Georgia Outsider Artist

1921-

Willie Jinks was born in 1921 into a sharecropper family in Locust Grove, Georgia. As one of 13 children, he moved to Atlanta where he worked for the department of sanitation and began salvaging materials.

After retiring Jinks began creating images on the materials he had gathered during his working years. Those objects included doors, sheet metal, wood, paper, shoes, luggage, etc.  

His fascination with animals, nature, and mechanical things is visible throughout his artwork.  He is most famous for his “Hoperman” (“Hobbyman”) character who shows up in much of his work and the cryptic writing on most of his pieces.  

Jinks is no longer creating art.