Nashville Arts Magazine - April 2016

Street Art in Nashville Sculpture Fields Stephanie Pruitt

Daniel Lai Jimmy Abegg

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PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP

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Editorial PAUL POLYCARPOU | Publisher and CEO paul@nashvillearts.com REBECCA PIERCE | Education Editor and Staff Writer rebecca@nashvillearts.com MADGE FRANKLIN | Copy Editor

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Business Office MOLLYE BROWN | 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 Editorial Interns EMILY BLAKE | Vanderbilt University BROOKE BLUESTEIN | Belmont University DREW COX | Watkins College of Art, Design & Film ARA VITO | Belmont University JAKE TOWNSEND | Belmont University JARRED JOHNSON | University of Western Kentucky Design WENDI K. POWELL | Graphic Designer

Columns MARSHALL CHAPMAN | Beyond Words ERICA CICCARONE | Open Spaces JENNIFER COLE | State of the Arts LINDA DYER | Appraise It RACHAEL MCCAMPBELL | And So It Goes JOSEPH E. MORGAN | Sounding Off ANNE POPE | Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND | Theatre Correspondent MARK W. SCALA | As I See It JUSTIN STOKES | Film Review

Nashville Arts Magazine is a monthly publication by St. Claire Media Group, LLC. This publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one magazine from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office, or by mail for $6.40 a copy. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first name followed by @nashvillearts.com; to reach contributing writers, email info@ nashvillearts.com. Editorial Policy: Nashville Arts Magazine covers art, news, events, entertainment, and culture in Nashville and surrounding areas. The views and opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $45 per year for 12 issues. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, issues could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks.

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On the Cover Herakut

April 2016 21

Jerash, Jordan See story on page 50

Features

Columns

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Stephanie Pruitt The Curious Heart

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Crawl Guide

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John Henry Man of Steel

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Public Art

by Caroline Vincent

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Q & A with Dr. David Rosen President, O'More College of Design

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The Bookmark Hot Books and Cool Reads

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Poet's Corner

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What's New from Richard Heinsohn

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Studio Tenn

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Symphony in Depth

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Sounding Off

by Joseph E. Morgan

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And So It Goes

by Rachael McCampbell

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Arts & Business Council

by Linda Rose Esq. & Doug Russo Esq.

44 The Authority of Voice

Cross-Discipline Responses Create

New Breadth to Contemporary Work

in Close Readings 50

Nashville Walls Project Covers the World in Paint

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by Jim Reyland

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Art Smart

by Rebecca Pierce

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Appraise It

by Linda Dyer

92 NPT 96 ArtSee 101 Beyond Words

by Marshall Chapman

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Jimmy Abegg Peripheral: An Open Letter To Nashville

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Daniel Lai Life By The Books

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Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines Kate Harrold's Very Real Unreal World

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Artistic Vision Awards

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Saul Gray-Hildenbrand The Art Scientist

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Pop Art Nashville Eric L Hansen

102 My Favorite Painting

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Publisher's Note

A Great City Deserves Great Art I was saddened to learn of the passing of Nashville sculptor Bruce Peebles. His work, much like the man, was honest, adventurous, and free spirited. The first time I saw his life-size sculptures I was amazed at how they almost defied gravity. They seemed to float in space, hanging quietly in the air. At times his forms seemed almost other-worldly, but always beautiful and elegant. Talent like his is rare, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet the man and experience his work firsthand. We featured Bruce in the June 2010 issue. Go to www.nashvillearts.com if you would like to read the article. He will be greatly missed by the Nashville art community and by the many who collected his work.

A few years ago another sculptor, John Henry, envisioned an international sculpture park in his home town of Chattanooga. Henry set about securing sculpture from all over the world for what would become Sculpture Fields at Montague Park. On April 8 his dream becomes a reality with the park’s grand opening. I can tell you what an incredible achievement this park is, but you really must take that short trip down I-24E and see it for yourself. You can read about it now on page 30.

Nashville will get a fresh coat of paint on May 1 as street artists from various countries descend upon our fair city as part of the Nashville Walls Project. Huge murals will be going up on buildings in our downtown and surrounding area. Nashville is becoming an international art center, and this is the tip of the iceberg. Read all about it on page 50. I can't wait.

Paul Polycarpou | Publisher

April Crawl Guide Franklin Art Scene Friday, April 1, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Gallery 202 is featuring work

by Tiffany Foss, a member of the Chestnut Group. Jack Yacoubian Fine Jewelry and Art Gallery is celebrating Autism Month with the exhibition The Art of Autism (see page 47). Hope Church Franklin is showing artwork by Julia Roach. Bagbey House is presenting Chris Ousley who works in oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, pencil, pen and ink.

Early’s Honey Stand is hosting artist, illustrator, and designer Amy Stielstra. Landmark Bank is exhibiting paintings by Wendy Fiedor. Savory Spice Shop is showcasing the art of Kimberly Kelly, Parks Realty Caroline Thompson. Shannon Eye Care is featuring LeAndra Crystal. Williamson County Visitor Center is showing paintings and ceramic plaques by Janeth McKendrick. O'More College of Design is exhibiting prints by Bryce McCloud of Isle of Printing. Art by Laura Saylor Rheinlander is on view at Williamson County Archives. Meet artist Michele Kixmiller at Tin Cottage. See paintings by Bill Puryear at Landmark Booksellers. The Registry is presenting handmade scarves and shawls by Madelon Lehner. Parks Realty is showcasing works by abstract artist Kimberly Kelly.

Stop by Franklin Glassblowing Studio for live glassblowing demonstrations.

First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown Saturday, April 2, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Tinney Contemporary is exhibiting Yasna, a solo exhibition of new work by Kuzana Ogg. The Arts Company unveils The Visual Art of Fashion featuring mannequins, fashion sketches, and sculpture by John Petry, Lauren Ross, Michael Nott, and Brad Sells. See work by Michael Brown at The Rymer Gallery.

The Browsing Room Gallery at Downtown Presbyterian Church is presenting Temporality: Artwork by the Poiesis Collective, a group of Vanderbilt Divinity School graduate students who have recently taken up residence in the DPC studios.

Steve Stone Jr., The Browsing Room Gallery

Dustin Hedrick, Channel to Channel

Nora Canfield, Refinery Nashville

Visit Hatch Show Print’s Haley Gallery to view historic restrikes of original posters from the Hatch collection, as well as Master Printer Jim Sherraden’s monoprints, contemporary interpretations of the classic wood blocks.

In the historic Arcade Nina Covington's solo showing Machisma opens at Corvidae Collective Gallery, with proceeds benefitting the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. WAG is showcasing Dream A Reality, a multi-media exhibition by Watkins Fine Art junior Corrina Joyner and alumna Jessica Clay that investigates the transformable space of the Music City Center. OPEN Gallery is presenting Hit or Miss by Company H, a student-run artist collective from Watkins College of Art, Design and Film featuring work by Tristan Higginbotham, Corrina Joyner, Kay Kennedy, Chase Lochamire, Micah Mathewson, and Ashley Obel. COOP Gallery is exhibiting Wide Receivers, sculpture by Lauren Ruth that explores patterns and logics that connect the body to the environment. O Gallery is showing contemporary art by Russian artist Olga Alexeeva and also work by Raymond Gregory, Diane Lee, and Annie Robinson.

Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston Saturday, April 2, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Julia Martin Gallery is exhibiting Bicycle Thieves by Kevin Guthrie, a new collection of drawings dedicated to the 61 opponents of Muhammad Ali who often get overlooked in the pantheon of boxing lore. Zeitgeist is showing Soft Bark by Paul Collins and Probe by Ward Schumaker. David Lusk Gallery is opening Okeanos, luminous and subtle chalk pastel images by Kathleen Holder, and Love of Place, rural, languid, and classically painted landscapes by Peggy Root. Atelier Upton is featuring art by Jessyca Myers with 10% of sales benefiting TWO MEN AND A TRUCK’s Movers for Moms® charity campaign. At Fort Houston see Jesse Williams’s A Show About Nothing, which includes images that combine collage transfers from vintage Playboy magazines and formal illustration. See oil paintings by Barbara Hodges at Refinery Nashville. The Packing Plant is presenting Pete Schulte’s A Letter Edged in Black 4: No Quarter, the conclusion of a two-part installation that commenced last fall. New works by Sean Norvet and Jason Lascu are on view at CG2. Infinity Cat Records is showing Gossima: Ping Pong Warriors by Brett Douglas Hunter. At Channel to Channel,

Dustin Hedrick is exhibiting his own work in A Short History of My Time at May Hosiery, which includes a mix of highly textured abstract paintings and pastel drawings. Seed Space is hosting a closing reception for The Crappy Magic Experience as well as the art crawl after party, which will include a live auction as a performance element of the exhibition.

Boro Art Crawl Friday, April 8, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Participating locations include The Block, L&L Contractors, Dreaming in Color, Cultivate CoWorking, Liquid Smoke, Daffodily Design, Let’s Make Wine, The Write Impression, The Green Dragon, Funtiques, Downtown Shoppes on West Main, Sugaree’s, Top of Block Salon, Moxie Art Supply, Murfreesboro Art League, Two Tone Gallery, Studio 903, Mayday Brewery, Center for the Arts, MTSU Galleries, Smoke and Mirrors, Wall Street, and Rotunda City Hall.

East Side Art Stumble Saturday, April 9, from 6 until 9 p.m.

The Red Arrow Gallery is unveiling Negative Space: the perception of depth by Lindsy Davis. Gallery Luperca is hosting a closing reception for Adam Higgins’s contemporary abstractions in Big Empty, a show of large-scale oil paintings on canvas. Modern East Gallery is presenting Where Were

You in the 70s?, a collection of rock concert photographs

by Beth Gwinn, which includes images of greats David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, Tina Turner, The Who, and more. For this night only, Pet Community Center’s mobile wellness clinic will become the Art-o- Adam Higgins, Gallery Luperca mobile for Animals with a show by artists Harry Underwood, Salvage Goods, Caleb Groh, Holler Design, Arthur Kirkby, Tom Turnbull, Bebo Folk Art, Meat&3 Printing, Robin Panzer, Miranda Herrick, Toni Swarthout, and Hatch Show Print. River Rats by Christopher Roberson is on view at DADU Pop Up. Sawtooth Printshop, Idea Hatchery, Main Street Gallery, The Vine, and Nashville Community Darkroom are also participating.

Words by Erica Ciccarone Photography by Gina Binkley

t r a e H s u Pruitt e o i i n a r h p u h Ste The C rview wit An Inte

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tephanie Pruitt has a curious heart. She’s a poet, a multi-media

artist, a strategist, and a teacher, but the self-appointed title she’s claimed is “Aha Moment Maker.” You know the feeling she’s after. It comes to you when you’re tuned in to an artwork and something is unlocked within you. It is not something new. It is ancient. It rises from that deep well within you and colors your present, which is now lush with understanding. “Aha,” you think. “There it is.”

A native Nashvillian, Pruitt has not only worked to hone her own craft of writing—an important and difficult endeavor in itself—but she is a hugely important voice in Nashville’s changing arts landscape.

Whether she’s turning a phrase that sails through your mind, corralling the energy of a roster of artists, or teaching others the business side of art making, Pruitt has a talent for bringing people together to find common ground and share in their personal journeys. I sat down with Pruitt for lunch, and our conversation left me energized and inspired.

Here it is.

Who are some of your favorite living poets?

I love Nikky Finney, a fellow Affrilachian poet. She is very rooted in her truth. Nate Marshall’s writing is fresh and formally inventive and challenging.

Amanda Johnston always makes me feel like I’m happier to be alive.

What’s your desert island album?

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Oh my goodness.

I never get tired of that.

One thing that draws me to you is how you seem to build community wherever you go.

What role do you think community plays in art, writing, and the creative spirit?

The foundation of art is relationships. When you look at any artistic principle or concept—imagery, metaphor, allusion—it’s all relational, connecting one thing, place, person, concept to another that might initially seem disconnected. In my thinking, something that exists based on relationships will hopefully live and manifest itself in a way that builds relationships between people, places, and ideas. That to me is the core of community. My favorite works of visual art and poetry are the ones that tear me up a little bit. It’s not a relationship where everything is symbiotic, but that’s how communities are. They’re messy.

What is your art philosophy?

Curiosity is one of my core values. I know that. It kind of ends there in terms of what I know. I think

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creating work is for me an act of questioning. It’s not necessarily believing there is a hard or firm answer, but believing that in the process of exploring ideas or materials, we’ll come to some sort of truth with a capital T. Many artists are dealing with major philosophical questions, and they use their media, form, and other physical aspects of construction and craft that act as scaffolding to move through and explore those concepts. Sometimes you can’t look at things head-on; it can be like Medusa. But if you can, figure out a way to reflect it.

I find myself more and more drawn to artwork that is engaging socially, looking out at its community and saying, “What do I see?” I see that in your Poems and Pancakes series.

Poems and Pancakes is something I’ve been curating for six years with my husband, Al. The whole premise is, we’re going to bring in a poet from out of state somewhere and we’re going to read. I’m going to make about three or four hundred pancakes and say, Come on y’all. Some people will come for the poems; some people will come for the pancakes. It’s people who otherwise would not be in the same room. Under the guise of a poetry reading and a shared meal, all of these people suddenly come together, and they’re looking around, and they have something in common because they’ve been brought into this physical space, and they’re listening to the same poet who might be stimulating something that’s troubling or hilarious or whatever, and suddenly there’s a community.

Nashville Arts Commission is working to make our arts institutions more equitable. How do you think Nashville can better support artists of color?

I think Black artists, just like any other artists, will absolutely suffocate if their work is viewed in a very narrow box. Being in the South with all its complicated, ridiculous, beautiful history lends itself to some boxes that have been in place for a long time. Of course, all artists need conceptual space and resources and community. But it’s like saying all lives matter . . . For all sorts of reasons, I think the pathway to becoming an artist has more roadblocks if you are Black. I am committed to making that professional pathway more feasible.

Langston Hughes and Robert Hayden have written some really seminal essays on the responsibility of Black artists. Hughes would say it’s the responsibility of the Black artist to instill this pride and hope in Black people. Hayden would say it’s the responsibility of the Black artist to make the best art he or she possibly can and get it out into the world without the pressure of identity weighing them in such a way that it dictates the subject matter of their art. I stand somewhere in the middle in terms of the artist’s responsibility. In terms of an audience’s responsibility, look at the work for what it is.

