1. Jon Serl is best remembered as a native painter in the tradition of the American artists Grandma Moses and Edward Hicks.
19 Facts About Jon Serl
1. 2.
Jon Serl worked as a vaudeville artist named Slats, as a voiceover performer for Hollywood named Ned Palmer, and as a migrant fruit collector known as Jerry Palmer.
3.
Jon Serl was born as Josef Searls in 1894 in Olean, New York.
4.
Jon Serl was called Jerry Palmer when the silent film era ended in the late 1920s with the first Sound film.
5.
Jon Serl was a voiceover artist for actors whose voices did not fit well in 'talkies'.
6.
Jon Serl was Ned Palmer during the Great Depression, a migrant fruit picker.
7.
Jon Serl's house was dilapidated and next to his porch there was a written sign "CLEAN ENOUGH TO BE HEALTHY, DIRTY ENOUGH TO BE HAPPY".
8.
Jon Serl traded his paintings for rent, with Florence Kochevar, the owner of the San Gabriel property.
9.
Jon Serl was a self-taught painter who started painting seriously in his mid-fifties.
10.
Jon Serl wanted to buy a painting for his house in San Juan Capistrano, California, but did not have the money.
11.
Between 1945 and 1985, Jon Serl did more than 1200 paintings inspired by nature.
12.
Jon Serl refused to exhibit for 20 years until he finally agreed to display his work in the 1970s; his first exhibition was held in 1970 when he was 76.
13.
Jon Serl's work is held in permanent collections in several museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the American Folk Art Museum.
14.
Jon Serl mainly painted characters that were known to be expressionistic and complex, but brash and bold.
15.
Jon Serl's works explored the inner and the outer worlds with a narrative that often expressed dualities such as female and male, good and evil, or nature and technology.
16.
Jon Serl was a voiceover artist for silent film actors who could not make the transition to the talkies.
17.
One of Jon Serl's best known paintings is Between Two Worlds, painted in 1982.
18.
Messer said that Jon Serl was a role model for him.
19.
Jon Serl said that Jon Serl completely regenerates his painting practice and that he was a part of his rebirth as a person.