NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WTVA) -- Folk art, friendly people and folk music took center stage at the Union County Heritage Museum Sunday afternoon.
Eight artists presented a variety of artwork native to north Mississippi.
A local group known as the Cakewalkers provided the musical background Sunday as viewers were treated to some traditional and not-so-traditional artwork.
The word for the day was creativitiy.
"We are created in the image of our creator, and he created us. And we've got all this creativity in us. And it just comes out of everybody in such wonderful and unique ways. I just love it. I think everybody else does, too," said Jill Smith, the Union County Heritage Museum director.
There were eight artists with works on display for the public.
One such artist was nine-year-old Slyvia Russell of New Albany.
"It is a robot with a whole bunch of stuff that I found all over the ground, all over my yard, by the park and all kinds of different places," Russell said.
That theme seemed to embody a lot of the work here.
"The scrap metal, I get through the plant I work at," Corinth artist Ralph Barnes said. "I pay $8 a hundred for it. That came out of a concrete wall they tore down. And the filters came off of heavy equipment."
Then there was John Steele Davis who, despite his middle name, finds his raw materials from the north Mississippi woods.
"This is kind of my style or my artwork. I've been doing this for about 16 years and I really like it. Some of this work here is over ten years old," said Davis.
And some of his work, like a washtub-turned bass guitar, is used by the acoustic band The Cakewalkers.
They play a music unique to Mississippi.
"I played sciffle in England in the 50s; I'm that old. They call it Mississippi Sciffle for whatever reason, because it's just a companion with everything all rolled together," said bandmember Adrian Baron-Robbins.
There was even room for more traditional pieces.
"A couple of years ago I started with watercolors because I figured I could throw paper away a lot easier than I could canvas," New Albany artist Doyle Cavenness said.
From the looks of it, no one will be throwing his paintings away.
All the artists were from north Mississippi, hailing from Corinth all the way to Water Valley.
Organizers say they hope to host the same event next year.
