Everett Raymond KINSTLER Thomas SULLY Harvey PETERSON Molly SECOURS Paul COLLINS Fashion EVERYWHERE!
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SMILE Debuted Statewide in Nashville New and Minimally-invasive Surgery for Myopia (Nearsightedness) is First Major Advance in LASIK Technology in 25 Years, Reducing Dependence on Glasses and Contacts which causes the corneal shape to change, permanently changing the prescription. SMILE has a proven track record of success. It has been used internationally since 2011 and more than 750,000 procedures have been performed worldwide. Dr. Wang noted that currently, the procedure has not been approved to treat large amounts of astigmatism and cannot treat farsightedness and that LASIK is still a better option for a majority of the patients seeking laser vision correction.
The first major advance in LASIK technology in 25 years, the SMILE procedure, was performed in Nashville recently at Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center by its director, internationally renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Ming Wang, Harvard & MIYT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser physics). “We are extremely very excited to be the first again to introduce the next generation laser correction procedure to the state, helping out patients with this new and minimally invasive procedure,” said Dr. Wang. Myopia is a common eye condition in which close objects can be seen clearly but distant objects are blurry without correction. LASIK and PRK have been the main stay treatments for myopia for over two decades. But SMILE, which stands for SMall Incision Lenticule Extraction, has unique advantages over LASIK. The SMILE surgery is minimally invasive as the surgeon needs only to create a small, precise opening to correct vision. No flap is needed. The laser incision is smaller than 5 millimeters for SMILE, compared to approximately 20 millimeters for LASIK. This helps the cornea to retain more of its natural strength and reduces
the risk of rare flap complications. Dry eye after SMILE is also reduced compared with LASIK, as nerves responsible for tear production during the cornea remain more intact in SMILE. One of the state’s first SMILE patients was Margaret Coleman, 34, a manager of the world-famous Bluebird Café, in Nashville, which was prominently featured in the ABC TV drama Nashville, among others. Ms. Coleman has had poor eyesight all of her life, legally blind in both eyes without correction. Ms. Coleman’s 3D Laser SMILE procedure went beautifully and she is thrilled to have her crystal clear new vision and newly gained independence on glasses or contacts and being one of the first patients in the state to receive SMILE! “I am so happy!!!” exclaimed Margaret at her postop visit. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the VisuMax Femtosecond Laser for SMILE procedure for -1 to -8 D myopia with up to 0.5D astigmatism. During a SMILE procedure, a femtosecond laser with precise short pulses is used to make small incision in the cornea to create a discshaped piece of tissue. This tissue is then removed by the surgeon though the opening
Dr. Ming Wang, a Harvard & MIT graduate (MD, magna cum laude), is the CEO of Aier-USA, Director of Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center and one of the few laser eye surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. He has performed over 55,000 procedures, including on over 4,000 doctors. Dr. Wang published 8 textbooks and a paper in the world-renowned journal Nature, holds several US patents and performed the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. He established a 501c(3) non-profit charity, Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration, which to date has helped patients from more than 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge. Dr. Wang is the Kiwanis Nashvillian of the Year. Dr. Ming Wang can be reached at: Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center, 1801 West End Ave, Ste 1150 Nashville, TN 37203, 615-321-8881 drwang@wangvisioninstitute.com www.wangcataractLASIK.com
TINNEY CONTEMPORARY
©Tom Brydelsky
SELECTIONS NEW WORK BY TOM BRYDELSKY February 17 - March 27, 2018
237 5th Ave N . Nashville 37219 . 615.255.7816 . tinneycontemporary.com
5 T H AV E N U E O F T H E A R T S DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE
PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP
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Columns HUNTER ARMISTEAD FYEye MARSHALL CHAPMAN Beyond Words ERICA CICCARONE Open Spaces LINDA DYER Appraise It RACHAEL MCCAMPBELL And So It Goes JOSEPH E. MORGAN Sounding Off ANNE POPE Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND Theatre Correspondent MARK W. SCALA As I See It 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.
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GHOST OF POSSIBILITY MARCH 3 -29
THE
arts
COMPANY
FRESH. ORIGINAL. CONTEMPORARY.
215 5th Ave of the Arts N. Nashville, TN 37219 • 615. 254.2040 • theartscompany.com
5T H A VEN UE OF T HE A RT S • DOW N T OW N N A SHVIL L E
THE RYMER GALLERY presents
MARCH: A Celebration of Women
LA Bachman
March 3–30, 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
On the Cover Everett Raymond Kinstler
March 2018
Triple Self-Portrait, 1972, Oil on canvas, 40” x 34” Collection: National Academy of Design See page 54.
Features 20 Jack Spencer Baldwin Photographic Gallery
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22 Art Larger than Life The Nashville Sign Showcases the Best of Nashville Arts 25 Paul Collins The Fortnight Sessions 30 Nashville Fashion Week Gets Elevated 34 Art Fashion
90 Mike Smith Warning Shots
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42 110 Art Splash Moves & Grooves
Columns 16 Crawl Guide
54
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
47 Unity, Strength, & Flexibility Gatewood Waddell’s Paintings Sculpt Past and Present 54 Face to Face with Master Portrait Painter Everett Raymond Kinstler
62 Where in the World Is Joel Batey?
39 Art Around Xiaoze Xie 46 The Bookmark Hot Books and Cool Reads 87 Sounding Off by Joseph E. Morgan 88 As I See It by Mark W. Scala 94 Art Smart by Rebecca Pierce
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100 ArtSee 102 Pocket Lint by Liz Clayton Scofield 104 Poet’s Corner 106 NPT 112 Arts & Business Council
66 Molly Secours 73 Harvey Peterson Whimsical Folk Art Figures
80 Women in Portraiture Three Artists Talk Portraiture, History, and Identity
42 Thomas Sully Eye of the Beloved Photograph by Cody Lewis
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78 Q&A with Dr. Emerald Mitchell Founder, Executive Director, Moves & Grooves
113 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman 114 My Favorite Painting
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UNDER CONTRACT Erosion Series: Large Botanical #3, Mixed media on panel, 45” x 45”
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Join us for a discussion in the gallery on March 15 at 6 p.m. with Anna Carll and Paul Polycarpou, of Nashville Arts Magazine.
Newly built exquisite custom estate. Beautiful open floor plan, master with huge closets, terrace level with climate controlled wine room plus theater, rec and game rooms.
