'butch anthony . newbern alabama 3/26/03' by cynthia connolly |
 |
A lanky, unassuming blond in his late thirties, Butch Anthony has invented his own brand of Alabama folk art he calls
"Intertwangleism."
Dressed in overalls and a beat up straw hat, Butch evokes a grown up Huckleberry Finn. "My work is 'intertwangled,' " he explains in his thick, backwoods drawl. "I mix plants and animals with people. I
might draw birds with womens bodies."
Other people's junk is Butch's treasure; he collects junk of all kinds
which to make his sculptures and adorn his paintings. His creativity
seems natural and unforced. Wherever he goes, he keeps one eye peeled for whatever useful stuff he may find on the side of the road, in a dumpster, or in a pile of scrap. He uses bottle caps, old licence plates and broken mirrors to create birds, fish, dinosaurs and people. String makes hair, combs are good for teeth, buttons and bottle caps
make good eyes. Butch never misses the weekly visit from the local junk man, who rumbles down the country roads of Seale in a truck full of the current week's booty.
Many of Butch's paintings depict his own experiences and people he
has met. He has painted local African-American artists, preserving their sayings and expressions by including them in the paintings. One painting of E.M.Johnson reads: "They say I makes the sunshine, but i really makes the moonshine."
Butch's work frequently spoofs the modern world, death, work, women and money in humerous and colorful ways. One work, The Juggle Man, uses rotisserie motors to animate a whimsical figure who is tormented by the Devil and attended by angels as he balances the burdens of modern life: two cars, a house and a woman. Life and Work is a sculpture inspired by Moby Dick - a man on a ship called "Life" harpoons a whale called "Work", and as Butch describes it: "The whale starts pulling him around and he doesn't know if he's got
the whale or the whale's got him."
- Written by Gina Leibrecht |
