Blues & Haikus

Blues & Haikus is a publishing imprint, record company, art gallery, merch donkey, and event headquarters dedicated to exploring the role of the ‘Outsider Artist’ in healing a shattered culture.

I first heard the term ‘Outsider Artist’ seven or eight years ago when I was referred to as such. The definition of ‘Outsider Artist’ is not fixed. A real O.A. works outside of institutional art, so to speak, but may well be confined inside of other kinds of institutions, be they penal or mental. At the deep end of the pool, the O. A. is completely set apart and may not even be capable of normal social interaction.

In the more normative middle, however, is anyone for whom art, music and writing are claws and fangs with which to honey-badger their way through the thorns, brambles and poisonous vipers of life in end-game capitalism while remaining more or less indifferent to reward or recognition.

They do this in the face of a culture so brainwashed by materialism that the idea of taking time to engage in non-paid creative work can seem almost like theft! Meanwhile, legions of O.A.’s keep honey-badgering through life in the materialistic jungle with their art, music or writing, without regard to reward or recognition.  

It is my belief that we Outsider Artists are the wave particles that will restore light to the charred remains of a culture crushing itself from the inside out by external gratification. For this to happen, a new clearing needs to be cut; religion as we knew it has all but withered and died.

The great existential question for America and the world is, Where do we meet? It seems to me that the ideal of a church is a union of solitudes gathered under some kind of steeple. The steeple is a guidance mechanism pointing toward timeless clarity. When working at its best, such a constellation is equal parts energy and stillness, and metaphysically speaking, may generate a small vortex of clarity that expands and gathers in.

This of course is what every musical group hopes for.

We live in a time when taking an hour from the day to compose a piece of music, to paint a picture, or to write a story counts as an astonishing act of subversion, unless we’re making money at it! This makes no sense to the average person, however enthusiastically they praise the work.

In this world, we’re conditioned to embrace a false paradox: that time and money are always running out unless you use the former to generate the latter. For the artist who may not even bother trying to monetize, this is poison, not medicine.

From the first cave paintings to the first set of steel guitar strings, the real America has always been about the Outside Artist. But our individuality can only be preserved in recognizing our interdependency. That’s what Blues & Haikus is about.