![]() The stuff that Butch finds, or that finds him, defies definition beyond its weirdness. "I've been to a lot of different places, but I like it right here." We asked Butch if his artistic success had ever tempted him to move someplace cosmopolitan, which Seale, Alabama, definitely is not. "They're already kinda spooky-lookin', so I just make them a little more spookier." His most recognizable works are old flea market photographs and portraits that he decorates with painted-on skeletons. "What most folks throw away I'll turn into somethin' that people want in New York or London," said Butch. He calls his art Intertwangleism, and it includes everything from freak taxidermy to sculptures made of metal and bones. The wonders displayed in the drive-thru fall into two categories: Butch's art and the weird stuff that always seems to find a way into Butch's hands. Even if you're passing by at 3 AM you can visit, when it's just you, Butch's collection, and a lot of country darkness. The Museum of Wonder is a 24-hour drive-thru. The containers and trailer are lit from inside at night, which actually makes it easier to see some of the exhibits. "I was over there cutting grass one day and, man, there was cars coming through there every five minutes," he said.īadabus Motherasaurus is comprised of the body of a fish, tiny arms, and a deer skull for a head.īutch added an Airstream trailer to the shipping containers to display even more wonders, and hitched it to his art-car Cadillac whenever he wanted to take his Museum on the road. Within three years Butch had to repair the ruts in his drive-thru road because so many vehicles were visiting. Butch, sensing that an opportunity had once again presented itself, bought the property from the woman, hauled over some 40-foot-long shipping containers, cut holes in them for windows, and filled them with his quirky wonders and art, creating the world's first drive-thru museum. A local woman phoned Butch after she'd seen him on TV, and during the conversation she mentioned that she had a little piece of land out by the new highway. "I thought, durn, I wish I could put a window in here and they could just drive by."Īs it turned out, a new four-lane road had just been built a few minutes away from Butch's studio workshop. I was just talking all the time," he told us. "I got so many visitors, I couldn't work. If you see this man at the Museum of Wonder, he built it.īut popularity posed a problem for Butch, who mostly likes to keep to himself. Less than ten years after the turnip, Butch had become such an art celebrity that he was asked to design Alabama's ornament for the White House Christmas tree.ĭoomed souls flee one of Hell's toothy monsters. He started making his own art, and turned out to be both prolific and good at it. Butch, who at the time made a living selling barbecue sandwiches, decided that the discovery of the turnip was a sign. They were shocked when someone bought it. John Henry drew a picture of it, and he and Butch placed it in a local junk shop with a joke price tag of $50. It happened this way: a friend of his, John Henry Toney, had been plowing Butch's garden when he found a gnarled turnip with what appeared to be a human face. Behind, a portrait of John Henry Toney.Īrtist Butch Anthony has brought this effortless approach to the world of outsider art with his Museum of Wonder.īutch has collected curiosities since he was a kid, but didn't become an artist until his early thirties. Fox with ear inexplicably ear stuck to the top of its head.
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