You lead workshops and seminars on the business side of being an artist, both through private consultations and classes and through Metro Arts Commission’s Periscope program. What are some of your core teachings?

I will talk about money and dollar signs all day while other people say that it’s poor taste or manners. Years ago, I went to this entrepreneurial business conference. I asked a speaker, how do you charge for work when you know it’s connected to your life’s purpose. You’re passionate about it; it’s part of your spirit, and you truly are fed simply by doing the work. How do you then charge people? Her answer has stayed with me forever. She said, “If you don’t charge people, how long do you think you’ll be doing that work?”

I am really focused on creating a platform for artists in their marketing and business. It’s part of what I’m supposed to do.

Whether I publish another poem or not—and hopefully I will—if somehow something I put my hand in makes it easier for ten other artists to do their work, then screw my work. That was my work.

Your daughter, Nia, has this wonderful sense of selfpossession and confidence that I think teenage girls often struggle to find.

In so many ways she was born that way, and I just told myself not to break her. She was born such a beautiful spirit, and I can’t take the credit for who she is. Hopefully, I created an atmosphere that has allowed her to believe that she is valid and valuable just as she is. She can walk in a room feeling like, “I’m supposed to be here.” It’s the same for me.

Even though I’m messy, ridiculously messy, I have this core belief that I’m supposed to be here. na Download a free e-book of poems and creative writing exercises by Stephanie at www.StephaniePruitt.com.

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MANofSTEEL

Words by F. Douglass Schatz Photography by John Guider

Sculptor John Henry’s Vision for a World Class Sculpture Park in Chattanooga Is Now a Reality Grand Opening

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April 8

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hough well known for his monumental sculptures, the artist John Henry has embarked on a second career as curator and park designer. He and his wife, Pamela, have been instrumental in creating Sculpture Fields at Montague Park, a 501c3 not-forprofit sculpture park beneath the stoic visage of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Sculpture Fields is a 33-acre park in the heart of Chattanooga, created from an unused field adjacent to Henry’s studio in an industrial area of town. In fact, the park space has been in existence for many years, but with little care or attention. Originally donated to the city by the Montague family in 1911 to use as a park, the area fell into disuse for many years but has been revived in this newest incarnation. Henry’s studio, which looks out on the park, has been the base of operations for overseeing the construction, and it was there that the Henrys decided to get involved. Working with the City Council, Henry secured a 40-year lease and began raising funds to make Sculpture Fields at Montague Park a reality.

This year marks the opening of the park, but it will be a continually evolving project. There are three phases of planned construction that include roads, berms, and

Sculptor John Henry

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Linda Howard, Star Center, 1993, Brushed aluminum, 8.5’ x 24’ x 12’

Barry Hehemann, Hulettelujah, 2011, Galvanized steel and concrete, 20’ x 8’ x 16’

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Roger Colombik, Some Waves Spark Stone, 2004, Steel, bronze and aluminum, 13’ x 30’ x 8’

multi-use facilities. Already, tens of thousands of truckloads of soil have been shipped in for landscaping, and several roads have been built. Like anchors in a fast-moving current, the sculptures that are currently on display have been placed with the knowledge that the park will continue to dynamically grow around them.

The main attraction of the park is the quality of the sculptures on site; there is nothing like this collection of outdoor sculptures in the Mid South. Sculptors from across the country are represented in the park and include Mark di Suvero, Linda Howard, Lyman Kipp, John Clement, Jesús Moroles, Neltje, Jane Manus, John Henry, and many others. International artists in the collection include Claus Moor, Jan

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Meyer-Rogge, and Heinz Aeschlimann with more artists from Europe slated to be included in the future.

The most visible sculpture currently in the park is a 65-foot-tall concrete sculpture by Peter Lundberg of Vermont. Lundberg has had international success with his unique construction technique and has exhibited his sculptures throughout the world. This piece is site-specific, made just for this park, and commemorates five fallen service members who were killed in a local tragedy. This connection to the community is what seems to drive this park—it has a history and involvement with the neighborhood, as well as an investment of time and energy towards the future.

Peter Lundberg, Anchors, 2015, Concrete and steel, 65' x 10' x 20'

Many of the pieces are on loan from various artists, but the park is also a collecting institution. When asked about the collecting philosophy, John Henry says that there is a committee of four that oversees the acquisition process. Each sculpture is considered based on the artist’s background, record of collections, consistency, and safety. “We wanted to create a park with robust and solid artworks that will stand the test of time,” John Henry says. Though the park mostly collects established artists, there is some room in their philosophy that allows for younger or lesser known high-quality sculptors.

Generally, Sculpture Fields collects and displays abstract or non-objective sculpture, but Mr. Henry says that the park is not married to any one style. Non-objective or abstract types of sculpture can be challenging to the novice because they involve a visual language that people often don’t understand right away (although, watch any child interact with this type of art and it becomes clear it’s not a

Gary Kulak, Red Alert, 27’ x 5’ x 5’

knowledge issue, but more of a mindset issue). To this, the park is an education center that helps to guide the public in its understanding of art, and sculpture in particular. Following this idea, the park is free and open to the public for other activities like yoga, dog walking, or even kite flying. This multi-use facility is one of the things that makes Sculpture Fields different from other sculpture parks around the country—where often, alternative uses for the space are not encouraged. It appears to be less of a museum-type atmosphere and more of a public park that contains museum pieces.

Scale of the sculpture is very important to the park philosophy as well. All the pieces currently exhibited are much larger than life-sized. Because of the scale, one is no longer just looking at the sculpture, but is suddenly ‘in’ the sculpture. It’s a little like going to a play and becoming one of the performers—it’s a collaboration between the artist and the viewer. This method of sculpture lends itself to a more active viewing experience rather than a passive one. The sculptures really do reflect Lookout Mountain, ever present and looming, yet on a scale that makes it both far away and close at the same time.

The poetic geometry of the sculptures seems to perfectly bridge the gap between the surrounding Cumberland Plateau and the industrial setting of the buildings and grounds in the area. The creation of a sculpture park is no small undertaking, especially on the scale and scope of this park with its community involvement and commitment to high-quality artists. Sculpture Fields at Montague Park promises to be a stalwart of the national and international sculpture scene for many years to come. na Sculpture Fields at Montague Park is located at 1100 East Sixteenth Street in Chattanooga. A grand opening celebration is slated for Friday, April 8, beginning at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.sculpturefields.org.

F. Douglass Schatz, River City Queen, 2012, Welded steel, 40’ x 20’

John Henry, Bette Davis Eyes, 1981, Steel, 6' 6" x 70' x 16'

Hanna Jubran, In Harmony - Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Stainless steel and bronze, 6’ x 8’ x 4’

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Sakura Matsuri: Nashville’s 8th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival Public Square | April 9 Photograph by Darren B. Rankins

by Jake Townsend Eight hundred planted trees and eight years later, Nashville’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates decades of U.S.Japanese friendship. In 1912, the Mayor of Tokyo donated 3,000 cherry trees to Washington, D.C., and since then, sakura matsuri—or cherry blossom festivals—have been a symbol of this relationship. Japan’s Consul-General Masami Kinefuchi will join with Mayor Barry to continue the tradition on April 9.

The daylong festival will be a family-friendly celebration of spring and Japanese culture. Sister Cities of Nashville will kick off the event with the Cherry Blossom Walk at 9 a.m., joined by Mayor Barry and Mr. Kinefuchi. The 2.5-mile walk is free and open to the public, following the Cumberland River Greenway and looping to Morgan Park in Germantown to the site of the festival.

Photograph by Darren B. Rankins

At 10 a.m. the Main Stage will open to showcase taiko drumming, Japanese music and dance performances, a Cosplay Contest, and the 3rd Annual Pups in Pink and Adoption Parade—along with martial arts demonstrations on the Blossom Bistro Stage. A “Taste of Japan” will feature Japanese food venders alongside some of Nashville’s favorite food trucks, and Nashville Arts Magazine will host a booth for parents and their children to make crafts. This year, new events include karaoke in the Sakura Café and a lounge for young children and parents from Baby + Company.

The 2016 Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival opens on the front lawn of the Metro Courthouse Saturday, April 9, at 9 a.m. and lasts until 5 p.m. Nashville’s 8th festival will plant 100 more cherry trees in our city’s public areas, parks, and neighborhoods, as sakura matsuri take place in cities all over the U.S. For more information about the festival, please visit www.nashvillecherryblossomfestival.org and www.facebook.com/NashvilleCherryBlossomFestival.

Make no mistake, Dr. Rosen is a long conversation. No quick, fluffy sound bites here.

And that’s because his vision for fashion and design is also a long one. Since taking over the president’s role at O’More College of Design, he has rocked the runway like few before him. One more thing, it’s impossible to say no to the man. Go on, I dare you.

Interview by Paul Polycarpou Photography by Jerry Atnip

When and where are you the happiest?

I am happiest when I’m surrounded by people and things that are both meaningful and fun.

There’s not a specific place. I’m not that person.

Why Nashville?

There has to be an alignment with what I feel I can contribute to make a community better and my sense of wanting to be in a place. There is that alignment for me here. Nashville’s also one of the fastest growing creative economies in the country. I want to be buried here, just not too soon.

dr.DavidROSEN President, O’More College of Design bitten than not.

What music do you listen to?

Everything. I listen to Bach, Vivaldi, but I also listen to Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Tame Impala, Mac DeMarco.

What were your first impressions of Nashville?

Nashville is a city of micro communities and micro cultures. It’s a bit like traveling through Swiss cheese—first you just see the holes, but then you land on the spots. You can find everything you want culturally, intellectually; it’s all here.

What was the last great movie you saw?

A movie called Inherent Vice, set in California in 1970, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

What would surprise most people to learn about you?

That I have the first track on the A side of a Greg Kihn album. I write songs all the time.

What book has left a mark on you?

My favorite book is Tom Jones; it’s witty, philosophical.

What are you going to be when you grow up?

I aspired to be a painter, then I aspired to be a writer, the great-American-novel type of writer. I’ve given up on that. I’m happy doing what I do and plan to keep on doing it.

Who is someone you’d like to sit and have a coffee with?

Mahatma Gandhi, a man of great wisdom, would be high on my list. Steve Jobs, Elon Musk; he’s a very interesting person.

Who has influenced you the most?

The person most influential in my life is my father. He took me to museums, studied art so that we could talk about it together. He could take things in stride and calmly move on.

Which artists make you weak in the knees?

I love the impressionists. They were gods to me growing up, also Gerhard Richter and Christopher Wool. I like artists that have an intense and complicated relationship with their craft; artists that challenge me to think.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Probably my Dualit toaster. It looks like an ode to modernism.

Expensive but worth it.

What do you worry about?

I worry that I’ll let people down, and I don’t want to do that. I can’t do much about world poverty or the environment, but I can do something about the lives of the people around me. So the only thing I worry about is whether I am doing enough, having a big enough impact on those around me.

What are you good at?

I’m good at one thing only, figuring out people fairly quickly and understanding where they can be the most purposeful and have the greatest satisfaction in what they do.

What disappoints you the most?

The thing that gets me in trouble most of the time is my faith in people. Sometimes that turns back and bites me, but you can’t stop being that person. I’d rather have faith in people and get

Are you happy with where you’re heading?

Absolutely. I’m happy with the people, the environment, with what’s happening at O’More.

How do you feel about the explosive growth going on in Nashville?

Anything that grows that quickly is difficult to control. I hear, “We can either be Austin or we can be Atlanta.” We don’t want to be Atlanta, a city that outgrew its infrastructure.

We don’t want to lose our local culture. Old buildings preserve our heritage; they tell our story, and they can usually be repurposed into whatever is needed. We should be careful with what we tear down.

What is a talent that you wish you had?

I wish I was a better artist. But all my kids are artists, so I’m good with that.

What other profession would you consider?

I have always been an entrepreneur. I would start my own business.

What do you consider your greatest achievement to date?

Helping found a charter public school in Grand Rapids. It started with a coffee shop conversation and is now a reality.

What is a most treasured possession?

I’m a sentimentalist and a pack rat, but the things that I care about the most I usually move into the possession of others, my kids, my family.

What would you like to be remembered for?

I’d like to be remembered for the work that I did and for the people I’ve left behind who are better because I was here.

What’s your mantra?

Let’s get this stuff done!

what’sNEW from

Richard Heinsohn

After Hours, 2016, Mixed media on aluminum panel, 48” x 72”

I

n recent years, I have been inspired by divergent notions of how we quantify time. When Brian Greene, noted physicist and author, was asked in 2011 what perplexed him the most amidst his studies of parallel universes and dark matter, he responded, “What is time?”

Since then I have been working with that question in mind. We know time as space, time as currency, and we have measures of time upon which we collectively agree, like clocks and time zones. I’m calling this geologic or “Collective Time.”

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My new work, Time Frames, presents the possibility of what I’m calling “Personal Time” and relates to the Uncertainty Principle developed in 1927 by Werner Heisenberg, which states that one cannot accurately determine the location and the velocity of an object at the same time.

Personal Time is the perceived rate or velocity of time’s passing, which varies according to the frequency of changes in lived experience, while Collective Time is the location of time according to the agreed-upon measure of clocks and time zones.

Ascending, 2016, Mixed media on aluminum panel, 48” x 72”

In our contemporary world, the so-called digital age, Personal Time has been entirely altered by technology.

We now have a greatly accelerated rate of information spreading and communication, which borders on collapsing chronology as we perceive it. Changes in lived experience happen so quickly that we blur into what author Tom McCarthy describes as “a constantly mutating space.”

Compared to geologic time, where entire civilizations are reduced to stratified layers in rock and dirt, our total lived experiences are but a nanosecond, and, through technology, we are rapidly catching up to this realization. However, sometimes, in traffic, en route to home or work, a red light can seem eternal!

These new works function as windows that enable the viewer to look through time and gain an enhanced perspective into the nature and proportionality of our lived experience. They begin as still photos of moving images appropriated from the television screen without pausing the film and without Photoshop. In most cases they are shot from an angle so as to distort the image and also to include a reflection of our tableside lamp. The lamp with the zigzag shade is in the room at the time the shot is taken, yet often functions as a symbol of hope interacting with the actor in the film.

The thick, lava-like paint swirls and globs represent the primordial, geologic time frame through which we can peer into these layered moments.

