Ed NASH Liz HODDER Pamela WILSON Marjorie GUYON Richard TUSCHMAN
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
1
10% OFF LANDSCAPE SERVICES FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST
BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL AT THE GARDEN CENTER
Visit our website to schedule a free consultation
20% off houseplants + free custom potting for the month of August with a student ID
• Designs • Installations • Cleanups • Enhancements • Hardscapes • Outdoor Kitchens • Master Plans
HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS EVERY WEEKDAY FROM 3PM-6PM
*Does not include maintenance or irrigation contracts
Includes free custom potting and 20% off cacti and succulents
Landscape Design/Build Services, Interior Botanical Designs, Maintenance & Installation
(615) 244-8949 www.gardensofbabylon.com New store hours: 8am-6pm
Photograph by Jim McGuire
Paul Polycarpou, Publisher and CEO, Nashville Arts Magazine
A
sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of you who sent prayers, well-wishes, and healing thoughts my way. They helped a great deal and are much appreciated. I’d like to also thank the team of angels at the Cardiac Unit, Centennial Medical Center who were bound and determined to keep me around a while longer. Words are way too small to express my gratitude. I have enjoyed publishing all 109 issues of the Nashville Arts Magazine, from the first issue almost ten years ago when we hardly knew what we were doing to this issue where we are still making it up as we go along. But that’s as it should be. Just like art, a moving fluid target. I have enjoyed getting to know the artists, the dealers, the poets, the writers, the thinkers, performers, administrators, curators, and I count myself fortunate that I could in some small way be a part of that. I’m very proud of the work that we have done here at the Nashville Arts Magazine. I hope we have had a positive impact on the art and culture of this wonderful city we all call home. I too have a bucket list, and it’s time for me to go get it and start ticking off some of the boxes. I’m looking forward to a life without press deadlines, although I know I will also miss that. This is the last issue of the Nashville Arts Magazine. I thank each and every one of you that has supported this labor of love. You know who you are and you know how indebted I am to you. Rebecca Pierce, Sam Jaco, Madge Franklin, Wendi Powell, it could not have happened without you.
Be kind and be thoughtful. Paul NASHVILLEARTS.COM
3
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
PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP
www.facebook.com/NashvilleArts www.twitter.com/NashvilleArts www.pinterest.com/NashvilleArts
www.nashvillearts.com Editorial & Advertising Offices 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 615-383-0278
Editorial PAUL POLYCARPOU Publisher and CEO paul@nashvillearts.com REBECCA PIERCE Managing Editor rebecca@nashvillearts.com MADGE FRANKLIN Copy Editor
Advertising SAM JACO 615-383-0278 sam@nashvillearts.com
Design WENDI K. POWELL Graphic Designer
Distribution WOUTER FELDBUSCH & NEAL VOSBERG
Subscriptions & Customer Service 615-383-0278
Business Office MOLLYE BROWN 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204
Editorial Interns SYDNEY BOZEMAN Belmont University NICOLE LEONARD Western Kentucky University TYLER REINA Belmont University
Columns HUNTER ARMISTEAD FYEye MARSHALL CHAPMAN Beyond Words LINDA DYER Appraise It JOSEPH E. MORGAN Sounding Off ANNE POPE Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND Theatre Correspondent MARK W. SCALA As I See It LIZ CLAYTON SCOFIELD Pocket Lint JILL MCMILLAN Arts & Business Council
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 $6.70 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.
Fresh. Original. Contemporary.
SUMMER IMPROMPTU August 4-23
©Hollie Chastain
Avant- Garage Sale ONE DAY ONLY August 4
THE
arts
COMPANY
theartscompany.com 5TH AVENUE OF THE ARTS • DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE
HISTORIC FR ANKLIN TENNESSEE
JOE
PA R ROT T
K E N
G A I DOS
Knoxville, TN
Franklin, TN
Central Avenue, Oil on canvas
Turned maple wood vessel with pyrography design
Artist Reception August 3, 6-9pm 202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064
•
www.gallery202art.com
•
615-472-1134
ALTERED LANGUAGE NEW WORK BY CECIL TOUCHON & NIELS SHOE MEULMAN July 14th - August 18th, 2018
©CECIL TOUCHON
TINNEY CONTEMPORARY 237 5TH AVE N. 615.255.7816. TINNEYCONTEMPORARY.COM 5 T H AV E N U E O F T H E A R T S DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE
Collaborations August 4 - September 8 Artist Reception Saturday August 18th, 6-8pm
Kell Black & Barry Jones David French & Dell Webber Warren Greene & Trey Vaughn Mark Hosford & Jason Lascu Ray Kleinlein & Hadas Tal Bob Nugent & Mark Perlman Andrew Saftel & Shane Darwent Suzanne Stryk & Ann Ropp Terry Thacker & Kristi Hargrove Caroline Waite & Catherine Cornelius
+ featuring a collaborative series by Billy Renkl & Greg Sand
www.cumberlandgallery.com | 615 297 0296 | 4107 Hillsboro Circle
THE RYMER GALLERY presents
Ether and Earth
New Encaustic Works by Pam Barrett Hackett
August 4 – 31, 2018 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
34
AUGUST
76
2018
NASHVILLE ARTS MAGAZINE
34 Ed Nash Nashville’s Leading Abstract Painter
On the Cover
40 Point of View JD Wise 42 Liz Hodder The Fine Print
Columns
46 Pamela Wilson Circus in Oils
16 Crawl Guide 32 The Bookmark Hot Books and Cool Reads
50
65 Public Art 74 Arts & Business Council 75 Sounding Off by Joseph E. Morgan 80 Fresh Paint Wayne Brezinka 84 Art Around James Nachtwey
Marjorie Guyon, Ancestor Letters from the series Tattoo, Collage, marble dust and pigment on handmade paper, 40” x 26” See page 58.
90 ArtSee 53 What Is Love? Julia Martin Gallery
Features
58 Marjorie Guyon Visual Poetry
18 Willie Betty Newman Salon painting by important Tennessee artist comes to light
58
Photograph by Jason Reed
23 Ben Caldwell Hammering copper and silver into works of outstanding beauty
23
Photograph by David Bean
50 Melodie Grace Pottery at West Elm
92 Art Smart by Rebecca Pierce 96 FTEye by Hunter Armistead 98 Theatre by Jim Reyland 100 NPT 105 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman 106 My Favorite Painting
66 66 Beautiful Terrible Things The Work of Richard Tuschman 70 Art Nashville Who Are These Guys & What Do They Want?
26 Community Enrichment Poverty & the Arts
72 “Daily Art” Cultivates Quotidian Inspiration at David Lusk Gallery
28 Kelly Sherrod Inhabited Space
76 Janet Decker Yanez Gallerie Tangerine
NEW LISTING
NEW LISTING
199 BOWLING AVENUE | $2,148,000
4354 CHICKERING LANE | $1,849,000
New traditional style home with a modern flare. Enchanting courtyard, chef ’s kitchen open to great room, 2 grand master suites, covered porch with outdoor kitchen, elevator, 7” white oak floors, huge rec room, terrace level wine cellar & 6+ car garage.
Traditional one story home on 6 private acres. Beautiful hardwoods throughout, living room with fireplace open to dining room. Chef ’s kitchen, family room with fireplace & walnut built-in cabinet. All bedrooms ensuite. Screened flagstone porch with fireplace.
NEW PRICE
FOREST HILLS
NEW PRICE
525 EXCALIBUR COURT | $1,649,000
1939 BRISTOL COURT | $1,525,000
5815 STILL HOLLOW ROAD | $1,599,000
Gorgeous brick & stone home. Two story entry, paneled study, elevator. Chef ’s kitchen open to breakfast & family room. Enclosed porch with fireplace. Bonus room & theater.
Exquisite custom built home perfect in every way. No detail overlooked. Superior location with the closest proximity to Nashville with Brentwood Schools. Fabulous view.
Incredible mid-century modern home. Chef ’s kitchen with custom finishes open to great room & dining. Master on main with walk-in closet. Rooftop terrace. Perfect for entertaining.
STOCKETT CREEK
NEW LISTING - STOCKETT CREEK
GREEN HILLS
GREEN HILLS
1023 STOCKETT DRIVE | $1,299,900
3000 STRICKLAND DRIVE | $1,299,900
3705 A & B ESTES ROAD| $949,900
KIRTLAND RESIDENCES | $755,000-990,000
UNDER CONTRACT
UNDER CONTRACT
UNDER CONTRACT
UNDER CONTRACT
306 DEERWOOD LANE | $1,980,000
3623 WOODMONT BLVD | $1,040,000
2310 BELMONT BOULEVARD | $850,000
316 CHALFORD COURT | $695,000
SOLD
SOLD
SOLD
UNDER CONTRACT | SOLD
7209 PRAIRIE FALCON DRIVE | $1,625,000
8 VELLANO COURT | $1,369,000
403 BRIERLY COURT | $1,189,800
4199 KIRTLAND ROAD| $645,000 2035 OVERHILL DRIVE | $743,000
LAURA BAUGH 615.330.3051
The Baugh Group
worth properties, llc laurabaugh3@gmail.com | jkcooke@aol.com | cherylf@worthproperties.com
JENNIFER COOKE CHERYL FLEMING 615.406.4844 615.202.4466
BRENTWOOD WITH RESORT STYLE POOL
291 JONES PARKWAY | $3,750,000 European style home on private lot. Cooks kitchen with Calcutta Gold marble. Walnut hardwoods, 6 ensuite bedrooms, theater, resort pool with slide, cabana, outdoor kitchen, large yard, fireplace & bath.
NEW PRICE
5005 MOUNTVIEW PLACE | $2,790,000 Exquisite new home on 3 acres. Quality built with open floor plan, beautiful moldings, designer finishes. Master suite with marble bath, steam shower & HUGE closet. Finished daylight basement with safe room. Geothermal heat & air.
NEW PRICE
1222 OLD HICKORY BOULEVARD | $2,099,000 Stunning private, gated estate! Hardwoods throughout, designer finishes & study with custom barn door. All bedrooms ensuite. Huge chef ’s kitchen open to family room & breakfast room. Upstairs media room & exercise room.
LAURA BAUGH 615.330.3051(M) | 615.250.7880 (O) LAURABAUGH3@GMAIL.COM
August Crawl Guide Franklin Art Scene
Friday, August 3, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Niels Shoe Meulman, Tinney Contemporary Joe Parrott, Gallery 202
Experience historic downtown Franklin and see a variety of art during the Franklin Art Scene. Gallery 202 is featuring paintings by Joe Parrott and wood turnings by Ken Gaidos. Finnleys is hosting self-taught embroidery artist Jessica Melton. At Franklin First United Methodist Church enjoy pen-and-ink sketches of old barns, churches, and treasured buildings by Mike Krupek and handmade quilts by Ginny Meyer. Parks on Main is showing mixed-media paintings by Amy Elizabeth Smith. Hope Church Franklin is exhibiting oil paintings by Michelle Rideout. Coffee House on 2nd is presenting Susan Charest’s whimsical drawings on wood canvases made from recycled pine, shiplap, and cedar. See the original illustrations created by Cory Basil for his youngreader novel The Perils of Fishboy at Imaginebox Emporium. Outdoor Classic Structures is showcasing art by Olivia A. Myers who makes pottery and creates abstract paintings using a palette knife. Twine Graphics is featuring Joel Barnett, an expressionist artist who explores our relationship with the unknown through colorful washes and line work. Winchester Antiques is displaying mosaics by Cathy Sudzius. At Williamson County Archives experience Tim Bush’s handcrafted guitar sculptures made of repurposed and reimagined materials. Firstlight Art Academy is displaying student work at St. Phillip Catholic Church. For more information and the trolley schedule, visit www.downtownfranklintn.com/the-franklin-art-scene.
First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown
Jan Chenoweth, The Arts Company
Saturday, August 4, from 6 until 9 p.m. Celebrate the 12th Anniversary of the First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown this month with two outdoor musical performances throughout the night, and an “After Crawl After Dark” event at Woolworth on 5th, from 8 p.m. until midnight. The Arts Company is presenting Summer Impromptu, a diverse selection of artwork that includes photography, painting, and sculpture, and the Cassidy Cole exhibit continues. In addition, the Annual Avant-Garage Sale takes place from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Tinney Contemporary is exhibiting Altered Language, new work by Cecil Touchon and Niels Shoe Meulman. The Rymer Gallery is unveiling Ether and Earth, new encaustic works by Pam Barrett Hackett. The Browsing Room Gallery at the Downtown
Valerie Levkulich, Rogue Gallery 77
Presbyterian Church is hosting an opening reception for Caleb McLaughlin’s Sky Lines, which explores the slow and ponderous light of the night sky and its relationship with the bright, energetic, and frenzied city lights of downtown Nashville.
In the Historic Arcade
Blue Fig Gallery is showing new works by artist Randy Purcell. “O” Gallery is featuring oil paintings by Jordan Weisenauer, as well as work by Tess-Marites Lankovich, Greg Allen, Chris Harsch, Lindsay Griffin, Raymond Gregory, and Dina Capitani. Building No. 9 Gallery is presenting Actual Size Contemporary Nashville Abstraction featuring work by P.J. Maxwell, Molly Howel, Erin and KJ Schumacher, Johnny Woolsey, Charlie Smyth, and Peter Fleming. DBO Gallery is exhibiting the latest work of artists Olasubomi Aka-Bashorun, Sam & Jamin Welch, and Kim Barry. Rogue Gallery 77 is displaying the final 2018 showing of The Ancient Series, Valerie Levkulich’s Egyptian- and Greek-themed paintings in Mosaic Pointillism. Wolf and Crow Gallery is showcasing resident artist Emily Cathcart’s series of mixed-media fantasy, along with work by artists Diane Lee and Patty Vaca. Corvidae Gallery is hosting an opening reception for Resurgence in Space #61. The exhibit includes work by artists Jeanie Tomanek, Holly Scoggins, Nina Covington, Marilyn Garrett, Alison Logan, Omari Booker, Tammy Wampler, Bella Harris, Joshua Roman, Jen Lightfoot, Autumn Rozario Hall, Jason Guffey, and Todd Fife. En El Cielo by Mexican American artist Francisco Monrreal is on view at Studio 66.
Hatch Show Print’s The Haley Gallery is showing Jim Sherraden’s wooden and paper quilts, in which the artist cuts up his own printed pieces, mixing and matching them on single- and multi-dimensional surfaces. For parking and trolley information, visit www.nashvilledowntown.com/play/firstsaturday-art-crawl.
Uptown Crossing Parking Garage
The corner of West End and 21st Avenues On your way from the First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown to Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston, stop by Uptown Crossing Parking Garage to see Brian Tull’s three large-scale Brian Tull, Uptown Crossing Parking Garage
Joel Barnett, Twine Graphics
Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston
Saturday, August 4, from 6 until 9 p.m. From Hagan to Houston to Chestnut and beyond, Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston offers a broad range of artistic experience. Zeitgeist is showing guncotton, a multidisciplinary exhibition by Banning Bouldin of New Dialect and Greg Pond, which includes a dance performance.
Take a drive down Gallatin Pike to Red Arrow Gallery for the opening of Moons of Another, a solo show by Bethany Carlson whose drawings employ a practice of addition and subtraction with detailed and delicate charcoal marks that challenge the eye as to what is being seen. The Green Gallery at Turnip Green Creative Reuse is presenting The Collector, a solo exhibition featuring work by Carrie Cox. Working mostly in paper and found objects, Cox allows the materials she collects to inspire her process. Southern Grist Brewery is showing Elizabeth Ratliff’s recent comedic photographic series featuring children portrayed as an old married couple. For updates on the East Side Art Stumble, visit www.facebook.com/ eastsideartstumble.
Bethany Carlson, Red Arrow Gallery
murals, including The Highway Has Always Been Your Lover, Anabell, and Before We Abandoned It Out West.
Germantown Art Crawl
Courtney Adair Johnson, Julia Martin Gallery
Julia Martin Gallery is unveiling What Is Love? (see page 53). Channel To Channel is hosting an opening reception for See Me, recent abstract paintings by Chloe York. The artist’s paintings are anthropomorphic portraits encrusted with oceanic and organic shapes and patterns, a nod to the decorator crab, which covers its body in bits of its surroundings for purposes of camouflage and self-preservation. Experience the new Daily Art at David Lusk Gallery (see page 72). The Gallery at Fort Houston is presenting Art + Activism, a student exhibition in collaboration with the Underground Art Studio at Oasis Center, with all sales benefitting the organization. The Loading Dock at Fort Houston is featuring photography by Bernadette Ruby and lamps crafted from vintage corsets by Kelly Hodge. Ground Floor Gallery is exhibiting My Own Worst Enemy, an exhibition curated by GF Studio Artist Matt Christy, including his work and that of emerging artists Lindsey Campbell, Joe Christy, Kevin Dietz, and Chris Worth. For more information, visit www. artsmusicweho. wordpress.com.
East Side Art Stumble
Saturday, August 11, from 6 until 10 p.m.
Jefferson Street Art Crawl
Saturday, August 25, from 6 until 9 p.m. The Jefferson Street Art Crawl offers a unique and inspiring artistic experience. Woodcuts Gallery and Framing is presenting Abstract August featuring abstract expressions from several local artists, including Ryan Rado, Carol Saffell, and James Threalkill. Art History Class will be held at the Susie B. McJimpsey Center. “Sitting at the Welcome Table” celebrates black culinary traditions while examining related histories of dispossession and displacement since the Emancipation Proclamation. Join artist Thaxton Waters and guest speakers for the third installment of his series, which will focus on Millennial Diets. The Nashville artist and cook Viktor Lee will prepare special tastings inspired by the discussion; first come, first served. Cultural Visions Art is exhibiting select works from Ephraim Urevbu (Nigeria), Essud Fungcap (Haiti), William Toliver (Atlanta, Georgia), HC Porter and Eric Jones (both from Vicksburg, Mississippi). One Drop Ink is showing a collection of cigar boxes painted by Omari Booker. Please stay updated and view the map at Facebook. com/JSACTN.
