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| Bettye Williams is a self-taught folk artist. After retiring from her
job in the Domestic Department of the Polk County Circuit Court, Bettye
Williams was ready for a change. She was 41 years old when she started
painting and she immediately produced images detailing a Florida past.
Bettye says, "There was no conscious effort on my part to become a
'memory painter,' a term I had never heard. Later, my gallery
representative used the term to describe my work. I was painting scenes
from my past, something that I was familiar with." |
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Excerpt from Bettye Williams' Autobiography
"I was born in a
cracker house that belonged to my paternal grandparents, Vance and
Carrie Jarvis, on July 22, 1935. They lived in Jefferson County,
Florida. Martha, my mama, recalls that at the same time her midwife was
assisting her in bringing me into the world, she could hear the lowing
of a cow in the woods nearby, trying to bear her calf alone. Mama
sympathized. We all survived. It was God's will.
"When I was a
few months old, my parents and older sister, Virginia moved into a
run-down house on the outskirts of Monticello, the Jefferson County
seat, 2 or 3 miles from town. Mama cooked on the fireplace for a while,
using green wood from pecan trees it smoked more than flamed. Boards
were missing from the floor next to the fireplace and we could see the
hogs that belonged to the owner of the house walking around underneath.
Still we had a home of our own. We lived there for a while, moved
away, and then moved back there again. I can't imagine why, unless we
missed the hogs. In the summer, my sister and I got sunburned while
taking our naps because we were so fair-skinned and the tin-roofed house
had no ceiling, only rafters. Once, in the kitchen, a snake fell from
one of those rafters and nearly scared the daylights out of us." BWms |
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| Bettye is famous for her citrus paintings. Her aunt, Granny Mae ran a
boarding house for grove pickers and many citrus paintings depict the
labor the groves demanded from individuals and families. Orange groves
are prevalent in Bettye's artwork and over the years, her citrus
paintings have been extremely popular with Floridians. Even in paintings
that are not about the citrus groves, like "Granny and the Good Book"
and "Super Bowl Sunday," orange crates are being used as seats/tables
and orange groves are in the background. |
A distinguishing facet of the artwork is the depiction of old labels
initiating a revival. Bettye's inclusion of labels in paintings extend
from her Country Store Series to orange crates, which are always in
demand.
To the right is a small section of the label from the
orange crate above. Bettye's attention to detail is phenomenal and so
is her ability to work within a tiny space. |
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| Another important part of Bettye's art work is her personal writings.
She calls the writings 'memory clips'. Memory clips are shortened
versions of the stories behind the paintings and are similar to journal
entries. Bettye says that she enjoys writing as much as she does
painting. The writings address the context of the work. The memories
demonstrate a little girl's acute awareness of her world, her value for
life, and the love for her family. |
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"The first orange I ever remember getting was at Christmas one year. My
sister and I carried ours around all day and just enjoyed 'sniffing' it.
We savored it as long as we could and when we finally broke down and
ate it, we ate peeling and all (waste not want not, you know). Since our
lips were always chapped from the cold, the orange 'tang' set us on
fire but we didn't care we had tasted an orange!
"Later, when
oranges were more available to us, my grand daddy would roll them until
they were soft and cut a whole in the top for me to suck the juice out. I
thought it was 'nectar of the gods' or something equally wonderful. I
recently fixed one like it for my little grand daughter and she thought
it was 'cool' to suck it. I don't really think her Mom thought it such a
good idea! I hope she remembers it with the good feeling I have when I
remember my grand daddy fixing mine. He always tore his open and ate the
pulp when he finished sucking all the juice out but I didn't like it.
It nearly choked me down!" BWms |
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The little mocking bird (Florida's State Bird and the orange blossom is
the State Flower) can't believe he "Ate the Whole Thing."
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Excerpt from Bettye's Autobiography
"We got real uppity and moved
into town, living in several inadequate abodes. One was a stripped-out
school bus body that was parked behind an old dilapidated service
station. Together, the two served as our new home. While living there,
my sister and I had measles. Mama covered the windows (all forty million
of them on that school bus) to keep the light out so we wouldn't go
blind from the glare. She made us drink sassafras tea to make the
measles break out.
Since then, I still haven't tasted one drop
of sassafras tea. Thank God for home remedies. In my whole life growing
up, I remember being taken to a doctor only two or three times.
"I
would not trade my upbringing for all the silver spoons in the world.
We were poor, I suppose, by the world's standards, but we weren't
really. Everyone we knew or associated with was as lacking in worldly
goods as we were and nobody pretended otherwise. We were unpretentious
and unsophisticated and appreciated what we did have." BWms |
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