Webb Gallery

209-211 W. Franklin Waxahachie, TX 75165
Phone: 972-938-8085
Email: webbart@sbcglobal.net
Website: www.webbartgallery.com

Click here to see the on-line gallery of “Art from the Lodge Hall”

Click here for additional Lodge Art images from Webb Gallery site
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the Webb gallery bio

Bruce and Julie Webb first hooked up in the early 80’s punk rock scene of Dallas, Texas. It was this first common interest in the unbridled individualistic emotion of the music that has continued to be the vein of what they look for in all art, people, places, and objects.

Bruce’s mother and grandparents moved to Waxahachie, Texas from South India in the fifties. His grand parents were missionaries who collected carvings of Hindu deities and other folk carvings. This was his first exposure to the power of folk art and where his own collecting bug began to itch. Julie grew up in suburban Garland, Texas and started collecting vintage clothes and other oddities from Garland’s plethora of thrift stores in her teenage years.

After falling in love at a skateboard ditch, their relationship of the shared search of collecting blossomed quickly. From flea market finds, thrift store hunts, and loads of books and records, the Webbs quickly filled each space they inhabited and soon had thoughts of selling to fund their collecting.

They had already done a few flea markets; so when they moved to Waxahachie in 1987; it seemed natural to go and open an antique shop. “We basically bought the oddest stuff we could find. We started buying fraternal lodges when they closed. We bought folky paintings from churches, carnival banners, big things from factories, and things that just looked weird.”

“We have always been drawn to hand made items. Whether it be a carved whimsey, quilt, primitive furniture, painted carnival banners or just about any hand made items, utilitarian or non-utilitarian; the simplicity and directness of the item itself, coupled with the soulful need or love of the item by the maker always seems to radiate and trigger to feed our collecting.”

“It was this interest that has drawn us to seek these items and or their makers. Our searches have lead us into closed Masonic, Odd Fellow and Knights of Pythias lodges to gather or document the hand made pieces of iconography within them. We also knocked on doors, hit thrift stores, flea markets, and antique shows across the country to find treasured pieces that are links to someone and the time they took to create something that once was special to them and would be special to us.”

It was during such hunts that the Webbs began to meet artists currently working with no formal artistic training. Artists creating only for themselves, with the sides of their houses, front yards, and walls inside their homes serving as their galleries. These folks were using simple materials, which they had found or had easy access to, and creating art pieces for various reasons-rarely the reason of “making art”. Each artist has a different drive to create; whether it be for utilitarian purposes, from visions and dreams, to fill a void of loneliness or extra time due to an illness, or just a way to express their views to the world outside of their own. The artists and their drive to create fascinated Julie and Bruce. They soon found themselves traveling to meet more of these artists. They photographed these people in their own environments, began to record and write about our visits with them, and of course collected the work. The Webbs soon found out there were other people interested in these self-taught artists as they were.

“We look for self-taught artists with no formal training and the need to create, but not for art’s sake. We are always in search of the miraculous. That something that spoke to us and reached out to grab our souls. It was in 1989 that we first began to include work by contemporary self-taught artists amongst the older folky stuff we had. We collected beyond the seams of our home and felt it was time to share the treasures.”

In 1992 they opened a public gallery space. Since that time Webb Gallery have grown and matured into Texas’ largest gallery exhibiting art by self-taught artists, representing close to 50 artists from across the South, with a particular interest in finding and representing self-taught artists in Texas.

After outgrowing a couple different locations, the Webbs purchased a 10,000 sq. ft. historic building in 1994 to which they moved their gallery and living quarters.
The gallery hosts rotating shows and an ever-increasing amount of art.
“Our love for this vein of artwork, call it what you may, is apparent; and our reason for doing what we do means sharing these beautiful people and the things and places they create with others. “