ART ▲

The Tampa office of trial attorney Kevin Napper is filled with art he has collected. Behind him is a piece by Purvis Young.

ATTORNEY AT AWE

BY AMY SCHERZER • PHOTOS BY IVY CEBALLO

Adelightfully dotted woman in a red pepper beret smiles amid a wall of diplomas and awards. The late Ruby Williams painted her on plywood, just like the colorful strawberries, peas and corn “billboards” that customers snapped up at her Plant City produce stand. The gaggle of guinea hens on the bathroom wall is the work of farmer John “Cornbread” Anderson. The “No Smok” lady hanging in the break room is from artist Leonard Jones. That scruffy, cockeyed fella behind the desk? That’s “Wallace” by Alabama artist Jimmy Lee Sudduth.

Napper’s folk art collection includes, from left, a painting by the late Ruby Williams, a sculpture by Kenny Dickerson and a painting by John “Cornbread” Anderson.

“This Billie Hightower might have been my first purchase,” Tampa trial attorney Kevin Napper recalled, admiring the late artist’s “Stairs,” displayed above a water fountain.

Napper loves giving visitors a tour of the folk paintings and sculptures he rotates throughout his law office, a mid-century former medical building he renovated in the Hyde Park neighborhood of South Tampa.

“They bring me joy for many reasons,” said Napper, 65. “It’s lyrical, it’s interesting … it’s real life.”

He replaced the air conditioning, electrical, plumbing and windows in the office but the pecky cypress paneling and terrazzo floors were in fine shape. “It has good bones and a very warm feel inside,” he said.

In the conference room, two stunning naturescapes are works of Jeff Kronsnoble and Bruce Marsh, both former heads of the University of South Florida art department. “Taft,” a twig and bone sculpture by Kenny Dickerson, guards the mantel. An iron work of Dominique Labauvie anchors a rosewood cabinet. St. Petersburg artist Maria Saraceno created the glistening palm frond on the conference table.

Clients — he specializes in white-collar criminal and civil defense cases — seem to share his enjoyment. “I’ve always had positive feedback,” said Napper. “It’s different from the typical law firm.”

Vintage furnishings complement the collection: a classic Barcelona sofa, Saarinen chairs, a Knoll credenza and a sleek Chesterton table with silver base. “I have zero artistic talent but I do have an appreciation for visual art and music,” Napper said.

He shares backstories of the resilient, mostly self-taught, folk artists he’s met at galleries and art festivals for 30-plus years. “Many don’t have more than a third grade education … many don’t have the financial means to go to an expensive art supply store, but they made wonderful art out of found materials … metal, wire, bone, wood, tin.”

The late Annie Tolliver, inspired by her father, artist Mose Tolliver, grew up drawing stick figures in the dirt. Jimmy Lee Sudduth painted mud faces on trees as a kid. When he died at age 97, he was still using mud mixed with sugar water on acrylic paintings. A mural painted by ex-convict Purvis Young on a wall in the Overtown section of Miami became a tourist attraction during the volatile 1970s. “There is something about folk art that appeals to everyone,” Napper said. “It crosses the divide in terms of education or station in life or however you define success.”

Tolliver, Young, Sudduth and some of the other artists he collects developed national profiles, and their works are now in the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other top museums. Ruby Williams, who died in August at age 94, became so renowned that she merited a nearly full-page obituary in the New York Times.

“They were certainly never meant as investments,” Napper said of his pieces. “The truth is, most of these are not pricey but they are priceless to me.”

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