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BOB EDWARDS, HOST: Many well known black artists live and work in Northern cities. They include Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden.
An exhibition currently at the Schaumburg Center for Research on Black Culture in New York City focuses on the work of black artists who live in the South.
Laura Sydell of member station WNYC reports the work of these artists is growing more popular.
LAURA SYDELL, WNYC REPORTER: Most of the 25 artists in the exhibition "Bearing Witness: African-American Vernacular Art of the South," worked quietly for years while they made a living at blue collar jobs.
Artist Lonnie Holley says he incorporates all those jobs into his artwork.
LONNIE HOLLEY, ARTIST: All of my life is in my artwork.
As a cook, I was a chef at Disney World there in Orlando. I learned how to set tables. I learned how to lay out preparation to get ready to eat.
So, fork and the spoon, that's what I used when I first started cutting the sandstone. I didn't have tools, so I used a knife, fork, and a spoon. To make my eyes, I used a spoon. To make lines I would spread the forks open, and then I got these kind of lines that you saw in "Fat Mama."
SYDELL: "Fat Mama" is a sandstone sculpture of a mother with her arms tightly wrapped around a husband and son. Their faces almost touch, like African totem figures.
Like all of the artists in the show, Holley uses ordinary materials. Works by Archie Byron (ph) are constructed from sawdust and Elmer's glue.
Another common material is old tree roots and driftwood. Artist Bessie Harvey adds jewelry, feathers, and paint to a piece of tree root until it looks like a prophet from the Bible.
Another piece, by Thornton...