? — 1978
Phoenix, AZ
Environment with rocks

“I don’t think his wife liked it so much.  Maybe that’s why he spent so much time out here working on it.”  That’s just a theory, but if anyone has earned the right to hypothesize about the marvels of Sunnyslope it’s Marion Blake.  After all, like Victor Kiam in those old shaver commercials, she liked the place so much she bought it.

That was nearly thirty years ago, and the magic of Mr. Thompson’s backyard endeavors still tickles her.  Though she admits, Phoenix is awfully hot, and maybe it’s time for someone else to feel the love.

Of course, it was that desert sun that originally brought this garden maker down from Seattle when he retired. (Hence the Space Needle.)  For twenty years or so, he kept adding walls, fountains, rows of heads made with Halloween masks and other ornamentation that often featured broken Fiestaware and medicine bottles supplied by a friendly nurse.

Compared to some rock gardens we’ve seen, Sunnyslope is pretty compact, but with its childlike proportions and gently goofy faces, it may be the sweetest.

Find this site and others with the iPhone app, “Best Road Trip Ever!”

(Photos and info courtesy of Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations)

Bibliography & Links:

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Cali-Zona, Here We Come,” KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 2007.

“Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments” by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.

“Phoenix Outsider Art Environments” text and photos by Ron Gasowski, Folk Art Messenger, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall/Winter 2006.

Roadside America

c. 1891-1955
North Little Rock, AR
Trabajo rustico

The Old Mill in the five-acre T. R. Pugh Memorial Park in North Little Rock (Pulaski County) contains the work of noted Mexican sculptor Dionicio Rodriguez, who perfected the folk art style known as faux bois (fake wood) by crafting reinforced concrete to resemble petrified logs. Built in 1932 to look like a mill built in 1832. It appeared for seven seconds in the opening credits of the 1939 classic “Gone With the Wind.”

Dionicio Rodriguez was the recognized master of this Mexican artform. The origin of this movement began in France, but in Mexicans living in Texas it was used to create outdoor furniture and other landscape ornaments that had the look of wood but were better able to withstand the heat. Dionicio’s hyper-realistic techniques were secrets that he never shared. Rodriguez also employed his “trabajo rustico” technique in various other cities like San Antonio, Memphis, and Port Arthur.

Justin Matthews, the developer of the town’s Park Hill and Lakewood subdivisions, hired Rodriguez in 1932 to create a tourist attraction for his new suburban development. Formally named Pugh’s Mill in honor of Matthews’s lifelong friend Thomas R. Pugh, the mill features a two-story stone building, bridges, benches, and other examples of Rodriguez’s art, all designed to look like an abandoned nineteenth-century gristmill.

Addressing the crowd, Matthews praised the sculptor’s mechanical skill, his intimate knowledge of nature, his ability to remember details, and his conception of color. Brough credited Matthews for securing the services of Rodriguez, who, he said, “has perpetuated in concrete entrancingly beautiful pieces of work.”

The two-story, rock mill building is fitted with a five-ton water wheel made by Rodriguez. In the building are remnants of a working mill that has been neglected for years. The floor and stairs have the look of well-worn wood planks, and the hand railings seem to be logs and limbs nailed together.

The former Justin Matthews Company gave the park to the city on May 24, 1976. In 1990, the Old Mill was the site of the unveiling of a postage stamp commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Gone with the Wind’s receiving eight Academy Awards. (No one knows how the Old Mill was chosen for that opening shot.) The mill attracts thousands of visitors a year.

(Sandra Taylor Smith, North Little Rock History Commission provided some of the information found in this listing)

(Excerpted from Arkansas History and Culture Photos © Copyright 2006-2013 Kelly Ludwig, all rights reserved)

Find this site and others with the iPhone app, “Best Road Trip Ever!”

(Photos © copyright 2006-2013 Kelly Ludwig, all rights reserved)

Bibliography & Links:

“Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Folk Art Environments Coast to Coast, Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig” by Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.

“Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations” (the book), by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, Kansas City Star Publishing, 2002.

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Miles and Miles o’ Mo-Tex-Arkana”, KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1996-2001.

“Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments” by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.

