Tommy EMMANUEL Kate KREBS John Paul KESLING Autumn DE FOREST Laura NUGENT
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SMILE Debuted Statewide in Nashville New and Minimally-invasive Surgery for Myopia (Nearsightedness) is First Major Advance in LASIK Technology in 25 Years, Reducing Dependence on Glasses and Contacts which causes the corneal shape to change, permanently changing the prescription. SMILE has a proven track record of success. It has been used internationally since 2011 and more than 750,000 procedures have been performed worldwide. Dr. Wang noted that currently, the procedure has not been approved to treat large amounts of astigmatism and cannot treat farsightedness and that LASIK is still a better option for a majority of the patients seeking laser vision correction.
The first major advance in LASIK technology in 25 years, the SMILE procedure, was performed in Nashville recently at Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center by its director, internationally renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Ming Wang, Harvard & MIYT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser physics). “We are extremely very excited to be the first again to introduce the next generation laser correction procedure to the state, helping out patients with this new and minimally invasive procedure,” said Dr. Wang. Myopia is a common eye condition in which close objects can be seen clearly but distant objects are blurry without correction. LASIK and PRK have been the main stay treatments for myopia for over two decades. But SMILE, which stands for SMall Incision Lenticule Extraction, has unique advantages over LASIK. The SMILE surgery is minimally invasive as the surgeon needs only to create a small, precise opening to correct vision. No flap is needed. The laser incision is smaller than 5 millimeters for SMILE, compared to approximately 20 millimeters for LASIK. This helps the cornea to retain more of its natural strength and reduces
the risk of rare flap complications. Dry eye after SMILE is also reduced compared with LASIK, as nerves responsible for tear production during the cornea remain more intact in SMILE. One of the state’s first SMILE patients was Margaret Coleman, 34, a manager of the world-famous Bluebird Café, in Nashville, which was prominently featured in the ABC TV drama Nashville, among others. Ms. Coleman has had poor eyesight all of her life, legally blind in both eyes without correction. Ms. Coleman’s 3D Laser SMILE procedure went beautifully and she is thrilled to have her crystal clear new vision and newly gained independence on glasses or contacts and being one of the first patients in the state to receive SMILE! “I am so happy!!!” exclaimed Margaret at her postop visit. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the VisuMax Femtosecond Laser for SMILE procedure for -1 to -8 D myopia with up to 0.5D astigmatism. During a SMILE procedure, a femtosecond laser with precise short pulses is used to make small incision in the cornea to create a discshaped piece of tissue. This tissue is then removed by the surgeon though the opening
Dr. Ming Wang, a Harvard & MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude), is the CEO of Aier-USA, Director of Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center and one of the few laser eye surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. He has performed over 55,000 procedures, including on over 4,000 doctors. Dr. Wang published 8 textbooks and a paper in the world-renowned journal Nature, holds several US patents and performed the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. He established a 501c(3) non-profit charity, Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, which to date has helped patients from more than 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge. Dr. Wang is the Kiwanis Nashvillian of the Year. Dr. Ming Wang can be reached at: Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center, 1801 West End Ave, Ste 1150 Nashville, TN 37203, 615-321-8881 drwang@wangvisioninstitute.com www.wangcataractLASIK.com
THE RYMER GALLERY Presents
For the Time Being by Kevin Palme
Also Showing
The Order of Things by Scott Eakin
Glass Sculptures by Travis Adams
July 1 – August 30, 2017 The Rymer Gallery / 233 Fifth Avenue / Nashville 37219 / 615.752.6030 / www.therymergallery.com
5 T H AV E N U E O F T H E A R T S DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE
PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP
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Columns HUNTER ARMISTEAD FYEye MARSHALL CHAPMAN Beyond Words ERICA CICCARONE Open Spaces 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
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 $6.65 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. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Call 615-383-0278 to order by phone with your credit card number.
CELEBRATING 11 YEARS
TIN NEY C ONT EMP OR ARY A N NUA L R ET ROS P EC T I VE July 15 - August 19, 2017 237 5th Ave N . Nashville 37219 . 615.255.7816 . tinneycontemporary.com
5 t h Av e n u e o f t h e A r t s Downtown nAshville
HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT
Featured Artist
E M I LY
A L L ISON
Artist Reception • August 4, 6-9pm
Papier-mâché and found objects
202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064
•
www.gallery202art.com
•
615-472-1134
arts
THE
COMPANY
INTRODUCES
TANK CHICKEN
10’ x 5.5‘ x 10’
Created by Tank 615 A professional artist collective “An interactive sculpture created to provide excitement, creativity, and large eggs to 5th Avenue of the Arts.”
COLLECTORS ART EXCHANGE OPENS AUGUST 5 & The Annual Avant-Garage Sale ©BROTHER MEL
©BROTHER MEL
Opens during First Saturday Art Crawl, August 5, 6:00-9:00pm
2 1 5 5 t h A v e o f t h e A r t s N . N as h v ille, TN 3 7 2 1 9 • 6 1 5 . 2 5 4 . 2 0 4 0 • th ear ts compan y.com
5 T H A V E N U E O F T HE ARTS • DOWNTOWN NASHV ILLE
On the Cover Carla Ciuffo
Wonderland, 2016 Fugi Crystal Archive Print facemounted to polished acrylic with floating museum backframe. Limited Editions and Original Artwork at Tinney Contemporary
August 2017 38
Features
69 The Four Corners of the Nashville Collage Collective
23 Nashville Creative Group The Lady in the Red Dress, Beth Inglish
76 Boundaries of Color Laura Nugent
26 Tyler Hildebrand The Retirement Party
82 Joe Montgomery Funky Good at LeQuire Gallery
30 Vicki Yates News Channel 5 Anchor/Reporter
86 Wearable Surfaces A Unique Collaboration Between Local Artists and Fashion Designers
30
93 Dean Shelton Dean Shelton Captures the Charm and Pristine Beauty of Rural Tennessee
93 42
32 Autumn de Forest 38 Women Painting Women: In Earnest Reconciling the Future of a Medium 42 Broken Mic John Paul Kesling at Galerie Tangerine 50 Tommy Emmanuel 54 Kate Krebs A Journey Toward the Divine
54
96 Becoming Themselves: we are not together yet Comes Together for Amelia Briggs
Columns 16 Crawl Guide 74 The Bookmark Hot Books and Cool Reads 75 Poet’s Corner
76
81 Sounding Off by Joseph E. Morgan 58 John Jackson Recreates Classics at New York’s PUBLIC Hotel 62 Musing about Muses Jewelry Designer Tony Perrin
62
90 As I See It by Mark W. Scala 100 Theatre by Jim Reyland 102 Art Smart by Rebecca Pierce 104 FYEye by Hunter Armistead 106 ArtSee 108 NPT 113 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman 114 My Favorite Painting
LAURA BAUGH 615.330.3051
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ANNANDALE WITH RESORT INSPIRED POOL
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Publisher’s Note
A Branch of Anne Daigh Landscape Architect, LLC
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
A Great City Deserves Great Art
Olen Bryant
Olen Bryant was a good man and a great artist. Humble to the nth degree, he would deflect praise much like Superman deflected bullets. It just wasn’t that important to him. The work is what mattered to Olen.
I spent the day with him at his modest home in Cottontown, Tennessee, and it was everything I expected and wanted the place to be. This is where an artist should live. The place was organized chaos in need of a serious spring cleaning, but I got the sense that was not high on Olen’s priority list. Art, however, was—and it was everywhere. Every corner of the house was brimming with half-completed pieces, sketches, ideas in progress, wood shavings, tools of the trade, old magazines piled high everywhere. You get the picture. Occasionally I stumbled across a finished sculpture that would take my breath away with its elegant simplicity and remind me why I was there and that I was in the company of a bona fide genius. After we talked and took photographs for our article, he took us to his favorite restaurant. You’d think Elvis had just shown up. People started whispering and pointing in our direction; waitresses came over for a hug; the owner came out and made sure we got the best table. Make no mistake—around town Olen was a big deal. But I don’t think that was high on his priority list either. I will miss Olen, his gracious manner, and his gentle demeanor. An artist in every sense of the word. Paul Polycarpou | Publisher
Broken Mic
J O H N PA U L K E S L I N G B o y z I I B o o t z | 2016 | 22 x 29 1/ 2 inches
O PE NI NG AU G U S T 3 , 6 - 9 P M Sh o wi n g through Oc tober 6 th
Galerie Tangerine is free + open by appointment Monday through Friday, 9 AM - 5 PM 615 454.4103 Located at 900 South Street, Suite 104
w w w.g a le r i etangeri ne.c om
280 White Bridge Pike, Nashville, TN 37209 615.356.9596 www.lumenlamps.com
BENNET T GALLERIES Featuring
CARYLON KILLEBREW
Ruedi Reservoir Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 48”
2104 Crestmoor Road in Green Hills, Nashville, TN 37215 Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30 to 5:30 • Sat 9:30 to 5:00 Phone: 615-297-3201 • www.bennettgalleriesnashville.com
exhibition is made to transform the space and give the viewer an experience of one installation containing multiple objects made out of materials that are unusual for sculpture but are common in everyday life.
Emily Allison, Gallery 202
Friday, August 4, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Take in the historical flavor of downtown Franklin while enjoying a variety of art shows. Gallery 202 is featuring artist Emily Allison, who works with papier-mâché and found objects. Scout’s Barbershop is hosting photographer Jon Dragonette. Painter and realtor Jamie Boyd is showing at Parks on Main. See abstract contemporary paintings by Emily Newman at Wellspring Financial. The Registry is presenting Mollie Jenkins’s functional pottery from dinnerware to dog bowls to lamps. Hope Church Franklin is showcasing art by Katrin Keiningham. See a variety of art by Brittany Tubbs at Finnleys. Williamson County Enrichment Center is exhibiting pen-and-ink sketches by Mike Krupek. For more information, visit www.downtownfranklintn.com/the-franklin-art-scene.
Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston Saturday, August 5, from 6 until 9 p.m.
First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown Saturday, August 5, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Landry Butler & robert bruce scott, Blend Studio
Eduardo Terranova, Tinney Contemporary
Lacy Mitcham, The Browsing Room Gallery
Experience an evening of art under the lights on 5th Avenue. The Arts Company is presenting Tank Chicken, an interactive sculpture created by Tank 615 Artist Collective Trey Gossett, Jason York, Sean Perdue, and Brian Somerville. In addition, the Annual Avant-Garage Sale and Collectors Art Exchange is slated to open. Tinney Contemporary is hosting a reception for Tinney Contemporary Annual Retrospective, an exhibition celebrating the gallery’s 11th anniversary, and includes works by gallery artists Jason Craighead, Jaq Belcher, Kuzana Ogg, Claire B. Cotts, Jane Braddock, Carla Ciuffo, Peri Schwartz, Kay Ruane, Eduardo Terranova, and James Perrin. The Rymer Gallery is showing Kevin Palme in the main gallery while continuing with work by Scott Eakin, Travis Adams, and Shane Miller throughout the rest of the gallery. The Browsing Room Gallery at the Downtown Presbyterian Church is unveiling No Wrong Way by Memphis artist Lacy Mitcham. The
From Hagen to Houston to Chestnut and beyond, Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston offers a broad range of artistic experience. David Lusk Gallery is hosting an opening reception for Tyler Hildebrand’s The Retirement Party (see page 26). Open Gallery is exhibiting Ephemera (In-Between) in which Sharyn Ashley Bachleda works with film photography prints in an experimental installation, bringing awareness of the role of the image in the 21st century. For the second installment of their SUMMER SERIES: House Guests, COOP Gallery is presenting You Can’t Make Love to Concrete curated by JE Baker from the H&R Block Artspace in Kansas City and featuring works by Marie Bannerot McInerney, Catalina Ouyang, and Bret Schneider. Channel to Channel is showing Feel Box work by Knoxville-based artist Zach Searcy. Zeitgeist is unveiling Wearable Surfaces, a collaboration with Fashion Happening Nashville that brings together seven local fashion designers and artists to work together on an original garment incorporating textiles created by the artists (see page 86). The annual
Kelly Ahrens, Julia Martin Gallery
Jean-Michael Vissepó, Fort Houston
Franklin Art Scene
Zach Searcy, Channel to Channel
Emily Newman, Wellspring Financial
In the historic Arcade, Blend Studio is opening Two Met a Four and They Had Six, a collective collaboration of collage and found art by Landry Butler and robert bruce scott. See work by emerging artists at “O” Gallery. For parking and trolley information, visit www.nashvilledowntown.com/play/first-saturday-art-crawl.
Scott Eakin, The Rymer Gallery
August Crawl Guide
East Side Art Stumble
Saturday, August 12, from 6 until 10 p.m. Take a drive down Gallatin Pike for the opening of we are not together yet, a solo exhibition by Amelia Briggs at Red Arrow
Boro Art Crawl
Friday, August 11, from 6 until 9 p.m.
The August Boro Art Crawl, which takes place on Murfreesboro City Square and environs downtown, features face painting and street-chalk art along with art from local and regional artists. Joseph Heckle’s collection of abstract impressionistic art, titled The Night That Awoke in the Joseph Heckle, Murfreesboro City Hall Rotunda Middle of Me, is on exhibit in the Murfreesboro City Hall Rotunda. Vibe Nutrition is featuring the work of Deborah Scott and Sally Wright. Mayday Brewery is showing art by Oliver Langston. Amelia’s Closet, Bella’s Boutique, Trendy Pieces, Center for the Arts, Concert Productions, Jimmy Fox Insurance, VNTG, Green Dragon, Two Tone Gallery, Murfreesboro Art League, Dreamingincolor, Sugaree’s, Quinn’s Mercantile, Funtiques, Let’s Make Wine, Simply Pure Sweets, The Boutique at Studio C Photography, and The Write Impression are hosting artists Beth Boudreaux, Suzanne LeBeau, Alexis Frost, Joyce Cummings, Karen Brackman, Dave Jackson, Sally Burk, Dan Sharley and more. For more information about the Boro Art Crawl, please visit www.boroartcrawl.com.
Sami Wideberg, The Box
summer group show, BEVY, including work by artists John Paul Kesling, Brett Douglas Hunter, Olivia Leigh Martin, Rebecca Blevins, Georganna Greene, Teresa Dunn, Ground Floor Gallery Clint Colburn, Kelly Ahrens, and Kevin Reilly, continues at Julia Martin Gallery. Ground Floor Gallery is holding an opening reception for BARED, an exhibition curated by Sally Deskins that features the work of selected artists from the book of the same name, including Kathy Crabbe, Courtney Kenny Porto, Libby Rowe, Stacy Howe, Teresa Dunn, Bonnie Gloris, Rosemary Meza-DesPlas, Susan Jamison, KA Letts, Susan Detroy, Florine Desmothene, Evelyn Katz, Suzanne Proulx, and more. Red Arrow Gallery is presenting Unvanished, a solo exhibition by Bethany Carlson, on view at East Side Project Space (ESPS) at The Packing Plant. Fort Houston reopens in its new location at 2020 Lindell with the exhibit Back’round (Back Around) by Puerto Rican artist Jean-Michael Vissepó. In this show Vissepó explores the feelings that arise when returning to a familiar and changed place through a series of crayon-based works on paper and canvas. For more information, please visit www.artsmusicweho.wordpress.com.
Kayla Burnett, Main Street Gallery
Kevin Reilly, Julia Martin Gallery
Gallery (see page 96). See new work by Sami Wideberg at The Box. Enjoy mixed-media paintings by Andrew Smith at Southern Grist Brewery. Art & Invention Gallery is exhibiting tomato-themed art by a variety of artists. Fond Object Gallery is showcasing the handmade workings of Earthwhile Collective, an art and natural science duo whose mission is to stimulate creativity and environmental awareness through the use of found objects and discarded materials. Celebrate sustainability with the staff, board, Opportunity Now interns, and teaching artists of Turnip Green Creative Reuse in their collaborative showcase Reuse Revival. Through an array of styles, techniques, and reused materials, the show uniquely represents Turnip Green’s mission of fostering creativity and sustainability through reuse. Main Street Gallery is hosting Southern Discomfort, a pop-up show by upcycle artists Kayla Burnett, Ian Cooper, Meghan Kreger, Angel Paday, Erin Potter, Kara Stallings, and Kiana Webb. Also included in this event are video projections, light installations, and DIY art party favors from Turnip Green Creative Reuse. For updates, please visit www.eastsideartstumble.com.
Germantown Art Crawl
Saturday, August 19, from 6 until 9 p.m. Tour the non-traditional art spaces of Germantown to see an array of artworks by a variety of artists. As you make your way through the neighborhood, stop at these key art spots: 100 Taylor Arts Collective, Abednego, Wilder, Bits & Pieces, Bearded Iris Brewing, and Alexis & Bolt.
Jefferson Street Art Crawl
Saturday, August 26, from 6 until 9 p.m. Woodcuts Gallery and Framing is exhibiting paintings and limited-edition prints by William Buffet, which include new work and selections from his images of musicians and tropical subjects. One Drop Ink is showing work by Megan Kelley. Garden Brunch Café, and The Loft at Ella Jean’s Café are also participating. Stay posted on event details at Facebook.com/jsactn.
William Buffett, Woodcuts Gallery and Framing
Hip and Homegrown |
by Bob Paxman
August 11–12
Photography by Tomato Art Fest / Solar Cabin Studios
Historic Five Points
Tomato Art Fest
Tomatoes put the tang in your salsa, the kick in your burger, and the figurative blood in the Bloody Mary. But as much as we savor the versatile tomato, it remains a largely uncelebrated fruit, except for one wacky weekend in Nashville each year. Since 2004, the Tomato Art Fest in the historic Five Points section of East Nashville has paid homage to the tomato with a bountiful variety of activities, ranging from tomato-inspired costume contests to bike decorating, live entertainment, and even a colorful parade. From the inaugural event the Tomato Art Fest has grown into a huge and nationally renowned phenomenon. Last year, it was estimated that more than 55,000 folks took in the two-day festival. Thirteen years ago, such lofty aspirations never entered the minds of the festival’s founders, artists Meg and Bret MacFadyen, co-owners of Art & Invention Gallery in East Nashville. The Gallery hosts nearly 300 pieces of tomato-themed art throughout the weekend. “It started as an art show,” recalls Meg MacFadyen. “It was a one-time wonder as far as I was concerned. But it really evolved.”
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tomato-inspired, and about 1,000 people came to the art show,” MacFadyen says with a smile. “A lot of people had on costumes. I don’t know why but they did. We also thought it would be fun to do a recipe contest, and we got something like 65 entries, which was amazing. It just kind of very slowly grew. Every year, it’s gotten bigger and more fun.”
