I’ve always been drawn to the work of self-taught artists and the way they synthesize their experience into their work, finding forms for their need for expression. There is a great freeness and rawness to much of the work of self-taught artists, an energy that is so electric that many well trained artists try to capture it in their own work. Expressionism is pretty much based on this energy.
This point is well made in Purvis of Overtown, a 2006 documentary made about outsider artist Purvis Young who lived his life in the Miami neighborhood called Overtown. Being not well educated and poor, Young found trouble at an early age and spent time in prison before pursuing the art that led him to some pretty spectacular heights before his death in 2010 at the age of 67, from diabetic complications. He has said that he was called to his art by a meeting with angels in a dream.
He basically lived much of his life in the warehouses where he painted, sleeping among the accumulated trash and eating junk food. His whole existence seemed to be driven by his need to create and he produced what appears to be a huge body of work. The work itself had that electric energy that I wrote of above, a blistering raw qualityand rhythm that marks it as authentic. It was not a contrivance for Young, not the product of some intellectual exercise. It was pure emotion and it can’t be replicated through style alone.
Here’s the trailer for the documentary Purvis of Overtown:
Redtree Times 
Thanks for this great piece. Purvis is just one of many hidden talents in Overtown, a neighborhood that for much too long has been dissed and dismissed by people who won’t take time to learn about the community. For the real deal on Overtown today, complete with comments from Towners, check out Overtown: Inside/Out at http://Overtowner.com
In the early 1970s I remember seeing Purvis Young painting on boarded up buildings. I was born and lived in Overtown until I was 12 years old. It never was and is still not a ghetto–despite its economic decline. It’s amazing how one person will try to define another person’s environment.
Joseph– If you read the post, I never called Overton a ghetto or even hinted in any way at its conditions. I onky referred to it as a community in Miami and the closest thing to anything resembling the word ghetto was my mention that Purvis was poor as a young man. Sorry if you misread the post or my intentions.
Some of the folks who live in Overtown refer to it as a ghetto. Ain’t no shame in being poor. For instance: http://overtowner.com/eye
Ain’t no shame in being poor You sure are right about that, Stretch.
@Stretchphoto love your link