Folk Art

Sam and I rode north on Sunday. I had a section of roads I wanted to thrash that I'd had on my mind for a couple of months, since the B&J crew scouted R.Q. Old's property for our ITSA trials to be held there on September 17th. These roads wind back and forth over the last ridge before the Tennessee River/Kentucky Lake area near Palmyra and Cumberland City Tennessee.

Believe you me the roads did not disapoint, very twisty and technical, with lots of elevation changes. We were lucky enough to hook up with R.Q. himself, and he took us on a leisurely tour of those roads that he knows like the back of his hand. And he led us to this most interesting spot. Actually he led us past this spot, only pointing it out (as though we wouldn't have seen ten huge statues at the side of a back-country road) and we continued on. After we split from R.Q. Sam and I retraced our path to spend over an hour there, mesmerised. Then I Googled the name of the artist once back at the Old Dick P.O.

This is the folk art of one E.T. Wickham. He was a farmer and a pioneer kind of guy who evidently decided while in his sixties that he had something to say with concrete. He began his Stone Park in the early 1950's and continued for another couple decades until his death in his late eighties.

The Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville has a very informative page about Mr. Wickham HERE .

Some of his statues are safe at the museum in Clarksville or at Austin Peay State University. But sadly most of his works are at the mercy of vandals and other idiots with spray cans of paint. It takes a enormously talented wit to air-brush "Fuck You" on a work of art. Some statues are missing altogether, most are missing their heads, and some are missing other extremities.

More to come.....