{"id":74131,"date":"2017-03-12T06:07:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-12T06:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/world-renowned-whirligigs-go-on-display-in-n-c.html"},"modified":"2017-03-12T06:07:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-12T06:07:25","slug":"world-renowned-whirligigs-go-on-display-in-n-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/travel\/world-renowned-whirligigs-go-on-display-in-n-c.html","title":{"rendered":"World-renowned whirligigs go on display in N.C."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CLOSE<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/51cd7_29906170001_5355759202001_5355731195001-vs.jpg\" width=\"540px\" height=\"304px\" class=\"ui-pluto-still-img\" \/><span class=\"js-close-embed-overlay close-embed-overlay\">x<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"pluto-embed-overlay-title\">Embed<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"close-share-overlay\">x<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"pluto-share-overlay-title\">Share<\/p>\n<p class=\"video-desc\">\n    Artist Vollis Simpson transformed objects he found in a junkyard into massive wind-powered contraptions. A North Carolina park full of his art pieces will open in November.<br \/>\n    <span class=\"credit\">USA TODAY<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"module-position-PyqfM5vkY_s\" class=\"storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module story-expandable-photo-module\">\n<aside class=\"single-photo expandable-collapsed\"><span class=\"toggle\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"image-credit-wrap\"><span class=\"js-caption-wrapper\"><span class=\"cutline js-caption\">Wilson, a county seat in eastern North Carolina, is restoring whirligigs &#8212; outlandish wind-powered metal contraptions built by Vollis Simpson \u2013 at its new Whirligig Park. Thirty-one will eventually be on display.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">(Photo: John Bordsen for USA TODAY)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>WILSON, N.C. \u2014 You really need to be outdoors and looking up to see the art of Vollis Simpson. And it helps if there\u2019s a breeze.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>The late folk artist was known for his \u201coutsider\u201d kinetic pieces called whirligigs \u2014 outlandish wind-powered metal contraptions that have been displayed at museums from Singapore to Baltimore to Atlanta, as well as at the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Simpson also left quite a mark in his Down East hometown, where his smaller creations that could fetch $600 to $1,000 are displayed in Wilson offices, living rooms and yards. And this spring, 20 of his multi-ton works \u2014 some the size of sports cars and all mounted on steel poles as sturdy as cellphone towers \u2014\u00a0are spinning in the new Whirligig Park.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>That downtown park already looks like a crazy carnival set-up scene from a 1960s hippie comic book. When it officially opens in November, 31 enormous Simpson machines, all restored, will be on display.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Like da Vinci, Simpson was an inner-schooled genius who could bridge the worlds of art and engineering. He didn\u2019t sculpt wood or stone and couldn\u2019t paint like an artist, but he knew how to use weight, balance, cogs and ball bearings to create geared contraptions that would spin \u2014 easily and silently \u2014\u00a0when a breeze happened by.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a \u201cMayberry\u201d element to all this. This is how Simpson (1919-2013) summed up what he did: \u201cI have a lot of junk and I have to do somethin\u2019 with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Locals describe him as \u201cold-school salt-of-the-earth\u201d and a \u201cgeneral curmudgeon\u201d not affected by the artistic fame that found him late in life. He barely left the county, they note, aside from the time he had to drive some of his whirligigs to Atlanta for display at the 1996 Olympics.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>The first hint of what was to make him famous came during World War II, on the island of Saipan in the Pacific theater. He rigged up a wind-powered washing machine for the Army Air Corps to use.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>No blueprints<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Back in Wilson \u2014 three hours away from the Kitty Hawk winds that attracted the Wright Brothers \u2014 Simpson started a trucking business that hauled heavy equipment and transported metal to dumps or to where he lived in Lucama, a crossroads just outside of town. He retired at 65 but made a weekly drive a half-hour south to Goldsboro to buy \u201cstuff\u201d from a junkyard. Otherwise, he holed up in his Lucama workshop welding odd frames, cutting and affixing metal panels and assembling projects, three or four at a time, that would spin in the wind. Simpson coated his creations in inexpensive Krylon paint and decorated them with recycled reflectors.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>With no blueprints (Simpson never finished high school) he began by building gigantic ones. \u201cHe would dream them, then build them,\u201d says Henry Walston, chairman of the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park and Museum. \u201cHe was limited only by imagination and what was on hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>The rough-hewn tinkerer had no models upon which to draw. There were no windmills in Wilson County.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Blades on Simpson\u2019s contraptions were carefully bent for wind-catching pitch. \u201cJust keep him greased,\u201d he would say. Then again, some pieces are wind-propelled not by blades but by wheels festooned with carefully angled tin milkshake-maker cups.