“Missionary” Mary Proctor paints kindness, peace, grace and mercy. Her angels and messengers are the figures in her paintings — dancers ecstatically captured on doors, vinyl, and other salvaged materials. Her messages come from the heart. 

“If you’ve got joy, it lifts you up,” says Proctor. “I have joy and peace and hope and love around me. Everything around me is painted pretty and dancing. The world doesn’t look like this, so I have to find my joy every day. What good can you do today? Find yourself some good to do, and do it.” 

For the last 25 years, Proctor’s visionary paintings, collages and assemblages have graced the collections of major national museums, including the Smithsonian, American Visionary Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and High Museum of Art.

Described as “folk” or “vernacular” art, her paintings are like fingerprints — unique in their adornments whether they be buttons, jewels, or glittering glass figures. In 2016, Proctor won a Folk Art Society Award of Distinction given by the Folk Art Society of America.

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