Image Credit: Arlee Mains, Wash Day, 1997, acrylic on canvas board. Promised Gift, Collection of Martha & Terry Satterwhite.
June 28 – November 29, 2025 | Rankin East Gallery
This intimate installation of ten “memory paintings” by Arlee Mains (1935–2019) offers a vivid and affectionate portrait of early 20th-century life in the mountains of western North Carolina. A lifelong resident of Watauga County and a self-taught artist, Mains drew upon family stories, personal recollections, and regional traditions to create painted scenes of everyday Appalachian life. Her works portray the rhythms of domestic labor, childhood mischief, seasonal rituals, and communal joy—milking cows at dawn, dancing on a Saturday night, or greeting the mailman after a deep snow. Each painting is paired with a handwritten narrative by the artist, capturing her distinctive voice and grounding these images in lived experience. These stories have been transcribed and recorded by a local community member, and are available to hear at a listening station in the center of the gallery. Mains’ gift was not just in recalling what happened, but in conjuring the texture of memory: the smell of lye soap, the bite of cold air before a sled ride, the warmth of apple pie after church.