What exactly is "Outsider Art"?
The term, "Outsider Art", leaves some people cold, as they think it refers to skinny, skate-boarding, knit cap wearing graffiti artists. In all acutality, it DOES include those kids, as well as many other "types" of people in the world.

Outsider Art is a term used to describe art in any form that is produced in a raw, untrained way. The guy in Alabama that does chainsaw carvings is an Outsider Artist, just as the little old lady in Texas, who has never been trained in any artistic way, might produce her own form of abstract expressionism.

As a general rule, most real Outsider Artists are very eccentric, tend to suffer from emotional problems, create art with traditional mediums used in very untraditional ways, and are prone to surround themselves with their creations as a buffer zone against the rest of the world.

Outsider Artists create what they do because they are compelled to create something that expresses their emotions, just as any formally trained artist does. The creative drive comes from the same place, it is just totally undisciplined, and therefore, often very unorthodox.

There are now several museum that have opened, that are devoted totally to Ousider Art. There are now galleries and agents that are looking for Outsider Artists to represent, which, in my own personal opinion, kind of makes the term an oxymoron. How can you be an "Outsider" when you are now on the "inside"?? Food for thought, I suppose. Question for the day would be-"At what point does one stop being an "Oustider Artist" and become a "mainstream" artist"?

You will often see the form of the cross within these designs, showing that Kris has a deeply spiritual side to his life. Also, you often see forms that look like scales or balances, showing the balance of emotions and unjustice in life.

The wonderful thing about Outsider Art is the raw emotion that is found within it. These artists create from a direct connection to the soul. Any trained artist will say they create in this way also, but it seems to me that they would have to be influenced in some way from any techniques and methods that have been instilled in them through the years. Of course, bear in mind that all of this is my own personal opinion, and like Dennis Miller, "I could be wrong".

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