The Do Good Fund
Butch Anthony Exhibit: Morbid Curiosity

Art tells the story of people, places, and cultures. The Do Good Fund is a local charitable organization (111 W 12th Street) that was formed to present the ever-evolving story of the South through thoughtful and ground-breaking art exhibits and displays. Every few months, new exhibits feature the work of artists whose styles are deeply human. From visceral moments frozen in time to colorful, personal, up-close portraits, the art featured at the Do Good Fund tells the Southern story, with all its charm, mystery, and struggle.

Through March 25, the work of local folk artist Butch Anthony will be on display at the Do Good Fund, featuring a collection of his work called Morbid Curiosity, owned by local art collector Joe Largeman.

Joe met Butch in 1996 at the Columbus Riverfest. “There were lots of impressive displays of folk art, including paintings, drawings, pottery, and more,” Joe recalled. “Then there was Butch. His creations are in a category of their own.” Joe was drawn in by the originality and uniqueness of Butch’s work. Much of it is made from stuff which would have ended up in a landfill. Using welding, embroidery, wood carving, painting, and a “playful mixing of found objects,” Joe explains that Butch’s work struck him as fascinating. The art world calls the technique Butch employs “Mixed Media.” Butch calls it by a name he invented: “Intertwangleism.”

Needless to say, Joe began acquiring pieces and building a collection. “He was always working on something different and his art evolved over time,” Joe recalls. “I liked everything and wanted to collect something from each new art style he was creating.” Over the course of nearly twenty years, Joe and his wife continued collecting Butch’s work, which now covers the walls of their old farmhouse.

Now, Joe is sharing his collection with the community in the space at the Do Good Fund.

As the name implies, Morbid Curiosity explores the fragility of human nature, featuring Butch’s signature skeletal overlays, fossils, and endless oddities turned into poetic and intriguing pieces of art.

At first, some of the pieces are a bit of a shock – and maybe that’s Butch’s intent. One piece is mounted with giant insects and a tarantula as big as an adult hand.. Our first instinct may be to turn away from the things which we’re used to avoiding out of fear, but Butch’s work invites us to come closer, look deeper, and spend some time reflecting on ideas we might have spent a lifetime pushing away.

Fred Fussell, local artist and long-time friend of Butch Anthony’s, will lead a talk with Butch at the Do Good Fund on March 9. During Fred’s time as curator at the Columbus Museum, he began noticing self-trained, eccentric artists from the local region. One such artist was Butch. “His work is completely individualistic,” Fred explains. “He has completely created a new work.”

Fred invited him to display his art at the Columbus Museum in 1996. This was the first time Butch’s work had been displayed in a museum, and the beginning of what would become an international interest in his art.

“People like his work,” Fred explains, “Because it’s skillfully made and unique, humorous, and unlike anything anyone else is doing.” Approachable, raw, and poetic, Butch’s art explores life and death simultaneously, the beauty in the bones, carcasses, and exoskeletons that once carried life. Butch’s work invites us to consider and explore the curiosity of morbidity.

Butch Anthony grew up in Seale, Alabama, where he currently lives in a home he built by hand. In his youth he took an interest in collecting artifacts and oddities that intrigued him for one reason or another. Butch uses many of these items in his art pieces today, and eventually created the Museum of Wonder to display his collections and work. As his collection of art became too big even for the Museum of Wonder, he moved some of it to The World’s First Drive-Thru Museum in Seale, AL, a museum created out of shipping containers that can be walked or driven through.

Today, Butch Anthony’s work is appreciated both regionally and internationally as a commentary on life and death in the South. His art has been featured in exhibits in the US and abroad.

“At first people think he’s a simple country boy,” Fred says. And while that may be partially true, Fred explains that Anthony is brilliant, having studied biology, zoology, and geology and having amassed a great knowledge of history. “As you spend time getting to know his work, deeper aspects of Butch emerge,” Fred says.

Just one of Butch’s pieces is enough to spend hours exploring and connecting with. The Do Good Fund’s exhibit features a whole walk through of pieces, all intricately fascinating.

In showing us what fascinates him, Butch fascinates us.

The Do Good Fund gallery located at 111 12th Street is open Wednesday – Friday from 1-5 pm, and Saturday from 10 am – 3 pm. The Do Good Fund Salon will be an informal talk featuring Butch Anthony and Fred Fussell on March 9 from 6 – 9 pm. Seating will be limited.

By Natalie Downey