Linear Abstract
1977
Wax on masonite
21″ x 26″

William “Ned” Cartledge
(1916-2001)

“I say what I want to say—not cutesy things for
folk art collectors.”

Ned Cartledge was born in Canon, Georgia, but lived since high school in Atlanta. After serving in the Army in World War II, he returned and worked in the cotton industry, buying cotton and then becoming manager of the Cotton States Arbitration Board. Prior to his retirement in 1982, he worked in the hardware department of a Sears Roebuck store.

Whittling and carving since boyhood, he moved away from creating animals and started doing satirical carved bas-reliefs based on political subject matter. He has made comments on racism, the Ku Klux Klan, drug and alcohol abuse, and the rich versus the poor. Some of his themes are biblical, but always with a humorous commentary.