Omari Booker, One Drop Ink
Carrie Cox, The Green Gallery
Greg Pond, Zeitgeist
Chloe York, Channel To Channel
Saturday, August 18, 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. For updates and more information, visit www.facebook.com/ germantownartcrawl.
Salon painting by important
Tennessee
artist comes to light
WORDS Margaret F. M. Walker
A
n important painting, exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1898, has come home to Tennessee, thanks to the vigilant eye of Stan Mabry at Stanford Fine Art. The painting was found in a private New York collection. Connoisseurs of Tennessee art know the name Willie Betty Newman. A native of Murfreesboro, she studied painting in Cincinnati before moving to Paris for a decade—the 1890s—to study, travel, paint, and exhibit. Often working in the academic and figural tradition, when she returned to Middle Tennessee in the early twentieth century, she earned most of her income from portraiture. These portraits and earlier work from her time in France can be spied in places like the Tennessee State Museum, Cheekwood, Vanderbilt’s Peabody College Library, the Centennial Club, and a few private homes. Stanford Fine Art has carried Newman’s work whenever it could be found. She was a talented career artist, with a keen eye for subject, composition, and lighting. Often, owners of her paintings have sentimental ties, too, meaning her work rarely comes onto the market. Mabry says, “In my thirty years in business, I have probably only come across four by her.” Yet, since the early days of his business, he has had two black-and-white photographs of her studio in Paris. When in New York recently, he saw a familiar sight—the actual painting, which he had seen so many times in progress on the easel in that photograph. In acquiring this biblical scene, The Foolish Virgin, and bringing it to Nashville, he learned it had changed hands only once before in its history. Truly, it is an exciting day for Stanford Fine Art and for us all. Uniting a nineteenth-century painting with photographic evidence of its creation, for an artist like Willie Betty Newman, is a oncein-a-lifetime occurrence. na
The Foolish Virgin is on view at Stanford Fine Art, www.stanfordfineart.net.
18
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Willie Betty Newman, The Foolish Virgin, Oil on canvas, 55” x 33”
The artist in her studio with the painting The Foolish Virgin
BENNET T GALLERIES Featuring
LESLIE BARRON
Holiday, Mixed media on panel, 24” x 24”
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
1577 MORAN RD $8,500,000 1577moran.com
Rick French 615.604.2323
1641 WHISPERING HILLS $3,490,000 1641whisperinghills.com Rick French 615.604.2323
2032 OLD HILLSBORO RD $2,999,950 2032oldhillsboro.com Rick French 615.604.2323
4925 TYNE VALLEY BLVD $2,950,000 4925tynevalley.com Rick French 615.604.2323
2021 FRANSWORTH $2,795,000 2021fransworth.com Rick French 615.604.2323
5400 STANFORD DR $2,650,000 5400stanford.com Rick French 615.604.2323, Tim King 615.482.5953
320 VAUGHN RD $2,499,000 320vaughn.com Rick French 615.604.2323 Co-Listed with Alison Douglas 615.305.6978
144 STEEPLECHASE LANE $2,475,000 144steeplechase.com Rick French 615.604.2323, Tim King 615.482.5953
1154 TRAVELERS RIDGE $2,250,000 1154travelersridge.com Rick French 615.604.2323
4913 MAYMANOR CIRCLE $1,750,000 4913maymanorcircle.com Rick French 615.604.2323, Tim King 615.482.5953
4406 HARDING PLACE $1,200,000 4406hardingplace.com Rick French 615.604.2323
1108 VAUGHN CREST DR $1,195,000 Rick French 615.604.2323, Tim King 615.482.5953
805 FOSTER HILL $1,067,500 805fosterhill.com Rick French 615.604.2323, Tim King 615.482.5953
RICK FRENCH 615.604.2323
3631 WEST END $999,000 3631westend.com Rick French 615.604.2323
TIM KING 615.482.5953
FRENCH K I N G . C O M 615.292.2622 office
401 BOWLING AVE UNIT 91 $510,000 Tim King 615.482.5953
The Nashville Children’s Theatre Snuggery A new immersive theatre experience for ages 0-5!
TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR
August 11-September 9, 2018 A World Premiere by Ernie Nolan Performed in the Copeland Studio Theatre
NCT’s professional Snuggery performances include: • • • •
A small audience An immersive environment Pre- & post-performance experiences Music, sound, & movement
• • •
Audience interaction & participation Privacy suite for nursing ALLmoms THIS GOODNESS Complimentary coffee DONATED BY
Designed to overcome age, language, & development barriers, The NCT Snuggery is a safe environment for focus & creative thinking to be nurtured, or even discovered for the first time!
TICKETS: Only $10/person 615-252-4675 or NashvilleCT.org
All performances take place at The Martin Center at 25 Middleton Street Nashville, TN 37210 - FREE PARKING ON SITE
Photograph by Jason Reed
Ben
Caldwell
M
Photograph by Dean Dixon
WORDS Carol Caldwell*
Hammering copper and silver into works of outstanding beauty r. and Mrs. Ben Caldwell are a family and a business. He is the art part, brandishing his mallet and hammer to create stunning copper utensils—these and many other and varied and beautiful copper works. Ben recently completed an outdoor 8-foot sculpture, a large sunflower mirror, and a project for a national coffee company. She is the business end of the enterprise they named Ben & Lael, Inc. Her name is Lael. On Tuesday last, they put the finishing touches on their new studio of 2,300 square feet just outside Pegram, Tennessee, a stone’s throw from Foggy Bottom canoe rentals and the Harpeth Arts Center and Gallery. “I feel a responsibility to this dying art of coppersmithing so I take on interns and teach classes, some here in the studio and some in Pegram. I just love this area,” Ben says. Lael adds, “When we got this building, we thought we were going to do it ourselves, but realized we were in over our heads, so we called Keith Lightsey of Colour Corps and did exactly what he told us to do, and along with our contractor, Lisa de Araujo Jorge, we created this incredible studio.”
Ben Caldwell in his studio
Photograph by Jerry Atnip Photograph by Jerry Atnip
Photograph by Jerry Atnip Photograph by Jerry Atnip
Ben: “He uses bright colors and that’s been so great for us. We also have a fine team that works with us. I was so fortunate to train for this kind of smithing under an incredible artist, Terry Talley, who was dying of cancer and wanted to pass on his trade. Very few people make things out of metal like Terry did, and I do now.” In their beginning Lael said she made a deal with Ben. She would work and support them while he did his paintings, and he would get a job, any job. Lael: “So, he came home one day in a Domino’s shirt. Ben delivered pizzas every night until 2:00 in the morning and then he would drive two hours a day to go train with Terry. The deal was we had to be selfsupporting.” Ben: “I got into copper because that’s what my mentor, Terry, used. I trained both in silver and in copper. I fell in love with doing it, fell in love with the copper. It was a force greater than myself that got me there; I was like a fish who found the ocean. Whenever I feel the metal, I really feel it! Feels like suspended liquid in my hands. When I’m working with it, it’s sort of like moving clay. I use mallets and hammers; I move it with the hammer. That’s smithing! But you don’t hit copper hot like you do with iron. Copper has so many properties. I get it from industrial suppliers. I get it from roofers. In big
24
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
3 ft. by 8 ft. sheets from Atlanta and from California. “Copper is classified as a noble metal, which is included with silver, platinum, and gold. They mix it with gold to give the gold more strength. It’s cheap, because it’s so plentiful; there are mountains of copper in the world. Rooves, gutters, all kinds of things—a great conductor, in electrical wires. Malleable metal!” Governor Bredesen’s wife, Andrea Conte, asked Ben to make something out of the copper that was being taken off the Governor’s mansion when it was being renovated, downspouts and gutters. He decided to craft an extra-large flag for the Renovation Room on the lower floor of the residence. “Now we want to do a project called Flags Across America,” Lael says. “The flag will become dismantled as we leave pieces of it with all kinds of people, emigrants from everywhere, when it travels to each new city. We call it The People’s Flag.” “This picture is about the trophies I was commissioned to make of copper that was preserved from the Registry Building at Ellis Island. My design is from the torch that Lady Liberty holds on high made of copper, covered in gold. The award is titled the 2017 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards.
Photograph by Jason Reed
“
Photograph by Jason Reed
Photograph by Jason Reed
Photograph by Jason Reed
Copper is classified as a noble metal, which is included with silver, platinum, and gold.
And this is one of our flags that used to hang in Tower 49 in New York.” Sometimes, he says, I see a space and then, I don’t know how to explain it, but I get a vision of how that flag should be in that particular place . . .” A vision. Well, isn’t that why we all come to look for America? Ben Caldwell says he is positive art has been his spiritual calling. “We have deep connections with clients who have been collecting our pieces for decades and have passed them on to the next generation of collectors.” *When my people first emigrated from Georgia over the mountains into the sovereign state of Tennessee, I was five years old. The red brick schoolhouse I enrolled at was called Parmer School. It didn’t take long to figure out that most of the other first graders were cousins, and I wasn’t. I mention this to point out that the eminent coppersmith Ben Caldwell and I are not, as far as we know, related. na For more information, visit www.benandlael.com.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
25
Photograph by Jami-lyn Fehr
WORDS Carrington Fox
Community Enrichment
At a new studio in East Nashville, Poverty & the Arts expands mission of transforming people affected by homelessness into artists
Beth Gunn and Nicole Brandt Minyard
I
26
t has been five years since Nashville Arts introduced readers to Poverty & the Arts founder Nicole Brandt Minyard, then a Belmont student who was putting a passionate theory to the test. As a community volunteer and college student, Minyard had become convinced that the most powerful thing she could do for people impacted by homelessness was to do something with them. So in 2011, she founded Poverty & the Arts (POVA) to offer opportunities for hands-on creativity to people who might otherwise lack the resources or encouragement to express themselves through art. In 2014, Minyard established Poverty & the Arts as a nonprofit that offered art supplies and a marketplace for POVA artists.
the question, “What would happen if homeless people were suddenly able to paint and play music and write in collaboration with other communities?” Five years later, Minyard and a collective of non-traditional artists have answers to that question.
In a 2013 interview in this magazine, Minyard posed
A browse through the gallery at povertyandthearts.org
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is how complicated and diverse homelessness is,” Minyard says. “Artists come from different places, homeless experiences are very different, and solutions to get out of homelessness are very different. I think it’s overwhelming how different our artists are, and they are all using art differently.”
The Eye Z, Beth Gunn
Blood on the Moon, Kateri Pomeroy
reveals just how differently POVA’s artists manifest their creativity: Gwen paints bold colors on canvas; Amatullah designs murals and wearable art; Deuce focuses his energy with graffiti; Clinecasso works with Sharpie markers, and Miss B creates art through guided meditation, to name just a few.
It is unexpected success stories like Kateri’s that drive Minyard to expand Poverty & the Arts, to reach more artists with more opportunities. In the early days, POVA functioned with an annual budget of $5,000, operating one day a week inside Turnip Green Creative Reuse Gallery and hosting workshops in collaboration with Room in the Inn. After operating out of a modest space in Wedgewood Houston, with no heat or air-conditioning, this May POVA moved into a dedicated studio space on Dickerson Pike, with enough room for as many as twenty-five artists. Meanwhile, POVA’s annual budget has grown to $123,000, which funds a staff of four part-time employees to serve fourteen artists with programming, fields trips, art supplies, and a van to transport artists and artwork. While most funding comes from grants and donors, as much as 14 percent of the most recent operating budget comes from sales of art by artists in the collective, who keep 60 percent of the proceeds from their work. POVA sells at its studio on Dickerson Pike and teams up with community organizations, including Nashville Public Library and the East Side Art Stumble, to build sales channels for artwork. In the most recent tax year, Minyard had to fill out 1099 forms on four artists who earned more than $600.
Seaweed View, AM Hassan
“The best part is the community that forms,” says Minyard. She cites the story of Kateri Pomeroy, one of the first members of the collective, who had been estranged from both her mother and her daughter because she didn’t want her family to worry knowing that she was homeless. Poverty & the Arts offered Kateri a place to make, market, and sell her paintings and found-object sculptures. On the heels of a successful opening exhibit and sale, the fledgling artist had such renewed self-esteem that she reconnected with her family. “A night of being treated as special gave her the confidence to reach out,” Minyard says. Not all POVA artists are seeking a revenue stream. Some pursue their art purely for therapeutic value. But that’s not to say commercial success doesn’t facilitate healing. “We watch artists buy data plans so they can connect with family members for the first time,” Minyard says of the supplemental income from art sales. “Selling gives them greater autonomy and mobility.” Artist Kateri Pomeroy proves the point. With help from POVA, she traveled across the country to the funeral of her once-estranged mother, who first sparked her artistic passion by introducing her to coloring books as a child. “I always wanted a career in art, but life gets in the way,” Pomeroy says. Now, thanks to POVA, art is getting into Pomeroy’s life, and Pomeroy is working to bring more people into the organization, with hopes that it can enrich their lives as it has hers. “The program has been a blessing,” says Pomeroy, who married fellow POVA artist Sam Fulks. (She keeps her maiden name, because it’s the name people know her by as an artist.) “It has given us an identity other than homeless. We’re artists. Everybody takes pride in that.” na Poverty & the Arts is located at 1207 Dickerson Pike, Nashville, TN 37207. Check Facebook or www.PovertyandtheArts.org for gallery hours.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
27
WORDS Megan Kelley
I N H A B I T E D
SPACE
Kelly Sherrod collapses planes of space into origins of being
28
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Creation Species – Science of Mind No. 3, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 40”
F
orms twist and uncoil across the flat swipes of monochrome color, their edges liquid against the smooth canvas surfaces. They are swift and visceral, even as the paint that surrounds them thickens, wrinkles, and wipes. Though interpreted as living creatures, their visage is distorted by movement, creating a sense that we glimpse them inhabiting many moments of time at once, occupying a vast and unknowable dimensional space even as they force against and recede over the edges of the picture plane we are most familiar with. For Kelly Sherrod, these beings evoke both the familiarity of a rampantly verdant nature and the residual evidence of a human mark, yet stand on the plane as transformed— something alien, something new, something mutating with possibility and the acceptance of the unknown. Sherrod begins by using a printmaking brayer to roll acrylic paint onto a smoothed canvas in textural applications, or with a brush designed to create the graphic boldness of a flat stroke. “I quite like the effect of starting flat but trying to get the being to exist with some depth, to have that optical effect,” Sherrod says, her intent to seek the fullness of the figure generated from the dissonance of a flat background. To achieve the effect, her paint is thinned, pushed to the limits of fluidity and translucency while still carrying the weight of pigment. Sherrod must work quickly, relying on intuition and her own familiarity with her motion and gesture, pulling the figure from the reservoir of the background and collapsing it into the forefront before the thinned paint dries.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
29
Future Companion – Marfa’s Parable No. 2, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 25” x 20”
Future Companion – Fond of Memory No. 6, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 25” x 20”
Future Companion – Fond of Memory No. 7, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 25” x 20”
Future Companion – Fits Perfectly, All Is Peaceful No. 1, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 25” x 20”
This final approach of movement is a combination of paint applied by hand, sometimes with the controlled effect of a brush, in order to create the centralized rhythm that evokes torso, a flurry of limbs, the span of a long neck, muscle, bone, flight. “I want to make something alien, something organic, to try to create a being or an environment that is uniquely both at the same time, that transports the viewer into a creative space, a three-dimensional space that carries a lot of depth even on a flat surface.
“Ultimately, I like the crudeness—just being raw with it, unrefined, the kind of primal feel you get from undefined nature. The crudeness is an honesty; the viewer sees how this thing was made, how the paint was pulled off the canvas, deposited into a being.”
theory but we only have theories; we don’t really understand what reality is or what it is made of.” Sherrod’s beings thrive in this unknown, flirting at the edges of being recognizable even as they defy classification, existing in a space where they are alternately threedimensional paint, undefined depiction, and flattened pictorial space. We are asked as viewers to imagine the truly unimaginable, to contextualize things we recognize we are limited in our ability to know, much less describe. “We live in the Fermi Paradox, that the probability that other life forms exist is high, but we have no evidence of it, perhaps because we lack the methods to truly observe it. In my paintings, we accept it is an image, a depiction, but at the same time we understand that it’s not, because it’s describing something that cannot be interrupted and held to a single place.” na To see more of Kelly Sherrod’s work, visit www.kellysherrod.com or contact her through the website for an appointment to view the works in person.