The light bulb in her head went off one summer as she sat inside the gallery, which held in the hot seasonal air all too well. MacFadyen says, “This whole series of conversations happened that made me go, I think I’m going to do a tomato art show. You know, tomatoes love the heat, and to me they are the best part of summer. The show was not done as a joke but more tongue-incheek.”
New for 2017 are the Cooking Stage, featuring some of the area’s top chefs, and the Woodland Stage, presented by Basement East. “Another fun thing,” says MacFadyen, “is on Friday night, we’re going for the world record for people dressed as fruits and vegetables. My favorite part, though, is always the parade. When they get to Five Points, it almost makes me cry because there is this sea of people in costumes and you know they’ve been working on them for weeks. They’re having such a great time. You can truly feel the joy.”
The hip artistic community of East Nashville immediately ran with the concept. “I got artists to do a piece of art that was
To find out more about the Tomato Art Fest, please visit www.tomatoartfest.com.
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SUMMER EXHIBITIONS
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CREATING SOLUTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS 2100 WEST END AVENUE
E LROSELAW@ROSEIMMIGRATION.COM
NASHVILLE, TN 37203
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PHOTOGRAPHY John Partipilo
Five years later, the small group of creatives has grown to over 6,000 members. At the heart of it is the lady in the red dress, Beth Inglish.
WORDS Amanda Dobra Hope
Nashville Creative Group
I
t’s been said that an artist thinks outside the box. While this is true, an evolutionary takes this even further. A rising powerhouse in the Nashville community and creative arts scene, Nashville Creative Group founder Beth Inglish is both an artist and an evolutionary. Currently celebrating its fifth year, the group she has lovingly nurtured has grown from a few artists and creative types meeting at a local establishment to something that has never
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
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“
Inglish is proving that putting your heart and soul into building a community, continually answering the needs of its members, and looking out for the best interests of the whole is the way of the future.
Brandon Jackson shares his latest series of classic Hollywood portraits
before existed and other cities are looking to for inspiration. “We have something in this city that no one else has in the world. We’re setting an example of how all artist communities can be,” Inglish gushes. The Nashville Creative Group was born from Inglish’s own desire for an artist family to connect and collaborate with. NCG’s now almost 6,000-member Facebook group and monthly meet-up are proof that others share in her hunger for community. When asked repeatedly how she stays committed to growing and nurturing this totally free resource she exclaims, “I needed creatives in my life as much as I needed air to breathe. This community is the result of my desires.” The evolution of the group has taken an organic approach, as Inglish continually commits to asking members what they would like the group to be. She explains that in many other groups and programs, content is being created without asking the participants for input and is not necessarily answering their needs. She also cites consistency of content as a key to helping people identify the group and understand what’s going on. “Program consistency and frequency help with being memorable,” she notes. Nashville Creative Group’s programming began with informal gatherings, evolved into
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Michael Ray Nott talks about his street photography
guest speakers and lecturers, and is currently thriving in a show-and-tell format. “Show-and-tells are good; people share,” she adds. By continually asking and answering the needs of its members for the last five years, the group has become a thriving hub of deep personal bonds and support, as well as a powerful networking tool for its members. “It’s always been about solving the problems for creators,” she says. “Hearing success stories, not just thinking we’re stuck in the mud.” So what are people gaining from this group, and why does it continue to grow so rapidly? Roy Laws, a long-time member, had this to say about his desire for community and how that need was answered when he found NCG: “I had found a group of people who I could share ideas with and learn from, as well as to become connected to people in the Nashville community who could help me along my path. I believe an organization like NCG is like a checking account—the more you put into it, the more you can draw from it, and I’ve done both.” New member Brandon Jackson says, “I recently attended one of the inperson meetings, a show-and-tell, to share and talk about some of my photography work. My work and words were greeted with a wonderful warmth and respect from the other participants, and I can’t wait to do it again. This is how communities get built and grow, and we have Beth to thank for getting this ball rolling.”
Jen Brown, Ted Nunes, Jade Michel, and Beth Inglish gather around while Jon Stone explains his process of creating textured backgrounds
As it celebrates its fifth anniversary, what does Inglish see in the future for the NCG? Does she want to capitalize on her community-building success and monetize the group from within? Is she going to start charging a membership fee for the valuable service she is providing? “I’m not in a hurry to make this what it doesn’t need to be,” she says. “This is my family . . . the last thing I want to do is see it fall apart because I was trying to get something from it. The pool of our creative talent is worth something, and the money doesn’t have to come from the artists. I want to take Nashville’s talent global. This is such an exciting time. So many people are moving here. We need to stop thinking locally and think globally. This is bigger than me. What matters most to me is the well-being of all of us.”
Beth Inglish discusses her latest artwork and process during a show-and-tell event
With that attitude and a forward-thinking mindset, Inglish is proving that putting your heart and soul into building a community, continually answering the needs of its members, and looking out for the best interests of the whole is the way of the future. When I asked Beth if she considered herself an evolutionary, she asked me exactly what I meant by that. “A person who follows their heart and intuition and continues to do so no matter what anyone around them says, building the new while refusing to just surrender to the way it’s always been done just for the sake of doing it that way,” I said. “Oh, well then . . . Yes!” she exclaimed. na The Nashville Creative Group will celebrate their five-year anniversary on Monday, August 14, from 7 until 9 p.m. at White Avenue Studio. To register visit ncg5.eventbrite.com.
Tina Gionis speaks about her series of composite photographs
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Fresh Paint
Tyler Hildebrand The Retirement Party David Lusk Gallery
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August 1–26
WORDS Tyler Hildebrand
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he Retirement Party, showing at David Lusk Gallery, is a compilation of work completed over the last two years. I started the work while living in Nashville, continued it during a yearlong residency in Baltimore, and finished it after moving back to my hometown of Cincinnati. The ideas behind the work have evolved over the span of political climates, environments, and influences. It’s interesting how much can happen in two years. I see this show as a retirement of ideas and a retirement from my career as a working artist. I’ve always been an artist; from a young age I loved to draw. My grandma was an art teacher; she was very good, and I used to sit and watch her paint and experiment. As a kid I would draw teenage mutant ninja turtles and recreations of civil war scenes and the battle of the Alamo. Not long ago my mom opened a big old Tupperware container with all of these drawings. I hadn’t seen them in years, and I was shocked at how little my content and style had changed.
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Waymore 13, 2017, Mixed media on canvas, 24” x 30”
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Big Boy 2, 2017, Mixed media on canvas, 72” x 96”
Big Boy 3, 2017, Mixed media on canvas, 72” x 96”
Big Boy 5, 2017, Mixed media on canvas, 72” x 96”
Waymore 10, 2017, Mixed media on canvas, 24” x 30”
I’ve been out of grad school for a few years now, and through my education I’ve learned all different techniques and mediums. I’ve made art about all the bullshit that you learn in grad school, the philosophers and Marx stuff that no one cares about when you graduate. When it’s all said and done, with no advisors or teachers left in your ear, you go back to who you are, the basics of what you like and what you want to do. Most of my work is autobiographical in some sense, which is mostly just interesting to me. Out of the 60 or so pieces in the show, each piece could come from a totally different place. I remember finding my first few gray hairs, so for a couple of months my work reflected that whiny anxiety of getting old. I’ve since found more hairs and no longer do art about that. About a year ago there was someone I was Waymore 20, 2017, Mixed media on canvas, 24” x 30”
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Waymore 24, 2017, Mixed media on canvas, 24” x 30”
angry with—I thought about slashing their tires but did a painting instead. So that’s in there. When you look at the work as a whole body, which is how it should be viewed, it sort of becomes an absurd caricature of this masculine white guy mentality. Maybe poking fun at myself and poking fun at the strange state of where we are as a country. I stay away from political-based works even though it is very current. It’s a saturated market and seems like low-hanging fruit, though it’s almost impossible not to let it seep in there somehow.
Everything flashed before my eyes. I thought, crap—what have I got myself into? In art, I’ve heard the term brave used plenty of times in situations similar to rubbing pudding on yourself. I often think of my father-in-law who had his jugular sliced in Vietnam from shrapnel off of an exploding helicopter. Being an artist, I’ve been to plenty of critiques and classes and shows like that, and I’ve participated as well. But on that particular day for some reason, that began the end for me.
I remember being invited to be a guest critic for a graduate program at a big university out east. The school was impressive. I walked through the halls past the engineering department, looked in through the doors, and watched them working on these incredible machines, things that seemed like they could change how we actually live. Very tangible stuff. Then I went to the art critique where a girl rubbed pudding all over herself and the walls and talked about how it was referencing the oppression of people in a country she had never been to. The other members on the panel told her how brave she was.
It’s been fun. David Lusk has been great, letting me show my weird art however I want to show it. I love to make movies, but that’s expensive. I may start painting flowers or do a children’s book. In the meantime, I like my 9-to-5 job and the routine that comes with that. I am going to paint my house and work on my gutters. na Tyler Hildebrand’s exhibit, The Retirement Party, is on view August 1 through 26 at David Lusk Gallery. An opening reception is slated for August 5 from 5 until 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.davidluskgallery.com. See more of Hildebrand’s work at www.tylerhildebrandart.com.
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I’ve never understood why so many women have a problem with the word feminist. Who wouldn’t want a woman to have the same rights that men have.
Vicki Yates
News Channel 5 Anchor/Reporter
For the past twenty-seven years, Vicki Yates has been keeping us in the loop about what is going on in our town … the good, the bad, and the ugly. She has seen Nashville morph from the nation's best-kept secret to one of its fastest growing cities. We checked in with her to find out what condition our condition is in.
WORDS Paul Polycarpou PHOTOGRAPH Jerry Atnip
What brought you to Nashville? I was offered the job at News Channel 5 twenty-seven years ago. I was in Pittsburgh at KDKA prior to this. Turned out to be a good move. So what keeps you here? I love Nashville. I didn’t think I would when I first got here. Back then the city’s image was all country music and Hee Haw, but in reality it was a lot more cosmopolitan than that. Nowhere near where it is today though. How do you feel about the incredible growth Nashville is experiencing right now? I like it but I don’t. I almost want to go to the edges of the city and shout out, “Ok, we’re full, no more please!” It’s changing things very quickly. Change is good, but there are some things you just don’t want to lose in a city. That’s what I worry about. Nashville was always a great secret. It’s not a secret anymore. If you were the mayor with a magic wand, what changes would you make? Gentrification is a big problem for me. When old neighborhoods are leveled and everybody is forced out and three houses are put up where there used to be only one, that just changes the whole landscape. So I would keep an eye on all the development. And I don’t understand why all the apartments and condos look alike. Every single one looks like it was done by the same architect. Surely someone somewhere has a new idea.
What was the last great book you read? I just finished A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. An inspirational read. What talent would you most like to have? I’d like to be musical. Play an instrument. What’s a treasured possession? A charm bracelet left to me by my mother. What’s your greatest extravagance? I like to travel, and I like to buy shoes. I can’t resist them. Are you a night owl or a morning person? Definitely a morning person. I like to get going in the morning, get things done. What are you really good at? I’m a very good listener. People seem to open up to me. I think I would have been a good therapist. And what are you bad at? I’m at a point in my life where I don’t suffer fools gladly. I don’t have a lot of patience with small-minded people. What is your greatest fear? That I’ll have to depend physically on someone other than myself as I get older.
What’s a great night out for you? Going to TPAC and seeing a really good play.
What is the one thing you’d like to change about yourself? I’d like to be disciplined when it comes to my creative writing.
Do you have a favorite restaurant? Oh my, there are so many new ones. I like City House, but there are several others.
What’s your greatest regret? That I didn’t interview my grandparents about our family history.
Who is a hero to you? My sister, Michele Yates. She’s extremely creative and intelligent. And although we sometimes disagree . . . we’re each other’s biggest cheerleaders. When I was a little girl, I swore she hung the moon.
What’s the hardest part of what you do? Meeting people with sad stories who I can’t help.
What’s a favorite word? Kerfuffle, not to be confused with covfefe.
Are you a feminist? Without a doubt. I’ve never understood why so many women have a problem with the word feminist. Who wouldn’t want a woman to have the same rights that men have? na
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Autumn de Forest Her paintings regularly sell in the range that would make most mid-career artists a little green with envy. She has appeared on countless television programs around the world, with the Discovery Channel proclaiming her an “artistic genius.” Not bad for a sixteen-year-old. Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center, Hendersonville August 5 through October 1
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Silver Skull, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 30 “ x 24 “
Silver Horse (Metal), 2015, Acrylic painting on metal mounted to canvas, 20“ x 40” Gold Barbie Marilyn Ver. II #1, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 40“ x 19“
WORDS Leigh R. Hendry
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romising teenage painting prodigy Autumn de Forest received her innate creativity “honest,” to paraphrase an old Southern aphorism. Descended from a distinguished though lesser-known American artistic dynasty (perhaps not as heralded as the storied Wyeth family of American artists, though some might argue equally accomplished), the almost-16-year-old Las Vegas painter could be characterized as a modern-day embodiment of the ancestors who preceded her. De Forest, who has been painting since she was five, has already reached milestones that other artists dream of achieving at any age. For example, two years ago she received the Vatican-sponsored International Giuseppe Sciacca Award given annually to an outstanding artist or scholar age 35 and under, and had an audience with Pope Francis, where she presented one of her paintings. At the other end of the achievement spectrum, she has collaborated with American shoe manufacturer Converse to produce a graphic design for the company’s Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers, which sold out at nationwide retailer Nordstrom. Clearly, there’s no grass growing under the high-tops of this young lady, who often describes herself as a “roller coaster that only goes up.”
This Is Not a Rose, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 24‘’ x 18‘’
De Forest’s artistically inclined heritage includes two great-great-uncles and two cousins, respectively: Lockwood de Forest (1850–1932), notable Luminist landscape painter, interior designer, and Tiffany Glass Company partner; Robert Weeks de Forest (1848–1931), lawyer to John D. Rockefeller and president of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, who envisioned the institution’s American Wing and oversaw its 1924 opening; painter and sculptor Roy de Forest (1931–2007), a prominent member of the California Expressionist school, best known for his eyepoppingly bright canvases brimming with dogs accompanied by other fantastical creatures; and George de Forest Brush (1855–1941), a medal-winning Western school painter in the style of Frederic Remington, whose striking oils of Plains Indians reportedly influenced American illustrator N.C. Wyeth. Brush, by virtue of his birth in Shelbyville, Tennessee, just 57 miles southeast of Davidson County, is also the ancestor who provides de Forest with a slightly obscure, yet interesting, connection to the Volunteer State. With no formal art training, only the considerable creative inheritance of her significant forebears echoing through her mind and a dearth of self-education and study, de Forest has spent the past decade diligently producing an already substantial body of work. Like many artists, she craves visits to museums where she can soak up the techniques and subject matter incorporated in the works of others,
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Drive, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 30“ x 38“
which sometimes serve as a starting point for her own paintings. Her subject matter oscillates between color-filled, abstract canvases and more representational pieces, and she occasionally merges both styles simultaneously into a single work. Visitors to de Forest’s solo exhibition at the historic Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center in Hendersonville will have an opportunity to view more than 65 of her paintings, all completed during the past four years. When she’s not traveling (she maintains an extensive schedule of events, philanthropic commitments, and personal appearances which keep her on the go), de Forest says she is always eager to get into her studio on a daily basis, often as early as 7 a.m., where she paints about six hours each day in one- to two-hour bursts of creativity. Her preferred acrylic paint brand, Golden Artist Colors, offers paints with a high-quality, enviable creamy consistency, as well as a vast range of gesso and gel products that she utilizes to bring added interest, texture, dimension, and depth to her canvases. She says that her work continues to evolve and change, specifically noting that her color palette has advanced from the “girly, Barbie-like” color range she favored earlier in her
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career to a more Pop Art-influenced palette, reminiscent of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and reflected in her most recent paintings. Her 2015 acrylic on canvas Gold Barbie Marilyn Ver. II #1, an homage to the ultimate trinity of “branded” American idols—Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, and Mattel, Inc.’s fashion doll, Barbie—is memorable not only for its fusion of fame subject matter, but also for its extreme vertical format of 40” high by just 19” wide. De Forest says she counts the early work of German visual artist Gerhard Richter, known for his non-adherence to any singular painting style, and anonymous British-based graffiti artist and political activist Banksy among her two strongest artistic influences right now. She is clearly attuned to current world events, which is evident during her conversation with Nashville Arts, as she discusses the appearance of social commentary as an emerging aspect in some of her latest works. Like artists throughout the ages, de Forest said she firmly believes that “tolerance and acceptance in the world at large can be altered through visual imagery and ideas.” She is also deeply intrigued by the subject of psychology, particularly the esoteric perceptual phenomenon of
Blue Coral (Liquid), 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 30“ x 30“
Colorblind, 2017, Acrylic painting on wood, 24 ‘’ x 24‘’
Hi Tops, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 11’’ x 11’’
Blue Coral Ver. IV #2, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
synesthesia (in one variation of the condition some individuals perceive numbers and letters as colored), which figures prominently in Color Blind, one of the standouts from her forthcoming Tennessee exhibition. In the work entitled Drive, de Forest says she intended it to reference the physical act of operating an automobile, as well as the motivational desire necessary for accomplishment in one’s life. Among the highlights of her young career thus far (meeting the Pope notwithstanding), de Forest cites her solo exhibition at the Youngstown [Ohio] Butler Institute of
American Art as a seminal moment. There’s a distinct note of girlish wonderment in her voice, especially for one so preternaturally mature, as she recalls what Dr. Louis A. Zona, Executive Director of the Butler, said when her show opened there last year: “You are the future of American art.” So it seems that the de Forest family legacy will endure for yet another generation to come. na Her White Room: The Art of Autumn de Forest is on view August 5 through October 1 at Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center in Hendersonville. The artist will be present for the opening reception from 6 until 9 p.m. on August 5. For more information, visit www.hendersonvillearts.org and www.autumndeforest.com.
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We are trying to promote the work of contemporary living female artists that primarily paint the female form and, specifically, not in a sexualized mode.
