Sometimes called the Black Grandma Moses, Helen LaFrance was a self-taught artist who created vibrant and intimate “memory paintings” of scenes drawn from her personal experiences and memories of farming, hunting, family outings, dances, and other community events.

LaFrance was born in Graves County, Kentucky, in the heart of the Jim Crow era. Her parents were farmers who grew tobacco, corn, black-eyed peas, beans, peanuts and sorghum.  She attended formal school for three years, but left to work on the farm.  When her chores were completed, she studied from text books her parents bought and drew and carved. Her mother gave her a certain amount of instruction and would blend laundry bluing with dandelions and berries with which she could paint.

LaFrance was fiercely independent and worked various jobs (in a tobacco barn, as a cook in a hospital, made custom whiskey decanters for a local ceramics company, and as a retoucher in a photography studio.).  By the 1980’s, she was painting full time. She was also an expert quilt maker and wood carver, carving animal sculptures and articulated dolls with handmade clothing.  LaFrance had converted an old school bus into a studio on her property.   In addition to her memory paintings, she also created religious paintings of visions inspired by her knowledge of the Bible.  She created a mural for the St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Mayfield, KY.

Her work has been shown in many exhibitions, including African-American Folk Art in Kentucky, Kentucky Folk Art Center, Morehead State University, KY, 1998; Crossroads: Spirituality in American Folk Traditions, Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, KY, 2007; Lindsay Gallery, Columbus, OH, 2007 (solo); Helen LaFrance: Folk Art Memories, Tennessee State Museum, 2012; and Kentucky Women: Helen LaFrance, Speed Art Museum, 2023.

In 2011, she received Kentucky’s Folk Art Heritage Award.  Her work may be found in private collections (Oprah Winfrey and Bryant Gumbel to name a few) and also in the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, KY.