The fluidity of visual movement as well as material is vital to Sherrod, whose swift method requires an acceptance of the moment balanced with a thorough understanding of potential outcome and how best to influence or rein it in. “I realized I couldn’t get much textural difference with [painting with bare] skin, so I found gloves,” Sherrod explains. “I experimented with lots of different types of gloves, and I apply different pressures and get all sorts of different markings with them. In some of my paintings I decide I want a more controlled stroke, so I grab the brush and introduce that element.” The versatility of the process—and the places where it is unclear where one pull becomes a stroke, or where the figure starts and the ground stops—resonates with Sherrod’s search for liminality, leaving the viewer to question what they’re seeing, viewing the construction as well as the content, simultaneously familiar and Other. “I think of memory a lot, that these beings I am creating are captured like a photocopy, one that is less recognizable as you replicate it over time—the degradation of reality and memory that happens when you try to hold onto something.” The paintings straddle that place of being both construct and context, of belonging both within known space and outside of the usual approach. Sherrod is comfortable with the duality. “I think a lot about how what we see with our eyes is not necessarily reality: that other creatures, like bats, see the same things very differently because they have other methods to sense them; that scientists talk about string
Kelly Sherrod in her studio
THEBOOKMARK
A MONTHLY LOOK AT HOT BOOKS AND COOL READS
South Toward Home: Adventures and Misadventures in My Native Land
The Death of Truth Michiko Kakutani “How did truth become an endangered species in contemporary America?” That’s the question at the heart of this overview by former New York Times chief book critic, Pulitzer Prize winner Michiko Kakutani. While it’s far from the first volume to consider this question, and it most definitely won’t be the last, Rolling Stone calls The Death of Truth “the first great book of the Trump administration.”
Daniel Silva
Julia Reed Julia Reed’s column for Garden & Gun, “The High & the Low,” captures both the nuances and the not-so-subtle ins and outs of Southern life. She has a knack for the quick summing-up phrase (“God, gators, and gumbo” is her appellation for Louisiana) and for working through the many quirks and deep-seated customs that make the South what it is.
A L L
T H E
B E S T
Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine: Stories
The Other Woman
I N
Daniel Silva, the #1 New York Times bestselling author, presents famed assassin Gabriel Allon, returning for his 17th installment in one of the most highly regarded thriller series running. This time around, the action revolves around a highranking Russian officer known as Heathcliff, who is preparing to defect after years of working with the Israelis in secret.
F I N E
Kevin Wilson Thanks to the well-received novels The Family Fang and Perfect Little World, Kevin Wilson has become known for quirky observations, complicated emotional balances, and fragile connections between children and parents. In Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, Wilson brings these same sensibilities, and some new imaginative turns, to bear on short-form fiction.
J E W E L RY
5101 Harding Road s Nashville, Tennessee 37205 s 615.353.1823 s cindiearl.com
EXPLORE • LEARN • CREATE
www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattart
http://studentorg.vanderbilt.edu/ danceprogram
Community Art Programs at Vanderbilt ADULT CLASSES FOR AGES 18 + Online registration/sales for both programs opens August 1, 2018 Dance and art studio classes begin the week of September 10, 2018
ED NASH
WORDS Kathleen Boyle
Photograph by Giles Clement
Artist Ed Nash has established himself as one of Nashville’s leading abstract painters. Such achievement is reflective not only of great talent, but also a combination of his persistent hard work and keen business sense. In the following interview, Nash explains how his balance of creativity and industry knowledge have led him to success.
Magenta Cosmos, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 72” x 72”
What is the inspiration behind your work? I have always had an interest in the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi Sabi. It deals with finding beauty through the natural process of decay and erosion. I find that when we focus on perfection, our eye finds flaws. If we accept imperfections as adding to the work, we accept the art as a whole. I want to create surfaces that are full of undulations, texture, imperfections, and layering. These layers give the work structure and composition, a framework upon which the rest of the painting hangs. This is really a mirror of the human condition. The cracks, layers, and texture are somehow balanced and organic, bringing them a sensation of calm and contentment. There is probably a cognitive dissonance there which is also intriguing. I have never been an artist who sticks in one genre or palette. I’m always experimenting with different mediums and materials. My Terrain series continues to investigate the Wabi Sabi theme but uses more highly textured surfaces and materials to build up layers . . . In many ways, they are my experiments in exploring the boundaries of painting.
36
our buildings shape us.” I shaped the studio, and in return the studio shapes my work. It’s important that the public can experience not only the art, but the environment in which the artwork was created. I have formed a space that inspires and adds dimension to my work. People can come and experience a connection with my art. It’s all about connection, and the studio bridges that gap. What are some of the milestones that you’ve reached over the years? Developing a recognizable style was a milestone for me. When people tell me they have seen one of my paintings in a gallery or in a collector’s home and know immediately by the style, texture, and composition that I created it, that’s really exciting. Probably the most important milestone is being at the place where I am creating art that I really love to make, and it is being well-received! That is not always the case for artists. If my work was selling but I hated that particular style, I couldn’t do it. Equally, I couldn’t support my family if I was making art that nobody liked.
You have established an incredible studio and showroom. How does your business exceed a more traditional notion of an artist’s studio?
What were some of the particular risks that you experienced as you became a full-time artist?
Winston Churchill said that “We shape our buildings and
The risk would have been to not pursue my dream and have
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Clarity 2, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
Clarity 1, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”
to live with regret. It wasn’t a decision taken lightly. Working for yourself with no guaranteed income is a huge risk, but it also breeds persistence, determination, and a huge work ethic—all of which have contributed to getting me to where I am now. Even though you have created your own showroom, you still maintain close working relationships with art galleries across the country. Can you talk more about how commercial art galleries fit into your business practices? I work with galleries all over the U.S. They are really important to my business practice, being a great source of feedback, building credibility for my work, providing exposure and potential sales. Also, because the curator will choose only your best pieces, you are pushed to create focused work.
I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Fine Art, but while I was at university I realized no one was preparing us to be independent working artists. I decided to gain experience by running a small sales business during my summers. I decided I needed more knowledge of the art market, so I became a private dealer in Nashville for about four years— looking at thousands of images and paintings, understanding the real criteria used for determining value in fine art, learning how to present and discuss art in a comprehensible way. It wasn’t until I was about 30 that I started regularly painting again. Initially I felt like I missed out on ten years’ experience of painting, but I did gain valuable skills, knowledge, and experience. And it means I never have “painter’s block.” I am always ready to get to the easel.
Ascension VI, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 24”
Such understanding of the art world does not just happen overnight. What kinds of preparation—educational and professional— did you do in order to solidify your understanding of the art business?
Would you say that this preparation was essential to your success? I feel like every artist who wants to make a living from their work would benefit from experience in the business world, either in sales, marketing, or advertising, before moving into a specific field. You are running a small business, after all. It is like a combination lock. I feel like these are the areas that art schools are really less equipped in providing education to their students. I think they also need to develop an eye for connoisseurship, and that can only be developed over time. In your opinion, what are some under-utilized practices or avenues that artists should uphold more to promote or sell their work?
As a small business owner, I cannot rely on the hope that someone else will sell my paintings. If we only hope and do not prepare, plan, persist, and pound the pavement, we could easily end up with a studio full of paintings but no money in the bank. Artists may need to spend anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of their time on the business . . . So that means a lot of late nights and early mornings. It can be a lonely road at times, so find great peers, read or listen to great books, and guard your time at the easel. Artists also need to be as creative at marketing our work as we are at creating it. Seek feedback from people who will challenge your art before developing a really strong catalogue of work. You often only get one shot. In short, squeeze out the hope. na For more information, visit www.ednashart.com.
Pluto, 2018, Mixed media on canvas 72” x 72”
“
People can come and experience a connection with my art. It’s all about connection, and the studio bridges that gap.
Point of View Art and Words by JD Wise
Pure Nashville, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 144”
Pure Nashville
40
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
T
he research for this Nashville skyline took me over two months. After studying drawings and paintings of ancient cityscapes to modern-day megastructures around the world, my mind was overwhelmed with a panoply of images. I couldn’t find anything that quenched my thirst. Then, I realized that I don’t live, breathe, and have my being in those cities. I do that here . . . in Nashville. This is the city where songs are born—and my first line of this piece began with a smile.
Nashville! How fun is this city!
It’s the place where vision, music, and hope are nurtured—a place where the skies are literally limitless. Nashville is an oasis in the middle of the country. It gathers musicians like no other city in the world, and everyone is welcome here, from the banjo pickin’ troubadours of times gone by, to the modern
symphony, ballet, and opera performers of today. Twentyseven years ago, this “City of Music” became my home. My roots are in classical and Cuban music, so most of my art reflects that combination of style and color. It was important to me that my appreciation for the city and the people who live here was equally reflected in this work. Each building in this
minimal I got, the more I liked what was developing. Then, I tried to add color. But when you notate music, you cannot add color or it will confuse the reader. In this instance, color just muddied the composition and slowed down the rhythmic flow of the piece. The power of black-and-white working together created that dramatic range of dynamics that I saw in my mind. Even the rooftops of the historic buildings came to be an obstruction. So, I took off the tops of the buildings. This opened everything up and allowed a sense of limitless height and breadth. To get the necessary definition between the acrylic Carbon black and Titanium white, three to eight layers of paint were required. One of the challenges was determining which windows, doors, and walls would be black and which would be white. After studying the light reflecting on daytime and nighttime buildings, it was more dramatic to create a black window with a very bright sun hitting the walls, especially on the historic riverfront row, and white on black in the shadows. Everything else started falling into place. People ask me, “Why did you paint this skyline so large?” Well, it was rather simple to make that decision . . . physics. Once I knew the size of the smallest window pane line that I could paint with the smallest brush, I calculated the size that the skyline would need to be, and that ended up being four feet by twelve feet. I didn’t have a canvas that size so I decided to do a triptych: three 48” x 48” canvases.
city is a masterwork of its architect. City developers guided the vision, and the construction began. All I had to do, as an artist, was to choose which structures to paint. I began painting Historic Broadway at the riverfront and walked north down Google Street, doorway to doorway, window by window, building by building to make sure the style was precise and the number of windows and doors was accurate. This process gave me the baseline for the drawing. It was so fun imagining each room inhabited by people filled with their own songs. Then, the music spilled out into notes on a conductor’s score with its high and low notes running across the page. There were a few distractions, though. As I tried to get more detailed, I ran into a telephone pole, trees, and bushes, was interrupted by cranes and communications towers, got tangled in utility lines and guide wires, and was blocked by large signs. So, I decided to take them all out. The more
My biggest “aha” moment was in the second canvas where that steep, jutted, shadowed building at the bottom of the painting created a powerful dynamic with the perspective. It confirmed my vision and gave me the confidence to move ahead using that application. It was quite fun to put in little extras like air conditioners on roofs, a lamp post, a staircase, and a patio—tiny details that you can find only if you look very closely. This painting is titled Pure Nashville. “Pure” is defined as “without any extraneous or unnecessary elements.” Nashville, as I see it, is a musical symphony about a glorious, joyous, beautiful city of hope. I want this piece to exude refreshment to the soul and for the viewer to be proud that they have been here. na JD Wise’s art is represented by Nina Kuzina Gallery, Nashville, www.ninakuzina.com. See more of Wise’s work at www.jdwise.com and on instagram@jd.wise.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
41
T
hroughout my career I have run across far too many people that unknowingly bought the one-size-fits-all version of happiness that was sold to us in childhood. College degree, 2.5 kids, and a white picket fence were exactly what we all wanted, right? Sadly, by the time some of us achieved these things, we then had a mental and emotional breakdown because we realized it was not our dream that we had been pursuing. Those that have figured it out have a powerful story to tell, as many have found their way to creating the life that was actually meant for them, albeit after much soul
PHOTOGRAPHY Heidi Ross
WORDS Amanda Dobra Hope
LIZ HODDER
The Fine Print
searching. Talking with fabric artist Liz Hodder, it is clear that she is one such creative hero, bringing the world beauty and energy through the art she was always destined to make. “You have to decide if you want to participate in life,” she says. “I now have a renaissance in my life that I didn’t have before. I’m so excited I got here; I never thought I would. I hope that what I’m doing inspires others,” she continues. Growing up, Hodder says, she lacked the confidence and support to pursue an arts education. “I applied to art school but didn’t go. I didn’t take my work seriously, so I went the academic route. When I made art it was easy, and I thought that must be wrong because it wasn’t supposed to be easy,” she shares. After a lot of inner work, she now comes to it with a different perspective: “Change is hard, but I’m an artist. I’m used to that.” A lifelong creative, Hodder enjoyed a lucrative music career as a singer and songwriter in her early adulthood. After a creative hiatus to attend to family life and inner work, she switched from music to visual art when she began making designs and printing them on linen. When Hodder first started printing on fabric, she pondered where she could take it and realized that she could be printing on clothing. Hodder then began experimenting with silk and linen on scarves and pillows, and now she also prints her favorite patterns on frocks that she both sells and wears around town herself. Inspired by the repeating patterns of nature, Hodder works with simple shapes and paints not only clothing, but anything else she can get hold of, including furniture, wallpaper, and lampshades. “I’ve recently been cutting up fabric and making collages with it and then putting it
in windows,” she shares. “I’m always experimenting. It’s a blessing and a curse. My house has fabric everywhere. It’s crazy-town. Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist, but that’s my process. I don’t walk in looking at the chaos; I look at the process,” she continues. A current love of Hodder’s is dyeing fabrics with indigo. From frocks and tunics to bedspreads and throws, she has taken a liking to the Japanese art of Shibori Dyeing. A true multimedia artist, she also works in ink, clay, and acrylics, and both a kiln and an indigo vat can be found in her crazy-town of creativity. Perhaps you could engage Hodder over a cup of coffee and ask her more about her story, as a true desire of hers is for more people to create a life on their terms and give their unique gifts to the world. “I’m finally setting my life up in a way that feels good to me,” she said. Her hope is that everyone else experiences the same joy. na For more information, visit www.lizhodderstudio.com.
1
Circus Circus, 2015, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48”
in
46
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
WORDS Karen Parr-Moody
Circus Oils Pamela Wilson’s
Hologram Girl, 2016, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48”
Gone, 2016, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48”
Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, Tennessee September 6 through November 20
T
attered satin on a trapeze artist, a one-eyed elephant, hyperbolic acts—Woman of Steel! Human Cannonball! Tattooed Lady! A traveling circus of yesteryear tossed out the glitter, but the underbelly was grim. A sinister whimsy lurked beneath the cheery artifice displayed for the crowds. The same spirit inhabits the paintings of Pamela Wilson, a Santa Barbara, California, artist who says, “Behind the scenes they’re smoking cigarettes and working hard and the animals are abused. That’s me. I’m in the decrepit old circus where you try to put on that smiling face, but you’re really just lugging buckets of water behind the scenes. I’ve always had a circus bent to my work.” Wilson’s oil portraits will be on view at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, Tennessee, from September 6 through November 20, with a reception on October 25, as part of the annual Women Painting Women exhibit. The artist sells much of her work through RJD Gallery in Bridgehampton, New York.
stable families to do so. Rather, the circus fostered a motley crew of personalities who had arrived by way of brokenness—they were physical “freaks,” social outcasts, and wayward souls. Ironically, Wilson’s paintings are a result of childhood spent on the run, so to speak. As a child, she was regularly chased throughout her home by a troubled brother who threatened to kill her with long, sharp knives. “I was afraid for my life,” Wilson says. “I don’t like to make it a major thing, but the older I get the more I realize how that darkness informed my work. I try to channel that darkness poetically.” Her parents didn’t take these problems seriously and, as can be so typical within the confines of social norms, the family appeared perfectly happy to outsiders. “I had this double life,” Wilson says.
“My work is very translucent and alive,” she says.
This backstory can be read in the faces of her subjects. Their strength and vulnerability brew just below the glazed surface. In Jamais Vu, a young girl peers out fiercely. In Hologram Girl, a child lets the viewer in on a joke—it could be naughty. In The Grievance, a child solemnly protects something sacrosanct.
In popular culture, to run away to the circus is a romantic act of rebellion, yet it has historically been rare for youths from
“Every time I try to get real, there’s that pain and fear—and pride in surviving,” Wilson says. “In me lives the scared little
Indirect painting is the technique Wilson uses to build up layers of paint and glaze that create a unique depth and luminosity.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
47
Jamais Vu, 2017, Oil and white gold leaf on birch panel, 12” x 12” Freyja and her Moon-Cold Auguries, 2015, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48”
girl, so I’m still trying to heal her. It’s therapy when I paint.” A more benign influence on Wilson’s work can be traced to her “weird and kooky” grandmother, who kept two rooms in her home filled, floor to ceiling, with antique dolls. She inspired Wilson to collect antiques, and she does so with a predilection for machine-like finds, such as goggles and binoculars, as well as vintage brass instruments and violins. For years Wilson collected innocently, like a magpie, from a number of eras. Then she had an epiphany while pursuing her MFA from University of California, Santa Barbara: She could costume her subjects with these finds to create more meaning in her work. In The Grievance, a girl stands in a copse of aspen trees, like
The Grievance, 2016, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48
Sweet Secrets in Bare Delirium, 2016, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48”
some dryad of Greek mythology, wearing a witchy German headdress that dates to the early 1800s. In Sweet Secrets in Pale Delirium, the subject wears old-fashioned pantaloons and a ringmaster-esque top hat.
Wilson’s oil portraits will be included in the exhibit Women Painting Women on view at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, Tennessee, from September 6 through November 20. An opening reception is scheduled for October 25. For more information, please visit www.customshousemuseum.org.
“I truly think I invented steampunk,” Wilson says, laughing. “I’ve been painting goggles since 1984. But in my mind, I didn’t see steampunk. I saw myself taking the viewer off guard.” Beyond taking the viewer off guard, these antique props are instrumental in creating a magical world that inhabits the past and future simultaneously, much like the dystopian future depicted in the film Blade Runner. “I’m leaving the viewer in a place that isn’t in time so that the viewer can use his or her imagination,” she says. Wilson leaves little half-thoughts and clues to tantalize her audience—an approach that is far more subtle than any circus act. She depicts something ephemeral that we can’t put our finger on. Still, the subjects of her paintings communicate with the viewer intensely and intimately. This can be attributed to the details of the face, which Wilson captures with her particular stripe of realism. She grasps the merits of this ability, because it takes years to refine. However, she never wants to hear viewers say, “It looks like a photograph.” What does she want viewers to say? “I was really moved by that.” How could they not be? na
Pamela Wilson in her studio
Photograph by David Bean
Melodie Grace
“
My pieces have always been visually Carol Saffell functional.