Super Highway, 2016, Mixed media on aluminum panel, 33” x 60”

Perspective holds the key for any existential query, and perhaps the sensation these works evoke of looking through time will provide insight, inspiration, and visual intrigue. –Richard Heinsohn na For more information please visit www.richardheinsohn.com.

Connected, 2015, Mixed media on aluminum panel, 58” X 80“

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The Authority of Voice:

by Megan Kelley

Cross-Discipline Responses Create New Breadth to Contemporary Work in Close Readings contemporary drawing,” remarks Gallery Director Joseph Mella. In addition, funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art allowed Vanderbilt to extend the scope of the exhibition and seek a new way to engage their considerable collection of American abstract art. The intent was always to look beyond the traditional approaches to exhibitions, and the expanded diversity allowed a fuller conversation about the context and impact of the work.

“Our greatest successes have been when we’ve partnered across campus with other departments, centers, and individuals, to help provide many inroads into a common subject,” states Mella. Over seventy invitations, sent to every department across campus, set aside a strict curator’s perspective in favor of lending authority to the individual voice and expertise of their faculty and students. The resulting “close readings”—a series of written and audio responses that focus the act of observation through the lens of each particular field—provide a varied and rich contextual experience within the gallery and online.

Kristin Capp, Burle Marx, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2003, Archival pigment print

A

s a collection of powerful American works whose conceptual foundation has spanned two years in the making, Close Readings: American Abstract Art from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery celebrates recent gifts of contemporary work. Drawing from donations from the collections of Werner and Sarah-Ann Kramarsky and of Monroe and Edna Kornfeld, the exhibition pulls these significant contributions alongside existing showpieces from the Vanderbilt collection and works never before exhibited to the public.

The uniqueness of Close Readings comes not only from the strength of its inclusions, but from the deep vibrancy of the university community and the cross-discipline development of the exhibition itself. Aided by the advocacy of Vanderbilt alumni to secure a partnership, Vanderbilt became the last educational institution to participate in the Kramarsky collection donation program, which provided an expansive donation of drawings. The Kornfeld gift provides a balance of preparatory drawings that provide insight into the process work of artists such as Seymour Lipton.

The significance of the two sets of gifts is invaluable: “It became a huge step forward for us in how we can represent

Kristin Capp’s Burle Marx, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is viewed not only through the historical context of an anthropologist’s understanding of the landscape art, but through the poetic and deeply personal reflections of a pathologist. Ross Bleckner’s Untitled (from the America: Now + Here portfolio) is deconstructed not only from the perspective of Op Art and perceptual theory, but shifted through a dialogue of patternmaking and associative memory and expanded into a social discussion of branding and dystopian decay.

In a special performance with the Blair School of Music, composers created singular responses to works such as William Wylie’s Carrara Blocks, a series of pigment prints serving as monuments not only to the historical significance of the quarry that provided marble to Michelangelo, but to the temporal weight of labor itself.

The resulting effect opens the exhibition to the audience, providing new approaches and raising questions within the viewer to stop and examine further. “There is an instructive value in slowing down to investigate something fully and deeply,” Mella explains. “Close Readings encourages a habit of opening and removing assumptions: of investigating and asking that serves throughout life.” na Close Readings: American Abstract Art from the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery is on view through May 26 at the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, located at 1220 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203. For more information and viewing hours, visit online at www.vanderbilt.edu/gallery.

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Ms. Camilla’s Neighborhood Scarritt Bennett

|

April 11 – June 27

by Jarred Johnson At first glance, Camilla Spadafino’s brightly colored and patterned paintings seem naively simple. After all, the artist is selling a coloring book. One can envision the fourth-grade students Spadafino once taught at Lockeland Elementary School picking up crayons and paintbrushes to color in her art.

Behind that mask of simplicity, however, lies complexity.

Her portraits are statements about art as commerce, viewer participation, and a work’s ability to empower.

Camilla Spadafino first conceived herself as an artist when her mother died. Through the cheerful paintings she made of her community’s sites and people, Spadafino transformed her grief.

Now she seeks to provide this transformation to others.

“I want to use my art to give back all of the things my community has shared with me,” Spadafino said, “Art, friendships, stories.”

Spadafino tells a different story in each of her paintings—all featuring real people and sites, most from her community in East Nashville. The artist carefully chooses her patterns and colors for their symbolism.

One of her portraits shows Nashville civil rights activist Diane Nash shaking hands with then-mayor Ben West. Behind the two figures is wallpaper with compasses, butterflies, and food.

Spadafino uses these symbols to represent Nash’s defined direction, the dissemination of her progressive ideas, and the successful sit-ins that Nash organized in the city.

She envisions a better, more unified Nashville and brings that vision to life through art. “Finding out what people and communities want for their future has become the heart of my work,” the artist said.

Starting April 11 with a reception from 4:30 to 6:30 and continuing through June 27, the Scarritt Bennett Gallery will host Camilla Spadafino’s exhibition Ms. Camilla’s Neighborhood.

For more information, visit www.scarrittbennett.org or www.camillaspadafinoart.blogspot.com.

The Art of Autism: Celebrating National Autism Awareness Month Jack Yacoubian Fine Jewelry and Art Gallery | April 1–27 Being an artist is inherently challenging; being an artist with a disability is even more so. Autism is one disability that can severely affect social interaction, behavior, and communication.

But as seen in the upcoming exhibit at Jack Yacoubian Fine Jewelry and Art Gallery, art communicates on a level that reaches far beyond these limitations.

The Art of Autism will open during the Franklin Art Scene on April 1 at 6 p.m. and showcase autistic artists of varying ages.

Preston Vienneau, a Nashville native, is a self-taught artist whose work has been featured in and around the city. Grace Goad has been painting since she was four and has had exhibits in Seattle and New York. Spencer Replogle was diagnosed in 2011, and the nine-year-old now collaborates with his father, Jason, in creating vibrant sculptures.

Yacoubian was eager to give them an outlet to display their work and highlight their employability as artists. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Nashville IDD Housing Group, a charity that assists with adult housing needs for the disabled.

Jack Yacoubian Fine Jewelry and Art Gallery is located at 114 3rd Avenue, Franklin, TN. For more information, visit www.downtownfranklintn.com/the-franklin-art-scene.

The event will also feature the musical talents of Logan Blade and Tammy Vice. Logan was diagnosed with autism at age two; though he has limited speech capabilities, he is a gifted singer who has achieved national recognition. Tammy is a singersongwriter and autism-awareness advocate whose daughter was diagnosed at age three.

“I know first-hand the gifts that individuals with autism have and the difficulty they have in sharing these gifts with the world,” says exhibit curator Susan McGrew. Gallery owner Jack

Preston Vienneau, Bass Out Of Water

Proud Sponsor of the Nashville Walls Project

50 Herakut, Bristol, England

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street ART

by Sara Lee Burd

Nashville Walls Project Covers the World in Paint

T

he face of Nashville is changing this spring. Well, maybe just some of the walls. Muralists from around the globe will participate in the Nashville Walls Project beginning in May. Founded by film producer and art advisor Brian Greif and his associate, Tova Lobatz, this project sprang from their connections with muralists worldwide and Greif’s relocation to Nashville from San Francisco.

His inspiration came from what he saw when he moved here.

He believed the changing murals series presented on the side of the Kohlers’ Belle Meade residence (see NAM July 2013) and the efforts made by local muralists over the years had essentially primed Nashville to assume a role in this international arts movement. The Nashville Walls Project will complement resident artists’ efforts to place Nashville on the map as a destination for large wall paintings and will provide visitors and residents access to high-quality art in a purely democratic medium.

The murals to come are part of a much larger tradition of wall paintings. To consider them in context, you must acknowledge the role of this type of art throughout the Western history of art— to broadly communicate to all who pass. While space will not permit a full history, the following examples show the power of the medium. In her article “Why ancient Roman graffiti is so important to archaeologists” Susanna Pilny explains that graffiti was legal in Pompeii from its founding in the 4th century BC. Walls served as a significant place for people of all classes to express themselves; notes between lovers, political statements, and social woes were all part of public discourse on their walls. Jump to the 20th century, the federal Public Works Administration implemented as part of President FDR’s New Deal program provided artists with commissions across the country to make murals that uplifted the public with positive perspectives of contemporary life after the Great Depression.

Today, many muralists are also studio artists who create smallerscale works to sell through galleries and exhibit in museums. These are highly skilled and detailed artworks meant to be enjoyed within an indoor context. The movement to fine art, often referred

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to as “Urban Contemporary” or “New Contemporary,” has been embraced by the art market, and the prices for this type of art continue to soar. Greif attributes artist Jean Michelle Basquiat and the film Exit Through the Gift Shop to raising street art’s status. Basquiat transferred graffiti style and social commentary to canvas, which caught the attention of fine art collectors. Exit Through the Gift Shop exposed viewers to the underground world of street art from the comfort of their couches. Suddenly these artists’ styles became part of the visual vocabulary of the entire world.

In conjunction with the outdoor projects going on around town, Tinney Contemporary will host a guest-curated exhibition by Greif and Lobatz. The duo has organized a number of exceptional studio paintings from leading Urban Contemporary artists Logan Hicks, C215, Niels "Shoe" Meulman, DALeast, Augustine Kofie, and Adele Renault among others. In addition to the works for sale, Greif will hang his very own Banksy rat. Greif, who wanted to preserve it and gift it to a museum, had the painting on cedar-panel siding removed from a Haight Street business in San Francisco. In his forthcoming documentary $aving Banksy, Greif explains how after several years and $50,000 he has not been able to find a suitable home for this significant work. Take heed, if you’ve never seen a Banksy up close, this is your chance.

Herakut, Miami

Banksy, Rat appearing at Tinney Contemporary May 1–31

The rat on display at Tinney Contemporary is one of his most recognized recurring subjects. While Banksy obfuscates his identity, he has provided an origin story for the vermin, which suggests the rodent represents the artist himself: “Attributed to an increase in junk food waste, ambient radiation and hardcore urban rap music these creatures have evolved at an unprecedented rate. Termed the Banksus Militus Vandalus

The following artists will be painting in Nashville May 1–6 at these locations.

Herakut and Rone will be at the Cornerstone Square Building at the corner of 6th Avenue and Church Street.

Artist Adele Renault

they are impervious to all modern methods of pest control and mark their territory with a series of elaborate signs.” Banksy’s murals explore inequalities, injustices, urbanization, war, and also the beautiful side of life. His simple forms are imbued with dark humor, irony, and unique juxtapositions that make his work easily understood by a global audience. Greif’s rat was originally composed alongside the words “This is where I draw the line.” Although that phrase was left on the wall, the essence of protest remains in the rat’s hat featuring a single star popularly recognized as the same one worn by communist revolutionary Che Guevara.

Niels "Shoe" Meulman will be at the parking garage on 5th Avenue between Commerce and Church Street.

Adele Renault will be in the lobby of the Kress Building at 239 5th Avenue North.

The Nashville Walls Project will present international professional artists who make a living through commissions that garner four to six figures. These muralists are sought after for their unique styles and reputations, and the participating business owners welcome the chance to provide public art for Nashville residents and tourists. Everyone is encouraged to stop by and watch the artists as they work, and Greif has interactive programming planned.

The first round of murals for the Nashville Walls Project will be painted May 1 through May 8 downtown in a three-block area around 5th Avenue of the Arts. Greif has organized the artists to present a variety of styles in close proximity. First to arrive is the German duo Hera and Akut known as Herakut who will paint on the Cornerstone building on 6th Avenue facing the Hermitage Hotel. Using their signature subdued palette and elongated figures entangled with fantastical zoomorphic designs, they will create visual poetry. To make the mural meaningful for Nashville, they will immerse themselves within the community before they begin.

On the other side of the Cornerstone building facing the parking lot on 6th Avenue, Australia’s famed muralist Rone will make his mark. Expect to see his distinctive closely cropped women’s faces designed to gaze at and astound passersby.

Turn the corner and on a large white parking garage on 5th

Rone, Forget The Past

Rone, Melbourne, Australia

around the world. The city seems really committed to its art community.”

between Church and Commerce see Dutch artist Niels "Shoe" Meulman creating his unique, loosely rendered abstractions that impact immediately and vault the viewer out of everyday experience.

Brandon Donahue and Herb Williams will be curating walls for local artists in June and are also planning to make new art for the project. Keep an eye out for their murals and others around the city. Greif seeks to build the prevalence of large-scale wall art by linking artists with business owners and city leaders.

The plan for the project is long term. The second series of international artists participating in the Nashville Walls Project is scheduled to begin in June. So far, UK contemporary artist Hush, San Francisco muralists Mars1 and Mike Shine, and Curiot from Mexico have confirmed that they are coming to show off their skills in Nashville.

Anyone who’d like to propose a mural should email NashvilleWallsProject@gmail.com for more information.

For those who’d like to show off their existing wall art from around town, tag Nashville Walls Project on photographs uploaded to Facebook. na

There is certainly room for the project to grow. Lobatz, who lives in San Francisco, says that she’s enjoyed getting to know Nashville while working with Greif to plan this project and wants to continue building a presence here. “It’s been exciting to share my enthusiasm for Nashville with artists

Go to www.facebook.com/NashvilleWallsProject for more information and updates about the Nashville Walls project.

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Herakut, Jerash, Jordan

Artist Niels "Shoe" Meulman

“

The murals to come are part of a much larger tradition of wall paintings. To consider them in context, you must acknowledge the role of this type of art throughout the Western history of art—to broadly communicate to all who pass.

Adele Renault, Pigeon Portraits Mural

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Nashville artist Jimmy Abegg is losing his sight. But you'd never know it. Other than not getting behind the wheel these days, he is pretty much moving on with his life, his art, and his love for friends and family. Abegg's generosity of spirit is legendary; the man always gives twice what he receives. So it's time for us to do the same for him.

Here's the plan: Build a studio in his back yard so that he no longer has to be driven to his studio across town to create his art. If you would like to contribute to the building fund, please go to: www.jimmyabegg.com/pages/build-blind-jimmys-lighthouse or send a donation to 141 Roberts Avenue, Nashville, TN 37206.

Photograph by Buddy Jackson

You, Jimmy, and all of Nashville will be glad you did.

