Holidays on display

Published 6:28 pm Friday, November 20, 2020

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Who did that?

People around Troy are asking and the answer was not readily forthcoming.

However, the tourism office in Troy had the answer.

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Sheila Jackson, tourism director, was the first to “discover” Georgiana artist Michelle Black, who painted a colorful Thanksgiving design on the window of the tourism office.

“Michelle did great work and now the windows that she painted around the square in downtown Troy are attracting a lot of attention,” Jackson said. “She is a very good artist.”

And, it’s not just in Troy that Black’s artwork is attracting attention.

“This all started by accident,” Black said. “Twelve years ago, we were living in Atlanta and I painted my son’s wall. My husband said I should do more painting. So, I put some of my artwork on Facebook and on my website and it just took off.  When my husband was transferred to Alabama, we moved to Georgianna. Here, I’ve been painting, mainly windows but I can do all kinds of painting and I love to do it all.

Black’s “A Color Affair” has taken off from Georgiana just as it did from the big city of Atlanta.

And the talent was there all the time.

Black comes from an artistically talented family from her grandmother, to her mother to her and to her kids.

“I’ve always liked to draw but I had to learn to paint,” she said. “Here in Alabama, I’ve done more seasonal windows —  fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving and, of course, Christmas. I can paint anything from folk art to impressionism, from signs to walls. Anything except portraits.”

Black has some rather large projects on the drawing board so she will be busily happy in the coming days here in Alabama.