Harry “Hi Daddy” Marsh

1893 -

Harry Marsh, who was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, ended up working in the coal mines of Birmingham, Alabama at the age of 10.  His memory style paintings of oil which have graced the homes of Memphis, Tennessee, were influenced by his many careers which included stints as a locomotive fireman, switchman, laundryman, jockey, sign painter, and political cartoonist all before he became a full time artist at 72 and he painted into his 90’s.  His intimates called him “Hi Daddy”, a title bestowed upon him by his grandchild and his wife, Honey, and he could easily be classified as a primitive but had a cartoonist directness and playfulness and wanted to charm the viewer with a sense of nostalgia and realism. I spent summers in Chicago and there was one beautiful Harry Marsh of kid’s climbing to the man in the moon in my folk’s collection.  My Dad sent me on a journey to find more of Marsh’s work and that is essentially what started me on my journey of collecting self-taught art.  Thanks, Hi Daddy!