Roadside Attraction

Juanita Leonard blends folk art with religious ministry

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Visits to Juanita Leonard’s house begin with prayer. The self-taught artist has built a chapel on her property in rural Montgomery, Louisiana, some twenty miles from Natchitoches, and ushers guests inside it as soon as they arrive. Laying hands on each person and speaking confidently to Jesus, Leonard stands between two rows of makeshift pews painted with crosses and scripture. The artist has been scavenging materials to construct sculptures, paintings, and even buildings for decades, as part of a mission to connect people around her to God. “My art is about pulling people in who are driving by, so I can tell them what the spirit of the Lord wants me to say,” she said. 

Leonard’s property abuts a two-lane highway, surrounded mostly by trees and farmland. Nearly every inch of the exteriors of the small house, chapel, and workspace on the property is covered in paintings and hand-written signs. More messages lean against a chain link fence surrounding the property, asking passing motorists, “Have you tried Jesus?” and “Do you love Him?” She has painted the roof of her house, adding red and white chickens to the edge of the metal sheets that hang down to overlap the building’s side. Below the chickens, a chorus of angels in blue robes have been painted on metal cutouts that lean against the exterior walls. 

Leonard’s mission is to transmit the teachings of Jesus and salvation through her work. In isolation, her paintings stand as a testament to the experiences of black southerners in the mid-twentieth century, but she intends for them to mean much more than that. “In the Bible, Jesus tells Peter, ‘Feed my sheep,’ and he means feed them with the Word, and let them know that better days are ahead,” she said. “They come here and I tell them, ‘God knows what to do.’”

 “I didn’t plan any of this,” said Leonard. “I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘I’m going to paint my house.’ I get up in the morning and come to the altar and talk to Jesus and then I paint. Eventually, people started coming because they were curious. I wasn’t inviting anybody.” 

Leonard started painting at seventeen, while still living with her parents. She grew up in Colfax, about fifteen miles from Montgomery, where her father was a Baptist minister and her mother picked cotton. Cotton appears often in her paintings, as an homage to her mother, who “loved to pick cotton,” said Leonard. “It was the only job she ever had.” 

Many of Leonard’s early-memory paintings recall scenes from a childhood spent growing tomatoes, picking pecans, and fishing in Cane River Lake. Her paintings depict African American life in the rural south in a manner similar to fellow Natchitoches Parish artist Clementine Hunter, whom Leonard credits as an influence. Hunter lived on the Cane River at Melrose Plantation, where she worked as a field hand, and began painting on a window shade after she found paints a visiting artist had left behind. Leonard’s first paintings were on the back of a closet door. “My mama was pleased with it, but she was the only one,” she said. 

Around the turn of the century, Leonard and her only child, a daughter, moved from Colfax to Montgomery. After the move, her art began to change. “Once I was out here in the peace and quiet, I could feel the strong spirit of the Lord,” she said. “And once I was really in touch, he started showing me how to make sculptures out of different things, and how to build. I don’t know the first thing about tools, nails, or carpentry, but I somehow put this church together. Nobody could do that without the Lord.” 

“This type of art is hard work. You’re using old, broken things that require constant upkeep. It won’t last for long if you don’t keep working.” 

Leonard began building both indoor and outdoor sculptures. The angels inside the church are “basically made out of the stuff doctors use to make a cast when you break your arm,” said Leonard. Many of her outdoor sculptures are made of concrete. There are more angels, roosters, and one half of a shark’s jaw protruding from the ground, with large, jagged teeth. Leonard also works with metal and wood, depending on what she finds. 

Shortly after moving to Montgomery, Leonard began building her church. She found used paints and old wood and metal, and occasionally a passerby would drop off old junk. Over the course of several years, the chapel started to take shape. The building is simple, with two large rooms and a small bathroom in the back, along with a wooden stove for heat. After completing construction, Leonard began holding weekly non-denominational services, focusing on the teachings of Jesus. In 2004, she became an ordained minister. 

“This is a place where people can be comfortable,” she said. “We don’t ask any questions. I’ve had people come who are 70 or 80 years old and have never been to church. At big churches, if you want to sing, you have to join the choir and spend months practicing. Here, you can just sit down at the piano or grab a tambourine if the spirit moves you.” During the day, Leonard typically leaves the church open for anyone who might like to visit. She continues to hold services each Sunday with a free meal afterward, open to all. 

While Juanita built her church and surrounding sculptures, she also worked part time on Front Street in Natchitoches at an antique store. “There was this old judge who kept coming by, and he would watch me paint, sitting by an old wooden heater,” said Leonard. “He kept watching me and telling me I needed to sell my paintings. In 2003, I put one on eBay and started the bidding for 99 cents, and it sold for more than $300.”

Leonard began selling paintings online as well as through antique and auction services, while remaining primarily focused on the art environment around her home. Already somewhat well known locally because of her outdoor sculptures and paintings, her fame only increased in 2006, when she walked from her house to downtown Montgomery carrying a bamboo cross every day for forty days. “I know a lot of people think I’m crazy, and sometimes even I wonder if I have too much out there,” she said, “but it distracts people, and they stop, and they read what I’ve written on the walls, like, ‘Have you prayed today?’ and their heart melts, and I can witness to them.” 

[You might also like: As Seen by Clementine, a look at the Melrose Plantation auction that helped spread Hunter's work.]

Leonard has been receiving visitors for almost twenty years. People come from all over the world. Some are locals who have heard about the church and want to hear her ministry, others are folk art aficionados who want to view the work of one of the only women in the genre creating on this scale. “A lot of the people who come to see me say I’m unique because you normally only see men doing this,” she said. “This type of art is hard work. You’re using old, broken things that require constant upkeep. It won’t last for long if you don’t keep working.” 

Juanita rises early, praying and working outside in the early hours before it gets too hot. When the sun is directly overhead, she sometimes moves into the shade to do metal work. On the weekends, she heads to downtown Natchitoches to a space she rented in August—her first gallery. 

“I haven’t had an official opening, but I have some sculptures and some paintings there, and I’m so excited,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to get up in Natchitoches for years, so that my art can reach more people. I want to spread my ministry.”

Leonard shares religious messages almost daily on her Facebook and Instagram pages, also posting pictures of works when they sell. Leonard’s social media accounts provide a glimpse of her devotion and call to proselytize, but seeing her, and her work, in person, is a different and more visceral experience. 

With every piece that sells, Leonard hopes to expose more people to her version of Christianity, espousing love, acceptance, and humility. Any increase in notoriety means more people might come to Montgomery or Natchitoches and hear one of her sermons. “I didn’t start this for money, and I never thought anyone would pay for my art,” she said. “I just want to take care of people with a humble heart, and make sure they know that Jesus loves them.”  

2865 Highway 71

Montgomery, La. 71454

Instagram: @juanitaleonardartcreations