107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net www.yorkandfriends.com LAURA BAUGH 615.330.3051(M) | 615.250.7880 (O) LAURABAUGH3@GMAIL.COM
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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
duncan@artupnashville.com 615-975-7577
In-Store Event March 7 & 8
A L L T H E B E S T I N F I N E J E W E L RY 5101 Harding Road Nashville, Tennessee 37205 615.353.1823 s cindiearl.com JudeFrances+Fall2017_LBB_11x8.5.indd 1
8/24/17 9:30 AM
BENNET T GALLERIES Featuring
PAT SNYDER
Blue Print, Mixed media on canvas, 36” x 36”
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
March Crawl Guide Franklin Art Scene
Friday, March 2, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Brenda Coldwell, Moyer Financial Services
Experience historic downtown Franklin and see a variety of art during the Franklin Art Scene. Gallery 202 is featuring Michael Hooper’s acrylic paintings on wood panel. The guest Michael Hooper, Gallery 202 artist at Boutique MMM is Emily Newman, whose collection includes impressionistic landscapes, florals, and abstract paintings. Academy Park Enrichment and Performing Arts Center is presenting abstract and nature-scene oil paintings by Mandy Miller. See photo encaustic work by former graphic designer Sandy Burr at Franklin First United Methodist Church. Landmark Booksellers is showing oil paintings by Mary Maude Brevard Gaw along with live music by Route 40 & Friends. At Imaginebox Emporium see Cory Basil’s creations painted using multiple mediums, including watercolor, oil, and gauche. O’More College of Design is exhibiting paintings by Jodi Hays who works in the tradition of abstraction, blending contrasting hues, stripes, grids, and geometric shapes that evoke cityscapes and architectural forms. Twine Graphics is hosting Timmery Battisti, a Nashville-based visual artist who has crafted and developed her own unique style of acrylic painting. Shelby Rehberger’s encaustic painted small handmade boxes are on view at Scout’s Barber Shoppe. Moyer Financial Services is showcasing still life, portraits, and landscape paintings by Brenda Coldwell. Williamson County Archives is featuring unique barn quilts by Kelly McCormack. For more information and the trolley schedule, please visit www.downtownfranklintn.com/the-franklin-art-scene.
First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown
Saturday, March 3, from 6 until 9 p.m. Enjoy an evening of art under the lights on 5th Avenue. The Arts Company is unveiling Mandy Rogers Horton: Ghost of Possibility, a new series of largescale mixed-media paintings, which reflect on the ongoing construction of our lives and culture. New work by wood sculptor Brad Sells will also be Tom Brydelsky, Tinney Contemporary on view. Tinney Contemporary is hosting an opening reception for Selections, new work by Tom Brydelsky. The collection is broken up into four sections categorized by landscapes, figurative, florals, and abstraction. The Browsing Room Gallery at the Downtown Presbyterian
Church is showing artist Jennifer Pepper’s show Stigmergy. For this exhibit, Pepper combines handwriting, imagery, and recycled bee-keeping equipment to create mixed-media works influenced by her experience as a beekeeper. In the historic Arcade, Sarah C.B. Guthrie will show the latest works from her painting series What 3 Mandy Rogers Horton, The Arts Company Colors Bring You Joy? at Blend Studio. During this opening reception Guthrie will paint live. “O” Gallery is featuring work by photographer Dennis Cook and artist Amanda Kiser. Blue Fig Gallery is showcasing oversized prints including hand-pulled prints by local artists including Mike Martino. Hatch Show Print’s Haley Gallery is displaying Restrikes, an exhibit of art inspired by the printmaking process, as well as iconic advertising art of the last century. For parking and trolley information, visit www.nashvilledowntown.com/play/ first-saturday-art-crawl.
Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston
Saturday, March 3, from 6 until 9 p.m. From Hagen to Houston to Chestnut and beyond, Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/ Houston offers a broad range of artistic experience. Fort Houston is presenting BLUE YARDS, a new solo exhibition by textile artist Yanira Marty Kahnle, Dane Carder Studio Vissepó curated by Alyssa A. Beach. Cheers by Brett Douglas Hunter is on view at Julia Martin Gallery. Titled after his grandmother’s pronunciation of the word chairs, his newest series explores the world of functional sculpture. An artist talk with Brett Douglas Hunter and Cat Acree is slated for Thursday, March 8, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. In the Hall Gallery at Dane Carder Studio enjoy the wildly colorful and celebratory landscapes of Marty Kahnle. David Lusk Gallery is exhibiting Maysey Craddock’s suspended terrains, which showcases Craddock’s distinct and ephemeral gouache paintings on found and stitched paper. Take in Fortnight Sessions by Paul Collins at Zeitgeist (see page 25). Astri Snodgrass, Channel to Channel
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East Side Art Stumble
Joel Barnett, Southern Grist Brewery
Lester Merriweather, Red Arrow Gallery
Saturday, March 10, from 6 until 10 p.m.
Take a drive down Gallatin Pike to Red Arrow Gallery for the opening of HYDRA by Lester Merriweather. In the works on view, ships sail over oceans and interact with remnants cut from The VANILLA EXTRACT© Series, challenging viewers to connect contemporary capitalism with the colonial conquests of long ago through the lens of Afro-Futurism. Southern Grist Brewery is showing abstract paintings by Joel Barnett largely influenced by the natural world in form and color, but with
Germantown Art Crawl
Saturday, March 17, 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.
Jefferson Street
Saturday, March 24, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Christian “C3” Green, Garden Bunch Cafe
Cory Imig, Open Gallery
abrasiveMedia is hosting a closing reception for Allusion and Analogue: Painting as Exploration featuring new work from Harry Whitver that explores the atmospherics of geography, history, music, and literature. At Channel to Channel, Chattanooga-based artist Astri Snodgrass is showing her rubbing and folded paper work, a body of work that deals with the relationship between materiality and image—the latter is formed by the former. COOP Gallery is opening Land Report East 5 by the Land Report Collective, six artists who interact with landscape as a foundational reference point for their work. Open Gallery is featuring the work of Midwest artist Cory Imig, who creates large-scale installations that alter spaces physically, visually, and temporally. Watkins alumnus Kendall Bennett is displaying work from his career in television design at WAG. mild climate is unveiling I’ll Be Your Mirror, a trio exhibition by Yevgeniya Baras, Erin Lee Jones, and Nickola Pottinger, three artists working out of Brooklyn, NY. The show brings together wild organic mapping forms, mysterious yet humorous figures, and ethereal nebulous collage. Experience an installation and live performance by artist Jessica Gatlin at Seed Space. For more information, visit www.artsmusicweho.wordpress.com.
nods to the created world through geometric and symmetrical shapes. The Green Gallery at Turnip Green Creative Reuse is presenting Because of Her, an invitational group exhibition dedicated to Kaaren Engel. The artists are displaying work that honors Kaaren’s influence on their own art making practice. For updates on the East Side Art Stumble, visit www. facebook.com/eastsideartstumble.
