The Art of Floria Yancey

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There is a forgotten place in the remote Upper Coastal Plain region of Georgia, a place that does not even exist on most road maps.

                Brooklyn, Georgia.DSCF3462

But if you drive through Brooklyn you can’t miss it because of an artist whose name may be unfamiliar but whose work stands out.  Stands out on the highway, that is.DSCF3464

Floria Yancey is one of the last of a breed, a primitive roadside folk artist whose spirituality and painting are inextricably intertwined.

An ordained minister as well as an artist, Yancey’s church and gallery are marked by an exhibit of fading road art which acts both to catch the passing eye and to send it down the right road to Heaven.DSCF3474

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Ordained minister as well as artist, Yancey’s church and gallery are marked by an exhibit of fading road art which acts both to catch the passing eye and to send it down the right road to Heaven.DSCF3476

The Old Lady first met the Reverend Yancey after a wrong turn got her lost while she was looking for a nearby prison to try scheduling a blood donation event there.  She stopped by again about a month later when she began a fearful drive up to Atlanta to see about her Mother who lay ill in Piedmont Hospital. That day she asked Rev. Yancey to pray for her Mother.  The Reverend unlocked the small ramshackle church and took her inside where they stood together before the simple altar holding hands while the Reverend called for the power of God to help the Old Lady and her Mother.  A blood transfusion got Mother out of the hospital a few days later, a transfusion of blood that could well have come from one of the Old Lady’s rare successful events.  That is, one of the few where somebody actually did donate blood.  The Old Lady was fired from that job very soon afterward, but counted the experience a gain for her Mother’s sake.DSCF3477

Seven years later, on the afternoon of Palm Sunday, the Old Lady stopped in Brooklyn again on her way to another job.  The signs along the road had fallen into disrepair, and the church and gallery were deserted.  In despair, the Old Lady was fixing to move on down the road when the Reverend Yancey rode up in the shotgun seat of a fine car filled with family.  The Old Lady reminded the Reverend of that day seven years before.  “I thought you looked kind of familiar,” she said, holding the Old Lady’s hand.

Further along the highway that day, the Old Lady passed Jesus on the road toting a cross.  (See http://www.oldladyandpurpledragon.com/holy-week-pilgrimage-part-one/ )

But that’s another story.    DSCF3472

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