Derek Webster

Browse by Tag

 Folk Artist Derek Webster was born April 26, 1934 in the Republic of Honduras. In 1964 he moved to the United States from Belize. He settled in Chicago and bought a house. In order to distinguish his house from the other houses in the neighborhood, he began building a fence of contorted figures constructed of wood and found objects. His job as night janitor at a hospital provided a source of bright objects such as bottles, and the driftwood he needed came from the shores of Lake Michigan where Webster loves to fish. From embellishing his fence, he evolved into making individual dancing figures often inspired by his memory of Carnival in Belize.