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Peripheral:

An Open Letter To Nashville

A

ll our lives we want to see what we can’t see. We want to see ourselves successful and mature and capable and loving. We want to see what’s on the other side. To me, because I can’t see much, I’m trying to learn how to see a heart. I’m learning how to see a vibe. I’m learning how to see the unseen. That’s the great adventure I am embarking on now.

The first time I realized that I was going to be in trouble was when I was on a plane bound for Australia with my band, and they passed out the immigration customs forms, and I’m sitting there going I can’t read. How am I going to do this?

I grew up in a very small town in Western Nebraska called Alliance. As a child I didn’t see out of myself much. We had a local newspaper, and one of the guys who worked at the newspaper had a daughter in my class. I remember going over to their house once, and he had a room that was just canvases and paint. As a hobby he sat in there making paintings of the sand hills with what smelled like the most beautiful thing ever: oil paint. All these brushes and all this great affectation of what it was to be an artist struck me very early. I saw myself as a painter as an elementary school child.

The current state of my vision is really interesting. What I have is called dry macular degeneration. For the uninitiated who have never been around someone with limited vision, I think the best way to describe it is suggested vision. What I see is not clear or identifiable. I have elaborately colorful peripheral vision, but I can’t see in the center of my eyes. There is literally nothing but dark gray-black in the middle. The peripheral vision is not able to focus. It only brings in light and shape and color and form. Center vision brings focus, acuity, definition, distance—all of the things that help your brain assemble what you’re looking at. Now I’m missing probably 50 percent in my left eye for sure. My right eye is on a roller skate to where that one has been.

The act of painting these days is much more tactile than it ever was before because now, much like my vision is suggested vision, I think my painting is becoming suggested painting.

There will be a point where I can no longer count on blue being the blue that I thought it was or red being the red that I thought it was. Even now I see in such generalities that all my reds are relatively the same color. I have to be less concerned about what color I’m choosing because I don’t get to choose anymore. I don’t think I have the ability, even with my glasses, to discern the nuances of warm, cold, bright, dull, etcetera.

For me, picking up a brush and dipping it in a color are only two of the hardships. The third one is putting it on the page where it’s supposed to go. Figuration for me is going to be

turning into abstraction and gestural art. My days of refined detail were never that big of a deal to me, but now it’s out.

The ephemeral in the world is becoming more or less my playground.

Not being sure of what’s going down has to become a component of what’s going down. I’m practicing every day that I paint, and in every painting that I make, the discipline of not caring what’s going to happen. If I do the work, something will emerge. That’s what makes me excited about the future.

I think the best work is probably yet to come. The best music is coming; the best art is coming. The kinder, best me is probably coming.

It sounds so final but it’s not, because even my condition is moving. I’m noticing changes every couple of weeks. I can see a little bit less. My physician tells me this disease has a fairly reputable trail that we can follow, and science says that it doesn’t leave you blacked-out blind. That’s great news. But it leaves you super confused from a physical standpoint, so I’m trying to turn that confusion into something less confusing for me and hopefully edifying for others.

Every aspect of my life is just kind of riddled with how to find the mystery and magic in everyday things. Instead of things being a discipline, responsibility, or an obligation, they become an adventure. In that sense every aspect of my life is connected—whether I’m here painting, in rehearsal with a band, writing songs with my friends, even playing! Just down on the ground with a two-year-old can be the most spellbinding and most adventurous experience if you let it own you.

I’ve long held the belief that all of this is happening for some good reason that I don’t know about and might not need to know about. I have always been a reckless optimist. I’ve tried to find workarounds for the improbability in life. I guess the artist in me trumps the pragmatist, because I would always go for discovery as opposed to the facts. But finding more of me is a lot more fun than regretting the loss of some of me.

I recognize now more than ever that the measurement this world uses for beauty is out of sync with reality. My children are beautiful inside and out. My wife is lovely beyond belief inside and out. I think that’s something I’m going to have to wrestle with going forward because that’s a big disappointment to me, but I have a fantastic imagination, so maybe they’ll all be a lot more beautiful than they really are. Maybe everybody will be. That ain’t a bad thing. na

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Stix Completed at Roundabout Artist Christian Moeller’s Stix is finally complete after months of grueling drilling. Each of the 27 cedar poles required an 11-foot hole be dug for the foundation. Drilling directly into limestone proved to be a difficult task for local contractor Rains Electric.

Owner David Rains has said that in his work installing telephone poles all over the region, it was the hardest rock he’s encountered.

Photograph by Stacey Irvin

PUBLICART

BY CAROLINE VINCENT, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC ART

Stix: The Roundabout at Music City Center

Metro Arts is proud to add Stix to the public art collection as another world-class artwork for the city of Nashville. The artist says about the work, “Instead of developing an artwork for the roundabout, my goal became to turn the entire roundabout into an artwork. The result is a large structural piece characterized by color with unlimited 360-degree viewing angles, making the journey around this roundabout an exciting visual experience. What some people might read as a cluster of gigantic arrows fallen from the sky or scattered horse-jumping rails is a digitally created piece of contemporary art, which will age beautifully given its composition of native hardwood and vibrant colors.” The artwork can be seen from many different angles, each giving its own experience and perspective. While the city grows around it, Stix will no doubt provide a striking backdrop.

Moeller’s work may be found around the globe, in such locations as the Changi Airport in Singapore, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Science Museum in London, Frederieke Taylor Gallery in New York City, the Phaeno Museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle, Centro Cultural Candido Mendes in Rio de Janeiro and Santa Monica, California, among others. His 2012 sculpture, Verdi, located in Bothell, Washington, received a 2012 Year in Review award from the Public Art Network of Americans for the Arts.

Moeller, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, was a professor at the State College of Design in Karlsruhe, Germany, until moving to the United States in 2001. Currently he is a professor in the Department of Design/Media Arts at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and operates his studio in Silver Lake, California.

Christian Moeller will speak at Watkins College of Art, Design & Film as part of their Visiting Artist Series on Monday, April 11, at 7 p.m. The community is invited to attend.

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“

I had always loved the Renaissance, but I had only seen works in books and on the Internet. Seeing the originals blew me away—I stood in front of masterpieces by El Greco, Caravaggio, Titian, and Botticelli for hours—the Met was my temple.

Awaiting Epiphany, 2013, Books, clay and bulb on wood panel, 24” x 24” x62 6”

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danielLAI

by Jane R. Snyder Photography by Daniel Lai

Life by the books

Self-taught sculptor Daniel Lai radiates the type of strength, intelligence, and vigorous curiosity you would expect to encounter in individuals whose days are shaped by a keen imagination and a boundless sense of humor. Like many of us who once felt a bit awkward, Daniel was a shy child who wasn’t yet comfortable in his skin. Inherently bright and bored in school, he passed the time by folding pages in his textbooks, for which his teacher scolded him. That stern educator would surely marvel to see where “playing with his books” has taken this talented artist.

Of Chinese lineage, Daniel was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but, he explained, “At a very young age, I don’t even remember when, I knew Malaysia was not for me.”

Daniel began to study English even before he entered high school. The first book he ever read in English— his fourth language after Cantonese, Hakka, and Mandarin—was Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.

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Book Atlases, 2014, Books, clay and feather on encyclopedia, 20” x 18” x 8”

“I probably understood less than fifty per cent of it.

Reading was tedious. I had a dictionary along with the novel. I don’t know why I was so determined to finish that book, but I did. It took me forever!”

The artist recalls that story “vividly,” and it helped to ignite his desire to travel, which he does quite often. Shortly after Daniel had arrived in this country in 2000, his first “eyes-on” experience of art in America took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

“I had always loved the Renaissance, but I had only seen works in books and on the Internet. Seeing the originals blew me away—I stood in front of masterpieces by El Greco, Caravaggio, Titian, and Botticelli for hours—the Met was my temple.”

Determined to pursue higher education in America, Daniel worked very hard to earn a B.A. in Linguistics (2003) and an M.A. in Art Studies/Art History (2006) from Montclair State University in New Jersey. His masterful artistic talent helped him to gain his United States citizenship in 2014. A year later, he successfully defended his thesis to complete a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Each of his mixed-media sculptures begins with one or more hardcover books. Daniel combines recycled volumes with other found objects such as pencils, crayons, feathers, eggshells, or keys, plus hand-molded, oven-baked clay figures.

These three-dimensional, gender-neutral humanoids—in a wide assortment of postures—welcome viewers to imagine themselves posing within his fascinating sculptures.

When asked whether there are parallels between his artworks and the arduous journey he took to recreate a new life for himself in the United States, Daniel spoke candidly.

“Creating art with anything discarded is profoundly meaningful to me. It is also very personal. Anything that one throws away has no or little value for the owner. I, too, had an old life that I wish to discard forever and out of my memory. But that is not how life works. Growing up gay was extremely difficult for me.

I wanted to get rid of the loneliness and doubts. My new life began with the kindness and education I experienced in the United States. It was a metamorphosis.

“I learned my worth and accepted who I truly was and am. I embrace my past and the pain it brought me because they made me who I am. Thus, in my art, I do not deny the identity of the old book. I acknowledge that they were used and old and convey their need to be transformed into a new life. We, as humans, always transform into a new life without severing our past. We just can’t; it’s not possible.”

The sculptor says that “the books speak to me” each time he begins a new piece, but if you take time to study his work it is clear that Daniel’s own thought process runs deep. When does the sculptor title each work?

“There is no fixed moment as to when I title my work.

Sometimes, a title comes before any artistic conception; sometimes it comes weeks after a piece is completed.”

Beneath his skilled hands, his pieces actually make the phrase “to curl up with a good book” come alive. Daniel’s sculptures, collected around the globe, sell out almost faster than he can replenish his inventory, but galleries, interior designers, and collectors don’t seem to mind the wait.

His participation in juried shows is extensive, and exhibition judges have recognized Daniel’s innovative work with numerous awards, including “Best in Craft” at the 2014 Piedmont Park Art Festival in Atlanta and “Best of Show” at 2015’s Artclectic in Nashville, and this list continues to grow each year. na Daniel Lai is represented by Bennett Galleries.

He is exhibiting his work in the 4 Bridges Arts Festival™ 2016 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, April 15–17. For more information, please visit www.daniellai.artspan.com or www.bennettgalleriesnashville.com.

Artist Daniel Lai Bookubism: Re-examining Cubism, 2016, Books, clay and eggshell on Claybord, 24” x 24” x 7”

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines

by Gracie Pratt

Kate Harrold’s Very Real Unreal World

Where the Sidewalk Ends

K

ate Harrold’s work walks a tightrope between what is real and what is imagined, embodying a new style of photography that is both mind-boggling and fantastic. Vintage whales leap off of postcards and into the sea, swimming beneath fascinated scuba divers whose presence is but miniscule amid the texture and depth of the sea and the creature below. A row home becomes a house made of gum atop a lollipop stick, the face of a teenager in a letterman jacket looking out at a landscape made completely of sky. Elephants fly, and children jump rope, held in mid-air, between row homes. Kate Harrold’s work stops viewers in their tracks.

Harrold’s interest in photography blossomed in college when she discovered the “magic” of the darkroom, and through a series of jobs as a freelance photographer and Photoshopper, she developed the skills and the eye for a new style.

Her husband, Jason Brueck, a digital artist himself, pushed Harrold to see photographs from a different perspective. “He looked at a photo I showed him of an abandoned farmhouse with a boarded-up window and said, ‘It’s nice, but wouldn’t it be cooler if the window wasn’t boarded up?’ I took the photo into Photoshop and began removing the boards, cutting around the weeds and vines,

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Double Dutch

Pirates Play

Honey the Giraffe Is Back

and where there was now empty space, I placed just the right piece of sky. It completely changed the image. Now it was not a photo about a window. It was all about what was on the other side of that window, the unknown.

“Now my work is all about building images, building a reality, rather than simply documenting it,” Harrold says.

She plays with water, fire, sky, sea, and ice: they exist together in completely impossible yet alluring scenarios.

Harrold is a storyteller at heart. Many of her pieces were inspired by the architecture she observed while living in Philadelphia. She was interested in a particular kind of structure: “the row homes that had lost their row.”

In transitional neighborhoods the dilapidated homes would be torn down, leaving sometimes just one home standing. Harrold was struck by how “out of place” the independent homes seemed, and she wanted to think of new, hopeful stories for them—“what day-to-day life would be like for a Chinese restaurant in the sky, or a gum house on a stick, or a brownstone in the middle of the ocean.” So she did.

For Harrold the magic of photography has continued to spark inspiration. “I love photography because it is real. Even though my images could not exist in reality, they feel as if they do. The imagery is often dreamlike,

or meant to capture the imagination of the people in the images, usually children.”

Children are a common theme in Harrold’s photography compilation: “I usually have children in my pieces because they are the most innocent and the most hopeful. And they have the best imaginations.” Children believe in the impossible, with the realism of adulthood far beyond them. For works that are themselves unbelievable, one must use one’s imagination. That is where the magic is, as viewers learn to see Harrold’s work with the whimsy and wonder of a child.

“Double Dutch is my favorite. It’s an early piece . . . I think what I really love is how it feels. It is a dark image, but the warmth and hope all radiate from a small part of the image where the sun is setting and three girls are jumping rope across a building. They are perfectly content . . . and defying gravity.”

In the same way that the jump-roping children defy the constraints of reality, Harrold’s pieces push the limits, challenging viewers to engage their imagination and build their own stories of what is possible. na Harrold’s images are on display at 3 Brothers Coffee through May 1 and at Bongo Java East until May 10. For more information, visit www.kateharrold.com.

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Artistic Vision

by Stephanie Stewart-Howard

Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

...and the Visionary Art Award goes to...

Award Winners Steve Turner … and Jay Turner

Edgar Arceneaux, Yellow Blind Pig, 2011-2012, Acrylic, charcoal, graphite on paper, 90” x 158”

T

his month, Belmont University’s art department pairs with the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville for An Evening of Arts Visionaries, honoring the contributions of philanthropists and local developers Steve and Jay Turner to the arts community citywide with the Martha Rivers Ingram Arts Visionary Award. Held in the beautiful chapel in Belmont’s Wedgewood Academic Center with keynote speaker internationally acclaimed artist Edgar Arceneaux, the event promises to be a spectacular showcase of the city’s rich arts culture and its ability to join with business to promote a flourishing culture.

and realize remarkable and beautiful community-based projects. Arceneaux founded the Watts House Project, a non-profit neighborhood redevelopment project in Southern California.

