{"id":23476,"date":"2023-08-12T14:00:03","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T18:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=23476"},"modified":"2023-08-18T14:37:32","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T18:37:32","slug":"ted-degener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2023\/08\/12\/ted-degener\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Degener Has Spent 50 Years Photographing Creators Of Visionary Art Environments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For more than five decades, Ted Degener\u2014who lives near Cornish, New Hampshire\u2014has driven across the United States photographing more than 400 visionary art environments and their creators.  His photos and videos of some 40 artists\u2014from California to Wisconsin to Connecticut to Florida\u2014are featured in \u201cAt Home with Artists\u201d<\/a> at Intuit in Chicago from Jan. 19 to Sept. 4, 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here you can see Louis Lee in his \u201cOriental Rock Garden\u201d in Phoenix, Arizona; Mary Nohl seated below her surreal busts on the living room mantle of her suburban Milwaukee home; Tyree Guyton standing on the steps of one of the homes he\u2019s transformed with accumulation assemblages to become the Heidelberg Project in Detroit; Robert Howell walking down a path flanked by his sculptures of horses and birds and other creatures outside his home in Midlothian, Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition is augmented by artworks by L.V. Hull, who created an art environment around her home in Kosciusko, Mississippi; Leonard Knight, creator of Salvation Mountain in the desert outside Niland, California; and Dr. Charles Smith, who created his African American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive in Aurora, Illinois (since disbursed) and Hammond, Louisiana (badly damaged by Hurricane Ida in 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visionary art environments\u2014like gardens\u2014are, by their nature, transitory creations. They often flourish during periods of intense creation, expanding and growing, filling all available space, surrounding you and immersing you in the artist\u2019s dazzling world. But then the sites often fade as their creators tire, or move on to other things, or get in fights with neighbors or the law, or fall ill, or die. Cement cracks. Paint flakes off. Plants overtake outdoor works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Degener\u2019s photos catch the creations on the upswing, as they\u2019re growing or mature. About half the sites Degener documents in the exhibition have since been relocated, disassembled after the artist\u2019s death, or no longer exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Louis Lee points skyward while standing in his environment, The Lees\u2019 Oriental Rock Garden, in Phoenix, Arizona, 1995. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Degener\u2019s interest began with just such a withered site. When he was working construction in Woodstock, New York, after college, he \u201chappened to visit\u201d Clarence Schmidt\u2019s \u201cHouse of Mirrors\u201d in the town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before fires in 1968 and \u201971, it had been a seven-story tall tower with more than 30 rooms and a curving exterior of mismatched windows, plus memorials to John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and gardens, and grottos made from assemblages of hubcaps, aluminum foil, artificial flowers, mirrors, coffee pots, sleds, earrings, clocks, toys, animal skulls, bicycles, concrete, shoes, false teeth, washing machine parts, and various other repurposed industrial pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was \u201calready in ruins,\u201d Degener recalled to Annalise Flynn, manager of the Spaces Archives and curator of the Intuit exhibition in \u201cThe Outsider,\u201d a yearly publication by the arts center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearing about Simon Rodia\u2019s Watts Towers in Los Angeles and reading books about visionary art and roadside attractions fed Degener\u2019s interest. And led him to making road trips to find places he\u2019d read about and to hopefully stumble upon new ones. Many of his photos have been published in Raw Vision magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI became interested in both types of places at the same time\u201d\u2014art environments and quirky Americana\u2014\u201cas well as festivals and religious sites in the United States,\u201d Degener told Flynn, \u201csort of as a way to understand our odd and beautiful country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2023 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). L.V. Hull stands in her yard environment in Kosciusko, Mississippi, 1996. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"L.V.
L.V. Hull, painted straw hat and leather shoes. In \u201cTed Degener: At Home with Artists\u201d at Intuit in Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Dr. Charles Smith stands outside of The African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive in Aurora, Illinois, 1996. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Dr.
Dr. Charles Smith, \u201cSomalia\u201d (left) and \u201cMemorial to Velma Smith, Michael, Velma\u2019s Son,\u201d concert, mixed media and paint. In \u201cTed Degener: At Home with Artists\u201d at Intuit in Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Paul Hefti in his yard environment in La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1996. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\u201cTed
\u201cTed Degener: At Home with Artists\u201d at Intuit in Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Mary Nohl sits in the living room of her home environment in Fox Point, Wisconsin, 1998. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Charlie Stagg sits inside one of his bottle and concrete constructions in Vidor, Texas, 1999. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Tyree Guyton on the steps of one of the homes included in The Heidelberg Project in Detroit, Michigan, 1997. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"L.V.
L.V. Hull, painted \u201cRock \u2018Em Sock \u2018Em Robots\u201d toy. In \u201cTed Degener: At Home with Artists\u201d at Intuit in Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Robert Howell walks among the sculptures in his yard in Midlothian, Virginia, 1996. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Hawkins Bolden gestures while holding one of his \u201cscarecrow\u201d sculptures in his yard in Memphis, Tennessee, 1993. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ted
Ted Degener (American, b. 1948). Reverend George Kornegay\u2019s face is reflected in a sculpture installed in his yard show in Brent, Alabama, 1990. Archival pigment print. Photo courtesy Ted Degener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Leonard
Leonard Knight, adobe flowers, can, mud clay and paint. In \u201cTed Degener: At Home with Artists\u201d at Intuit in Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Leonard
Leonard Knight, souvenirs of his Salvation Mountain, glass, paint, caulk, pumice, cactus and photo. In \u201cTed Degener: At Home with Artists\u201d at Intuit in Chicago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For more than five decades, Ted Degener\u2014who lives near Cornish, New Hampshire\u2014has driven across the United States photographing more than 400 visionary art environments and their creators.  His photos and videos of some 40 artists\u2014from California to Wisconsin to Connecticut to Florida\u2014are featured in \u201cAt Home with Artists\u201d at Intuit in Chicago from Jan. 19 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,1008,582],"tags":[1063,1064,1062],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23476"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23550,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23476\/revisions\/23550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}