Fred Webster.
(1911-1998, Alabama)
Snake Handlers.
c. 1990.
Carved and painted wood.
Signed underside of base "Fred Webster Berry, AL."
Carving is 10.5"h x 10"w x 7"d.
Excellent condition.
Prov: Estate Collection of Dan and Doris Chrisman, VA.
The Mike Dale Collection.
Est.$800-$1,200.
Ship: $65

Fred Webster was born in Fayette County, Alabama in 1911, and he lived and worked in the state his entire life. When he retired in 1976 after a long career in secondary education as both a teacher and later a principal, Webster considered numerous hobbies such as painting and ceramics before deciding to return to his childhood love of wood carving to help him pass the time. The hobby soon became a passion. To refresh and expand his wood carving skills, Webster enrolled in a two-week summer course at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. To say that Webster learned his lessons well would be an understatement. He is now recognized as one of Alabama's finest folk art carvers.

Webster's intent from the beginning was to create art for fun, and secondarily, to stay busy with his hands. He had a severe loss of hearing and the solitude he enjoyed while working on his carvings brought him peace, although his wife, Carrie Nell Webster, sometimes helped him with the finish work on his figures by doing some sanding and making ears. Because of his teacher's pension he was financially secure and had no need to produce income from his art, so there was no need to rush, and consequently his works are all of high quality and very well made, but also somewhat rare. There is a whimsical nature to Webster's intricately carved figures, with their toy-like joints and sometimes humorous expressions—clearly art for fun.

During his carving career which spanned some twenty years, Webster's inspiration came from things he saw, both in life and in photographs, while also carving well-known Alabama figures like Bear Bryant and George Wallace. In the mid-1980s he began showing his works at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Northport, Alabama, where he met folk art collector and dealer Robert Cargo who would have a profound influence on his work. Cargo commissioned Webster to create The Last Supper in wood. From this point forward, instead of producing individual carved figures, Webster created tableaus with multiple characters which often depicted Biblical scenes. A devout member of the Methodist Church, he especially enjoyed creating fanciful scenes with choirs of angels, devils, and of groups of people handling snakes.
like the carving offered here), a religious custom from his rural upbringing. These were his masterpieces.

Webster liked to incorporate related text, written in ballpoint pen on wood scraps, that he would mount flat on the base of his sculptures, as is the case with the Snake Handlers offered here: "Serpents want.
sic) harm / a child of God / They Love Children / of God." This quote is very liberally translated from the Book of Mark, Chapter 16, Verse 18. Perhaps these written texts were a throwback to his classroom teaching days, writing lessons and messages for his students on the blackboard.

Webster's works are included in the permanent collections of the Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina; the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama; and the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia; and has been exhibited at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama. In 1996 Fred Webster stopped carving due to declining health. He passed away in 1998.