A naive folk-art painter, Hemmerling's career started after he had retired from being a window dresser for Sears & Roebuck in 2002.  Using discarded house paint, he painted scenes of rural African-American rituals and religion on wood and other found objects.

Born in Chicago, he relocated to his mother's hometown of Ponchatoula as a young man, and began working for Sears as a decorator, traveling from store to store across Louisiana and Mississippi.  Looking to make a liv (showing 500 of 1575 characters).