Beverly Buchanan

•Self-Taught artist

•Born in South Carolina

•As a child she traveled throughout the state with her Dad.

•She experienced firsthand the people and dwellings of the deep South, particularly the homes of the very poor.

By Adrianna Thomas

The Sharecropper’s shack used to be a common figure in poor Southern rural areas.

These structures and the people who live in them are the inspiration behind Buchanan’s work.

Shacks were traditionally hand-built out of whatever materials were available, from cast-off materials to sticks and twigs by the people

who lived there.

She visits with the people who live in these homes & asks permission to take photographs.

She takes these photographs back to her studio in Athens, GA where she creates drawings with expressive oil pastels, sculptures made from found objects and paintings with vibrant colors.

•Her sculptural shacks are built of the same materials as those found along the back roads of rural South Carolina: bits of wood, metal, and tar paper. 

•Each sculptural shack is based upon a real-life structure.

•When her work is finished she displays the photograph with her artwork.

•Has a fascination with buildings and ruins.

•Artwork celebrates the shacks of poor farmers whose spirit triumphed over poverty.

•They had to be creative with what materials were available.

•These homes mean more than shelter, they represent people’s hopes and dreams.

  

 

Now it’s your turn to be Creative !

•We are going to create a landscape with expressive marks and vibrant colors!

•We will use materials available to us such as popsicle sticks, cardboard and burlap to build our shacks!