Detour Art
A curated guide to Artist-built Environments
region by region, coast-to-coast.
Dedicated to the sheer joy of outsider, folk, visionary, self-taught, vernacular art and environment discoveries found all along the back roads (and side streets).
Artist-built Environments in the United States
Note: Things change, so check first before arriving. When visiting art environments, remember they are usually on private property, so please be respectful and don’t trespass.
Road stories
Sleep Outside the Box in a Concrete Wigwam
At one time, motels in this country were built with a little more character than they are today. Back in the 1930s, long before Super-This-and-Thats and Thumbelina-sized "free" cups of coffee, Frank Redford had a vision of Americans traveling the open road, stopping at night to sleep comfortably in his wigwam motels.
Minnie Adkins
Minnie Adkins began whittling as child, back when women didn't carry pocketknives or hunks of wood. But that didn't stop Minnie from carving roosters and dogs from sticks whenever she had the chance. She's continued to develop her craft and her possums, foxes, and chickens, and more are prominently featured at the Kentucky Folk Art Center and in some of the world's top collections of self-taught art. After her first husband, Garland, died, Minnie remarried and convinced the new guy, Herman,that he had the makings of an artist too, though he prefers working with metal. The couple hunkered down in a new, improved version of what they call Happy Gizzard Hollow, which has become an axis of self-taught art for the rural community around it.
