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How Jimmy Carter’s art, furniture and poetry show a creative side to the late US president

He favoured woodwork over golf, made chairs and painted artworks that sold for thousands. Art is part of the late US president’s legacy

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Jimmy Carter had a passion for woodwork. His work will be on show at his funeral in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Photo: Getty Images

The world knew Jimmy Carter as a president and humanitarian, but he also was a woodworker, painter and poet, creating a body of artistic work that reflects deeply personal views of the global community – and himself.

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His portfolio illuminates his closest relationships, his spartan sensibilities and his place in the evolution of American race relations. And it continues to improve the finances of The Carter Center, the non-profit organisation in Atlanta, Georgia, that is his enduring legacy.

Creating art provided “the rare opportunity for privacy” in his otherwise public life, Carter said. “These times of solitude are like being in another very pleasant world.”

Mourners at Carter’s hometown funeral will see the altar cross he carved in maple and collection plates he turned on his lathe. Great-grandchildren in the front pews at Maranatha Baptist Church slept as infants in cradles he fashioned.

People arrive at a candlelight vigil honouring Carter at a church in his hometown, following his death on December 29, 2024. Photo: EPA
People arrive at a candlelight vigil honouring Carter at a church in his hometown, following his death on December 29, 2024. Photo: EPA

The late president measured himself a “fairly proficient” craftsman. Chris Bagby, an Atlanta woodworker whose shop Carter frequented, elevated that assessment to “rather accomplished”.

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