Label
Mary L. Proctor (b.1960)
Born to a teenage mother in Jefferson County, Florida in 1960, Mary Proctor was raised by her grandparents. Like many vernacular and self-taught artists, she can pinpoint the exact moment and reason why she began to paint. In 1994, a fire took the lives of her grandmother, aunt, and uncle. Deeply depressed by her great loss, Proctor found comfort in her Christian faith, and in 1995, Proctor had a vision that told her to get a door and paint. From that day forward, Proctor has taken it upon herself to be a missionary to the world, using doors as passageways to freedom, peace, and comfort, and instilling her paintings with passages from scripture, and glittering angels. She calls herself "Missionary Mary" and uses a myriad of found materials - buttons, sticks, broken pieces of glass, mirrors, plates - to complete her compositions. For Mary, putting together items that are unwanted or broken represents the process of mending.