NASHVILLE ARTS MAGAZINE ARTICLE ON HELEN LaFRANCE by KATHY MOSES

In case you missed this article I wrote for Nashville Arts on the multi-talented Southern folk artist Helen LaFrance, you can read it now.  If you click on the link and it doesn't take you there, just copy & paste it in your browser. Or you can go to Nashville Arts magazine's web site and click on it directly.

LaFrance had acclaimed solo exhibitions at Tennessee State Museum this summer and at Vanderbilt University Divinity School this fall. You can read about her in the new book Helen LaFrance Folk Art Memories, by Kathy Moses, with Bruce Shelton, with a foreword by American Folk Art Museum's Lee Kogan. Get the book at amazon.com, sheltongallery.com or just-looking-antiques.com.
She is also featured in a chapter of Kathy Moses' Outsider Art of the South (Schiffer Publishing).

Please copy & paste the link below into your web browser & it will take you to where you need to go.

http://nashvillearts.com/2012/07/01/memory-painting-the-work-of-helen-lafrance/

GALLERY TALK ON HELEN LAFRANCE/VANDERBILT DIVINITY SCHOOL/TUES. SEPT. 25, 4-5, VANDERBILT CAMPUS, NASHVILLE TN

If you're in Nashville, TN on Tues. Sept. 25, 4-5 pm., please drop by Vanderbilt Divinity School, G-20 (ground floor), 411 21st Ave. S on the Vanderbilt University campus for a Gallery Talk on the works of self-taught Southern Afro-American artist Helen LaFrance. Dave Perkins, Bruce Shelton, and I will be featured, but we'd like to answer questions from the audience. If you're in town...I'd love to see you!

This is a fantastic exhibition, complete with great catalogue with essays by Dave Perkins, Dan Prince and me, focusing on LaFrance's incredible Biblical paintings, but there are other examples of her work there as well---carvings, memory paintings and a knock-out quilt. Exhibition runs through November 16 and there will be a showing of more of her work at the University Club, Nashville beginning the first week in October. Details to follow!

HELEN LaFRANCE BIBLICAL VISIONS OPENING RECEPTION, THURS. SEPT. 20, 4-7 pm, VANDERBILT DIVINITY SCHOOL

Thursday, September 20, 4-7 pm, Opening Reception of Helen LaFrance 
Biblical Visions exhibition, Vanderbilt Divinity School, G-20 ground 
floor, 411 21st Avenue N. NASHVILLE, TN. It'll be a party! Please come.

Will speak at Gallery talk Tues. Sept. 25, 4-5 pm. Show continues November 16.

HELEN LaFRANCE BIBLICAL VISIONS UPCOMING EXHIBITION AT VANDERBILT DIVINITY SCHOOL OPENING RECEPTION THURS. SEPT. 20, 4-7 PM

SAVE THE DATE! Thurs. Sept. 20, 4-7 pm, marks the opening reception for a showing of works by self-taught artist Helen LaFrance at Vanderbilt Divinity School, G-20 Ground Floor at 411 21st Ave. North, Nashville, TN. The exhibition runs from September 20-November 16, 2012 with a gallery talk featuring Kathy Moses and Bruce Shelton Tues. Sept. 25, 4-5 pm. The exhibition is presented by Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture, Vanderbilt University.

GREAT VIDEO ABOUT FOLK ARTIST HELEN LaFRANCE

This is a great new video about folk artist Helen LaFrance, which appears on youtube.com. She is being interviewed in her "studio" in the Kentucky nursing home where she resides. Remember, she is 93 years of age and she is still doing what she enjoys with her God-given talent. As she puts it so neatly, "When I'm not eating or sleeping, I'm painting." ( p. 1, Helen LaFrance Folk Art Memories, by Kathy Moses, with Bruce Shelton, foreword by Lee Kogan). LaFrance is a national treasure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHYgCY_y7f8

CHECK OUT AUGUST ISSUE "NASHVILLE ARTS MAGAZINE" FOR MY ARTICLE ON WOOD TURNER BRENDA STEIN

Try clicking on the link (below the first image) to "Nashville Arts Magazine" and, once you're there, click on the image for the current issue on the right. You'll find my article on local wood turner Brenda Stein. She and I spent a good four hours together when I interviewed her for the magazine, and we really hit it off. I rarely spend that much time with the subject of an article, but Brenda is a very interesting and talented woman and we found we shared many connections and had a lot of fun! She even had me suit up in protective gear and try my hand at the lathe, which was more than a little intimidating, even dangerous, until I got into it and heard her cheer me on, above the buzz of the machine, "That's awesome! You've taken your power! See what I mean?" It WAS awesome.

http://nashvillearts.com

The August issue is a particularly good one so don't just read my piece. Read it all.

LAST WEEKEND FOR HELEN LaFRANCE EXHIBIT OF FOLK ART PAINTINGS AT TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM, NASHVILLE, 5TH & DEADERICK

DON'T MISS THE LAST WEEKEND OF THE TENNESSEE 

STATE MUSEUM EXHIBIT OF HELEN LaFRANCE'S MEMORY PAINTINGS  THRU AUGUST 12

Changing Gallery III

Helen LaFrance: Folk Art Memories
July 1 to August 12, 2012

A collection of 29 paintings by self-taught artist Helen LaFrance opens on July 1 in the museum’s Changing Galleries. The exhibition, Helen LaFrance: Folk Art Memories, is a synthesis of her personal history, folk traditions and spiritual visions.

LaFrance is a renowned Southern folk artist who has been painting since she was five years old. Born in Graves County, Kentucky, her works reflect images from memories of rural farm-life. She received no formal art instruction and never attended high school. LaFrance practices a type of folk art called, “Memory Painting,” in which the artist records her autobiography in beautiful visual images.

For many years, LaFrance has painted memories of a lifestyle that is rapidly disappearing. Her paintings portray scenes of Southern farm images, such as farmers plowing in the field, church picnics, cotton fields, and river baptisms.

A biography of LaFrance is featured in a book with the same title as the exhibit, “Helen LaFrance: Folk Art Memories,” written by Kathy Moses with Bruce Shelton. Her paintings have been purchased by such celebrity collectors as Oprah Winfrey and Bryant Gumbel. Her work is also in the permanent collection of the Kentucky Folk Art Center and The Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.

Of her art, LaFrance says with modesty: “I just do what I do. I thought if I kept doing it, one day I’d do something worthwhile.”

The exhibition traces the prolific and profound journey of this noted Southern folk artist. There is no admission charge to visit the exhibit, which will be on view through August 12. 

Above: Farm yard, oil on canvas, nda. Courtesy of Bruce Shelton

For more imformation contact Mary Skinner at mary.skinner@tn.gov