WORDS Bob Doerschuk
O
ver the past seven years, since Melodie Grace jettisoned her career in corporate sales and committed fulltime to her pottery art, her clientele has expanded steadily, drawn by her distinctive aesthetic and innovative techniques. But come August, word will spread beyond any expectations she might have had, due to her exploring new possibilities in Japanese raku—thanks to West Elm, part of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Just a few weeks from now, the quality home furnishing chain will unveil its Melodie Grace collection at stores nationwide. This arrangement is significant on several levels, being Grace’s first collaborative project as well as her first work with any national brand. “They first contacted me in July 2016,” Grace recalls. “My first thought was that this was spam, like someone saying they wanted to send me an inheritance. I thought, this can’t be for real! But I researched the email and it was legitimate. So of course I said, ‘Yeah!’” As with all opportunities, this one came with challenges that Grace hadn’t yet confronted. First was the most fundamental step in collaboration, to agree on a plan that would suit both parties’ needs. Luckily, she says, “They were fantastic about that, so generous and understanding about what I wanted to put out into the world. They wanted to stay true to the brand while also putting it into their brand. We came up with a really good blend of the two.” The first step was to find a design that would identify her line in their stores. “So we started with my shapes, which are very . . . bulbous,” Grace says with a laugh. “And because I work in a very small scale, we agreed that I would follow my design but give each piece a bigger physical presence.”
What followed was a period of sending suggestions and ideas back and forth. “I sent them prototypes so they would have form and color in person,” she explains. “Then they would work on their prototypes and send them back to me for approval. I don’t want to say it was hard to work like this. It was actually really fun. But as a visual artist, it was hard not to be hands-on and to rely on a more verbal communication of ideas over the phone and email.”
essential to all of Grace’s work. The key, she notes, is in her firing process. She makes her own glazes with the intention of inducing a distinctive pattern of cracks. In her naked raku, a slip and glaze covering is applied before the piece is super-heated in her kiln and then removed and placed on paper, which as a result catches fire. Smoke then fills the cracks that have formed in the covering, so that once it is removed a dusky pattern remains.
West Elm did have one priority: Unlike all the pottery Grace had created beforehand, the vases in this collection had to be functional and watertight. As a result, they couldn’t be made through the raku process but with a more traditional firing technique, while finding a glaze combination that would retain the aesthetic of her copper raku work.
“These black-and-white pieces are mainly about texture,” Grace points out. “It’s about trying to capture something very special, knowing that every single piece will hopefully create a different experience for the viewer.”
“My pieces have always been visually functional,” she emphasizes. “They’re like paintings: You buy them for their beauty. For West Elm, we had to come up with a three-dimensional item in a form that would also be functional in a more traditional way.” Soon they settled on three designs to be reproduced, one for each of three sizes. Each featured a shiny green gloss with individually distinctive variations within its glaze, contrasted with a metallic, burnished gold surface that had more of a matte quality. These would be produced by one of West Elm’s familyrun pottery production facilities, all of them numbered and signed by Grace.
Taking it a step further, both her naked and her color-rich work incorporate a degree of chance that mirrors the flow of life within and beyond artistic expression. “I’m doing something very precise but also letting it go,” she notes. “That’s like a life lesson: You do the best you can and then you find the joy that comes from the process. That’s why I believe I learn something from every single pot I make.” na A celebratory launch of Grace’s line will take place in August at Nashville’s West Elm store in Hill Center. Check www.melodiegrace.com for updates on date and time. You can also find the collection online at www.westelm.com.
“Although there will be 600 pieces total, each is one of a kind,” she explains. “That’s really exciting to me because in my regular daily raku I sign and name each piece individually. I love that we’re continuing that concept with this limited edition.” This uniqueness of each piece is
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
51
A fresh approach to buying original art online.
nashville.artistcollectives.org
What Is
LOVE? Julia Martin Gallery
|
August 4 – September 28
J
ulia Martin has stepped up to ask one of the most compelling questions that has traversed history, “What is love?” She has curated an exhibition at Julia Martin Gallery that strikes a cord with a broad audience. It explores the concept of love, which we all acknowledge exists but experience in diverse ways. In the current turmoils across the world, Martin reminds us that it is worthwhile to get back to basics. Considering what the word means right now both personally and publicly, we learn who we are. The resulting exhibition, What Is Love? consists of thirteen visual artists’ responses to “Love is______.” The purpose of the show is to broaden viewers’ conceptions of love through the unique perspectives of the artists. Each work of art contributes to understanding and provides space for reflection. It’s an exhibition that may challenge world views and bring up questions, and Martin posits that is just the type of exercise that brings about positive action.
Louisa Glenn, and then the current took me, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 30” x 40”
WORDS Sara Lee Burd
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
53
Marlos E’van, Raphael & Ebony, 2017, Mixed media on linen, 4’ x 5’
One objective of the show stated by Martin is to better the community by defining love. Building a better community requires defining what “better” really is. It has been attempted to varying levels of satisfaction and results for centuries. Does it begin with the individual or the structures that shape them? Coming to a consensus on just this point has proven difficult. While approaching love and betterment as open questions, Martin is definitive when it comes to taking action. She has chosen to donate a portion of proceeds from sales to the growing outreach efforts of Jessi Zazu, Inc., a non-profit, which supports education and financial assistance in the areas of arts and culture, social justice, and women’s health. To accomplish her goal of presenting a diversity of perspectives, Martin reached out to a broad selection of artists in the Nashville community. The resulting works come from Big Fella, Rachel Briggs, Merrilee Challiss, Marlos E’van, Louisa Glenn, Harry Kagan, Courtney Adair Johnson, Megan
54
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Kimber, Becca Jane Koehler, Walter Lewis III, Julia Martin, Lorne Quarles, Noah Saterstrom, and Kathy Wariner. Ancient Greek philosophers defined love in four main ways: Agape—a form of charity and good will; storge—that exchanged between parent and child; eros—that of sexual attraction; philia—expressed as deep friendship with an equal. Looking at the collection of artworks, each of these types of love is represented. The definitions of love become clear and relevant with the artists’ 21st-century views. Agape is evident in the philanthropic underpinning of the show. In addition to financial support going to Zazu, Inc., it is fundamental to the gallery’s programming. Porch shows by local bands are planned as well as a performance from a Southern Girls Rock Camp (SGRC) alumna. The SGRC is a social non-profit that supports girls and gender-nonconforming youth. These musical elements are complemented by the conceptual examples of human vulnerability,
Noah Saterstrom, General Intercessions, 2018, Chalk on ten chalkboards, 48” x 96”
Julia Martin, Inside Out, 2018, Oil on panel, 48” x 24”
aspirations, and struggles presented in the visual art. Love as storge is the beginning point of this exhibition because that is where Martin found her personal inspiration. The contrast of expectations and reality of love, especially familial, are introduced through her artwork Inside Out. The artist processes how notions of love in childhood differ from what one learns as an adult. The artwork features a woman with an array of accessories suggesting a collection made over time. She bears reminders of her grandmother’s nurturing, the romantic love inspired by her husband, and
her father’s failures of affection. It is a complex work in concept and execution presented in her signature style of bold color combinations and tension between abstraction and representation. While Martin’s work is based in familial relationships, E’van and Glenn’s art contends with the power of eros. In Raphael & Ebony, E’van employs his signature expressive approach to painting. He presents the lovers from Shakespeare’s love story Romeo and Juliet in romantic discord. Perhaps they are sharing the reality of their “star-crossed” love. Through
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
55
Harry Kagan, An Artificial Wind Picking Up on Main Street, Triptych, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 18” x 42”
this artwork he also calls attention to how racial diversity is underrepresented, even when it comes to love. This artwork was inspired by the artist’s realization that this tragedy has never been produced by a full cast of people of color. As E’van has introduced disappointment, Glenn also discusses the chaotic side of romantic love. Glenn’s glimpse into love that has been left unspoken takes form as a multi-hued painting. In and then the current took me she strikes a balance between free form and precise lines. In combination the incisions create a visual veil over the vibrant modulated colors. Her artist statement provides details that facilitate deeper connection with the artist’s mindset about love: “For so long I’ve been throwing myself headlong into and through the world, maintaining a fierce independence. But recently I’ve found myself crying about satellites and their determined, solitary journeys into the depths of space.” In her work she explores the pain of love as an inward struggle. Like her work, Kagan’s art also involves self-awareness. Solitude and the aspirations of self-love arise as themes in Kagan’s triptych, An Artificial Wind Picking Up on Main Street. It provides a perspective taken when void of philial and erotic love. The scenes present the perspective of someone who feels like an outsider gazing in or out through a fence. The framed two-dimensional images are juxtaposed with cans of sardines. The visual relationship between these objects can be seen in the color combinations and echoing of metals in the tin and chain link. In a poem that accompanies his work, Kagan states, “Over and over again I fall in love with my misery,” and he concludes, “Perhaps I will eventually die/not of a broken heart/but in spite of it.”
56
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Big Fella, Love Hurts, 2018, Watercolor on paper, 11” x 15”
Turning away from a purely positive connotation of love, he places it within the complexity of self-understanding. By tapping into mindsets that show human vulnerability and aspirations of love, the exhibition allows for individual contemplation and group awareness. The additional art on exhibit introduces myriad forms of love from romantic to forbidden, from relation to nature and home, from struggle to understanding. What Is Love? commands attention and provides a foundation to build a better community. na What Is Love? opens at Julia Martin Gallery on August 4 and ends September 28. For more information please visit www.juliamartingallery.com.
Afruz Amighi is one of the most critically acclaimed Iranian American artists of our time. Celebrated for her lyrical transformation of inexpensive materials into ethereal installations and sculptures, she uses light and dark to wondrous effect.
THROUGH SEPTEMBER 16 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203 FristArtMuseum.org #FristAmighi Supported in part by
Organized by the Frist Art Museum Afruz Amighi. Nameless, 2014. Steel, fiberglass mesh, Wenge wood, ultrasuede, invisible thread, chain, and light, 168 x 132 x 96 in. Courtesy of the artist. © Afruz Amighi. Photo: Jeffrey Sturges “The presence of your absence is everywhere” adapted from a letter by poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, courtesy of Holly Peppe, Literary Executor, Millay Society, millay.org
Marjorie Guyon WORDS Margaret F.M. Walker
58
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
English as a Second Language, Monoprint, 39” x 59”
Visual Poetry “Being an artist is like being a spell caster,” Marjorie Guyon told me as we met to discuss her art. Guyon has been an artist her whole life, though she was never formally trained in fine arts. Taking a somewhat alternate route into this career, her great success has stemmed from her robust intellect and true talent in using art to affect the way that we think and see other people, our communities, and their potential. Her work is a fusion of the humanities, weaving a web with threads from history, languages, poetry, philosophy, and art. Always working in collage has ensured that she would not be limited, but would draw on her strength as a synthesizer of ideas. While she admits that she thinks abstractly, indeed often in metaphor, her work is never entirely non-objective. Rather, it is filled with cues and layers. It always has enough negative space, in every real and imagined dimension, to allow us to do some of that web-weaving on our own, too. Guyon’s reputation is well-established in the traditional art market; the list of collections with her work is long and impressive. Yet much about that market changed in 2008. Faced with forces beyond her control, but also with the fact that a creative career knows no end, Guyon began to find new purposes in her art. She invested in her local community in Lexington, Kentucky, and increasingly has become involved in public art projects. Having established herself in one realm of the art world, she is now making a name for herself in yet another one. Ron York of York & Friends Fine Art has had great insight in bringing her work and
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
59
“
Her art is of our era, but tradition features strongly in it.
same title and pictured nearby, she says “is about finding your voice.” A large swath of dark pigment consumes the center of the composition, broken somewhat abruptly by the word “ART.” The stamp is obscured, as are a series of numbers at the base, again more discernable on the right than left, faintly indicating a progression, a story. English as a Second Language is the last in the series. The eye moves around it to register numbers, Middle Eastern and East Asian patterns, and that same postmark, but the work is not about immigration, assimilation, or anything so political. It is about the first language, a universal one: love.
ART, Pigment, collage and marble dust on paper, 40” x 26”
vision to the Nashville market, that we locals might see it in person. He also presents an opportunity to collect privately an artist whose focus is becoming increasingly public. Works from her series Letters Not Sent feature a postmark. Pieces of the same one shift in size, orientation, and placement as a unifier of several works. The first, of the
60
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Having grown up in New York City, around much cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity, Guyon says, made her a “person of the world.” Her art often incorporates text from various languages and images together in a symbiotic manner. In her collages, the balance of these two, often competing, artistic outputs of the written word and visual art acts as a metaphor for the way that she seeks to bring the divisors of humans into harmony through art. On Ancestor Letters from the series Tattoo, a Greco-Roman sculptural fragment is overlaid with Chinese text. East and West come together abstractly and in different forms, referencing the tradition of reverence for elders in one and the physical presence of the ancient in the other. All of the collages in this Tattoo series feature classical sculptures, drawn from examples in the Metropolitan
Ago, Collage, marble dust, and pigment on paper, 30” x 22”
Arabian, Dye sublimation print on aluminum, 36” x 24”
Her interest lies “in what endures” and in discovering what it is to “be ancient” [in spirit, that is] in “a new country” [America]. Her art is of our era, but tradition features strongly in it. The figures in this series point us to encountering ancient art and to feeling small in the scale of the world’s timeline. In other works, Guyon uses physical rather than chronological scale to tap into viewers’ sense of the enduring and of human connection over borders and through time.
Love Letter from the series Tattoo, Collage with marble dust and pigment, 26” x 20”
Museum of Art. The tattoos referenced are largely metaphorical; as Guyon says, “life tattoos us.” This series came to her a few years ago as she was ruminating on the story of King Leonidas and, more broadly, on kingship, leadership, power, and empowerment. It was in these works that I realized Guyon’s reckoning of time is not exactly linear.
Guyon’s art is at once accessibly abstract and highly intellectual. It rewards both the casual observer and the contemplative art appreciator. And, truly, it is full of integrity. Her wizardry is in using art to transform the spirit of a place. It is in using “art as a path of how it might be possible to think and see.” Ever the optimist, Guyon, through her collages, gives us new eyes on our history and on each other, helping us envision not so much what is, but what can be. na Marjorie Guyon is represented locally by York & Friends Fine Art, www.yorkandfriends.com. See more of her work at www.marjorieguyon.com.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
61
Deborah Voigt SOPRANO September 8 8 p.m. Ingram Hall The Blair School of Music is honored to welcome internationally acclaimed soprano Deborah Voigt to kick off the Fall 2018 concert season. (Ms. Voigt will also conduct a master class with Blair students at 1 p.m. September 4 in Turner Hall.)
BLAIR SCHOOL OF MUSIC 2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212
Featuring
JD WISE
Nina Kuzina Gallery
4231 Harding Pike • Nashville, TN 37205 Stanford Square, Across from St. Thomas Hospital 615-321-0500 • 615-483-5995 ninakuzina@comcast.net • www.ninakuzina.com Open Daily 10 am - 6 pm
NIGHTFALL AT THE HALL AN AFTER-HOURS PARTY FOR TROUBADOUR MEMBERS
FEATURING A PERFORMANCE BY
HUNTER HAYES BEER & WINE • LITE BITES GIVEAWAYS • ROOFTOP YARD GAMES
SEPTEMBER 20 • 6:00 pm – 9:00 PM Connect with young professionals at this after-Museum-hours party by becoming a Troubadour member today.
JOIN NOW AND RECEIVE $10 OFF CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Troubadour
CO-PRESENTING SPONSORS
LEAD SPONSORS
MEDIA PARTNERS
PUBLICART BY EMILY WALTENBAUGH, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT + MEDIA SPECIALIST, METRO ARTS
One of Metro Arts’s core values is a commitment to the public realm: spaces that are open to everyone and dedicated to the community’s vision, identity, and purposes. This emphasis on citizen input comes through in the newest additions to the Public Art Collection: Brandon Donahue’s The Art of Fitness at Madison Community Center and Herb Williams’s Sky Lake at Smith Springs Community Center.
Photograph by Lauren Fitzgerald
Community Centers’ Artworks Engage and Reflect Their Residents
Brandon Donahue, The Art of Fitness
These silhouettes formed the basis for Donahue’s colorful vinyl cutouts that line the mezzanine of the new center, which opened in May 2018. His residency also led to a second component of The Art of Fitness—an interactive video game. Users engage with an eight-foot screen, accepting a challenge to exercise or dance for one minute. Their movements are translated to a pixelated video art file, shareable via email. “It was important for me to encourage fitness and movement,” said Donahue, “and to show that people can have fun while being active. The game is fun for all ages—everyone can engage with the technology and the activity.” Smith Springs Hidden History Across town at the new Smith Springs Community Center hangs Sky Lake, created by Herb Williams after months of research and engagements with area residents. Unveiled at the center’s July opening, Sky Lake is composed of more than 100 pigmented transparent and dichroic acrylic shapes—iridescent clouds, apple trees, and Mason jars—each symbolizing a facet of the history of Smith Springs, including
Photograph by Tré Hardin
Movement in Madison The Art of Fitness grew from Brandon Donahue’s residency with the summer camp students at Madison Community Center in 2017. He encouraged the children to explore their ideas of themselves, their community, and their futures through drawing and collage. Along with students from TSU and Fisk serving double duty as his assistants and artistic role models for the campers, Donahue traced silhouettes of the children in active poses, which they filled with the art and ideas they had generated.
