Raymond Purefoy Burrows

1877 - 1945

Ray Burrows was born in 1877 in Churchill NC.  He was a whittling man who carved all kinds of items out of wood. Using a two blade and wood Barlow Knife, he made assorted animals and figurines. Ray Burrows was a farmer and also ran a country store. In between customers he would sit and whittle all sorts of items out of wood. He would never sell his carved work. He would give them to his friends and their children in the small community of Churchill.  Ray Burrows whittled one of the biggest curiosities ever made in Warren County. This art was in the Warrenton Fair for 5 days and nights and had been in Miles Hardware Store several weeks and through hands of people that saw it.  Burrows said, “It is one of the biggest curiosities they were saw in their life.  The Pocket Knife was the only tool I used in making all the things on this frame. Every piece on this frame, all 365 pieces, was made with one pocket knife. It took me 7 years and 10 months to finish this frame,” Burrows said. 

This assemblage is one of my favorite pieces in my collection. It was the perfect transition of my earlier collection of anonymous and Americana art to collecting contemporary outsider art.  It is a showstopper.  In each home I have moved to in the last 15+ years, it is always the first piece of art I hang.