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L.V. Hull at her home in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in 2002. Photo by Bruce West. All images courtesy of the L.V. Hull Legacy Center, shared with permission
Kosciusko is a small town in the center of Mississippi with just under 7,000 residents. Known as the birthplace of Oprah Winfrey, Kosciusko was also home to the late artist L.V. Hull (1942–2008) who devoted her life to painting and assembling found objects. Tires, shoes, perfume bottles, sticks, and the random items friends and neighbors gifted her quickly became vibrant sculptures awash in her signature polka dots and eventually went on display in her house or yard.
Just this month, Hull’s home studio was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The groundbreaking designation makes the residence the first of an African American visual artist to be recognized nationally and the first home art environment of any African American to be listed on the National Register.
Hull’s yard in 2002. Photo by Bruce West
Hull purchased the property 50 years ago, on August 12, 1974, for $7,000. She had been an artist since childhood, making figurative sculptures from mud and later, painting any object she could find. After buying her home in Kosciusko, she began working on the art environment in earnest.
“When I started decorating the yard, I wanted to do something that somebody else wasn’t going to do,” she said in a 1997 interview with William Arnett, who founded the nonprofit Souls Grown Deep. “I waited until folks went to sleep and dragged the tires from behind their houses. I didn’t want nobody to see me ’cause I didn’t want to hear the stuff they would say about me.”
Hull’s home in 2002. Image courtesy of the Mississippi Arts Commission
But whatever her neighbors thought didn’t bother Hull. She leaned into her eccentricities and referred to herself as the “unusual artist.” “The idea of painting was always in my mind waiting for its time to come out,” she said, which one guest corroborated. They added, “It’s hard to tell where the art stops and L.V. begins. She had some eggs boiling on the stove, and it was like that was part of the whole thing.”
Hosting visitors became a central part of Hull’s life as people from around the globe made the pilgrimage to Mississippi. One such guest was Yaphet Smith, who met the artist as a child and became a close friend. Before Hull’s death in 2008, Smith began work on a documentary devoted to her life and work titled Love Is a Sensation, which is currently in post-production. “Coming to visit with L.V. was its own kind of artistic experience,” he added, noting that she blended the Southern art of hospitality with her painting and assemblage into a holistic practice.
Smith ultimately purchased the house in 2021 after it had fallen in disrepair and been vandalized. With help from the Kohler Foundation, a team was able to clean, clean, conserve, and catalog Hull’s collection, which was then donated to the Arts Foundation of Kosciusko. Smith, who runs the nonprofit Keysmith Foundation, is currently working with the Arts Foundation of Kosciusko to raise $400,000 to stabilize, restore, and upgrade the house, with the goal of opening the L.V. Hull Legacy Center next year.
Archives of many Black women artists from the South have been lost, making Hull’s collection and home studio a particularly special and crucial preservation project. “It’s in a Black neighborhood with homes that weren’t particularly highly valued, but [Hull] ended up creating this beacon for the world and attracted people from all over,” Smith noted. “She said, ‘What happens here is valuable.’”
Hull’s home in 2002. Image courtesy of the Mississippi Arts Commission
If you were able to visit Hull, she was likely to give advice. People came to her assuming that her unconventionality was linked to some spiritual connection or insight, and although she denied this, she did occasionally indulge her guests. When a white couple asked her for help with unknown noises in their house, Hull answered:
I told them to get them a fruit jar and fill it full of water and vinegar—half and half—add some salt, and then get them six marbles and put in the jar, and bury that jar and come back in a month’s time and tell me something. I had done forgot about the month and then they came back grinning and everything. They was so happy. “Oh, Miss Hull, we been sleeping and the dog been sleeping, and we ain’t had no more trouble with them strange noises.” But it was just because of their belief. I just made up all that stuff, but as long as it helped them it’s alright.
Hull’s art also contained small tidbits of guidance like ‘Courage is the art of knowing that you’re the only one who knows you’re scared to death.’” She was quick to say that her best advice, though, was painted on her mailbox. “Mind your own business. Thank you.”
1977. Photo by William Arnett
L.V. Hull at her home in 2002. Photo by Bruce West
#assemblage
#found objects
#L.V. Hull
#painting
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