If perfectly landscaped quads framed by brick buildings have begun to feel like an aquarium with glass mirror sides, it may be time to get off campus. If it's become so bad that you think you might be growing gills and becoming a sea monster in the Hopkins fishbowl, head away from Homewood and down to the American Visionary Arts Museum.
The American Visionary Arts Museum (AVAM), now more accessible to Hopkins students than ever before with the Colltown shuttle providing transportation to the Inner Harbor, will satisfy any cravings for whimsy. If the whirligig outside doesn't make that clear, the friendly family of robots at the top of the entrance ramp undoubtedly will.
But what does it all mean? Visionary art is unique because it is founded on its uniqueness.
That is, visionary artists are unique individuals who create art as part of their process of living. Most are not trained artists, and many do not even realize that they are making art.
To this end, the AVAM seeks to support the individual and to encourage artistic self-exploration. Though it appears to share many elements, visionary art differentiates itself from folk art because folk art, by definition, bases itself upon a tradition of craft or culture.
Art of the visionary kind draws from no influences, or only from those influences that are indissoluble from the personality of the artist.
Founded in 1995, and still expanding, the AVAM includes a main gallery, a tall sculpture barn and a caf?? serving New World cuisine. On the first floor of the main gallery is a gift shop, in which kitschy essentials such as albino bowler action figures or vintage tin tops can be purchased.
In addition to the museum's permanent collection, consisting of over 4,000 pieces displayed on a rotational basis, the museum organizes thematic exhibits.
The current featured exhibit, entitled "Holy H2O: Fluid Universe," is on display until Sept. 4, 2005 and features a variety of artwork inspired by water. It is dedicated to Hopkins' own Abel Wolman, who was a member of the first class of civil engineers at Hopkins in 1913. He reformed the water system in Baltimore, consequently preventing the spread of water-borne diseases and saving the lives of millions annually.
The artists featured in "Holy H20" drew their inspirations from such diverse references to water as Coney Island, marine life and Moses' parting of the Red Sea. Gregory Warmack, also known as Mr. Imagination, created models of fantastic sea creatures out of bottle caps, and J.B. Murray wrote a series of "spirit scripts" throughout his life, in which he claimed to read the word of God by using a bottle of holy water like a magnifying lens.
Other media in the collections include hooked rugs, sweaters, elaborate model ships made out of toothpicks and Haitian devotional flags, which each contain approximately 20,000 sequins, hand-sewn onto fabric.
Each artist has a radically different approach to the topic, and they all possess unique methods of expressing themselves through their works. The nature of visionary art is best depicted through such an exhibit, showing how many different ways individuals can all manage to relate to a more broad, common theme.
Next to the caf??? on the third floor is "Tapestries of Survival," an exhibit with works by Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, a trained seamstress who depicted her life through the tapestries she created.
The intricacy of many of her pieces, combined with the simplicity with which she describes her horrific experiences as a Jew in Poland during WWII, makes the exhibit deeply moving.
The Jim Rouse Visionary Center, separated from the main building by a courtyard, contains larger pieces, such as a giant pink tulle poodle atop a bicycle rickshaw, as well as the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre (CMT), a collection of wooden sculptures called automata that move at the press of a button or the turn of a crank.
The Automata are delightful, depicting a pink policeman, a skiing dog and the Egyptian god Anubis doing sit-ups, among many other fanciful characters in the collection.
Each artist has a short biography accompanying his or her work. After reading the biographies, you'll learn that many have jobs unrelated to their art, such as truck driving, teaching or writing, and a good number struggled with mental illness or depression. For many, art was a way of expressing themselves and tying their lives together. Consequently, their work teaches us how truly vital art is to life.
The AVAM undoubtedly inspires creative thoughts and sparks new ideas in each and every on of its visitors. Upon returning back to campus after a trip to this museum, if you begin to question your own way of life, then the AVAM has more than adequately achieved its mission.