Herb Williams, Sky Lake
the Tennessee Valley Authority’s flooding of the community in 1964 to create Percy Priest Lake. The shapes converge to form a deconstructed lake, floating in the center’s entryway and reflecting—literally and figuratively—the legacy of the community. At the center of the installation is a water pump, a tribute to the submerged natural spring that still feeds the lake. “I wanted to play with transparency, light, and space to evoke water and sky,” said Williams, “and I especially wanted to pay homage to the lake itself and to the people and history of Smith Springs.” Find these installations and more public art at Metro Arts’s mobile site, ExploreNashvilleArt.com.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
65
BEAUTIFUL
TERRIBLE
THINGS Baldwin Photographic Gallery
Pink Bedroom (Family)
66
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
|
August 22–September 28
The Work of Richard Tuschman
WORDS Daniel Tidwell
Richard Tuschman
I
n the moody, contemplative, and visually ravishing work of Richard Tuschman, the real world melds with digitally created realms, resulting in seamless images portraying the isolation and loneliness of modern life. A self-taught model maker, Tuschman painstakingly crafts miniature sets, photographs them, and then digitally inserts real models into the images to act out his dark, visual dramas.
“The idea of digitally marrying dioramas and live models evolved quite organically over many years of working in both the fine art and commercial spheres,” says Tuschman. “It is really a product of my temperament, sensibility, and acquired skills.” Building these evocative dioramas initially evolved out of Tuschman’s love for the work of Joseph Cornell’s boxes, along with ready access to materials from his day job at an architectural supply store.
The Tailor’s Wife
Through graphic design work, Tuschman learned Photoshop and eventually fell in love with the infinite possibilities of the digital medium. “I had always loved working with photographic images, but Photoshop felt much more intuitive to me than the darkroom,” says the artist. “I dove into it and developed a style that digitally married painting, assemblage, and personal photographs, launching a twentyplus-year freelance career in commercial photo-illustration.”
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
67
The Potato Eaters
by myself on a relatively small scale. Eventually all of this came together in the technique I am using now of compositing real-life models and miniature dioramas.” As a former painter, Tuschman strives to imbue his images with a painterly quality. “I love the physical presence of paintings, but for me, as medium, photography is unsurpassed at describing and emphasizing the visual richness of our physical world, its poetry and its subtlety. I think this is especially true where the image is expressively dependent on very delicate shadings of light.”
Pink Bedroom (Odalisque)
The demands of the commercial world eventually felt too confining for Tuschman, and so he began to focus more on his own work. “As much as I love what is possible in photography and Photoshop, I also still love making things with my hands,” says Tuschman. “I had also grown accustomed to working
68
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Subtle, expressive light is key to the tone and impact of Hopper Meditations, a recent project inspired by the work of painter Edward Hopper. “I knew I wanted to create a series of open-ended, staged narrative photographs about human relationships,” says Tuschman. “I had always been attracted to Hopper’s paintings for their use of light, humble settings, and psychological resonance.” The resulting works are stunning, with rich coloration giving way to an undercurrent of foreboding and isolation conveyed through Tuschman’s adept portrayals of the characters in each photo. Even when others are in the room, the protagonists in the photos feel very alone.
Green Bedroom (Morning)
Couple in the Street
Pink Bedroom (Family) from the series is one of the artist’s favorite works. “In the foreground, a woman lies on an unmade bed reading a magazine. Her male partner stands a few feet away staring out the window, and a small girl is in the background walking away into the next room. Including the little girl was almost an afterthought, but I was fascinated how her addition changed the whole emotional dynamic, transforming the couple into a family.” Another recent project, Once Upon A Time In Kazimierz, portrays a Jewish family living in the neighborhood of Kazimierz in Krakow, Poland during 1930. The images in this series are brooding and dark—evoking a palpable sense of the impending Holocaust. “Death, the fraying of family bonds, and feelings of grief haunt many of the images,” according to Tuschman, “but these are also punctuated by moments of love, longing, and tenderness. “The idea came to me when I visited Krakow while I was working on the Hopper series,” Tuschman says. “My wife is from there, and my family’s roots are from the area. So in many ways it felt more personal to me than the Hopper series. I am now working on a series about my childhood in the 1960s, for which I am recreating in miniature parts of my childhood home. In a sense, each project has become increasingly personal.”
Not surprisingly, Tuschman’s influences include old masters such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Titian, as well as modern painters such as de Chirico, Morandi, and Hopper. He also cites photographers, including Edward Steichen, Bill Brandt, Irving Penn, Gregory Crewdson, Paolo Ventura, and Hellen van Meene as influences. Tuschman admits that his work has a palpable darkness, and he cites a quote from singer Tom Waits that in some ways encapsulates his approach to image creation: “I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.” Ultimately, Tuschman is committed to creating an affecting connection with the viewer. “I am trying to make images that are beautiful, but also carry some emotional weight. The challenge for me is to balance the two properly in order to avoid slipping into sentimentality.” na
Richard Tuschman is exhibiting at Baldwin Photographic Gallery, Middle Tennessee State University, August 22 through September 28. An artist lecture is scheduled for September 5 at 6:30 p.m. at Bragg College of Media and Entertainment, Room 103. A reception will follow in the Gallery. Parking is available in the parking lots behind the Bragg Building beginning 5:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.baldwinphotogallery.com. See more of Tuschman’s work at www.richardtuschman.com.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
69
Photograph by Hunter Armistead
ART NASHVILLE
&
Who Are These Guys What Do They Want? By Cat Acree
70
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
N
ashville’s place within the national and international art world is about to change. This October, Art Nashville debuts as the city’s first international fine art fair, offering a dynamic melding of art and music unlike any other art fair. To be held at Vanderbilt University on October 17–21, 2018, the inaugural Art Nashville is predicted to attract 35,000 visitors and will exhibit work from more than 60 local and international galleries. Special exhibitors include the Fine Art Dealers Association, a Printer’s Alley pavilion curated by Hatch Show Print’s Daniel Lonow, and a Music Row pavilion. But this is Music City, so Art Nashville will not only feature fine art galleries but will also actively engage with Nashville’s music industry. Founder Matthew Eck, who is also the co-founder of Miami’s X Contemporary fair and New York’s SELECT, is already drawing comparisons between Art Nashville and the CMA Music Festival, which in 2017 saw a daily attendance of nearly 90,000 people. As Eck and his partner, Pierre Lamoureux (a Grammy-winning producer and one of the directors of Fogo Labs), explain, they’d like to see Nashville’s art community capitalize on the city’s boomtown status in the same way as the music industry. “We want to put together a hybrid [of art and music],” Eck explains. “Something that’s really unique to Music City.” Lamoureux points to the success of Nashville’s opera and ballet as examples of the music industry’s versatility in growth; if country music can lead to a strong opera and ballet programs, then just how far can Nashville’s burgeoning art community go? With this spirit in mind, special programming may include an acoustic lounge, lectures, and book signings by big-name musicians who are also deeply involved in the fine art world.
“By embracing the natural attributes from the city, that will set us apart from other fairs,” Lamoureux says. Eck may have cut his teeth in Miami and New York, but bringing an art fair to Nashville has been a whole new experience. Early hurdles to Art Nashville have been to find a venue (Nissan Stadium and the Omni Hotel were early options) and to wade into a small, well-integrated community, especially as an outsider. “Nashville’s teaching me a lot,” Eck says, “[like] how to forge an art week in a community that’s tight-knit and in the South, how to navigate through that. When I was in Miami and New York,
I was always doing shows with other art fairs. Art Basel has twenty-five other art fairs that are happening, so having a twenty-sixth fair was not unheard of.” Eck ventured to Nashville for the first time only two years ago, and he was “blown away” by the professionalism of galleries like Tinney Contemporary, David Lusk Gallery, Zeitgeist, and The Rymer Gallery, then learned more about OZ Arts and Nashville’s other art offerings. Eck realized that here was an untapped market for a fair, with high-quality work and enthusiasm from Nashville collectors—and from many galleries throughout the United States—to back it up. “The work that is coming out of some of the art studios in Nashville is really phenomenal,” Eck says. “It’s not [just] Americana, not rustic—it’s really contemporary, cuttingedge stuff.” As exciting as Nashville’s art community may be, it’s undeniable that a fair of this magnitude will affect the industry in a major way. A question from local galleries may be, what is your intention? “One thing that I’ve been trying to stress to the local galleries in Nashville [is] that this is not a competition,” Eck says. “It’s actually a symbiotic relationship. An art fair brings in collectives from Japan, from China, from France, Colombia, that have never been to Nashville before. We should have collaborations, with extracurricular [events] at the fair but also special events at the galleries.” Art Nashville will likely change the face of art collecting in Nashville as well. “I want it to appeal to every type of collector in Nashville,” Eck says, “[or anyone] who might not be a collector now but who might want to be one.” In service of fostering a new art-collecting community, a Young Collector’s Party will be held on October 19. “If you’re not well-versed in [art collecting], it’s a hard world to really understand at first,” Lamoureux says. “This is a way to open the door to all the influx of young blood that’s come to Nashville . . . We’re fostering an environment of growth and curiosity. It’s not just for fifty-, sixty-, seventy-year-olds. It’s for everyone at different levels.” Looking into the future, what Eck describes as “Phase B” is to bring Art Nashville to Manhattan for a one-night event to promote the art of Nashville in 2019. “We’ll make a statement…that will have two effects,” Eck says. “It’ll create curiosity for people there to come here, and it’ll create opportunities for people here to reach out to a larger audience. And that’s a really big part of our plan.” na
For more information, visit www.art-nashville.com.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
71
Ashley Doggett, Blackened, 2017, Intaglio etching with Aqua Taint, 12” x 8”
“Daily Art” Cultivates Quotidian Inspiration at
David Lusk Gallery WORDS Peter Chawaga
T
raditionally, an audience lingers with a piece of visual art the first time they see it. On the walls of a gallery, paintings encourage close scrutiny, deep contemplation, and a labored evaluation from even the most casual visitors. But a new program from Wedgewood-Houston’s David Lusk Gallery, called “Daily Art,” will shift this paradigm and seek to bring more art to a wider audience at a much-accelerated pace. Every day this month, the gallery’s new website and social media channels will highlight a different piece of artwork, giving followers a daily dose of inspiration directly in their news feeds and an accessible way to incorporate art into their lives without extended effort. Every Wednesday, an evite reveals the seven artists who will be featured. “We chose artists whom we work with, some brand new to the David Lusk Gallery; others have been on the roster for a long time,” explains Amelia Briggs, director of the gallery. “Up until this year, the gallery has continued a long-standing tradition of an August group exhibition titled Price Is Right. This show featured several artists’ work, all priced at or below $1,000 . . . In coming up with Daily Art, we wanted to somehow play off of that tradition while moving into something completely new and different.”
72
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Of course, this program is not meant to preclude people from visiting the gallery or spending more time with the works that are featured. By offering rapid-fire visual inspiration, the hope is that Daily Art will give even the busiest aficionados the chance to see what’s available for purchase on the gallery’s website. “Daily Art is fast-paced so that people have one more thing to look at per day, rather than an entire exhibition over the course of a month,” Briggs says. “There is no denying the role that social media plays in how people see and discover, and sometimes purchase, artwork, and we see this as an opportunity to have fun with that shift and play up the gallery on platforms like Instagram.” And beyond giving a new and streamlined experience for audiences, Daily Art is a program that may appeal to many active artists and offers a new way to share the work of older ones. “Generally speaking, when artists prepare for an exhibition, there is pressure to create a body or series of works that are all connected or related in some way,” says Briggs. “This platform frees artists from that and allows them to
Luisi Mera, Diablicos, 2014, Charcoal on paper, 36” x 24”
Carroll Cloar, Untitled Self Portrait, Drip drawing, 20” x 5”
Ted Faiers, Bird’s Nest Two, 1959, Gouache on paper, 23” x 29”
self-portrait by Carroll Cloar, who is renowned for surreal depictions of the Southern United States that may have obscured it had they been in an exhibition together; a clay and driftwood piece, Little One, by Anne Siems, who usually exhibits figurative paintings; and Bird’s Nest Two, a 1959 gouache painting by Ted Faiers that may serve as a gateway to the disparate styles he adopted throughout his career. Kathleen Holder, Untitled, 1990, Pastel on clay, 8” x 6”
showcase one work that may be an anomaly from what they would normally exhibit, or allow them to work in a different medium.” Among the first works to be featured in the program are a
“The fast-paced nature [of Daily Art] will hopefully keep people on their toes and introduce them to new artists or works they may have missed otherwise,” Briggs concludes. na To follow Daily Art and David Lusk Gallery’s social media platforms, visit its website at www.davidluskgallery.com. The gallery is located at 516 Hagan Street.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
73
ARTS&BUSINESSCOUNCIL
BY ALANDIS BRASSEL
Should Artists Be Worried about Online Sales Tax?
JIM SHERRADEN
Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court caused a stir among small businesses with online stores with its South Dakota v. Wayfair decision. In Wayfair, the Court ruled that South Dakota could require online retailers without an in-state physical presence to collect sales tax for sales made in the state. Before this decision, online retailers were required to collect sales tax only if they had a physical presence in the state, such as an office or a warehouse. What does Wayfair mean for artists who sell work and art collectors who purchase it online? At the end of the day, artists shouldn’t worry too much, at least not immediately. Here’s why: 1. Online sales tax collection laws have to be passed by states individually. Wayfair doesn’t mandate all online retailers to collect sales tax—it simply mandates an online retailer who makes a sale to someone in South Dakota to comply with South Dakota’s sales tax law. Significantly, the decision opens the doors for other states to pass similar laws. Before a retailer can be required to collect sales tax in a particular state, the state actually has to pass a sales tax law. While many states have proposed laws, it will take time for them to be enacted. 2. You might fall under an exception. If other states follow South Dakota’s lead, low-volume businesses might get a pass. South Dakota requires online retailers to collect the sales tax only if they either have more than $100,000 in annual sales in the state or process more than 200 transactions in the state. This exception was one of the reasons the Court found the law acceptable. It wouldn’t be surprising to see similar exceptions in other states’ laws. The bottom line is that while you should be aware of changes in sales tax laws, even to the extent that artists should review their online sales tax collection policies, you shouldn’t be deterred from making art transactions online. Make great art and keep good records.
THEN AND NOW AUGUST 4 – SEPTEMBER 30 OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, AUGUST 4 • 6:00 – 9:00 pm ARTIST RECEPTION SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 • 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Alandis Brassel is a volunteer attorney with the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. You can find out more on this topic, and other legal issues for artists, by visiting the Arts & Business Council online at www.abcnashville.org.
Alandis Brassel is the Program Director of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. You can reach him at abrassel@abcnashville.org. 74
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
224 Fifth Avenue South, Nashville, TN, 37203 615.577.7711 • HatchShowPrint.com
SOUNDINGOFF
On July 12, the Alias Chamber Ensemble closed their 2017-18 season with a concert at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music. The concert featured world premieres of works by Tennessee composer/performers Christopher Farrell (viola), Tracy Silverman (electric violin), and Matt Walker (cello) and focused on different aspects of Tennessee’s rich culture and natural beauty—its Rhythms, Rivers and Roads. Farrell’s three-movement Tennessee Roads combined Silverman’s electric violin (with a looping pedal) and a standard string quartet in order to create a postmodern collage of “old and new sounds.” The most beautiful moments were in the second movement, the “Great River Road,” where Farrell’s Mississippi seemed to channel an American version of Bedrich Smetana’s Moldau. Silverman’s works, The Harpeth River and The Cumberland, both portrayed their composer’s quite idealistic goal of “avoid[ing] the empty clichés and platitudes that surround us and [using] the rich, multi-faceted musical vernacular of our time to hit a nerve, to surprise, to make us hear our
Photograph by Sally Bebawy
Alias’s Rhythms, Rivers and Roads
BY JOSEPH E. MORGAN
The 3 composers take a bow at the end of the Rhythms, Rivers, and Roads concert
world in new ways.” Indeed, The Harpeth River, drawn as it is from a three-note motive, portrays a power and majesty that transcends its meager beginnings. Walker’s Quartet Out of Time, drawing on the instrumentation from Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, included everything from the “high lonesome” Appalachian sound to jazz/blues and a drumless percussion break, and gave a nostalgic and loving depiction of the diversity of music that one can hear in Nashville’s music scene. For more information, visit www.aliasmusic.org.
YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis
RONALD LEWIS Featured Artist August 1-31 107 Harding Place Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 yorkandfriends@att.net www.yorkandfriends.com Follow us on at York & Friends Fine Art Cades Cove, Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 36”
WORDS Audrey Molloy
JANET YANEZ Evolution
Galerie Tangerine Through October 19
T
Photograph by Nina Covington
his month, Galerie Tangerine opens Janet Decker Yanez: Evolution, an exhibition of abstract soak-stain paintings that lyrically interrogate surface as a condition of paint. The Nashville-based artist and founder of Ground Floor Gallery + Studios is best known for her use of unconventional materials in improvisatory and psychedelic paintings about identity and self-preservation—a studied process using food coloring that Yanez refers to as “spray-painting.” Evolution is the first comprehensive exhibition of Yanez’s material investigation into food dye and alternative surfaces, but also charts an astute examination of the relationship between image and canvas, color and emotional depth.
76
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Yanez’s formal dialectic in Evolution is a series of abstract shapes, poetic gestures, and translucent figurations. Comprised of three different bodies of work that Yanez has been investigating concurrently since 2013, this exhibition significantly underscores the conversational elements which Yanez has articulated throughout Unwinding Sheets, Conversations, and Artificial Comfort by thematically selecting works whose formal or contextual subject is related to a figurative dialogue.
