The term “outsider art” was originally coined by Roger Cardinal, who spent his life studying the art created by people in mental hospitals and prisons. However, the genre has since expanded to include anything that cannot be classified as fine art, art done for a profit or folk art. It can be found almost anywhere if one looks hard enough. 

Roger Manley, photographer, filmmaker and director of the Gregg Museum, has devoted much of his life to sharing his passion for this art genre. “Outsider art is art made by people who feel a deep compulsion to make things without thinking about themselves as artists,” Manley said. Manley started photographing outsider art during college and has since amassed such a collection that he has decided to publish them in a book titled “Self- Made Worlds.” 

Manley’s photos of outsider art are imaginative in nature. For instance, Manley met one artist who created art by landscaping with a construction vehicle. “He literally carved and painted a mountain,” Manley said. 

Manley includes the machine he used, a front-end loader, in many of the photos of the man-made mountain in order to show scale. The machinery is dwarfed by the multi-colored Dr. Seussian landscape, and the letters etched into the mountain’s peak that spell out “God is Love” are each taller than a man. 

However, this set of photographs by Manley does not represent the only large-scale work of “outsider art.” 

Manley also has photographs of a Wisconsin artist who single-handedly welded together a machine the size of Talley Student Center. “It’s a huge device he believes will send him into the heavens on a magnetic force beam,” Manley said. 

On the top of the device he has included a large glass egg-type structure. He stands in this during lighting storms, hoping to be struck and transported to space. 

According to Manley, many people become outsider artists because of a tragedy in their life. The tragedy may take away the person’s sense of usefulness or community and spark what Manley calls a “moment of creativity‚” where they respond to this emotion by inventing their own art style. The act of making the art itself then becomes self-fulfilling by either allowing the person to connect with themselves or their community. 

A good example of this is Eddie Martin, who ran away from a violent family, eventually becoming a male prostitute in New York. After having a vision of a man in what he described as a levitation suit, Martin moved back to the now-deserted family farm and started to work on a piece of art he called “Land of Pasaquam.” Manley describes the piece as “mind-blowing.” 

In this land of his own creation, Martin built dancing platforms and painted temples where worshipers grow and fashion their hair into an antenna in order to communicate with spirits. Locally, Martin, or Saint Eom as he now prefers to be called, is regarded as a witch doctor and makes his money reading fortunes. These fortunes are often quite funny, though Eom does have the habit of telling elderly ladies that their husbands are going to die. 

“He says ‘they always cry but they love to hear it,'” Manley said. “He was great, he was fabulous‚ I consider myself really lucky to have the chance to meet these wacky people.” 

Manley f irst came across outs ide r a r t purely by accident. While hitchhiking a long the Outer Banks during a college break, Manley met the mother of a truck driver who had given him a ride. Her name was Annie Hooper, and her house was filled with about three thousand statues of Biblical characters. 

When Manley returned from his trip he began to tell people about it, and unable to communicate the sheer number of these statues, he returned to Hooper’s house to take pictures. While sharing the photos with friends and acquaintances, Manley listened to others and their experiences with outsider artists. Curious, Manley began to seek these other outsider artists out in order to see thei r art for himself. 

Initially, Manley didn’t give much thought as to why outsider art intrigued him so, but he eventually ended up with so many pictures that he was able to display them in shows. Manley finds that he can relate with outsider artists in a way that is unique from many others. 

“[Many outsider artists] were these people that felt disconnected from the community and were looking for a way to get back into it… I could sort of feel their need to connect,” Manley said. 

Manley himself felt similar desires as a child because, as a member of a military family, he lived in 22 different cities before college. 

By sharing the photos he collected, Manley allows outsider artists to share their stories. Many are grateful and keep in touch. In fact, Hooper, Manley’s original muse, even sent him her Bible statues. Some of them make an appearance at the Gregg Museum every now and then.