Alexis Waller is presenting her Shades of Nature series featuring the beauty of the earth’s living and vibrant creatures. James Matthews is showing his Unique Fiery Flair series of the beautiful black woman and her natural hair. See both artists’ work at Cultural Visions Art in The Lab. Work by Gatewood Waddell is also on view at Cultural Visions (see page 47). The Garden Brunch Cafe is hosting the work of Christian “C3” Green. You may have seen his vibrant pop art pieces at the YMCA in Green Hills or East Nashville. The Optical Inclusion at Chart Optical is showcasing new work from Xavier Payne and Zander Yong. Xavier makes deep impressions with his own genre of Black-Pop, and his new work is unfiltered and piercingly memorable. Zander’s latest collection exudes the romance of intimacy and empathy with the human experience, telling stories with an intricate look into the heart of her characters. Woodcuts Gallery and Framing’s exhibit is a group show commemorating the 50 years since Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Works by Greg Ridley, Charly Palmer, Omari Booker, and others are on view. One Drop Ink is displaying a selection of illustrations from Sarah Elizabeth Harris. For more information, visit Facebook.com/jsactn.
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JACK SPENCER
WORDS Joe Pagetta
Al Little in Field, 2014, Yazoo City, Mississippi
F
or renowned photographer Jack Spencer, Mississippi-born and Nashville-residing, the image captured by his camera, be it a digital file or a negative, has always been a jumping-off point. It’s in the “wet” or “digital” darkroom, as he refers to them, where those images come alive. “I do not like relying on the camera to express my viewpoint,” the photographer says. “The camera interprets on a somewhat flat scale. I go about enhancing the image—adding and subtracting light—to give it more life. There is a fine line between interpreting and over-interpreting, and I am patient with the image, allowing it to dictate where it needs to go.” It’s a process that for over twenty-five years has been celebrated in galleries all over America and highlighted in major photography and cultural journals. Most recently, a photo from his landmark 2017 book This Land: An American Portrait (University of Texas Press) graced the cover of the
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Spring 2017 issue of Oxford American. Jackie Kerns Heigle, now curator of the Baldwin Photographic Gallery at Middle Tennessee State University, was on a trip to Central Mexico some twenty years ago when she first discovered Spencer’s work. “A little boutique hotel outside of San Miguel De Allende had several of his large-scale black-andwhite prints beautifully displayed throughout the restaurant and public areas,” she recalls. She was taken with the work and, a few months later, took a workshop with Spencer in Texas. “He shared some of the darkroom printing techniques he used to reveal the magic of his subjects and, in my opinion, his own heart and soul.” Only recently named curator of the Baldwin, Heigle not only oversees a permanent collection that includes the works of notable artists such as Ansel Adams, Minor White, and Jerry Uelsmann; she now
Gallo, 2002, Tabi, Yucatan
has the serendipitous opportunity to share her admiration for Spencer’s work with MTSU students and other gallery visitors. Jack Spencer, a retrospective featuring more than twenty prints from Spencer’s career and major series including Apariciones, This Land, Mythologies, and Native Soil, runs from March 12 through April 13 at the Baldwin, in the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building on MTSU’s campus.
and talk about how photography can give us more than what the eye and/or the camera sees in the world. Through light, color, method; through personal history, an obvious love for story, mystery, and the unknown, Jack Spencer gives us work that while you are looking at it and experiencing it, something gets under your skin. I also think it is important that students see the diversity and the signature style that evolves over time and with commitment.” na
“I want to bring in exhibitions that contribute to our students’ (and all other visitors’) visual literacy in photography, inclusive of many genres, styles, and intentions, and artists at varying stages of their career,” says Heigle. “An exhibit such as this provides a chance to study
Jack Spencer is showing at Baldwin Photographic Gallery at Middle Tennessee State University March 12 through April 18. The Gallery will host Jack Spencer in Conversation with Paul Polycarpou of Nashville Arts Magazine on Wednesday, March 21, 6 p.m., at the Bragg Media and Entertainment Building, Room 104. Reception to follow in the gallery. For more information, visit www.baldwinphotogallery.com. See more of Spencer’s work at www.jackspencer.com.
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Art Larger than Life WORDS Peter Chawaga
The Nashville Sign Showcases the Best of Nashville Arts
S
ince the 1940s, the Nashville Sign has stood at the forked intersection of Broadway and West End Avenue, bringing billboard advertisements to countless Nashvillians on one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Since New Year’s Eve in 2015, the sign has been a dynamic, 34x36-foot digital LED screen, rotating advertisements in bright lights. And since 2016, Nashville Arts Magazine has curated the sign’s “Artist of the Week” feature, which displays five works from a particular artist along with the rotation of paid advertisements. Though a relatively new program in the long history of the Nashville Sign, the Artist of the Week represents what has always been a critical tenet for the display. “It has always been a priority of ours to keep interesting, community-driven content on the board,” explains Erica Bussell, director of sales and marketing for Blackbird Media, the sign’s management and sales agent. “Ultimately though, Artist of the Week is important because it helps us connect with our community and uphold our promise to keep fresh, interesting content on the billboard.” Nashville Arts Magazine selects an artist and collects five of their pieces on behalf of the sign. Hayley Madden of the Blackbird Media team formats each graphic to fit accordingly and schedules the art, along with the web
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address of the gallery where it is displayed, to run from Monday through Sunday. Each graphic appears on the board for eight seconds and can be seen once every eight minutes. Blackbird Media estimates that over 100,000 people see the artwork this way every week. “The response to having art displayed on the Nashville Sign has been incredible,” says Rebecca Pierce, managing editor of Nashville Arts. “Artists love seeing their work shown on such a large scale, and the galleries also like seeing their artists featured so prominently against the Nashville skyline. Several times, people who have seen art that they like on the sign have called us to find out where to see more of the artist’s work.” In addition to featuring the artists on the sign, Blackbird promotes them through its social media channels and has found those posts to be its most popular. The agency is currently seeking a sponsor company to join the Artist of the Week program, but in the meantime, it has been happy to give local artists a platform and local residents more access to art. “I really hope the fact that Artist of the Week is on Nashville’s largest out-of-home advertising space shows that we are committed not only to local art but to the improvement and beautification of the city,” says Bussell. na For more information on the Nashville Sign please contact www.bbirdmedia.com or info@nashvillearts.com.
