UPDATE 8/2/06 I have accepted an offer from Susan Johnson in Alaska. She is trading her lifetime collection of PEZ dispensers for the RA MILLER Red Devil. Send your offers for the PEZ dispensers to chris@fukn.us
Well, I have been getting some interesting offers, so far I’ve gotten offered a 1985 Chevy Cavalier with some rust on it, a 3 bedroom 2 bath mobile home in Texas that I would have to figure out how to move and provide a new home for, a sparkly pen, and the chance to learn how to earn millions of dollars from several mortgage gurus and an internet marketer. In addition to those I have recieved numerous emails saying this won’t work, emails telling me that I have provided laughter and amusement, and some emails that were kind enough to correct my spelling on some hurried ads I placed. (thanks). Below is my answer to the naysayers…
I appreciate the naysaying. He/she has some pretty good points but he/she is a fine example of being trapped in the box. Most people never imagine that they can escape the arbitrary limitations society/parents/self have imposed. The reason why Kyle McDonald was able to trade one red paperclip up to a house was because he believed that he could. More importantly he understood that one persons junk is another persons treasure. Most importantly he understood that cooperation with other people has many levels and the benefits of working toward mutual satisfaction. This is what we call a win/win situation. Everyone along the trade path wins.
That is why it worked. That is why it will work again. That is why I was able to trade my old variflex skateboard to Bryan Dodd (www.doddhouse.com) for an original piece of art from American Folk Artist R.A. Miller, that is why I have so far been offered a car, an abandoned mobile home, and other things of value for my little Red Devil.
Don’t worry. I won’t give up. Thanks for your support and help. You can follow my progress (and find other things) at my blog, Incredible Fukn.us at http://www.fukn.us
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, what will you offer me for my lovely 13 x 21 inch Red Devil painted (on both sides) by the now deceased godfather of American Folk Art, R.A. Miller? Email your offers to chris@fukn.us
For those of you following my quest to trade my old veriflex skateboard for a house, the trade for four medium size moving boxes full of unopened Pez has fallen through…. so to sum up….I traded my old veraflex skateboard
….to Bryan Dodd, an artist living in Georgia who is using the skateboard in his art for this incredible piece of folk art by the famous American Folk Artist R.A. Miller. I have included a short biography of this American Icon below the piece of art I have for trade.
I was going to trade this piece for a huge collection of Pez dispensers but details of the trade changed which caused us to mutually cancel this trade. The upshot is that this incredible piece of art was not ready to leave me. So the question is…what will you give me for the Red Devil?
R. A. Miller (1911 – 2006) – Biography                            Â
             Considered              to be one of the prominent “Elder” American              Folk Artists his work can be found in the Museum of American Folk              Art in New York.               R.A. Miller lived on the same property he was born on although              not in the same house. The original family house was destroyed              by the tornado of 1936 that              killed many              people.              He later married and found religion and started preaching at Revivals            all over Northwest Georgia.
He started to create art while in his late ’60’s after experiencing                  problems with his eyesight. He is best known for his tin cut                  out figures. His subjects include  flags, devils, roosters, and Uncle Sam. His paintings on wood or masonite                   often include dinosaurs along with a religious message. Some                  of his artwork has also been used in the music videos of the                  group R.E.M.
R.A. used a hammer to flatten discarded gutters and cuts out pieces of tin  roofing to make his cut-outs. His unique contribution to American art is well  covered  in the books Light Of The Spirit, portraits of Southern Outsider Artists (1998)  Goekjian/Leacock and Fine Folk: Art’n’Facts From The Rural South (1990) Perryman/Smith.
Miller’s work has been included in such exhibitions as Outside the Mainstream: Folk Art in Our Time at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (1988) and Passionate Visions of the American South at the New Orleans Museum of Art in Louisiana (October 1993-January 1994). Further exhibitions, the inclusion of his work      in museums’ permanent collections, and articles in such international publications as Raw Vision have contributed to Miller’s status as an elder statesman among Georgia’s self-taught artists.