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Juan Logan, a retired professor of studio art at UNC Chapel Hill, cites the Simpson piece called <em>BBB Blue Star<\/em>, saying that while it weighs almost 1,600 pounds, \u201cIt\u2019s almost like you can blow on it and make it turn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Simpson eventually had 30-some spinning behemoths mounted atop metal, utility-style poles on his Lucama compound. This attracted teen cruisers; the local buzz grew and soon reached art circles. In the 1990s, an affluent art lover scouting for pieces for Baltimore\u2019s new American Visionary Art Museum came to visit. She commissioned a 3-ton whirligig that was, like what she saw on Simpson\u2019s property, an elaborate assembly of junk that gently moved in the wind.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Orders for public installations began to come in. Simpson, meanwhile, began making less elaborate yard-size and desktop pieces. He chatted with visitors who came by to view finished smaller works for sale. Simpson did not haggle over prices but was known to give away dinky whirligigs to kids.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>A total of 84, of all sizes, are catalogued in Wilson. Logan says there are hundreds more, including six pieces in front of a dead strip mall in New Mexico, where an arid climate keeps them in great shape.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><span class=\"gallery-sidebar-close\" \/><\/p>\n<form method=\"post\" class=\"util-bar-share-form-facebook\"><span class=\"util-bar-share-form-status-facebook\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"util-bar-share-loading-facebook\" src=\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/51cd7_facebook-loading.gif\" \/><span class=\"util-bar-share-status-text-facebook\" \/><\/span><span class=\"util-bar-share-submit-btn-facebook\">Post to Facebook<\/span><\/form>\n<h4 class=\"util-bar-success-title util-bar-success-title-facebook\">Posted!<\/h4>\n<p class=\"util-bar-success-description util-bar-success-description-facebook\">A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"thumbslist scrollable-content\">\n<li class=\"thumb-item active\"><span class=\"thumb-count\">1 of 19<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">2 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">3 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">4 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">5 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">6 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">7 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">8 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">9 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">10 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">11 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">12 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">13 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">14 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">15 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">16 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">17 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">18 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"thumb-item \"><span class=\"thumb-count\">19 of 19<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"slide-nav prev gallery-prev\" rel=\"prev\">Last Slide<\/a><a class=\"slide-nav next gallery-next\" rel=\"next\">Next Slide<\/a><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, Simpson\u2019s larger efforts go for tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was an absolutely amazing man,\u201d Logan says. \u201cThe whole notion of \u2018outside artists\u2019 has changed \u2014 and he was a sculptor.\u00a0His work is terrific.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most important thing was realizing he took the whole notion of repurposing materials to a new level; few things were wasted. On top of that, he was extremely patient. While some pieces were created quickly, others took a while. He was deliberate. He knew what he was doing. He would sometimes borrow things from something else he was working on \u2014 and that\u2019s part of the whole idea. Many times, a young artist won\u2019t take the chance to destroy a work to make another piece into something better. He would do it. That\u2019s a kind of artistic maturity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Simpson accepted fame with hesitation. But in his last years, he was concerned about what would happen to his \u201cstuff\u201d \u2014 the finished works mounted outside his workshop and the assorted junk-in-progress dotting his grounds.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t need to fret. Lovers of Simpson\u2019s folk art and the town of Wilson amassed $8 million through grants, sponsorships, fundraisers and donations for acquisition of Simpson\u2019s enormous whirligigs, the downtown park site, the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Conservation Headquarters repair shop and more.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Long, who knew the elderly Simpson, stepped in to preserve and curate Wilson\u2019s Whirligig Park as manager of conservation for the project. This has involved Logan commuting from his studio near Charlotte three days a week for at least four years.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 3.5-hour drive.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>The conservation headquarters combines forensic cultural anthropology and machine shop expertise. Pay a visit and see for yourself.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Where giants are restored<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>The park and conservation headquarters are blocks apart in a former low-slung warehouse district.\u00a0 Visit the repair shop \u2014 open weekdays, free of charge.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Out on the fenced-in asphalt, parts of in-progress restorations lay about like tin dinosaur bones. Go inside the former tobacco shed, sign the guest book, and someone can show you around. \u00a0You\u2019ll see members of the 11-member artisan crew restoring large Simpson pieces that will join the 20 already up and spinning at Whirligig Park. The weight of each whirligig is about 3 tons.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>Tour groups are welcome. \u00a0(Several from the state\u2019s school for the blind came there to touch and turn.)