D I S C O N T E N T Recent Photographic Works by Mike Smith and Leslie Tucker March 3 - April 14
www.cumberlandgallery.com | 615 297 0296 | 4107 Hillsboro Circle
HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT
Acrylic on Wood Panel
M IC H A E L
HOOPE R
March Featured Artist
202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064
•
www.gallery202art.com
•
615-472-1134
Photograph by John Partipilo
The Fortnight Sessions Rain or shine the artist sets up his easel in one location for 14 days to see again what he has already seen. Zeitgeist
|
WORDS Angie Renfro
Paul Collins March 3–31
E
very morning for fourteen days, Paul Collins arrives, sets up his easel, brushes, and ink, then he waits. He waits until he is informed by his chosen location of what the day’s painting will be. You might have seen him stationed out in the city, in a parking lot at Heritage Fuel or up on St. Cloud Hill. He’s there regardless of the weather—in fact, the day’s weather is sometimes evident in his work: water splotches from rainy mornings that disrupt flat washes of grey; cracks in a painting’s surface on the days so cold the ink froze. He commits to studying a particular site for two weeks, a fortnight, until he’s heard what it has to say, learned what he needed to learn, and then he moves on. “I set up out in the world,” says Collins. “Every time I do it I think I know what I’m going to do, but I find something different; I meet somebody. It’s really eye opening.”
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Titans Stadium Flyover (August Home Series), 2017, Ink on paper, 18” x 24”
Sounds Stadium (St. Cloud Hill Series), 2017, Ink on paper, 18” x 24”
Looking Toward Edgehill (St. Cloud Hill Series), 2017, Ink on paper, 18” x 24”
On Hawthorne Ave. Overpass Watching Traffic (August Home Series), 2017, Ink on paper, 18” x 24”
The story of how the Fortnight Sessions came to be begins with the shock and dismay Collins experienced over the results of the 2016 presidential election, a disbelief shared by many. In response, some of us engaged in shouting matches on Twitter; Paul chose to paint. He took it as a call to action to step outside his bubble and explore the difference between his perception of the world and what he felt was somehow missing. He decided that in order to understand his misperceptions he needed to engage with his work and environment in a new way. It was in the spring of 2017, while painting the mural he created for the Elephant Gallery in North Nashville, that Collins realized how much he enjoyed working outside his studio. Building upon that, during a study abroad in Italy later that summer he began working en plein air with ink on
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paper. It was by working in this way—outdoors, interacting with the passersby and immersed in a new and dynamic environment—that his perspective shifted. By quietly studying a location as an outsider, he was able to really notice details he might otherwise have overlooked. Through documenting small moments, he was able to see a place in its complicated entirety. Collins returned to Nashville with the idea to be a tourist in his own town in order to understand the nature of perception. With only two weeks to prepare work for an upcoming show, he applied this time parameter to his new way of working, and the first of the Fortnight Sessions was actualized. “The developing theme is getting outside my bubble and trying to either see things that I see every day in a new way or see things that I just never see,” explains Collins.
Trastevere Rooftop (Rome Series), 2017, Ink on paper, 13” x 20”
The opportunity to learn from a particular place informs his choice of location. He seeks out sites that embody layers of history, politics, and the ways humans are impacting the environment. In his view, “The reality of the thing is made up by the differences.” For Collins it is an act of slow journalism. He takes the time to methodically document what is currently happening, what has already taken place, and what this says about humanity at large. Often, he is approached by locals during a painting session. “When I pull out the inks, that’s just like a glue trap,” he says. “People come in and they start talking to me and they want to be imaged.” In these impromptu portraits, Collins learns the stories of the people that make up the site he is studying. The subject matter of paintings from one session might range from a portrait of a gas station manager to a landscape of morning traffic to a study of building remnants at Ft. Negley. When a series is seen in its entirety, these individual elements construct a greater picture, allowing
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The developing theme is getting outside my bubble and trying to either see things that I see every day in a new way or see things that I just never see. the observer’s experience to be made up of multiple points of view. One feels deliberately placed in a space between being both participant and observer, provided with the opportunity to see a place from a new perspective. Collins’s choice to work with monochromatic ink on paper reflects a desire to be fully immersed in a moment instead of distracted by decisions of color or texture. He is free to move quickly and react to the changing scene before him. The finished paintings reflect this sense of immediacy. You can
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Smoke Break (Heritage Fuel Series), 2017, Ink on paper, 18” x 24”
feel the frenetic energy of the birds in flight in Trastevere Rooftop. The capriciousness of a morning’s weather is apparent in Smoke Break wherein you can observe both the crisp shadows of a bright sun and the pattern of raindrops in the ink when, in the course of a session, the sky changed. Reflecting a level of confidence that can only come from years of experience, Collins commits to each stroke— there is no room for second guessing or do-overs. To alter would be untrue to the moment—of an artist, brush in hand, recreating in real time his experience of a place, documenting the nuance of a scene. He explains,“I believe that knowledge and experience are available through direct immersion. The challenge of working in real time [is that I] see things I haven’t seen before . . . all of a sudden this world just opens up.”
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Paul Collins is engaging his misperceptions with curiosity and humility. He is actively stepping outside areas of familiarity, bearing witness, and in doing so, asking that we all pay a little more attention. His work challenges us to pause for a moment and be fully immersed—to really look, to take notice of our own perceptions and allow things to unfold. He is learning to let the work lead him, and it has: Each session has been informed by its predecessor. When asked where the next fourteen-day immersion might be, Paul answers, fittingly, “We’ll see . . . I’ve got my eyes open.” na
Fortnight Sessions by Paul Collins is showing at Zeitgeist March 3 through 31. For more information, visit www.zeitgeist-art.com. See more of Collins’s work at www.paulpaul.com.
See more than 200 of the British Museum’s most engaging and beautiful Roman objects. The Frist is the exclusive North American venue for this stunning exhibition.
FEBRUARY 23–MAY 28 Downtown Nashville 919 Broadway Nashville, TN 37203 FristCenter.org/Rome #FristRome
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT Lecture:
Modern Challenges in Ancient Art Presented by Dr. Maxwell L. Anderson, consulting scholar, Mediterranean Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and president, Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Thursday, March 22, 6:30 p.m. FREE; first come, first seated
The presentation of this exhibition is a collaboration between the British Museum and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.