“Honorees Steve and Jay Turner were chosen by a leadership team for the event including some of our current and past board members in consultation with Mrs. Martha Ingram,” says Summar. “They were obvious choices because they have contributed so much to the Nashville arts community, and we also celebrate a family legacy of arts support by recognizing a fatherson duo.”

The Arts and Business Council focuses on building ties between Nashville business and the arts. The Council cultivates creative endeavors in Nashville, Executive Director Casey Summar says. “We believe the best way to achieve this goal is to both increase business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit in the arts community and also to foster more support of the arts by the business community.”

Steve Turner sets an example through leadership as the Chairman of the Country Music Foundation, previously serving on the boards of the Symphony and as chair of the building committee for the Symphony’s Schermerhorn Center downtown, plus the boards of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, in addition to being a leader on national engagement in the arts, according to Summar.

This award recognizes individuals who provide visionary support of the arts in the long term, encouraging sustainability and growth.

His son, Jay, “has followed in Steve’s footprints, becoming an enthusiastic supporter of the arts as both a volunteer and collector. He serves on the board of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts as well as the board of Arts in the Airport and is a former board member for the Nashville Symphony. He also played a leadership role on the Schermerhorn Symphony Center Committee.

Jay is also known for bringing distinctive art into the properties he develops, such as the new Gulch Crossing building,” she says. na

Keynote speaker Edgar Arceneaux of Los Angeles has served as a guest artist and lecturer at Belmont through the academic year, setting an example of the potential that community art projects have for bringing populations together across barriers of class and culture.

His work has helped Belmont’s students conceptualize

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saulGRAY-HILDENBRAND

by Gracie Pratt

The Art Scientist

W

hen artist Saul Gray-Hildenbrand was newly graduated after getting his art degree, he began to work on what he now calls a series of “dictionary pieces.” He would scan a page of words and their definitions and land on a single one—list, lint, lunatic— and begin drawing on the page itself, sometimes blacking out all other words to illuminate a single one. Today, Gray-Hildenbrand has nearly 600 pieces made of dictionary pages, a testament to his unconventional representation of language, ideas, and objects and his tenacity as an artist.

Inspired by Lucio Fontana, an Italian artist who would “slice into his canvas and break the dimension of a painting,” GrayHildenbrand explores painting as an object, not just a medium. If he can remove an object from its typical context and turn it on its head, Gray-Hildenbrand won’t pass up the opportunity.

A panel covered in white hand-painted chips contains more than meets the eye in Whitenest. A clear example of GrayHildenbrand’s delight in surprising and stunning his audience, this piece contains both a figurative and literal screaming man painted under the layers. The man is eerily invisible, yet the title’s allusion to his existence gives him a presence stronger than a portrait.

Cave, 2014, Paper on panel, 48” x 48”

Gray-Hildenbrand calls his studio his “laboratory,” valuing the experimentation that comes with creating art. As he said, “I don’t reject a form just because it’s not something I do. I’m always up for an experiment.” Thus, it is not surprising that his work is diverse, ranging from sculpted figures and faces to full-scale murals of sea creatures.

This attitude of freedom about his work prompts him to recognize a variety of interpretations about his pieces, and he welcomes the opportunity to see how an individual’s psyche plays into the process of ascribing meaning. When crafting a sculpture piece for a hospice patient, Gray-Hildenbrand titled it Gathering Storms, viewing the tiny ceramic homes fixed on the white panel as symbols of isolation. However, when a hospice worker viewed the work she had a different interpretation altogether. The homes were “expanding out,” taking on uncharted territory as they radiated out of the center, offering hope.

Thrilled by this interpretation, the artist has found additional meaning in the work, for, as he explains, “the psychology of the person viewing the piece is what completes the story.”

A Traveler’s Plan, 2015, Matches on panel , 30” x 30” 72 nashvillearts.com

“

I don’t reject a form just because it’s not something I do. I’m always up for an experiment.

It’s Lovely This Time of Year, 2011, 10” x 20”

Detail from Electricity, 2015, Matches on panel, 36” x 48”

Another personal piece for Gray-Hildenbrand is a large untitled work featuring a colorful display of matches on a black panel. When his wife’s grandfather passed away, they received a portion of his lifelong match collection. Gray-Hildenbrand wanted the matches to be inaccessible to his young son but also pay tribute to the memory of his wife’s grandfather.

Thus, a work of art was born: a vivid kaleidoscope emerging from the dark backdrop.

Gray-Hildenbrand’s work straddles a fine line between minimalism and folk art, complicated even further by the inclusion of gothic humor. Dark but never depressing, Gray-Hildenbrand sets himself apart in his ability to turn the tables on preconceptions about what art is and isn’t. na You can view the work of Saul Gray-Hildenbrand at Bennett Galleries, located at 2104 Crestmoor Road in Nashville. Gallery hours are Monday–Friday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please visit www.bennettgalleriesnashville.com.

Photograph by Tina Gionis

Rage, Rage Against the Dying Light, 2015, Mixed media, 24” x 24”

Saul Gray-Hildenbrand

THEBOOKMARK

A MONTHLY LOOK AT HOT BOOKS AND COOL READS

Dimestore: A Writer’s Life

The Little Red Chairs

Lee Smith

Edna O’Brien

The author of bestselling Southern classics including Fair and Tender Ladies and The Last Girls, Lee Smith has brought Appalachia to life in fiction again and again. Now this masterful writer tells her own story for the first time, remembering the mountain country of Virginia that was the backdrop of her youth. As a girl, she sat at the counter of her daddy’s dimestore and listened to customers: coal miners, colorful women, and citizens of the rich culture around her. It was there, she writes, that she really learned to be a storyteller.

Honest and delightful for readers and fellow writers alike, this is an essay collection not to be missed.

Meet Smith at the store on May 11 at 6:30.

Edna O’Brien, author of The Country Girls Trilogy, among other critically acclaimed fiction, returns with a breathtaking novel about love, betrayal, and our fascination with evil. Fidelma McBride lives in a small Irish village, where the arrival of a charismatic stranger from Eastern Europe shakes things up. Vlad is a healer, he says, and Fidelma becomes so enamored with him that she risks her marriage to be with him and even begs him for a child.

Then the truth comes crashing down.

It turns out Vlad is a notorious war criminal. Members of the Parnassus First Editions Club will receive signed hardcover first editions of this entrancing book.

Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939

Where the Light Gets In: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again

Adam Hochschild

Kimberly Williams-Paisley

From award-winning, bestselling author Adam Hochschild (To End All Wars; Bury the Chains) comes a fascinating history of a war that at one time dominated international headlines. Considered by many to be the opening battle of World War II, the Spanish Civil War has been depicted in journalism, photos, and even fiction— such as Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. In Hochschild’s version, we view events through the eyes of a dozen characters, including Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and lesser-known but equally compelling soldiers and civilians. What can we learn today from this tale of a hardfought, failed cause? Plenty. History lovers, consider it a must-read.

Nashville’s own Kimberly WilliamsPaisley offers something priceless in these pages: a real-life roadmap for anyone caring for a loved one with dementia. In her memoir, the actress opens up about the struggle her family kept secret for years—her mother, Linda’s, experience with a rare form of dementia that robbed her of her ability to talk, write, and even recognize her own family members.

You’d think it would be a sad book— and at times it is—but WilliamsPaisley’s touching candor makes it an engaging, informative read. Hear Williams-Paisley read from the book at the Nashville Public Library at 6:15 on April 19 as part of the Salon@615 author series.

Photograph by Dawn Majors

POET’SCORNER

BY CASSIDY MARTIN 2016 NASHVILLE YOUTH POET LAUREATE

Cassidy Martin is a sophomore at Nashville Big Picture High School, a graduate of Jere Baxter Middle School, and the 2016 Nashville Youth Poet Laureate. She has been writing since early middle school and has had her nose stuck in a book all her life. Learn more at southernword.org .

We Aren’t Lost Our parents can remember whole maps, but I am lost—

to less promising graves, where we aren’t left on the streets,

a modern day Columbus trying to find China.

decomposing, breaking down from the mindset of society.

I don’t want to drift into a path already made. I want

Our parents’ map makers are hungry for our futures.

to find somewhere else, where I won’t push out the natives.

They try to set a way for us, determined to determine

I’m still waiting for my mom’s generation to sail,

our fates as bullets are tearing through the backs

so I can take flight, soar above these roaring oceans.

of somebody’s baby, slaughtering the innocent.

R.I.P. to angry spirits, the product of middle passage.

Anger won’t hug the necks of children with its fingers.

Their journey ends here as they finally reach home.

We won’t choke on the rope this world is leading us with,

I want to make my own path to a place where mothers

where pigment won’t determine who we treat better,

don’t rely on boyfriends that buy brown bags stuffed

where wings won’t be cracked and can finally expand in sky.

with glass and whiskey, where bruises aren’t stamped

So: Captain Abusive, Racist, Sexist, Misogynist, Sadist,

with red lipstick kisses, sticky tears don’t cling

and Emotional Masochist, those hungry for the tragic,

to cheeks, and smiles aren’t given up on. Our parents

those trying to string me along, tugging the end of my rope,

remember whole maps, but their guidance is cloudy.

trying to put out stones for me to fall on. Bang

Vic wants to see a shooting star, not to be shot

the champagne bottle against the ship, but I won’t

because his back is brown, his blood will be red,

wait for it to get to the horizon, because I’m not lost,

white, and blue. He says I have one chance left,

just going in another direction, I’ve already started flying!

but I don’t want his music to get me lost. I want to go

… Have you?

Photograph by Carla Ciuffo

my own way, to a place where lyrics won’t lynch us

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STUDIOTENN

There’s a familiar saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Oscar Wilde offered a different version: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

Studio Tenn Artistic Director Matt Logan is not interested in mediocrity. He believes a great artist deserves a great tribute—one that amounts to more than an impersonation.

Over the past few years, Studio Tenn has been developing its own formula for paying homage to musical heroes: an original Legacy Series of theatrical concerts celebrating the work of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and, this year, Ray Charles.

The Ray Legacy: A Tribute to the Soulful Genius takes the Studio Tenn stage April 14 – May 1 in Jamison Hall at The Factory at Franklin. Its elevated theatrical concert-style format involves an ensemble of singers and musicians presenting specially commissioned new arrangements of Ray Charles songs. There are staged interaction and a custom-designed set, but no narration, dialogue, or characters. Instead, the focus is on the music and how it is presented. “The Legacy Series pays tribute by allowing songs to live past their first incarnation,” Logan said. “With new arrangements, the nostalgia recedes into the background. It’s still there, but it’s no longer confining the song”—or the audience, for that matter.

Photograph by Anthony Matula of MA2LA

To help create The Ray Legacy, Studio Tenn enlisted Ryan Connors, a Nashville-based pianist, arranger, and member of the nationally touring jazz/funk/R&B band Dynamo. Part composer, part curator, Connors’ role as the show’s arranger involves an enviable kind of research: listening to tons and tons of music. And there is no shortage of inspiration. “I love Ray’s music and the music of that era,” he said. In addition to plenty of Ray Charles influence, traces of Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Etta James, and others can also be felt in the show.

“We don’t want to do a whole night of Ray’s songs just like Ray did them,” Connors said, “but we also don’t want to mess with the arrangements so much that his spirit isn’t recognizable.” The charge and challenge is to find the right balance. “Sometimes just the introduction of a different vocalist is enough to make it feel new and interesting,” he said. Songs will be performed by an ensemble of eight singers in varying combinations.

Although Studio Tenn sometimes brings in Broadway performers for select roles in their plays and musicals, Legacy casts are almost always local—one of the advantages of being based in Music City. The Ray Legacy cast comprises JohnMark McGaha, Laura Matula, Libby Black, and Piper Jones returning to the Studio Tenn stage, alongside newcomers Meggan Utech, Reverend Lawrence D. Thomison, Chris Lee, and American Idol’s Matt Giraud. Collectively, the cast members span a vast musical territory from soul, pop, gospel, blues, and beyond. That diversity enriches the participants as well as the final product. Before rehearsals begin, the performers get together for a jam session. There’s no set agenda other than to get acquainted with one another and the songs. “There’s a lot of room in the process for people to spout out and try different things,” Connors said. “It was really interesting to see how the cast members responded to different songs.” Then, some even got up and sang their own music. “I think the whole experience really helped them to bond as a cast,” Connors said.

That makes for genuine on-stage chemistry. “The audience really responds to that authenticity,” Logan said. “And it grows out of [the cast] having meaningful experiences together as artists and collaborators.”

Creating these opportunities for today’s rising musicians is one of the things Logan finds most rewarding about the Legacy Series. “It’s a learning experience for these artists to not only get to study and be inspired by great material, but to take chances, experiment, and explore musically,” Logan said.

“If that doesn’t honor the spirit of Ray Charles, I don’t know what does.” na The Ray Legacy: A Tribute to the Soulful Genius runs April 14 – May 1 in Jamison Hall at The Factory at Franklin. For show times or tickets, visit www.studiotenn.com.

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Photograph by Anthony Matula of MA2LA

A Salute with Soul: Studio Tenn Celebrates Ray Charles Legacy with Original Theatrical Concert

SYMPHONYINDEPTH APRIL 2016 Dailey & Vincent Bring Bluegrass, Country, and Gospel to the Schermerhorn During a recent visit to the Schermerhorn, Darrin Vincent took some time to answer a few questions about the April 12 concert: How did this performance with the Nashville Symphony come about?

We had been talking about the importance of collaboration with our manager Zac Koffler and booking agent Cass Scripps at APA Nashville, when the Nashville Symphony was brought up. Jamie and I loved the idea. Before starting Dailey & Vincent nine years ago, one of my last performances with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder was with the Nashville Symphony.

I recalled what an awesome venue the Schermerhorn is and how great it was to work with world-class, GRAMMY®-winning musicians.

We were all about trying to work it out to make the show happen from that point on.

Photograph courtesy of Dailey & Vincent

What makes you most excited about this upcoming show?

Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent

On April 12, Music City will have the opportunity to hear some of the bluegrass world’s most celebrated performers in the acoustical splendor of Schermerhorn Symphony Center when Dailey & Vincent perform alongside the GRAMMY® Awardwinning Nashville Symphony for the first time.

