Land Between the Lakes and the LBL area is the perfect place for imperfect art. The broken, fractured concrete statues of Enoch Tanner Wickham of Montgomery County, Tennessee are an enduring testament to the notion that once art is created it can never be destroyed. This posting is titled “LBL Broken art of E.T. Wickham” to give homage and credit to the artist. The artist is gone, the art is damaged; but the creation, broken and imperfect, remains.
Countless citizens and visitors take a pilgrimage to these treasurers that lie in the rural area of Montgomery County in the historic Palmyra community. E.T. Wickham (1883 – 1970) was a folk artist who took inspiration from events of his native Tennessee and of events of the day.
He created unique statues in concrete and iron and displayed them for all to see and enjoy. And vandals broke their heads off. Isn’t that the true way it goes? Here someone takes the effort and time to give a creation for us to enjoy and then some deviant decides this is not good. I do not like it. I will destroy it.
Well, they are damaged and some may think destroyed. But there is an eerie beauty and simple majesty and ode to the human spirit and the spirit of art itself to view and consider the art and even the artistic endeavor. It took a great deal of time and attention to create these pieces of folk art. I was not there, but no doubt E.T. Wickham probably had to endure taunts and criticisms from family and friends and folks who had no idea who he was or what he was doing.
Well all of that and all of them may be gone now. The folk art statues are flawed and damaged. But they remain. They continue to inspire and give pause to those and for those who wish to consider the raw, ruptured beauty of the pieces.
This one, the headless bull rider and bull, is one that jumped out at me from the woods. There are several other statues in this area. Most of the other ones are more out in the open and more readily available for photography opportunities. But the headless bull rider on his bull was the one that screamed out to me, figuratively, to take its photo.
It is an odd tribute to creation. All is art. All is broken. Broken art is everywhere. There is no place on this earth where that is more apparent and readily accessible than in our Land Between the Lakes area.
