Growing up in Memphis during the sixties, Currie, the “Apple Lady”, was the middle child in a large family of twelve. And while it would have been easy to get lost in this group, instead she flourished on the belief that she was special. The specialness of each child is a universal theme in all of Currie’s paintings, stories, and poetry.
She first began storytelling as a way to entertain her younger brothers and sisters. Their father would often take the children on long car rides where Currie would hang her head out the window and just dream. She later discovered that these visions could be brought to life with her talent for painting.
Currie’s current works use mixed media, including quilts, wood, canvas, and most often oil paint. But they all have one thing in common: the Apple! Since becoming a professional folk artist in 1985, all of Currie’s pieces have contained a symbolic apple. This symbol has given her a name that’s she quite fond of, “The Apple Lady”.
Currie continues to tell stories and paint, out of her home, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is a mother of two, but says, “All the people that purchase my art are like part of my family because the art speaks to their heart the same way it speaks to mine”.