Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds: Built Environments of Vernacular Artists

Art environments are as unique as the individuals who have created them,” writes Umberger, but she may as well have said that the individuals are as unique as the environments they create. The bulk of this coffee-table book consists of illustrated biographies of more than 20 of these artists. They created first and foremost for themselves, to decorate the world around them, to occupy their time and their mind, to stave off loneliness, even for self-preservation. This is the joy of folk art: it is personal and generous. David Butler saw his art as protective charms. Emery Blagdon, who watched both of his parents die following painful illnesses, called his creation The Healing Machine and felt that it “sent energy coursing through the room and drew deleterious matter out of an afflicted body.” The biographies and photographs (both historic) and lavish, full-color documentary photos provide the best, possibly the sole, access to these imagined worlds for a larger audience. The book also justifiably promotes the preservation and collection work being done by the Kohler Arts Center, where Umberger is a senior curator, which specializes in built environments, particularly in the Midwest. (Oct.)