New Website Coming Along

I’ve been telling you that we are working on a new website.  We started last year and had things about ready to go and the eCommerce website that we were using went out of business.

So, we had to start in December transferring to a new web host. It is really coming along and altho’ everything is not completed yet,  you can see where we are by going to…. www.possumcounty.com.

We are currently working on posting product.  But, we have several pages completed.

We’ve grown since we first started around 15 years ago. I started out with George and his Dad’s art. I remember the first time in Atlanta I had only one booth and had some tramp art by George’s dad.

 I had met Missionary Mary Proctor years before that show in Atlanta and we became such good friends. I am so grateful to her for her help and guidance. It is only fitting that I feature her when you come to my homepage.

We’ve met so many interesting people and were so fortunate to meet some of the early folk artists that no longer attend the folk fest show or have passed away.ie Joe Legge, Danny Hoskins, Chris Clark, R.A. Miller, Howard Finster and so many other great artists.

George and I believe we are so blessed to have been married by Reverend Howard  Finster at Paradise Gardens. After all, where would the folk art movement be today without Howard?

I’ll be adding to the blog more regularly once we get everything up and running. Keep checking back!

We have some great news! We’re now being featured in another southern Folk Art Gallery. George has just been accepted as a featured  artist at The American Folk Art Museum and Gallery located in the Tallahassee Mall in Tallahassee, Florida. It’s such an honor to have our items displayed next to art by our friend, Smithsonian artist, Missionary Mary Proctor.

We are so pleased that God has blessed us with this new venue. It is so nice for us,  we live so far north and it is difficult for us to travel down south where all of the good folk art shows are located.

If you get in the area, stop in to the The American Folk Art Museum and Gallery located in the Tallahassee Mall in Tallahassee.  If you get there……tell our dear friends Mary and Tyrone “HI”.

Winter comes to Northern Indiana. We got 12" of snow in our area.

We knew it bound to happen sooner or later, it has been cool for a while. One day I look out and see all of the leaves on our two big red maples out front and the next thing you know, they’re all laying on the ground. IT COULD BE WORSE, we could live FARTHER north! And now they are all coverd with white stuff! Oh well!

I look out and see our neighbors getting ready for the holidays.  Some have Thanksgiving décor up and others jumped right into Christmas.

We have been staying inside and working on the website.  George has added a lot of his dad’s artwork.  As many of you know, Dad lived to the ripe old age of 99 + ½ years. He had such a wonderful, full life. 

He was an instructor at an Auction School, Buildt models of Steamboats and Outhouses for museums, Tramp Art boxes, picture frames, sheves, clock cases, and canes.  He was a carver of swords, knifes and daggers and a world class penman and created such unusual items as penning the Lord's Prayer on the EDGE of an ordinary business card and on one side of a toothpick and his name, address and phone number on a single grain of rice.

I receive emails from collectors that have Dad’s artwork and sometimes someone will buy something in an auction or out of a collectors store and want to know if we can tell then anything about it. Last year a guy had bought a beautiful old flourishing Dad had made and wanted to know if it was really his. Those are fun emails.

His hand drawn pictures and flourishing are beautiful framed.  I encourage you check him out on the website. We own a large collection of dad’s original works! And will be adding new items all this winter.

Have a Great Holiday Season

Missionary Mary Proctor

Almost everyone in the Folk Art Community knows the name of Missionary Mary Proctor.

She experienced a tragedy in the 1994, when her grandmother and two other family members died in a house fire.  Mary was extremely close to her grandmother and shared with me one time that “If you don’t marry Tyrone, I WILL!” J She took her grandmothers advice and married a great man of God.

Mary was not an artist early on….she operated a flea market on some property she owned in Tallahassee. She was grieving her loss when she had that MOMENT in her life, when sitting under a tree, a voice urged her to paint.  She was reluctant because she had never painted before. She painted her heart out and set it up in the flea market…it got attention…and once day A New York gallery owned happed by and the rest is as they say..HISTORY!

Mary has been exhibited everywhere. She is in a lot of galleries and is a Smithsonian artist who’s works we on display for several months at the Smithsonian.

I met her at Finster Fest one year.  I started collecting her artwork and she would always home something patriotic for me. One time she asked me if I was an artist and I told her I was not but my husband George was. She encouraged me to open a gallery and represent artists since my background was in sales and promotions. She became my 1^st folk artist and encouraged me to do Folk Fest in Atlanta with George’s works.

Mary and I have been friends since that early meeting and I am so thankful for her.  She is compulsive; and by that I mean SHE HAS TO PAINT! She can sure put it out.  She reminds my of George because he has that same drive.

Folk art makes great gifts for Christmas….thanks for supporting our artists!

I'm Back

It’s exciting to be back on the website again and back to blogging.

It’s  been a while so there is  a lot of catching up to do.

We’ve added a lot of new artists to Possum County and I encourage you to visit their pages and get to know them too!

George has been really busy and between working shows this year, he participated with a group called Walldogs.  They are mural artists that work one show a year (One town a year) and do 13-18 murals in 3 days.  All murals are historically accurate.  It takes 2 years to get all of the information together and the art renditions approved.  I encourage you to visit Thewalldogs.com and also Shipshewanawalldogs.com   

With shows ending, George will have more time to do the creating that he enjoys so much…FOLK ART!

And hopefully, we will have time to take in some blues shows too! We are going to go see our friends Bruce Katz and Chris Vitarello  next week.  We were able to see and meet Tab Benoit this year.  George presented him with a plaque (like ones he has done for other blues artists and friends).

So , keep in touch and checking back….I’ll be posting regularly……Sheila

OTTO the Folk Artist

Our artist OTTO has been busy lately. His work is flying out of the gallery. Be sure and check him out on the website

Nelson says: Making a 16 piece assemblage of just OTTO!

Lori says: Selling pieces before I even get them out of the car and into the gallery

Gaby says: love the new pieces of Otto we added to our Otto collection!

We recently received several new pieces from OTTO and I have to tell you...HE'S HOT!

Be sure and check him out on our website:
http://www.possumcounty.com

Get in while the prices are still low!

MUROB FOLK ART GUITAR + Billy Flynn

Back in early March Billy Flynn came to the house for a folk art visit. While he was here he asked if we had a guitar he could play. We had this blues guitar George made. Let me tell you, it makes a difference when a Professional plays...this guitar will never be the same.

Billy won his grammy for his extraordinary talents on guitar in the Cadillac Records movie starring Beyonce'. Be sure and get the CD and visit our website for more art
www.possumcounty.com