What is Visionary Art anyways?

This blog is about Visionary Art and the artists who make it, both past and present. I am writing this first post on my blog, which is part of Professor Swenson's Art 485: Contemporary Artists in Context, at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

So, what is Visionary Art, anyways?
Visionary art is sometimes mistaken or mislabeled as Folk Art, which is an art of the people, that is passed from generation to generation through an identifable cultural tradition and is made following those specific stylistic traditions. For example Amish-made furniture, the famous San Idelfonso black pottery of New Mexico, and Haitian metal wall sculptures cut from discarded steel drums are all some types of Folk Art.

However, Visionary Art is, according to the mission statement of the American Visionary Art Museum: "Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself." http://www.avam.org/stuff-everyone-asks/what-is-visionary-art.shtml

In other words, Visionary Artists experiment, invent, and follow their intuitions, visions and inspiration, and they use their own individual soul as their guide. They do not follow culturally-specified art-making rules or style templates. They are spontaneous and inventive creators of their art, which can be anything from a two dimensional painting, an inspiring aerial acrobatic composition, an interactive fashion show, or an experimental and improvisational musical score. Visionary artists create works that are transformative, that shift paradigms, and even suggest a transcendance of reality, such that their art works can even be described as possessing restorative properties or shamanistic dimensions.

This blog will be dedicated to writing about Visionary Artists of the Visual and Performing Arts.My next posts will focus on artists of the past and present, and from various backgrounds and media.