Dan the Bucket Man

Dan the Bucket Man was on natures time - seasons, moons, day, and night. It's a very different life from living on man made time - the work week, hours, minutes, seconds. As an artist Dan lived on the creative edge always on the job but what a job it is surfing the creative waves sometimes waiting for the right wave to come in. "There is that creative force in the universe that flows our way every once in a while your lucky when you can harmonize with it." He loved his work.

Dan was an army man with various other jobs under his belt, always with a creative bent in the background. One day he was playing with a lighter and some plastic utensils. He melt them into wild animal sculptures. Immediately he was hooked on melting plastic. The formula for the plastic changed so he moved on the plastic five gallon buckets thus becoming the Bucket Man. Over time he developed his tools and techniques.

On many a fine summer day I would stop by Bucket Mans Roadside Bazaar. You'll never see anything like the roadside bazaar. It was built out of scrounged boards and tin and put together in Dan's special flavor of construction, nothing measured nothing leveled or cut just slapped together held together by sheer will power. We would sit on the upper deck in the shade of a tramp-o-lean tarp draped over the roof, having a beer watching the crowd come and go. It felt good being outside of the world that stands for so many things refined, perfected, commercial. We were at the source were ideas come out raw and are handed to the world to be refined, perfected, commercialized.

What was Bucket Mans art? The first time I saw it I wasn't sure about it. Plastic buckets melted into hideous creatures whether they were mythical or otherwise. His yard was filled with creatures who crawled out of the dark dimension of Dan's mind into the light of reality. It dawned on me I was privileged to be in a wonder land, a magical environment, like Rock City.

One of the magical features of Dan's art is the use of scrounged materials. He was one of those people who saw beyond the pretension that a material only has value if it is sitting on a shelf ready to be sold for a high dollar. In fact his whole world was scrounged, unwanted materials turned through the process of his mind into a wonder land.

Over the years he became well known in the world of folk art, outsider art, the world of self taught, self made, gonna do it my way because I have no choice but to do it my way. He did the circuit of folk art shows and festivals like Who Fest, Ken Tuck, Burning Man. He loved to demonstrate his art at schools or for reporters. Thousands of pieces of his art are out there inspiring people all over the world from the walls of house of blues to museums to private residences.

He passed away one summer day. The time doesn't matter only that he inspired people to see the possibility of freedom, the opportunity of creativity. Even near the end when he was sick the fire always shone in his eyes. He said he was ready to go he had lived a good life and had no complaints. He was never rich with money but he could care less as long as he could make his imagination materialize.