BY JEFF MOORE

THE DAILY IBERIAN

Visit Wyatt and Becky Collins’ New Iberia home, and the one of the first things you’ll notice is a metal angel hovering above the front window.

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A metal alligator lurks on the front porch, and a metal pot of flowers adorns the front door.

The artwork continues inside the home, where carvings, sculptures, paintings and dolls fill every room.

And that was on a day when most of their pieces were at a gallery in Lafayette.

“We usually have about 300 or 400 pieces up at one time,” Wyatt Collins said.

“A lot of this stuff is things we just dragged out to fill the walls. It’s filled up all right, but I’m just ready to get my stuff back.”

Collins and his wife collect folk art.

Collins, 60, said they started their collection shortly after he moved to New Iberia from Mississippi, where he served as an assistant district attorney.

“We had a few pieces all along, and all of a sudden, I realized there was a collectable world out there that was affordable, and also real interesting,” he said.

“We’ve always been interested in the arts. This was just a genre that I really became obsessed with.”

In just four years, Collins and his wife amassed a collection of about 600 pieces. Many of them were recently on display at an Acadiana Center for the Arts show �” “From Inside Our Hearts: Outsider Art.”

Folk art, Collins explained, comprises work created by artists with no formal training.

The work often reflects the cultural traditions and values of those who create it.

“You’re dealing with the inner desire of a person that wasn’t creating to sell, but to create,” Collins said. “That creativity shows forth, even though they weren’t allowed to have training that a lot of people have.”

Collins and his wife spend their vacations traveling throughout the southeast, attending auctions for a sought-after painting or sculpture. If they hear of a folk artist during their travels, they make it a point to track them down.

“We’ve seen a lot of back roads,” Collins said. “It’s been fun to meet these people. I’ve never met one of them who didn’t have an interesting story.”

Collins and his wife both work as teachers �” Wyatt at Westgate High School, and Becky at North Lewis Street Elementary.

Collins said they plan on increasing their folk art collection in the future.

“If Bobby Jindal gives us a raise, we’re gonna buy some more,” he said.