James Castle Retrospective

James Castle (1899-1977) was deemed ineducable at an early age and lived in isolation as a deaf artist, yet, he created a profound body of work that encompassed his material surroundings.  Using his rural Idaho family farm as inspiration, he drafted much of his environment utilizing a pen sharpened from twigs in a unique combination of stove soot and his own saliva.  In addition to the drawings are a series of hand made books assembled with found paper and crafted objects with twine.  Compensation for his lack of verbalization resulted in his own form of code and series of patterns that he established throughout his work including a ritual of cloth bundling.

Seeing his retrospective this past month at the Philadelphia Museum of Art reminded me the great capacity to which artists can be resourceful while maintaining the integrity of their practice.  The show will soon be traveling to The Art Institute of Chicago, so if you are in the Windy City, I assure you will be more than inspired by James Castle.