The couple who discovered Justin McCarthy Self-Taught Artist

/>/>The story of how artists Dorothy and Sterling Strauser came upon Justin McCarthy’s naive art strewn on the lawn at an outdoor market in 1960 is told in numerous books and catalogs. Dorothy (or “Dot” as she preferred) saw them first and went to go get Sterling and share them. In July of that year, a brief article in the Pocono Record announced he would be selling “his fashion drawings” at the Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Courthouse Outdoor Art Show. Sterling was exhibiting in the same show (his framed and hanging) but it was Dorothy who soughtJustin’s out. She found a kindly gentleman with his paintings tossed on the ground. She went to get Sterling. He, of course, loved them and recalls how much he would enjoy seeing them in frames. McCarthy worked on any available scrap of paper, but to my knowledge never framed a work. He had plenty of time. By the time this splendid couple came across his work, the artist had filled his then run down mansion with 40 years of art. Sterling, who…