{{short description|American folk artist}} {{Infobox person | name = Laura Pope Forester | birth_name = Laura Atkinson | birth_date = 31 January 1873 | birth_place = [[Thomas County, Georgia]], U.S. | death_date = {{death year and age|1953|1873}} | death_place = [[Grady County, Georgia]], U.S. | monuments = Pope's Museum, Georgia | occupation = [[Folk artist]] | spouse = B. H. Pope (1894–1911)<br />J. F. {{marriage|Forester|1914}} | children = 2 }} '''Laura Pope Forester''' (also spelled '''Forrester''';<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-06-27|title=Laura Pope Forester's Art: What's Left • Deep Fried Kudzu|url=https://deepfriedkudzu.com/2013/06/laura-pope-foresters-art-whats-left.html/|access-date=2020-12-24|website=Deep Fried Kudzu|language=en-US}}</ref> 31 January 1873 – 1953)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Pope Store Museum|url=https://www.cairogachamber.com/pope-store-museum.html|access-date=2020-12-24|website=Grady County Chamber of Commerce|language=en}}</ref> was a self-taught American [[folk art]]ist, who created one of the earliest outdoor art environments in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mrs. Pope's Museum {{!}} New Georgia Encyclopedia|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/file/5465|access-date=2020-12-24|website=www.georgiaencyclopedia.org}}</ref> By the time she died in 1953, the space around Forester's rural [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] home and store featured over 200 concrete sculptures, many of which celebrated notable women in history and mythology.<ref name=":0" />
== Life == Laura Pope Forester was born Laura Atkinson on 31 January 1873 in [[Thomas County, Georgia]], the daughter of Hezekiah and Katura Davis Atkinson .<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=6 February 1953|title=Mrs. Laura Pope Forester Died at Grady Co. Home|work=Thomasville Press|url=https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/us-and-world-newspapers/page/view/189298297|access-date=}}</ref> As a child, she was taught to sculpt with clay and create dyes from berries and other natural materials.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Information about Pope's Museum|url=http://spaces-art-environments.org/uploads/2014/07/24/ga708pope005.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514051418/http://spaces-art-environments.org/uploads/2014/07/24/ga708pope005.pdf|url-status=usurped|archive-date=May 14, 2022|access-date=|website=Spaces}}</ref> At 21, she married B. H. Pope, a school teacher.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=United States Marriages|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=US/FS/M/077088485/2|access-date=2020-12-24|website=Find My Past}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> The couple had two sons, who were 12 and 14 when her husband died in 1911.<ref name=":3" /> She later married J. F. Forester.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Grady County Historical Society|title=A dash, a pinch, a smidgen : more than a cookbook|date=2003|publisher=Grady County Historical Society|isbn=978-1-300-35564-9|location=Cairo, Ga.|oclc=53977588}}</ref>
Between 1917 and 1953, Laura Pope Forester created what is possibly the oldest known outside art space in the United States.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Where Women Made History|url=https://contest.savingplaces.org/srbx4yxw|access-date=2020-12-24|website=contest.savingplaces.org}}</ref> Her works depicted people, particularly women, whose traits and achievements she admired, and included [[Cleopatra]], [[World War I]]'s Red Cross nurses, and [[Scarlett O'Hara|Scarlett O’Hara]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-11-14|title=Mrs. Pope's Museum and Garden|url=http://spacesarchives.org/explore/search-the-online-collection/laura-pope-forrester-mrs-popes-museum-and-garden/|access-date=2020-12-24|website=Spaces Archives|language=en-US}}</ref> Forester typically built her figures using found objects, such as scrap iron and tin cans, which she then covered in concrete, and often coloured using handmade dyes.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Laura Pope Forrester, Mrs. Pope's Museum and Garden {{!}} SPACES|url=http://spaces-art-environments.org/explore/collection/environment/laura-pope-forrester-mrs-popes-museum-and-garden/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512233815/http://spaces-art-environments.org/explore/collection/environment/laura-pope-forrester-mrs-popes-museum-and-garden/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=May 12, 2022|access-date=2020-12-24|website=spaces-art-environments.org}}</ref>
Forester also painted prolifically, her works ranging from landscapes to religious and historical scenes.<ref name=":0" /> As well as on the interior walls of her home, she painted on stretched flour sacks and other homemade "canvases".<ref name=":0" /> In 1961, a newspaper report described Forester and her work:<blockquote>Mrs. Forester’s inventiveness was almost as incredible as her talent. Besides using scrap iron from junkyards, discarded tin cans and other waste material as braces for her statues, she painted the figures with liquids of many flowers and brightly colored berries…<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=23 March 1961|title=Unique Museum Has Over 200 Hand-Carved Statues|work=Rome News-Tribune|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gpokAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YTEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6916%2C2528851|access-date=}}</ref></blockquote>A journalist for the ''Macon Telegraph'' described Forester herself as:<blockquote>a gracious, friendly lady, tiny brown curls slipping from the knot worn high upon her head, cool clear complexion, light brown eyes which brightened when she talked, and a charming smile. Her voice is lovely, low yet vibrant with life and her words have a way of rippling forth.<ref name=":3" /></blockquote>During her lifetime, Forester achieved national recognition, including by the [[Smithsonian (magazine)|''Smithsonian'']] journal, and the [[Library of Congress]].<ref name=":1" /> She did not, however, exhibit her work in shows.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|title=About The Museum {{!}} Popes Museum Farm {{!}} United States|url=https://www.popesmuseumfarm.com/about-the-museum|access-date=2020-12-24|website=Popesmuseumfarm|language=en}}</ref> Following her death, the home (by then known as 'Mrs Pope's Museum') remained as a roadside curiosity and tourist attraction, until it was sold in 1974.<ref name=":4" /> Many of the freestanding sculptures were removed, taken down, or destroyed, leaving only those built into the walls.<ref name=":4" />
Today, Forester's former home is a museum.<ref name=":5" /> In 2021 Forester was added to the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] hall of fame.<ref name=GaWomen>{{cite web|title=Laura Pope Forester|url=https://www.georgiawomen.org/forester-laura-pope|publisher=Georgia Women of Achievement|access-date=January 22, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122232127/https://www.georgiawomen.org/forester-laura-pope|archive-date=January 22, 2021}}</ref>
== References == <references />
== External links ==
* [https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/ajc/id/9490 1948 photograph of Laura Pope Forrester carving a statue], from the [[Georgia State University Library]] Digital Collections * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20220514052059/http://spaces-art-environments.org/uploads/2014/07/24/ga708pope004.pdf Old pamphlet for Pope's Museum]}}
{{authority control}} {{Georgia Women of Achievement}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pope Forester, Laura}} [[Category:1873 births]] [[Category:1953 deaths]] [[Category:American folk artists]] [[Category:American women folk artists]] [[Category:Artists from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:American outsider artists]] [[Category:20th-century American sculptors]] [[Category:20th-century American women sculptors]] [[Category:American women outsider artists]] [[Category:People from Thomas County, Georgia]]