Crawford, Sybil F. “Dionicio Rodriguez: The Faux Bois Sculptor.” Pulaski County Historical Review 50 (Spring 2002): 13–24.

Kazas, Tom. “Looks Like Wood.” Americana 16 (September–October 1989): 54–58.

Sandra Taylor Smith, North Little Rock History Commission

1878 — 1961
Cullman, AL
Religious/spiritual environment
Built: 1932 – 1958

At the age of 13, Joseph Zoettl, almost died of the flu that swept Europe.  A year later, when candidates for the St. Bernard Abbey were sought, he signed up and served as a housekeeper in many of the Abbey’s missions. After 20 years of housekeeping, he was put in charge of the Abbey’s powerhouse, where he toiled 17 hour days for the next 30 years.

In 1918, he began working in cement, creating a church, followed by more buildings that were later called “Little Jersualem”.  He also amassed his own collection of miniature holy buildings which took up increasing amounts of space. People started to visit his miniature village, “and it became a real nuisance which could not be stopped anymore.”  “One day Father Dominic (Downs) came to me with some little statues and to see if I could make small grottoes.  He had a store in front of the college and sold religious articles to help missions.  When I had made two grottoes I thought that would be all but as Father Dominic sold them right away, he always brought more statues and it became a regular business.” (Brother Joseph’s words, from the Grotto website.)

After making over 5,000 small grottos for sale, eventually the abbot commissioned him in 1932 to build a grotto on the site of a quarry near the monastery, where his models could be displayed.  Two years later, on May 17, 1934, the Ave Maria Grotto was dedicated.

“The grotto was completed in two years and contains commissioned marble statues of the Virgin and two saints amid a rich decor of marble, glass shells and concrete stalactites. It is surrounded by hundreds of miniature buildings: replicas of churches, cathedrals and shrines. On the left lie Little Jerusalem and other Holy Land shrines, to the right shrines of Europe and America, while nearby stand models of the Tower of Babel and Noah’s Ark.”  (Excerpted text from “Fantasy Worlds” by Deidi Von Schaewen and John Maizel)

Brother Joseph continued to work until 1958, where at the age of 80 he built his last model, the Basilica in Lourdes. He died 3 years later, and is buried in a special bronze coffin on the grounds.

Find this site and others with the iPhone app, “Best Road Trip Ever!”

(Photos © copyright 2006-2013 Kelly Ludwig, all rights reserved)

Bibliography & Links:

“Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations” (the book), by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, Kansas City Star Publishing, 2002.

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

“American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies” by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003.

“Fantasy Worlds” by Deidi Von Schaewen and John Maizels, Taschen, New York, 1999.

“Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments” by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.

“Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources” by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Southern Flavor”, KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1999-2001.

Home Page

Find this site and others with the iPhone app, “Best Road Trip Ever!”

May 23, 1943-
Houston, TX
Folk Art Environment
Built: 2003-present

A green oasis beckons amid rows of ramshackle houses in the Third Ward, near the University of Houston campus. Cleveland Turner’s gaily painted house peeps out from beneath a riot of flowers, vegetation, and decorations that cover every inch of the small space available. The bright array clambers up elevated beds and balconies, spills out over the sidewalks, and radiates hope and good cheer into the neighborhood beyond.

Cotton, corn, squash, black-eyed peas, and sugarcane number among Cleveland’s “crops.” Watermelons, papayas, and peaches also thrive here. Zinnias, coxcombs, canna lilies, roses, and periwinkles add their seasonal colors. Pieces of packing popcorn stud the spikes of a yucca to make it appear perennially in bloom.

Cleveland, known to Houstonians as “The Flower Man,” embellishes his gardens with Christmas lights, tinsel, and ribbons, woven among the trees and adorning his front gate. An improbable flock of artificial birds, including ducks, flamingos, a rooster, and a heron, jostle for space on a porch with a wooden Mickey Mouse and Raggedy Ann.

Mirrors and painted bedposts sprout among the tangle of plants. Carpet covers the sidewalk. Flower beds that extend into the street bear edgings of concrete blocks painted red, white, and blue.

