January 15, 2002

Folk Artist Willie Rascoe

 

    The Janice Mason Art Museum will feature on exhibit the artwork of local folk artist Willie Rascoe from February 2 through February 28.  The artist will be available at the members-only event hosted by the museum form 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Saturday, February 2.

    A self taught African American folk artist, Mr. Rascoe was born in 1950, in rural Christian County and Currently resides in nearby Cerulean, Kentucky.

    He attended Hopkinsville Community College before being drafted into the United States Army and serving with the 82nd Airborne division.  After completing his Associates Degree in General Studies in 1973, he joined his father's business as a builder.

    Mr. Rascoe's unique art is derived by the natural elements used as his media.  Collecting the driftwood and other found materials that he uses from Lake Barkley and other Kentucky lakes and rivers, his talent is revealed by carving what he finds inherent in the wood.  Copper, animal hide, and wire often yield his most unusual effects.  Stains are often created from berries and sawdust, and sculptures are adorned with bone and shells and other fragments of the earth.

    Mr. Rascoe began driftwood sculpturing as a hobby in 1974, accepting the challenge to see what could be done with e wood that the had saved from the lakes and rivers he frequently visited.  "I love to express the gift God has given me through driftwood.  I compare driftwood to children that drift along waiting for someone to come along who can see the beauty in their lives.  Like the driftwood I work with, their lives can be rescued and reshaped into something beautiful and precious for all eternity.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," he said.

    His personal attachment toward his unique pieces makes buying a work by Willie Rascoe next to impossible.  Although Mr. Rascoe attends many shows, and enjoys talking with the public about his work, he has chosen to keep most of it rather then sell it.  He hopes to open his own gallery one day.

    His work may be seen exhibited throughout the country.  A few have made their way into private collections and adorn the walls of the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Foundation, and the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort among others.  Many state parks and forests have taken an interest in Mr. Rascoe's unique exhibits.

    In the early 1980's Ms. Lucille Allen of the Aaron McNeil Center of Hopkinsville noticed Rascoe's work and encouraged him to hold his first exhibit at the former Trigg County Farmer's Bank in Cadiz, Kentucky.  Since that time he has given several demonstrations and lectures at schools in Hopkinsville, Madisonville, and Williamsburg, Kentucky.

    His work has been included in the African American Folk Art in Kentucky, at the Kentucky Museum of Western Kentucky University.  Mr. Rascoe's works were featured in a traveling exhibit sponsored by the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest from 1998 through 2001.  He was selected as one of ten top African Americans to participate in a traveling art exhibit sponsored by the Kentucky Folk Art Center at Morehead, Kentucky.  He has also exhibited at the Mennello Museum of American Folk Art in Florida and the Edmound J. Kricker Gallery at Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, Ohio.  Mr. Rascoe has conducted numerous workshops, including the October 2001, International Festival at Bowling Green.

    The Janice Mason Art Museum is located at 71 Main Street downtown Cadiz.  Museum hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays, closed Wednesday.  for more information concerning membership or this event visit the museum website, www.jmam.org or call 522-9056.

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(Find photos of artist and his work here.)