Distinctly Montana Magazine

80 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 4 or shape). Pareidolia is the ten- dency to impose meaning on some kind of nebulous stimulus (usually visual) so that one sees objects, patterns, or meaning where there is none. Kids do this all the time; think of a child's drawing of a house, where the windows look like eyes and the door resembles a mouth opened wide in surprise. Lee Steen specifically is cate- gorized as an "outsider artist" on Wikipedia, for what it's worth. Coined by an art critic in 1972 to differentiate the work of conven- tionally trained artists from that of self-taught artists, the term "outsider art" or art brut ("raw art") seems to be more of a mar- keting ploy than anything. The words "conventional art" bring to mind a certain kind of hotel room blandness, and there are certainly works of art that surprise, shock, and push boundaries less than others. At the same time, one person's con- vention is another's nightmare. Considering too that outsider artists are defined as such in many instances for their atypi- cal life experiences—as spiritu- al hermits, psychiatric patients, and people otherwise living on the margins—it makes a certain kind of sense that the rest of world pathologizes the creative output of people who have re- jected conventionally accept- able ambitions and lifestyles. Infinitely more interesting than deducing a person's mental state from the creative work they pro- duce is to simply appreciate that work for what it is. When conven- tionally trained artists Todd and Young encountered the Tree Peo- ple for the first time, they did ap- preciate the Steens' work, despite the "ordinariness and even mun- dane quality of [their] conversa- tion" with the two brothers. They appreciated the work so much, in fact, that they organized a 1973 exhibit of Lee Steen's statues at the Yellowstone Art Center, three years after Dee passed and LEE STEEN: A MONTANA ORIGINAL, A PERMANENT COLLECTION EXHIBIT AT PARIS GIBSON SQUARE MUSEUM OF ART. IMAGE CREDIT: DARRIN SCHREDER (2)

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