Episode 50 | Rare 1990s Folk Art Footage from Tom Wells

Episode 50 | Rare 1990s Folk Art Footage from Tom Wells

Author: Matt Ledbetter February 16, 2026 Duration: 52:19

Before museums and collectors caught on, Tom Wells was documenting Southern folk artists on VHS in the early 1990s.

In this episode, Matt Ledbetter sits down with the longtime dealer to revisit those tapes and reflect on discovering artists like Z.B. Armstrong and J.T. McCord.

Tom explains how he first met these artists, how relationships developed, how work was sold, and what it looked like to build a market without the internet, price databases, or collector forums. Some of the footage captures artists actively working. The footage captures artists at work and preserves moments from an important era for folk art. 

CHAPTERS
00:00 | Meeting Tom Wells in Thomson, Georgia
01:39 | First encounter with Z.B. Armstrong
08:24 | National exposure and Southern Magazine
12:19 | Jake J.T. McCord on his front porch
18:46 | Finding Ralph Griffin off a dirt road
27:09 | Jimmy Lee Sudduth and painting with mud
37:21 | Leonard Jones and painted tin
42:21 | Discovering Willie Tarver
46:45 | Meeting Richard Roebuck

Do you know a folk artist or have a picking story worth sharing? Leave your name and where you are from and you might hear yourself on a future episode.

houseoffolkart@gmail.com
(919) 410 8002

Follow @houseoffolkart for more stories, field trips, and upcoming auction dates at LedbetterAuctions.com.


Matt Ledbetter lives in a world of vibrant paint, carved wood, and compelling stories. In House of Folk Art, this Gibsonville, North Carolina auctioneer and collector pulls up a chair to share that world, drawing directly from his deep connections within the Southern folk art community. His perspective is unique; because he organizes renowned quarterly auctions, Matt often knows the artists personally and has handled their work firsthand. This isn't a distant academic lecture. Instead, each episode feels like a conversation about the objects and the people who make them, exploring the intricate history behind the creations and the profound, often very personal, motivations that drive the artists. You’ll hear about intimate encounters and the small details that give this art its soul, from the choice of reclaimed materials to the narratives etched into the surface. Tuning into this podcast means getting a backstage pass to a living tradition, where every whirligig, portrait, or memory jug carries a fragment of cultural history. Matt’s guidance helps unravel the rich tapestry of this creative landscape, making the stories behind Southern folk art accessible and deeply engaging for anyone curious about the visual heritage of the region. The House of Folk Art podcast builds, piece by piece, a vivid understanding of why these works resonate so powerfully.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 58

House of Folk Art
Podcast Episodes
Episode 58 | Matt and Kyle Get Back to Folk Art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:28
Matt and Kyle are back at the Auction Gallery in Gibsonville after a run of antique shows. Liberty and Fishersville were fun, but this episode gets back to the roots of House of Folk Art: self-taught art, pottery, carvin…
Episode 57 | Van Side at Fishersville Antique Expo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:10
Fishersville was a great show this year. Friday was packed from the start, dealers were moving material early, and by Saturday morning Matt was already back at the van digging through the pile of things that he’s taking…
Episode 55 | Riding Out to Liberty with Matt Ledbetter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:42
Matt Ledbetter sits down before heading out to Liberty, North Carolina to set up Wade's tent for the last Liberty Antique show.Held twice a year in Randolph County, the Liberty Antiques Festival has long been one of the…
Episode 54 | What Matt Bought at the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:28
Matt Ledbetter and Kyle sit down with a table full of pieces from the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival and break down what they picked up over the weekend.Held once a year in Hickory, North Carolina, the Catawba Valley Po…
Episode 53 | 10 Picks Inside a 15,000 Sq Ft Folk Art Warehouse [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:08
In this episode of House of Folk Art, Matt Ledbetter and Kyle walk through the newly expanded Ledbetter warehouse and put it to use right away. With over 15,000 square feet of material to dig through, they each pick out…
Episode 51 | Mary Proctor: Called to Paint [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:13
In January of 1994, Mary Proctor lost her grandmother, her uncle, and her aunt in a mobile home fire. The grandmother who raised her, the woman she called mama, was gone. The grief was overwhelming. For thirty days, Mary…
Episode 49 | From Football to Folk Art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:19
Matt Ledbetter talks with Julian-Sherrod Summers, also known as Red Sanford, about how their shared background in football quietly ran alongside a growing interest in old objects, self-taught artists, and the stories tho…
Episode 48 | What Real Picking Looked Like Before the Internet [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:18
In this episode, Wade Ledbetter sits down with Matt to talk through what real picking looked like before the internet changed the landscape. Long before Marketplace listings and phone searches, picking meant driving back…