Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens

Schedule of Events	Papermaking Class	Guest Scholar	Exhibiting Artists

"Southern Folk"
Self-Taught Artists

November 15, 2002 through January 5, 2003

Ormond Memorial Art Museum & Gardens is proud to announce the opening of its next exhibition entitled, Southern Folk: Self Taught Artists. Co-curators Allison Annon and Stephen Danko feature 19 folk and self-taught artists of the South through their works in a variety of media including wood sculpture, painting and ceramic face jugs.

According to Ann Burt, Director of OMAM, "The tradition of the self taught artist has a long and rich history in the United States. The South in particular has produced numerous excellent "so called primitive artists" whose work details the life and heritage of this area."

"Artists here are inventing and re-inventing ways of using found objects; they are commenting on everyday life in both humorous and serious ways; they are celebrating a history and a way of life that is increasingly disappearing; and they are making visible our collective Southern identity," says Dr. Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar.

Adds Ann Burt, Director of OMAM, "Many of the works are productions of local material, the clay in the face jugs and wood in the racecars are just a few examples. Our adult "Papermaking" class taught by Joan Williams, offers the community an opportunity to participate in this tradition."

The Southern Folk exhibition opens with a private reception for Museum members, the artists and their guests on Friday, November 15, 2002, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Members of the press interested in attending should phone Erin Friedberg or Ann Burt at the Museum prior to the event to R.S.V.P.

The exhibit opens to the public during regular hours beginning Saturday, November 16, 2002 and continues through Sunday, January 5, 2003.

Schedule of Events

Friday, November 15, 2002 Southern Folk Opening Reception

6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Private Preview Reception for Museum members, the artists and their guests. Performance by the Southern Folk Band, "Upsala," at the opening reception.

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Saturday, November 23, 2002

1p.m. - 3 p.m. "Papermaking Made Easy for Adults."  Instructed by artist Joan Williams, in the historic Emmons cottage. $15 Museum members; $18 nonmembers.

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Sunday November 24, 2002

2 p.m. Southern Folk lecture by Guest Scholar Dr. Kristin Congdon. Dr. Kristin Congdon is a professor of Art and Philosophy at the University of Central Florida. She has been studying and writing about folk art for almost 25 years. She is currently working on a book about Florida folk artists with our State Folklorist, Dr. Tina Bucuvalas. She is the author / editor of nine other books including Art in a Democracy, Remembering Others: Making Invisible Histories of Art Education Visible, Artists from Latin American Cultures, and Uncle Monday and Other Florida Tales which recently won the 2002 Carolyn Washbon Book Award for Best Popular Book on Florida History. Dr. Congdon is past president of the Florida Folklore Society and was a member of the Florida Folklife Council for seven years. She has won many national awards for her research and writing. Free admission.

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Exhibiting artists include the following:

• Jesse Aaron
• G. W. Allbritton, Sr.
• Bishop "Butch" Anthony
• Michael and Melvin Crocker
• Lawson Digett
• Bobby Ferguson
• W. A. Flowers
• Chester Hewell
• Grace and Harold Hewell
• Albert Hodge
• B.R. Holcomb
• Charles Lisk
• Cleater (C.J.) and Billie Meaders
• Marie Rogers
• Charlie Shaw
• Frog Smith
• Jimmy Lee Sudduth

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About the artists:

In his eighties, Jesse J. Aaron (1887-1979) prayed for a new career after selling his nursery to raise money for his wife’s cataract surgery. In response, God told Aaron to carve wood. Using a chainsaw and other tools, he "released" images of people and animals that he claimed already existed in the wood. He continued carving until his death at age 92. Born in Lake City, Florida, Aaron set up his studio in his Gainesville home, attracting many visitors from the art community. (Stephen Danko, Co-curator and Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar)

