Aug8

prophet mary proctor.

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The Story of My Grandma Old Buttons

mixed media on door;

house paint, acrylic, buttons, liquid nails, mason jar, hot glue

no date

courtesy of laura lippman

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Mary Proctor (1960- )

Mary Proctor’s store, Noah’s Ark Antiques, in Tallahassee, Florida is a wood cottage where you can still buy used records and faded photos. Her yard is a labyrinth of clutter, surrounded by a chain-link fence. She lives with her husband and four children in a mobile home behind the store. Mary Proctor began painting on doors in 1995, after her aunt and two other family members were killed, trapped inside their burning house trailer. Firefighters failed in all attempts to pry open the swelled metal doors. Mary says that God then spoke to her, telling her to “paint onto the doors.” Renaming herself, “Prophet Mary Proctor,” Mary’s doors are covered with her spiritual teachings and observances of righteous behavior garnered from everyday life and, especially, from her wise Grandma. Her doors range from cabinet size to large double garage doors on which Mary typically uses paint and a collage of buttons, cloth, and found objects. Mary likes to think of herself as a missionary rather than an artist. “I’m just a messenger and they (the people who collect her work) are the deliverers.”

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‘in a time of destruction, create something.’

-maxine hong kingston

 

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American Visionary Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

 

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59 responses »

  22. How cool that the artist used so many different types of materials to create this beautiful piece.

    For Reading Across America Day, we teachers often decorated our doors, modeling one of Dr. Suess’s many books.

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    • Yes, I agree. She used her art to help in her own healing and to help others. She uses doors to open them to possibilities, instead of locking them in, like what happened to her family. She incorporates homespun wisdom passed on through the generations in her family so they are not lost. Some many layers of using her art for good. I absolutely love folk art, it always carries some of the artist within it.

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