Photo by Mark Sindler

November 2011. The astonishing legacy of David Butler has come home to Patterson, Louisiana.

He had the coolest bike I ever saw. Festooned with flags and ornaments, an assortment of tin cans and horns, and all kinds of metal shaped and placed at odd angles, the bike was a living, rolling work of art and one of David Butler’s prized possessions.

Later he’d become internationally recognized as an American original—a folk artist of the highest caliber—but it was his bike that I remember most about the Tin Man.

The story of the Tin Man has its roots in the small town of Patterson, Louisiana, which at the turn of the twentieth century was known as the Cypress Capital of the world, boasting three different lumber yards which delivered sturdy and long-long-lasting wood all over the country.

At first glance, Patterson may seem an unlikely place to produce an artist whose “outsider” art now sells for thousands of dollars. But if you dig deeply, you begin to understand that it was exactly his surroundings and his upbringing in this south Louisiana town best known for strong lumber, sweet sugar cane, and soaring aviation history that could mold an artist with David Butler’s style and imagination.

He was born the son of a carpenter father and deeply religious mother, and it is evident that this background shaped his later artistic creations. After a job-related incident left him unable to work, Butler, who could neither read nor write, turned to making simple, colorful sculptures to express his creativity.

Because the main ingredient in his artwork was metal, he became known as the Tin Man around town, and like his namesake in The Wizard of Oz, David “Tin Man” Butler was always in search of something. But instead of a heart, Patterson’s Tin Man was in search of his dreams—those nightly visions that came to him just before and during sleep that he felt compelled to bring to life using common materials not known for their artistic value.

The unconventional materials he used included metal, wood, wire, chalk or crayon, plastic, twine, and leftover house paint. He worked and molded these materials together using a meat cleaver, hammer, and axe head. His designs are colorful, dream-like, and kinetic. What first started out as simple animals and objects later broadened into whimsical three-dimensional creations that showcased a deeper sense of intellect and ingenuity.

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