Jessie Lavon : Folk Art

  
Jessie Lavon's folk art paintings—which she calls Suthern'ality style—reflect the dissapearing scenes of the South of her childhood, where she was raised on her grandmother's farm. In her art, she captures her family's way of life from the early 1900s through the 1970s. It is a way of life that Ms. Lavon has lived and experienced and continues to depict through her colorfully painted tales.

Jessie's first canvases as a child were made when her grandmother boiled rabbit bones in water and dipped pieces of cloth in the mixture. Her paints were made from mud, berries, coffee grounds, flowers, roots, and herbs. The clothing patterns that Jessie uses in her art come from the original feedsack patterns that her grandmother used to make her ten children's clothing.

Each one of her paintings tells a story, such as the process of canning or making moonshine, or when Pa traded the cow, or when kin and neighbors killed a snake, hung it in the hollow of a great, old tree, built a slow-burning fire in the hollow, and gathered around to chant in the hopes that would bring rain for the crops.

Ms. Lavon was recently awarded a contract for the licensing of her art by Green Apple Co., a cross stitch company. Her paintings have been displayed in galleries in the U.S., Canada, and England, including the Fayette Art Museum, Meridian Mississippi Museum, and the Library of Congress Reading Room.

She says, "I don't take much notice to what folks decide folk art is, because I am self-taught and my art comes from my heart. Folks who see my art and decide to buy it do so because it tells the truth, and is colorful and fun. I don't paint what folks think I should paint, and I don't paint just to sell."

Learn more at Ms. Lavon's website at: www.geocities.com/suthernaccentsfolkart.