Dos Folkies Gallery: Outsider - Self-taught - Art Brut

Mary Proctor once ran a junk/odds and ends shop, Noah’s Art Flea Market, in north Florida. Over the years she accumulated an assortment of jewelry, buttons, bottle caps, doll parts, watches, and other objects. Thousands of these small trinkets filled her home and Mary never really knew what she was going to do with all of her stuff. In 1994 she lost her grandmother, her aunt, and her uncle in a trailer fire. Mary credits her grandmother for raising her and her aunt and uncle she says were always there for her. She spent a year grieving and praying for relief from her pain. After fasting and praying for 30 days Mary had a vision from God. Surrounded by an unearthly light a voice instructed Mary to find one of the old doors on her property and a bucket of paint and a brush. Mary had never painted anything before then, but the voice instructed her to paint the door. That was the beginning of her calling. Since then Mary has painted hundreds of doors, and boards and almost anything with a surface. She adorns much of her work with the buttons and objects she collected over the years. Much of her work is filled with positive messages of peace, family, celebration, spirituality, and rebuking evil. She creates art now like one breathes; it is part of her being and perhaps her life force. Mary refers to the Gospel of John where Jesus said, “ I am the door; if anyone enters me, he will be saved.” Mary signs her pieces Missionary Mary Proctor to reflect the evangelical aspects of her art.