Hi.  I'm Jennie Helderman - new to you, new to Atlanta, and new to blogging.  Jumping right in with Moonshine and Moon Pies.

Call it folk, self-taught, or outsider art but call it Fun.  It's hot.  It influences contemporary art.  The American South is rich with it.  Among its biggest collectors are Steve and Amy Slotin, whose Folk Fest and auctions grew like kudzu to become the world's largest folk art markets.  So who do Steve and Amy collect?  Circle Sunday, November 22nd on your calendar and read on.

The major world market centers in an old cinder-block grocery store building north of Atlanta.  There Steve hosts a twice-yearly auction carried live on E-bay while his local customers eat cornbread and greens.  Last March the auction knocked down $35,000 for a pencil drawing by Swiss painter Adolf Wolfli.  A painting by Howard FInster - known for his Coke bottle and Rolling Stones album cover - brought $14,000.  Yet art remains affordable.  Some pieces at the auction sold for as little as $20.

As did the work of Finster and others back in the early 1990's when Steve traveled back roads selling Cliff Notes.  A 1982 exhibit at the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC had acknowledged the work of self-taught artists, often uneducated and working alone in remote places where Steve hawked his wares.  He bought more art than he sold notes, was fired the week he got married, returned from his honeymoon to launch Folk Fest, and has collected ever since.

From the Edgar Meadows face jugs which first grabbed his attention in a Cleveland, Georgia soda shop to Michael Crocker's snake jugs, paintings by Clementine Hunter, Rex Claxon, James Harold Jennings, Woodie Long, Lawrence Lebduska and many more, to a cement statue which weighs 1,000 pounds, his collection goes on and on.  Now he is adding old photographs and hand-painted signs.

Would you like to see their private collection? And their home with the disappearing wall on Lake Lanier? You're invited.  I'm chairing this event and this is your invitation.

On Sunday afternoon, November 22nd, Steve and Amy will open their collection to Art Partners, a volunteer group of the High Museum, and guests.  Steve will show-and-tell who's in and who's out, the trends he sees and tips on collecting folk art.  

"Come for Moonshine and Moon Pies," Steve teases.

Sunday, November 22nd from 2-5pm.  About an hour north of Atlanta.  Heavy hors d'oeuvres.  h $15 for Art Partners Members, $25 for non-members.

For tickets and reservations call 404-733-4428 or e-mail artpartners@woodruffcenter.org.

Tell them Jennie sent you.  And stop by my Blog and let's get acquainted.