“ …Scar tissue normally forms during the first two stages of healing. Fibroblasts Sometimes conversations are so crisp and clear, others are a blur. Can have such impact or mean nothing Conversations with self Conversations with others Talked to death Conversations have a beginning—a germ of an idea. Then an ebb and flow, then it is over, then analyzation. True or artificial. Public knowledge or personal. Self-serving or altruistic Secrets—do you tell, or keep them to yourself?” It is a fibrous and elusive conversation with her process that mimics in tone and imagery the stylistic approach Yanez conveys in Evolution. Working almost exclusively with centered compositions, where a majority of the pictorial
Thoughts Bloom, 2014, Food coloring on packing pads, 6’ x 4’
Worn, Tattered and Torn, 2014, Food coloring on packing pads, 6’ x 4’
In a series of texts accompanying her creative research Yanez writes:
incident takes place in the middle of the canvas, Yanez introduces viewers to immense portraits of human-like imprints on “economical, multipurpose, and reusable 3-ply recycled paper,” sparse abstractions of embryonic forms, and delicate works on paper documenting the meeting of two inwardly facing figures. That viewers should reenact this formality when approaching the paintings is a poetry not lost. “I began finding heads—portraits—within the smatterings and pools of color,” said Janet. “[Making the surface] very wet with a vinegar-water spray bottle, I dab in the spine and loose facial anatomy. Ephemeral, shroud-like faces emerged from these lifeless, linen-like materials. Features developed as the coloring puddled or ran depending on whether I was working on a flat surface or vertically.” The caliber of expertise Yanez has generated with her foodcoloring and alternative papers process is implicit in the breadth of artistic inquiry represented in Evolution. It is her conceptual treatment of these materials to produce portraits that is revelatory. By utilizing the textural variation and layered seams inherent to her packing-sheet paper, Yanez masterfully activates the raw edges of her canvases
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
77
The Golden Age, 2014, Food coloring on packing pads, 6’ x 4’
Look Into My Eyes, 2015, Food coloring on packing pads, 6’ x 4’
by allowing dye to sink organically into the folds and creases framing her central figures. As with Thoughts Bloom (2014), the result is that of a hyper-saturated color field or preternatural aura floating psychically above the surface of the paper—an all-over treatment of the paintings’ surface which frames her subjects. It is an intensity of color and contrast that pervades the works on exhibit but is most strikingly employed in the large-scale portraits from her Unwinding Sheets series.
signification that is free from gestural action or brushstrokes. Color and scale are transmuted—free from objective content—and become indexical for the emotional subject of these portraits. It is a pure synthesis of material form and function.
As in The Golden Age (2014), a fluid amber halo of hair contains the evasive imprint of a wide-eyed face—a haunting encounter made visceral by the sharply dimensional field of indigo from which it emanates. Worn, Tattered and Torn (2014) proceeds similarly; awash in luminous hues of magenta, the gasping outline of a face glows virescent amid the contrasting pink field that surrounds it. The palpable physical presence of the Unwinding Sheets portraits is due in part to their immense size. Standing before one of the several 4 ft. by 6 ft. portraits exhibited in Evolution, a viewer is made hyper-aware of the experiential quality that these saturated works impart. By employing the negative space surrounding her phantasmic figures as color fields, Yanez is able to convey a singular type of emotive
78
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
This manner of working readily recalls the late abstractexpressionist color field works by artists such as Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler, and Kenneth Noland, who similarly primed their canvases with water and were interested in color as a tool to translate basic human emotions. However, the colors and forms Yanez is creating are partially incidental, contingent upon the physical interaction between water, the weight of mixed dyes, material imperfections in the paper, and her own hand. It is a process and method of working nearly performative in its spontaneity. Working on several pieces at the same time, Yanez summons up interactions, dialogues, and impervious faces from spilled dyes. Certainly, the critical success of Evolution is that it seems to have occurred all at once. na Evolution is on exhibit at Galerie Tangerine through October 19. For more information, visit www.galerietangerine.com. See more of Yanez’s work at www.janetdeckeryanez.com and www.groundflrgallery.com.
Rachel Stovall, Fault, Clay, 13” x 10” x 8”
At the
Customs House Museum & Cultural Center
Aug. 4—Oct 14 In Historic Downtown Clarksville TN www.customshousemuseum.org 931-648-5780
The Co-op’s Annual Birthday Bash and Ugly Pot Throw Saturday, August 18 • 5:00 - 8:00 Free and Fun Event for the Whole Family 1416 Lebanon Pike, Nashville, TN, 37210 • 615.242.0346 Hours: M-F 8am-4:30pm, Sat 10am-2pm
SUPERMAN, Wayne Brezinka self-portrait, age 7, 2018, Mixed media, 36” x 36”
80
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
WORDS & ART Wayne Brezinka
FRESH PAINT
The artist with self-portrait
M
any hours of my childhood were spent daydreaming and creating imaginary worlds. Loneliness was a frequent companion in my early years, often filling me with a sense that I didn’t fit in. I was creative and curious and found interest in things that many other children in my small town of 400 didn’t find interesting at all. As a 7-year-old, I found greater comfort sitting in the back of the room looking in on my classes from a safe distance than I did engaging with my peers and classmates. I watched, and I observed. Feeling safe, although I may not have known how to express it at the time, was my number-one goal. Drawing, creating, and watching my favorite television series—The Muppet Show—were the skills I honed to cope with my loneliness. I recall fond memories of my grandmother. She was my safe place. She had 20 children of her own and 92 grandchildren, yet she knew every one of those kids by name— including me. One Christmas Eve, she welcomed my family into her home to celebrate and said that she had something for me. Smiling, she pulled out a handmade drawing tablet strung together with yarn, and a box of crayons. I was thrilled! She knew me; she saw me. Even at that young age, my interest in art was evident to her. At 7, I would never have imagined that I would be creating art full time and making a living at it—yet 42 years later, here I am. Looking around my studio at the various commissioned and personal works that I’ve created over the years, I realize how I have gravitated toward portraiture with my art. This was never a particular goal of mine, and it leads me to ask myself why. Each of the fragments in my work is a representation of what has built us, what sustains us, and what will shape us as we walk into tomorrow. They make us who we are. We are
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
81
“
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. —Vincent Van Gogh many things: well-made, cumbersome, awkward, elegant. We are complicated. We are human. What moves us to be curious about one another? Is it behavior? An individual’s way of being, their personality or appearance? Life is indeed discovered in the small things, in moments of our day-to-day lives, and perhaps those small things, brought together, add up to become who a person is. A variety of emotions can be read on the facial plane, and one could argue that there is not a single face exactly the same as another. We are built by stories and experiences, large and small, and constructed by relationships we have had across our lifespan. Fragments of encounters with acquaintances and strangers, those we call friends and those we call family, all contribute to the facial-expressions landscape. Reflecting on this, I recognize that my fascination with creating portraits and exploring the human face and personhood continues to grow and unfold. The small pieces of cardboard, cut paper, rope, paint, and glue are but a few of the materials I now use to represent those life moments. My multi-dimensional portraits make explicit reference to their subjects through the use of cut-and-pasted printed paper and repurposed materials arranged together into a vivid likeness of the subject. The aim of expression is always the same: to eloquently encapsulate the life of my subject through a multitude of textures and colors, crafting and revealing extraordinary storylines. This is a conceptual portrait of myself at the age of 7. I remember my father calling me Superman when I was a child. The nickname does not hold any positive or negative weight; it is merely a memory. I began to wonder what that idea might look like worked into a portrait. As a child, I had red hair, a face full of freckles, and a ruddy complexion. At 49, that complexion remains, and I’ve learned to embrace it. The freckles have faded, and my hair has lost its ginger color. Actually, my head has lost most of its hair altogether. I am amazed at how many physical, emotional, and spiritual versions of myself there have been over the years, leading me to find truth in the conventional expression, “That was another lifetime ago.” na
Collection of the artist. To see how it was made, visit www.WayneBrezinka.com.
82
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
All JAMES NACHTWEY Works: Š James Nachtwey Archive, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth USA, New York, 2001 The south tower of the World Trade Center was ablaze, but its collapse was still unimaginable. People were evacuating but not fleeing wildly, while onlookers took their time viewing the scene.
ARTAROUND A Local Look at Global Art
JAMES NACHTWEY
BY SARA LEE BURD
West Bank, Ramallah, 2000 In one of the early demonstrations of the second Palestinian intifada, protesters hurled stones and Molotovs at armed Israeli soldiers who fired both live ammunition and steel balls coated with rubber, which were sometimes fatal.
T
he Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, France recently featured the exhibition Memoria, Photographs by James Nachtwey. Within the centuries-old building, the contemporary galleries span multiple floors, where the large-scale, starkly lit photographs captured viewers’ attention and did not let go. At Nachtwey’s show at the MEP, I felt stunned, covered with chill bumps, disillusioned, and inspired. I was struck by his skill, content, and story-telling. I thought that if I were a doctor, aid worker, or philanthropist I could do something to help directly. As a writer, though, I can aspire to prompt discussions and activity by translating my perspective and experience with this powerful art into words.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
85
Afghanistan, Kabul, 1996 During the war against the Soviet occupation, the capital city was spared. During the bloody Afghan Civil War, however, it became the main battleground. By 1995, one-third of Kabul had been reduced to rubble. What had been the central commercial district resembled a moonscape.
Nachtwey’s work reveals his relentless journey to document some of the world’s most impacting issues. The artist has dedicated his career to moving toward the pain, sorrows, and tragedies that affect societies, traveling constantly to share the stories of the people affected. Curated by themes and geographic locations, the show presented 139 photographs divided into 20 sections: “Berlin Wall”, “Balkans”, “Chechnya”, “Famines”, “Romania”, “Rwanda”, “Pollution in Eastern Europe”, “The Sacrifice”, “War Medicine”, “Iraq”, “South Africa”, “Homeless in Indonesia”, “9/11”, “Afghanistan”, “Crime and Punishment in America”, “Tuberculosis and AIDS”, “Heroin Addicts”, “Agent Orange”, “Natural Disasters”, and “Refugees”. The juxtaposition of images created a thematic context for approaching the intensely poignant photographs, but nothing can prepare a person to see what Nachtwey has witnessed. The subjects of Nachtwey’s photographs unknowingly usher us into their world. He relates a compelling history by capturing up close what the people in his works see around them and how they react to those conditions. Considering the collection’s interwoven presentation, we find that people across time and space share common expressions of grief, fear, disillusion, and hopelessness. Moving through the show, questions abounded. Why is violence happening over and over? How can we withstand the suffering that befalls humanity? What can we do to help? What can we learn that
86
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
will make a difference? The exhibition evokes compassion and drives awareness of issues for which there is no easy solution. A businessman covered in dust clasps his briefcase as he extends his body through his upward gaze. The man seems to be in disbelief of what he sees, one of the Twin Towers standing just after the other was felled through a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people were killed and 6,000 more were injured that day. For those who know the history of the event, the tragedy captured in this photograph from the “9/11” series strikes hard, as they know that it was less than two hours before both 110-story towers crashed to the ground. Whether the man pictured survived is supremely unclear. His stance reveals his awareness that he is in danger, and the viewer is all too aware that his life was in more jeopardy than he knew. The tension presented here, which simultaneously concentrates on certainty and uncertainty, is a hallmark of Nachtwey’s photography. The accompanying exhibition brochure reminds the viewers that the 9/11 attack had a broader impact outside of the United States: “Civil wars, ongoing terrorist attacks, and the rise of organizations such as ISIS have been some of the consequences of the day.” This perspective fits with what Nachtwey’s photographs exemplify—the world is interconnected through death and destruction. In West Bank, Ramallah the artist captured a moment of violence enacted
by Palestinian and Israeli soldiers. Throwing Molotovs and stones, the Palestinian protesters were met by Israeli soldiers’ live ammunition and steel balls coated with rubber. The horrific scene and the annihilated city both suggest the possibility of continued violence and fatalities. Nachtwey presents an unafraid perspective on corporal death and bereavement as he has seen it across cultures. Viewing these images is difficult because while everyone will eventually die, witnessing fatality in photographs is not common in daily life. Compounding the uncomfortable confrontation with mortality is the realization that comes from engaging Nachtwey’s photographs—that many people around the world pass away in unimaginable conditions. In Sudan, Darfur, the photographer captures a tender moment in which a man gently touches the bodies of two people prepared for burial, their relationship nameless. While the cause of their demise is unknown, the emaciated state of all three of them suggests famine. According to the exhibition brochure, “Death by starvation is the oldest, most primitive weapon of mass destruction known to man, and it is highly effective.” Sudan, where the photograph was taken, experienced severe famines brought from political unrest and drought. Grief is clearly presented, and the pain shown in this photograph goes beyond physical to deeply personal anguish. In Nachtwey’s photographs the context in which the action takes place is often as important as the action. The bombed-out city featured in Afghanistan, Kabul contrasts with the billowing dress worn by the woman walking through it. The city appears otherworldly, dark, and without shape or life. The woman’s fabric flies in the wind, transforming her into an exaggerated organic form ... a flower ... a mushroom ... a force of life in white. The caption for this photograph offers a reminder of the history of Kabul: “During the war against Soviet occupation the capital city was spared. During the bloody Afghan Civil War, however, it became the main battleground. By 1995, one-third of Kabul had been reduced to rubble.” The visual tension presented in Nachtwey’s photograph provides a stunning way to contemplate life in the shadow of war.
Sudan, Darfur, 2003 Much of the population of Darfur had to flee their villages to escape government attacks. Many were able to find shelter in camps set up by international NGOs, while many others had to fend for themselves by whatever means they could improvise.
The art by Nachtwey in Memoria required endurance to experience. The photographer’s journeys to witness instances of immense human suffering are heartbreaking to see and imagine living. His technical skill, eye for the exact moment, and mindfulness when exploring issues threatening humanity create a powerful viewing experience. There are many lessons to learn from Nachtwey’s work. One of those is that it is imperative that we continue engaging with the past and present to break cycles of pain, destruction, and apathy. na
See more of James Nachtwey’s work at www.jamesnachtwey.com.
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mostar, 1993 The battle for control of Mostar took place from house to house, room to room, neighbor against neighbor. A bedroom, the place of rest for the weary, the place where life itself is conceived, had become a battleground. Croatian militiamen seized an apartment building, driving out Muslim residents.
1560 Craft Center Drive
Smithville, TN 37166
TENNESSEE’S CRAFT UNIVERSITY Clay • Fibers • Glass • Metals • Wood
p U t
AArSHVILLE N
Art Up Nashville is a comprehensive fine art service provider dedicated to the professional installation of items such as art and antique objects, heavy mirrors, posters and photographs. No job is too big or small. Our staff consists of museum-trained art handlers who for years have regularly handled precious, irreplaceable items of all classifications for museums and galleries as well as commercial and residential clients. Additionally, our staff is made up of artists who possess a special appreciation for art and whose refined aesthetic sensibilities optimize the clients’ experience.
www.ArtUpNashville.com
Sara Wiggins, BFA Clay
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree & Craft Workshops Le a r n m o r e a t w w w. t n t e c h . e d u / c r a f t ce n t e r
TTU does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, sex, disability, age (40 and over), status as a protected veteran, genetic information or any other category protected by federal or state law. Inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies should be directed to equity@tntech.edu
SEPT 11-16 ON SALE NOW!
TPAC.ORG/SchoolofRock • 615-782-4040 Groups of 10 or more call 615-782-4060
duncan@artupnashville.com 615-975-7577
TPAC.org is the official online source for buying tickets to TPAC events. Broadway Season sponsored by
JR Arostegui and Mandy Arostegui at The Rymer Gallery
Steve Holladay and Riley Holladay at Blend Studio
Rebecca Gailey and Emily Duchac at David Lusk Gallery
Bulli Carter and Simone Kleopatra at Julia Martin Gallery
ARTSEE
Curtis Thomas and Sharyn Bachleda at Zeitgeist
Chelsea MacDowel and Jackson Haley at Tinney Contemporary
John Paul Kesling and Cariad Harmon at David Lusk Gallery
90
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
ARTSEE
Anna Mireles and Yanet Mireles at David Lusk Gallery
Hannah Kroeker and Cassidy Cole at The Arts Company
ARTSEE
Kim Barry at DBO Gallery
Richard Davis and Elaine Davis at The Arts Company
Jacob Moore at COOP
Kosmo Vinyl at The Rymer Gallery
Megan Elsier at COOP
Ashley Layendecker, Megan White and Carrie Hull at Open Gallery
Olasubomi Aka-Bashorun at DBO Gallery
At Watkins Art Gallery
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL NOTT
ARTSEE
Cynthia Brewer at The Rymer Gallery
ARTSEE
ARTSEE
Brianna Bass, Kay Kennedy and Ashley Layendecker at The Packing Plant
Shannon McLaughlin and Madisson Clarry at The Arts Company
Rosemary Soloman and Abbey Cox at Channel To Channel
Joe Clemons and James Perrin at Tinney Contemporary
Bryce McCloud, Evan Holder and Julia Jackson at Zeitgeist
– Eric “Mobe” Bass and Ty Christian at The Rymer Gallery
Nina Thomas, Erin Schumacher and KJ Schumacher at David Lusk Gallery
Angela Naglieri and Kristin Lagan at Zeitgeist
Heather Dawn and Kristi Hargrove at Watkins Art Gallery
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
91
ARTSMART
A monthly guide to art education
TENNESSEE ROUNDUP
Community School of the Arts instructor Tim Pafford with a CSA painting student
Clarksville, Tennessee, is home to Austin Peay State University (APSU), where you’ll find over 10,000 “Governors” enrolled in 62 different majors and 108 concentrations. At APSU, you’ll also find the state’s only “Center of Excellence” designated specifically for the creative arts by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. The Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA, or “seek-ah”) receives annual state funding, with a match from APSU, to elevate the arts regionally and throughout the state. Current CECA Director Dr. Janice Crews arrived in January 2017 with a background in music education and orchestra administration. Since its inception in 1985, CECA has been providing students, the Clarksville community, and the Middle Tennessee region with engaging experiences in visual art and design, music, theatre and dance, and creative writing. CECA brings both emerging and prominent artists from around the world to Clarksville to introduce innovative ways of making or exploring art. CECA presents over 80 events per year, including concerts, lectures, theatre productions, master classes, and workshops. CECA also supports dozens of student scholarships and allows faculty to conduct research worldwide.