Three-time winners of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year, guitarist-vocalist Jamie Dailey and bassist-vocalist Darrin Vincent are known for their trademark harmonies and top-notch instrumentals, which have helped them garner three GRAMMY® nominations. Frequently heralded as the “Rockstars of Bluegrass,” they’ll take to the Schermerhorn stage fresh off a wildly successful PBS special, Alive! In Concert.

The Schermerhorn is just a state-of-the-art facility sonically, plus the decor is simply beautiful. I can’t wait!

What are some of the challenges and opportunities of playing with a symphony orchestra? How is the preparation different than a typical Dailey & Vincent performance?

The biggest challenge will be making sure not to vary the improvisation we use in some of our songs. When an audience is really into a tune, we may play it a bit longer or add different melodies for a jam, but with a written score and other musicians, that won’t be happening.

The other difference is how beautiful and rich adding all the different instruments to songs normally played with our eightpiece band will be. Jamie and I almost get lost in listening to the music heavy with emotion; it’s powerful and so exciting, so thinking how it’s going to sound [with the orchestra] is making my heart race!

If you were an orchestra musician, what instrument would you want to play?

That is an easy question for me—I’d play the bass. na Learn more about the April 12 Dailey & Vincent performance and get tickets at www.NashvilleSymphony.org.

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SOUNDINGOFF

Chatterbird Performs at Club Roar

Photograph by Thiago Prado Neri

BY JOSEPH E. MORGAN

Chatterbird’s Second Pops Concert On Thursday, March 10, at The Bistro, Nashville’s alt-classical ensemble, Chatterbird, presented “Bird Goes Pop,” an irreverent, participatory, and fun concert of works that played in the boundaries of classical and popular music. The concert opened rather spontaneously with Dennis DeSantis’ energetic and jazzy +8, a duet for alto saxophone and drum set built on shifting meters and sophisticated runs against a repetitive riff. Paula Van Goes’ warm interpretation brought what could have been a rather robotic piece to life.

Next was John Fonville’s essay on extended flute techniques, Music for Sarah, played by the ensemble’s Artistic Director Celine Thackston sitting barefoot on the floor. The piece, in Thackston’s virtuosic hands, emphasized the flute’s chameleon-like ability in timbre, shifting from the quietest whisper of a distant shakuhachi to Dopplerian elegy.

Next, the charismatic singer Dacia Bridges took the stage for the first of a pair of pieces by Eve Beglarian which re-contextualize 14th-century melodies of Guillaume de Machaut into 20th-century popular genres. The first half of the concert concluded with Frederic Rzewski’s Les Moutons de Panurge for chamber ensemble and audience (toy instruments were distributed at the door). The piece combined John Cage’s ideal for the aleatory (scoring the formal organization but leaving the details up to chance) with Terry Riley’s procedural minimalism. At first the audience seemed uncomfortable with their role in the piece, but soon everyone joined in to lead it to a raucous ending.

After intermission, two of the remaining compositions had a significant electronic component. Bryan Clark’s Say it! Heaven Is stood out for its deft combination of sampled videogame soundtracks, speak-and-spell verbalizations, and ensemble. Clark’s piece innovatively “flipped the script” by attaching the piece’s nostalgia to the electronics and the commenting present to his traditional instruments. The evening ended with Jon-Paul Frappier’s exciting arrangement of the Tune-yards’ “Water Fountain” in which Bridges returned to the stage with the “Chatterettes” (Van Goes and Thackston).

Chatterbird’s next appearance is slated for June, when they will perform Halldór Smárason‘s 1972 – II. Game 13, for amplified chess set, chamber ensemble, and electronics, as a part of Tony Youngblood’s Modular Art Pods installation at OZ Arts Nashville. For more info, see www.chatterbird.org.

ANDSOITGOES

Photograph by Ron Manville

Rachael McCampbell is an artist, teacher, curator, and writer who resides in the small hamlet of Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. For more about her, please visit www.rachaelmccampbell.com.

BY RACHAEL McCAMPBELL

Can Individuals with Alzheimer’s Communicate through Art?

My mother was an amateur artist for

years before she got dementia and passed away. Why no one handed her a brush during her illness is beyond me, but it would have been both interesting and therapeutic to observe how dementia affected her painting style and her demeanor. By the end of her life, she lost her ability to speak and write. I wonder now if she could have communicated through her art.

“This painting is from a resident at Trevecca Health and Rehab Center. We were speaking about the use of color and line to express mood, temperature, season. After she finished, she exclaimed, ‘Now that’s what winter looks like to me!’”

“The pathway was created by a gentleman at Elmcroft who has always loved art, but never had the opportunity to create. He is always engaged and thoughtful throughout his art process.”

Interestingly, when some people develop neurological deterioration, they discover previously unknown artistic talents. Dr. Bruce L. Miller, a behavioral neurologist and director of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Memory and Aging Center, works with clients with various types of neurological disorders from Alzheimer’s disease to frontotemporal dementia and more. Dr. Miller stated, “There have been reports of individuals . . . who developed new artistic skills in the setting of their illness. One explanation for this phenomenon is that other parts of the brain take over to compensate for another brain area that is no longer working. Therefore, visual expressions such as drawing, painting, or sculpture appear as the person loses their capability for verbal language.”

There have been documented studies of professional artists afflicted with brain disorders or injuries and how it affects their style and ability to paint.

Willem de Kooning, the famous abstract expressionist, is a good example of this. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his 80s and went on to paint over 300 critically acclaimed works, but his style changed. His color choices were less intense, the brushstrokes lighter, more ethereal and spacious than his earlier works. Oddly, they appear to be “happy.”

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I spoke with Terri Giller, a registered art therapist in Nashville who witnesses the power of making art in individuals with developmental disabilities, older adults, and those with Alzheimer’s/dementia.

She has found that the creation of art not only gives her clients the physical and mental stimulation needed to improve their overall health, but also gives them a much-needed social outlet and venue to express their feelings and memories. Terri told me, “The process of choosing colors and creating images promotes cognitive stimulation, but it also inspires them to reminisce and connect with one another, which is also very therapeutic.”

As patients lose their ability to be verbal (aphasia), they can sometimes still communicate through art. Dr. Miller said, “There seems to be a greater use of symbols as dementia progresses.

Their increased use of symbols might reflect a response to their internal mental and emotional states. If this conjecture is true, art offers a way for AD [Alzheimer’s Disease] patients to communicate despite profound impairments of language.”

I wonder now if my mother, who seemed locked in the prison of her own mind, could have communicated her thoughts and feelings through symbols.

I will never know, but I’m happy that so much more is known about the benefits of art therapy with neurological deteriorative diseases, and it is helping so many. na To reach Terri Giller, M.Ed., ATR, for more information on her work as an art therapist, go to www.artspeaksarttherapy.com.

ARTS&BUSINESSCOUNCIL

BY LINDA ROSE ESQ. & DOUG RUSSO ESQ.

Music and Immigration Law

Emiko Sugiyama holds a B visa

Immigration impacts many music industry professionals. This article explains briefly temporary visa options in the music industry.

B-1 or B-2 is generally intended for non-productive, nonpaying business or recreation. These classifications may be appropriate if the artist comes to the U.S. to attend a conference or showcase. However, presenting at a conference and being paid are not appropriate for this visa. Recording may be acceptable, depending on the intended distribution of the recording. Despite some exceptions, paid musicians must have a work-authorized status, as described below.

O-1 is for “artists of extraordinary ability.� Major awards or nominations help qualify a foreign musician, but there are also alternative criteria. Simply put, you must be accomplished, well-known, and able to provide relevant evidence.

P-1 is for bands and groups with some international acclaim.

The band can be a completely foreign band, or it can be a U.S. band seeking to add a foreign artist to the group.

P-2 is for musicians performing under a reciprocal exchange program. There is only one program for musicians—the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Members of the Canadian AFM can request P-2 classification, and nonCanadians can also join the AFM. P-3 covers culturally unique musicians. This provides an option for artists whose music reflects the foreign culture from which they come. For individuals performing culturally unique music in public settings, the Q-1 visa provides another alternative.

Although Congress created these specific visa options, musicians might also fit into other visa categories, such as F-1 for students and H-1B for professionals. You should weigh these issues carefully if you are a foreign musician or work with foreign musicians. Immigration often requires an attorney, and it can take years to navigate the complex governmental framework. If prepared, however, you can continue performing in the U.S. without missing a beat.

Rose Immigration Law Firm, PLC helps corporate and individual clients from every corner of the world and throughout the United States.

Rose Immigration Law practices exclusively immigration and nationality law, with emphasis on business and employment immigration. More information is available at: www.roseimmigration.com.

THEATRE

Jim Reyland’s new book, Handmade – Friendships Famous, Infamous, Real and Imagined, will be available May 2016 at Amazon.com in paperback and on Kindle. jreyland@audioproductions.com

BY JIM REYLAND

“My Father’s War is certainly a searing, unvarnished, and very personal account of war . . . the words and music flow like honey.”

—Evans Donnell, Theatre Reviewer

My Father’s War A Story of War, Survival, and Grace When something truly significant happens to you or someone you love, the story of that experience stays with you, and if you’re an artist, you share it with the world in your own special way. This is how My Father’s War came to be. Wife and husband team Carol Ponder and Robert Kiefer created and now perform this powerful storytelling and musical experience for all of us.

and coming home again. Blended with wonderful songs from the period like “Don’t Sit under the Apple Tree,” and “I’ll Be Seeing You,” it also includes traditional songs “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” “The Minstrel Boy,” and even “Goober Peas.” The discussions after the performance—an integral part of this theatrical encounter—are always rich with shared experiences.

It’s a wonderful ride, adapted from Carol’s father’s 1989 memoir from WWII, where Lt. Ponder wrote of his fears, his joys, and his struggle to remain human during and after a terrible war.

Carol and Robert have been theatre and music professionals for over 40 years. (Yes, that Carol Ponder.) Writing, performing, and leading creative workshops grounded in My Father’s War, they use everything they’ve ever learned about the performing arts and education through the arts.

My Father’s War is a staged reading production, delivered in Lt. Ponder’s same storytelling voice—droll, sincere, and cruelly straightforward. It is a story about a boy who enlists in the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor, leaving his beloved Appalachian Mountains. He becomes a “professional exterminator,” flying P-47 Thunderbolts. When he comes home again, he must reintegrate into civilian life while struggling with post traumatic stress syndrome (PTS) and other unseen wounds from his war.

My Father’s War is a beautiful production that evokes the essence of war and warriors, their victories, sacrifices, loyalty to each other, and the sweet pain of coming home. Sitting in the audience, you’ll feel your love of country washing over you and filling your heart. na If you’d like to support My Father’s War so that many more may share it, or to be informed about future performances taking place not only in Nashville but all over the United States, please contact Robert or Carol at ponderanew@aol.com or visit www.carolandrobert.com.

My Father’s War isn’t just about WWII. It’s about going to war 83

nashvillearts.com

Photograph courtesy of Mike Barrowman

Lt. Herschel Ponder with his P-47 Thunderbolt

ARTSMART

A monthly guide to art education

TENNESSEE ROUNDUP

Attendees analyze the work of professional artists through an arts experience session

Arts leaders and educators participate in an interactive plenary conversation

Beyond Collaboration Collaboration is a term that we know well in the arts. Duet, harmony, ensemble, and juxtaposition are words that evoke a sense of association or togetherness. Musicians perform in a group as they play chamber music. Dancers explore intricate partner work in modern dance choreography. Each artist represents a specific part to make the cohesive whole.

We will explore these questions and others at the Tennessee Arts Commission’s statewide arts conference, Collective Impact: Arts Administrators, Educators and Artists Together as Community Change Agents, June 7–10, at Bradley Integrated Arts Academy and Patterson Park Community Center in Murfreesboro.

We see it in arts education too. Teachers foster learning environments that allow for collaboration, one of the 21stcentury learning skills important for career readiness. Students work in teams behind the scenes and on stage to carry out a theatre production. Classmates complete a large-scale mural as part of a service learning project, all contributing to the visual arts work. Take one look at arts education curriculum standards and collaboration is woven throughout the performance indicators.

According to John Kania and Mark Kramer, authors of the article “Collective Impact” in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the answer to these questions might be collective impact or “the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem. Unlike most collaborations, collective impact initiatives involve a centralized infrastructure, a dedicated staff, and a structured process that leads to a common agenda, shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication and backbone organization.”

Both in the creation and education of the arts, collaboration is often vital to innovative practice and successful outcomes. Arts managers and teachers understand collaboration in their own practice as well when executive and artistic directors manage an arts organization or classroom teachers and teaching artists partner together for arts integration lessons.

The Commission recognizes that this group of important “actors” can be those involved in the arts, because they are uniquely positioned to be the drivers of wider community progress as the arts can challenge, connect, and inspire. With an “unconference” approach, this participant-driven gathering will explore a common agenda to address community issues through the arts.

Attendees will identify opportunities and challenges, share and gather expertise from the field, and walk away with tools and strategies to be a part of the solution for lasting change in their communities.

Courtesy of State Photography

But what is beyond collaboration? What do efforts look like when partners move past meeting their own objectives and strive to achieve broader community goals? Where do the arts fit into this?

What is the role of artists, administrators, and educators beyond the institution, classroom, or school?

by Ann Talbott Brown Director of Arts Education, Tennessee Arts Commission

Register to be a part of this change at www.tnartscommission.org/statewide-conference.

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ARTSMART The Theater Bug: Safety in Stretching As children grow up and encounter the real world, finding a safe place to stretch, to learn about ideas/issues, and to develop coping skills and empathy while exploring the fun and energy of youth is a difficult balancing act. The Theater Bug has created that balance.

The January-February production of 7 Ways to Sunday teamed Laemmel and Eric Fritsch in the creation of a powerful production that addressed teen depression and suicide. It was followed in March by Showmance in partnership with Studio Tenn Theatre Company in Franklin and showcasing the singing and dancing talents of 45 kids. A third production, Selfie, scheduled for July, again partners Laemmel and Fritsch and will involve 50–75 kids split into two companies.

“These kids are finding their place in the theater,” Laemmel says. “We have some kids working now as professionals, but we also have kids who have no intention of pursuing a career on the stage, but who found a community of like-minded people and get to experience what it’s like to create a production.

That’s important.

“It is also important to address topics relevant to their own lives,” she says. “But I think it is developmentally appropriate not giving the kids material older than their age.”

