About Bruce A. Ingram

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  Two art forms, storytelling and folk art painting, are intertwined with Bruce Ingram so closely it is hard to tell where one starts and the other one ends.   Growing up on a tobacco farm in Finklea, South Carolina and raised by his Uncle John and Aunt Ida Mae, Ingram heard stories passed down from his great grandfather, who was a slave.  A continuing theme for Ingram is adding the “eyes of the Lord” in his folk art.  He remembers as a child being told that “the Lord knows all and sees all” and when he was doing something wrong, like sneaking food, he knew the eyes of the Lord were watching.  Ingram added “the grassroots of me was learning how to work and I heard stories all my life.”   Those stories he heard serve as the foundation for many of his art pieces.    “If I didn’t have my art I don’t know what I’d do.  I am inspired by old people and their wisdom.  I’ve never been to Africa, but Africa comes out in my work.”
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  After graduating from Green Sea Floyd High School, where he was voted most creative in his class, Ingram briefly attended a small community college in New Jersey where he studied with artists from Greenwich Village and New York City.  It was there that Ingram decided to follow his own vision and later started painting on tin.  He likes old objects like chairs, doors and windows and rusty pieces of tin.  He can see a painting in a rusty, broken piece of tin or a 100 year old piece of wood.  History also inspires him.   He continued his interest in art while in the Army and when stationed in Germany, held a one-man show.  A second assignment to Fort Gordon, around the time of his discharge, drew him to stay in this area that is near his hometown. Two years ago Ingram started offering historical re-enactments, in the form of “Luke”, a slave, at the North Augusta Living History Park and he is now traveling the state re-enacting Luke and sharing his stories. His art has been displayed at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta and the Arts and Heritage Center in North Augusta.  Ingram also serves the community by working with the RECing Crew, an organization that helps people with disabilities.  “I like working with them because they are truly folk artists.  They have their own painting style.”
 

  Other forms of art that Ingram enjoys are painted gourds, handmade coiled pottery, face masks and sculpting.  Ingram feels “God is the greatest artist-the way He designed the natural world with the sounds and colors, He is my inspiration.”

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Reach Ingram at ingrambruce52@aol.com

Great-Grandpa Steve was a Slave

Lived to be 114 Years Old