Terry Strickland, The Seamstress, 2013, Oil, 39” x 32”
Carmen Mansilla, Proceso De Un Cuadro (A Painting in Process), Oil on linen and charcoal on paper, 36” x 26”
Women Painting Women: In Earnest Reconciling the Future of a Medium Customs House Museum
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August 4–October 1
WORDS Audrey Molloy
A
t the back of the bar hangs an expansive gold-framed mirror. Its surface illuminates an indelible assortment of colored-glass bottles that have crowded at its edge. In its reflection, the gaze of a young woman seated alone at the bar is revealed. She sits with her back to us, hand poised mid-gesture above a drawing, her gaze considering at once both her own visage and her irrevocable encounter with us, the viewers. The painting, The Purity of Imagination and Color (2014) by Leslie Adams, is one of forty paintings featured in the premiere exhibition of Women Painting Women: In Earnest at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, August 4 through October 1. Curated by Alia El-Bermani in association with Diane Feissel, Co-Founders and Curators of Women Painting Women, and Terri Jordan, Curator of Exhibits at the Customs House, the exhibition features the work of thirty current female artists whose provocations on the tradition of the medium are specific to the experiential and emotional veracity of contemporary women, as artists and immanent subjects. “Women have been painted since paintings have been made—from cave paintings forward women have appeared as major subjects in Western art history, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve seen a very broad representation of what women are,” said El-Bermani. “It’s been primarily women as object of desire—and we’re so much more than that.” How does she envision herself? This is the latent inquiry posited by Adams’s reflective portrait of the young woman seated at the bar. Can a contemporary portrait of woman be
exacted bereft of its original convention? It is a compelling question which has guided, and implicitly been answered by, over a dozen international exhibitions of Women Painting Women since its inception in 2009. Manifest as a matter of discourse between founders and painters Sadie Jernigan Valeri, Alia El-Bermani, and Diane Feissel following their encounter with a Sotheby’s auction and exhibition entitled Women in Art, but which did not include a single female artist, their conversation has continued to facilitate a contemporary imaging of women through art as social practice, curatorial-conceptual methodology, and a blog of the same name. “We are trying to promote the work of contemporary living female artists that primarily paint the female form and, specifically, not in a sexualized mode,” said El-Bermani. “How do women see themselves, not just through the male gaze? It’s beyond just our sexuality and our sexual availableness.” In the current socio-political climate wherein delineations on gender can be increasingly complex, and connoted with extremist typecasts of any overarching inclination, there is a certain stigma that can be associated when an exhibition specifies itself through gender. It is a systemic inclination to assume an exhibition of women artists is, or
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Leslie Adams, The Purity of Imagination and Color, 2014, Oil, 40” x 40”
Lea Colie Wight, Carol, Oil on linen, 46” x 26”
Aleah Chapin, Auntie, Oil on canvas, 58” x 38”
Karen Offutt, From the Shadows, 2014, Oil, 15” x 12”
Ali Cavanaugh, Effect, 2015, Modern fresco, 16” x 20”
should be, overtly yonic or subjectively concerned with gender. However, El-Bermani is acutely aware of this— perhaps because it is a social condition not dissimilar from the historicized role of the woman as subject. She says, “By saying “women painting women” we’re not only saying that the subject is women, but that the painting itself is important, the work. It creates more of a thematic than a gendered exhibition.” Following nearly a decade of Women Painting Women, the premiere of In Earnest at the Customs House Museum denotes a marked—and somewhat politically fortuitous— acceleration of its intent. Where previous exhibitions had been curated primarily by hosting galleries, and as such, ostensibly concerned with “sellable” artworks, In Earnest is the culmination of curatorial efforts by El-Bermani and Feissel which began nearly three years ago. A compelling and masterful exhibition of contemporary painting, this show is a fervent display of works whose content has been considered exclusively for its subjective intent, not its potential commercial viability. “In Women Painting Women: In Earnest, we wanted to show works that have deeper content, that are coming from the heart of the artist,” said El-Bermani. “Sometimes those ideas and feelings can be kind of harsh and not pretty and not
easily sellable. But as soon as you take that price tag off a work, you can say so much more—it just gives the artist more freedom.” Demonstrably, a number of the works on exhibit are on loan from private collections, but a majority of the paintings are for sale. In this regard, In Earnest proffers viewers a unique opportunity to consider high-caliber works by a diverse group of contemporary female painters disparate from commercial oversight. Situationally politicized by current events and marketspecific tendencies, Women Painting Women: In Earnest is an inspiriting and unadulterated exhibition of precisely what it has defined itself to represent. It is an evocative reconciling for the future of a medium unburdened by gender, market, or opportunity, and whose import is underscored by the prodigiously talented artists it represents. Following its premiere at the Customs House Museum (August 4 through October 1), Women Painting Women will travel to the J. Wayne Stark Galleries at Texas A&M, where it will be on exhibit through the end of the year. na
For more information, visit www.customshousemuseum.org and www.womenpaintingwomen.blogspot.com.
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Broken Mic John Paul Kesling at Galerie Tangerine August 3–October 6
WORDS Noah Saterstrom PHOTOGRAPHY Rob Lindsay I go out to John Paul Kesling’s studio in Madison for a chat about his exhibition at Galerie Tangerine. It is hot in here. There are many holes in the roomy shed where he paints, but fortunately none in the roof, so the summer downpour stays outside the open door. There are a few wasps in the rafters, and he says medium-size rodents can easily come and go at night. In other words, it’s perfect for him. Especially after his most recent studio—a tiny, windowless room on the seventh floor of a Brooklyn walk-up.
Hidden King, 2016, Oil and pencil on canvas, 48” x 48”
There is a large unstretched canvas stapled to his painting wall, and at a glance it’s clear the spacious image has been through a lot. In the foreground are parts of figures; in the background—or what the mind sees as such—remain indications of distant landscapes. The elements are disjointed but in some kind of discussion with one another. The white paint is (as Timothy Hyman wrote of James Ensor) “independent of any descriptive function.” Instead it works as an editing tool, painting out and carving in space for future revisions. Looking around the studio, I take in the works on paper, portfolios of drawings, canvases, and wood panels. Scavenged materials, and a genuinely unassuming nature, give Kesling’s work a scrappy, unprecious air. The humility in his work makes it easier to forgive any bewilderment I feel as I search for a handhold. What am I meant to make of these images, these figures and spaces? It is as if I am watching something attempting to come into being, but not ever fully
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making it. It is both frustrating and satisfying. Unresolved. This is neither necessarily criticism or praise. Kesling’s brushwork has some of the brutish, visionary quality of Outsider Art. I think, what does that mean: “visionary”? Am I trying to attach a spiritualism to his work to help navigate paintings that I don’t quickly apprehend? Where is Carl Jung when you need him? Within the medium is the impression of myth, or narrative, but very few cues. Painting is, in itself, a misty undertaking—but some painters embrace the fog more than others. When pushed, I think of “the visionary” as decisive, with an eye to the divine. Kesling, however, takes on indecision as a virtue. “I’ll come inside after working for hours and my girlfriend will say ‘how’s it going out there?’ and I’ll say … I don’t know.” A large painting may have had many great parts, but as he paints, they might whittle down to one small area that works. The next time he goes in, he
might paint that out; hopefully something else happens. Faith is a requirement. Kesling might have, say, four paintings going at once, and he remarks, without a hint of exhaustion, that if one of them ends up working, that’s pretty good. That math means he needs to paint a lot, and he has the look of someone who does—distracted, determined, with the willingness to work on a painting for weeks, then paint over it with minimal hesitation.
Hula, 2014, Acrylic, pastel, spray paint, conte, paper, and ink on birch, 36” x 48”
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Is there a difference between failure and defeat in the painting studio? Does failure make you want to keep painting, while defeat makes you want to quit forever?
Is there a difference between failure and defeat in the painting studio? Does failure make you want to keep painting, while defeat makes you want to quit forever? Kesling says it’s all about decisions. The images propagate, one to another, and it is dumb luck whether or not an image succeeds. Dealing so directly with uncertainty is anxiety-inducing, a test of any artist’s will, and it is quite possibly this uncertainty, more than technical insecurity, that poses the greatest deterrent to painting at all. Kesling insists on figures but resists specificity; his references are too cooked to retain their origins. Figures often emerge from the paint, like faces you see in clouds. There is a subsect of figurative painters (Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, Katherine Bradford among many others) whose bloodline runs loosely through to Philip Guston, James Ensor, Max Beckmann, and then further back to Goya, Giotto. Their figures are descended from the viscera and mortality of the Middle Ages, rather than the virtue and vitality of the Renaissance, replete with the Northern European tendency toward the grotesque, the grim, the silly. Yet these profane aspects of human experience do not preclude beauty and humor. Kesling points at a painting and says, “Someone just referred to that as scary . . . I think it may be the most joyful painting I’ve made.” But I, too, at least at this moment, think it’s frightening. Writing on the psychodrama in Ken Kiff’s paintings, Tom Lubbock quoted Kiff as saying: “The hill was yellow now. But if it stayed yellow, it might not stay a hill; and if it stayed a hill, it might not stay yellow.” Kiff had written elsewhere that the “unknown” in painting is devastating, if you really take it on. Painters notoriously take this on. I think of Peter Doig “constantly wrestling with his doubts,”
Thought, 2013, Oil, acrylic, and pencil on canvas, 30” x 30”
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Happy Birthdays, 2014, Oil on canvas, 18” x 24”
of Amy Sillman averring, “You have to have a doubt sandwich. If you have the doubt at the front, you won’t do it, and if you have doubt at the end you’re probably going to kill yourself.” I feel in this a voluntary derangement of reason, estrangement from fixed determinations of success and failure. I say as a painter that we, many of us, mostly bring it on—we take it on—ourselves. But Kesling also keeps it light. He listens to a lot of comedy podcasts, sometimes while he paints. “For me, the rhythm of comedy and improv keeps painting playful and fun. If a joke or reference is there, let it happen. If a callback to another work fits, stick it in there. Paint is fluid and so are ideas and conversations.” Then there are titles, he says. “Titles are tricky. If you make them too silly, you risk sincerity. It’s similar to finding the perfect balance in an entertaining yet thoughtful best-man speech.” I’m left standing in the shed, wondering if that is why Kesling’s show at Galerie Tangerine is called Broken Mic. na John Paul Kesling’s exhibit Broken Mic opens with a reception on Thursday, August 3, from 6 until 9 p.m. at Galerie Tangerine and remains on view until October 6. For more information, visit www.galerietangerine.com. See more of Kesling’s work at www.johnpaulkesling.com.
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3624 Westbrook Ave.
3622 Meadowbrook Ave.
HISTORIC RICHLAND-WEST END 3 BED | 3 BATH | $980,000
HISTORIC RICHLAND-WEST END 4 BED | 3 BATH | $849,000
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
1112 Yorkville Belle Ct.
311 Wandering Circle
FAIRVIEW PLANTATION 4 BED | 4 BATH | $799,900
AVALON | OVERSIZED LOT 4 BED | 3.5 BATH | $559,000
ACTIVE
ACTIVE
401 Bowling Ave. #57
405 General George Patton
RICHMEADE 3 BED | 2 BATH | $385,000
RIVER PLANTATION 3 BED | 2.5 BATH | $1,800/MONTH
ACTIVE
FOR LEASE
6716 Rodney Court
805 Davidson Dr.
WEST MEADE 4 BED | 3 BATH | $457,000
WEST MEADE ESTATES 4 BED | 3 BATH | $515,000
UNDER CONTRACT
SOLD Allen DeCuyper allen@parksathome.com • 615.300.5971
TNLIC # 257474
Leah London
4025 Hillsboro Pike, Ste 601 Nashville, TN 37215 615.383.6600
leah@parksathome.com • 615.478.6333 The DeCuyper Team
TNLIC # 330569
Todd Gash todd@parksathome.com • 615.491.4124
TNLIC #336731
FILL YOUR SUMMER WITH CONTEMPORARY ART.
Looking for something to do this summer that’s fresher than squeezed lemonade? Come to the Frist to see amazing contemporary art now on display.
STATE OF THE ART
VADIS TURNER
Through September 10
Through September 10
Organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas
Organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts
DISCOVERING AMERICAN ART NOW
Platinum Sponsor
TEMPEST
DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE 919 BROADWAY NASHVILLE, TN 37203 FRISTCENTER.ORG
ANCESTRAL MODERN
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL ART FROM THE KAPLAN & LEVI COLLECTION Through October 15 Organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Seattle Art Museum
Contributing Sponsor
Hospitality Sponsor
Supported in part by
From Vadis Turner: Vadis Turner. Underwater Encounter with a Burning Tree, 2011. Ribbon, clothing, quilts, vintage bedspreads, and mixed media, 68 x 65 x 5 in. Courtesy of the artist and Geary Contemporary, New York. © 2017 Vadis Turner
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WORDS Paul Polycarpou
Tommy Emmanuel PHOTOGRAPHY Jack Spencer
The accolades thrown at Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel might seem a touch exaggerated and hard to believe. That is until you actually watch and hear him play. And then those accolades seem totally insufficient in capturing the enormity of his talent. Eric Clapton and Chet Atkins both said that he is the greatest guitarist they ever saw, and Todd Rundgren stated, “The two best guitarists in the world are Tommy Emmanuel.” And yet all that means very little to the Nashvillebased guitarist. He’s way too busy, immersed in his love of music and performing, to stop and check the praise meter. He very modestly says, “It’s just what I do.” He just happens to do it better than anyone else.
Do you remember your earliest introduction to music? My mother said when I was a baby that the only way I would calm down and go to sleep is if the record player was playing a stack of records. When the records finished I’d yell my lungs out and she’d come and turn them over. I was into music right from the beginning. So as long as I’ve been here is how long I’ve been into music. My first words were “turn it over” referring to the records. Your parents were in show business. How about the rest of the family? Mom and Dad and six kids, we were all into show business. I was about seven years old and I’d already been on the road with my family band, my eldest brother on drums, my elder sister on Hawaiian steel, my brother Phil on lead guitar, and me on rhythm. We modeled ourselves on the British instrumental group The Shadows. My brother was Hank Marvin and I was Bruce Welch. It’s funny that now Hank and Bruce are both close friends. We were taking songs like Marty Robbins’s “El Paso” and making them instrumentals. Mostly American and English music. Then the Beatles came along in the early sixties and that was yet another big influence. Did you know back then that music would be your life’s career? Oh yes, never even thought about doing anything else. Never occurred to me. I wasn’t interested in anything else . . . except cars and girls just like every other musician. Who were some of your early influences? When I was a kid there was no video or Internet. So we would listen to Homer and Jethro Live at the Country Club and steal all their jokes. They were really funny but could also play. And it’s been a reoccurring theme in my life—great artistry with great humor.
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“
I was into music right from the beginning. So as long as I've been here is how long I've been into music.
Chet Atkins fit right in there. When I met him, he was funny as a circus, and he had a great way with the audience. I was always more interested in watching comedians, singers, great entertainers. And I stole as much as I could from everybody. I took notes—the way they moved, their interaction with the crowd, the timing of the joke. So I learned from a lot of people. Was it American music that made an early musical impression on you? Definitely. My first memories of music were through my mom and dad and how much they enjoyed it. They were into Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Ferlin Husky, Lefty Frizzel, Jim Reeves. Music from America. Then in the early sixties the whole world started talking about Chet Atkins. We heard his records and thought that it was a recording trick. You can’t play all that at once. It struck a chord with me. I could tell he was playing everything at once, but I didn’t know how he was doing it. I was determined,
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though, to figure it out. His playing inspired me early on. What drew you to America? Was it the music . . . Someone sent a tape of me playing when I was eighteen, and I got a short note from The Desk of Chet Atkins, and it just said, “I’m very impressed. Call me when you get to Nashville.” But it took me about six years to save up the money to get here. I still have the note. It’s not every day Chet Atkins asks you to call him. I came in 1980. Saw Elton John at the Hollywood Bowl, Buddy Rich in New York. Chet told me Nashville is where I need to be. You travel the world playing for sellout audiences everywhere. What keeps you coming back to Nashville? I love traveling, especially to Italy. Italian audiences are the most enthusiastic about my music. But I want to be a part of the music community here. I feel a part of this place. I get to play with some of the best musicians in the world here. I collaborate with many great songwriters in Nashville. I love
bluegrass. I love the blues. You have every genre of music here. You don’t get that anywhere else in the world. I get to play with stellar musicians like Bryan Sutton and Jack Pearson. You build a very quick rapport with your audience. By the end of the night they all seem to be your best friends. When people watch me play, they’re trusting me to take them on a journey. Success involves the quality and the integrity of whatever it is you do. That’s what lasts. All the other stuff is just scenery. I’m in show business; I’m in the entertainment business. I don’t care if I win awards for my guitar playing; that’s nice but that’s not my goal. The guitar is not the end of the story. And when you come to my show I will disarm you, and you will be mine. That’s what an entertainer’s job is. How do you go about composing? Does the guitar lead the way or does the melody come first? I try to write music for people to sing. I follow the melody. The guitar doesn’t lead me. I’m writing a song for a singer in the band. I use all the tools that songwriters use, verse, chorus, verse. Most of my instrumental stuff I write by myself. But I also co-write with a great lyric writer.
always tell my students that I have a secret weapon. And they say, “You practice hard,” and I tell them yes I do, but that’s not a secret. Everybody knows to practice hard. I tell them my secret weapon is that I am just myself all the time, doesn’t matter where I am, on stage, television, recording, I’m just myself, and I don’t have to do anything else. Just be yourself, do your best, and that’s it. What’s on your bucket list? I’ve always wanted to work with Mark Knopfler. One of my favorites of all time. A great player and writer. Last month we did a track at his studio in London for my next album. Life is good. And with that I shook Tommy’s hand, hoping some of that genius would rub off on me. na For more information, visit www.tommyemmanuel.com
So is the guitar a means to an end for you? I love to play, absolutely love it, but I never said I’m a guitar player so I’d better do this. I’ve always felt that I should give the audience whatever I have. And that is everything. It’s the same when I play solo guitar; I never think I’ll just give the audience what they expect. I’ll always think outside the box, because that’s how I’m wired. It’s hard to explain. You can’t go to college and learn what I do. You have to be me to do what I do. The press have reached new heights in hyperbole when they write about you. One wrote, “The two best guitarists in the world are Tommy Emmanuel.” Is that praise or pressure for you? I’ve had wonderful things said about me and that’s nice, but all that doesn’t touch me. I just keep going doing what I do. I know when I’ve had good days and bad days, and I know when I have to work harder at what I do. I’m a taskmaster on myself. I still practice every day. I’m very critical of myself. So I don’t really believe all that stuff. What advice do you give your students? When I’m teaching at places like Berkeley I
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WORDS Sara Lee Burd
Kate Krebs A Journey Toward the Divine
Taunting Heaven, 2017, Mixed media on birch panel, 24” x 24”
B
iography, spirituality, feminism, and synchronicity describe much of Kate Krebs’s art making. Taking a surreal bend on reality, the artist combines the sacred and the profane into compositions that present bits and pieces of narratives. Fueled by her belief that life is connected and unfolds in ways we can’t predict, the symbols and interactions she presents in her work are open to interpretation. The inclusion of popular imagery allows viewers to easily connect with her art but require contemplation to unravel. The artist imbues her collage-based artworks with the mystery, absurdity, pain, and pleasure that define human experience. Krebs explains her personal motivations: “A lot of my work is about God, morality, my mortality, meeting people, and finding God in nature, when I maybe didn’t feel it before. This journey is nuts.”
