The Official Elvis Prayer Rug
Date1988
MediumLithograph on paper
DimensionsSheet: 36 × 24 inches (91.4 × 61 cm)
Matted: 40 × 32 inches (101.6 × 81.3 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase.
Object number1994.7.25
Copyright© Joni Mabe.
The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextJoni Mabe currently owns and operates the Loudermilk Boarding House & Everything Elvis Museum in Cornelia, Georgia. The museum plays host to Mabe’s collection of over 30,000 Elvis-related ephemera, knick-knacks, and memorabilia. Mabe traces her obsession back to the date of Elvis’s death on August 16, 1977. She explains that for her as an artist, “Elvis became the vehicle through which I played out my notions about America, the South, sex, religion, death and whatever else took my fancy.”
Mabe is a printmaker whose work often references the King or other pop culture icons such as Marilyn Monroe. She has organized the exhibitions “Joni Mabe’s Traveling Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis” and “Joni Mabe’s Traveling Museums of Obsessions, Personalities and Oddities.” Mabe holds a BFA and MFA from the University of Georgia.