G.W. Allbritton, Sr. (1880-1978) was a brick mason from Tallahassee. Married five times, he said, "to three good ones, and two bad ones." His drawings, mostly in crayon and felt tip pen, were sometimes done on everyday items such as the tops from his meals-on-wheels boxes. His works are colorful depictions of birds, animals, plant life and people that are often named and standing on a pedestal-like ground. (Stephen Danko, Co-curator and Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar)

Bishop "Butch" Anthony (b. 1968) is known for his paintings and sculptures that comment, often humorously, on contemporary issues. Topics include life, death, work and money. Having started drawing early on in his youth, Anthony, in 1994, began painting on various surfaces including canvas, tin, plywood and old wood. His sculptures are made out of numerous found objects. Skilled in carpentry, he built the log cabin where he and his wife now live in Seale, Alabama. (Stephen Danko, Co-curator and Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar)

Brothers, Michael and Melvin Crocker grew up in close proximity to the Wilson Pottery in LuLu, Georgia. Michael, at the age of 12, started working at the pottery, mixing clay, loading and unloading the kiln and when time permitted, playing at the wheel. After returning from the Army, Michael was hired by the Craven Pottery to become a "turner." He opened his own pottery shop in 1984. Younger brother Melvin preferred to create the facial features on face jugs and embellish other wares with various surface decoration. The brothers are known for using old whimsical decorative forms. After being hand "turned" on a wheel, each creation is fired using old glazes "passed down from mouth to ear" in a pine fueled kiln. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

Daytona resident Lawson Digett (1902-1979) constructed models of buildings, planes, trains, cars and other vehicles out of scrap materials such as tin cans, pine boards and rubber pads from conveyor belts. Obsessed with making these delightful objects, Digett depicts in his work a history of motorized vehicles in the twentieth century. His detailed model of Daytona’s boardwalk area was featured at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and his racecars were major attractions at Race Week. (Stephen Danko, Co-curator and Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar)

Born in 1933, Bobby Ferguson is a descendent of one of the longest documented production pottery families in the northeast section of Georgia. Fifth generation, Bobby began making pottery in his father’s shop and continues to this day, passing on his talent to his son, Danny. Known for his face jugs and various small garden ware, Ferguson, may be found in his shop/studio, located in the back of his home in Gillsville, Georgia. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

William A. Flowers is a self-taught potter from North Carolina. Influences by the face jugs of Burlon Craig and Lanier Meaders in the early 80’s, Bill (who made functional pottery since 1969) decided to create his own pottery using the alkaline wood ash glazes known to primitive southern folk pottery. Through trial and error, Bill creates face jugs containing a distinctly individual personality. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

Chester Hewell, son of Harold and Grace Hewell is a fifth generation potter from Gillsville, Georgia. With experience in producing horticultural ware, Chester became interested in the success of the face jugs of White County’s Lanier Meaders during the early 80’s. Aware that the Hewells of earlier generations had also created these jugs, Chester decided to revive the art form in his family. Glazing his pottery with "baccer spit" or the traditional alkaline and ash glaze, Hewell went a step further and built a groundhog wood burning kiln to fire his pottery. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

Harold Hewell can trace his family pottery roots back to pre-Civil War days. A fourth generation potter, he is the present owner of the Hewell Pottery in Gillsville, Georgia, known today primarily for its horticultural ware. Using the red brick clay dug within 16 miles of the Hewell Pottery, Harold estimates another 10 years of clay left form a site that has already been mined for 75. Married since 1949, to Grace, Harold put her to work after the honeymoon "finishing" the pottery (adding handles, beveling the bottoms etc.) To busy to teach his wife to "turn," other members of Harold’s family taught her the skill. Soon after, Grace could produce among the best of the potters, one week "turning" over 2,500 pieces of pottery. Grace is now known for her grape decorated vases, incised pitchers and miniature face jugs. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