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In Awe of Mother Earth, 2017, Mixed media on panel, 20” x 20”
Divine Channel, 2017, Mixed media on panel, 20” x 20”
The artist avidly collects imagery from thrift stores, antique malls, yard sales, and anywhere she finds it. She saves images that speak to her in a vast array of folders in her studio. “It took me six years to use an image I found in a psychology book. I cut it out and kept it because I knew I would need it one day.” By using cutouts, Krebs can play with the work—revising, adding ideas and symbolisms as they come to her. Explaining her use of found images she says, “I don’t feel like I’m using someone’s art. I am making something different. Maybe I use a torso from one image and legs from another. Some images I make myself.”
Sea of Change, 2017, Mixed media on panel, 48” x 48”
Krebs paints exclusively on wood for the series she has been working on since moving to Nashville. The medium inspires the way in which the artist approaches the artwork. She studies the unique grain of the wood and visualizes what she wants it to become. Tracing the sinuous lines with her paint brush, she creates patterns and colors that serve as the basis for the collage. Sometimes she surprises herself realizing the artwork she had embarked upon cannot work with the natural landscape made during the perceptive flow of painting.
A recurring theme throughout Krebs’s art is a focus on the idea of the divine feminine. Usually presented as a sacred mother, these symbolize the nurturing, generative role ascribed to women in society. She’s not interested in constructing binary definitions of gender; rather the artist celebrates the traits often ascribed as weak because they are feminine. In Mother’s Love she illustrates the power of domestic work, elevating it to an act of bountiful love. Krebs does so by arranging a feast set before a 1950s motherfigure. The woman’s gaze extends out of the artwork and invites onlookers to behold the power she has as a provider of nourishment. Her arms hug toward her heart which emanates dynamic pink and yellow light, creating a sense of love made visible. Krebs interprets the positive effects of this woman’s work and suggests that it extends beyond the setting of the dining room. Her worldview that everything has meaning becomes apparent in the clever ways she connects various arrangements within a single composition. In Awakening of Cosmic Consciousness Krebs divides the scene into
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Photograph by Buddy Jackson
Awakening of Cosmic Consciousness, 2017, Mixed media on birch panel, 48” x 106”
Kate Krebs
realms. The feminine section occupied by deities, farmers, children, flowers, and water presents an ideal place. The masculine influence along the bottom-left diagonal portion contains horrors such as rape, police brutality, pedophilia, greed, religious corruption, and warfare. The inspiration for the dystopian world comes from news stories coming out while the work was made and Krebs’s own encounters. The imagery of peace and abundance above comes from sacred figures and historical nurturing roles of women. The artist asserts judgement as the beings presented in the feminine space point with beams of light to injustices they view in the masculine realm. In this work it becomes clear that the negative aspects of power are associated with male rule. The artist explains, “I didn’t realize that I had made a world of men and one of women at first. I knew I wanted to make a place of love and light and a place of evil.” Here Krebs asks the viewers to wonder what society could be if the dutifulness and softness of the feminine were celebrated as strengths instead of weaknesses.
Pulling from the very personal experience with gendered expectations, Krebs created Sea of Change. The figures whose heads appear above water are a painting by the artist based on a photograph of her mother and grandfather. Krebs explains the significance of her family photograph: “My grandmother would do anything for my grandfather, but I don’t know that he was deserving of it. At least part of the time. Not all the time.” For better or for worse, in rejection or in acceptance of those role models, decisions to love and how to love are affected by our familial experiences. Below the surface of the water, radiant beams shine down onto a couple intertwined in a romantic embrace. Krebs describes the scene: “I had change in mind. This is me with my future man. I illuminated my relationship as a place of change.” In this work the artist provides a space to consider what it means when society has encouraged women to stand by husbands regardless of behavior, temperament, and respect. Krebs’s approach to feminism is not a complete rejection of societal norms that shape our culture as much as it is a celebration of the feminine as powerful and divine. As an artist and self-described visionary, Krebs allows her work and ideas to appear before her eyes. She explains, “Sometimes things come to me that I don’t understand. Images and ideas that are not mine enter my mind whether it be for paintings or for everyday life. Something may lead to something else that you never could have imagined.” na For more information about Kate Krebs please visit www.katekrebs.tumblr.com and www.theredarrowgallery.com.
Union Hath Light, 2017, Mixed media on birch panel, 18” x 16”
Mother’s Love, 2017, Mixed media on birch panel, 14” x 11”
Divine Union, 2017, Mixed media on solid birch, 11” x 8” NASHVILLEARTS.COM
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WORDS Peter Chawaga
John Jackson Recreates Classics at New York’s PUBLIC Hotel
From Hans Memling’s Tommaso di Folco Potinari, 2017, Oil on panel
From Hans Memling’s Maria Portinari, 2017, Oil on panel
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he work of Nashville’s John Jackson has ranged from figurative representation, often rendering subjects in the nude and juxtaposing scenes of natural intimacy with the distracting presence of modern technology, to abstract expressionism, utilized to articulate scenes real and imagined. His painting SeXBOX features two naked figures provocatively positioned on a mattress, the male distracted by video games and the female by her cellphone. Frond Pond with Beet Plants, another painting, is an aerial view of the namesakes seemingly floating on surface water, brightly colored and translucent. The drawing Stria 1 is less representative, a dark linear mark, smudged and spread just right of center. “My work evolves, as do my influences,” Jackson explains. “Currently my work is more abstracted. I’m riding a new wave after a breakthrough at the beginning of
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John Jackson
From Rembrandt’s Minerva, 2017, Oil on panel
From DaVinci’s Virgin Mary, 2017, Oil on panel
the year. I may return to previous representational styles for commission work.” Jackson landed such a commission recently, as the new PUBLIC New York hotel in Manhattan called upon his depictive style for ten paintings in its recently christened space. The hotel, run by a cofounder of the city’s infamous Studio 54, Ian Schrager, opened its doors last month and boasts a high-design aesthetic and multi-media performance space. “I was honored to get this commission because the Ian Schrager Company is known for its uncompromising, superlative style and taste,” says Jackson. “It has designed some of the most beautiful, stylish, award-winning hotels in the world.” Kristin Bailey, a vice president of interior design at Schrager’s company, found Jackson’s work on Facebook and reached out. She envisioned a series of relatively small paintings, 10 inches by 13 inches, that featured famous images from the Baroque period. The two of them chose the inspirations and Jackson executed the paintings. Now hanging in the PUBLIC New York are Jackson’s takes on work like Memling’s 15th-century Portrait of Maria Portinari and Rembrandt’s 17th-century Minerva. But rather than strict reproductions, these snapshots often focus on a single feature or aspect of their original counterparts, such as the determined expression and revealing bodice on the Virgin Mary in Caravaggio’s Madonna and Child with St. Anne, or the loosely clutched medallion in Bronzino’s portrait Lodovico Capponi.
From Caravaggio’s Madonna, 2017, Oil on panel
creating a menagerie for visitors. “The paintings are part of a whole wall that creates a feeling of beauty, interest, and style,” says Jackson. “They are part of an environment that strives to make people feel good inside.” Commissions offer artists a chance to follow a prompt, to have their work showcased somewhere it might not be otherwise, and to collaborate with a patron. If the artist is particularly lucky, they may even spark a new perspective for their own pursuits. “I learned more about how my art can influence an environment and how people feel,” Jackson says of the experience. “I will keep that in mind as I continue my current, more abstract work.” As Jackson continues his journey, one that has been remarkably productive and successful, his style and approach will undoubtedly evolve even further, whether into something new entirely or a return to the styles he has explored in the past. Without a doubt, that journey will stand to make the bar at the PUBLIC hotel more inspiring. na To learn more about PUBLIC New York hotel, visit www.publichotels.com. See more of John Jackson’s work at www.facebook.com/johny.jackson.
The works, hemmed by frames custom made in London, stand in wooden, backlit shelving behind a bar in the hotel. The shelves also hold statuettes, glassware, and books,
John Jackson paintings in the new PUBLIC Hotel, NYC
A L L T H E B E S T I N F I N E J E W E L RY 5101 Harding Road Nashville, Tennessee 37205 615.353.1823 s cindiearl.com
registration for fall classes opens August 1st
Community Education
W.
“Light” is explored, from micro to macro, in this exhibit of photographs, art, neon, prisms and more.
August 17 – September 22, 2017 Reception: Thursday, September 7, 5-8 p.m.
Exhibit panels are supplied by NASA created by photographers and scientists around the world to celebrate the United Nations’ initiative, the “International Year of Light 2015” and the Solar Eclipse 2017.
Free and open to the public.
Pryor Art Gallery • Waymon L. Hickman Building • 1665 Hampshire Pike, Columbia, TN 38401 (931) 540-2883 • mwilkinson2@columbiastate.edu
Jewelry Designer Tony Perrin
T
he fashion catwalks are polished with the stories that inspire designers’ collections. John Galliano’s mad muse for one Dior couture show was Marchesa Luisa Casati, the chatelaine of villas filled with pet cheetahs and legendary gowns and an heiress who inspired scores of paintings. In 2000, John Bartlett’s womenswear collection was inspired by the eccentric duo Edith Bouvier Beale and Edie Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens, whose eccentricity was burnished in the Hamptons mansion that was a raccoon-infested repository for their tattered fashions from days gone by. But ask any fashion journalist who is the grandest storyteller of all and the answer will likely be Ralph Lauren. Not only did Lauren, a poor lad from the Bronx, change his name from Ralph Lifshitz, he has long created fashion collections based on worlds inhabited by elegant muses. A privileged prep-schooler. A bohemian adventuress. An aristocrat from Downton Abbey. Lauren’s $5.4 billion empire was built by stories about aspirational characters, each one possessing the cloud-piercing cachet of a natty wardrobe.
Photograph by Amy Richmond
WORDS Karen Parr-Moody
Musing about Muses
S. Bernhardt long necklace with woven bronze pendant
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I definitely focus on art jewelry. Mine will never be a mass commodity jewelry product. I’m definitely a small-batch artisan.
A. Boleyn double wrap bracelet
And that is where Nashville jewelry designer Tony Perrin, of Lock and Key, comes into the story, for he worked for Ralph Lauren in New York City. “Ralph’s a little Jewish man from the Bronx, and I happen to be a little Jewish-Italian man from Los Angeles,” Perrin says of their similarities. “Working for him was really an amazing learning process for me. It’s marketing genius really, creating those dreams. And I really love the art of storytelling.” Perrin helped rig Ralph Lauren’s “creative war room” with props and illustrations so that the famous designer was inspired to create a new collection. “He would have to be able to walk in and see ‘the movie’,” Perrin says. Born in Southern California, Perrin attended New York University as well as the Fashion Institute of Technology, also in New York City. He has a steamer trunk of talents; he
Stacked HA Woodruff bands
has worked professionally in dance, fashion design, textile design, costume production, yoga instruction, and college lecturing. But now Perrin is focused on promoting the handmade artisan jewelry of his line, Lock and Key, which celebrates his love of storytelling that emerged at Ralph Lauren. His designs have an organic and sculptural nature, which he creates by merging techniques such as Native American beading and the classic ball-and-chain methods. “It gives it its own voice and makes it more modern and slightly industrial,” Perrin says. Materials include Japanese seed beads, semiprecious pieces, and sculptural pendants made of solid bronze and sterling silver. Perrin’s muses are performers, dancers, or intriguing people. Individual jewelry styles are inspired by such luminaries as
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Harry Houdini, Josephine Baker, Hedy Lamarr, Grace Kelly, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Josephine Baker. When people see his jewelry at trunk shows or at festivals, then chat with him, seconds become minutes of intrigue. “It takes the person from three seconds of interest to maybe five minutes,” he says. “That, to me, is a success to continue a conversation with my consumer.” For his fall collection, silver-screen siren Hedy Lamarr is the muse behind a beaded necklace adorned with a dramatic stone pendant. As Perrin points out, Lamarr invented frequency-hopping technology that was initially used by the military, then later in wireless technologies such as cell phones. “Hedy Lamarr always intrigued me,” Perrin says. “Come on—genius!” G. Swanson necklaces
Josephine Baker intrigues him, as well. Sure, she performed the exotic “banana dance” for the Ziegfeld Follies, but she was also a spy for the French Resistance during World War II.
F. Scott handwoven beaded leather cuffs
Then there’s the Tudor queen Anne Boleyn, who inspired a loose choker made of black and copper beads. Students of art history will recall the famous painting in which Anne wore a pearl choker from which a gold “B” dangled. “How could I not name it after Anne Boleyn?” Perrin says. Perrin’s techniques are steeped in the past; he unlocks them to bring them into the future. In college, he inherited a loom from a family friend, Native American Frank “Frankie” Perez, who had taught him the artisan tradition of bead weaving when he was only ten years old. Perrin has brought that age-old method of bead weaving to his jewelry-making techniques. “What I’m doing is generational, in terms of him handing the loom down to me and my continuing his legacy.” Perrin also molds clay that is filled with micro-particles of silver or bronze by using other hand-me-down finds: his grandfather’s clay tools.
L. Brooks antique bronze woven metal pendant earrings
A selection of rings from the fall 2017 collection
A. Wong necklace with bronze textured pendants
His third year of Lock and Key is what he terms his “growth and risk year.” His jewelry is in eight Nashville locations and has also been picked up for several North Carolina stores. He hosts “pop-up shops” in homes and restaurants for an intimate experience. These are intimate and entertaining ways in which to enjoy the beauty of Lock and Key. na To discover your own muses through jewelry, please visit www.lockandkeydesign.com.
Tony Perrin
Photograph by Amy Richmond
The quality of artisan work appeals to Perrin. “I definitely focus on art jewelry,” he says. “Mine will never be a mass commodity jewelry product. I’m definitely a small-batch artisan.”
Free 365 days a year
50 sculptures on 20 acres Frankfort, KY
Sculpture Park
Fall Arts Festival September 10
Featuring guest artist
Chakaia Booker
• live music • hands-on art workshops • metal pour • glass blowing • food and West Sixth Brewing
Artist residencies • Community workshops • Event rentals
josephinesculpturepark.org
THE BLAIR JAZZ FACULTY PRESENT
Miles Davis’ ‘Birth of the Cool’ Tuesday, August 29 • 8 p.m., Ingram Hall The Blair Jazz Faculty present the music from Miles Davis’ classic nonet recording, Birth of the Cool, with trumpet professor Jose Sibaja playing the role of Miles Davis with all-star cast of Blair faculty: Jeff Coffin, alto sax, Ryan Middagh, baritone sax, Leslie Norton, horn, Roland Barber, trombone; Gil Long, tuba, Bruce Dudley, piano, Roger Spencer, bass, and Derrek Phillips, drums.
For the complete concert calendar, please visit blair.vanderbilt.edu
2017_AF_NashArts_List_AD_9x11.15_press copy.pdf
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7/14/17
4:45 PM
NASHVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE
EVERYONE HAS A STORY 2017-2018 SEASON MEMBERSHIPS ON SALE NOW
THE HUNDRED DRESSES
SEPT 14 - OCT 1, 2017 Based on the Newberry Honor book by Eleanor Estes By William Kent Williams
MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS OCT 26 - Dec 3, 2017 Book by Robert Kauzlaric Music & Lyrics by George Howe Based on the novel by Richard & Florence Atwater
Scot Copeland’s
CINDERELLA
DEC 14 - 21, 2017 Special Holiday Event!
THE SNOWY DAY & OTHER STORIES
JAN 18 - FEB 11, 2018 Adapted for the stage by Jerome Hairston Based on books by Ezra Jack Keats
MOCKINGBIRD
MAR 1 - 18, 2018 Adapted for the stage by Julie Jensen Based on the book Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine 2010 National Book Award Winner
DRAGONS LOVE TACOS
APR 12 - MAY 13, 2018 By Ernie Nolan Based on the book by Adam Rubin
TICKET MEMBERSHIPS START AT JUST $150 SINGLE TICKETS GO ON SALE AUGUST 13 All performances take place at The Martin Center 25 Middleton Street Nashville, TN 37210 FREE PARKING ON SITE
Join us for our FREE Season Preview & Open House Saturday, August 12, 2017 Enjoy samples from our new season! Make reservations at NashvilleCT.org
TICKETS 615-252-4675 or nashvillect.org
Wait, Mixed media with beeswax, 11” x 14”
WORDS Cat Acree
THE FOUR CORNERS of the Nashville Collage Collective
F
irst there was San Francisco in 2006, then New York in 2008, followed by Nashville in 2010, as each city became a hub for a Collage Collective, loosely knit groups of artists who come together to create collages and montage works. But at the heart of the Nashville Collage Collective is the founding foursome who call themselves the Four Corners: Lisa Haddad, Randy L Purcell, Eva Sochorova, and robert bruce scott. Artwork by the Four Corners is unlike any collage you’re likely to come across. The San Francisco, New York, and Nashville Collage Collectives (the latter boasting more than 40 participating artists who meet monthly at Turnip Green Creative Reuse) are “just groups of people,” Haddad explains. They’re not all collaborators, but are casual, democratic participators who typically practice what Haddad calls “pure collage,” sticking
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“
We react to each other’s pieces or strokes or whatever it is that we add to the piece. It’s constantly changing.
