Project Onward - - Viewing Room - Outsider Art Fair OVR

The mission of Project Onward is to support the creative growth of visual artists with mental and developmental disabilities. Project Onward provides studio space, art supplies and professional guidance to artists who have exceptional talents but face challenges ranging from autism to mental illness. We believe that artists with special needs deserve a voice in the world of art and ideas, and that their extraordinary work has a universal audience.

Ruby Bradford
(b. 1984)

“Remember the movie Superman? My mom used to watch that with me. Her favorite was George Reeves, but my favorites are Christopher Reeve and Gerard Christopher. I paint Superman because he is America’s Greatest Icon... I like Tree House Cats [Tree House Humane Society] because I used to call my mom a Mom Cat. She is my favorite. I’m a big fan of cats.” (Bradford, R.)

Ruby Bradford (b. 1984) draws and paints in a relaxed bold style with unrepressed focus on her personal interests: Superman, Prince Charles, and cats. Bold characters and fantastical narrative seem to drive her, though the interest in Superman evidently runs deep. The artists’ mother explained that even at a very young age Bradford watched The Adventures of Superman on television incessantly, and that her fi rst word – “super” was uttered while watching the show. A deeply private person, Bradford uses these icons – and her favorite animal – as symbols for caring and belonging. As the artist explains, the “S” on Superman’s emblem stands for hope on his home planet. She thus combines her favorite celebrities or close friends with cats and/or superhero apparel, morphing the whole into a new reality. This is the highest honor a patron could receive from the artist, and Bradford’s use of dry humor and her panache are irresistible to her many followers. Her other areas of interest include ceramics, puppetry, composing and recording music; she also volunteers at Tree House Humane Society. The artist’s mother passed away in 2013, and she currently lives independently in South Shore. Bradford started working at Project Onward in its inaugural year, 2004.

Bill Douglas
(b. 1967)

“As a kid growing up in the country, I used to collect organic matter in the woods and make small structures, and I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil. Once I moved to Chicago in 1993, I started collecting inorganic items as well. I am inspired by craftspeople in my family - quilt makers, fiddle-makers. I am also inspired by comic books and have made a few of my own. In college, I intentionally avoided drawing classes because I liked my own style. I still focused on drawing, however, as well as printmaking, ceramics, and painting dream imagery from dream books that I started in high school. I never did get into ‘theory’. I’m interested in B-movies, reading, science-fiction, outer space, nature, and beauty, animals, love, death, color. I get bored unless I’m working with many mediums; I use my intuition and instinct.” (Douglas, B.)

Bill Douglas (b. 1967) hails from Knoxville, Tennessee and draws upon this substantial creative home in his work. Tennessean local artworks based on folk and craft techniques, and personal, spiritual stories have a special resonance in the artist’s extensive array of objects and images. His compositional strength comes not only from drawing, but also from collecting and fusing objects and materials. Through woodcarving, bone painting, assemblage, collage, and on canvas and paper, Douglas masterfully mixes melancholy with humor. He reminds us of the fragility of our lives, the elusiveness of memory, the beauty of nature.

“There is a lot of ugliness in the world, but the ‘ugly’ can be beautiful. Just as the Earth is our host and we are feeding on and destroying all of its resources, we are hosts to billions of other things feeding on us. Death and decay - these are in everything, we start to decay as soon as we are born, but there is a beauty in the reality of sadness, also. And this reality is only one version, like life on other planets there are trillions of other realities existing at the same time. Everything exists in our head as memory. We can’t escape it, but there are good memories, too.” (Douglas, B.)

Louis DeMarco (b.1985)

Six Deep, n.d.

Mixed Media on Paper

18 x 24 inches

$1000 (framed)

Inquire

Michael Bryant
(b. 1958)

Michael Bryant (b. 1958, Birmingham, AL), also known as “Michael Angelo Imhotep Bryant”, is a painter and poet. His works have been published in the Journal of Ordinary Thought and he has been represented by Project Onward since 2010. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Bryant moved to Chicago with his parents, sister and brothers in 1968 to find more opportunities and equality.

Bryant says, “I started making art cause my friend was having a birthday party and somebody needed pluggers (i.e. invitations) and I figured out some pictures would make them stand out.” When the ladies responded well to Bryant’s talents, he decided he would keep making art, and having a little pocket money didn’t hurt all. His top interests are nice looking women, party scenes, paintings by the Masters, and he is especially interested in birthday and zodiac specific calendars.

Michael’s special message to collectors? “All donations are accepted because Michael A. I. Bryant is truly a starving artist.”

Louis DeMarco
(b. 1985)

Louis DeMarco (b. 1985) is an artist, musician, designer and writer with particular interest in creating personal mythologies and motivational hyperbole in order to examine his experiences. His extensive mapping and architectural designs for “Loudemar,” a mythological island and home to his mind’s fortress, express adeep desire for belonging, safety, and simply having things one’s way. A natural comedian, DeMarco infuses humor into serious topics such as disappointment, anxiety, paranoia and relationship negotiations through his series of “Words to Live By” signs, executed in a brilliantly colored Simpsons-esque palatte. Originally a riff off of Tom Hanks’ character’s terminal illness (a “brain cloud”) in the comedy classic Joe Versus the Volcano – charting and mapping continue in DeMarco’s popular Cloud Chart series, which catalog “bad states”, followed later by a series of antidotes (“positive states”) in the Halo Chart series. Recently Louis has been painting anatomical illustrations personalized to contain what is important to him, and as a way to filter out the negative sounds, images, and ideas, simply titled My Heart, My Brain, My Eye, and My Ear. DeMarco is also an accomplished bass player for the rock band Lightning Speed, which also includes Project Onward artist Adam Hines. DeMarco writes original lyrics and music and is developing several screenplays for musicals and comedies, which are parodies of old sitcoms, i.e. Toaster’s (Cheers and Friends). He joined Project Onward in 2005 and currently lives in West Town, Chicago. Remarks by James Brett, Gallery of Everything, state, “DeMarco uses image-making to trace the highways of the brain. His voice, at once particular and channeled, is a means by which to process and communicate. Pithy warnings, soft guidelines, home truths and lyrics to live by are quoted, abbreviated, distorted, and repeated. They drift through cloudforms like infomercials from the divine. Comedian and analyst, provocateur and poet, the author is ever present. His artworks are evidence of a lifelong investigation into the thought-processes of consciousness. Beware their apparent simplicity. These tiny epics disarm with dignity, wit and revelation for all.”