Henry Darger

I have long been a fan of selected outsider artists and interested in outsider art. Juan and I watched Coraline tonight. It is right up my ally although R raised eyebrows at some of the creepier characters. It got me looking at some of my favourite and more creepy wish-lists on Amazon that of the dark animators. If there is one thing I like more than a doll it is a dead dolly. And the stop-animation creepies are right up there with my fav's but more about that later. I stumbled across In the Realms of the Unreal - The Mystery of Henry Darger 

What a fascinating character and what fascinating art he produced. Henry Darger  spent his childhood in an Illinois asylum for feeble-minded children and his adulthood working as a janitor. He lived solitary existence,but his imagination was bright and intriguing. When he died in Chicago in 1973, his landlady discovered 300 paintings and a 15,000-page illustrated novel (The Realms of the Unreal) in his room. In it he tells the epic story of the virtuous Vivian Girls leading a child slave revolt against the evil Glandelinians.

I love finding new art and new artists.