Larry Staida, a native Texan, was the only child of a career military family and spent much of his childhood living abroad. As a teenager, Staida began to exhibit behavior that would eventually lead to a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Disowned by his family, the Austin State Hospital (ASH) became his home for the next [...]
Cher Shaffer was born in Atlanta, Georgia on a small farm. She spent her youth surrounded by earth, sky and the whistling pines of the American South. Her mother, who was of Native American decent, accompanied Cher on many of her long walks and taught her about the woods and lands that they both cherished. [...]