Platinum Sponsor
Hospitality Sponsor
Supported in part by the 2018 Frist Gala Patrons and
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Statue of Roman magistrate (Italy), head 70–90 CE, body early 2nd century CE. Marble, 88 5/8 x 35 3/8 x 26 in. The British Museum, 1973,0302.9. © The Trustees of the British Museum
Elevated OZ Arts Nashville
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April 3–7
Photograph by Alaina Latona
Nashville Fashion Week Gets
WORDS Karen Parr-Moody
Photograph by Cody Lewis
FASHION I
Photograph by Alaina K. Mullin
t’s a New York City function for a different sort of place— one that’s country, but isn’t just about cowboy boots and Nudie suits, thank you ma’am. It’s Nashville Fashion Week, now in its eighth year, with many a success under its natty belt, including Andrew Clancey, whose Any Old Iron label is worn by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, and Ceri Hoover, whose leather handbags are sold in her eponymous store in 12South and far, far beyond. The shows are back, running from April 3 to 7 in partnership with OZ Arts Nashville in a move that represents a catwalk maturation: It’s the first year all the runway shows will be held at a single location. Sure, it was fascinating to see a variety of fashions in Nashville’s various spaces and places. But all that traveling was a little tough on the Louboutins. There will be no more scurrying all over the city, but many of the events will remain the same, including the Nashville Designer Showcase for designers who have established their names, and the Emerging Designer Showcase, for those who hope to promote their names. A collaboration of six founders debuted NFW in 2011 and has since thrived under the direction of managing partners and co-founders Connie Cathcart-Richardson and Marcia Masulla, who helm the organization as unpaid volunteers. Naturally, evolution has occurred throughout the years. Masulla says, “Our production value has gone way up with our partnership with OZ Arts Nashville. By working closely with the OZ team and hosting all four runway shows at their beautiful facility, we are able to be more consistent and creative.” To reflect these refined production values, the buzzword for this season is “elevated,” says Cathcart-Richardson. Nashvillians are known for vocalizing their feelings through music, but within the creative milieu there are those who find that fashion serves as a conduit for creativity. CathcartRichardson says that NFW has plugged into that conduit, amplifying it with a Nashvillian flair for friendliness.
“What makes us special is that we really herald the community spirit and the diversity within our creative community,” she says. “When I say that, I’m talking about the types of people
Photograph by Alaina K. Mullin
WEEK who are involved behind the scenes, to the designers, to our audience. At the very beginning, I joked that I would know we were successful when Mrs. Belle Meade was sitting next to the pink-haired, pierced blogger from East Nashville on the front row. And that happens. And that doesn’t happen anywhere else in Nashville very often as a community.”
Another unique aspect of NFW is the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund, an endowed fund that provides an annual financial award to a fashion industry member with ties to Middle Tennessee. With the award, the winner is encouraged to seek professional development opportunities that are experiential in nature. The fund is entirely supported by NFW ticket sales, and the winner is selected by a committee from the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Designer Maria Silver of Black by Maria Silver is the 2017 Nashville Fashion Forward Fund recipient. “The Nashville Fashion Forward Fund is a gift,” Cathcart-Richardson says. “It’s why we do this.”
“Nashville Fashion Week has been a great way to pull our fashion community together,” she says. “It’s always fresh, it’s always new, and the crowd’s always excited. I look out at our sold-out crowd every night and think, this is a community effort and you’re the community. As long as you’re interested and supporting and buying tickets and designing clothes, we’re going to keep doing this. It’s something that we’re able to give back to our community, and we’re really proud of that.” na For more information on NFW, visit www.nashvillefashionweek.com.
Photograph by Alaina K. Mullin
Photograph by Alaina K. Mullin
When Cathcart-Richardson jumped into this massive endeavor, there wasn’t anything of its nature happening in Nashville fashion. Now, the group represents “the most colorful, diverse, beautiful group of people,” she says.
NASHVILLE’S TOP MENTOR
MUSIC PROGRAM OUR STUDENTS LEARN FROM INDUSTRY PROS Areas of study will include: Music performance (studio and stage), artist development, production, engineering, marketing, management and more!
CLASSES START AUGUST 21, 2018 THROUGH MAY 2019
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Art Fashion
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The joy of dressing is an art. — John Galliano
FASHION EDITOR Milton White, The Fashion Office www.thefashionoffice.com If you want to learn about the art of dressing, as well as spring’s new fashion trends, then look no further than the next few pages. Our newest editorial showcases the best of spring in our fabulous city from local design talent and some of our finest retailers. Disco, op art, and couture techniques were influences in many designer collections. The return of the blazer, transparent fabrics, saturated color, and dark denim were also spotted on several runways. Speaking of runways, I am producing a fashion show on March 10 for the Greater Nashville Realtors’ Association called Show Your Style at Omni Nashville Hotel. A few weeks later, Nashville Fashion Week returns on April 3 and will run through April 7. We have featured several designers that will be showing that week. Any Old Iron’s Andrew Clancey of recent Beyoncé and Lady Gaga fame is showing again, as well as Laura Citron, Poni Silver’s Black by Maria Silver, and Leslie Stephens’s Ola Mai will present their collections. We also featured Minxx by Margaret Roberts, who showed last year, and Julianna Bass, first recipient of the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund award, who will be showing again (she presented collections in 2011 and 2016). Jamie will host a Julianna Bass trunk show on April 5 and 6. Nashville Symphony and Gus Mayer will partner to present Jason Wu’s Fall 2018 collection for the highly anticipated Symphony Fashion Show on April 17. That event, co-chaired by Lori Duke and Birgitta Williamson, will be preceded by a patrons’ party on the 16th and followed by a trunk show on the 18th and 19th. Rally Foundation will team up again with Tennessee Titans for Rally on the Runway on April 19. Closing out Nashville’s fashion month is Cause for Paws on April 25. Cause for Paws benefits Nashville Humane Association and will celebrate its 30th year with a designer showcase produced by yours truly and chaired by the fantastic Robin Patton. na
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Jason Wu print dress, Christian Louboutin yellow pumps (The Private Label); Temple St. Clair classic crystal egg amulet-pendant with aquamarine, pink tourmaline, peridot and blue moonstone on a Temple St. Clair 18k gold classic round chain (AshBlue); Sylvia Benson gold cuffs (K. McCarthy)
PHOTOGRAPHER Zachary Gray (www.zachary-gray.com) MODEL Izzy Spain, EYE Model Management (www.eyemgmt.com) MAKE-UP ARTIST Clarence Jernigan (www.instagram.com/theartist_cj) HAIR STYLIST Holly Johnson, Style House (www.stylehousesalon.com) Photographed at Watkins College of Art (www.watkins.edu)
