Paul Buckley, abstract artist, sculptor, and art collector extradinaire

The other day, I wrote about a visit to Laurie Burton's studio, which was sweet, as was she. But, Laurie is only one of many local super cool and very talented art folks in our Golden Triangle region.  This place is littered with talent. I have a theory that if you knocked on any random door, you would likely find a person who has some sort of artistic, musical, or literary talent. Amazing.

After we left Laurie's, I dropped Joseph off somewhere and headed home. I ending taking a different route home due to where I dropped him off. I realized that this route would take me right past the home of Paul Buckley. So, what the heck, I called him and asked if I could stop by and check out his studio and art. No notice or anything, other than about 3 minutes. Paul answered the phone and was like, "man, come on over..." Three minutes later, I was parked in front of Paul's awesome cabin like home. The place is set in the woods and has a porch completely surrounding it!

Paul is a scientist by day, but the rest of the time, he is an artist. He paints, he sculpts, he creates amazing assemblages from found objects, and creates various other types of art. Paul also loves art and collects a bunch of it. His house is its own unique art gallery. In fact, we don't have a local gallery that would come close to what he has in his home! Great artist and great supporter of the arts.

Cool sculpture on Paul's porch done by another artist

some of Paul's acquisitions

Paul's place is almost overwhelming. Its so full of art, you don't know where to begin. Simply amazing.  Colorful 2D images, cool sculptures with lots of nice vertical elements, things hanging from the ceiling, stained glass, bits of random pieces of "junk" that are now part of the show and/or destined to become a part of some piece of artwork, and colorful photographs laying about. When I arrived, he had some trippy music playing in the background. Man, this place! Freakin awesome. An artist's and art lover's paradise.

A view of the main living area, with artwork everywhere.

If you don't know Paul, you should find a way to meet him. This guy, I don't know, sixty something years old, is like a hyper mountain goat or something. Moving all the time, thinking, creating, wishing he had a thousand more years to create. I tried to take a picture of this trippy mugg, but was able to only get a somewhat blurry image, because he is always in movement! 

Paul on his deck

Looking at Paul's works reveals his passion for art. He pours his soul into his work. If you really look at his work, you can see his ups and downs in life. And this guy is a manic artist for sure. Although he sells his fair share of paintings, he has stacks of new ones ready to go. 

Paul's studio, with his works on the walls

Paul's abstract paintings are full of passion, intensity, and energy! Color! Movement! It is easy to picture this skinny, bearded joker in his element slamming down paint, expressing his innermost emotions while listening to wonderful music. Beautiful! His 3D pieces are equally fascinating. Many of these are assemblages are made of found or junk material. Sometimes, the components of his pieces have significant personal meaning to him. I won't elaborate to what those meanings may be, but they are ever present. Here is a nice example of one of these pieces. 

One of Paul's sculptures

As of late, Paul has been working on collaborative projects with some other local artists including the likes of Patrick Tranum and Libby Pollard. He showed me a mosaic piece that he and Libby had done together, and a large 3D sculpture collab that he and Patrick had completed. Hopefully, I can do an collaboration of some type with him one day. 

Paul uses any method possible to get his artistic thoughts down. I noticed several really cool pieces that were combinations of painting and collage. Very effective pieces. Here is one below.  

One of Paul's collages

Man, what an awesome Saturday afternoon of art in Starkville! Yeah, I guess I could have driven to New Orleans or Memphis and visited some crazy art gallery, but it sure was nice to find this kind of talent and passion right here in Starkville! 

Laurie Burton - Hidden talent in Starkville, Mississippi

My son and I had an opportunity to visit with local artist Laurie Burton in her studio this afternoon. Similar to me, she also has a completely different day job, but in her free time, she is driven to create art. 

Laurie and Joseph

Laurie is one of those hidden gems in a community like Starkville. She is like the party that only the cool kids know about. You know the deal, people are all like, "there's nothing to do, this place is boring..." But for people in the "know" there is always something cool going on. Its much the same way for visual artists. Sure, some of us get out, put our art in shows, especially locally. But, by and large, we are only known to a few people. I wish there was a way to expose these wonderful local artists to larger audiences. Well, I guess there are ways. Anyway, here I am, living in Starkville off and on since I was about 11 years old, and I don't even know very much about the local art scene myself. I mean, yeah, I know some of the artists and have seen the works of a few in particular, but for the most part, I know very little about the fantastic art being created right here. 

A view of Laurie's studio

So yeah, I would like to make a conscious effort to learn more about what my fellow artists are up to. Of course, only if they don't mind;) A great way to see what these artistic jokers are up to is to visit them in their studios, homes, or wherever they create their works. To see them in their element. To understand how they create. To hopefully view the pieces of art that they don't typically exhibit publicly, those pieces that reflect the artists' true spirit. Or, at least, those pieces that are unique and perhaps transcend local stereotypes. Sure, I love traditional art such as landscape paintings, portraits, ceramic pottery, and the like. Especially when the artist is at the top of their craft. But, I am more intrigued by those unusually creative folks who find new ways of expressing themselves and constantly challenge the way they do things. 

Laurie is this sort of artist. On the surface you may think she is a normal person;) However, after entering her studio and gallery space, you will quickly come to the realization that Laurie is a pretty weird chic doing some cool trippy stuff. 

Laurie in her "gallery" space

Laurie seems to not have any boundaries and uses a wide variety of materials and methods such as roots of trees to create table bases, paper mache as an amazing sculpture tool, hand painting silk cards, creating mosaics on numerous surfaces, and various traditional painting methods. For me, with my penchant for drawing and painting semi weird things, I was particularly impressed with her bizarre sculptures created with paper mache and ceramic tile adhesive. 

I know people have been creating art with paper mache for a long time, and I have done so myself. So what's the big deal? The big deal is her sculptures are awesome! When you look at her sculptures, you would not know they were paper mache if she did not tell you. You might think they were made of ceramic, or possibly metal. 

That is cool in itself, but the subjects of her art are the coolest part. Parts of torsos and heads with various rusty bits of metal places in them, done in such a way as to possibly shock the viewer. At the very least, the viewer is left wondering what the heck was this super nice lady thinking when she did these pieces! 

Yeah, I suppose if I lived in Los Angeles or New York City, Laurie's art would not surprise me as me. But here in Starkville, in this bastion of super conservatives, its refreshing. Many of Laurie's other pieces were equally interesting, albeit quite different. Joseph really liked the small hand made poetry books that she created with the fabric covered covers and poems written by her with illustrations done by her. We also greatly appreciated the large wood and copper piece and random paintings of still life scenes and assorted other paintings. 

copper and wood piece in background with still life in foreground

beautiful Asian inspired paintings on wood panels

Still life of guitar and glass ware

Great visit, and very inspirational! Thanks a bunch Laurie Burton for allowing us to visit your studio and view your wonderful art. And thanks very much for sharing some of your methods with us!