After Traylor returned to North Lawrence Street, he never mentioned the exhibition again.Ĭharles Shannon (1914–1996) was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Charles Shannon, Traylor’s friend and supporter, later said Traylor never replied to the question and that Rankin put the words in Traylor’s mouth, adapting them from something Shannon himself had said to Rankin.Īfterword: It was reported that when Bill Traylor visited the exhibit of his work at the New South art gallery, he walked around the room and occasionally commented on the artwork as though he had never seen any of it before. The quote “It jes’ come to me” on has long been linked to Bill Traylor, said to be a response he gave when a reporter, Allen Rankin, asked Traylor why he began to draw. In crafting this biography, the author relied on the most authentic sources available, his knowledge of the communities in which Traylor lived, and the realities of society at the time. It Jes Happened, winner of Lee & Low’s New Voices Award Honor, is a lively tribute to a man who has enriched the world with more than twelve hundred warm, energetic, and often humorous pictures.Īuthor’s Note: This story is true to the facts of Bill Traylor’s life and the times during which he lived, although there are discrepancies among sources about some dates and aspects of his life.

Today Bill Traylor is considered to be one of the most important self-taught American folk artists. Charles arranged for an exhibit of Bill’s work at the New South art gallery on February 12, 1940, to share Bill’s images of his memories and experiences with the world. Bill earned a few cents for his work every now and then, but continued to draw from his spot on the street for the pure joy of creating images that gave him pleasure. Bill began to draw people, places, and animals from his earlier life, as well as scenes of the city around him.Ī young artist, Charles Shannon, admired Bill’s work, and in 1939 began supporting Bill with art supplies. But deep within himself Bill had a reservoir of memories of working and living on the land, and soon those memories blossomed into pictures. Lonely and poor, he wandered the busy downtown streets. So he packed his bag and moved to Montgomery, the capital of Alabama. There Bill grew to manhood, raised his own family, and cared for the land and his animals.īy 1935 Bill was eighty-one and all alone on his farm. When slavery ended, Bill’s family stayed on the farm as sharecroppers. Growing up as an enslaved boy on an Alabama cotton farm, Bill Traylor worked all day in the hot fields.

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