While in college, I was fortunate enough to take a class on outsider artists that completely opened up my eyes to a whole new set of artists I had thereto never encountered. Through this class, I was able to really question the idea of classifications and hierarchy in the artworld and reinterpret the notion of being an outsider in a field whose roots were seeded by a need to express and communicate- yet now there seemed to be a right and wrong way about this intrinsic act. There were artists like Kea Tawana, who built an ark in the parking lot of a baptist church in Newark, New Jersey, and Clarence Schmidt, who constructed a house of mirrors on the side of a hill, and Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village, a series of structures born out of need to hold her various collections of but are stylized by the singular artistic vision of Grandma Prisbrey.
Reminiscing on the class, I went ahead and Googled these artists earlier this week. Sadly, I found out that Kea Tawana passed away on August 4th of this year, just last month. I feel ashamed to confess that I thought she had passed away years ago. It’s strange to imagine that she was still living this summer, just northward along the Delaware River in Port Jervis, New Jersey. Reading her obituary I learned that besides building her ark, she also created beautiful stained glass windows, was a mechanic at Astroland Park, a writer, an inventor and mapmaker. It also says that Kea created and built radios by using tubes made out of old bottles. Up to the end, she was innovating, producing, and inspiring.
Looking through a handbound book I made about Kea’s Ark back in college, I wrote:
Heavy symbolism rides on the deck of an ark. Such was the case for self-taught artist, Kea Tawana’s ark. Though her creation never set sail on water, it did set many on a journey toward art environment preservation. Furthermore, Kea’s ark and creative process represented a challenge that was repeatedly met and resolved. The way in which she describes herself sizing up a building, acknowledging its size and content, and then taking it down plank by plank is an evident mirror image of what we all hope to do when faced with new problems. But what I find most fascinating about Kea Tawana is her decision to build an ark at the highest point of land in Newark, New Jersey. A stationed ark on voyage.
Going through Kea Tawana’s obituary left me with so many questions. I truly wish there was a more detailed article about her life, even better, a biography. But for what it’s worth, I thought I’d leave my own mention of appreciation for her work and my desire to know more about the details of this remarkable artist’s life.
