Ma'Cille's Museum of Miscellanea & The Passing of a Dream While in college at the University of Alabama, I discovered Ma'Cille's Museum of Miscellanea.  Established in the early 1960's, Ma'Cille's Museum was created by Lucille Hollingsworth House (Ma'Cille) as a free, educational, natural and local history museum for the children of her county.  Ma'Cille's Museum was a collection of unusual artifacts, junk, antiques, taxidermy, dolls, bottles, buildings from the 1800's, and 'miscellanea.'  As Ma'Cille's Museum grew and grew and grew, it became a Mecca, not only for locals, but also for artists and travelers from all around the world in search of the surreal. Upon my first visit to Ma'Cille's in the summer of 1989, I immediately felt drawn to this place.  The following fall I met her eldest son, Glenn House, Sr., a University of Alabama professor who was auditing the same advanced fine art photography class I was taking in the evenings.  I approached Glenn about the possibility of using some of his mother's objects in my work and setting up a studio on site.  He said, "I'll ask."  From then until its official closing and auctioning in 1998, I located my studio in this bizarre environment in the backwoods of Alabama.  In 1989 I was awarded fellowships for my photography from the New College and the Student Research Fund of the University of Alabama.  In 1992 I received a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts for my photographic work incorporating objects from Ma'Cille's Museum and entitled, "The Passing of a Dream." I still maintain a studio in Alabama, down the hill from what was once Ma'Cille's Museum.  In a nearby rough-hewn structure built in the late 1800s, I house the myriad objects given to me by Ma'Cille and her family or bought at the Museum auction.  Ma'Cille's Museum was the spark that facilitated the accumulation of raw materials necessary to create a visual diary of a passing dream. My photographs are limited editions of Ilfochrome (Cibachrome) prints.  I offer my photographs unframed or in frames of my own design and construction.  In the early 1990s I began assembling my own frames.  Extracting elements out of the original composition determines the direction the design will follow.  After the design is complete, I then construct, assemble, carve, paint, etc.... Great care is taken to provide the highest quality of materials available for each framed piece.  All of my earlier works have had no computer alterations of any kind to the photographic image.  However, I am embracing the digital world as a medium to use in the creation of my newer works. The fine art pieces I selected for this website highlight a body of work I have been assembling over the last 15 years.  These pieces, plus others not shown, are part of a collection I call The Passing of a Dream.  My framed and unframed images are portraits capturing seized moments of a passing dream.  The soul of my work speaks through symbolic and mythic imagination.  It whispers of the beauty and radiant light inherent in everything, regardless of the images we might think we see.  It shares a vision of a different world, a dream of love, not fear... a dream of life, not death... a dream of forgiveness, not judgment. Several of my works have appeared in various literary publications, newspapers and books.   Works from The Passing of a Dream series have been exhibited regionally and nationally in solo and group shows since 1990.   Framed and unframed works are part of private collections in the United States and Europe. In 2001, artists Glenn House, Sr., Kathleen Fetters and I purchased two buildings in the small rural town of Gordo.  The purpose was two-fold, to create more workspace and to create a gallery exhibition area to hang our works.  You can view all of our work at Gallery 121 North Main, which is open to the public on most Fridays or by appointment (205-364-1500) on other days.  You can contact me at barbara@barbaraleeblack.com with any questions about pricing or upcoming shows. Thanks, and have a radiant day.