Photograph by Anthony Matula

In exploring topics such as autism and teen depression, young actors learn from experts in the fields as well as peers, as a crucial educational component before exploring their characters. Laemmel points out, “We want to, for example, build bridges that take the fear factor out of being around kids with special needs such as autism or working through depression. These young actors are crazy talented. We give them the material.

They know who they are—they see these characters in their schools, and often in their own families, and (through acting) gain new empathy.”

Through the joy of musicals or the depth of drama, young people find that acting is stretching—putting themselves in someone else’s shoes and seeing the world through their eyes.

For more information about The Theater Bug and to learn about their summer programs, visit www.thetheaterbug.org.

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by DeeGee Lester Director of Education, The Parthenon

Photograph by Drew Cox

Photograph by Anthony Matula

Working with young actors, ages 6–18, the theater company, founded by Cori Anne Laemmel five years ago and housed in a new location at 4809 Gallatin Pike behind New Life Baptist Church, produces one original play and one original musical each year. “This year was different,” says Laemmel.

ARTSMART Inquiring 10-Year-Old Minds Want to Know . . .

Imagine if you had the opportunity to speak with a maker of masterpieces, to pick that artist’s brain, inquire on their inspirations, seek out their knowledge and wisdom. If you had such a chance, what would you ask?

Now, let’s just say that person happens to be local contemporary artist Hannah Lane, creator of colorful multimedia works that embrace such a range of themes from farm animals to landscapes to figurative work. What questions spring to your mind for a bright young artist in our fair city?

If you happen to be a 10-year-old, the first question that might come to your mind is, “Do you know any other Hannahs?”

I had the pleasure of introducing my fabulous fourth grade artists to the lovely Hannah Lane recently. My students learned about her work before she came to my art room. We chatted about her technique of layering paint, papers, and other media. We learned that she often works with themes, creating a series of pieces based on such ideas. Finally we discussed what we might ask her when she came to create with us.

So, yeah. That was the first question that popped into their heads when she came to visit.

After teaching us a fun poem about her name (such a good

sport!), Hannah introduced the kids to a body of work she calls her crowd series. To explore this theme, I asked my students to spend five minutes in their sketchbooks drawing an image of where they might see a crowd. What is so wonderful about Hannah’s crowd series is that it focused on the crowd, not the place. This allows the viewer to see themselves in her work and really explore their individual idea of a crowd. My students’ drawings ranged from a crowded theme park and a concert to sports events and even a funeral!

Once our sketch time concluded, Hannah allowed the kids a peak inside her creative process. She shared with the young artists her stash of painted and collected papers that she uses in her work.

After she demonstrated her technique, the kids were turned loose to explore adding a layer of collage to their previously painted canvases. She chatted with them about how she uses symbols in her crowd paintings, like the image of a crown. This inspired many students to cut out such shapes as hearts and stars.

Once these small masterpieces are dry, my students will have the opportunity to create their own crowd images in the work.

We ended our time with Hannah discussing all that we’d learned (turns out Hannah knew several other Hannahs) and saying thank you to our new favorite artist.

Photograph by Juan Pont Lezica

Artist Hannah Lane with Cassie Stephens’ fourth grade class

by Cassie Stephens Art Teacher, Johnson Elementary

Hannah Lane helps Kennedy Johnson with her collage art project

by Libby Scanlan Art Teacher, Glendale Elementary

ARTSMART Kolidiko: Glendale Elementary Students Create a Masterpiece

Photograph by Drew Cox

Last year I was invited to a dinner party at a friend’s home. As I glanced around their beautiful Belmont neighborhood house, I was drawn to a fabulous piece of art hanging on the wall – a colorful canvas filled with detail. Upon closer inspection I recognized some of the details within the artwork. The hosts of the dinner party were fellow Glendale parents whose children were students of mine. Some of the familiar elements on the canvas were drawn or painted by their daughter in my art class.

As an artist and art teacher, I wanted to know more about this piece of art.

My friend connected me with Kolidiko, a company founded by artists Angela Hubbard and her father Jorge Yances. Hubbard and Yances have created a unique way for parents to preserve and enjoy their children’s artwork saved over time. Excited about Kolidiko, I asked Angela and Jorge to be Glendale’s 2015 Artist Partners.

The Artist Partner Program has been a part of Glendale since shortly after it opened as a Spanish Immersion Elementary School 12 years ago. This program, made possible through the generous support of the Glendale PTO, brings professional artists from the community into the art room. Since its inception Glendale students have had the opportunity to work with artists Herb Williams, Jorge Mendoza, and Melanie Guion to name a few.

Jorge was born in Cartagena, Columbia. We decided that Cartagena and its history, art, and architecture would be the inspiration behind our Glendale Kolidiko. As a Spanish

Glendale fourth graders stop in the hall to admire the finished Kolidiko.

Immersion school, learning about Hispanic culture is an integral part of learning the language. We decided that Second Grade would learn about the coast and Cartagena’s fascinating pirate history. Third Grade would study the colorful architecture in the Old Town, and Fourth Grade would learn about Cartagena’s Carnival.

Jorge and Angela spent a week of afternoons in the art room with students. Jorge shared stories, photos, videos, books, and some of his artwork with the students. The students responded by making their own artwork inspired by Cartagena. At the end of the week, Jorge and Angela returned to their studio with more than 200 pieces of student art. They painstakingly cut and combined the artwork onto three canvases, creating an amazing 4 foot by 9 foot masterpiece.

One month later, we held a gathering at school to unveil the masterpiece. Jorge and Angela arrived with the new Glendale Kolidiko carefully covered in brown butcher paper. Students, parents, and teachers watched with great expectation as Jorge and Angela carefully unveiled and hung the amazing work of art.

The Glendale Kolidiko is a visual treasure trove. I could stare at it for hours and still find new details. Every day, I see students stop in the hall to admire it. These young artists are so proud to have been part of both the process and the finished piece. This work of art captures perfectly the colorful, creative spirit of our students and the integration of Spanish language and culture that makes Glendale Elementary so unique.

ARTSMART

ON THE HORIZON Words by Karen Parr-Moody Photography by Jerry Atnip

O’More College of Design’s Fashion Show May 12, 8 p.m., John C. Tune Airport French nuns taught Coco Chanel to sew. Cristóbal Balenciaga and Gianni Versace learned from their mothers. But today’s wouldbe designers need skills beyond the homegrown to impress the fashion cognoscenti. They gather them at O’More College of Design, a private college located in Franklin’s historic district.

Atlas is preparing all of her students for career success. She knows many will go on to fuel the fast-growing fashion industry of Nashville, which now ranks as the fourth largest fashion hub in the U.S. following New York City, Los Angeles, and Columbus, Ohio.

She believes that Nashville has established a niche.

At 8 p.m. Thursday, May 12, 18 of the college’s starry-eyed students will send their fashion collections down the runway during O’More College of Design’s Fashion Show at Nashville’s John C. Tune Airport. The Nashville Fashion Alliance is partnering with the college to host a VIP party prior to the show.

“It is all about quality, custom tailoring, and one-of-a-kind,” Atlas says.

Jamie Atlas, the chair of O’More’s School of Fashion, says that three particular students—Stephanie Caporella, Chelsea Weems, and Angela Jackson—possess a “leader mindset” and know what they want. Their collections are created from strong points of view.

And O’More’s School of Fashion is preparing students for that specificity.

“We really focus on the quality aspect of it,” Atlas says. “Tailoring, couture, and custom are arts that are going away. And there is such a need for that.”

For more information visit www.omorefashionshow.com.

Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, and Yohji Yamamoto— supreme manipulators of silhouette, all. While groundbreaking, their voluminous and sculptural fashions could be traced back to ancient design. After all, Japan is a culture from whence emerged the centuries-old kimono, with its voluptuous layers, as well as origami, the traditional folk art of paper folding that inspires modern architecture.

Student Stephanie Caporella is deeply moved by Japanese fashion design.

She arrived at O’More College of Design after graduating from Louisiana State University with a degree in Textiles, Apparel and Merchandising. She wanted to learn more about the fashion trade. Now, she wants to create designs like those

by Kawakubo. “I aspire to that type of artistic view,” she says.

Naturally, Caporella embraces the Japanese pattern-making technique of dart manipulation, or “nyokitto,” by which stunning sculptural clothes are created.

“I love Japanese culture—their view of clothing, the movement of clothing, and the design aesthetic they produce,” Caporella says. “It’s not like they are just wearing the same old t-shirt and blouse.”

Through Japanese pattern making, designers can add dramatic sculptural details to clothing, including alternating folds, dips in the fabric, and geometric shapes.

Due to its nature, there also exists an interplay of shadow and light with this design approach.

STEPHANIE CAPORELLA

Caporella’s women’s-wear collection for the fashion show consists of separates for which she used nyokitto to create a greater variety of dimension, as with a blouse that features V-shaped draping on the front.

Late 20th-century fashion history was marked by the emergence of Japanese fashion designers bringing forth forms both highly original and elaborately constructed. More like sculpture than their Western counterparts, such designs were also less gender-specific and bodyconscious.

The period’s “Japanese avant-garde” included

Caporella’s designs were also influenced by Japan’s iconic kimono. “I put my twist to it,” she says. “There is a lot of draping and layering. I wanted to give the effect of heaviness when one’s wearing the clothes, because the Japanese wear so many layers. They have all this movement; I love that movement.”

The color palette includes red, black, and gold, tones Caporella says are born of her impression of the Syrian conflict. “It’s inspired by all the suffering that people are going through in the war,” she says. “The gold is actually signifying hope. There is something that is shining over us that will help us.”

ARTSMART “I love all aspects of fashion,” says student Chelsea Weems, who received her first undergrad degree from East Tennessee State University because it focused on the “business of fashion.” She thought it would be practical.

“When I was growing up my dad was always kind of against the whole art scene,” Weems says in her bubbly, Southern accent. “He’s a nuclear engineer, so he doesn’t always see things the way artists see things.” But as soon as Weems graduated from ETSU, she enrolled in O’More College of Design.

“I came to O’More because design was always my passion,” she says.

Weems had no sewing experience before enrolling in O’More, so she admits she was a bit behind in the basics. “I just kind of had to work a little bit harder to get to the other students’ level,” she says. “I’m doing great now; I’ve learned so much.”

All of Weems’s skills in draping, pattern-making, sewing, and fitting are now aimed at the pint-sized customer, as her specialty is children’s wear. “I have always been drawn to children’s wear,” Weems says. “I’m obsessed with color and pattern and mixing. I think with children’s wear you can get away with more fun and imagination.”

Weems has two children’s-wear collections for the runway. One collection, called “Woodland Wanderer,” is fall themed and is inspired by what she calls “Tennessee backwoods beauty and the childlike imagery of illustration.” In addition to creating children’s wear, Weems also works at the charming shop Vintage, Baby, in downtown Franklin, as a sales associate, merchandiser, and buyer. “I never get tired of children’s wear,” she says. “It’s never boring.”

Student Angela Jackson has taken a gamble that many, arguably, would not. In midlife, she left a comfortable professional career to prepare for the runway.

Jackson had long wanted to pursue fashion design and had completed some fashion merchandising courses at another college. But she was impressed by O’More’s fashion design program, so she enrolled.

“People get older and they get settled in a job where they’re just there,” Jackson says. “And I didn’t want to be just there anymore when I knew that I had a talent and could use it to do something else. So I said to myself, Do I want to be sitting here doing this for the rest of my life, or do I want to do something that I enjoy doing? I have to make myself happy. I’m going to do this for me. It took a lot of courage.”

Now, as a senior, Jackson has the skills to create what she calls “classic yet modern” fashion inspired by her favorite designers, the Venezuelan-American Carolina Herrera and the Italian fashion legend known simply as Valentino.

ANGELA JACKSON

Her collection for the fashion show includes clothes that a woman can wear to work, regardless of age. “I want that woman that I am designing for to be able to wear her pretty clothes that she likes to wear to work and feel good and look good in what she wears,” she says. “A lot of times we stay in the same old look when we go to work. But I want to be different when I go to work. I don’t want to be the same as everyone else.”

The collection is inspired by a phenomenon Jackson calls “the Butterfly Effect”—a natural curiosity one has upon observing a butterfly. “When you see a butterfly, you think it’s beautiful,” she says. “So when a woman sees another woman looking her best, or looking happy, she’s going to say, ‘Wow she’s beautiful. What makes her happy?’”

CHELSEA WEEMS

ARTSMART Young Artists in Hendersonville: The 40th Annual Best of Sumner County Student Art Show Monthaven Mansion, Through April 22

by Ara Vito The art scene is thriving in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and what better way to celebrate this community than by showcasing the talents of promising young artists? On March 22, the 40th Annual Best of Sumner County Student Art Show opens at the historic Monthaven Mansion, featuring the art of middle- and high-schoolers from thirteen schools across Sumner County. Up to ten students from each school will have the opportunity to enter and participate in this beloved local tradition.

The event originated when the Hendersonville Arts Council was chartered in 1975 with the mission of promoting artistic diversity and accessibility. Thanks to the Arts Council, as well as the art teachers in Sumner County, this exhibit will enable the students to be recognized for their abilities and to gain professional insight. As art programs throughout the country are currently being cut from schools, it is encouraging to witness the rallying support from the people of Hendersonville and its surrounding areas.

Daniel Titcomb, Executive Director of the Hendersonville Arts Council, is especially excited about what this exhibit means for the students. “Rewarding their hard work with awards donated by the art and business community is my favorite part because it reinforces to the students that hard work does not go unrecognized,” he says. “I also love the level of surprise, shock, and engagement from visitors touring the house, or attending a special event, and I tell them the art is all from high school and middle school students.

Everyone is very impressed with the level of talent here in Sumner County.”

The exhibition will be judged by Paul Polycarpou, editor of Nashville Arts Magazine. He will be giving a talk at Monthaven Mansion at 2 p.m. on April 3, in which he will discuss the visual arts scene in Middle Tennessee and offer industry-focused advice to the young artists. The awards ceremony and reception will be held on April 10, with refreshments provided by the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and art prizes provided by PlazaArt.com. Cash awards will be given to Best in Show, the art department that wins Best in Show, and the first-place winners of each category.

Genevieve Gulliford, Knox Doss Middle School at Drakes Creek, Tyler Oakley

The Student Art Show runs until April 22 and is free and open to the public. For more information about the exhibit and museum hours, visit www.hendersonvillearts.org.

