Dolly and Steve

Maybelle, Snowglobes and Alligators

Gallery owners Dolly Vehlow and Steve Hessler have collected self-taught folk art for more than thirty years. The collection began as an attraction to the creativity of the art and has been sustained through the relationships they forged with many of the artists. The collection has grown not because of a need to be acquisitive, but because of a passion for the art itself, and their appreciation for how every work of art in their collection is a piece of the artist.
Dolly's lifelong interest in art began in 1956 when she won Maybelle, a 24" walking doll in the local IGA coloring contest. Steve’s collecting started under the Christmas tree with a toy animal farm set. It meandered through various collections from military patches to Lionel trains until, and when he bought his first house, he chose art instead of furniture.

Their propensity for collecting together started with the gift of a Florida snow globe in 1981 and has grown to a collection of over 800 globes, the tackier the better. In 1990, a cypress alligator at Pelligro Gallery in New Orleans led them to Dr. Bob Schaffer, and thus began their adventure in discovering self-taught art.
Dolly and Steve view their role as collectors as an opportunity to preserve, promote and bring awareness to others of self-taught art; art created in response to the internal voice of a creative muse. They believe that while intuitive art stands on its own merit, knowing more about who created it and what inspired or directed the art brings a greater value to the experience. Intuitive art is not a category or a subset of art; it is art. Dolly and Steve chose to collect it because for them it does what all art is supposed to do; it speaks to them. The goal of Gallery O on H is to share that “voice.”