Empty Nest
Special Section ►►PAGE 20
Gladiators fall in region title bid
Killer gets life with no parole
No. 1 Lambert Slips by JCHS ►►PAGE 29
Shot girlfriend over custody ►►PAGE 4
Hurdler ranked No. 1 in U.S. Perimeter Schools Cuil fastest in MS ►►PAGE 28
April 24, 2014 | northfulton.com | 73,500 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 18, No. 17
Johns Creek artist revels in pop, hip-hop, graffiti styles By HATCHER HURD hatcher@northfulton.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – Lois Brand has a houseful of art in her Johns Creek home that she has produced over the years, but like most artists, she just can’t stop. “It’s the most fun I have,” Brand said. Her current theme is graffiti art, a style that mimics street artists who use the urban streets for a canvas. Yet her graffiti uses traditional canvases to convey themes that are meaningful to her. Brand did not start out to be a painter. She said she had always been a “passionate” singer. She had taken voice lessons at the New England Conservatory of Music and was invited to sing with the Boston Symphony. But she developed another passion for art that led her to the School for Visual Arts in Manhattan and a career as a commercial illustrator. She did
Graffiti is that inner monster in all of us that wants to break free.” posters for Elizabeth Taylor and the Italian director “Dino” De Laurentiis. Life has brought her to live in Johns Creek for the last 19 years. Her latest commercial venture is to produce hip hop and graffiti art for a Londonbased graphics company to reproduce for the European market. She has had shows in Germany, Poland and Italy. “They want to take the graffiti paintings and reproduce them on pillows, coffee mugs and prints,” Brand said. She admits that the work is
See BRAND, Page 36
HATCHER HURD/STAFF
Lois Brand loves the graffiti art she creates. One of her pieces hangs in her living room.
City mulls alcohol Old Ala. zoning gets OK–sort of sales in Newtown Dean Gardens property redesigned from dais
Would allow pouring In Newtown events By HATCHER HURD hatcher@northfulton.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – With an eye to concerts in Newtown Park’s new pavilion this summer, the Johns Creek City Council is considering allowing beer and wine sales at those events. Construction is nearing completion at the pavilion with the first concert set for June 28.
At the April 21 workshop, City Attorney Bill Riley told council that the only city property now allowing alcohol is the Summerour House at Autrey Mill Nature Preserve and Historic Preservation Center. STEWART The Autrey Mill preserve is allowed to pour for weddings and family reunions at the Summerour
Keep Your Business Moving Forward.
See NEWTOWN, Page 32
By HATCHER HURD hatcher@northfulton.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – After two hours of deliberation, the Johns Creek City Council passed in a 3-2 vote to rezone the 57.6-acre Old Alabama property known as Dean Gardens on Old Alabama Road just west of Thornhill subdivision for 70 detached homes. But the plan had been so amended by the council that the developers said they would have do some homework to see if the project was still viable.
Going in, Lennar Georgia Inc., the developer, had reason to be optimistic that this time a plan for the “Problem Child of Old Alabama” would at last be solved. The Lennar project had received approval from the Johns Creek Planning Commission and the planning staff with conditions that the company agreed to. It would build 70 singlefamily homes in a gated community with about 30 acres left as green space on the property. The homes would have a minimum of 2,800 square feet to maximum of 3,000 square feet of heated space. It would have only one egress onto Old
See ZONING, Page 6