An anatomically correct drawing of an eye by Flannery O’Connor.

An anatomically correct drawing of an eye by Flannery O’Connor.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News

Artwork by Southern writer Flannery O’Connor is being displayed March 26 in Milledgeville, Ga., at the Georgia College and State University Magnolia Ballroom.

While O’Connor is well known for her short stories and novels that cultivated the Southern Gothic literary style, she was also a prolific visual artist.

“She put out a lot of statements that she thought all writers should draw, because it forced you to sit and stare and look and really see something if you had to draw it," said Katie Simon, interim executive director of the Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities at Georgia College and State University. "So, from that standpoint, obviously she really knows her cows. She knows her trees. She knows her barn."

A collection of 70 pieces ranging from paintings of birds, which O'Connor famously loved, to landscapes of O’Connor’s home, Andalusia, to a self-portrait will be on display. The majority of the pieces have never been seen by the public.

“That's what's exciting about this exhibit is that now, we have a chance to start synthesizing it and thinking about what it means to her literary output, because she's quite famous for her literary output,” Simon said.

The artwork is being unveiled in part to honor O'Connor's 100th birthday, which would have been March 25. She died in 1964 at age 39.

The collection is open to the public Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Georgia College and State University Magnolia Ballroom. Some of the pieces will then be on display at Andalusia Farm, where O’Connor lived the last 13 years of her life.

Tags: Georgia  art  Flannery O'Connor  Milledgeville  Art display  visual art  southern authors