Lonnie Holley

Lonnie Holley, born 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, is a unique story teller. He uses discarded industrial shell, a soft sandstone by-product of the steel industry, as his vocabulary. As he begins carving a chunk of it, he will verbalize what it is expressing to him and as it emerges, we begin to see it, too. When he has finished, we see historical and natural references, and are enriched by his ability to pull spirit and emotion out of it and transfer it to us.

"I asked God to give me something so that I may go to the top in life, and He did. I use the setting sun, the stars, the hills--all that has affected my imagination and what I put in my work."

He first carved simple figures, but was soon creating complex carvings depicting Jesus Christ, Dr. Martin Luther King, and president John F. Kennedy. His work was featured in the Smithsonian Institution's exhibit, "More than Land and Sky (Art of Appalacia)." His work is in many permanent collections, including the High Museum in Atlanta, the Museum of American Folk Art in New York, the Ikon Gallery of Birmingham, England. In 2004, the Birmingham (Alabama) Art Museum held a 25 year retrospective.