Vollis Simpson

Had the good fortune of learning about Vollis in a PBS snippet tonight.  My Dad shared with me his affinity for the folk art and clever artistry of whirligigs.  We had a small collection about the house growing up.  Nothing on the scale that Vollis creates.  I enjoy discovering people like Vollis, who are driven to create with a sense of whimsy and determination as their guides.

Some background from the PBS.org site.  Video and interviews are also available there…

In 1985, his partners retired and Simpson found himself with a lot of free time and tons of miscellaneous machine parts. “I had to find something that was better than watching television,” he remembers. So, Simpson began to transform his North Carolina farm into an Arcadia of whimsical windmills.

Simpson’s project was initially met with skepticism. “Well everybody made fun of me–[they] thought I was crazy, I reckon, because I started putting them out there in the pasture, out in the front yard.” People began stopping by just to see what Simpson would put up next. With time, however, people have come to admire Simpson’s special salvage. “Some people, like my wife, thought that I was crazy at first. But now she’s pretty happy. Folks can always change their mind, you know.”

Roadside America (another new discovery as I pursued more information on Vollis) has details on how to find the farm.

Seems like PBS has a number of these artists chronicled via the Off The Map Project.  I found Salvation Mountain and Leonard Knight there, too!  I learned of him watching Into the Wild.

Now I need to learn about the others I didn’t know about!  Tressa “Grandma” Prisbrey has the right idea…