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Figure with Beaded Headdress, ca. 1980
Plastic beads, metal, paint, and putty on tree root

Figure with Hair, ca. 1980
Plastic beads, hair, paint, and putty on tree root.

Purchase with funds from T. Marshall Hahn, Jr., and
Lucinda W. Bunnen for the Nasisse Collection, 1993.96

Bessie Harvey added plastic beads, hair, and glass
eyes to guarded tree branches and roots. Her haunting
sculptures reflect the spirits residing in nature and
look back to the origins of the African American
experience. Harvey, who lived in Tennessee, says
"nature shapes my works."