How a Blue Devil Statue that Was Raising Hell in Small-Town Mississippi Escaped, After a Brief

PHOTO BY CAITLIN PENNA
John Steele Davis's blue devil statue at Bull City Art & Frame Company


How a Blue Devil Statue that Was Raising Hell in Small-Town Mississippi Escaped, After a Brief Abduction, to Durham


When John Steele Davis got word that the four-hundred-pound blue devil statue he made had been stolen from a park in the small town of Water Valley, Mississippi, he was on the other side of the Mississippi River, visiting friends in the Ozarks. This news was surprising enough, but neither Davis nor anyone else could have guessed that the statue, after becoming the focus of local controversy and intrigue, would end up in Durham, a city he had never visited.

The sixty-two-year-old craftsman, who grew up close to Water Valley, had been a blue-collar worker most of his life. In the early nineties, he decided to adapt the skills he'd learned on the job to become a self-taught artisan in a dizzying array of mediums. He's created furniture made from twisted wood scavenged in the wilderness and banjos with tensioners made from bullet casings and bicycle spokes (renowned North Carolina musician Jimbo Mathus owns one, according to Davis's friend, Billy Stevens). He's currently building himself a haybale home.

In 2015, Davis began work on a statue of Uncle Sam, but then he realized that by making a few alterations—a pitchfork and a tail—he could turn it into a blue devil, which is the mascot of Water Valley High School. Davis drew inspiration from stories he'd read when he was in high school, including The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving, which was based on the German legend of Faust.

It's not uncommon for Davis to be inspired by things he's read, says Stevens, a longtime Durham County resident who first met Davis while studying music history in Oxford, Mississippi. Stevens describes Davis as an almost impossible juxtaposition of rural farmworker and worldly intellectual. Although he never graduated from college, Davis is well read and curious.

Read more: https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/how-a-blue-devil-statue-that-was-raising-hell-in-small-town-mississippi-escaped-after-a-brief-abduction-to-durham/Content?oid=14651827