(mellow rock music) - She really made a difference in a lot of people's lives that I probably cannot even fathom.

My mom had a spirit of God.

She walked with God, she talked with God, and that's what she put into her artwork.

That's what she put into me and my siblings.

- One of MAMA-Girl's favorite Bible verses was Psalm 100, "Make a Joyful Noise."

And she made her own joyful noise through her art and through her preaching, and just through interacting with people at art shows.

She made what she saw.

- She's telling you her world from the crab picking, the oyster shucking, to the the fields.

- This is one of my favorite pieces, the Oyster Shuckers.

With the people working in such close proximity, it was kind of a social scene.

And she just did such a great job portraying these things in her art.

- [Sandra] I couldn't help but to cry because there were so many pieces I hadn't seen in years that were from the beginning when she first started.

(soft piano music) - We developed a friendship, and she had just gotten back from a hospital visit where she'd had a biopsy, and her cancer had come back.

And she was a little bit more introspective and quiet in this interview, but still she was resolute and like, whatever God brings to her life, whatever comes her way, you know, that's what's meant to be.

- Ladies hugged me.

Looked like they were gonna cry.

I said, "Not my problem.

We got faith.

The spiritual side from the beginning."

- It was really a nice time that we had together.

She died six months later and we never used the interview.

So it sat on a shelf gathering dust.

I gave a copy of it to her son years later when I saw him.

(bright rock music) - He hands me a thumb drive of his last interview with my mother that I've never seen.

Man, do you know how many tears came from that?

- [Mark] When Cullen and ODU decided to do this show, it became this great resource little piece that we could bring out and see her talking and talking about her life and talking about her art, which to me is so organic and so beautiful, and so, so happy that it was, that it could have a life.

- So I had no choice but to be a part of this because these guys are MAMA-Girl lovers, man.

They, they really love her.

- Part of it was the spirit telling her what to do.

You know, when the spirit said, "Paint a pig green," she said, "What do you mean?

Why would I paint a pig green?

That's the silliest thing I've ever heard."

But it persisted and she finally gave in, and she learned over time that if she would listen, then those are the things that people would want to buy.

You know, when chickens weren't selling well, spirit said, "Put boots on the chickens."

And when she put boots on the chickens, she sold out.

A lot of her work was a combination of requests from customers and the spirit talking to her.

- My mother would make a tree and she would put the lady's heads.

We used to call that "the United Nations, the UN," because Mama would say, "Women secretly run everything.

We can't tell the men."

That's what she would say.

- She loved portraying groups of women of all different skin colors together, coming together, forming communities, supporting one another.

Watermelon is one of the most pervasive elements throughout all of her work.

When she was little, she would spit the watermelon seeds on the ground like probably we all have, but because she lived in an agricultural area, she actually had the opportunity to see that what had come out of her mouth was growing into something nurturing, reproductive.

And that was very important to her.

It became a metaphor for planting word seeds in other people.

- [David] Mama said, "Every conversation is a seed.

Share your love of God, share your love of community.

Share your love of just people in general.

- Which again relates to her ministry.

It relates to her interaction with people at art shows because she just loved people and she loved encouraging people.

So when you see watermelon trees growing in her art, my feeling is that that's a symbol of positive growth for our culture, our society, for us as people.

- No, I'm enjoying it.

_ Wait a minute.

Can I do something?

Can I hold that cat for just a minute?

I just wanna bless this cat with a kiss.

Mm-uh!

(kisses) (person chuckling) Woo!

(bright rock music) - At some point working on the show, my body started waking up at 3:30 in the morning and I didn't know why.

It was very odd.

And that kept happening, and I told Sandra, and she nonchalantly just said, "Yep, that was her time of the morning, always the early bird."

And I told David and David said, "She chose you."

He said, "None of this would've happened if she hadn't chose you."

- Me and Cullen spent about 10 hours on the phone, and after that, man, I just knew that there was something genuine, more in depth inside of him.

So yeah, so talking to him, that got into my soul.

So now he gets all the support I can give him.

Just said, "All right, MAMA-Girl, here I am.

Let me know what you want in the show."

And you know, in telling the story of her life, it was very emotional journey because she had a lot of challenges in her life.

She endured a lot, but she always persisted.

She always found a way to just be a champion - [Sandra] For anyone who has a piece of her artwork or anyone who even got a chance to meet her or even come into this exhibit to see it, they can feel what she put in there because every piece, she put a part of herself in it.

(bright rock music) (bright rock music continues) (bright rock music continues)