Wired, Mixed media, 10” x 8”
to traditional materials of paper and glue. But on a rainy July afternoon, the first day in nearly six months that the Four Corners have met together, they chime in all at once to explain that their collaborative works are mixed media, with the especially unusual premise of having passed into each artist’s hands at least one time, if not more. Indeed, talking with the Four Corners about their work is an experience as familiar and overlapping as one of their finished pieces. They’ve been working together since 2010, and their seven-year collaboration has grown into a mixture of familial (almost sibling-like) intimacy and a bubbling, brewing creative flow. All are full-time artists with disparate styles. Mixed-media painter Haddad first brought them all together after attending a collage workshop, and she has
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a tendency to rummage through the room, pointing out boxes of scrap material and finished and unfinished art worth noting. Purcell, who works with encaustic wax in his own work, often finishes the others’ sentences when they drift off the tail end of a thought. Abstract painter Sochorova, with her warm German accent, is known as the free-flowing one but proudly refers to herself as “the destroyer.” Sculptor scott, who is the only one with a background in collaboration, has a slight whistle in his “s” and a steady, unassuming gaze, and his soft voice tends to disappear just beneath the sound of the others. All different, all distinct, but when it comes to collage, each artist is liberated—they’re encouraged to play, explore, or try out something completely different. “I think each of us is a mentor and a student,” Haddad says. “As soon as you put something on [the canvas]—which, by the way, you feel very free to do because you’re not finishing something—you can step out of your style, you can do something crazy.”
There’s a Lot Going on and I’m Not Even There, Mixed media with cut and re-pieced collages, 30” x 41”
There’s no such thing as a blank canvas here. Each artist brings in found objects, scraps (often taken from and shared with the Nashville Collage Collective) or one of their own works that needs a new eye. And then it’s passed around the circle, from artist to artist, until it returns to the original owner. At the beginning of their collaboration, the four would assemble and discuss changes throughout the process. But like finishing each other’s sentences, the cyclical process has become more and more intuitive, the intimacy of the rotation more comfortable. Now, individual changes disappear into the work. Feelings might get a little hurt when favorite marks are covered up, but even this is met with understanding, as the mutual respect of the process runs deep. Purcell may spill coffee on a big sheet of paper; Sochorova may cut it up. Sochorova covers a painting with blue stripes; Purcell reorients the entire piece by 45 degrees—and then
Red Wins, Mixed media, 21” x 12”
“It’s a reactive artwork,” Purcell says. “We react to each other’s pieces or strokes or whatever it is that we add to the piece. It’s constantly changing.”
SEN, Mixed media with coffee spill, 11” x 13”
My Other Car, Mixed media, 12” x 14”
someone added triangles (“My triangles,” scott says, barely audible), and thus House of the Rising Moon comes together. The chopped-up (thanks to Purcell) There’s a Lot Going on and I’m Not Even There speaks for itself. Even to the viewer, the diverse textures and unexpected layers of these pieces beg to be touched. Choosing an ending point is clearly one of the hardest things for the group, and scott describes each artwork as having four endings, and therefore four beginnings. At each work’s end—whatever that end—there’s no one voice. Purcell calls it a conversation. scott calls it “rejoice.” Sochorova calls it “communion.” An awareness of what community is, of what people can do when they work together.” For the Four Corners, the time has come to start fresh—always endings, always beginnings. Each Corner will keep the piece or two they love most, and all other collages will be auctioned at Turnip Green Creative Reuse’s gallery in an online silent auction that will be preceded by an opening reception on September 9. “We all have a humble side where we want to learn more and want to get better and try something new,” Haddad says. “And that makes it possible to keep going.” na The Four Corners Retrospective and Monthlong Auction opens during the East Side Art Stumble on September 9 at the Green Gallery, Turnip Green Creative Reuse. For more information, visit www.thefourcornersart.com.
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robert bruce scott, Lisa Haddad, Eva Sochorova, and Randy L Purcell installing at the Sig Held Gallery
YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis
VICKI DENABURG
NeLLie Jo Mood Changer, Mixed media on canvas, 40” x 30”
Friends, oil, Nellie Jo Rainer
NellieJo@NellieJo.com • www.nelliejo.com
107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net www.yorkandfriends.com Follow us on
at York & Friends Fine Art
THEBOOKMARK
A MONTHLY LOOK AT HOT BOOKS AND COOL READS
The Anatomy of Color: The Story of Heritage Paints & Pigments
Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us
Mrs. Fletcher: A Novel
Patrick Baty
Sam Kean
What’s the first thing you notice when you walk into a room? If it’s the color of the walls (and we bet it is), this gorgeously illustrated and aptly colorful coffee-table book is for you. Historian and paint expert Patrick Baty has used his treasure trove of archives to uncover the truth behind our use of colors in paint.
Take a deep breath. Now read this book and you will fully understand the magnitude of what you just inhaled. Within each breath lies the history of everything, and Sam Kean has set out to explain—in his signature vigorous and fresh style—how air has shaped the world and the secrets it hides in every breath we take.
This remarkable novel “goes there.” And oh, it does it so well. We watch a mother send her son off to college and the drama that ensues— culminating on one fateful night in November—and it is hilarious, sexy, and heartbreaking. Perrotta is a master of voice, and you won’t be able to turn away from Mrs. Fletcher. Meet Tom Perrotta at Parnassus on August 9!
Tom Perrotta
Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music Ann Powers From NPR’s renowned music critic comes a revelatory look at the roles that race, sex, and gender play in shaping American popular music. Sex is inextricably linked to the music we love, and we finally have a book about it. This may even be a book that has you shaking your booty despite yourself. Don’t miss Ann Powers at Parnassus on August 17!
P E R F O R M A N C E S AT T H E F R A N C E S B O N D D A V I S T H E AT R E
2017-18 Harpeth Hall Fine Arts Performance Season August 30 – september 2 FOOTLOOSE
FebruArY 2 – 3 JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH
Return to the rockin’ rhythms of the 80s in our 20th collaborative musical with Montgomery Bell Academy. This anticipated performance is based on the celebrated film musical Footloose. Learn more and purchase tickets online.
Harpeth Hall’s Middle School Musical is a delightfully offbeat adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl adventure that will resonate with audiences of all ages. Learn more and purchase tickets online.
OctOber 26 – 28 THE WINTER’S TALE
mArch 1 – 3 SPRING SHOW
Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale follows the story of childhood friends and deals with all-consuming jealousy, broken relationships, and a touch of magic. Learn more and purchase tickets online. NOvember 16 – 18 CHIAROSCURO COLLECTIONS
The Harpeth Hall Dance Company presents Chiaroscuro Collections in which depth of color is explored in various genres of dance. Learn more and purchase tickets online. December 4 WINTER ORCHESTRA CONCERT
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Harpeth Hall’s spring dance concert highlights a variety of physical and emotional configurations through multiple genres of dance and student choreography. Learn more and purchase tickets online. mAY 1 SPRING CHORAL CONCERT
The Spring Choral Concert features Grade 5-12 choirs, performance by the Rolling Tones, and a musical farewell to our senior singers. Admission is free and open to the public.
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April 26 – 28 SPATIAL LANDSCAPES
December 7 WINTER CHORAL CONCERT
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mArch 13 DRAMA CLUB SHOW
5th and 6th graders are featured in the always-charming spring Drama Club Show. Admission is free and open to the public.
An evening of music ranging from classical to rock, this concert features grades 5-12 choirs and includes the Rolling Tones, Harpeth Hall’s a cappella group, and Lads & Plaid, a combined choral group with singers from Harpeth Hall and Montgomery Bell Academy. Admission is free and open to the public.
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Harpeth Hall String players from grades 5-12 unite to perform works of the season. Admission is free and open to the public.
Upper school theatre students collaborate on the content and design of the annual Spring Show. Admission is free and open to the public.
www.harpethhall.org
mAY 3 SPRING ORCHESTRA CONCERT
The Spring Orchestra Concert features selections inspired by the instrumental musicians in grades 5-12 and senior farewells. Admission is free and open to the public.
POET’SCORNER BY TRACI CRUEY
Photograph by Cory Johnson
Traci lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, where she writes, reads fairy tales, and avoids talking politics with her family.
Say Uncle His khaki pant was scrunched up past his knee, thick hair against a fat calf, pale, my uncle wheezed a yarn of surgeries during a rare visit to his doublewide, black lung coating his words, mucus thick and deep in the back of his throat. Cough. Cough. He spits the yellow fluid between red chubby cheeks and past thin lips into a napkin. Tales of his youth nestled between us, reminiscences of a time when he was Big Red going into the mines rather than aging flesh who lives in a chair. He presents his knee as an example of his mortality with swollen hands that can no longer fist or squeeze a thing, a parody of a knee, like an alien trying to figure out human parts, the cap protrudes to the right, bulging where it shouldn’t, sinks and concaves at the front. Pink lines and scars mottle the skin and I just want him to put it away, cannot face the perversion, turn away from the sound of the ticking clock, his calm resolve, the proof of my cowardice stamped in the footprints leading out the door.
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Laura Nugent in her studio 76
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WORDS Margaret F. M. Walker
BOUNDARIES
OF COLOR Laura Nugent The Arts Company through August 31
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aura Nugent’s paintings are often easy to spot for their meditative geometry dominated by small, irregular rectangles of color that weave through and stack upon each other, cohering into larger shape relations that stretch to the edges of the painting surface. There never seems to appear a strong diagonal, but one will often notice lines that gently list with and against each other. In Between His Skin and Hers these slight slants create an element of interest to pull the eye across the canvas, but they ultimately balance each other. Similarly, in The Importance of Going Grey, thick blocks of color that abut one another tilt slightly in the manner of books on a shelf fighting the resistance of a bookend. Nugent creates her paintings entirely with a free hand. She never employs a straight-edge or tape and instead allows lines to find any straightness and levelness through a buildup of layers. This approach, though, with its inherent remaining imperfections, will remind viewers of the painter’s active hand and, indeed, the time and focus spent creating each of these works. Nugent has been working in this abstract, pattern-focused manner for almost a decade now. She expresses an attraction to the aesthetics of Minimalism; their restraint,
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Undiscovered Countries, #5, 2017, Acrylic on canvas board, 7” x 5”
she feels, demonstrates maturity and confidence. On philosophy, emphasizing the removal of the artist, she differs from these mid-century artists, though. One of the first reactions that people often have to her paintings is regarding their patchwork quality. Nugent shared that her work used to be more precise and that people would actually think them to be quilts from afar. In reaction, she has sought ways to maintain the geometrical and folk qualities while emphasizing that these are in fact paintings. One of her methods has been “allowing paint to be paint.” Notice in In Reaction to His Life and many others how the dripping paint adds vertical lines that are consistent with the overall aesthetic and yet wholly different for their source in gravity rather than Nugent’s own invention. She has found that this emphasis on allowing her hand to be evident and allowing the materials to work naturally actually creates a need for more decision-making on her part regarding what to cover and what to leave as the layers of paint build. These small inconsistencies, she finds, “create more energy on the canvas and challenge me to practice a different kind of restraint as an artist. In the end it is exciting because there are always some surprises, even for me.” In a work like Floridan one will notice that the geometrical
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focus rotates. Just as Nugent seeks to create energy in these purely abstract works through layers, color harmonies, and little imperfections, she seeks the gravity of a canvas while creating it. While she often begins a new canvas with ideas in mind, the layout and orientation are not planned in advance. With this painting and others like it, she turns the painting as she goes until she feels that it develops a sort of gravity. And yet, if the buyer finds the weight in a different orientation, they can easily rotate the painting to discover a new way of viewing it. One element of Nugent’s work that is striking in person and yet difficult to grasp in an image is the surface texture. Thick layers of paint serve to straighten lines, make color subtler, and create a sense of depth. She often works with a palette knife, drawing it across the surface to catch the eye in varied ways and sometimes even bring about the idea of shadow. Sometimes sandpaper is the tool of choice to add more life to an area through texture. The Undiscovered Countries series highlights Nugent’s emphasis on layers and texture, which are all the more evident for these paintings’ small size. Originally intended as color and compositional studies, these works are most
A Weed in Her Garden, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 60”
Floridan, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 48”
Biography of a Winter Studio, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 60”
often painted on the covers of books. There is often a harmony among them, resulting from the fact that she will work on several simultaneously. This will manifest in color, often more vibrant than in her larger works, and geometry of lines. These Undiscovered Countries are akin to the building blocks that fit together on her larger canvases but stand alone well for their dynamic surfaces. In her own words, Nugent expresses, “My job as a painter is to take small moments and make them spectacular,” and she does just that through a committed focus on geometrical and color harmonies, while allowing for the humanity of her hand and the inherent qualities of paint to remain in unpredictable ways. These paintings are well worth an in-person look at The Arts Company, where she is represented. na For more information, please visit www.theartscompany.com and www.lauranugent.com.
The Importance of Going Grey, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 24”
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Defy Film Festival Celebrates Creative Experimentation Studio 615
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August 18 and 19
This month, Nashville’s Defy Film Festival will return for its second year of celebrating cinema that skirts artistic norms, embraces experimentation, and defies traditional processes. “Last year we were so impressed and pleased with the audiences that came out for a first-year weirdo festival,” says Dycee Wildman, an event organizer. “People who didn’t know what to expect came out with open minds to see cinema from all over the world and then stuck around to have a drink and discuss it with strangers in the lobby!” Building on this open-mindedness, Defy’s second run will occupy East Nashville’s Studio 615 and present 63 bold, inspirational art films, such as Andrew Kotatko’s short Whoever Was Using This Bed, which has already accrued a slew of awards.
Still from Whoever Was Using This Bed
that cover underlying messages, method, and more. The festival entries will be judged based on criteria like their ability to inspire and change the way a viewer thinks. But beyond awarding the pieces that best embody Defy’s spirit, the festival exists to encourage creative expression and nontraditional thinking, for artists and audiences alike.
“This short film . . . plays with the ideas of reality and trust within a marriage,” Billy Senese, Defy’s other organizer, explains. “There is a confidence and bravery there that builds a new uncanny world and one that we are thrilled to celebrate with our festival.”
“It’s an honor to feel like we are a part of the journey of that [participating] art and artist, and I hope our Nashville audiences feel the same way,” Wildman says. “I hope [audiences] go home and make something new, infused with a different spirit because of what they saw and the conversations they had at our festival.”
After viewing the films, attendees will have the chance to engage in conversation with many of their auteurs during Q&A sessions
Defy Film Festival will be held on August 18 and 19 at Studio 615, 272 Broadmoor Drive. For more information and tickets, visit www.defyfilmfestival.com.
Fine Art & Gifts
by Olga Alexeeva & Local Artists
www.OGalleryArt.com
Olga Alexeeva, Hymn to Joy, Acrylic, 48” x 48”
Olga Alexeeva, artist and owner, is available for commissioned works for home and business Art classes by Olga are conducted weekly
615-416-2537
Open 7 Days a Week • Monday-Saturday 10-6 • Sunday 11-5 1305 Clinton St. Ste. 120 • Nashville, TN 37203
BY JOSEPH E. MORGAN
SOUNDINGOFF
On July 9, the Nashville Composer Collective held its thirteenth concert featuring an eclectic mix of works from local composers, reflecting the diversity of the music scene in Nashville. The concert opened with a performance of Peter Ferguson and Quentin Flowers’s jazz- and popular-musicinspired Lines, an intimate duet for guitar and bass. This was followed by John Darnall’s A Quartet of Violi. Darnell’s piece seemed to be an interesting experiment in reducing the available register and timbres in order to increase concentration on motivic relationships and development. Saturated with the composer’s pervasive wit, the resulting piece was both intense and charming. Roger Bissell’s Turn of the Century Melody presented a derivative ragtime composition arranged for wind band replete with nostalgia for the earliest and most idealized moments of jazz. Bissell’s ensemble featured flautist Ann Richards who had just retired the previous evening from the Nashville Symphony after 44 years. Stephen Lamb’s Part of Eve’s Discussion for string quartet + clarinet was, in my opinion, the highlight of the concert. Lamb’s piece originally set the poem of the same title by Marie Howe for voice, but for this concert he substituted clarinet. The intimacy of the
melodic line, itself an expression of Howe’s poetic voice, translated effortlessly into Emily Bowland’s remarkably rich and full tone on the clarinet. No wonder this instrument was a favorite of both Weber and Mozart. Cole Dumas conducting
The last two pieces on the program, Kyle Baker’s Hope and Cole Dumas’ Excess, Apathy, Freedom, featured a 29-piece orchestra, and they took advantage of it. Baker’s piece represented a significant essay in instrumental color, while Dumas’ measured developing variation and backbeat belied a sophisticated ambient color and balance. In all, the concert achieved the Collective’s goal of presenting “fresh new music” performed by the top-notch musicians that Music City has to offer. Learn more about the Nashville Composer Collective at www.nashvillecomposercollective.com.
Photograph Courtesy of Idintify Media
Nashville Composer Collective at the Village Chapel
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Self Portrait, 1975, Oil on canvas, 40” x 30”
Joe Montgomery paints without regard for the market or an ever-present audience, preoccupations that so often characterize the work of artists today.
Joe Montgomery
Black and Purple w/Green, 2016, Watercolor on paper, 22” x 30”
Funky Good at LeQuire Gallery August 12–September 30 WORDS Alan LeQuire
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t’s easy these days to forget that art-making should be a spiritual practice. The real reward is in the making itself, not sales, not notoriety. Artists who are devoted to their craft experience a state of consciousness that is beyond ego; the result is a pure, selfless gift. I have noticed that it is hard not to be distracted from the original intent of one’s craft in 2017, when expected to tell the world about oneself on a daily basis. This sort of self-promotion used to seem shameful. In my practice, I have to switch back and forth from artist to gallerist, not a happy conjunction, but I have a great partner in Elizabeth Cave, who handles the real business of the gallery. I am very fortunate to have had some wonderful mentors who would never have stooped so low as to tweet about themselves. I also have colleagues and friends whom I admire as role models and spirit guides. One of these is Joe Montgomery. Joe is a wonderful painter who has been quietly working for the last forty years and whose work is magnificent—honest and without pretension. Joe’s early career was interrupted by the Vietnam War. He was in the Air Force from 1970 to 1973 and already interested in Buddhism when he was sent to Thailand. “When I was in Thailand with the Air Force, I got inspired by Buddhism and Asian art. There was the Golden Buddha, the Reclining Buddha with mother-of-pearl inlay on the feet, and all the wood carving and stone carving. It gave me a feeling of peace and serenity.”
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Everyone else is taken, so you have to be yourself.
Joe has studied the works of the Old Masters but also finds inspiration in the works of artists such as Soutine, Franz Kline, and Jackson Pollock. “I come from a tradition of abstract expressionism, but I am doing something that is my own. ‘Everyone else is taken, so you have to be yourself.’ That’s what Oscar Wilde said.” With the help of a Ford Foundation fellowship, Joe earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1978, working under the instruction of Elaine de Kooning, Jim Herbert, and Mike Nicholson at the University of Georgia. Surrounded by such great teachers, Joe flourished as a figurative expressionist painter. A strong influence during this period was Matisse, whose comments about the bent light of the goldfish bowl inspired Joe to create a series of goldfish paintings. Joe laughs, “When Elaine saw my goldfish paintings, she said, ‘This is your direction!’”
