Outsider Artist Dewey Blocksma - Figurative Collage

Dewey Douglas Blocksma (b. 1943)

“..rather than escape from himself and civilization by creating a fantasy world of whimsical carvings, (Blocksma) transcends the conventions of traditional folk art and sheepishly creates a world filled with images that comment upon the social structure of the twentieth century. Blocksma shakes us free from obviousness and affection, prompting us to think that every gesture and every object contributes to existence in some way.”
Judith M. Weiner, New Art Examiner 1983
The remarkable constructions of Dewey Blocksma can be traced directly to his background as a physician. Born in Amarillo, Texas, he attended medical school and found himself particularly intrigued by anatomy. This interest was a continuation of his lifelong curiosity about “how things worked.”

Blocksma spent six years working as a doctor in hospital emergency rooms, which he describes as a horrifying experience. During this period, he began to construct figures, or “toys”, as he calls them, both as a form of amusement and as an emotional safety valve from the constant tensions of the life-and-death situations he encountered on a daily basis.
Eventually he found that his art was dominating his time and thought. In 1979, he left medicine to devote himself full-time to these pursuits.
Blocksma now lives in Holland, Michigan, surrounded by his art. These strange, anthropoid figures, which resemble dolls or whirligigs, are made from bits of junk - wood, leather, piano wire, canvas and odd bits of hardware - jointed together so that their arms and legs move. There is a casual, almost accidental quality to the work, but the thought behind it is, in fact, highly premeditated. As the artist says, “I use the works to think about things I am trying to understand.”

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Johnson Toy Collection, New York NY
Time-Life Collection, Detroit MI
MGM Studios, Los Angeles CA
Leo Burnett Advertising, Los Angeles CA

Judy A Saslow Gallery