Annie Greene spins a great yarn Artist’s yarn paintings evoke memories, move the senses  STORY AND PHOTOS BY JACKIE KENNEDY
LaGrange artist Annie Greene was first attracted to yarn painting because it kept seventh-graders in her art class quiet when little else would. After sharing the technique with her students, she ventured out to create works of her own. The colors, the string, the effect all intrigued her. Now, Annie’s yarn paintings are frequently exhibited throughout the state and Southeast. Their brilliant colors, unique texture and realistic (though often exaggerated) scenes are compelling to both art-show judges and buyers. Born in Waycross and raised in Hinesville, Annie moved with her school principal-father and teacher-mother to Hogansville when she was 12. She graduated from Albany State College and earned a master’s degree in art education at New York University. She taught one year in Thomasville and then moved to LaGrange in 1955, where she taught art in Troup County schools until retiring in 1989. Her husband, Oliver Greene, retired as principal of LaGrange Boys Junior High, and their children are teachers—Nathan, a professor of music at Georgia State, and Zinta Perkins, principal of Lovinggood Middle School in Cobb County. Annie’s commitment to family, church and community often finds its way into her artwork, which frequently reflects her life as a black woman in the rural South. Her titles include “Friday Night Fish Fry,” “Easter Sunday Morning” and “Soul Food Diner.” Working on her art full time since retiring, Annie has held 51 solo exhibits and has been a part of 187 group shows in the Southeast and New York. Her awards from both juried and invitational shows include numerous honors, and her exhibit “Georgia Farm Life in the 1940s: The Farm in Yarn” received the 2004 Exhibition of the Year award from the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries. She conducts workshops throughout Georgia and routinely serves as artist-in-residence in schools.  While Annie has taught and created works in various mediums—from embroidery and oils to sculpture and watercolor—she’s best known for her yarn paintings. She discovered yarn art in a magazine article in 1972. “I was always introducing new things to the students (at Troup Junior High) and thought I’d give this a try,” she says. When she brought yarn into the classroom, “those kids got quiet,” she says, still amazed. “I thought it may be the time of month when the moon’s not full, or there must be something to this art form! Even kids who couldn’t handle other art forms liked this.”
Her students’ enthusiasm rubbed off on her, and Annie set out to create her own masterpiece. Her first yarn painting was of a mother and child, and a second was based on a Civil Rights scene. “I’d work on them before and after school, then all through the summer, every morning, afternoon and into the night,” she recalls. Annie found yarn art to be time-consuming, but relaxing. “I love crafts, and this is a combination of painting and craft,” she says. “Art is a wonderful therapy and yarn art is the best therapy.” For the next decade, Annie perfected her craft, routinely turning out pieces while continuing to share the technique with her students. In 1986, she won best in show at the LaGrange Art Museum’s annual sidewalk art show, along with an opportunity for her first major exhibit. Her sales and winnings took off. Now her works are featured regularly at the Georgia National Fair in Perry and the fall Jasper Marble Festival. Recent exhibits were held at the RiverCenter in Columbus and the South Cobb Alliance Art Center in Mableton. “Annie’s work touches all the senses,” says Nancy Olney, curator of education at the LaGrange Art Museum. “Her work evokes memories, and her use of color, pattern and texture is remarkable. When you look at one of her works, you feel as though you are in that work; the colors are vibrant, pulsating and alive.” The artist produces 22 to 24 yarn paintings a year, selling each at an average of $750. While her works hint at folk art, Annie doesn’t consider herself a folk artist. Truly, she’s in a class of her own. In the past three decades, she’s only viewed yarn paintings from one other artist, and they were much different from hers, with larger strands compared to her delicate strings, and abstract compositions compared to Annie’s true-to-life scenes. True life is where Annie derives her inspiration. “I was in Atlanta, snapping photos for ideas one day, when I saw two women in hot pants and, I declare, they looked like prostitutes,” she says, a broad smile beaming. “Up the street I saw this man, took his picture, and added him to the two ladies to create ‘Auburn Avenue.’” In Detroit, a lady wearing a gold dress caught her attention. “I only saw her from the back, but thought she looked so sassy in that gold dress,” the artist recalls. “I remembered her and put it in yarn.”  Her bright colors command attention, and her backgrounds often resemble the swirling skies of Van Gogh. The texture of her yarn paintings begs inspection. “Someone asked me once, ‘Is that Chenille?’” she recalls, “and I said, ‘No, it’s just the way I glued the yarn!’”
Skeins of yarn and Elmer’s glue are the simple materials she uses to create sometimes whimsical, sometimes solemn, works of art. She begins each piece by sketching several ideas, honing down to a particular scene and applying watercolor; then the process of gluing yarn begins. While craft store yarn is the foundation of her works, the artist sometimes adds ribbons, lace and beads. “She has made this her own art form,” says Toni Molleson, visual arts director at the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun, where Annie’s work will be exhibited this summer. One of the artist’s proudest accomplishments is her “Georgia Farm Life in the 1940s: The Farm in Yarn” series, a massive project begun in 1998 as a pictorial account of two childhood summers spent at her grandparents’ farm in Adel. The exhibit traveled the state for two years and, in 2005, Annie published a book featuring the 37 works accompanied by stories describing farm life. While the artist’s ambition is to sell, there are a few pieces Annie will never part with, including a handsome portrait of her father, a “snapshot” of her son and daughter, and a yarn painting the artist vows was never meant to be a self-portrait. “I was doing this solemn woman to capture a mood,” she says. “It was just a woman, but everyone who sees it says it’s me.” The hoop earrings, fashionable hat and dark sunglasses combine with a strong face and features that speak of intellect, Southern grit and subdued pride. Yes, Annie. It’s you. Jackie Kennedy is a freelance writer living in LaGrange. She was among the first students kept quiet in seventh-grade art class by Annie Greene’s instructions on yarn painting.
Details: For more, visit Annie’s Web site at www.anniegreene.com. To purchase the “Farm in Yarn” book, call her at (706) 882-1679. Annie will exhibit her works at the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun in June 2008; for details, call (706) 629-2599. | 
