BORN OCT. 3, 1962

DIED APRIL 22, 2022

     Visionary artist, Brenda Lee Tucker Davis, was born October 3, 1962 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was one of nine children and grew up in Elmore County Alabama. She did not have a happy childhood. She and her brothers and sisters were raised for the most part by her mother. They worked in the fields with their mother to pick vegetables that were sold to support the family. Brenda was unable to learn to read in school, grew suicidal and became a “cutter” before she reached her teens. When she was in the 11^th grade, she became severely depressed, had a nervous breakdown and then dropped out of school.

Brenda remembers that her Grandmother would tell of her vivid dreams and that they would come true. Her Grandmother interpreted certain symbols, the meaning of which also came to her during her dreams. When Brenda was 32, her Mother was killed in an automobile accident caused by someone who ran a traffic light. Brenda’s anxiety and depression then returned.

Brenda married Greg Davis, the father of her two young sons and they purchased a double-wide mobile home to live in as a family. In March of 2002, their home was invaded by masked men who shot her husband six times. Her oldest son was also shot once by a 9mm gun. The two of them spent months hospitalized and both were disabled from the incident. Unfortunately during this time, the family’s mobile home was repossessed by the finance company and they lost their home along with all of their belongings. The family took shelter in an abandoned shack that was without benefit of electricity or running water and lived there for several years.

It was during this time that Brenda had her first visionary experience. She was outside, “reflecting on the home invasion” when she heard the voice of God tell her, “Draw to comfort your mind.” She immediately began drawing obsessively and later began painting her drawings. Her dreams at night began to be all about her drawings and then her dreams began “to dictate” what she was to draw. The symbolic meanings and titles of works often came through these dreams. “They won’t let go of me until I get it down on paper.” Brenda drew and painted obsessively on whatever material she had at hand. Through her art, her family acquired another double-wide mobile home in 2008 which was set in the same place as their former mobile home. “The more I make art, the less pain there is for me. I am healing.”

Unfortunately, Brenda suffered with MS for a number of years. She was then diagnosed with lung cancer. She separated from her husband after a number of abusive episodes and eventually had several related surgeries. Eventually she adopted two young children, one of whom was her grand daughter, the other was a newborn with the same mother. She was a devoted mother to these young children and continued creating obsessively. She painted every wall, ceiling and several floors in her mobile home creating an amazing colorful environment to live in. She saw in her dreams that her home would be a museum one day. Her art is in many important collections throughout the United States. Before her death, three of her works were accepted into the permanent collection of Atlanta’s prestigious High Museum of Art.

Brenda died April 22, 2022 from a bleeding ulcer that went untreated while she was hospitalized in Montgomery, Alabama. Marcia Weber Art Objects represented Brenda Davis since 2007 and exhibited her works in New York, Atlanta, Santa Fe and Chicago as well as in Alabama.

– Marcia Weber

Available Works

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