Laura Pope Forester

Laura Pope Forester (also spelled Forrester;[1] 1873–1953)[2] was a self-taught American folk artist, who created one of the earliest outdoor art environments in the United States.[3] By the time she died in 1953, the space around Forester's rural Georgia home and store featured over 200 concrete sculptures, many of which celebrated notable women in history and mythology.[2]

Laura Pope Forester
Born
Laura Atkinson

31 January 1873
Thomas County, Georgia
Died1953
Grady County, Georgia
MonumentsPope's Museum, Georgia
NationalityAmerican
OccupationFolk artist
Spouse(s)B. H. Pope (1894-1911); J. F. Forester (m. 1914)
Children2

Life

Laura Pope Forester was born Laura Atkinson on 31 January 1873 in Thomas County, Georgia, the daughter of Hezekiah and Katura Davis Atkinson .[4] As a child, she was taught to sculpt with clay and create dyes from berries and other natural materials.[5] At 21, she married B. H. Pope, a school teacher.[6][5] The couple had two sons, who were 12 and 14 when her husband died in 1911.[5] She later married J. F. Forester.[7]

Between 1917 and 1953, Laura Pope Forester created what is possibly the oldest known outside art space in the United States.[8] Her works depicted people, particularly women, whose traits and achievements she admired, and included Cleopatra, World War I's Red Cross nurses, and Scarlett O’Hara.[9] Forester typically built her figures using found objects, such as scrap iron and tin cans, which she then covered in concrete, and often coloured using handmade dyes.[10]

Forester also painted prolifically, her works ranging from landscapes to religious and historical scenes.[2] As well as on the interior walls of her home, she painted on stretched flour sacks and other homemade "canvases".[2] In 1961, a newspaper report described Forester and her work:

Mrs. Forester’s inventiveness was almost as incredible as her talent.  Besides using scrap iron from junkyards, discarded tin cans and other waste material as braces for her statues, she painted the figures with liquids of many flowers and brightly colored berries…[11]

A journalist for the Macon Telegraph described Forester herself as:

a gracious, friendly lady, tiny brown curls slipping from the knot worn high upon her head, cool clear complexion, light brown eyes which brightened when she talked, and a charming smile. Her voice is lovely, low yet vibrant with life and her words have a way of rippling forth.[5]

During her lifetime, Forester achieved national recognition, including by the Smithsonian journal, and the Library of Congress.[8] She did not, however, exhibit her work in shows.[12] Following her death, the home (by then known as 'Mrs Pope's Museum') remained as a roadside curiosity and tourist attraction, until it was sold in 1974.[10] Many of the freestanding sculptures were removed, taken down, or destroyed, leaving only those built into the walls.[10]

Today, Forester's former home is a museum.[12] In 2021 Forester was added to the Georgia Women of Achievement hall of fame.[13]

References
  1. "Laura Pope Forester's Art: What's Left • Deep Fried Kudzu". Deep Fried Kudzu. 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  2. "Pope Store Museum". Grady County Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  3. "Mrs. Pope's Museum | New Georgia Encyclopedia". www.georgiaencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  4. "Mrs. Laura Pope Forester Died at Grady Co. Home". Thomasville Press. 6 February 1953.
  5. "Information about Pope's Museum" (PDF). Spaces.
  6. "United States Marriages". Find My Past. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  7. Grady County Historical Society (2003). A dash, a pinch, a smidgen : more than a cookbook. Cairo, Ga.: Grady County Historical Society. ISBN 978-1-300-35564-9. OCLC 53977588.
  8. "Where Women Made History". contest.savingplaces.org. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  9. "Mrs. Pope's Museum and Garden". Spaces Archives. 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  10. "Laura Pope Forrester, Mrs. Pope's Museum and Garden | SPACES". spaces-art-environments.org. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  11. "Unique Museum Has Over 200 Hand-Carved Statues". Rome News-Tribune. 23 March 1961.
  12. "About The Museum | Popes Museum Farm | United States". Popesmuseumfarm. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  13. "Laura Pope Forester". Georgia Women of Achievement. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
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