Portrait in Primary Colors, 1995, Oil on paper, 18” x 12”
After he got out of the Air Force, Joe went to MTSU where he studied painting under David LeDoux. David and Joe both appreciated Zen Buddhism, and David encouraged Joe’s emotional approach to color. Joe followed a more or less traditional academic painting program, learning figurative techniques including anatomy, proportion, and drawing from life. One of his paintings from this period, a self-portrait, hangs over his couch at home. It is mostly violet and reminds me of LeDoux’s violet paintings. Joe explains that it was inspired by Rembrandt’s Side of Beef, a painting that has been a catalyst for many subsequent artists, including Chaim Soutine, Pablo Picasso, and Francis Bacon.
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Since then Joe has been “following [his] bliss,” as he puts it, quoting Joseph Campbell. His work has become almost purely abstract, although he still makes the occasional representational painting. Pattern and color are his primary concerns. His works suggest the infinite variety of pattern and color in nature. He has perfected and simplified his technique over the years, so that now it is almost effortless. He has chosen watercolor as his medium mainly because it is so direct, like drawing. “Oil takes so long to dry, and it is hard on your health,” he points out. Joe likes to work wet-on-wet because of what happens when the pigment hits the wet surface. Most artists are frustrated by this technique, because the paint is so hard to control, but Joe has an amazing dexterity and an intuitive ease in handling paint. “My favorite thing about painting is being able to create something from nothing. Each day kinda repeats itself, but I try to invent something new.” Joe is a night owl; he sleeps most of the day and works at night. This nocturnal pattern was famously followed by Picasso—and Elvis, of course. Joe likes to listen to soft, meditative music while he works, and he loves to ponder philosophical quotations. “I don’t paint every day, only about
Orange and Blue w/Green, 2015, Watercolor on paper, 9” x 12”
Red Circles w/Blue and Green, 2016, Watercolor on paper, 9” x 12”
Circles Inside Blue and Fuchsia Border, 2016, Watercolor on paper, 7” x 10”
Red and Green Circles w/Purple, 2015, Watercolor on paper, 22” x 30”
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
four days a week. You need that time off to let the ideas grow. A field at rest will yield a bountiful crop.” He lives simply with his animals, including four cats, the birds that come to his feeders, and the occasional raccoon. “Animals are another extension of God’s kingdom and just as important as we are.” We are delighted to show a tiny fraction of Joe’s immense body of work at LeQuire Gallery. Joe Montgomery paints without regard for the market or an ever-present audience, preoccupations that so often characterize the work of artists today. Joe’s humor, his humility, and his kindness, along with his dedication to his craft, are all part of a thoughtful spiritual quest. We could all take a lesson from him. na FUNKY GOOD: The Paintings of Joe Montgomery is on view at LeQuire Gallery August 12 through September 30. A reception for the artist is slated for Saturday, August 26, from 6 until 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.lequiregallery.com.
Joe Montgomery
WORDS Elaine Slayton Akin
Wearable Surfaces
Collaboration by fashion designer Amanda Valentine and artist Will Morgan Holland
A Unique Collaboration Between Local Artists and Fashion Designers Opens at Zeitgeist August 4–26
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ccording to the recent Economic Impact Study from the Nashville Fashion Alliance (NFA), the local fashion industry currently contributes $5.9 billion and 16,200 jobs to the Nashville creative economy and is poised to contribute $9.5 billion and 25,000 jobs by the year 2025. In fact, according to the study, Nashville is home to the “largest per capita concentration of independent fashion companies outside of New York and Los Angeles.” An April 2017 article titled “Nashville: America’s Next Fashion Capital?” by Business of Fashion—a London-based online journal publishing interviews with the likes of Vogue editor Anna Wintour and former First Lady Michelle Obama— points out Nashville’s unique tie to the fashion world because of our humble country music beginnings.1 “Yoked suiting embroidered with
Sarah Cihat, Stellar Large Globe, Porcelain
Ceri Hoover, Custom-dyed Simone Bag
yellow roses worn by honky tonk musicians, or sequined gowns boasting unironic shoulder pads modeled by the community’s biggest crossover stars” have come a long way, now replaced by Nicole Kidman in Alexander McQueen or Reese Witherspoon in her own brand Draper James.
both from the gallery’s Hillsboro Village years. While Zeitgeist specializes in contemporary fine art, “we notice when applied designers working in fashion, furniture, graphics, and architecture are thinking through the same rigorous processes as fine artists,” says Zeitlin, “and we want to bring attention to and celebrate their significant skill.”
This emerging interest and impressive display of capacity for growth in fashion has caught the attention of Nashville design supporters and appreciators, such as Anna Zeitlin and Hunter Claire Rogers who co-founded Fashion Happening Nashville (FHN) together in 2014. Zeitlin, the milliner behind Fanny & June and the manager at Zeitgeist art gallery, and Rogers, the director for opportunity at the NFA and the fashion blogger behind Rouge-Rogue.com, “started FHN as a way to support local designers with a pop-up-style venue to showcase their work to a broader audience,” says Rogers. “At the time, fashion in Nashville was just starting to take off, and we wanted to provide an artistic platform for all types of designers, not just focusing on apparel or the traditional and sometimes alienating runway show.” As Nashville continues to boom, the need for more creative space is only increasing.
Zeitlin and Rogers considered fashion first in organizing Wearable Surfaces. Splitting the curatorial duties down the middle, the FHN co-founders selected a group of seven fashion designers from the Nashville community with a variety of styles—from children’s apparel to high-end accessories—and a healthy mix of new and returning in mind. Then, the co-founders and designers worked together
Their fourth project to organize, Wearable Surfaces, opening August 4 with a special preview event at Zeitgeist, features seven collaborations, each with the goal of exhibiting an original garment or accessory from a local fashion designer that incorporates a textile pattern created by a local visual artist. As with their previous events, Zeitlin and Rogers were committed to taking local fashions outside the typical consumer context while conceptualizing this exhibition, focusing more on level of detail and craftsmanship than mere retail value—really viewing fashion as art. For Zeitgeist, this is the first exhibit to directly examine the art of fashion, although it does fall in line with the gallery’s long history of applied design, including a Memphisdesigned furniture show and a Philippe Starck installation,
1
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/market-gps/nashville-americas-next-fashion-capital
Megan Lightell, Storm over Jaén, Oil on panel, 48” x 48”
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Brett Warren, Raena, Photograph
Fashion designer Ona Rex and artist Brett Warren, detail of garment in process
to select artist partners for each collaboration: Project Runway star Amanda Valentine and her husband Will Morgan Holland, a filmmaker and painter; Maria Silver of streetwear line Black by Maria Silver and realist painter Kelly Williams of David Lusk Gallery; handbag designer Ceri Hoover and ceramicist Sarah Cihat; Emily Herron of fashion label Emlee and wallpaper designers Kelly Deihl and Elizabeth Williams of New Hat Projects; menswear designer Eric Adler and landscape painter Megan Lightell; Kate Brown of children’s-wear brand Morton and Mabel and muralist Emily Miller; and Ashley Balding of womenswear brand Ona Rex and photographer Brett Warren. The collaboration of Ceri Hoover and Sarah Cihat, for example, highlights nature-inspired similarities in their individual styles. Cihat’s most recent work— the Stellar series—is based on galactic space and the gratifying notion of feeling small. Layers of blue, pink, black, and seafoam green porcelain swirl around a circular vessel in a pattern that mimics an astronaut’s view of the earth and underscores earthy tones from Hoover’s marble-print leather Simone handbag. Megan Lightell’s landscape painting, another example, recalls the imagery from collaborator Eric Adler’s recent time in Spain, which was formative to his current work. “Collaboration between creatives is so important. FHN’s goal is to bring together different players within our creative community so that they can learn from each other,” says Rogers. “Our hope is that the gallery setting will eliminate the pressure to buy, and instead encourage conversation between designers and the public, and between designers and artists,” concludes Zeitlin. Proceeds from the Wearable Surfaces preview event on August 4 benefit the Sewing Training Academy, a program of Catholic Charities in conjunction with the NFA and Omega Apparel established as a pipeline for jobs in local manufacturing. The exhibition runs through August 26 at Zeitgeist art gallery. na For more information, visit www.zeitgeist-art.com.
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Artist Emily Miller
Nashville NationalDanceClubs
We’ve got a dance for that! Open Yourself to the World of Partnership Dancing. Don’t Just Live the Length of Your Life, Enjoy the Width as Well! • Live Band Every Friday Night • We Specialize in Brand New People
Enjoy an Experience with Real People, Real Dancing, and Real Fun at
National Dance Clubs of Nashville!
615-352-1155
5133 Harding Pike, Ste. A12 • Nashville, TN 37205
www.ndcballroomdancenashville.com
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
ASISEEIT BY MARK W. SCALA
Mark W. Scala Chief Curator Frist Center for the Visual Arts
Art Control:
Frances Stark, Censorship Now, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 108” x 132”
S
hould the arts be directed, encouraged, and even coerced toward building a good and just society? In his book Censorship Now!! (Akashic Books, 2015), musician and polemicist Ian F. Svenonius argues, under the auspices of something called the Committee for Ending Freedom, that the climate of unfettered expression has enabled a free-for-all in which works of art—good and bad, fatuous and relevant— are equalized by the sense that everything is permissible and no art is more effective than any other as a force for positive change. He considers “artistic freedom” to be a deceptive instrument of capitalism, propagated by those holding power to diffuse the activist potential of the arts by giving artists license to say anything, but with no real consequences if they try to undermine the status quo. He asks, “If art can ‘change the world’—which of course it can and does—isn’t the ‘freedom of expression’ doctrine really just a way to demote it to a theoretical gulag of absolute impotence and irrelevance?” Svenonius notes that political dictators have always affirmed art’s potency by seeking to control it. Censorship by totalitarian regimes is “a sign of respect to the role of art and the artist; an acknowledgment that art had resonance, meaning, and power with regard to international consciousness and ideological systems.” Then, perhaps playing the despot’s advocate, he
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Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York/Rome
Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York/Rome
Regarding Censorship Now!!
Frances Stark, Censorship Now, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 108” x 132”
pronounces art to be “a dangerous substance that must be regulated at all costs.” So, should one take Svenonius’s call for censorship at face value? Is he aligning himself with Robespierre, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-un, ISIS, and all those other purveyors of terror for whom art was and is weaponized? Not really. He calls for the state to be censored as well; by whom, he doesn’t say— perhaps a cadre of right-thinking artists, critics, and academics, as enforcers of a new Cultural Revolution. In a chilling parody/echo of that particular horror, he writes, “Censorship, termination, eradication, and liquidation! Censorship until reeducation!” He ignores that you cannot censor power without actually having power. Who would endow our cultural commissars with such authority but a greater power that, by hierarchical definition, could not itself be censored? That Svenonius has not presented his ideas about how censorship would actually work is perhaps beside the point. He may simply mean to shock artists into committing to social purpose, to insist on more critical thinking and “industrywide” checks and balances to weed out the art that doesn’t really change people’s lives in a positive way—to get artists to think of their work as a mission and a tool, with risk and
Courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York/Rome
impact beyond the art world. But then he further confounds the argument, going from censorship as a means of steering art in a socially beneficial direction to censorship as a force of darkness that serves to catalyze artists toward purposeful subversion. “For art to regain any sense of its place in the world, it must live under the shadow of the cudgel and the blackout.”
But this raises thorny questions. Unless they purposely court censorship in hopes it will make their subversive content more alluring to the disaffected, would artists who might wish to push boundaries of acceptable expression censor themselves to avoid the possibility that their works will be redacted, rather than be read and seen, or worse, that they might be fined or imprisoned? Does censorship imbue significance on expressions that by most measures are of no redeeming value, which would otherwise be dismissed or ignored? (Remember the First Amendment rights of pornographers: If they are censored, they are still only pornographers and not cultural heroes.) Can censorship ever be good for society? Think of the limits placed on expressions that go against widely held social mores, like the Confederate monuments being removed in New Orleans. In truth, institutions such as museums, concert halls, radio stations, and theaters exercise control over cultural presentations as a matter of course, typically choosing not to expose their audiences to works that promote hate, racism, and other forces that we know to be detrimental to individuals and society. Is this censorship, or is it good social judgment?
Frances Stark, Censorship Now, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 108” x 132”
in many forms: some political, but most in terms of opening a new way of seeing that is internal, ephemeral, and difficult to quantify. Even if art does contain ideas that frighten people, an ideologically based regulation of art and thought-policing in general debases our most certain means of inspiring actual transformation. Svenonius’s book can be ordered online (akashicbooks. com), and it was also available in the gift shop of the Whitney Museum during the 2017 Biennial. In that exhibition was a series of paintings by Los Angeles artist Frances Stark that depicted pages of Censorship Now!!’s first chapter, with particularly virulent sentences underlined. In an adjacent gallery was Dana Schutz’s painting Open Casket, which some activists have sought to remove or destroy out of indignation at its presumed exploitation of black suffering. It is possible that Stark’s paintings actually galvanized these protests and triggered a broad public conversation about artistic responsibility, freedom, and the rights of the aggrieved to suppress art (and thought) that does not meet their vision of a just society. Ironically, this juxtaposition reminds us that as a crucible for larger societal issues, art may not be as inconsequential as Svenonius supposes. na
Despite its perverse dance with totalitarianism, Censorship Now!! does contain insights about art’s diminished agency. For me, the book brought back memories of the NEA’s campaign during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, in which the phrase “Fear no art” was emblazoned across the t-shirts and bumper stickers of well-meaning art lovers. I didn’t have the nerve then to be an apostate, but I wanted to say that if art isn’t to be feared, it probably also doesn’t have any real power to make change. Rightly or wrongly, it is often change that people fear (remember that both Barack Obama and Donald Trump are considered by their respective supporters to be “change agents”). Yet change as inspired by art comes
Ian Svenonius
Photograph by Eva Moolchan
This equation suggests that Salman Rushdie needed to go underground for us to feel that his writing is important. If the Russian authorities had ignored Pussy Riot, if China had not jailed Ai Weiwei, these artists might not have the moral potency we now ascribe to them. It is a compelling thesis. While censorship doesn’t change the content of an artwork, it can turn that work into an alluring symbol for broad values that we hope are humanistic. Censorship can intensify art’s capacity to effectively critique repressive regimes by forcing it underground, where it is hard to ferret out, like the dissident samizdat literature that circulated quietly during the Soviet era.
Women Painting Women:
In Ernest
Isn’t It Romantic, Margaret Bowland
On Exhibit
Aug. 4 — Oct. 1, 2017 The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center 200 S. 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Clarksville, Tennessee 931-648-5780
www.customshousemuseum.org
Hours: Tues—Sat 10—5
Sun 1—5
Dean Shelton Captures the Charm and Pristine Beauty of Rural Tennessee at Richland Fine Art
WORDS John Pitcher
Dean Shelton
Quitting Time, 2016, Oil on canvas, 18” x 36”
S
ometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between an esteemed visual artist and an ordinary Peeping Tom. Just ask Dean Shelton. A noted watercolorist, Shelton often finds inspiration for his works while driving around the scenic backroads near his studio in Fairview. When he comes across a property that catches his fancy, he gets out of his car and begins snapping pictures. That’s when things get interesting.
Since his retirement as a freelance commercial illustrator in 2002, Shelton has emerged as one of Tennessee’s most prolific painters and watercolorists. His hundreds of works, often drawn from the digital photos taken during his many excursions, capture the charm and
Dean Shelton
Photograph by Toby Rose
“I’ve had to learn to be careful when taking pictures,” says Shelton in his lyrical Arkansas drawl. “When people start looking out their windows and see a guy taking pictures on their property, they get nervous. Once I tell them what I’m up to, though, they’re fine with it.”
“
As a painter, I’ve had to learn how to simplify my work, figuring out what I could do without. That didn’t come naturally at first.”
Hargrove Holler Barn, 2016, Watercolor on paper, 12” x 16”
Gulf Station, Watercolor on paper, 22” x 30”
pristine beauty of the Tennessee landscape. Some of his newest pieces are now on display at Richland Fine Art in Nashville.
painter, I’ve had to learn how to simplify my work, figuring out what I could do without. That didn’t come naturally at first.”
Shelton has a penchant for painting the sort of fleeting scenes that most of us take for granted as we drive through the rural South. His watercolors depict, among other things, old-fashioned country gas stations, rustic farmhouses, and worn-out antique cars and tractors. These images are appealing because of their familiarity. They are powerful because of their exquisite use of color and exacting attention to detail.
Shelton’s eye for detail and keen sense of awareness came in handy long before he picked up a paintbrush. In fact, it kept him alive during the Vietnam War, when he was stationed on board the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga.
One can almost feel the crisp fall air in Gulf Station, an old country gas station—complete with green John Deere farm tractor—surrounded by a blaze of fall foliage. Similarly, it’s tempting to shiver when viewing Out in the Cold, which shows a 1940s-era sedan encased in icicles and frost. “As an illustrator, I was expected to include a lot of detail in my work,” Shelton tells Nashville Arts Magazine. “As a
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Out in the Cold, Watercolor on paper, 14” x 21”
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“I was an aviation boatswain’s mate, which meant I worked on the flight deck with the arresting gear,” says Shelton. “With all those jets taking off and landing, you had to keep your eyes open and be careful.” After his three-year stint in the Navy, Shelton took advantage of the G.I. Bill to attend college. He knew he wanted to be an artist, but he had no interest in abstraction. “I wanted to do something that would allow me to make a living,” he says. A catalogue for Arkansas Polytechnic College caught his eye. Soon he was majoring in the school’s commercial art program.
