A retired art teacher shared her lifelong history with Appalachia and its influence on her work in an exhibit hosted by the Friends of the Corbin Public Library on June 9.
Barbara Willingham of Harlan County taught in the Corbin Independent School system for 18 years before retiring in 2009. The Corbin Public Library (CPL) displayed more than one dozen of her artworks. Many of her works depicted natural landscapes like Cumberland Falls and Black Mountain in Harlan county, while others represented childhood memories like her pieces “The Connection” and “Daddy’s Moon Pies.”
“The library has really made me feel special here today,” Willingham said.
She told the audience at the exhibit she took an interest in the beauty of Appalachia early in life as her family moved between Kentucky, Alabama, West Virginia and Virginia for her father’s work as a coal miner.
“I like to look at scenery and how things are shaped and designed,” she said. “I remembered the buildings and things that gave me memories, so of course I wanted to draw them.”
Willingham said one of her recently finished paintings, “The Connection,” captured the “heartwarming and memorable” interactions she and her siblings had with the conductors of passing trains. The train in the painting is based on the L&N 2132 on display in downtown Corbin.
“I feel like I built that train with a paintbrush,” Willingham said. “Sometimes I wanted to quit, but I had that old Appalachian drive my mom had having eight children. My mother had that perseverance, and I believe I got some of her to keep on painting that picture.”
