The Home of Folk Art

Cornbread - Home of Folk Art piece - Oct. 2009

John “Cornbread” Anderson is native to Georgia and was born and raised in the Mill Creek Community. He continues to live in the North Georgia area with his wife, Jana, and their two sons, Poley and Isaac. He developed the “logo” for our site with a painting we commissioned. Learn more here…

By Tracey Burnett and Robin Blan for The Home of Folk Art

As I remember growing up in Dawson County in the 1970’s, my mother owned and operated a shop with furniture and ladies clothing in downtown Dawsonville. Back in those days, everyone knew everyone, and if not, they were kind to just about everyone around. In those days, the country neighborly thing to do was to share your garden or crops with those in the community. Cornbread’s daddy, Johnny Anderson, used to bring my mom a mess of vegetables during the growing season. Johnny, and his brother, Delano, would always sell produce on the town square. When Mom had the store, folks in town would watch after each other. When I would be in Mom’s store, and Johnny would bring Mom a neighborly gift, Cornbread would always be about ten steps behind his daddy.

Being that it would be summer, he was wearing nothing but a pair of cut off jeans, no shoes, no shirt, and his head pealed like an onion. He was never talkative, but just stood smiling behind his daddy. Then I grew up and went out-of-state to college. When I came back home and heard that Johnny Anderson’s boy was paintin’, I called my cousin, who is kin to the other half of Dawson County, and asked if she would get me in touch with Cornbread.

Cornbread: Fur, Fins, and Feathers

By this time, I was already collecting folk art, and more specifically, Southern folk pottery. She got me the phone number and told me to go to his paw’s-in-law garage, and I’d find him there. Not wanting to disturb him at work, I kept on calling the number until one day he answered. I asked when could I come and look at his paintings. We set up at time, and I visited Cornbread for the first time in 2000. I fell in love with his work immediately and took home as many as I could. If I had more money, I would have bought more. After that, Robin and I started collecting his work, trying to buy everything he painted, to add our personal collection. In 2002, we opened the gallery, Around Back at Rocky’s Place, and the rest is history. Seeing Cornbread’s success is sweeter having known him since he was that little red-headed boy who came barefoot following his daddy into my mother’s store.

That’s my personal story about how I became acquainted with Cornbread. But there is more to his story. Many people have stopped in at the gallery and asked, “Who is Cornbread?” We tell them that he is none other than John Anderson. Cornbread is native to Georgia and was born and raised in the Mill Creek Community. He continues to live in the North Georgia area with his wife, Jana, and their two sons, Poley and Isaac. He has held numerous jobs in his lifetime, such as that of a diesel mechanic, manager of a farm, butcher, beekeeper, and deputy sheriff. These jobs were not quite as creative as that of being a visionary artist, and currently, his painting has taken the role of a full-time job.

He has been surrounded by artists, as both his mother and his wife paint, but the bug didn’t hit him until 1995, and he has been a house afire ever since. His subjects come straight from his own personal experiences of living the country life. His folk art features guineas, strawberries, foxes, bees, turkeys, and the like painted on the surfaces of metal, wood, cardboard, and canvas.

Cornbread: Mona & Glenn Tanner's Apple Tree

In the folk art world, his name is now a household word. His work can be found in most of the major folk art galleries in the south, and he is a favorite at the annual Folk Fest in Atlanta. His art received rave reviews in New York at the Outsider Art Fair, and he is quickly gaining notoriety in the north as well as in his native south. We have even shipped his work overseas to England and Germany. Around Back at Rocky’s Place features the best selection of Cornbread’s art pieces; stop by the gallery to see “The Cornbread Wall of Fame.”