Black By Maria Silver denim patchwork oversized jacket (Black By Maria Silver); Ola Mai sheer dress (www.olamaiclothing.com); Ink and Alloy silver multi strand necklace (AshBlue); Lanvin striped wedges (The Private Label) NASHVILLEARTS.COM
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Theory bubble pink jacket and pants (Jamie), Laura Citron plum pussy bow blouse (lauracitron.com), Chanel burgundy velvet sandals (The Private Label), Wilbur & Gussie red satin clutch (AshBlue), John Hardy sterling silver snake earrings (Grogan Jewelers by Lon)
Minxx floral top with fringe sleeves (Jamie), Any Old Iron bi-colored sequin mini-skirt (Any Old Iron); Soko brass choker (AshBlue); Mui Mui orchid clutch (The Private Label) NASHVILLEARTS.COM
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Elizabeth Kennedy blush tulle gown (Jamie x The Fashion Office); Alexis Bittar leather and lucite necklace (Hero); Malakan brown diamonds drop earrings (Grogan Jewelers by Lon) 38
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ARTAROUND Courtesy of the artist and Chambers Fine Art
BY KATHLEEN BOYLE
Xiaoze Xie
Read All About It, Enduring Ephemera
H
aving prevailed for centuries as an authoritative means of communication, the print publication is a medium whose longstanding reign has begun to face challenges, as digital media continues to steadily overtake the realm of the written word, a reflection of the 21st century’s ever-growing connection to and reliance on a cyber space. But, because print is not totally gone, this may be one of the most interesting periods to witness the coexistence of these media. Such evolution simply begs the question, when will print be obsolete? And will cultures always uphold its preserve? Chinese Library No. 35, Oil on canvas, 48” x 67”
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July-August 2008 X.X.S.B., Oil on canvas, 52” x 85”
The work of California-based artist Xiaoze Xie put this query into the limelight in a big yet subtle way. Xie creates medium-to-large, hyperrealist oil-on-canvas paintings that illustrate magnified renderings of books and periodicals. Often depicted as worn and weathered, Xie’s subjects are not portrayed in full view; rather, the artist crops his imagery to focus on specific aspects of the represented paper and ink—a book’s frayed spine exposes warped sheets, now curled and yellowed; a soaked newspaper results in transparency, the text of its back revealed in a faded gray bleed on its front page. These paintings will fool any eye into believing they’re actual photographs; the precision of Xie’s hand and palette prove utmost advanced skill of both technique and concept. “Subject matter always is important to me,” Xie explained. “In the paintings of books and newspapers, my subject is the documentation, or material form of time, memory, thought, and history.” While the artist is of Chinese origin, his subjects are depicted in a variety of languages, thus indicating widespread use of the print medium regardless of dialect. This is also a reflection of Xie’s international background. Born in Guangdong,
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China, Xie graduated from Tsinghua University and the Central Academy of Arts and Design, Beijing. Now residing in Silicon Valley, Xie’s geographic proximity to the pulse of technological advancement is immediate, and thus further heightens the conceptual interplay between the analog and digital media at stake in his work, even if only by coincidence. Many of the subjects that Xie paints are print publications he discovers in the archives of esteemed academic institutions throughout the world. And, as previously noted, the physical condition of some of these texts is of great concern. The act of discovering these publications, and recreating their distressed likeness in magnified form via paint, stages an appreciation of cultural history while also indicating concern for its preservation. Are these books in fact relics that identify who we are as a species? And is the printed word to receive as much esteem as other artifacts and/or art? Of course, the immediate answer to this question is, “Yes.” This seems, and should be, rather obvious. But Xie directly challenges this notion in his paintings that portray newsprint. This is not to assume that literature of a journalist nature is of lower account; on the contrary, the press is what many of
December 7, 2012, N.Y.T., 2007, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 45” x 68”
October 19, 2007, L.M., 2007, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 60” x 72”
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Subject matter always is important to me. In the paintings of books and newspapers, my subject is the documentation, or material form of time, memory, thought, and history.
Princeton University Firestone Library (2941.1567), Oil on canvas, 24” x 36”
us resource to better connect our awareness to each other. Xie’s paintings examine the chaotic nature of the periodical. Although the act of producing a headline is enduring, the content of even the (often sensationalized) front page is fleeting, ephemeral in its physical form, and stagnant in comparison to digital media’s rapidity and influx. Xie’s work internalizes these observations of printed matter and provides for viewers an avenue for contemplative pause. “I don’t have prescribed meaning in my work,” he stated. “I hope my work is open to interpretations by the audience and speaks to the public on different levels: formal, aesthetic, narrative, or philosophical.” na Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University (AA7349), Oil on canvas, 40” x 72”
See more of Xie’s work at www.chambersfineart.com.
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Photograph by Jerry Atnip
Thomas Sully 42 NASHVILLEARTS.COM
WORDS Carol Caldwell
Vandy, Her Eye, 2012, Watercolor on mammoth ivory, .75” x .625”
Self-portrait, Eye, 2013, Watercolor on mammoth ivory, .75” x 1.0625”
Prescott, His Eye, 2014, Watercolor on mammoth ivory, 1.25” x 1.0625”
Eye of the Beloved
THOMAS
SULLY T
homas Sully is the fourth and current Thomas of a revered artistic line descending from his great-great-great-grandfather, the portrait painter of presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, of Her Majesty Queen Victoria and the Marquis de Lafayette, among countless other politicians, musicians, and other early American worthies as well as “fancy pictures,” often inspired by literature or mythology. The current Thomas Sully, born in l959 in Virginia, has recently moved to Nashville, having painted his way around the South from Norfolk to Asheville to Atlanta to Charleston to New Orleans while working from his illustrious ancestors’ subject matters: portraits and landscapes in oil and watercolor. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and has rendered illustrations for The New Yorker and painted costumes for the American Ballet Theatre. He speaks of working towards an understanding of the rhetoric of landscape painting in order to update some of the ideas begun by Turner and Constable, Claude Lorrain, and Caspar David Friedrich, as well as Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School. “My approach to landscape painting today involves a combination of abstraction and representation,” he explains. While admitting to nostalgia for another America, he says that some of his magic landscapes might be described as “wonderland scenes” that deal with workings of the mind and the mystery of existence in this contemporary world. Sully says, “There’s a point where naturalism doesn’t go far enough towards acknowledging the energies in the landscape that affect you but lie beyond appearances.”
