Juanita Rogers born near Montgomery, Alabama, in 1934 began "making mud" as a child. Using cast-off materials and easily found material such as mule and cow bones, fossil shells, and mud dug from the woods near her house, her primitive existence was reflected in her work. Although Juanita firmly denied any connection with voodoo or hoodoo, perhaps in her work she unconsciously nurtured a dwelling place for a spirit, giving it an identity and personality. She treated her mud work with an unwavering sense of mission, even though her eccentric ways and compulsive urge to create segregated her from the outside world.  A select retrospective of Juanita Rogers' work  is planned in the near future, and the  book, RUN TOWARD THE SUN: REMEMBERING JUANITA ROGERS, a new book by Anton Haardt who discovered her, will be published  soon. Saturno Press is looking for a Distributor for the  upcoming book.

Juanita Roger's work has been accessioned by museums in the United States and  Europe, including such prominent collections as L' Aracine Museum in Paris,the Art Brut Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland and the Outsider Archives in London. Her sculptures and drawings began to arouse interest even before her death,and knowledge of her story has increased every year since. Baking in the Sun (1982) and Retrieval:  Art in the South (1984) were among the first exhibitions to highlight her work.  As interest in the “mud woman” increased, her works became more sought after by private collectors as well. She was, for example, one of the celebrated artists included in What It Is:  Black American Folk Art, a survey of the private collections of the folk art scholar Regenia Perry (1982) and Parallel Visions, a touring exhibit of the Rosenak Collection (1995) Juanita’s work has garnered the acclaim of many collectors and curators, and her work was included in such exhibitions as Baking n the Sun:  Visionary Images from the South (1987);  Curator Sal Scalora’s Women of Vision:  Black American Folk Artist” and Gifted Vision: Black American Folk Art  (both 1988); Passionate Visions of the American South:  Self-Taught Artists from 1940 to the Present, assembled by New Orleans Museum of Art curator Bill Fagley (1994);  Andy Nacisse’s Mojo Working (1999); and, Are We Alone (2000) an American Visionary Museum exhibit of extraterrestrial visions.