“My mother raised flowers. She filled the whole yard front and back with flowers,” Cleveland says of his childhood in Mississippi. “The other children would cut the flowers down, but I never would. I always thought, whenever I get to be a man, I’ll have my own house full of flowers.”

Cleveland came to Houston in 1961. “I was on my way to California and I wanted to see Houston. I thought that Houston was full of cows. I was going to stay a week with a friend, but we got to drinking and I never did make it to California.”

He became what he calls a “skid-row bum” for 17 years. “I slept out in a weed patch and in empty houses. Even then, if I saw a wildflower, I would take care of it.”

A vicious bout of alcohol poisoning that landed Cleveland in the hospital for five weeks caused him to reflect. Then and there, he says, he decided to join Alcoholics Anonymous and he made a pact with God. “I said if He would put me back on my feet and keep that wine bottle out of my mouth, if I ever got my life straightened out, I was going to get me a little house and plant me a whole lot of flowers.”

And he did.

(Photos © Copyright 2006-2013 Kelly Ludwig, all rights reserved)

Bibliography & Links:

“Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Folk Art Environments Coast to Coast, Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig” by Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.

“Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations” (the book), by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, Kansas City Star Publishing, 2002.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Back to the Breadbasket,” KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 2004.

“20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art” by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.

“Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments” by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.

“Yard Art and Handmade Places: Extraordinary Expressions of Home” by Jill Nokes, with Pat Jasper, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2007.

“Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources” by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.

“Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South”, Vol 2, Arnett, et al, 2001.

“Raw Creation: Outsider Art and Beyond” by John Maizels, 1996.

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

Folk Art Society of America

Find this site and others with the iPhone app, “Best Road Trip Ever!”

June 11, 1960 —
Tallahassee, FL
Paintings, sculptures and environment

Already suffering from health problems, Mary Proctor’s depression became more pronounced after losing her beloved grandmother, aunt, and uncle in a tragic house fire. She was running an odds-and-ends store in rural north Florida when God told her that “the door is the way.” An old door was lying in her yard, so she took some blue and white car paint and started to paint.

She began to feel better and hasn’t stopped painting since. Her American Folk Art Museum and Gallery in Tallahassee is a yard filled with painted doors bearing the likenesses of Martin Luther King and Sojourner Truth, along with joyful homages to her grandmother, angels, presidents, and even Coca-Cola.

(Photos © Copyright 2006-2013 Kelly Ludwig, all rights reserved. Location photos courtesy of Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations)

Bibliography & Links:

“Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Folk Art Environments Coast to Coast, Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig” by Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Peaches, Beaches, Gators and Grits,” KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 2005.

“American Folk Art, A Regional Reference” by Kristin G. Congdon and Kara Kelley Hallmark, ABC-CLIO Publishers, California, 2012.

“Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources” by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.

“Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South”, Vol 2, Arnett, et al, 2001.

“Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African-American South: the Ronald and June Shelp Collection”, Cronwill, Danto, Gaither, Gundaker and McWillie, 2001.

“Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida’s Self-taught Artists” by Gary Monroe, 2003

“American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies” by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003.

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

Folkyart.com: “Missionary Mary Proctor”

American Folk: “Mary Proctor”

Missionary Mary Proctor’s website

The Outsider’s Art

Viola “L.V.” Hull

1943-2008
Kosciusko, MS
Yard art and mixed media

L.V. is often referred to as “The Shoe Lady” because of her way with footwear. But shoes, it turns out, are just the tip of the iceberg. Every square inch was put to use. At her house you could have encountered more shoes, signs, and other odd stuff crammed into one small space than you ever thought was possible. We’re talking wall-to-wall artwork, arranged with barely enough room to squeeze through between the piles.

She figured that all kinds of things other people don’t want are just the things she needed. Making her art helped her laugh and brought people to her house from all over the world. People whom she’d never have met any other way. The slogans on her many hand-painted signs express her attitude nicely and concisely. For example, “Friends Are Hard to Find, Mind Your Business!”

(photo courtesy of Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations)

Bibliography & Links

“Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Folk Art Environments Coast to Coast, Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig” by Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.

“Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations” (the book), by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, Kansas City Star Publishing, 2002.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Southern Flavor”, KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1999-2001.

“Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments” by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.

“Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources” by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.

“Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South”, Vol 2, Arnett, et al, 2001.

The Star-Herald

The Star-Herald

Detour Art Travel blog

Mississippi Folk Life

1965 —
St. Louis, MO
Sculptures and paintings
Private (artist)

Theresa Disney loves to tell a story through her art, and she always finding new stories to tell. She is a self-described “home-baked” artist who works out of her kitchen. She is well-known in the greater St. Louis area for her whimsical painted birdhouses and furniture and for her playful take on art history. She has also exhibited nude studies and book of illustrations depicting her cancer treatment and recovery. Her most recent work is inspired by religious themes and subjects. Her work has appeared in several national publications and received numerous awards.

(Photos © copyright 2006-2013 Kelly Ludwig, all rights reserved)

Bibliography & Links:

Country Home Magazine, May 2006.

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

Whohadada

1896 — 1988
Simi Valley, CA
Bottle environment
Built: 1956 – 1972

“I enjoyed it. I never thought of it as work. I was just having a good time.”

In 1956 at the age of 61, Tressa “Grandma” Prisbrey started building the Bottle Village as a place to display her pencil collection. When finished in 1965, the Village included 20 sculptures and 13 buildings. Grandma Prisbrey died in 1988.

In 1996, Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s now run by Preserve Bottle Village (PBV), a private non-profit organization.

The excellent photo tour of Bottle Village on the PBV website includes info on the various constructions along with info on the condition of the structures following the 1994 Simi Valley earthquake. PBV also offers biographical info, news concerning the restoration of Bottle Village, and a detailed history. The history is particularly heartbreaking to read and shows the importance of helping to preserve these sites, even if only able to provide some small assistance.

Spending just a few dollars helps to keep Bottle Village standing! For $20.00, adopt a square foot of Bottle Village and you’ll receive a deed for your adopted property. Get all the info on the PBV News page.

Visits are available by appointment with PBV. Check the PBV Contact Information page for details.

April 13, 2006:

Many Thanks! To LanDesign West Inc., a landscape maintenance company that has donated their services to clean up Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village. Their crew was very hard-working. Aaron Landworth, who heads the company, studied horticulture at UC Davis. LanDesign West, located in Santa Monica, CA: (310) 453-1180. With this, many thanks to Albert Howell, President of Ashlee Manor Senior Living; our neighbor. Mr. Howell donated the cost for the bin that hauls away branches, and other overgrown parts of Bottle Village.

Find this site and others with the iPhone app, “Best Road Trip Ever!”

(Photos courtesy of Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations)

Bibliography & Links:

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

“20th Century American Folk, Self Taught, and Outsider Art” by Betty-Carol Sellen, Cynthia J. Johnson, Neal-Schuman Publishers, New York, 1993.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Cali-Zona, Here We Come,” KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 2007.

“American Folk Art, A Regional Reference” by Kristin G. Congdon and Kara Kelley Hallmark, ABC-CLIO Publishers, California, 2012.

“American Self-Taught Art: An Illustrated Analysis of 20th Century Artists and Trends with 1,319 Capsule Biographies” by Florence Laffal and Julius Laffal, 2003.

“Fantasy Worlds” by Deidi Von Schaewen and John Maizels, Taschen, New York, 1999.

“Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century American Folk Art and Artists” by  Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Abbeville Press, New York, 1990.

“Raw Creation: Outsider Art and Beyond” by John Maizels, Phaidon Press; New Ed edition, 1996, 2000.

“Raw Vision Outsider Art Sourcebook”  Raw Vision, Ltd., 2002.

“Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments” by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.

“Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources” by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.

PBV

In 2000, when heading to New Orleans for his home in Aurora, IL, Vietnam veteran Dr. Charles Smith stopped in Hammond, LA for a meal. He discovered a historical marker under a large oak, reading:

“Peter Hammond (1798 – 1870) Under this oak is buried Peter Hammond, of Sweden, who founded Hammond, La., about 1818. Nearby are the graves of his wife, three daughters and a favorite slave boy.”

Beneath the marker is the simple granite monument, UNNAMED SLAVE BOY.