Photograph by Beth Lowary
In September alone, CECA will have several impressive events that are not to be missed. On September 7–8, CECA will host the premiere of a new musical drama entitled An Elegant Obsession
by Dr. Janice Crews Director, Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts Community School of the Arts
Courtesy CECA
Courtesy CECA
Austin Peay’s Center of Excellence and Community School Elevate the Arts in Middle Tennessee
CSA dance instructor Claire Estes with CSA students
by Tennessee composer and former APSU music professor George Mabry. A week-long residency and public concert will take place September 18–23 with the principal clarinetist of the L.A. Philharmonic, Boris Allakhverdyan, one of six artists-inresidence for the 2018 Acuff Chair of Excellence, an endowed chair administered by CECA. Also in September, CECA’s Zone 3 Press will publish a new memoir entitled An Imperfect Rapture by Kelly Beard, the 2017 winner of the Zone 3 Press Creative Nonfiction Book Award. Finally, on September 27, there will be a free public lecture by internationally known painter Amy Sherald, who was recently commissioned for the official portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. In addition to supporting the creation of new works of art, launching new publications, and bringing high-level guest artists to Clarksville, CECA also administers APSU’s Community School of the Arts (CSA). The CSA offers a variety of arts classes for children and adults, from beginning to advanced levels. Over 20 courses are offered per semester, such as digital photography, drawing, painting, ceramics, children’s choir, ukulele, ballet, modern dance, fiction writing, and improvisational acting. These classes fuel the mission of CECA and inspire students of all ages to get involved in the arts. Learn more at www.apsu.edu/ceca.
ARTSMART
Photograph by Mrs. Tashaundra Bailey
I.T. Creswell Honor Choir at Middle School Mass Choir Festival
Carrie Bryant, art teacher at Oliver Middle School, plans to work on ways to build relationships with her students, especially as she sees most for only nine weeks. Mrs. Bryant worked with the Nashville Design Center during the summer and is excited to implement her new STEAM and Project Based Learning (PBL) units. During the summer, she reviews lessons, standards, and behavior management ideas, with the goal of reading at least one education book each summer. Mrs. Bryant is a facilitator at Tennessee Arts Academy at Belmont University and values the experience as a way to revitalize her own creativity. Like Mr. Blackmon, Mrs. Bryant will work in the coming year to address her students’ need to process current events. Last year, students had the opportunity to express their ideas, concerns, and
Oliver Middle School student creating a self-portrait from a photograph
Photograph by Carrie Bryant
Christopher Blackmon, music teacher at Thomas Edison Elementary, plans to incorporate storytelling and story-based music in a more intentional way, hoping that students’ musical experiences are anchored in stories that are meaningful for them. Mr. Blackmon plans to develop his successful after-school Music Video Production program to be a model for other schools and become self-sustaining over time. He’s most excited about the team of seven arts professionals (including library) and “artshearted” classroom teachers that are ready to work as a team to offer robust arts learning experiences. He will attend Tennessee Arts Academy to recharge and reboot in an environment where arts teachers become students again. And to make it all work: “The thing I need the most to start the school year is collaborative planning time.”
Self-portrait demonstrating use of symbols in portraiture
personal feelings as a way to relate to Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. What does Mrs. Bryant need? MORE TIME! And on a personal note, she is loving being a new grandmother. Nita Smith, choral director at I.T. Creswell Middle School, is excited about bringing back piano to the curriculum with a new piano lab. She believes students are able to progress faster and make stronger connections to choral scores through keyboarding skills. She is also excited to start a Tri-M Music Honor Society at Creswell, focused on developing future leaders, serving the community through music-based service projects. An arts department project that is generating enthusiasm is the launch of theme-based houses at Creswell in an effort to build community and create opportunities for older students to mentor younger ones (think Gryffindor, etc.). Mrs. Smith recharges in the summer with swimming, yoga, and dance classes at the Northwest YMCA and making music, of course. Greater parental involvement is on Mrs. Smith’s wish list. Maybe her students will develop some magic-wand skills to help her on that score. Very best wishes to all teachers for a fulfilling and successful year. Your students are indeed fortunate to be the beneficiaries of such dedication and enthusiasm for learning.
by Laurie T. Schell Arts Education Advocate www.ElevateArtsEd.org
Photograph by Donn Jones
It’s that time again. Students are heading back to school, with new backpacks and fresh haircuts, ready to tackle a new year of learning. And teachers are ready to welcome them. The carefully decorated classrooms are just one sign of teachers’ preparations. I asked three veteran MNPS arts educators how they get ready. Rest and recharge, professional learning, and planning are high on the list.
Photograph by Carrie Bryant
Teachers Get Ready
ARTSMART An Interview with Nola Scott Jones Nola Scott Jones, recently retired Director of Visual & Performing Arts for Metro Schools, offers her thoughts on the current status and future outlook for the arts in our schools. Do all Metro Schools offer Visual and Performing Arts curriculum and programming? Yes, all zoned and magnet schools offer arts education. Specific classes offered are dependent on school need and student interest. Considering the great diversity in Metro Schools, what is most challenging about meeting curriculum standards while offering flexibility to fit the needs of a particular school culture?
What are the major challenges you have seen in the arts in Metro Schools? Our demographics in Nashville are changing, and the culture in our school buildings is changing. Our teachers are working to be responsive to our students’ needs. They are constantly reflecting and revising their instruction and activities to reflect the shifting landscape of our culturally diverse community. We see our teachers working harder to engage every subgroup of students in their classes. The district is implementing new classes, new state standards, and new scope and sequence. What hasn’t changed is the fact that our arts teachers are amazing, and they are committed to doing whatever is necessary to provide every student with a quality arts education. What sets MNPS visual and performing arts apart from the rest of the country? Nashville is the second most culturally vibrant community in the United States, according to the Arts Vibrancy Index. The nonprofit arts and cultural industry generates $429.3 million a year in economic activity and $51.1 million in local and state government revenue.
Photograph by Drew Cox
Members of the Glencliff High School Mariachi program
by DeeGee Lester
Courtesy MNPS
Photograph by Ardee Chua
Our teachers are certified arts education specialists and well prepared to deliver the curriculum. Making sure every school has access to qualified arts education specialists can be challenging. Increased instructional expectations such as intervention time and mandated recess are frequently beyond the control of the district. Principals have to make difficult decisions with regard to scheduling and instructional time. Fortunately, our district values
arts education, and the Tennessee Board of Education requires music and art instruction in every school.
Participant in a Little Kids Rock event
Mimosa Arts
ARTSMART barriers to music education, increase student participation, and enhance the quality of music education for ALL Metro Schools students.
The cast of Disney’s The Jungle Book KIDS perform at TPAC during the 2018 Disney Musicals in Schools Student Share Celebration
Music is embedded in the fiber of our community. The CMA Foundation has donated over $11 million to support music education in Metro Schools. Most people aren’t aware that the artists who play at the CMA Fest perform for free, and proceeds are donated to the CMA Foundation. The CMA Foundation’s remarkable generosity has allowed thousands of Nashville students access to quality music instruments and enhanced instruction. Our culturally rich community allows unique access to partnerships with organizations such as the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, the Frist Art Museum, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Parthenon, Cheekwood, Nashville Ballet, Nashville Children’s Theatre, Nashville Symphony, the National Museum of African American Music, Nashville Opera, and OZ Arts Nashville, to name a few. The Metro Arts Commission has been invaluable in assisting in these endeavors. We are indeed fortunate to live in a city where the arts community is flourishing and arts partners are committed to working with our schools. What are you most proud of during your six years overseeing Visual and Performing Arts?
Mimosa Arts
When my predecessor, Laurie Schell, and I began this work six years ago, we agreed that providing access and equity to quality arts education for every student in Metro Schools was our primary goal. I am very proud of Music Makes Us®, the branded name for music education in MNPS, and how we’ve been able to leverage this work for the other arts disciplines. This unique public/private partnership with MNPS, the Mayor’s Office, and the Nashville music community provides meaningful support for music in our schools. We believe that music is an essential component of a well-rounded education. Music Makes Us® is strengthening traditional school music while adding a contemporary curriculum that embraces new technologies and reflects our diverse student population. Our goal is to eliminate
I’m very proud of the work we have done in conjunction with the CMA Foundation. Without CMA, much of our work would simply not be possible. Sara Trahern, CEO, and Tiffany Kerns, Executive Director of the CMA Foundation, have been tireless in their support of music education in Metro Schools. I’m proud of how we are working to leverage support for music education to impact the other arts content areas. Last fall, MNPS was awarded a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for Professional Development for Arts Education. This was a hugely competitive grant, and MNPS was one of 20 districts nationwide to be selected to receive the grant. The district is partnering with the Frist Art Museum and Quaver online music curriculum to provide professional development for our elementary art and music teachers. Our partnership with TPAC provides opportunities for our students from 35 Metro Schools to perform Disney Musicals in Schools. Recently, Nashville Ballet provided professional development for our dance teachers. We’ve also worked to provide professional development for our teachers to enhance artful experiences for our students with special needs. Metro Schools recently hired a Visual Arts Coordinator for the first time in 20 years. How can MNPS, our community partners, and families help to meet the challenges for arts education in Nashville? Our district leadership, community partners, teachers, students, and families are our most important advocates for arts education in Metro Schools. We can all work together to advocate for the importance of arts education as part of every child’s well-rounded education. Attend performances and exhibits at schools, donate time or resources to schools’ arts programs, support candidates who value arts education, be vocal in council and board meetings, participate in artful experiences in our community. Every citizen can be a conduit for arts education. What would be the one thing you would tell Nashville about the importance of arts in schools and in the lives of children? Art is the lever for change in schools. Creativity is essential in education and life. Every student in every school deserves opportunities to make and learn art and music. A student’s access to a rich arts education should not be dependent on zip code, socioeconomic status, racial or ethnic background, country of birth, or language spoken at home. Nashville’s rich arts ecosystem puts our district in a unique position to serve as an arts education model for the rest of the country. For more information, visit www.mnps.org/visual-and-performingarts/ and www.musicmakesus.org.
A student cast member from Robert Lillard Elementary School’s 2016 production of The Aristocats KIDS in partnership with TPAC’s Disney Musicals in Schools program
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
95
TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
FYEYE Instagram: @hunterarmistead
Capturing the Creative Culture of Our City
Jay Gibson Photographer and videographer, builder, fun-lover, record label dude
System Gamer I stumbled across Jay Gibson at the East Side Art Stumble near Red Arrow Gallery a few months back. He’s a cheerful and laid-back lad, though underneath his unassuming exterior is a dogged mad scientist and builder who’s working with a Nashville team, the ND Collective, to build a world-class sculpture for Burning Man. A one-ton monolith 30 feet tall and 15 feet wide, “Kinesios” is truly a 21st-century creation. Sandwiched between two gigantic metal plates is a fantastic moving illuminated pendulum which doubles as a ride for Burners. It’s the best of the pieces commissioned this year by Burning Man, IMHO. The 26-year-old came to Nashville three years ago from Charleston, where he attended SCAD to study Industrial Design and Watercraft Design. “It was an incredible experience,” says Gibson, who moved there from his home town, Brunswick, Georgia. The international student body and a highly charged and motivated atmosphere were ideal for Gibson. It was his Nashville friends at SCAD who prompted his move. The tinkerer’s trek is seemingly inexorable. After his parents finally caved and gave him the ratchet set he had begged for, they found him a week later in the garage with the engine to their old Volkswagen completely disassembled. Gibson was six. Gibson was not an especially good student in high school. He spent that time working on cars and “gaming the system,” always at cross purposes with the aggravated principal. In spite of so-so grades, his scary test scores and iconoclastic spirit got him into his alma mater. The soft-spoken artist is bull-headed. Taking to heart his mother’s maxim, “There are no mistakes, only changes in direction,” Gibson works doggedly on all his projects, going “around or through” any hurdles. Soon Gibson and his teammates will be loading “Kinesios” onto a semi for Burning Man. I’m pretty sure nothing will prevent them, if Gibson has anything to say about it. More about the Burning Man piece: www.ndcollective.net Gibson’s Instagram feed: @rogu3bagel
THEATRE
Photography by Rick Malkin
BY JIM REYLAND
Handmade: Friendships Famous, Infamous, Real, and Imagined by Jim Reyland is available at writersstage.com. Also, catch the award-winning STAND for two shows on October 27 at 3 and 7:30 p.m. at the 4th Story Theater at WUMC. jreyland@audioproductions.com
Nashville Shakes Celebrates 30 Years with A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Centennial Park
I
t’s August, time to celebrate all the eighth-month milestones we hold so dear: This playwright; Nashville favorite, actress Rachel Agee; President Lyndon Johnson, and Saint Mother Teresa all have birthdays on the same August Monday. Then there’s Elvis leaving the building, Nixon resigning, Woodstock rocking upstate New York, and a few other less important happenings. The Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s annual summer production in Centennial Park is also in August, this year continuing their 30th anniversary season with Shakespeare’s classic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This magical play, directed by Jaclynn Jutting, explores the duality of love and asks, if we are in love, are we ever in control? I’m pretty sure that’s a big Elizabethan No, but do go and decide for yourself. The show runs August 9 through September 9 in Centennial Park and then plays an encore weekend at Academy Park Performing Arts Center in Franklin from September 13–16.
98
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the perfect play to celebrate 30 years of Shakespeare in the Park. There is a lot of tension and anxiety in the world these days, and this is an event that brings everyone together to share a fun evening full of laughter and wonder.” Artistic Director Denice Hicks
Speaking of pixies and sprites, NSF will offer Elf and Fairy Camps each week of the show, and the 6- to12-year-olds who attend the camp will be performing alongside the pros. Blending the world of ancient Greece with an enchanting, twinkling fairy forest are set designer Paul Gatrell, lighting designer Anne Willingham, costume designer Colleen Garatoni, with dance choreography by Everett Tarleton. Director Jaclynn Jutting says, “Working on this play with Nashville Shakespeare Festival—loved by so many Nashvillians—has been a delight. Producing it in the heart of Nashville’s Centennial Park brings Shakespeare’s Athens, Greece, to the ‘Athens of the South’.” It all starts at 6 p.m. when food and drink vendors open, and thou hast by moonlight at their windows to purchase thine hot chicken. After dinner, Talking Shakespeare appears, along with nightly special-guest speakers at 6:30 as the pre-show entertainment begins. At 7:30 p.m., it’s time for the show. Enjoy. Don’t forget, the Franklin Time Schedule is one-half hour earlier with food and drink vendors and Talking Shakespeare at 5:30 p.m., pre-show entertainment at 6 p.m., and performances beginning at 7 p.m. Shows are Thursday– Sunday and Labor Day Monday. Also this summer, the Festival will honor its original founding members from 1988 and celebrate those who are still critical to NSF today in a Founder’s Day Celebration on September 2. Tickets to A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Centennial Park are free, but a $10 donation is encouraged. VIP Royal Packages, including reserved seating, VIP parking, and a gourmet dinner by Bacon & Caviar are $75. Go to ticketsnashville.com to purchase. So, however you plan to celebrate August this year, consider adding a lawn chair, a cold beverage, and perhaps a midsummer night’s dream under the stars, enjoying the Nashville Shakes. na For more information, visit www.nashvilleshakes.org
Photograph by Matthew Murphy
In true Nashville Shakes style, this production features an original score by Rollie Mains, played live by the composer and local musicians Natalie Bell, Jeff Rogers, and actor/ musician Matthew Cruz Benenson. The cast and apprentice company members include another Nashville favorite, Tamiko Robinson Steele, playing both Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and Hippolyta. Also double-cast is Geoff Davin as Oberon and Theseus, and Artistic Director Denice Hicks will be playing both the mischievous Puck and Egeus. Plus, there will be little elves and fairies on stage this year!
Brandi Carlile in Concert – A Bluegrass Underground Special
WOMEN TO WATCH Dionne Warwick’s elegant presentation and silky-husky voice resulted in a string of hits from the 1960s to the 80s. Dionne Warwick: Then Came You, a new My Music special airing Sunday, August 19, at 7 p.m., includes archival performances of signature tunes “Do You Know the Way to San José,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” and “Then Came You,” her hit with The Spinners. For proof of nonagenarian Betty White’s versatility, compare her treacly portrayal of Rose Nylund on 1990s sitcom The Golden Girls with her ambitious, mancrazy Suzanne Nivens 20 years earlier on The Mary Tyler Moore Show—not to mention her 2010 Super Bowl commercial for Snickers. Betty White: First Lady of
From Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King
Television, premiering Tuesday, August 21, at 7 p.m., chronicles a career that spans the history of the medium. Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King offers an inside look at the sculptor’s hyperrealistic heads and figures. King often gives her clay pieces motion through automation or animated film shorts, and her work was part of the Frist Art Museum’s 2016 Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art exhibition. The documentary airs Tuesday, August 14, at 11 p.m.
