i'm aware that this is no good way to start a blog entry, but i would like to begin this with a preface of sorts. this blog is a way for me to share (rather than hoard to myself, as i am admittedly too often tempted to do) everything that inspires me, because i believe it is important not only to the continuance of the sort art-making i love and interesting people, but also to my personal growth. that said, this post was SO hard for me to give up. she would've been my first post, but i needed a little time to convince myself to do this. so, here goes.
Tammy Jean Lange (better known as Tatt2 Tammy - a name she got for her former career as a tattoo artist) is who i want to be when i grow up. and i am not even joking/exaggerating. i am 100% serious. she is all and everything that i want to be in life.
(fast background info, during the summer of 2007 i went to New Mexico to explore ghost towns and pueblos)
hours off any main roads, just outside of Madrid (a ghost town turned artist's community in New Mexico) is the trailer home of Tatt2 Tammy. it is marked by a sign that reads "Tiny Town", and her yard is what i can only describe as a found art installation of epic proportions. it is difficult to explain exactly what is going on there (it's overwhelming to say the least). i was there for quite some time, took over 70 pictures, and still can't imagine i saw everything. there is a "river" made of broken glass, a city of old dollhouses - each with odd and elaborate setups inside (including some of barbies doing questionable things like hanging out at bars), old toys set up into makeshift nativity scenes, bones, street signs, parts of mannequins, bowling sets, bird cages, old appliances, honestly - you name it and it was probably there. but things aren't just there, everything is set up to create an absolutely surreal environment.
i feel like i'm on the right track to becoming her (ha, i wish), as we share some rather bizarre things in common. much of her art is created from the bones of roadkill (i presently have a partially decomposed dead bird in my freezer) which she buries to decompose, then digs up and bleaches the bones. she also (obviously) uses a great deal of found objects, some of which are even left for her outside her yard.
seriously though, this is THE coolest place i have ever been. it is very surreal and has a real life to it that is evident the moment you pull up. she has made the idea of retiring or settling somewhere out of the way and just creating outsider art very appealing to me.
you can't get a real feeling for "Tiny Town" from photos, but i've included a few that i took, for a general idea of the place (and even one with yours truly right in the middle of it all!). if you're ever in New Mexico though, GO! -and if it's about thirty years from now, look for me too.
photos: copyright daylynn richards
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