144:" servants. In 1948, upon Catherine's death, her brother Georg Nicholai de Rochelle became Rocaterrania's third and last emperor. In 1951, a civil war forced the emperor to grant limited autonomy to the region of New Serbia, but his repressive policies were still too intolerable, leading to his overthrow and execution in a revolution in 1953. In a second revolution the next year, socialist revolutionary Gorghendi Kahn was elected. Reviewers have noted that this fictional history parallels the real-world
66:, New York. He was sent to various boarding schools as a child, where he was bullied by classmates and teachers. At home, his mother was alternately abusive and neglectful. When Otto Kuhler retired in 1948, he moved the family to Colorado where they lived on the remote KZ Ranch. To cope with the isolation, Kuhler created a fictional world that he called Rocaterrania, after his childhood home of Rockland County.
245:", never drove a car or used a computer, and only grudgingly exchanged his rotary phone for a touchtone in his later years. He was a staunch liberal and environmentalist, and his tastes and politics are evident in Rocaterrania, whose citizens prefer public transportation, environmental design, and opera (Kuhler played a handmade violin).
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The history of
Rocaterrania parallels Kuhler's own life; when it began as an escapist response to his authoritarian parents, Rocaterrania was an absolute monarchy, but successive oppressive regimes were overthrown as he gained independence, settling into a democracy when he achieved a stable career
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Rocaterrania, a small country on the border between Canada and New York State, was fictionally founded in 1931 by former
Russian noble August Phillippe Romanovski and his French-Belgian wife, Mary Catherine de Rochelle. August Phillipe declared himself the first Emperor of Rocaterrania, ruling from
174:
A new language, Rocaterranski, developed from the many immigrant languages in
Rocaterrania, chiefly English, Spanish, German, and Yiddish. Its original writing system was based on the
58:, a German industrial designer, and Belgian Simonne Gillet Kuhler. He had one sibling, an older sister named Winona. In 1938, the Kuhler family moved to
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for a job at the North
Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where he would work for the next 30 years until his retirement in 1999. For this, he
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After August
Phillipe's death in 1940, his widow ruled as Empress Catherine. Catherine's tyrannical reign included her practice of
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as an illustrator. Kuhler would often wear costumes he had designed and sewn himself as
Rocaterranian fashion or uniforms.
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the capital of Ciudad
Eldorado. The small country quickly grew into a mosaic of different cultures as immigrants arrived.
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in New York. After his death in June 2013, his work was exhibited at the Halle Saint Pierre in Paris that August.
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After graduating, he worked as a curator of history at the
Eastern Washington State Historical Society in
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Kuhler was a lifelong eccentric, wearing a bowler hat and three-piece suit in college, and smoking
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In 1997, his close friend and colleague Brett Ingram started creating a documentary film,
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While in college, Kuhler hand-lettered the titles for Stan
Brakhage's experimental film
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from 1962 to 1967, after which he returned to
Colorado for a two-year program in
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629:"One Artist's Lifelong Quest to Create a Hidden Kingdom Called Rocaterrania"
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from handmade pipes. He never married. He described himself as "urban
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34:. He worked for three decades as a scientific illustrator for the
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Rocaterrania is religiously diverse, and gave rise to a new
38:, and spent most of his life creating and illustrating an
352:"Renaldo Kuhler: Rocaterrania | Exhibitions | MutualArt"
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in San Jose, California. His work was exhibited at the
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profiled him and his work as a scientific illustrator.
77:. He graduated in 1960 or 1961 with a B.A. in History.
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73:'s Denver Extension Center, after which he moved to
26:; November 21, 1931 – June 2, 2013) was an American
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202:project. It premiered on February 28, 2009 at the
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155:called Ojallism (derived from the Spanish word
592:"The Secret World of Artist Renaldo Kuhler"
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221:In 2017, four years after Kuhler's death,
140:street urchins to turn into her personal "
16:American scientific illustrator and artist
543:"Renaldo Kuhler: Welcome to Rocaterrania"
36:North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
410:"His Secret World, Opening to Tourists"
270:"Renaldo Kuhler Obituary - Raleigh, NC"
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69:From 1954 to 1957, he attended the
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756:21st-century American male artists
751:20th-century American male artists
736:American people of Belgian descent
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296:The Secret World of Renaldo Kuhler
227:The Secret World of Renaldo Kuhler
113:scientific illustration. In 2001,
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731:American people of German descent
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408:Strausbaugh, John (2009-02-18).
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212:Gregg Museum of Art & Design
210:in Baltimore, as well as at the
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761:People from Blauvelt, New York
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721:Constructed language creators
691:Artists from New York (state)
590:Heller, Steven (2017-10-17).
208:American Visionary Art Museum
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627:Laskow, Sarah (2017-10-19).
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716:Creators of writing systems
701:Artists from North Carolina
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741:American outsider artists
116:National Geographic Today
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24:Ronald Otto Louis Kuhler
711:Scientific illustrators
686:Artists from New Jersey
225:published a biography,
204:Cinequest Film Festival
107:Raleigh, North Carolina
293:Ingram, Brett (2017).
182:-influenced alphabet.
71:University of Colorado
28:scientific illustrator
706:American illustrators
696:Artists from Colorado
171:as prophets as well.
105:In 1969, he moved to
42:called Rocaterrania.
20:Renaldo Gillet Kuhler
656:Biographical website
214:in Raleigh and the
96:Spokane, Washington
52:Teaneck, New Jersey
50:Kuhler was born in
414:The New York Times
153:syncretic religion
146:Russian Revolution
746:Visionary artists
617:, pp. 17–19.
505:, pp. 88–92.
493:, pp. 54–61.
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310:978-0-922233-48-9
216:Outsider Art Fair
198:, about Kuhler's
128:Fictional history
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196:Rocaterrania
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88:Dog Star Man
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676:2013 deaths
671:1931 births
615:Ingram 2017
503:Ingram 2017
491:Ingram 2017
479:Ingram 2017
467:Ingram 2017
387:Ingram 2017
375:Ingram 2017
332:Ingram 2017
301:Blast Books
223:Blast Books
169:Baháʼu'lláh
138:neuterizing
56:Otto Kuhler
54:in 1931 to
665:Categories
638:2023-01-06
601:2023-01-06
576:2023-01-06
552:2023-01-06
547:RAW VISION
528:2023-01-06
454:2023-01-06
432:2023-01-06
361:2023-01-06
279:2023-01-06
46:Early life
567:"Renaldo"
422:0362-4331
319:985082793
100:museology
180:Cyrillic
60:Blauvelt
239:mullein
161:Krishna
142:neutant
75:Boulder
420:
317:
307:
167:, and
165:Buddha
81:Career
22:(born
249:Notes
243:Amish
190:Media
157:Ojalá
62:, in
523:AVAM
418:ISSN
315:OCLC
305:ISBN
30:and
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