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Frances Currey (1925–2012; also known as Grandma Fran[2] and Frances Currey Brown) was an American folk art painter.
Frances Curry | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1925 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Died | 2012 (aged 86–87) |
| Resting place | Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park, Clearwater, Florida, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Ball State University |
| Known for | Painting |
| Style | Folk art |
| Spouse | George Brown |
| Patron(s) | Luci Baines Johnson[1] |
| Website | grandmafran |
Frances Currey was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1925.[2] She was raised on a farm in Jennings County, Indiana.[3]
In the mid-1960s, Currey was a school teacher, teaching third grade in Liberty, Indiana.[1][4] She had earned her master's degree at Ball State University in Elementary Education.[4] She also studied for her doctorate, studying Alzheimer's disease at Earlham College. She married and had three children.[1]
Currey would remarry, marrying George Brown.[1] In the 1970s, Currey's son, James Clarkson, moved to Mississippi. Currey mailed her 2-year-old granddaughter postcards with drawings on them. Another artist recognized Currey's talent and encouraged her to start painting larger scale works and selling them.[1] Thus, Currey and her husband opened an art studio in Berryville, Arkansas.[3] They both sold their art in the studio.[1]
In 1978, "Moving Day," was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Around the same time, she submitted her work to a call for artists by Jimmy Carter. Her work was accepted and was displayed at Carter's cabin.[1]
In 1981, Luci Baines Johnson commissioned her first painting from Currey. Johnson visited Currey's gallery while visiting the Ozark Mountains. The work, titled "T.J. Taylor -- Dealer in Everything," "depicts a normal day in the life" of T.J. Turpin, Johnson's husband's grandfather.[1]
Currey was commissioned, in 1992, by the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History to create "Decoration Day," which depicts Memorial Day and the decorating of tombstones.[1]
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Currey was diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer's disease in 2006. She was placed in a nursing home in 2009, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.[1] She died in December 2012 and was buried in Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater, Florida.
Currey was a folk artist who painted depictions of her childhood in Indiana and everyday life of living on a farm and small town. She had no formal training. Her work is story based. Currey would tell stories to visitors to the studio to accompany her paintings.[1]
- "Moving Day" - 1978, watercolor and pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum[5]
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