Lenore Barkley has had many jobs, such as flight attendant, substitute teacher and dental assistant, but she is best remembered in Vicksburg as the executive director of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau for 19 years. In total, she worked for the VCVB for 28 years before retiring in 2003.

“When I started, we worked out of a doublewide trailer, and we didn’t even have a map of the city to give tourists,” she recalled. “But we grew little by little, and I had a wonderful career selling Vicksburg to the world.”

Since leaving her post at the VCVB, Barkley has been working hard at another labor of love, and has acquired a new, initially uncomfortable title – artist.

“The first time I walked into a gallery with my work and said ‘I’m Lenore Bar-kley. I’m an artist,’ I almost choked,” she said.

Gradually, Barkley has become more comfortable with the term, and has her work featured in local galleries. However, she still cannot describe exactly what kind of art it is she creates.

“When people ask me what kind of art I do, I just kind of pause and think, because there’s a whole range of things I do, from collages to painted match books, piggy banks and salt and pepper shakers,” she said.

Her work and creations can be found at Main Street Market, Beidenharn Candy Company and Coca-Cola Museum and This n’ That, as well as in Jackson gallery ARTichoke and the Jackson Street Gallery in Ridgeland.

“I’d be doing the artwork anyway and throwing it over my hill if nothing else,” she said. “But I’m fortunate there are galleries that will put it on display.”

Barkley said she inherited her art talents from her parents, who were both potters in Arkansas. Her mother became her main inspiration to eventually take her art more seriously.

“My mother came to live with me at the age of 81, and I started on an addition to my house to have a place for her to throw pottery. So, it really started with me playing around with her. I lost her five years ago, but she basically led me to building this a year and a half ago,” Barkley said, while standing inside the studio – now hers – outside her home in Vicksburg.

The studio is painted a bright yellow with white trim and looks like a miniature bungalow style home removed from the New Orleans French Quarter. Inside, her works and works-in-progress hang on the walls and sit on shelves. In a plastic bin, hundreds of tubes of bright paints are neatly stored.

Bold color is a trademark of Barkley’s, as are small, detailed pieces. Her larger pieces are generally collages made up of more detailed works. And then there are the clocks she fashions from old 33 and 45 RPM records.

“I just gravitate toward the intricate,” she said, “I see large pieces of art other people do, and I’d love to be able to just take a large canvas and make huge, broad strokes on it. I’ve tried it, but I always come back to doing smaller, more intricate works.”

Although the majority of her artwork is available for purchase, there is one creation in particular that Barkley cherishes and would not let go at any price. It’s an ordinary looking table from afar, but when approached more closely one can see the hundreds of wine bottle corks that make up the table top, which is covered by glass. The corks she collected for more than 20 years while on her travels for the VCVB across the United States and Europe, and she would date the corks and write the names of the people with whom she shared the wine.

“One day I decided I had to do something with all these corks, but I couldn’t just throw them away. So, I glued them on a piece of wood, and eventually made this table,” she said. “I just love it because I can look at each one and all these wonderful memories of those days and travels come flooding back into my mind.””