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Nocturne, 2017, Oil on paper, 19” x 22”
“My approach to landscape today involves abstraction and representation. It’s not about nostalgia; it’s more about feeling honored to have a conversation with
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Still, 2017, Oil on linen, 50” x 46”
Sully describes one of his first landscapes painted after coming to Nashville as affected by “the constant metamorphosis occurring in nature and ourselves, which the language of painting and color is uniquely suited to explore.” The title of this painting is Ambition. It depicts what’s known in literature as the twostories principle of archetypal odysseys: Somebody leaves home, or a stranger comes to town. What Sully calls “the calculated quaintness” of Ambition, the contemporary skyline of Nashville gleams in the distance like a land of dreams. The young hero stands foreground with his back to us, stopped in his tracks. He is the one who has left home with nothing to his name but a guitar. Emerging from the wilderness, he stands in awe of all that he beholds, perceiving the first intimation of how the hope of his heart might come to be realized.
Ambition, 2016, Oil on linen, 48” x 46”
those who have gone before us. The sculptor Robert Smithson,” he says, “was one of the first to use the term ‘postmodern’, and he spoke of time as having a crystalline structure rather than a linear one, where remote futures can intersect with remote pasts.” He also paints on paper. “I like working on paper because it is immediate. You can explore ideas and experiment without having to stretch a whole canvas. Arches, the renowned company in France, recently came out with a paper you can work on directly with oil. This piece, Lux Aeterna, was a transitional piece on my way towards abstraction. I was inspired by late Turner—he was painting almost pure light by that point. Nocturne, of course, is riffing on Whistler.” Sully became fascinated with portrait miniatures, each about two inches in diameter, which became popular during the reign of Henry VIII. Some of these are known as “eye portraits” and were usually exchanged between lovers to be worn under a collar or on a pendant where no one else could see them—tiny precise cameos of one eye of the beloved or a lost love which was kept close to the body as an intimate personal remembrance. These cameos were usually painted on ivory. Thomas has gotten around to using ivory in our time by painting his lovers’ eyes on pieces of 10,000-year-old wooly mammoth tusks that have been recently uncovered in Siberia and are legally available. These tiny portraits, which are eerily beautiful and equally startling, were worn as a protest against separation, whether by death or the necessity of the lover’s embarking on a long journey or off to war, as a token of constant, undying affection. The artist says the connection of love and loss is intrinsic to the genre of portrait miniatures. “They possess
Lux Aeterna, 2017, Oil on paper, 19” x 22”
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My approach to landscape today involves abstraction and representation. It’s not about nostalgia; it’s more about feeling honored to have a conversation with those who have gone before us.
some of the sacred power of the icons of Byzantium and Russia. They serve as charged conduits between the viewer and the subject. When they include a lock of hair, they take on the qualities of a reliquary.” The contemporary eye portrait was informed for him by interest in an optical experience of the world after the invention of the camera. Thomas Sully tells a personal story of how some of these miniatures from history have been preserved through the centuries: “As hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans when I was living there, I imagined what went through the minds of people in Pompeii. I put the eye portraits in a box along with my watercolors, brushes, vellum, and my late dog’s ashes and fled the approaching floodwaters through howling winds.” Thomas Sully describes himself as a mixologist and “drunk on color, light, the tension between flatness and depth. It’s the physicality of paint,” he says. “For me, art is a disciplined intoxication.” na See more of Thomas Sully’s work at www.thomassully.com.
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THEBOOKMARK
A MONTHLY LOOK AT HOT BOOKS AND COOL READS
Picasso and the Painting That Shocked the World
What Are We Doing Here: Essays
Miles J. Unger
Marilynne Robinson
Have you stopped to wonder about the man behind some of the world’s most iconic paintings? In this book you will find the story of Picasso’s slow, thrilling road to recognition and the painting that sparked the Cubist movement—a painting that caused his friends to assume he had gone mad. For lovers of art and history, or for those who just want to be lost in a captivating, often sordid, true story.
How can faith and politics coincide? How does beauty inform our daily lives? Renowned writer Marilynne Robinson tackles these issues and more in her latest essay collection. Her prose cuts deep into the core of humanity with a generosity of spirit and incisive brilliance unique to her.
The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth Michio Kaku If you get a thrill each time a detail from science fiction becomes a part of our everyday lives, this is the book for you. Physicist and futurist Michio Kaku takes us into a plausible future in which humans may need to leave Earth and colonize elsewhere in the galaxy.
Census Jesse Ball Census is a novel about everything big, told in the miniature, heart-wrenching tableau of a census. We are grazed by the notion that something is a bit different in this world, breathing down our necks. These characters jump from the page into life, and a transformative journey is undertaken for both the reader and the characters.
Celtic Celebration
Crystal Plohman Wiegman, director
Saturday, March 3 • 7 p.m. • Ingram Hall Get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit with this kickoff concert for Music City Irishfest, celebrating the Celtic roots of some of our favorite music. Local talent, special guests and Blair faculty and students come together with local dance troupes, pipers, fiddlers, and more for an unforgettable spring festival! This concert is a benefit for the Jerome “Butch” Baldassari Precollege Scholarship Fund. Donations will be accepted at the door but are not required. 2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212
Photograph by Rob Lindsay
WORDS Megan Kelley
Alice Gatewood Waddell
Unity, Strength, & Flexibility
Gatewood Waddell’s Paintings Sculpt Past and Present Cultural Visions Art through March 31
A
lice Gatewood Waddell is known for her expressive use of composition and defined by a strong sense of pattern, using every line to build a sense of energy and an atmosphere of movement. As the eye travels across the canvas, the viewer glimpses not just the narrative of the image, but a sense of interconnectedness and universal commonalities. “Because I use the silhouette, you can’t look to the face or the lips for clues about emotion; everything in the painting must create the emotion.” Even the materials she chooses to incorporate, developing the dimensionality of the surface of the world, carry this same sense of intention and emotional build. “After exploring a lot of different things, I narrowed down to mostly paper,” Gatewood Waddell explains, “but I paint it and sculpt it as if the paper were fabric.”
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Market Day, 2000, Giclée, 30” x 40”
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Her figures exist in open-ended narratives celebrating aspects of black life both urban and rural, describing “how people make ends meet,” the relationships they have, and other scenes common to everyday experience.
