Ann Hooper,

Southwest Fulton County

Frank Niemeir / AJC (ENLARGE)

Ann Hooper has a prized spot for 'Self Portrait' by folk artist Mose Tolliver. It's in the kitchen where she spends the most time.

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Background: Hooper is a former Grady Hospital nurse who now works for her family business, Lathem Time Corp., which makes payroll clocks, institutional wall clocks and master systems. She lives on 42 wooded acres in southwest Fulton County, most of which has been in the family since the 1940s. She has about 30 pieces by well-known folk artists, including Georgia's own Howard Finster. She continues to buy folk art, often searching through galleries' Web sites for new pieces.

Favorite piece: "Self Portrait" by Alabama folk artist Mose Tolliver. It was her first folk art purchase when she picked it up in 1992 for about $1,000 at a New York City gallery. Surprisingly, the Atlanta native had never seen folk art before that trip to New York, even though she had studied art history. "I was walking down Madison Avenue, and I saw the piece in the gallery. It was so fetching, so innocent," she said. "I had never seen anything like it."

Tolliver, who died in 2006, was the son of sharecroppers. He took up painting after a leg was crushed while he was working in a furniture factory. At first, he hung his paintings in his yard, offering them for a few dollars each. His work became much more valuable after a landmark 1982 exhibition of black American folk art at Washington's Corcoran Gallery.

Where it's displayed: Hooper recently had her kitchen remodeled and asked the architect to make a shelf above her cabinets for her beloved Mose T's. "We're in the kitchen most of the time. They're where they can make me happy."

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