*
“Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1854 and spent most of his life sharecropping on that same Alabama plantation. Like most blacks of his generation,—the first generation of African American citizens,—Traylor was supposed to farm the land without owning it, know his place, and disappear without leaving footprints.
“Traylor, however, left a lot more than footprints. At the height of the Great Depression, now in his 80s and too old to farm, he moved to Montgomery to look for work…and there—homeless, jobless and alone—Bill Traylor started to draw.” -Text from www.BillTraylorcChasingGhosts.com
I encourage you to watch the video on the bottom of this post. I think that you are going to love it as much as I did. Bill Traylor is an important artist and such a huge inspiration.
Photos © Estate of Bill Traylor ↓
Bill Traylor from Carmen Morrow on Vimeo.
I’m so happy you featured Bill Traylor! I was lucky enough to be in NYC recently and see his work at the American Folk Art Museum. I had never heard of him before and was completely blown away by his work!! I also purchased a terrific book on him at the museum called “Bill Traylor: Drawings from the Collection of the High Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts”. It goes into great detail about his life and work, so I think you would enjoy it 🙂 Such an inspiration!
Hi Terry! How lucky you are! I would LOVE to see Bill Traylor’s work in person so much! The book that you mention is great, Bill gave it to me as a gift some time ago. It was actually my husband Bill who introduced Traylor’s work to me many years ago when I first moved to the USA. It was instant love. He is such a inspiration!
Elsa Mora recently posted..Outsider Artist Bill Traylor.
Beautiful video and artwork…