Danielle Long, Station Camp High School, The Resurrection of Atticus Luna 90 nashvillearts.com

Blair Colbert, Station Camp High School, Paper Cuts

What is a mezzotint?

“The copper-plate it [the mezzotint] is done upon, when the artist first takes it into hand, is wrought all over with an edg’d tool, so as to make the print one even black, like night: and his whole work after this, is merely introducing the lights into it; which he does by scraping off the rough grain according to his design, artfully smoothing it most where light is most required . . .”

—William Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty (1753)

A Mezzotint is an intaglio printmaking process developed in Amsterdam in the mid 1600s, using a copper plate which has been worked (grounded) using a semi-circular fine-toothed tool (rocker) so that the entire surface is roughened. In this state, when inked the plate will print solid black. The design is then created by scraping down and polishing areas of the plate, thus holding less ink and printing more lightly than the unpolished areas. Since a mezzotint plate is particularly prone to wear during printing, the earliest impressions are the finest, very dark with strong definition, whereas later ones are noticeably fainter.

Photograph by Jerry Atnip

Linda Dyer serves as an appraiser, broker, and consultant in the field of antiques and fine art. She has appeared on the PBS production Antiques Roadshow since season one, which aired in 1997, as an appraiser of Tribal Arts. If you would like Linda to consider appraising one of your antiques, send a clear, detailed image to info@nashvillearts.com. Or send photo to Antiques, Nashville Arts Magazine, 644 West Iris Dr., Nashville, TN 37204.

APPRAISEIT

BY LINDA DYER

tone (rather than line), capacity to convey texture, and strong contrasts between light and dark suited the painting style of 18th century British art.

Mezzotint printing was practiced all over Europe and even made its way to Colonial America, but by the late 18th century this print technique lost its audience to other processes. In the centuries to follow, this technically demanding art form would be revived, for some only in short spurts, by a few 19th- and 20th-century artists, to include Sir Frank Short, Chuck Close, Georges Rouault, Yozo Hamaguchi, and Mario Avati.

Born in Monaco to Italian parents, Avati attended the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and studied with Marc Chagall. He began printmaking in earnest in the late 1940s, and about ten years later began to focus on mezzotint, printing exclusively in black from 1957, then adding color starting in 1960, experimenting with and mastering techniques that brought him significant international recognition and placed him at the forefront of his discipline. His works are represented in more than 100 public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Uffizi, and Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery.

Mario Avati lived and worked in Paris, and he died there on February 26, 2009.

This masterfully executed mezzotint, which was purchased for the total cost of $90 with shipping from an Internet auction site, would, in my opinion, have a replacement cost of $800 to $900. na

The mezzotint print found its most appreciative audience in Great Britain, reaching its peak of popularity during the 18th and 19th centuries. While printmakers throughout history created original compositions and gained fame in their own right, some teamed up with painters to reproduce their works in great numbers for broad distribution. Such was the relationship between British printmakers Valentine Green and Richard Earlom, who achieved fame for their mezzotints after the paintings of Gainsborough and Reynolds. These prints were often the only means most people of the time had to become acquainted with paintings by major artists, and the mezzotint’s distinctive use of

Mario Avati (French, 1921–2009), T comme Turner, Color mezzotint, 11” x 16” Signed, numbered “56 of 85”, dated “1981” and titled in pencil

10 Parks That Changed America. Seattle’s Freeway Park

Photograph by Matt Hagan

Arts Worth Watching

Tuesdays at 7 p.m., an accessible new series showcases spaces that had a lasting impact on how we live. The series begins April 5 with 10 Homes That Changed America, a chronological journey with commentary by Peter Goldberger, Reed Kroloff, and other architectural critics. Site visits include a 15th-century Taos Indian community and a claustrophobic mid-19thcentury tenement in New York’s Lower East Side. The show visits iconic works like an American Craftsman bungalow by brotherduo Greene and Greene; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater; and Charles and Ray Eames’ postwar house designed for Arts and Architecture magazine’s legendary Case Study program. Modern-day architect Michelle Kaufmann continues the Eames’ tradition of tailoring prefabricated elements to suit one’s own needs in her greenfocused Glidehouse.

final episode of the three-part series, 10 Towns that Changed America, airs April 19 and considers Philadelphia, where William Penn applied Quaker ideals to urban planning, and Levittown, New York, the storied subdivision built to house returning GIs and their Baby Boom families.

academic year. At 11:30 p.m., NPT’s original documentary The Gift: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University is a look at the storied collection amassed by gallery owner Stieglitz (whom O’Keeffe married in 1924) that includes O’Keeffe’s stunning American Radiator Building.

This month marks the centennial of the establishment of the U.S. National Park system. To celebrate we’re presenting the premiere of Heart of the Wild: Colorado’s National Parks, a three-part series exploring the five national parks in that state. The documentaries air Thursdays at 9 p.m., April 7 through 21, and are the work of Chris Wheeler (The Natchez Trace Parkway, Civil War: The Untold Story); Kathy Mattea narrates. We’re also re-broadcasting Ken Burns’ National Parks: America’s Best Idea nightly April 25 through 30 (8 p.m. weeknights, 8:30 p.m. Saturday). The documentary series traces the development of the preservation movement and features breathtaking scenes of national parks.

New anthology series Reel South presents independent documentaries about the American South. The series airs Thursdays at 11 p.m., April 7 through 21, concluding with Bending Sticks, a survey of environmental artist Patrick Dougherty’s career. Dougherty uses locally sourced branches and vines to construct large-scale, site-specific sculptures such as Cheekwood’s Little Bitty Pretty One (spring 2014 to spring 2015).

On April 12, 10 Parks That Changed America goes outside to see how green spaces help balance the concrete and tension of city life. This episode includes stops in Savannah’s public squares, Memphis’ Overton Park, and New York’s recently developed High Line Park. The

We’re airing an art documentary double feature on Tuesday, April 5. At 11 p.m., Georgia O’Keeffe: A Woman on Paper, focuses on the time O’Keeffe spent as an art instructor at South Carolina’s Columbia College and the abstract charcoal drawings she created during the 1915–1916

10 Homes That Changed America. Chicago’s Marina City

THE MAKERS

Thanks to online curse generators, now we can all craft curses inspired by, if not wholly worthy of, William Shakespeare. Just in time for The Bard’s birthday and the 400th anniversary of his death, filmmakers work around his epitaph curse by using radar to investigate his grave. Tune in Tuesday, April 19, at 8 p.m. for Shakespeare’s Curse to see what they find inside. na Make a donation to NPT this spring and see what programs flower with your support. Simply go to www.wnpt.org and click the donate button. Encore presentations of many of our programs and other favorite shows air on NPT2, our secondary channel.

A Patrick Dougherty sculpture from Bending Sticks

Photograph by Zan Maddox

ROAD TRIP!

Photograph by Bill Richert

Take to the road with NPT this spring via programming that traverses the country highlighting inspiring places and people.

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Matthew Mead at The Rymer Gallery

Davis Griffin, Gabrielle Thompson at Blend Studio

Wen Chiou at The Rymer Gallery

ARTSEE

Alesandra Bellos, Joan Branca at Blend Studio

Dennis Suhn, Frank Luo at The Rymer Gallery

Christie Nuell at David Lusk Gallery

Devi Sanford shows off the mug she chose at Cups of Co-opportunity

Photograph by Lyndy Rutledge

Michael Burcham, Fred Dusel at The Arts Company

Photograph by Madge Franklin

Lizzy Meadow, Brady Diaz-Barriga, Elizabeth Bodalski at CG2

ARTSEE

Jonah Eller-Isaacs at Abrasive Media

Marie York, Leah Boorse at Tia Blanton ALT / ART Gallery

Mollye Brown, Beth Curley at The Arts Company

Photograph by Madge Franklin

ARTSEE

Beth Nielsen Chapman, Fred Dusel, Paul Polycarpou and Anne Brown at The Arts Company

Photograph by Madge Franklin

The Browsing Room Gallery

Photograph by Lyndy Rutledge

Nancy Brown, Devi Sanford, CoCo Bennett, Joseph McDaniel enjoy playing games at Cups of Co-opportunity

Kay Kennedy, Matt Kinney at Zeitgeist

At David Lusk Gallery

Scout Livingston, Rebecca Bodhaine at Andy Anh Ha Gallery

“Typebox” at Abrasive Media

Nora Canfield at Refinery Nashville

ARTSEE

PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN JACKSON

ARTSEE

Tia Blanton, Cassandra L. Anello, Hannah Pino at Tia Blanton ALT / ART Gallery

ARTSEE

Hal Cato, Wendi Powell and Suzy Newman at The Arts Company

At Seed Space (The Crappy Magic Experience with David Hellams and David King)

Blue Moves Dance Co. at Abrasive Media

Photograph by Madge Franklin

Christie Allen, Kristen Small at Refinery Nashville

At The Arts Company

At The Packing Plant

PopArtNASHVILLE Words and Photography by Eric L Hansen

N

ashville has reached Pop Art status. We’re as well known as Campbell’s Tomato Soup, or Marilyn Monroe, or Elvis. So, I made this project I call Pop Art Nashville; Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns inspire my palettes. I create lens-based images of Nashville’s skylines, and then I paint out the details in Pop Art colors.

I live in a loft on the top floor of a six-story building. There’s a view of downtown from one of my balconies, the one that faces Nissan Stadium. I’ve even joked about selling tickets to watch the Fourth of July fireworks from there. After four years of taking the skyline for granted, one day I actually saw it.

I’ve always believed that my job as an artist is first to “see” things that most people don’t. I feel responsible to make an image and put it where other people can see it. I think that’s the artist’s job, described by the cave painters 20,000 years ago at Lascaux and Chauvet.

I am not really a photographer. Maybe more like half photographer, half painter, and 100% artist. I began life drawing and painting. When I was 10, my grandmother gave me a camera. I loved the immediacy of image making with film, but then, I also loved the freedom to redefine my subjects in painting. I spent some years

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like the British artist David Hockney, trolleying back and forth between photography and painting; one for a while, then the other, then the one again. I usually make an entire project that will take me one or more years to complete. When that one is done, I’ll incubate for a while, then start the next.

And then there’s this amazing phenomenon where I live called Nashville. People generally move to a new city with a job offer. But Nashville?

People just move here because they want to be part of what’s happening.

Then they look for a job.

OK, now we’re famous. Not just in the United States, but all over the world.

Try to find someone who’s never heard of Nashville, or Campbell’s Tomato Soup, or Marilyn Monroe, or Elvis. Just try! na

Photograph by Heaven McArthur

For more information please visit www.ericlhansen.com.

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Glasses dilemma . . .

“Where’re my glasses?”

It’s embarrassing how many times I have asked that question.

Sometimes rhetorically. Sometimes urgently to anyone within earshot.

“Where’re my glasses!” I say, while holding them in my hand.

Or with them propped up on my head. Or hanging from the “V” of my T-shirt. Or, worst of all, while wearing them.

I can’t count the number of times I have dumped all the garbage out in the alleyway behind my house, looking for my glasses. Sometimes in the wee hours of the night. I’ll be out there with a flashlight rummaging through trash, hoping a neighbor doesn’t see me.

I’ve often wondered if, subconsciously, I lose my glasses on purpose just so I can experience the joy and gratitude I feel when I find them.

I once lost a pair of beloved retro, green reading glasses for two years. I’ll never forget the day I found them. I was out in the backyard cleaning out an ivy bed when I spied them down in the ivy. The lenses weren’t even scratched. I still wear those glasses to this day.

My relationship with expensive glasses has not been so fortunate. If I pay more than two hundred dollars for a pair of glasses, it’s a sure bet I will either lose them or break them beyond repair. I once paid over a thousand dollars for a pair of glasses with Varilux® lenses that darkened automatically when exposed to sunlight. I loved those glasses. Sadly, a month after purchase, I lost them somewhere in New Orleans.

My former husband was always trying to persuade me to wear those neck chain or leather cord glasses holders. But I just could not do it. The thought of wearing one of those things conjured up images of my second-grade teacher. Her name was Olga Larrimore, and she was older than Methuselah. My resistance most likely stemmed from fear that, if I wore them, I’d turn into Olga Larrimore—an old spinster with flaccid flesh for triceps that jiggled whenever she wrote on the blackboard.

So where are my glasses?

Well, right now, they’re siting on the bridge of my nose.

Otherwise, I couldn’t see to write this article. But who knows where they’ll be tomorrow. na Marshall Chapman is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter, author, and actress. For more information, visit www.tallgirl.com.

BEYONDWORDS

Photograph by Anthony Scarlati

BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN

MYFAVORITEPAINTING JOELLE PHILLIPS PRESIDENT | AT&T TENNESSEE

I

met Erin Jones Martin at Artclectic (University School’s yearly fundraising event) and immediately loved her.

Me (delighted to find a painting that was right up my alley): “Wow. What made you decide to paint a telephone pole?”

Erin (warm, but a little perplexed): “Hmmm. I thought I was painting a cloud.”

Joelle Phillips

Photograph by Jerry Atnip

I bought the Cloud-with-Telephone-Pole painting, and in the years since then, Brant and I have collected (and even commissioned) several paintings by Erin. This is my favorite—a portrait of Sophie and Charlotte, the two standard poodles we were lucky to have for many years.

Erin captured the texture of their coats. She chose two familiar poses that highlight the difference in their personalities. Most important, the painting evokes the calm that Sophie and Charlotte brought to our home.

For me, it expresses the particular feeling of peace that comes from true, abiding friendship. na

An enthusiast of art and a devotee of detail since childhood, Erin Jones Martin continuously brings a vivid imagination to her drawings and paintings. She received a classical foundation through her formal training with Connie Nelson and later studied at Murray State University. After working abroad in Rome and Florence, she received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with an emphasis in education and painting. Other teachers who have made an impact on her artistic career include Dawn Whitelaw, Michael Shane Neal, Quang Ho, Everett Raymond Kinstler, and Jeff Hein. Passionate about both art and teaching, she spent five years as an instructor of high school visual art and currently teaches workshops and private classes in the Nashville area. Jones holds a deep appreciation for the techniques of the traditional masters, from whom she draws inspiration while also providing a fresh, contemporary perspective. She is a member of the Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America, and The Chestnut Group. For more information on this artist and her work, visit www.erinjonesmartin.com.

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Sophie and Charlotte, 2009, Oil on linen, 26” x 19”

ARTIST BIO: Erin Jones Martin

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