Douglass Jones Fish Art at Tybee Island, Georgia

It's hard to miss Douglas Jone's Fish Art as you roll onto Tybee Island, Georgia on Highway 80, with its bold hodge podge of cluttered, colorful folk art creations that will either have you slamming the brakes to check it out or hitting the gas past the garish sight. If you give it a chance, you will likely be surprised at all you find, once you get past the overwhelming collections of curiosities.

There's Jones's custom creations of metal fish, turtles and other marine life. There's book shelves of colored bottles, crates of LP records, boxes of old license plates and tables crammed with dozens of inexplicable curios. Half clothed tailor's dress forms, bowls full of sea glass and dog eared books for beach reading, it never ends. What caught my eye the most was a collecting of water fountains that the owner had constructed. From the 2' to 4' metal creation, water poured in and out from chalices, elephant trunks and musical instruments. When a fountain centered around water coming in and out of a shiny brass trumpet knocked me out, I couldn't resist saying to the approachable owner that I thought is was genius. Douglas Jones responded with a smile:

"Pretty fun, huh?"

He went on to answer my questions regarding where he found his raw materials by explaining that they were a combination of found objects and thrift store finds. That trumpet in the water fountain, for instance, was picked up at Goodwill. When I explained that I maintain a website featuring found objects, Urban Shelling, he was kind enough to let me take a few pictures and gave me an article that covered his background.

Douglas Jones's fish art and custom water fountains have become an institution ever since he opened his open air roadside gallery in 2002, according to Connect Savannah. Jones went on to explain in the article that he had stumbled into making his first fish art sculptures out of PVC in 1997 while trying to figure out what to do with a life that didn't seem suited for the mainstream.

A decade later, he's made a home for himself on Tybee Island, where all the locals have come to know Jones and his fish art. In more recent years, Jones's gallery has evolved fro the road side attraction into a large indoor and outdoor installation that seems to be teeming with customers steadily asking Jones for more information on his creation and the collections of other objects that he has for sale.

His open air Douglas Jones Fish Art Gallery is located at 1207 Highway 80 East on Tybee Island, Georgia.