Luster Willis

1913 - 1991

Luster Willis was born in Terry, Mississippi on Christmas Day in 1913 and attended school through the 8th grade before going to work on his family’s farm.  At age 30, he joined the military and was stationed throughout Europe for 3 years. Upon his return, he was certified as a barber and later returned to the family farm when his father died.  Willis, early in his career during the depression, carried walking sticks with solo human heads on the end of each cane which he vowed to put in the hands of each elderly person in town.  In 1963, after moving back to the farm, he returned to painting which he had loved as a child.  He worked on poster board and plywood and embellished his work with acrylics, glitter, and shoe polish.  He painted from dreams and periods of stream of consciousness and produced images that involved death, injustices, passage of time, and often the image of a large fish entitled “This is It”.  His total output of paintings is believed to be about 300.  ⁽²⁾ ⁽¹º⁾

Willis was included in the seminal Black Folk Art in America 1930 – 1980 exhibition