The Home of Folk Art

Space Ghost: Talk show host and intergalactic folk art collector

The man behind the voice and the collection…

Voice actor George Lowe has more than 35 years in the business and more than 200 cartoon credits to his name. He is best known for his 10 years as the voice of Cartoon Network’s spoof on late-night show hosts, Space Ghost. Right now we can catch him as the promo voice for FX’s brand new show The League. But that isn’t the only place he is leaving his mark these days. He has another passion that gets him out of the voice studio and down to earth like the rest of us. It is his passion for art. He is an artist himself and an avid Folk Art collector amassing a collection worthy to be shown in museum exhibitions. Here’s George in his own words…

If there is such a thing as an art addict then “Hi, my name is George”. Let the 12 steps of healing begin.

I’ve loved art from the time I was a child and could push egg tempera around with a 40-cent school bristle brush…through college at USF (home of the world famous GraphicStudio), where I was almost the star of the MFA exhibit with the jury’s grand prize almost in hand until they realized I wasn’t an art student but in the broadcast department and still, even in my adult years, consumed with images of all kinds.

This passion never abated and instead of a car at graduation I begged my Mother, Mabel Dixon to co-sign for a Picasso Lithograph…she did and it was all over for me!

My collection of art now stands around 700 works but it was Folk Art that really grabbed me. After seeing the bang for the buck I could get when I started ($6,000 for a Wesselmann nude versus that same money spread out over a year of prime-time folk purchasing with Howard Finster, Lonnie Holley, Charlie Lucas, Jimmy Lee Sudduth or Archie Byron… there was no question about my shift out of Pop and Modern print to self-taught). I still have the Picasso and the Wesselmann’s, Rosenquist’s, Warhol, Skoglund, Dali, Sultan et al…but I couldn’t part with my Finster Superpowers or my Bessie Harvey sculptures of Sarah and Abraham or my Purvis Young’s. The poetry of these artists and their visions resonates with me on the same level as any trained artist.

My own art opened other doors for me when the High Museum in Atlanta graciously included me in their permanent collection in 1999. I’m proud to say my work is represented in the wonderful collections of Audrey Heckler, Turner Broadcasting, Crawford Communications, Larry & Jane Schlachter and Dr. Robert Cargo.

Anybody want to hop in the car and go buy some art right now?

By George Lowe for The Home of Folk Art

Fox story about George Lowe’s collection at the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts

Check out Space Ghost on The League

Selected Pieces in George Lowe’s Collection