Creative Growth Windows @ Barneys New York

The word "handicapped" is often defined as "working with less," but the art at Creative Growth, in Oakland, CA, seems to indicate the opposite. These artists appear to be working with more of everything: more freedom, more imagination and most of all, more truth. Their handicaps may have forced them to live in a world outside of and very different from ours, but these "outsider" artists are no less brilliant than those deemed by our society as "normal" (those noted as intelligent, clever, on-trend or tasteful). All art is experiential and draws on the lives and realities of its creators and these artists are no different. With normalcy and logic redefined by their personal views of the world, their imagination soars to extraordinary places, enabling them to express ideas free of deceit, pretense, agendas or societal constraints. The result is art that's as pure as it gets.
Paper Magazine thought it would be wonderful and appropriate for their issue celebrating art and fashion to invite some of the most amazing artists from Creative Growth to illustrate and interpret some favorite fashion looks for the new season. How can anyone not love seeing this world we call fashion -- which is usually such an insider's game -- so purely and gorgeously through the eyes of these magical outsiders?
PAPER's Creative Growth fashion illustrations will be shown in a window at Barneys on Madison Avenue, in NYC, from Sept. 4-25. (Click on image to enlarge)

Via Paper Magazine