Helen LaFrance

Helen LaFrance was a Graves County native (1919-2020) and self-taught folk artist. LaFrance began painting as a child with colors from dandelions, walnut bark, berries, and bluing, but didn't become a full-time artist until age 67. Her paintings depict the lifestyle of the rural South from the viewpoint of a Black girl. LaFrance remarked in a PBS documentary that she painted entirely from memory. LaFrance's depictions of Western Kentucky bring the past alive in paintings such as County Fair and others. 

LaFrance was primarily a painter, but she was also proficient in quilt making and wood carving. Her life was documented in an award-winning screenplay by Marilyn Jaye Lewis, Tell My Bones: The Helen LaFrance Story, and the 2019 documentary Helen LaFrance: Memories. Her work is represented in many different collections, private and public, including those of Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, and Bryant Gumbel. Along with her "memory paintings," LaFrance would paint visions of how religious life and the bible appeared to her. These paintings and many others can be found on the website for the Helen LaFrance Foundation.