Hello,
I have always loved making stuff. As a teenager I made a pin-ball machine that sort of worked. I usually preferred to start from scratch with found objects – pre-made kits - aside from model cars - held little interest for me. My “formal art training” has been four art classes I took at a New Haven community college following my discharge from the military. My instructor got me to believe that you could still make art even if you could not draw a horse – mine looked like primitive dogs. When I discovered the outsider art movement I felt a re-ignition of my making stuff days. Here was a bunch of men and women making art that was outside the box of tradition, and they did it because they wanted to.
I was sent to war as a ship’s carpenter on the U.S.S. Boston, a heavy cruiser that went up and down the coast between Danang and the DMZ hurling 8 and 5 inch shells at the people of Vietnam. Not exactly heroic - I made foot lockers and plaques for officers and visiting “importants”. I chose this over induction and an M-16 in the paddies. At this stage of the war there was a lot of anti-war and anti-military sentiment in the ranks. I quickly found the lefties on the ship and we would discuss the war on the 06 level ( waaaay up high) where you could do just about anything without getting caught. To this day I still smile at the irony of the U.S. Navy teaching me to question authority. Thank you captain.
It was from fellow sailors that I learned about a budding group of Vietnam vets who were challenging the morality and legality of the war. I joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War two weeks after my discharge and worked in the state chapter’s office in New Haven, Connecticut. As we marched for peace I met a lot of vets who were developing their personal means of expression against what they had participated in. Many were writers, some, like John Kerry, were revving up to enter the halls of congress, many became homeless and hurt, and some of us eventually took our new-found political energy into our basements, garages and, spare rooms and began to make stuff. Until recently, my art-life consisted of little more than making my strange machines and showing them to friends who came by to visit. From the encouragement of kind friends, I made the leap to show my pieces in the northeastern Connecticut area and to create this site. Over the years my house was nicknamed The Stucco Palace and it is there that I make my stuff.
Included in this site are various pieces and photographs that I have created over the last many years - egads!!!!!, - and resources for those who wish to learn more about working for peace. I invite comments, please send me a quick e-mail and let me know what you think.
Randy McMahon