Hwy. 7 Farm, 2017, Watercolor on paper, 10” x 20”
Shelton met his future wife at Arkansas Tech. He also came under the influence of Stephen Naegle, a professor and noted watercolorist from Utah who had a knack for painting nostalgic, rustic scenes. Naegle’s masterful techniques for contrasting light and shadow, along with his preference for painting old buildings and rural landscapes, would one day inform many of Shelton’s works. Fresh out of college, the young artist still had some of his G.I. Bill left, so he traveled to Los Angeles and enrolled briefly in the Art Center College of Design. He soon moved to Nashville, where he found employment as a magazine designer at the Baptist Sunday School Board, the precursor to LifeWay. Shelton became a freelance illustrator in 1974, an occupation he maintained for nearly thirty years. Shelton’s work as an illustrator almost always involved drawing people. In his watercolors, people are seldom seen. Instead, Shelton creates subjects like Hargrove Holler Barn, a study in the various ways light reflects off the snow. In Sitting Duck, Shelton plays with light as it sparkles on rippling water. Even when he does include people in his watercolors, light is once again the focus. In Quitting Time, we see two men standing outside a whitewashed building with a torn tin roof. The man standing next to the truck is fully illuminated, while the man closing the building door is shaded from direct sunlight by a nearby tree. “Those men were finishing up their day and loading up the truck, and I just thought the scene would make a great painting,” says Shelton. “That’s how I find a lot of my subjects for painting. You just know a good idea when you see it.” na Dean Shelton is represented by Richland Fine Art. See more of his work at www.richlandfineart.com and www.deanshelton.com.
Quiet River, 2007, Oil on board, 13” x 10”
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WORDS Megan Kelley
Becoming Themselves: we are not together yet Comes Together for Amelia Briggs Red Arrow Gallery
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August 12–September 3
Her focus rests entirely on the process-based work of transforming disparate elements of reclaimed fabrics and faux furs into shapes that read as singular creatures when mounted, covered finally in a polycrylic and acrylic Liquitex mixture that stiffens the surface and gives visual cohesiveness. They wait, golems of blank shape whose foreheads have not yet been marked. What begins with intention now turns to instinct. After existing with the canvas as its own shape, Briggs moves into composition and creation. Her process often culls clippings of lines from old coloring books and cartoons, piecing together elements into larger, loose collages that eventually serve as memory references for the lines she mimics, freehanded, onto the surfaces of the inflatables. The initial lines might begin in acrylic marker; oil paint moves across and atop their edges, hemming them in, pushing them out, adding definition.
Level 4 (inflatable), 2017, Oil and acrylic on stuffed fabric and faux fur on shaped panel, 33” x 32” x 4”
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e are not together yet comes together, joining paintings, drawings, and installation work by Amelia Briggs into a cohesive and complex body of work showcased at Red Arrow Gallery. Most commanding could be the Inflatables, Briggs’s series of oil and acrylic paintings worked on top of meticulous constructions of stuffed fabric and faux fur on panels. Briggs invests heavily in the sculptural process of creating the canvases, treating them as objects first, devoid of any visual intention or plan. “It’s completely separate from thinking about painting.”
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“The appeal is to see how much you can strip away and still evoke [connections],” Briggs explains. “It’s a process of play.” The works finalize when “the hole becomes a whole,” that point of resolution where, just like living creatures, nothing more could be added to the painting without the act taking away from their own agency as objects. Delightfully, Briggs’s drawings also straddle the adolescence between image and object. Briggs has the originally digital sketches printed onto luxurious fabrics—silky faille and satin and crepe de chine, to name a few—and the results are intimate surfaces both delicate and heavily present. “I started [the drawings] as a way to think about the language I was using in painting, but I loved how they existed in fabric.” Though flat, the printing process transforms Briggs’s narrow hieroglyphs beyond a visual plane. Like the paintings, they encroach unexpectedly as tactile objects that exist within the space you inhabit. Like a living being, they also exist within and display the realities of being manipulated by that
In both drawings and paintings, Briggs notes the nature of the line work, their edges at once familiar and yet lurking at the edges of the indecipherable. They speak to ideas of identity formation and transformation, as notations locked in the moment of struggle to define themselves. “You are seeing something not yet fulfilled, seeing something midtransformation.” To Briggs, these lines act as phrases within a lexicon written in cartoon squiggles and visual suggestion, stylized syllables in “this somewhat universal language, that operates as a signifier to something larger: how you can break it down and yet it still resonates.”
Sherbet, 2017, Oil and acrylic on fabric over panel, 18” x 17”
The works stutter in the twilight areas of the transition from childhood to adulthood, no longer two-dimensional, but as creatures inhabiting space with you, individuals in their own painted skins with their own partially articulated memories and mumbled stories. “They have their personality; they are objects that have lived their life with someone else, somewhere else, before joining you. They have an interior life you’ll never quite see. A part of them is always out of reach.” na We are not together yet opens August 12 and is on view through September 3 at Red Arrow Gallery, located within 919 Gallatin Avenue, #4, in Nashville. For more information, visit www.theredarrowgallery.com.
She notes the subtle ways that cartoons and coloring books—from visual suggestion to verbal choices—direct and shape the views of children, and she attends to the way that we never really stop relying on the necessity of
Amelia Briggs
Photograph by John Partipilo
Unlock (inflatable), 2017, Oil and acrylic on stuffed fabric and faux fur on shaped panel, 44” x 26”
environment. Conceptually, the work layers and loops in on itself. The lines of drawing exist because of the fabrication of weaving—of lines of thread—and the dissolving edges of a cloth’s cut are in turn also a series of unraveling lines, their own coiling edges evoking the semblance of some forgotten script.
contemporary fables to guide our continuing development: like the manipulated shapes and surfaces of the paintings themselves, how we as adults are still molded and formed by “the more complex [concepts] our media directs us towards.”
2018
OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS
May 2 through August 31, 2017
Submit your art, photography or sculpture to be juried by Nashville Arts Magazine for a 2018 exhibit at Customs House Museum in Clarksville. Tennessee artists interested in having a one-month solo exhibit must send the following to be considered: • Five images of work completed in the past three years to info@nashvillearts.com with accompanying list of titles, medium and size • Artist bio/resume • Complete the online form at www.nashvillearts.com
Submissions will be accepted from May 2 through August 31, 2017
Selected artists will be notified on October 2 and will be given a show at Customs House Museum in 2018
Must be at least 18 years of age to enter. Open to Tennessee residents only. Two-dimensional works cannot exceed 60” x 60”. Application materials will not be returned to artists. Entrants cannot have had a solo exhibit at Customs House in the last three years (2015 – 2017).
For entry details visit www.nashvillearts.com or call (615) 383-0278
THEATRE
Jim Reyland’s STAND, starring Barry Scott and Chip Arnold, voted Best New Play by the Scene, returns to Nashville October 27 and 28 at the 4th Story Theater, WUMC. Only three Nashville shows will kick off the third national tour. Writersstage.com has details.
Photography by Rick Malkin
BY JIM REYLAND
Lovers in The Winter’s Tale
The Winter’s Tale and Antony & Cleopatra A Twin Bill Shakespeare
Centennial Park August 10–September 17, Thursday–Sunday “We’ve never produced Antony & Cleopatra before, and it’s been twelve years since we last did The Winter’s Tale. Both are fascinating romances, one beginning as a comedy and ending as a tragedy, the other beginning as a tragedy and ending as a comedy. These shows complement each other in ways that will make seeing both rewarding.” —Denice Hicks, Executive Artistic Director Nashville Shakespeare Festival
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Cast of Antony & Cleopatra and The Winter’s Tale
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t’s time to collect family and friends and Centennial Park them under the stars as the actors and artists of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival (NSF) gather to entertain us with the words of that Elizabethan Wonder Boy William “Will” Shakespeare. This Nashville summer holds not just one but two of the bard’s greatest works. Don’t miss a true highlight of the season when the NSF continues its beloved tradition of Shakespeare in the Park from Thursday, August 10, through Sunday, September 17, at Centennial Park’s band shell. The signature summer program will feature two Shakespearean productions: The Winter’s Tale and Antony & Cleopatra.
There’s a reason that Shakespeare’s poetry and prose have been around since the late 1500s. They stand the test of time because they are timeless. So if it’s been a while, plan to reimmerse yourself—get to the park and discover Shakespeare all over again. The Festival’s acting, production, and stage craft will make both you and Shakespeare proud. You’ll agree that theatre on this level, in this location, is truly a joy. So get out the lawn chairs and the cooler—it’s time to enjoy summer with friends and family in Nashville’s new and improved Centennial Park for two of the bard’s very best, The Winter’s Tale and Antony & Cleopatra.
In case it’s been a long time since you were in high school, The Winter’s Tale is a fanciful story set in a fairy-tale world and is directed by NSF’s Artistic Associate, Santiago Sosa. The setting is inspired by the diverse South American Cultures during the Gran Colombia era. Antony & Cleopatra is a taut thriller about new love in later years and a cautionary tale of political brinksmanship, where the powerful play games that result in war and ruin. The performance is directed by David Ian Lee, a director, playwright, and professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
The Nashville Shakespeare Festival educates and entertains the Mid-South community through high-quality Shakespearean experiences. The company is one of the region’s leading professional theatres, and since its inception more than 460,000 Tennesseans have experienced the arts through one of their programs, which include Shakespeare in the Park, Winter Shakespeare, Shakespeare in Action, and other educational initiatives. For more information or to attend a show, visit www.nashvilleshakes.org.
In the theatre business, when something works you take it on the road. So in addition to the Centennial Park shows, NSF will offer a return to Williamson County for its second annual Shakespeare in Academy Park, which will run from September 28 through October 1 and feature both The Winter’s Tale and Antony & Cleopatra at the former campus of Battle Ground Academy. Visit www.franklinshakes.org. “We are excited to announce this year’s chosen works for Shakespeare in the Park and to return to Centennial Park in Nashville for the twenty-ninth year and Academy Park in Franklin for the second year,” said Denice Hicks, Executive Artistic Director of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival.
General admission to Shakespeare in the Park is open to the public with a $10 per person suggested donation. Food and beverage vendors open at 6 p.m.; pre-show entertainment begins at 6:30 p.m., and the performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Royal Packages are available for those seeking the ultimate VIP experience. This package is the Festival’s major fundraiser and includes reserved parking, prime seating, a Bacon and Caviar-catered gourmet picnic, a special gift, and personal welcome from the Nashville Shakespeare Festival volunteers and staff. There are a limited number of packages available for each performance, so guests are encouraged to book early. Royal Packages are $75 each. na Visit ticketsnashville.com for details.
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ARTSMART
A monthly guide to art education
TENNESSEE ROUNDUP
Watkins College offers an array of classes and workshops through its Community Education Program
Photographs courtesy of State Photography
Life-long Learning in Tennessee
Participation in the arts can be a unique and effective pathway to help older adults stay active, healthy, and engaged in their communities and in activities that give meaning and quality of life beyond basic health and safety. Research indicates that the brain continues to develop in response to experiences and learning if it receives the proper stimulation and that arts participation in older adults can lead to better physical health; better mental and emotional health and increased social interaction; and enhanced cognitive function. In addition, seniors who stay healthy can continue to be valuable resources for their communities, offering wisdom, skill, and time, both paid and volunteer.
The Frist Center presents Senior Mondays every third Monday of the month
and engagement; increased positive attitudes/perceptions about aging; and connecting older adults to their communities. Nonprofit organizations legally chartered in Tennessee and entities of local government or regional government (development district, human resource agency, etc.) are eligible to apply. Applications in the Creative Aging grants category will be accepted through August 31, 2017. For more information, visit tnartscommission.org/grants/arts-access/ creative-aging-tn or contact Kim Johnson, Director of Arts Access, at kim.johnson@tn.gov.
“The number of Tennessee seniors age 65 and over is expected to almost double from 850,000 in 2010 to 1.7 million in 2030,” according to an April 2017 comptroller’s report on senior longterm care. To meet the growing demand for services in senior adults, the Tennessee Arts Commission in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Health and the Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability introduced a new initiative called Creative Aging Tennessee.
Courtesy of State Photography
Part of this initiative includes one-time seed funding for innovative projects through the arts that will promote healthy aging of seniors and encourage community partnerships that have the potential for sustainability. Successful projects will encourage senior creativity, physical activity, and/or community engagement through the arts. Outcomes can include using the arts for improved health and wellness; lifelong learning
by Kim Johnson Director of Arts Access Tennessee Arts Commission
Music for Seniors presents Live Performance Learning Labs at the Nashville Public Library
ARTSMART Fisk University: Beth Madison-Howse Mini-College
The brainchild of Ingrid Collier in a proposal to then-president Walter Leonard, Mini-College was directed for 32 years by Beth Madison-Howse, special collections librarian and a descendant of Ella Shephard-Moore, one of Fisk University’s original Jubilee Singers. Inspired by this historical college setting, children enter timidly and then enthusiastically into the college-like environment utilizing university buildings (the library, gym, little theater and music building) and scheduled on the traditional M-W-F and T-TH college calendar. Every child takes the full class offerings, including art/pottery, math, Spanish, fitness, music (including African dance and drumming), speech and writing, computer animation and robotics. Fridays at Mini-College are reserved for field trips, movies, and other enriching experiences.
art displays, and a silent auction, which provides funding for programs, supplies and scholarships. Through the years, Mini-College has become a feeder system as many children developed a special love for Fisk, later enrolling there for college, and, as adults, sending their own children to Mini-College. “It’s amazing how many living on the periphery of Fisk have never walked onto the campus,” says Felder-Fentress. “For some, it is intimidating.” But there is that moment. “One parent who lives in the neighborhood had never been on campus. She later said when she walked across Fisk, something came through her spirit. She decided at that moment, I have to get my child in this program.” The Beth Madison-Howse Mini-College continues to serve as the gateway for many families to a vision of college life and graduation. For more information, visit www.fisk.edu/academics/summerprograms/mini-college.
Photography by Keep3
The dream of college seems far off to elementary and middle school children. For many children, it seems not only remote, but impossible. So why wait? For 37 years, children ages 5–12 have had the opportunity to experience college life through Fisk University’s unique Beth Madison-Howse Mini-College.
With the death of Madison-Howse in 2012, drama professor Persephone Felder-Fentress volunteered to do the grunge work to keep the Mini-College going during a director search. “One day I asked, have you found someone? and got the answer, yeah, we’re looking at her. And that’s how I became director,” FelderFentress laughs. “Mini-College is a huge production. Howse left this little gift for me. She had organized everything on USB. That was just her. The family also came to my rescue and continues to help.” The excitement of learning and self-discovery fills every classroom. An impromptu visit finds 11- and 12-year-olds glazing clay pieces for firing under the direction of Fisk Art Institute’s Alecia Henry. Next door, a little girl wearing a “Make Your Own Magic” t-shirt reflects the positive exploration of self in a “Life’s Little Lessons” class for 5- and 6-year-olds, led by TSU education major Gershom Jordan, as they are encouraged to “find something positive about themselves.”
Artist-in-Residence Alecia Henry working with students on designing and painting clay slabs
by DeeGee Lester Director of Education The Parthenon
Photograph by Drew Cox
On July 14, the six weeks of Mini-College concluded, as in years past with a Finale at Jubilee Hall including performance,
TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
FYEYE Instagram: @hunterarmistead
A Frame of Film, A Line of Words, Capture the Creative Culture of Our City
Rachel Smith Modern-day Rapunzel, magician, ballroom dance instructor
You Are About to Enter Modern-day Rapunzel Rachel Smith is a Twilight Zone nerd. “I’ve seen every episode,” says the starry-eyed beauty who lived her dream life through the fabled sci-fi series throughout her childhood. “Twilight Zone was full of illusion and always had something underneath the surface.” The series, which took us to “the fifth dimension, or the dimension of imagination,” was replete with magical twists and turns. Only now she is working on creating them herself . A large part of Smith’s childhood in Canton, Ohio, was spent en pointe— studying ballet. Her promising career culminated in graduating from the University of Cincinnati in ballet. But “I just couldn’t get behind the lifestyle and struggles of a career in dance,” says Smith. Nonetheless, Smith puts her dance background to good use in Nashville as an instructor at National Dance Clubs in Belle Meade. “I like my job a lot, “ she says. “I get to perform every Friday, and I love boosting my students’ confidence.” In her spare time, Smith is practicing sleight of hand. “My dream is to be a magician or magician’s assistant. Magic crosses a threshold the silver screen can’t touch, and there is nothing like experiencing it in person,” says Smith. “You have limited control over your environment, and so much of it is improvised. You really have to be prepared for anything.”
Open to All • Ages 3–Adult REGISTER ONLINE
ENSWORTH.COM/DANCE
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She and her boyfriend, Sam, are working on an act as we speak. “We’re not that far right now. Medium-level,” says Smith. Oh— the hair. “I haven’t cut it in seven years, since I was a sophomore in college.” As if her saucer brown eyes, perfect skin, and oo-la-la figure weren’t enough, a 50+ inch mane tumbles down her back. I don’t think Smith fully realizes her allure—yet. She doesn’t really work the program, yet she is still a knockout. I’m sure she brings it performing, like so many shy artists who turn it on once the lights flood the stage. I told her I’d introduce her to people in a circus here in town to help her find a magic tribe. I’ll be at the front of the stage to see a magical act with a little Twilight Zone thrown in. I wonder what she’ll hide under her tresses.
www.nashvillearts.com
615-383-0278
Jackie and Rich Dorough at Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church
Danielle Swartz-Koufman, baby Riley Levi Swartz-Koufman and Clifford Koufman at The Rymer Gallery
Christian Reed at Channel to Channel
Nicole Drake and Jayla Jackson at The Arts Company
At Zeitgeist
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Carol Evans at Gallery 202
ARTSEE
Vicki Horne, Amy Atkinson, and Linda Rebrovick at Nashville Wine Auction’s Grand Cru
Photograph by Glen Rose
Hope Stringer and Ira Shivitz at Gallery 202
James and Karen Johns and Dixie and Lawrence Armstead at Gallery 202
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Laura Nix, Embassy of Australia; Susan Edwards, Frist Center; Elisabeth Bowes, Embassy of Australia; Robert Kaplan; Pam McClusky, Seattle Art Museum; Trinita Kennedy, Frist Center; Richard Townsend, American Federation of Arts
Kathryn Sherman and Badger at Channel to Channel
Melvin Toledo at Gallery 202
Ella, Marnie, Matthew, and James Peck at Hope Church
At The Rymer Gallery
Carleigh Thomas, Alysha Malo and Dustin Hedrick at Channel to Channel
Steven Carter, Becky Wiacek, and Jon Krivoshey at The Rymer Gallery
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIFFANI BING
ARTSEE
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Mike Calway Fagen at The Packing Plant
Ashley Davison, Taigan Romain, and Jessica Twadell at The Arts Company
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Stacy Rector and Carrie Fraser at Tinney Contemporary Artist Marilyn Artus with Curtis Allen and Rana Mukherji at The Arts Company
Jax and Carolyn Hallowell at Zeitgeist
Mandy Ewing at Gallery 202
Jayme Hardy and Austin Wille at Tinney Contemporary
Emily Green and Will Martin at The Arts Company
Julie Horton at Gallery 202
At Gallery 202
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From Articulate with Jim Cotter: Shaily Dadiala leads a class in Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form
Galveston’s Grand 1894 Opera House is just a couple of years younger than the
Peanut farming in Bertie County, N.C., from Raising Bertie on POV
CULTURAL VISTAS Travel guru Rick Steves loves the beautiful Cinque Terra, as his fans know, and it’s one of the areas he covers in Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy. Airing Saturday, August 5, at 4 p.m. and Sunday, August 13, at 9 p.m., this special also visits Assisi, Siena, and Umbria, spotlighting historical, cultural, and gastronomic aspects of each area. Articulate with Jim Cotter returns to our schedule Sundays at 10:30 p.m. with “Orchestrating Hits” (August 20), which includes an exploration of Bach’s ever-challenging “Goldberg Variations” and the intriguing suspended sculpture of Michael Murphy. Later in the month, the architecture and otherworldly paintings of British-born, Brooklyn-based artist
Ellen Harvey are highlighted along with classical Indian dance (August 27). POV’s 30th season resumes Mondays at 9 p.m. with two films about populations facing numerous challenges. Tribal Justice (August 21) shows how two Native-American judges are attempting to turn their communities around by relying on traditional concepts of justice. Raising Bertie (August 28) profiles three African-Americans trying to overcome economic and social obstacles while growing up in rural North Carolina. Finally, you’re probably aware of a certain celestial happening over the skies of Nashville this August. NPT’s Tennessee Crossroads will host a Facebook Live solar eclipse event on August 21 with Crossroads personalities Joe Elmore and Danielle Colburn Allen. Check the Crossroads and NPT Facebook pages for details.
