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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend July 15, 2005 Jeannine Burke enjoys documenting the strange and humorous yard art she encounters during her walks throughout the Rogue Valley, such as Suzanne Roberts� Fourth of July-clad goose near the Rogue Valley Manor. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Walking exposes one to art Exercising for her health, Jeannine Burk in her wanderings has discovered a plethora of strange yard decorations By JOHN DARLING for the Mail Tribune Two things inspired 72-year-old Jeannine Burk to walk every street in Ashland: the need for exercise to work out the kinks of her severe arthritis and a lifelong safari in search of the strange. Strange? We’re talking about: A beer-guzzling (stuffed) cowboy sitting in an outhouse, right there in someone’s front yard ... a hound with its head buried in the lawn with a sign, "This is what happened to the last dog who pooped in my yard ... Batman riding a pink flamingo ... a holiday wreath made of high heels ... a Don Quixote fashioned of welded junk ... a Hobbit on a swing ...a forest of shovels planted handle first ... a row of bowling balls atop a wooden fence ... and plenty of trompe l’oeil painted on the sides of homes and garages to make visitors do double-takes — is that really a zebra sticking its head out of that barn? In Talent, Burk took some friends driving to show them a vivid — some would say suggestive — piece of outsider art topped off by a female figure with hubcaps for breasts. "I told them, ‘I love it!’ " Burk said, "And they said, ‘You would!’ " Readily tagging herself an outsider, Burk defines outsider art as eccentric, spontaneous, vividly provocative art that makes no attempt at conformity, class or "fine art." Burk, a native of Phoenix and now a Rogue Valley Manor resident, volunteers to drive elderly people to the doctor. What to do while she waits? She walks, marking each street off the map with yellow marker as she goes � and searching yards in her quest for the strange. Advertisement "Most people call it junk and think it should be cleaned up, but I call it interesting and strange," she said. "I mean, these people are creative, free souls, maybe nuts, but they’re the kind of people I like." Burk has created a slide show of outsider art that she’s presented at the Manor, at Southern Oregon Learning in Retirement and to any group interested in a light, eye-opening presentation. Burk has thick albums of photos from her 50 years of living and walking West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Century City and Santa Monica. She was featured in area newspapers and on television news there. She just finished walking every street in Ashland and is now embarking on Jacksonville, Phoenix, Talent and Medford. "I loved it. I didn’t expect to find much yard art when I got back to the Rogue Valley, but Ashland has been so interesting and full of creative people," she said. "Jacksonville has been good and there have been a few good streets in Medford so far." During her working years, Burk was a secretary for think-tanks, University of California Los Angeles Medical Center and the Rand Corp. She found herself involved in a lot of research and learning — and able to find interesting jobs anywhere, she said. Coming back to live in the Rogue Valley for the first time since 1950, she was shocked by the changes. But she found herself welcoming the benefits of "yuppie culture," especially the coffee stands where she can get her morning lattes and, in summer, her mocha frappes. "She’s fantastic and has a lot of drive," said friend Ruth Roberts of Medford, who teaches Spanish to Burk in preparation for another overseas trip. "She has the ability to ferret out the mysterious and enjoy it tremendously." A strong athlete in her youth, Burk pursues her all-street quest in a shuffling gait because of her arthritis. She usually walks alone because she can’t get anyone interested in "street walking," as it became called when Nan Booth walked every street in Medford in the 1980s. "Once I was starting up Table Rock and someone called out, ‘Hey, you can’t do that,’ and I said, ‘Oh yeah? Watch me,’" said Burk with a smile. "I hurt every day, so it doesn’t matter if I’m here walking or there at home. When you’re enthralled with where you are, you forget that you hurt." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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