Check out the book, The Last Folk Hero. It chronicles Dial's rise from the Pullman Box Car factory to the major museums. His relationship with Jane Fonda, the Quilters of Gee's Bend and more. http://www.amazon.com/Last-Folk-Hero-Story-Profit/dp/0977196801 Then check out the latest in folk art movements by going to YouTube and searching on Agrifolk Art.

I am so happy that I heard this story.! The work is powerful, emotional, visually fascinating and insightful. I am fortunate to be introduced to this artist by your story. Classification,,,Art !

Mr. Nelson's statement, which amounted to little more than "art would be more important here if only it were more important" (surely not the most interesting statement this excellent writer and art enthusiast could have made on the matter of local art) and the search for Dial fans at Bob Sykes BBQ rather than in one of the the area's museums, galleries, or university art departments underscores the weakness with the story's implication that Dial flies under the radar in his hometown to any greater degree than artists do anywhere. To counter, consider that Dial was the subject of an award-winning 2006 documentary Mr. Dial Has Something to Say, produced in Birmingham by Alabama Public Television. That locally produced documentary brought nationwide attention to the work of Dial and the efforts of his Atlanta-based collector Bill Arnett (whose identity seemed purposefully sidestepped in this story). And the industrial roots of the works of Mr. Dial and several other African-American self-taught artists from Alabama, including Joe Minter, Charlie Lucas, and Lonnie Holley, will be explored in The Music Lives On: Folk Song Traditions Told by Alabama Artists, opening April 15, 2011 at Vulcan Park and Museum and traveling statewide to three other venues throughout 2011 and 2012.

I am also pleased to note that the notion that artists like Dial should not be shackled with such labels as "outsider artist" or "folk artist" has long been advanced in the area, as it has been elsewhere. Curator Stephen Moos, formerly of the Birmingham Museum of Art, made this point to me in a conversation several years ago concerning a Lonnie Holley exhibit he organized. And Matt Arnett, son of Bill, is insistent on this point. In short, I think those of us in Alabama who follow art are quite enthralled with Dial's work as art, plain and simple, have been for some time, and have taken great pains to spread the word about this uniquely gifted man.

Phillip Ratliff
Director of Education
Vulcan Park and Museum