- Born: Rocktown (Jefferson County)
- Active: Morristown (Hamblen County)
- Region: East
- Mediums: Gourds
Jane Buis
Born in the Rocktown section of Jefferson County, Marcella “Jane” Buis was one of four sons and two daughters of James and Ethel Pate Carter.
While sharecropping in hay, tobacco, wheat and other farm crops, father James had also helped build the Interstate highways, while mother Ethel worked at Carson-Newman (then) College as a custodian and in the school’s library. Jane, who remembers her early years as being “the biggest tomboy you ever seen in your life,” told that her father would leave instructions on what jobs his children were to do that day.
“On a farm, you always did something to do” she continued. “My daddy had always told me that he was going to teach me how to take care of myself after he was gone.”
After earning her G.E.D. diploma she would work at a Jefferson City nursing home for 3 years before taking a job with the line crew going into the Phipps Bend project. With the closing of the Phipps Bend project and not wanting to follow her company to a job at Hollywood, Mississippi, Jane would take a year off from public work.
Approved for a CETA grant, she moved to Morristown and headed to Walters State Community College where she studied horticulture and graduated with an Associate of Science degree in 1984. Finding that jobs in her area of study were then low paying, she headed to work at the Anchor Brush Company, where in the parking lot her eyes fell on Ralph Buis. Jane and Ralph remain an incredibly close couple, with Jane choosing to receive tools to work on her crafts for her birthday/ anniversary gifts.
Ralph is the son of the noted storyteller Helen Buis. With the Buis family packed with talented people, Ralph’s advice to his new wife was that his mother wouldn’t agree to Jane not taking up a skill. Jane and her mother-in-law would become fast friends and would spend many days on long shopping trips and local journeys.
She and Ralph share children Ralph Jr. (deceased)., Norman Cox (deceased), Claudette Brown and Marc Cox, along with a goodly number of grandchildren and great grandchildren.
A turning point in Jane’s life came when she and Ralph stopped at a yard sale where Jane bought 3 gourds. Jane saw art in the gourds and began carving and painting them, which led to her growing them. Friend Sammie Nicely had mentioned seeing a large number of gourds for sale near Cookeville’s “Grand Canyon of the South.” With that news, she and Ralph headed to see the gourds.
“The Kuumba celebration showed my work and made me the featured artist,” she continued.
“I met a man, Bruce Bennett, at the celebration who told me about the ‘One Ton’ challenge where I got to carve a ton block of marble. I carved the ‘African Queen’ which on the U. was featured on the U.T. campus. Following that I had a heart attack and did nothing for 4 years. The Lord kept telling me that I had a good family that was supporting me and that it was time to get up, so I started back to work on my gourds. I can use any kind of a gourd and use a Dremel tool and acrylic paint with a brush or a sponge to create my projects.”
As time passed, Jane’s art would be seen in Oak Ridge, Morristown’s Rose Center, featured on television’s “Tennessee Crossroads” show, while a piece of her work has been donated to Walters State’s permanent display.
Plans are for pieces of her work to be included in an ETSU project which takes Tennessee art across the state. Her work is being shown this weekend at the Cumberland Gap folk fest, and will be featured at Lafollette’s Louie Bluey gathering on September 30.
“I Hope people enjoy my works,” Jane ended. “Donnie Simonton is now my apprentice while Naomi and William Mason have termed my style as ‘Afro-lachian’ which takes in the people and area that I live. When an inspiration hits me, I have to get it out of my system and begin the work. My inspiration comes from whatever God sends me, and I truly believe that I have an old soul inside that helps me create my art. It’s a true blessing from God.”
Source: Jim Claborn, “Back When: Jane Buis: Multi-media Self-taught Artist” (excerpt), Aug 12, 2023
CRAFTING BLACKNESS 
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