<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>You can find out:<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 How the gigantic sculptures are taken apart and reconstructed. Surfaces are sanded, chemically treated and carefully resurfaced with preservation-worthy, industrial-caliber semi-gloss paint matched to Simpson\u2019s original colors.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0The balance within larger whirligigs is such that even large blades spin easily and quietly.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0The pieces at Whirligig Park aren\u2019t named \u2014 Simpson wasn\u2019t into that \u2014 but have nicknames. \u201cTricycle Globe\u201d drew the attention of a visiting historian who noticed its series of spinning, concentric orbs made it look like an atomic bomb &#8230; and that Simpson had affixed a pair of castoff \u201cB\u201d decals \u2014 a possible reference to the \u201cBig Boy\u201d atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0Some pieces sustained damage over the Lucama years from tornadoes and hurricanes. \u201cGunshot Bicycle Man,\u201d which features a guy who pedals when a breeze hits, was the victim of target-shooting vandals. That piece, now mounted at Whirligig Park, has a duplicate rider \u2014 on a duplicate 1971 Schwinn Speed frame that took curators two and a half\u00a0years to locate.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>As Simpson would have done, replacement parts are often recycled scraps.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0Restored pieces in Whirligig Park spin faster than they did on Simpson\u2019s property. The one-block park is on cleared land on one of Wilson\u2019s highest elevations (the Lucama shop is in a wooded area).<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>At the park, by the way, pieces are installed so vehicles approaching them after dark can enjoy the full-glow Vollis Simpson treatment in their headlights.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>What goes around<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>The Simpson effect has already kicked in. His works are the No. 1 attraction in a city that pulls 20,000 visitors per year.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>A Simpson museum will follow in Whirligig Station, a renovated tobacco warehouse that\u2019ll display 53 smaller (life-size and tabletop) pieces.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>The tourism people in Wilson are compiling a map locating Simpson pieces you can see around town. The visitor center alone holds more than 25 smaller works.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>You can also get directions to Vollis Simpson\u2019s place in Lucama, where three giant whirligigs will remain.\u00a0 From U.S. 301 in Wilson, head southwest to Wiggins Mill Road. Then head west through thickets of machine shops, residential developments, pastures, double-wides and an array of rural churches. In about 7 miles you come to a woods-lined dip where, through fences, you\u2019ll see the family\u2019s trio of remaining whirligigs.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s where the rural route is intersected by Willing Worker Road and Windmill Road.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p>More information:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wilsonwhirligigpark.org\/\">wilsonwhirligigpark.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Where you can also see whirligigs by Vollis Simpson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Atlanta:<\/strong> Courtland Avenue and McGill Street, installed for 1996 Olympics.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Baltimore:<\/strong> American Visionary Art Museum. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avam.org\/\">avam.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Hickory, N.C.:<\/strong> Hickory Museum of Art. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hickoryart.org\/\">hickoryart.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Norfolk, Va.:<\/strong> Baron  Ellin Gordon Art Galleries at Old Dominion University. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.odu.edu\/\">odu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pittsboro, N.C.:<\/strong> Small Museum of Folk Art. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smallmuseumfolkart.org\/\">smallmuseumfolkart.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Raleigh, N.C.:<\/strong> North Carolina Museum of Art. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncartmuseum.org\/\">ncartmuseum.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>St. Paul, Minn.:\u00a0<\/strong>Science Museum of Minnesota. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smm.org\/\">smm.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sheboygan, Wis.:\u00a0<\/strong>John Michael Kohler Arts Center, in yearlong &#8220;The Road Less Traveled&#8221; exhibit. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jmkac.org\/\">jmkac.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Williamsburg, Va.:<\/strong> Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (Colonial Williamsburg). <a href=\"http:\/\/www.history.org\/\">history.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><!-- cxenseparse_start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Wilmington, N.C.:<\/strong> Cameron Art Museum. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cameronartmuseum.org\/\">cameronartmuseum.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- cxenseparse_end --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CLOSEx Embed x Share Artist Vollis Simpson transformed objects he found in a junkyard into massive wind-powered contraptions. A North Carolina park full of his art pieces will open in November. USA TODAY Wilson, a county seat in eastern North Carolina, is restoring whirligigs &#8212; outlandish wind-powered metal contraptions built by Vollis Simpson \u2013 at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-74131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-top-travel-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}