Shocked and outraged by the anonymity of “favorite slave boy,” Dr. Smith contacted officials and researched the library for clues to the identity of the unidentified slave, to no avail. He realized that this would be just the place to begin his second African American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive, where he could educate today’s generation of black youths, who seem uninterested.

In 2002, Dr. Smith bought a small home in Hammond, and continues to spread his message of remembrance, hope, and vision. His home environment is dedicated to the turbulent history of African-Americans, as he hopes to inspire and educate today’s youth, so that they will never forget, and build upon the vision set forth by leaders and martyrs of Black America: Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Emmett Till, and Martin Luther King among them. In addition, there are memorials to the 4,000 Black Americans who died in Vietnam, to victims of the Rwanda tragedy, as well as to whites that helped with the Underground Railroad.

In 1986, in the yard of his small home on the east side of Aurora, Dr. Charles Smith began building his vision: a sculptural monument dedicated to the contributions and experiences of African-Americans. Before his vision, Dr. Smith had felt lost in pain and anger. Then he received his inspiration: “God told me, ‘Use Art – I give you a weapon’, just like He gave Dr. King the Gandhi strategy.” From that moment on and despite the fact that he had never received training in art, his house lot started to fill with sculpted tributes to those leaders.

As scholar Lisa Stone writes, “The African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archives is equal parts memorial and mirror, commemorating and reflecting the complexity of late 20th Century life, and its elaborate, and at times bewildering, commingled histories.”

April 2007:

Margaret’s Grocery

Rev. Hermon Dennis— March 25, 1916 — September 6, 2011
Margaret Dennis— February 8, 1916 — October 7, 2009
Vicksburg, MS
Folk art environment

Things at Margaret’s have changed dramatically since the passing of Reverend Dennis and his wife, Margaret. Although this premier folk art environment was bequeathed to their church, it has been allowed to fall into disrepair. Perhaps past the point of no return. And what a pity.

Margaret and her late husband ran a rural grocery outside Vicksburg on old Highway 61, until he was fatally shot by a neighborhood kid during a robbery. Margaret met Reverend Dennis through the ladies at church. They married in 1979 and began to fix up the place to attract attention, so the preacher could share the word of God.

Rev. Dennis began to paint the building red, white, and some blue, but Margaret added the crowning touches of pink and yellow. During WWII, he was trained as a bricklayer, and he says the pinks, yellows and reds he’s painted this place with should remind people that “you can’t have a bouquet of flowers without different colors. We’re all God’s children.”

Brick towers and signs abound, welcoming “Jews and Gentiles” with various symbols of the double-headed eagle of the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, of which he was a member. The interior of the store is elaborately decorated with beads and bold paint, and as well is the church bus, which also had pews and a pulpit for preaching.

Along with the distinctive towers that flank the complex, and the scriptures that adorn the walls, Reverend Dennis had outfitted an old school bus with an altar, and decorated it like no other.

(Photos © Copyright 2006-2013 Kelly Ludwig, all rights reserved)

Images from March 2013:

Images from 2007:

Bibliography & Links:

“Detour Art—Outsider, Folk Art, and Visionary Folk Art Environments Coast to Coast, Art and Photographs from the Collection of Kelly Ludwig” by Kelly Ludwig, Kansas City Star Books, 2007.

“Rare Visions & Roadside Revelations” (the book), by Randy Mason, Michael Murphy and Don Mayberger, Kansas City Star Publishing, 2002.

“Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations Coast to Coast Travel-o-Pedia” by Randy Mason, et. al., Kansas City Star Books, 2009.

On DVD – Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations, “Southern Flavor”, KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, 1999-2001.

“Self-Made Worlds: Visionary Environments” by Roger Manley and Mark Sloan, Aperture, New York, 1997.

“Self Taught, Outsider, and Folk Art—A guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources” by Betty-Carol Sellen with Cynthia J. Johnson, McFarland & Company, 2000.

“Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art of the South”, Vol 2, Arnett, et al, 2001.

NarrowLarry: “Margaret’s Grocery And Market”

Interesting Ideas: “Photos”

The Daily Mississippian: “Living in the Deep South: Elderly preacher offers a different look at God”

Detour Art flickr site