Black Sheep Gallery - Folk, Outsider and Self-taught Art

Hi everyone. We have some interesting works to share with you this month.

The first carving is by the late Eddie Mandaggio, one of Nova Scotia's most popular and respected folk carvers. This resting duck in all its imperfect beauty is an early work, likely from the 1980s or 90s. Its shadow emulates the ripples it creates as it gently floats across the water on a still early morning. Eddie worked in northern Manitoba and Ontario as a trapper and as a hunting and fishing guide. After moving to Nova Scotia in 1951, he worked on the railroad and in lumber camps. He loved the woods and even when we found him at the age of 73, he was spending most of his time at his painting shed located down a path through the woods behind his house.

In 1983 Brian Mulroney successfully became leader of the Progressive Conservative party. Two months later, Mulroney entered Parliament as the MP for Central Nova in Nova Scotia, winning a by-election in what was then considered a safe Tory seat, after Elmer MacKay stood aside in his favour. 3000 people travelled by car and bus to see Mulroney speak at the Trenton, Nova Scotia, hockey rink. Mulroney promised "jobs, jobs, jobs" in his campaign speech. It was said to be the biggest political meeting in the province's history. He then led the party to a landslide victory in the 1984 federal election winning the second largest percentage of seats in Canadian history (at 74.8 percent) and receiving over 50 percent of the popular vote. Elmer Killen lived in the Central Nova riding all of his life, and probably made his representative carving of Mulroney after he attended that campaign rally or tuned in to the news coverage on CBC which you can hear at https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1752180376. The facial details of Elmer's early carvings have always made those works stand out to us.

We have added seven carvings by Kentucky carver Thomas May. You may recognize some of these people in this lively crowd. Is that Tom from the hardware store and Mr. Brown our grade 10 drama teacher? May was part of the Daniel Boone School of carvers who were born between 1900 and 1930 and lived within the Daniel Boone National Forest in the US. Most of these artists took up carving to pass the time after retirement and to entertain their friends and family. They were not market driven and often the carvings were representations of the people in their community.

Harold Weaver's cool cowboy is decked out in a cowboy hat and dressed in pastel colours. Weaver used various found items to make the horse's harness and the cowboy has thumb tack eyes. The pink tree looks like a cactus. Harold has painted dark spots on the limbs and overpainted them in pink to create the appearance of texture. Harold Weaver's work is very distinctive, and it is virtually unknown other than to a small number of dedicated collectors.

It is difficult to do a newsletter without including work by Barry Colpitts. He has promised to let me sell one of his whirlygigs but it isn't ready yet so we have added a lovely little black bear and the Cat Hat. Take a look and you will understand!

We have one final offering this month - a trout by Sid Howard. Sid's work is easy to identify by his use of googly eyes and a staple gun. The fins are made from a plastic container and are stapled to the fish. A small slip of paper with "Carving by Sid Howard Mira, Sydney C.B". is stapled to the carving and in the case of our fish it has a prominent position on the tail. This fish has been mounted on a black stand for display.

The Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax is selling tickets on a draw for an original Maud Lewis painting. The draw is only available to residents of Nova Scotia. Scotia Festival of Music is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the best of live classical and chamber music to Halifax and Nova Scotia audiences and giving educational opportunities to the next generation of classical musicians. Click here to buy tickets directly from the Scotia Festival of Music web site.

Be safe everyone.

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