Please don’t let anything eclipse your support for NPT this month. Contribute at wnpt.org or through our on-air pledge programming. Enjoy encore presentations of many of our shows on NPT2, our secondary channel, and 24/7 children’s programming on NPT3 PBS Kids.
The small town of Manarola in the Cinque Terre, from Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy
Courtesy of Rick Steves
The Ryman Auditorium, another piece of Nashville’s musical history, is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers returned to the famous stage in May for a celebratory concert recalling their Grammy-winning At the Ryman album, recorded there in April 1991. Emmylou Harris at the Ryman airs Thursday, August 10, at 8:30 p.m. and Wednesday, August 16, at 11 p.m.
Ryman and is likewise a treasured venue. The Texas Tenors: Rise was taped there last fall with a choir and orchestra. In the new special airing Tuesday, August 8, at 8:30 p.m., Marcus Collins, John Hagen, and JC Fisher sing classic rock, pop, country, and Broadway favorites, as well as a stirring tribute to Les Misérables. On Saturday, August 19, at 6:30 p.m., Daniel O’Donnell: Back Home Again showcases the Irish tenor performing standards and traditional tunes in Dublin.
Courtesy of Margaret Byrne
Music steals the show this month. Music Row: Nashville’s Most Famous Neighborhood, an NPT original production, premieres Thursday, August 17, at 7 p.m. The hour-long documentary shows how an unimposing collection of bungalows evolved to a powerhouse in the country music and entertainment industries, taking Nashville along for the ride. In addition to vintage photographs, the program features interviews with Ray Stevens, Robert K. Oermann, Craig Havighurst, Kathy Mattea, Harold Bradley, Bill Anderson and others. Join us for a preview screening of Music Row on Tuesday, August 15, at the Belcourt Theatre. Tickets are free, but please RSVP at wnpt.org/events.
Courtesy of WHYY
Arts Worth Watching
August 2017 Weekend Schedule * 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30
5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00 6:30
Saturday
am Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Thomas & Friends Bob the Builder Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Splash and Bubbles Curious George Nature Cat Sewing with Nancy Sew It All Garden Smart The Great British Baking Show Martha Stewart’s Cooking School noon America’s Test Kitchen pm Cook’s Country Kitchen Hubert Keller: Secrets of a Chef Lidia’s Kitchen Simply Ming Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Baby Makes 3 American Woodshop This Old House Ask This Old House A Craftsman’s Legacy PBS NewsHour Weekend Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville
This Month on Nashville Public Television Music Row: Nashville’s Most Famous Neighborhood How a group of unremarkable bungalows became the heart of country music industry.
Thursday, Aug. 17, 7 pm
Sunday
am Sid the Science Kid Cyberchase Sesame Street Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Cat in the Hat Curious George Nature Cat Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads Nature Washington Week noon To the Contrary pm Born to Explore Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi Family Travel with Colleen Kelly Globe Trekker California’s Gold Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend Charlie Rose: The Week
* Beginning August 26
Weekday Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00
am Classical Stretch Body Electric Ready Jet Go! Wild Kratts Thomas & Friends Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Splash and Bubbles Splash and Bubbles Sesame Street Sesame Street Super Why! noon Peg + Cat pm Dinosaur Train Ready Jet Go! Bob the Builder Nature Cat Wild Kratts Wild Kratts Odd Squad Odd Squad Arthur Arthur Martha Speaks PBS NewsHour
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY
Emmylou Harris at the Ryman
Endeavour on Masterpiece
Thursday, Aug. 10, 8:30 pm
Sundays, Aug. 20 – Sept. 10, 8 pm
An iconic performance event with the Nash Ramblers. Nashville Public Television
The fourth season begins in the summer of 1967.
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7:00 Ken Burns: America’s Storyteller – American Sampler A celebration focusing on Burns’ films on Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twin, Jackie Robinson and others. 9:00 Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy A new special with stops in Umbria, Assisi, Siena and the Cinque Terre. 11:00 PBS Previews: The Vietnam War
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Cincinnati, Hour 1. 8:00 Motown 25 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Legends of Folk: Isn’t This a Time!
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Myrtle Beach, Hour 3. 8:00 ’60s Pop, Rock & Soul A My Music special hosted by Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits and Davy Jones of The Monkees. Guests include The Ventures, The Kingsmen and others. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Great Performances Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy. .
August 21 & 23
NOVA: Eclipse Over America
Monday
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7:00 The Highwaymen Live at Nassau Coliseum Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson in a 1990 performance. 8:30 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: 50 Years and Circlin’ Back John Prine, Vince Gill, Jackson Browne, Alison Krauss, Rodney Crowell and others help the band celebrate. 10:00 Suze Orman’s Financial Solutions for You
Sunday
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7:00 Simon & Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park The celebrated 1981 benefit concert. 8:30 Eric Clapton: Slowhand at 70 - Live at the Royal Albert Hall The guitarist’s classics performed during a birthday concert. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Alone in the Wilderness
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7:00 Ireland’s Wild Coast Wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson explores the rugged coastal area he’s called home for 30 years. 9:00 NOVA Secrets of the Sky Tombs. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Sam Smith; Future Islands.
Wednesday
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: 50 Years and Circlin’ Back 9:30 Rick Steves’ Tasty Europe 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Tunnel: Sabotage Episode 8. The season ends with a terrifying showdown.
Thursday
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17 7:00 NPT Favorites 7:00 Music Row: Nashville’s 10:00 BBC World News Most Famous 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Neighborhood 11:00 Emmylou Harris at the An NPT original Ryman documentary about the neighborhood and its influence on the music industry. 8:30 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Motown 25
7:00 The Legends of Folk: 7:00 Alone in the 7:00 Volunteer Gardener: Isn’t This a Time! Wilderness Home Grown A 2003 concert Perennial favorite A new special. featuring Peter, Paul Richard Proenneke, 8:30 Emmylou Harris at the and Mary; Arlo Guthrie; the self-sufficient man Ryman Pete Seeger and The in the Alaskan Harris and the Nash Weavers. wilderness. Ramblers re-create 8:30 The Texas Tenors: 8:30 Beautiful Tennessee: their 1991 concert that Rise Our Scenic helped launch the A new concert filmed in Waterways refurbishment of the Galveston and An NPT original iconic venue. including selections production. 10:00 BBC World News from across genres. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 ’60s Pop, Rock & Soul 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Highwaymen 11:00 Bee Gees: One Night Live at Nassau Only Coliseum .
7:00 Boys of ’36: American Experience The 1936 U.S. Rowing Team competes in Nazi Germany. 8:00 Rare – Creatures of the Photo Ark Joel Sartore photographs endangered animals in Budapest, Prague and New Zealand. 9:00 Frontline The Vaccine War. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Audubon
Tuesday
Nashville Public Television’s Primetime Evening Schedule
August 2017 4
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7:00 ’70s Soul Superstars Patti LaBelle hosts this all-star My Music reunion of the Commodores, the Chi-Lites, the Trammps, etc. 9:30 Next Door Neighbors: Belonging An NPT original documentary about foreign-born Middle Tennesseans. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Age Reversed with Miranda EsmondeWhite
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7:00 Motown 25 Legendary comedian Richard Pryor hosts; performers include The Jackson 5, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. 9:00 PBS Previews: The Vietnam War A behind-the-scenes look at the series coming from Ken Burns and Kim Novick next month. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Rick Steves’ Heart of Italy
7:00 Rick Steves’ Dynamic Europe: Amsterdam, Prague, Berlin 8:00 Great British Baking Show Patisserie. 9:00 Great British Baking Show The Final. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Infinity Hall Live Snarky Puppy.
Friday
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6:30 Daniel O’Donnell: Back Home Again O’Donnell performs standards and Irish tunes in Dublin with Mary Duff and Derek Ryan. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Poldark on Masterpiece Season 2, Episode1. 10:30 NPT Favorites
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7:00 Welk Stars – Through the Years A salute to 18 beloved Welk entertainers with vintage photos and performance clips. 9:00 The Highwaymen Live at Nassau Coliseum 10:30 Forever Painless with Miranda EsmondeWhite
6:30 Great Performances Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy. Filmmaker Michael Kantor explores the role of Jewish composers, choreographers and writers through interviews and performance footage. 8:30 A Place to Call Home Secret Love. 9:30 Bee Gees: One Night Only 11:00 Globe Trekker Food Hour: The Story of Beef.
Saturday
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7:00 Walt Disney: American Experience Part 2. Creating Cinderella, Mary Poppins and Disneyland. 9:00 Frontline The Man Who Knew. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Arab Americans The contributions of immigrants from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
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7:00 Walt Disney: American Experience Part 1. From creating Mickey Mouse to making Snow White. 9:00 Frontline League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis. Part 2. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Roadtrip Nation Life Hackers. Aspiring cybersecurity pros.
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for NPT, NPT2, and NPT3 PBS Kids.
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Tuesday, August 8, 7:30 pm
Legends of Folk: Isn’t This a Time!
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Saturday, August 19, 6:30 pm
Daniel O’Donnell: Back Home Again
September
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:00 NPT Favorites 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 10:00 BBC World News 8:00 NPT Favorites 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:00 BBC World News 11:00 Infinity Hall Live 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Hit Rewind. 11:00 In My Lifetime The history of nuclear weapons through the eyes of scientists, military personnel and former heads of state.
7:00 Earth’s Natural 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:00 Tennessee Civil War Wonders 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 150: Civil War Songs & Extreme Wonders. 8:00 NPT Favorites Stories 8:00 NOVA 10:00 BBC World News 8:00 Richard Linklater: Zeppelin Terror 10:30 Last of Summer Wine American Masters Attack. Germany’s 11:00 The Nuclear Requiem A profile of the devastating World The continuing Oscar-nominated War I airships. conundrum of filmmaker. 9:00 India: Nature’s humankind’s most 9:30 On Story Wonderland lethal weapon. Deconstructing Billy Wild Ways. Wildlife Wilder. corridors. 10:00 BBC World News 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Infinity Hall Live 11:00 Austin City Limits Blind Pilot. Foals/Alejandro Escovedo.
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7:00 NOVA Eclipse Over America. 8:00 The Farthest Voyager in Space NASA’s Voyager missions, including Voyager 1’s departure from our solar system. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Don Henley.
Visit wnpt.org for complete 24-hour schedules
7:00 Great Fire Episode 3. Thomas returns to rescue Sarah and David. 8:00 Endeavor on Masterpiece Lazaretto. Odd happenings at a hospital. 9:30 Cheekwood: A Masterpiece by Man & Nature 10:00 Start Up Camping Goods. 10:30 Articulate with Jim Cotter Feminist Fatale. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Rapid City, Hour 3. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Seattle, Hour 1. 9:00 POV The Grown-Ups. Four middle-aged friends with Down syndrome yearn for greater autonomy. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Richard M. Sherman: Songs of a Lifetime
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7:00 Great Fire Episode 2. Samuel Pepys calls on the king when the mayor’s efforts fail. 8:00 Endeavor on Masterpiece Canticle. Social strife leads to a fatality. 9:30 Aging Matters: Abuse & Exploitation 10:00 Start Up 3-D Sushi. 10:30 Articulate with Jim Cotter Ellen Harvey. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Rapid City, Hour 1. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Rapid City, Hour 2. 9:00 POV Raising Bertie. African-Americans in rural North Carolina. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Anne Morrow Lindbergh: You’ll Have the Sky The author’s works and her marriage to the famous aviator.
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow 7:00 Diana Cincinnati, Hour 3. Diana’s story in her own 8:00 NOVA words on the 20th Eclipse Over America. anniversary of her The first total eclipse death. to traverse the U.S. 8:00 Cheekwood: A mainland in more than Masterpiece by Man & a generation. Nature 9:00 POV 8:30 Wessyngton Tribal Justice. Two Plantation: A Family’s Native-American Road to Freedom judges use traditional 9:00 Frontline concepts of justice to League of Denial: The help their communities. NFL’s Concussion 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Crisis. Part 1. 11:00 BBC World News 10:00 BBC World News 11:30 Badger Creek 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Not Without Us
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7:00 Great Fire Episode 1. Fire breaks out in a London bakery in 1666. 8:00 Endeavor on Masterpiece Game. The Season 4 opener. 9:30 Aging Matters: Aging & the Workplace An NPT original. 10:00 Start Up Eggs and Wine. 10:30 Articulate with Jim Cotter Orchestrating Hits. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
Wednesday, August 23, 8:00 pm
The Farthest Voyager in Space
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show America’s Wonderland 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Poldark on Masterpiece Season 2, Episode 4. Frances goes missing. 9:30 Poldark on Masterpiece Season 2, Episode 5. Ross does Elizabeth a favor. 10:30 The Songwriters Guy Clark. 11:00 Globe Trekker Food Hour: The Story of Beer.
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Songs from the Classics. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Poldark on Masterpiece Season 2, Episode 2. George goes to plan B. 9:30 Poldark on Masterpiece Season 2, Episode 3. Smugglers make Ross an offer. 10:30 The Songwriters Steve Cropper. 11:00 Globe Trekker Food Hour: The Story of Beef.
Photography Competition
8th annual photography competition Local and international photographers Amateur and professional
+ First Place $500 cash
+ Second Place
$300 Chromatics gift card
+ Third Place
$200 Chromatics gift card
Top entries will be featured in the December issue of Nashville Arts Magazine and entrants may be given the opportunity to shoot an assignment for the magazine.
Submissions due: October 20, 2017
Winners announced: December 2017
You may enter as many photographs as you wish for $5 per photograph. 112
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See www.nashvillearts.com for details.
Remembering Julie London ... I never really thought about sex growing up. A neighborhood boy tried to explain it to me one time when I was about nine years old, but it all sounded so gross my mind just wouldn’t go there. This was South Carolina during the Eisenhower years. And as I observed the adults around me, I got the impression sex was for men to enjoy and women to endure. Then along came television and Julie London. I was a young teenager when I first saw Julie London sing “The Marlboro Song” on TV. The ad was shot in black and white and set in a swank nightclub. The hour is late. Close to closing time. The tables are empty except for one—a cozy table-for-two where Julie London is seated across from a man in a dark suit. She’s wearing an evening gown that’s mostly strapless. The gauzy fabric draping off her left shoulder gives the impression that Julie London is a gift in the early stages of being unwrapped.
Williamson County Culture
“Why don’t you settle back ... “ she sings in her inimitable smoky voice, as she offers the ruggedly handsome man-in-the-darksuit a Marlboro. Later, when he lights her cigarette, she looks him right in the eye. (This is hard to do. When my teen-aged girlfriends and I would try this, we often missed the flame, sometimes burning our hands.) “Why don’t you settle back ... “ Is this an invitation? Or a threat. “You get a lot to like with a ... Marlboro.” The first time I heard that line, my young imagination kicked into high gear. A lot of WHAT to like? I wondered. Whatever it was, it had to be fantastic. It’s interesting to note, not once in the ad do Julie London and this man touch. The closest they come to touching occurs in the last line—”Filter ... flavor ... pack or box.” At the word “filter,” the camera zooms in on Julie London’s cigarette ash just as she flicks it on his ash. Oh. My. God. At this point, only one thing is certain. Whatever Julie London and this man do after they finish smoking ... it will not be something to be endured. Marshall Chapman is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter, author, and actress. For more information, visit www.tallgirl.com.
BEYONDWORDS
Photograph by Anthony Scarlati
ry Eve st fir ! ay Frid
BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN
MYFAVORITEPAINTING ÉVA BOROS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF SAVING BANKSY, CO-FOUNDER OF NASHVILLE WALLS PROJECT, ART CONSULTANT
ARTIST BIO: Ben Eine Ben Eine, born August 23, 1970, is a prolific street artist based in London, England. Eine’s career as an artist began in the underground graffiti scene and came to prominence in the “commercial” graffiti scene through his symbiotic partnership with London graffiti artist Banksy. In July 2010, President Barack Obama was presented with a painting by Eine, TWENTY FIRST CENTURY CITY, as an official gift from the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. Ben Eine, É (from WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING), Spray paint on wood, 48” x 36”
This É was originally part of an indoor mural project Ben Eine was
For more information, visit www.nashvillewallsproject.com/ and www.savingbanksy.com.
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Éva Boros
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
involved with in San Francisco in 2011. Twenty different artists from around the world painted mini-murals in an abandoned car-repair shop for an exhibition—scheduled to be painted over. Ben did a freehand mural in his classic letter style that said: WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING. Its dual meaning is a reference to the illegal nature of street art and a nod to the “While You Were Sleeping” blog which successfully lobbied the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art (LA MOCA) to include Ben in the massive 2011 Art in the Streets exhibit. We had just confirmed Ben as the primary character for our movie Saving Banksy days before he painted the mural. We promised Ben that, like the Banksy Rat, it would be a shame to see WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING destroyed. So he gave us the entire painting. We cut each section into individual letters and gave them to artists, patrons of street art, and supporters as gifts for advocating street art. Ben customized this piece with an accent so it would represent the first letter of my name, Éva. na