When is a softball not something to throw and hit? Or a pack of bobby pins not something to secure hair? Or a bottle something other than a container for liquids?
Such things are transformed when they are the “found objects” used to create folk art by the Catoosa County Public Library’s artist of the month, Maudine Benton-Fall.
Folk artist Maudine Benton-Fall is the artist of the month at the Catoosa County Public Library.“Art is a sickness,” she said, while preparing to install her show. “You get better, but you never get over it.”
The nearly 100 of Benton-Fall’s sculptures on display through February are both an expression of her artistic vision and a celebration of Black History Month.
“These pieces are part of my history, my culture,” she said. “They are my stories.”
The artist said her grandmother, mother and sisters “all liked using their hands” and that she was always encouraged to follow their example, either crocheting, quilting or sewing.
“They would say, ‘Do something, use your hands,'” she said. “I didn’t know what to do, but I’ve always tried.”
While her art could often be seen as “Afro-centric” because its creation is drawn from her own experiences, she said it deals with all cultures and universal truths.
“Some are of women going to church, some are the matriarchs – and occasionally the patriarchs – of a family,” Benton-Fall said as she prepared to place pieces throughout the library. “Some are tribal, some have dance moves, but they all tell life stories.”
Some represent the “rock-like strength of a black woman,” like in a piece titled “Black Queen.”
But the spiritual force seen on the surface of that construction comes from within, the artist said.
“That is what every woman should feel,” she said, “like she is a queen.”
To convey these stories – and truths – that she created over the span of about six years, Benton-Fall recycles everyday objects, turning found objects into folk art.
Discarded bottles become bodies. Baseballs and softballs serve as heads. Costumes are created from scraps of cloth; coat hanger wire or copper coils come to life as arms or legs; and hair could be a worn steel wool pad or a retasked package of hairpins.
Saturday afternoons, Benton-Fall will be on hand to talk about her works’ inspiration and fabrication, the process of being an artist and the need for everyone to “use your imagination.”