"Missionary" Mary L. Proctor (born 1960) is an American artist, best known for her visionary paintings, collages, and assemblages.

Early life

Mary Proctor (née Cooksey) was born in 1960 to Pauline Cooksey in Lloyd, Florida. Her 11-year-old mother was unable to care for her, so she was raised by her grandparents. Her grandmother was an African-American homemaker and her grandfather a white farmer. Proctor attended public school until becoming pregnant in ninth grade. She then took on the responsibility of raising her younger siblings.

Marriage

After the death of her grandfather, and her grandmother's struggle with alcoholism, Mary met and married Tyrone Proctor. Together they moved to

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...

Early career

After working in the nursing field for ten years, Proctor opened Tender Loving Care Day Care Center and was the proprietor for five years. In search of 'something easier' Proctor began collecting items from the roadside to sell at the local flea market. Eventually, she opened her own store, "Noah's Ark Flea Market." Collecting remains her hobby.

Career as an artist

In 1994, a house fire claimed the lives of Proctor's grandmother, aunt and uncle. Proctor claims to have had a vision immediately before the fire occurred in which she "...saw light going all the way up to heaven." Following the fire in 1995, Proctor claims she had a vision during prayer that told her to "Paint". These visions inspired her to begin her pursuit as an artist. Her first pieces were portraits, painted on doors, of her family members who died in the fire. She set them in her front yard where they caught the attention of curator and critic

Tricia Collins Tricia Collins is an American art critic, art gallerist and curator of contemporary art. She was half of the curatorial team Collins & Milazzo, with Richard Milazzo, who together co-published and co-edited '' Effects : Magazine for New Art Theory' ...

, who purchased them for her gallery in New York. Her pieces typically consist of button, fake-jewel and glass encrusted figures upon a canvas of windows or doors. Her works often include spiritual messages and observances. She signs most pieces with the name "Missionary Mary L Proctor," a name she uses to represent her religious motivation. "The Lord spoke, and he said, "You are on a mission to get a great message out into the houses and hearts." That's why the "missionary" name came to me, because of my mission. I'm going to get a message out to broken , a message to help and glorify them. I'm going to get a message out so men can search their hearts, learn to respect us and treat us the right way." "Missionary" Mary started her art studio in her roadside junk shop in south

Leon County, Florida Leon County is a county in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. It was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. As of the 2020 census, the population was 292,198. The county seat is Tallahassee, which is also the state cap ...

, in 1995. In 2011, Proctor opened the American Folk Art Museum and Gallery in

. The American Folk Art Museum and Gallery was located in the Tallahassee Mall. She had her first one-woman show at All Saints Gallery in

, in 1995, and a year later, a one-woman show of her doors at the Tricia Collins Grand Salon in New York. She was selected for inclusion in three museum exhibitions in 1997:

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

of the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

, New York;

Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts The Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, also known as The Hurston, is an art museum in Eatonville, Florida. The Hurston is named after Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American writer, folklorist, and anthropologist who moved to Eaton ...

, Eatonville, Florida; Museum of African American Art, Tampa, Florida. The same year, she was featured in a one-woman show, "Mary Proctor: Contemporary American Folk Artist" at Florida A&M University, Tallahassee. She has been a regular exhibitor at the Kentuck Arts Festival for over twenty year

The cover story of

Raw Vision ''Raw Vision''rawvision.com is a British magazine devoted to outsider art and edited by John Maizels. It features content about the subject worldwide. History ''Raw Vision'' was founded by John Maizels in 1989 as a way of telling people about out ...

magazine (Vol. 29 Winter 1999-2000) was "Mary Proctor's Vision." She has since been the subject of at least twelve one-woman museum exhibitions. Her work has been included in more than forty group shows, including: American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, and Smithsonian Institution

Anacostia Museum The Anacostia Community Museum (known colloquially as the ACM) is a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is one of twenty museums under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution and was the ...

and Center for African American History and Culture, Washington DC. Additional, notable exhibitions include the 2016 Atlanta Biennial at the Atlanta Contemporary and the show "History Refused to Die: Highlights from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift" at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in 2018''.'' In 2016, Proctor won a Folk Art Society Award of Distinction given by the Folk Art Society of America. Museums holding her work in their permanent collections include: The American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland (16 works);

Asheville Art Museum The Asheville Art Museum is a community-based nonprofit visual art organization in Western North Carolina (WNC) and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The Museum is located on the center square of downtown Asheville, 2 South Pack Squ ...

, Asheville, North Carolina; Gadsden Arts Center & Museum, Quincy, Florida;

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, Atlanta, Georgia; Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, Florida;

Polk Museum of Art The Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College is a private, non-profit, and nationally accredited art museum in Lakeland, Florida. It is a member of the Florida Association of Museums, is ranked among the top art museums in the state of Flori ...

, Lakeland, Florida; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta Georgia; Smithsonian Institution

, New York, New York; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Center for African American History and Culture, Washington, DC; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proctor, Mary 1960 births Living people 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists African-American women artists American artists American folk art Women outsider artists Artists from Florida Folk artists People from Jefferson County, Florida 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American artists 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American artists