The Museum Of Wonder

What is the Museum of wonder?

Curiosities from around the world and beyond! (but mostly from Alabama!)

Started in the 1970’s as my taxidermy shop and artifact room, the Museum of Wonder is now filled with art, artifacts and antiques, and some very strange items. Visit The Drive Thru Museum, open 7 days a week. 970 Hwy 169 Seale , Alabama 36875

Where did the idea for the museum come from?

When I was 14 years old I found a dinosaur bone in the woods around Seale and displayed in a old barn and people started coming around to see it and the museum took off

How long has it existed?

since 1976

Where did the idea of a drive-through museum come from?

So many people started coming I had to build another museum on the highway to handle the traffic .

What mediums of art do you work in?

Found objects

At first, as a youngster, I started drawing pictures of local characters who lived around my home town of Seale, Alabama. I drew portraits of them on cardboard or on other readily available materials. Then, as time went by and more and more people became interested in my work, I began to make increasingly elaborate pieces, incorporating various elements and materials – most of which were bits and pieces that others had simply discarded as trash.

Recently I have developed an interest in incorporating graffiti-like imagery in my work and in making increasingly complex sculptural pieces and large installations from scrap metal, various found objects, and other most unlikely components.

How do you source all the art in the museum?

I make it all or trade with friends for their art

Where did the inspiration for your own pieces come from?

My work strongly reflects the influences of my upbringing in the deep rural South. It illustrates an abiding interest that I’ve had since childhood in the processes of nature and the inner-connectiveness of the many aspects of the natural environment. My university training was in biology. I have always been fascinated and deeply moved by the wonders of nature, and ever since the youngest years of my life I have spent countless hours and days studying my natural surroundings. Through that, I developed a uniquely personal way of categorizing and illustrating the processes and components of life — “Intertwangleism.”

Inter = to mix

twangle = a distinctive way of speaking, thinking, behaving, assessing

ism = a theory.

Where would you like to take the project in the future?

Thinking about building another drive thru art gallery in Marfa, Texas

How long did it take to put together?

a lifetime

Where did you get the materials to build the museum?

Tore down old houses and reclaimed shipping containers

I read online that there is an auction held occasionally? is that true? if so can we have some information about that? when? where? what do you sell?

The Possum Trot auction is EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT 6:30PM CST. If you come down here often enough, you’ll probably find what you’re looking for. The Possum Trot is not just an auction, it’s a place where the people come to relax and tell stories.

‘Bring a Truckload to sell’ or ‘Buy a truckload to take home’.

Any crazy/cool/interesting stories about the project?

Leon Russell liked my art so much he traded me his rock and roll Cadillac which I still drive. I have turned it into an art car “The Loser” I have glued trophies and have a mounted deer head on the front.

How is the museum funded? all though art sales? pateron?

Blood, sweat and tears

What’s the best way for something wanting to know more about the museum to find out?

www.museumofwonder.com or email sales@museumofwonder.com