Ben-Hur Bard airs Thursday, August 9, at 8 p.m. and tells how the Union Army’s youngest major general—and Battle of Shiloh veteran—came to write the bestselling historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. At 9:30 p.m., NPT’s original production Shiloh: The Devil’s Own Day shines light on why Wallace found the battle so hard to shake.
SCENIC ROUTE
Still Tomorrow is a poignant profile of Yu Xihua, author of what has become China’s best-selling poetry book for the past two decades. Her story is intriguing not only because she never completed high school, but also because she has cerebral palsy. The 60-minute film explores the conflict between women of Yu’s and her mother’s generations, as well as Yu’s search for love and independence. Beijing-based filmmaker Jian Fan’s documentary premieres Monday, August 6, at 9 p.m. on POV.
Photographer John Guider’s historyinspired river project is chronicled in NPT’s original documentary Voyage of Adventure: Retracing Donelson’s Journey airing Wednesday, August 22, at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, August 25, at 10:30 p.m. The Grand Canyon is a classic summer destination; see it as few do in Wings Over Grand Canyon, airing Friday, August 24, at 9 p.m. These stunning aerial views follow the Colorado River from Castle Valley in Utah to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Lake Mead in Nevada. Ancient Invisible Cities, Wednesdays, August 29 through September 12, at 8 p.m., offers a different perspective on familiar landmarks in Cairo, Istanbul, and Athens.
Ben-Hur is considered one of Charlton Heston’s definitive roles; the real-life story of its author is as fascinating as that of the character. Lew Wallace: Shiloh Soldier,
Encore presentations of many of NPT’s shows are broadcast on NPT2; enjoy 24/7 children’s programming on NPT3 PBS Kids. To donate to NPT, please call during pledge broadcasts this month or go to wnpt.org and click the donate button.
THE WRITTEN WORD
Mask of Tutankhamun, from Ancient Invisible Cities (Cairo)
Courtesy of Isabelle Sutton/BBC
Summer is heating up and so is the music programming on NPT! Tune in for a range of performances, including Brandi Carlile in Concert – A Bluegrass Underground Special airing Friday, August 10, at 7 p.m.; and the annual Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert, on Friday, August 17, at 9 p.m. on Great Performances. If there’s one music show made for summer it’s Grateful Dead – Downhill from Here, recorded in July 1989, airing Friday, August 24, at 7 p.m.
Courtesy of Michael Weintrob
Arts Worth Watching
August 2018 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 11:00 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 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 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00 6:30
Saturday
am Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Dinosaur Train Bob the Builder Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Pinkalicious & Peterrific Splash and Bubbles Curious George Nature Cat Best of Sewing with Nancy P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home Garden Smart Steven Raichlen’s Project Fire Kevin Belton’s New Orleans Kitchen Food Over 50 noon America’s Test Kitchen pm Cook’s Country Kitchen My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas Nigella: At My Table Simply Ming Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Woodwright’s Shop Rough Cut with Fine Woodworking This Old House Ask This Old House Start Up PBS NewsHour Weekend Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville
This Month on Nashville Public Television
Sunday
am Sid the Science Kid Dinosaur Train Sesame Street Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Pinkalicious & Peterrific Splash and Bubbles Curious George Nature Cat Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads Nature Washington Week noon To the Contrary pm Firing Line Samantha Brown’s Places to Love Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope New Environmentalists Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions Travels with Darley Weekends with Yankee America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend British Antiques Roadshow
Dionne Warwick: Then Came You A My Music special celebrates the Grammy-winning singer. Premieres Sunday, Aug. 19, at 7 pm
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 6:00
am Classical Stretch Happy Yoga with Sarah Starr Ready Jet Go! Cat in the Hat Nature Cat Curious George Pinkalicious & Peterrific Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Splash and Bubbles Sesame Street Super Why! Dinosaur Train Peg + Cat noon Sesame Street pm Splash and Bubbles Curious George Pinkalicious & Peterrific Nature Cat Wild Kratts Wild Kratts Odd Squad Odd Squad Arthur NPT Favorites PBS NewsHour
The Outback
One year in Australia’s Kimberley region. Wednesdays, Aug. 1 – 15 at 7 pm
Betty White: First Lady of Television
A career spanning the history of the medium. Premieres Tuesday, Aug. 21, at 7 pm
102
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
13
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Cleveland, Hour 2. 8:00 Frontline Our Man in Tehran. New York Times correspondent Thomas Erdbrink offers a peek into private Iran. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Keep Talking Four Alaska Native women fight to save their endangered language.
12
7:00 Poldark Season 3 on Masterpiece Episode 1. 9:00 Poldark, Season 3 Episode 2. 10:00 Breaking Big Michael Strahan. 10:30 Trust Docs Colombia’s Ghosts of War. Rebuilding after the country’s 52-year civil war. 11:00 POV Still Tomorrow. .
7:00 Poldark, Season 2 Episode 8. 8:00 Poldark, Season 2 Episode 9. 9:00 Ballyfin: Portrait of an Irish Country House 10:00 Breaking Big Roxanne Gay. 10:30 Trust Docs 11:00 POV Whose Streets?
6
7:00 Antiques Roadshow 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Salt Lake City. 9:00 POV Still Tomorrow. Chinese writer Yu Xihua. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Reel South Honky Tonk Heaven. A family-run Texas dancehall.
Monday
5
Wednesdays, August 1 - 15, 8 pm
Wonders of Mexico
Sunday
7
14
7:00 No Passport Required D.C. Chef Marcus Samuelsson highlights the city’s Ethiopian community. 8:00 Frontline Our Man in Tehran. More surprising glimpses into private Iran. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Double Take: The Art of Elizabeth King Lifelike sculptures.
7:00 10 Towns That Changed America 8:00 No Passport Required Miami. The flavors of the city’s Haitian community. 9:00 Frontline Documenting Hate: Charlottesville. The white supremacists and Neo-Nazis involved in the 2017 rally. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Tunnel: Vengeance Conclusion.
Tuesday
Nashville Public Television’s Primetime Evening Schedule
August 2018 1
Thursday
2
15
16
9
7:00 The Outback 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads Return of the Wet. 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Wonders of Mexico 8:00 RFK: American Burning North. The Experience Sonoran and A profile of Robert F. Chihuahuan deserts. Kennedy. 9:00 NOVA 10:00 BBC World News Making North America: 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Human. 11:00 Power to Heal: 10:00 BBC World News Medicare and the Civil 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Rights Revolution 11:00 Austin City Limits With national funding Angelique Kidjo. on the line, segregation of medical facilities began to end.
8
3
17 7:00 The Great British Baking Show Masterclass 1. 8:00 The Great British Baking Show The Final. 9:00 Great Performances Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2018. Valery Gergiev is guest conductor; soprano Anna Netrebko is featured. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Kate Rickie Lee Jones.
10
7:00 2017 World Dancesport Grandslam Series Finals. 8:00 The Great British Baking Show Biscuits. 9:00 British Antiques Roadshow Kirby Hall 1. 9:30 Dream of Italy Basilicata with Francis Ford Coppola. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Kate John Oates.
Friday
7:00 The Outback 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:00 Brandi Carlile in The Dry Season. 7:30 Volunteer Gardener Concert – A Turtles, cattle, 8:00 Lew Wallace: Shiloh Bluegrass marsupials – and pearl Soldier, Ben-Hur Bard Underground Special diving. The Union Army military 8:00 The Great British 8:00 Wonders of Mexico leader who went on Baking Show Mountain Worlds. to write Ben-Hur. Patisserie. Birds, black bears, 9:30 Shiloh: The Devil’s 9:00 British Antiques volcanos and monarch Own Day Roadshow butterflies. An NPT original Kirby Hall 2. 9:00 NOVA production. 9:30 Dream of Italy Making North 10:00 BBC World News Castelvetere Sul America: Life. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Calore (Italian 10:00 BBC World News 11:00 Pope John Paul II Ancestry). 10:30 Last of Summer Wine in Ireland: A Plea 10:00 BBC World News 11:00 Austin City Limits for Peace 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Dan Auerbach; The pontiff’s fall 11:00 The Kate Shinyribs. 1979 visit. Ana Gasteyer.
7:00 The Outback 7:00 Tennessee The Kimberley Comes Crossroads Alive. The spectacular 7:30 Volunteer Gardener region in North West 8:00 Cheekwood: A Australia. Masterpiece by Man 8:00 Wonders of Mexico & Nature Forests of the Maya. An NPT original about A new series explores the home and gardens. our neighbor to the 8:30 Living Dream: One south. Hundred Years of 9:00 NOVA Rocky Mountain Making North National Park America: Origins. 10:00 BBC World News 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Homeless Chorus 11:00 Austin City Limits Speaks Alabama Shakes; A San Diego choral Vintage Trouble. group overcomes obstacles.
Wednesday
4
18
6:30 Lawrence Welk Show Precious Memories. A “new” special. 8:30 Memory Rescue with Daniel Amen, M.D. 10:30 Forever Painless with Miranda Esmonde-White
11
7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Childhood Memories. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Still Open All Hours 9:00 Hillary Race to the Pole. Hillary decides to try for the South Pole. 9:45 Hillary Heartbreak. Conclusion. 10:30 Into the Wild: Edison, Ford & Friends Industry titans go camping. 11:00 Globe Trekker Tough Boats: The Nile, Egypt.
7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Salute to Cole Porter. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Still Open All Hours 9:00 Hillary Everest. Hillary meets a new climbing partner, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. 9:45 Hillary Home. An Antarctic expedition is offered to Hillary. 10:30 Cheekwood 11:00 Globe Trekker Wild West: USA.
Saturday
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
103
20
27
3
19
26
2
21
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Austin, Hour 3. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Bismarck, Hour 1. 9:00 POV Voices of the Sea. A 30-something mother wants to leave Cuba to find a better life for her family. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Austin, Hour 1. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Austin, Hour 2. 9:00 POV Nowhere to Hide. A nurse in central Iraq, where ISIS arose after the 2011 U.S. retreat. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
4
7:00 Mark Twain Part 2. Ken Burns profiles the humorist and writer. 9:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
28
7:00 Mark Twain Part 1. Ken Burns profiles the humorist and writer. 9:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
5
7:00 Nature Nature’s Perfect Partners. Sea and land animals collaborate to solve complex problems and stay alive. 8:00 Ancient Invisible Cities Istanbul. 9:00 NOVA Secrets of the Shining Knight. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
29
for NPT, NPT2, and NPT3 PBS Kids.
30
23
7:00 NPT Favorites 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 8:00 Ancient Invisible 7:30 Volunteer Gardener Cities 8:00 NPT Favorites A three-part series 10:00 BBC World News explores hidden 10:30 Last of Summer Wine architectural treasures. 9:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
22
Sept 7:00 NPT Favorites
1
25
6:30 Doo Wop Generations 9:00 Zoltan Maga: Live from Budapest with David Foster Hungarian violinist Maga in a concert recorded New Year’s Day 2018. 10:30 Voyage of Adventure: Retracing Donelson’s Journey
Monday, August 27, 9 pm
POV: Nowhere to Hide
Monday - Tuesday, August 13 - 14, 8 pm
Frontline: Our Man in Tehran
31
7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
24
7:00 Nature 7:00 Ray Stevens Cabaray 7:00 Grateful Dead – Giraffes: Africa’s Nashville Special Downhill from Here Gentle Giants. 8:30 Pavlo Live in Kastoria Recorded in Wisconsin 8:30 Voyage of Adventure: Mediterranean guitar in July 1989. Retracing Donelson’s performance recorded 9:00 Wings Over Grand Journey in the mountains of Canyon An NPT original Greece. A stunning aerial tour follows photographer 10:00 BBC World News of the Grand Canyon, John Guider’s 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Colorado River and history-inspired river 11:00 Rick Steves’ Europe surrounding areas. project. Travel Skills 10:00 BBC World News 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Retire Safe & Secure 11:00 10 Day Belly with Ed Slott Slimdown with Dr. Kellyann
Visit wnpt.org for complete 24-hour schedules
7:00 Poldark, Season 3 Episode 4. 8:00 Poldark, Season 3 Episode 5. 9:00 Poldark, Season 3 Episode 6.
7:00 Poldark, Season 3 Episode 3. 8:00 NPT Favorites
7:00 Dionne Warwick: Then 7:00 Antiques Roadshow 7:00 Betty White: First Came You Cleveland, Hour 3. Lady of Television A My Music special 8:00 GI Jews – Jewish A new special about about the elegant, Americans in World the legendary comic Grammy-winning singer War II actress whose career includes archival Includes interviews spans the history of performance clips. with Mel Brooks, Carl television. 8:30 Great Performances Reiner, Henry 8:30 Tenors – Fan The Chris Botti Band Kissinger and others. Favorites in Concert. 10:00 BBC World News The Canadian trio The Grammy-winning 10:30 Last of Summer Wine performs “Bohemian jazz trumpeter’s guests 11:00 Doo Wop Rhapsody,” etc. include Barbra Generations 10:00 BBC World News Streisand. A My Music special. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:30 Memory Rescue with 11:00 Suze Orman’s Daniel Amen,M.D. Financial Solutions for You
The magic of magnolias ... The magnolia is my favorite flower. Every spring, its white, majestic blooms appear miraculously across the South, making my spirits soar. I love flowers in general. Peonies, gardenias, and roses are among my favorites. But grand as they are, they just don’t have the gravitas of the magnolia. Perfumers have been trying for centuries to duplicate the magnolia’s unique fragrance. But that’s about as impossible as trying to describe it in words. Creamy sweet with a hint of citrus? ... lemony? ... intoxicating? Not even close.
BEYONDWORDS
Photograph by Anthony Scarlati
ry Eve st fir ! ay Frid
BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN
My grandmother in Spartanburg kept fresh magnolia blossoms in vases throughout her house. And once I reached adulthood, I started doing the same thing. So maybe the magnolia is part of my DNA.
Williamson County Culture
In the twenty-plus years that I lived in a house here in Nashville, I’d traipse out each morning, garden shears in hand, in search of new blooms on the five magnolias growing in my yard. Now that I live in a high-rise, I keep those same red-handled shears handy on the console of my car, in case I spy a newly opened magnolia bloom while driving around Nashville. I usually pick anywhere from one to six blossoms. Then I rush back home to place them in vases of water, before they get too thirsty. A single bloom in each vase. And I always keep one on my bedstand. The fragrance makes for sweet dreams. Magnolia blossoms only last a couple of days before they start turning brown. I imagine they do this on purpose. So we don’t take them for granted. My Spartanburg grandparents had a huge magnolia tree on their front lawn. Since it was over a hundred years old, it had long reached its full height. Which means its canopy had begun to spread, leaving it with a flat top. When I was a young girl, I often spent entire afternoons in that tree. Sometimes I’d climb to the very top. I remember the first time I did this. The tree’s sturdy branches supported me all the way up. It was like coming out of a tunnel when my head finally popped up out of that tree. All that sudden sky and light. And when my eyes had adjusted, I realized that faint blue in the distance was the Blue Ridge Mountains forty miles away. And it took my breath away. Just for the record, when I die, I’d like a single magnolia blossom placed on the pine box containing my ashes. Just one. One flower for one life. And that’s enough. Marshall Chapman is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter, author, and actress. For more information, visit www.tallgirl.com.
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
105
MYFAVORITEPAINTING MARY GRISSIM, CURATOR, ARTS AT THE AIRPORT, GRISSIM GROUP CONSULTING
ARTIST BIO: Randy Moberg Randy Moberg, based in Fairhope, Alabama, is known and commended for his oil paintings and drawings. Born in California, Moberg and his parents returned to Mobile, Alabama, where Randy grew up and enlisted in the Navy for four years of engineering training. It was only after, when Moberg was encouraged by his counselor to take a drawing class at the University of South Alabama, that he began to take his passion and talent seriously. In 1998, he graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting and a minor in Drawing. Soon after, he began exhibiting his paintings, which showed his unique style of abstracting traditional figurative subjects. www.randymoberg.com
Randy Moberg, Untitled, 2005, Oil on canvas, 36” x 36”
T
I met Randy almost twenty years ago when he first started showing his work in Nashville. We became friends. I had the opportunity to visit him in his studio and watch him paint. He is an intuitive painter, unpretentious and honest in his work. Randy has a true creative spirit and is always looking for the next best way to express himself through painting, drawing, and sculpture. This painting is one of my favorites because aesthetically it pleases me, but also because I know Randy and consider him a friend. na www.flynashville.com/arts-and-music
106
NASHVILLEARTS.COM
Mary Grissim
Photograph by John Partipilo
he painting by Randy Moberg, from Fairhope, Alabama, is a piece of art I find myself looking at over and over again and seeing something different. I’m drawn to the color and the movement of the painted subjects. I swear the guitar players change positions, and depending on the light in my house on any given day, the colors change. The artwork is not static. The thing I love most about this painting is Randy’s use of light. There is just a touch of light on the top of the musicians’ hats and on their backs that makes them look alive. It is subtle, but it makes the whole painting seem real. My eye is always drawn there, looking for that little speck of light.
MUSIC CITY’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR
OCTOBER 17th - 21st 2018
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
www.art-nashville.com | +1.615.521.7041 | @art_nashville in collaboration with:
Image Courtesy of Contessa Gallery: Brendan Murphy (B. 1971 - ) Way Beyond the Roses, 2018
RESIDENTIAL | COMMERCIAL | LAND | FARMS | DEVELOPMENTS 615.250.7880 | WORTHPROPERTIES.COM