Albert Hodge, until a knee injury had forced him into an early retirement in 1990, had never worked with clay in his life. Having an interest in the 19th century pottery of the local, Catawba County area of North Carolina, Hodge decided that he, too could "mold art out of the earth." Having no prior experience with clay, he was a natural. By looking at hundreds of glazed crocks, pitchers and jugs. Albert had a clear vision in what he wanted to accomplish, not without frustration and mistakes along the way, however. Today, Hodge produces approximately 20 face jugs a week, glazed, using wood ash or lime of form, the alkaline coating and fired. Today, Albert Hodge lives in Vale, North Carolina. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

After one pottery class in at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, Charlie Lisk decided that he wanted to be a potter. Graduating in 1975, Lisk worked in a Moore County pottery for several years, until he and his wife Nancy, relocated to Catawba County. Lisk is known for his incised sine curved swirl ware, using 2-6 with near perfect delineation unparalleled by anyone. Face jugs, storage vessels, pitchers and teapots are just some of the wares that you will find at any of his five kiln openings during the course of a year. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

Cleater Meaders and his wife Billie are members of one of the oldest and most well known families of traditional pottery in Georgia. Together they have made pottery for the last 55 years. Born in 1921, Cleater, was raised in the Mossy Creek near Cleveland, Georgia. The son of a utilitarian production ptter, C.J. remembers his father making gallon jugs and selling them to local bootleggers one day while being questioned by the revenuers the next. After returning home from the Army post WWII, Meaders worked building aircraft in Mobile, Alabama and in 1966 moved his family to Byron Georgia. Until his stroke last year C.J. had been "turning" full time after his retirement in 1978. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

Not only is Marie Rogers, of Meansville, Georgia one of few women folk potters, but she is the last practitioner of the older Jugtown tradition. Widowed in 1962, Marie had been married to third generation potter, Horace Rogers. In 1974, "turning" on the treadle kick wheel that belonged to her late husband, Marie had turned a hobby into a small business when she started selling novelty items. Using the weathered clay that had been dug from the Potato Creek Swamp and stockpiled by her husband, Ms. Rogers sculpted small figurines of animals, preachers, birds and face jugs. Using an electric kiln to "burn" Marie first coats her pottery with a chemical glaze of borate, which appears similar to the alkaline glaze of most southern folk potters. (Allison Annon, Co-curator)

Charles H. Shaw (1936-2001), who spent most of his adult years in Central Florida, painted pictures of his everyday life on the Georgia farm where he grew up. He spent his adult years as a salesman traveling through the rural South. In the 1990s he experienced a series of illnesses, and, for therapy, his doctor encouraged him to take up a hobby. In response, Shaw began painting memories of his childhood. On the back of each canvas Shaw described the scene he painted. (Stephen Danko, Co-curator and Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar)

Frog Smith (1896-1993) lived a long life, entertaining several generations with his folktales about moonshine, sawmills, locomotives and frogs’ legs. Having had very little formal education, he held a variety of blue-collar jobs. He later spent 15 years writing for Railroad Magazine, and then created a column for the Fort Meyers newspaper called "Cracker Crumbs." Smith is also remembered for his vivid paintings of early Florida life. When he was 94 he explained, "I live mostly in the past because I have so much more past than future." (Stephen Danko, Co-curator and Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar)

Frog Smith passed away on August 3, 1993. He had married when he was 89 and his wife was 74.

Mr. Smith's painting, "The First Steam Locomotive in Florida," can be seen at the top of this web page. The painting was chosen as the representative work for this exhibition

Jimmy Lee Sudduth (b. 1910) says he’s been painting all his life. As one of the most recognized artists living today, he continues to create his scenes with mud on plywood. Working from his Fayette, Alabama home, he claims to have found 36 different shades of mud, which he now often mixes with latex house paint. Before earning a living as an artist, he worked mostly at odd jobs. His paintings are inspired by everyday life, resulting in a range of people, animals, landscapes, self-portraits and architectural structures. (Stephen Danko, Co-curator and Kristin Congdon, Guest Scholar)

This web page was updated on 15-Apr-2007 02:34 PM -0500