From Trash to Treasure – Unknown Artist makes his mark on the Outsider Art Market | The Home of Folk Art

From Trash to Treasure – Unknown Artist makes his mark on the Outsider Art Market | The Home of Folk Art

The ‘known’ part to the story starts in the year 1970 with a young man finding some intriguing pictures on the top of a trash heap on Seminole Street in the Brentwood neighborhood of Springfield, Missouri. A story starting off similar to that of the finding of Charles Dellschau’s art. The Springfield art, 283 pieces, remained with the lucky young man for 36 years before he decided to sell the lot being attributed to a mystery artist known as “Electric Pencil.” The new owner, Harris Diamant, for the past four years has been on a type of scavenger hunt following clues hoping to shed some light into who this artist, Electric Pencil, may have been. The leads have taken Mr. Diamant on an adventure that could be out of a mystery novel. He recruited a private detective to help aid him in his search for clues and a psychologist that created a profile of the artist who, in the early 1900′s, was institutionalized in a Nevada, Missouri, hospital. At this point Mr. Diamant has produced a book of the artwork by the Electric Pencil which is due out March 1, 2011. For more information on the artist and the book visit Mr. Diamant’s website www.electricpencildrawings.com. There will also be a one-man show on the Electric Pencil at the Outsider Art Fair 2011, in New York, February 11-13.