Stuff We Like

In Gardendale, Ala., there’s a little gallery called Visionary Art that might be worth a road trip, especially if you’re passionate about outsider art. But if you can’t make the drive to see it in person, visit their collection online at http://www.visionaryart.com/.

Farm, Shelly Lewis

June Bug, Richard Burnside

Home for the Holidays, Bernice Sims

Red Flowers Blue Vase, Sybil Gibson

Smithsonian magazine singles out 20 special places for its list of The 20 Best Small Towns in America.

                                                                                                                    Siloam Springs, Arkansas (Eli Reichman)

“There is, we think, something encouraging about finding culture in small-town America. Fabled overseas locales, world-class metropolises—you expect to be inspired when you go there. But to have your horizon shifted in a town of 6,000 by an unheralded gem of a painting or a song belted out from a band shell on a starry summer night, that’s special. It reinforces the truth that big cities and grand institutions per se don’t produce creative works; individuals do. And being reminded of that is fun.” 

Gig Harbor, Washington (Brian Smale)

Out May 1, My Extraordinary Ordinary Life, Sissy Spacek’s memoir.

“I love cities. I do. But nature is my refuge. A bug hitting a screen on a summer night is music to me. The wind in the trees, the creek running full after a storm. All of those sounds are a choir that fills me up and calms me….”

Sissy Spacek, on life at her Virginia farm