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).

creative finds … region by region

“PECULIAR TRAVEL SUGGESTIONS ARE DANCING LESSONS FROM GOD.”— Kurt Vonnegut

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

Rock Garden and Concrete Postcards - Florence Deeble

Since 1935, Miss Deeble created miniature "postal card" scenes of the places she had visited or read about in books. Some of these included Mount Rushmore, Estes Park Conference Camp, and the Tetons. Florence worked the last 10 years of her life creating tributes to the Lucas City Band, founding fathers, a monument to her father and another to her brother, Burl, who served in WWII. She enjoyed visitors to her garden and carefully kept a guest book listing everyone who visited.

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Fox Point Art Yard - Mary Nohl

Mary Nohl’s lakeside cottage and yard are replete with sculptures, paintings, and decorative elements. Inspired by her life on the shore of Lake Michigan, Nohl used every imaginable material to construct a colorful and whimsical world. The yard features fifty-nine concrete sculptures, many figural and life-size. Inside the house, almost every surface is adorned; she hand made stained glass, painted her furniture and walls using carpet swatches as brushes, and displayed her paintings and ceramics.

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Paradise in the middle of Kansas - Garden of Eden

This jaw-dropper is the oldest complete folk art environment in the United States, creating a creative epicenter in this rural Kansas town. OK, it's not exactly the exact Garden in the Bible, but Samuel P. Dinsmoor began pouring forth his vision in 1907 when, at the age of 64, he completed his Log Cabin Home, built from native limestone. Then, using the newest building compound of its day -- concrete -- he spent the next 18 years surrounding his house with a narrative sculpture garden.

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