About The Series
THE ARTSIDERS reveals the beauty of living life according to your own mind's eye. The series consists of three films, "Tough Tales", "Matter of Makin' It" and "It's About Respect." Each film rambles down the back-roads of the Deep South in search of the 'Outsider Artist.' Winding through the lives of nine spirited artists, three artists per show, each film explores the process of unleashing one's creative vision. As artist Eric Legge says, "it's a matter of makin' it."
Viewed separately or as a whole, each episode cracks open the door to the artistic process. With stories of the very serious to the "very humerus", we learn what drives each artist and why as individuals they feel this overwhelming urge to create, "whatever the case may be." Concerned less about the hype and critical aspects of a media driven society, these artists strive for the act of free expression. In relation to societies' "Outsider" labeling, Butch Anthony says, "I don't get that defining it and all, its just art...let all those 'hoopdidoos' do that, we just make it."
Disregarding a society that stifles creativity, these artists freely forge paths into their own intoxicating imaginations. And so this becomes the running theme throughout these films, that art is just that "art." From Vollis Simpson's desire to do something different, Myrtice West's sacred visions, to RA Miller's world of the "red devil", these films explore the human side of making art. So sit back and enjoy the world of The Artsiders.