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Helen LaFrance Orr
Helen LaFrance Orr, born in 1919 in Graves County, Kentucky, was a self-taught Black American folk painter. Inspired by her mother to draw, Helen began painting at age 5. Known as “the Black Grandma Moses,” she captured the disappearing lifestyle of the rural South. Despite her lack of formal training, her work, Memory Painting, is celebrated for its vibrant depiction of rural life and spiritual visionary interpretations of the Bible. She was honored in 2011 with Kentucky’s Folk Art Heritage Award, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.
Helen LaFrance Orr, born in 1919 in Graves County, Kentucky, was a self-taught Black American folk painter. Inspired by her mother to draw, Helen began painting at age 5. Known as “the Black Grandma Moses,” she captured the disappearing lifestyle of the rural South. Despite her lack of formal training, her work, Memory Painting, is celebrated for its vibrant depiction of rural life and spiritual visionary interpretations of the Bible. She was honored in 2011 with Kentucky’s Folk Art Heritage Award, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.
Helen LaFrance Orr
Helen LaFrance Orr, born in 1919 in Graves County, Kentucky, was a self-taught Black American folk painter. Inspired by her mother to draw, Helen began painting at age 5. Known as “the Black Grandma Moses,” she captured the disappearing lifestyle of the rural South. Despite her lack of formal training, her work, Memory Painting, is celebrated for its vibrant depiction of rural life and spiritual visionary interpretations of the Bible. She was honored in 2011 with Kentucky’s Folk Art Heritage Award, and her work is in the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.