George Paul Kornegay

Themes in Kornegay's artwork included his Native American ancestry, African traditions, and apocalyptic Christian visions and passages from the Bible, including the Last supper and several crucifixions. Kornegay's African heritage was reflected in his creation of bottle trees and objects reminiscent of spiritual Nkisi. He was interviewed by William Arnett for Arnett's Souls Grown Deep Foundation in 1997 and 1998. Arnett made a gentleman's agreement with Kornegay for him to keep his artistic creation in situ, and not to sell to collectors. Arnett photographed the collection before its dispersal. Kornegay died a centenarian on 3 June 2014; he was predeceased by his wife, and his daughter Donna Lee, and survived by his 11 children, 30 grandchildren, and 45 great-grandchildren.

In 1960, Kornegay began to create a large narrative artwork (or "visionary environment") on a two acre site on a hill near his house using paintings, found objects and sculpture, but only worked full time on the project after his retirement in 1980. Kornegay gave several names to his visionary environment including The New Jerusalem, Seven Holy Mountains, Art Hill, and the Sacred Mountain.

Kornegay married Minnie Sue Tubbs on August 9, 1932, and they had 12 children; eight boys (Arthur Paul, George Jr., Earvin, Arthur Lee, Joel, Benjamin, Donald, and Ronnie) and four girls (Gloria Jean, Dorothy, Donna, and Annie). He felt a "divine calling" to become a minister and said that at first he was "...afraid of it, but God, he stayed at me. I ask him to give me these signs if this is what he mean for me. And he sent them. And the end of it come from a choir of angels come to visit my house. Come from the east into the house, go down the hall, go around my bedroom. And then leave to the west". Kornegay spent many years as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E. Zion), where he was affectionately known as "Big Daddy". Kornegay preached in the A.M.E. Zion churches at Grove Hill, Cottage Hill and Marietta for over fifty years.

George Paul Kornegay (November 23, 1913 – June 3, 2014) was an American folk and outsider artist, and minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, who created a large Christian visionary environment with found objects near Brent, Alabama.

Kornegay was born on 23 November 1913 in Bibb County, Alabama, the second of ten children of Will and Sue Kornegay. His father worked as a farmer, miner, and barrel maker, and his mother looked after their children. Kornegay attended the Alabama Mission School in Brent until the tenth grade, but had to leave school and help his father in sharecropping.