Mary L. Proctor, Folk Artist: Tallahassee's "Missionary" Mary

 

Mary. L Proctor, "Missionary Mary," painting on doors. She had a vision, a sign.
 "go paint," and "the door is the way," and she followed it. These are portraits of 
 Zora Neale Hurston, Sojourner Truth, and pioneering educator Mary McLeod Bethune,
founder of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida, 
 with the perfect text: Knowledge is Power

Missionary Mary tells it like it is. 

Tallahassee was once all plantations, every inch of it, plantations worked by slaves.  

Now it has folk art, lots of it is, created by their descendants, among others. It's art inspired by personal experience and a unique way of seeing. It's art from the heart, honest art through the lens of folks who are moved to express themselves unhindered by the techniques and rules of traditional artists trained in the aesthetics.   

Self-taught artists. Outsider art. Primitive art. They are driven to express their thoughts and feelings, some to express messages from the angels. Many say they are moved by God. They have signs. "God I need help. What can I do?" And the answer is "go paint" or "go make art." And that's what they do.   

This is how Tallahassee's own Mary L. Proctor tells it. 'I started painting in '95 . . .now they are nation wide.'  In '95 she had lost her grandmother, an aunt and uncle in a devastating house fire. She cried for months, depressed, lost. And then she got the message, a sweet vision: "Go paint." That vision inspires her to this day: "Art heals the body mind and soul."  She hasn't stopped painting since then. 

"Missionary" Mary in her gallery,
surrounded by her work.

The Lord delivered in another way, a huge unfathomable way, really a coincidence: He sent Tricia Collins, a Tallahassee native who owns a gallery in New York's SoHo that collects and sells folk art.  She happened to be visiting her hometown, happened to take a drive out to Jefferson County near Monticello, near where Mary and her kin were born, and happened upon Mary's doors. 

Collins was ecstatic. She jumped out of her car, looked over those doors, and offered Mary $5,000 for them on the spot. Down to New York they went.  A compulsion to paint overcame Mary Proctor. 

A good thing, too. Tricia Collins, amazed at her discovery of this self-taught artist, bought 75 more paintings and had a one-woman exhibition of Missionary Mary's work in 1996. A folk artist was born. 

On niece Ali's wall.

I can almost imagine the overwhelming joy Mary Proctor felt, to see her work beautifully displayed on bright white gallery walls, and "to witness purchase after purchase by people willing to pay seven thousand dollars each for her treasured doors and  her wall art." Tricia Collins had brought manna from heaven. Praise the Lord.

Now this is one fine example of how an inside artist brought in an "outsider" artist, in the true sense of that profoundly meaningful transaction. It's how folk artists, "outsider" artists, come into the large universe of the art world, and are recognized for their innate talent, driving obsession, their honest expressions of daily life. Mary's paintings are sold in many galleries and on every online art site, from Artsy and Pinterest to Worth Point and yes, Mary's own gallery. 

On my wonderful niece Ali's walls.

That's how my niece Ali, Andy's daughter, acquired two of Missionary Mary's paintings. I've seen them on her walls for ages, but this time I took a closer look. "Those are Mary Proctor's," Ali says. "She's a well-known folk artist on a mission to channel God's wisdom," sister Andy added. "And these are original paintings?" I ask.  "You betcha Aunt Fran, bought in her gallery." 

So that's when I had a sign: Learn more about Missionary Mary L. Proctor. 

And well, for heaven's sake, I found that Mary has lots of paintings with that very message: "pay attention to signs....signs point the way...."  And so I paid attention.

Katherine Wolf-Hehn, in the Bitter Southerner, 
Photo by Mark Wallheiser.
"Art heals the body mind and soul"

Sources/Notes

1. https://bittersoutherner.com/missionary-mary-proctor-southern-folk-art.  “This is my communication line to God. This is my expression. The Church of Art.” .

2. https://porchscene.com/2014/01/06/marys-doorway-philosophy-by-deborah-fagan-carpenter/

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_L._Proctor+

4. https://mainstreetgallery.net/artist/mary-proctor/

5. https://discover.hubpages.com/education/Folk-Art-The-Self-Taught-Artist -- "Folk art is artistic creativity performed by people who are self-taught, or by those who learned their skill from having it taught or handed down to them, such as from family members. That means it lovingly embodies the skill, imagination, memories, stories, and creativity of the artist in a way that is simply unique."