The pattern work is drawn from the influence of her grandmother, a seamstress, who introduced the artist to traditional motifs through fabric scraps and paper dolls. The collage element pays homage to this history of scrap and reconstruction in the artist’s unique approach, and the flexibility of the paper allows Gatewood Waddell to manipulate the sheets through folding in order to mold shapes and create graceful movements. Rather than cut and glue, this sculptural process creates a sense of presence and depth, bringing the figures and their movements and environments into ours. It is this ability of the work to bridge worlds that creates its power. “The silhouette is one of my signatures,” says Gatewood Waddell. “When you see a silhouette, you relate to it even if you couldn’t relate to a specific person or a portrait.” The featureless figures become the face of the everyperson, allowing the viewer to step into the context of the image. Rather than evoke specifics, the silhouette becomes shadow: that is, the presence of consequence following action, the after-effects of someone’s experiences. “Silhouettes are a great tool to tell stories because they convey messages simply and with focus. You aren’t distracted by color or expression, but instead it becomes more about the personal experience.” Her figures exist in open-ended narratives celebrating aspects of black life both urban and rural, describing “how people make ends meet,” the relationships they have, and other scenes common to everyday experience. Gatewood Waddell describes how many viewers come to her, sharing their own memories and histories reflected by the scenes she creates. “They become whole stories just within a silhouette. Everyone can put their own memories into them because these faces belong to all of us, to the everyman.”
Pickin’ Polk, 2015, Acrylic on paper, 9” x 12”
Gatewood Waddell continues about how this memory connection and transference create empathy and ties of similarity, often even when the situations might seem different. “There are a lot of assumptions about the black family— that they are broken, that fathers are absent, that mothers struggle. But there are a lot of black families that are strong, that have great relationships.” The figures move with love and care, with strength and unity their constant theme throughout the body of work, but Gatewood Jubilee, 2006, Acrylic on canvas, 41” x 53”
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Strawberry Delight, 2011, Giclée, 30” x 40”
Waddell also pays homage to the trials that shaped black character and the foundations of black strength.
challenges we go through as a nation are darker times, but they show us just how strong we are.” na
“My work has always explored themes of jubilee: celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, the marches for civil rights, celebratory documentations of our history as black people. As I’ve worked as the Executive Director of the Human Rights Commission [in Bowling Green, Kentucky], I’ve noticed this side to have a bigger impact on my work. I’ve always been conscious of how we deal with the injustices in our country, but it has an impact you can’t leave at the office, because you go home and turn on the news and there it is, and it doesn’t matter if it happens locally to you or nationally to someone else, it’s still a human issue.”
The work of Alice Gatewood Waddell is represented through www.eandsgallery.com, located in Louisville, Kentucky, and will be on exhibit at Cultural Visions Art through March 31. Culturalvisionsart@gmail.com. Located at 624A Jefferson Street, 37208.
Her ability to create empathy through art provides a palette for sharing these difficult stories: histories of lynching and slavery juxtaposed with modern-day incarceration and mothers who have lost sons to violence. It’s a darker side of the past and present that Gatewood Waddell feels compelled to bring to light. “I explore these things because I feel compassion for the people who are going through them. I paint these things because I realize the importance of documenting this part of our history, too. Artists observe and process. Art has the ability to be both personal and universal, to pay attention and give attention. These Love Land, 2008, Oil on canvas, 43” x 54 “
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FISK UNIVERSITY GALLERIES CU R R ENT E XH I B ITIO N S
The Harmon and World War I and the Great Migration close April 7, 2018.
U P CO M I N G E XH I B ITIO N S African-American Automobility: The Dangerous Freedom of the Open Road Solo works by Jonathan Calm on view April 12 - September 15, 2018
Let Us March On: Lee Friedlander and the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom on view April 12 - August 19, 2018 Jonathan Calm. Lorraine Motel I, 2017. Silver gelatin; dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco. © Jonathan Calm.
Both exhibitions open with the Friends of the Gallery reception the evening of April 12, 2018.
615-329-8720 • galleries@fisk.edu • www.fisk.edu/services-resources/fisk-university-galleries
89 t h AN N UAL S PR I N G AR T S FES TIVAL FU LL S CH E DU L E Fisk University Choir and Friends Live In Concert
The Wiz – A Dinner Theater Commemorative Convocation
Monday, April 2 • 7:00pm
Wednesday, April 4 • 7:00pm Thursday, April 5 • 7:00pm
Fisk Memorial Chapel Free Admission
Jazz at Noon Featuring the Fisk University Jazz Ensemble Tuesday, April 3 • 12:00pm Fisk University Grove Free Admission
Molasses: The Reenactment Featuring Laurent Ewing Tuesday, April 3 • 7:00pm Dance Studio of New Livingstone Hall $10.00 – General Admission $5.00 – Student Admission (University ID Required)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Convocation Wednesday, April 4 • 5:00pm Fisk Memorial Chapel Free Admission
Student Art Show
Stagecrafters’ present The Wiz – A Dinner Theater. The Wiz is adapted from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, book by William F. Brown, music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, and presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc. Henderson A. Johnson Gymnasium $25.00 – General Admission $15.00 – Student Admission (University ID Required) $300.00 – Reserved Table Tickets for The Wiz – A Dinner Theater can be purchased at http://connect.fisk.edu/inauguration-2018
An Evening with The Fisk Jubilee Singers® Saturday, April 7 • 8:00pm Ryman Auditorium Tickets can be purchased at http://www.ryman.com/events/fisk-jubilee-singers
Molasses: The Reenactment Featuring Laurent Ewing Sunday, April 8 • 3:00pm matinee Dance Studio of New Livingstone Hall $10.00 – General Admission $5.00 – Student Admission (University ID Required)
Thursday, April 5 • 10:00am Aaron Douglas Art Gallery Free Admission
Fisk for Fisk Concert Sunday, April 8 • 7:00pm Fisk Memorial Chapel $20.00 – General Admission
Fisk University Campus: 1000 17th Ave. N., Nashville, TN 37208
Katharine Hepburn, 1982, Oil on canvas, 30” x 25”
WORDS Susan W. Knowles
F
ace to Face with Master Portrait Painter Everett Raymond Kinstler Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery
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March 23–July 14
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hat is so disarming about Everett Raymond Kinstler—one of the most sought-after portrait artists in the United States today—is the ease with which he admits that he left school at age 15 to pursue comic book illustration. Enchanted by the drama and action of visual popular culture, he wanted to become one of the artists he so admired. It was the “golden age” of comics and the heyday of pulp fiction. Illustrators were in demand for posters, advertisements, and book and magazine covers. The young Kinstler headed to West 45th Street in downtown Manhattan to hire on as a staff artist and illustrate comic books at one of the major publishing houses. He moonlighted by honing his skills in life drawing at the Art Students League. Kinstler was both talented and persistent. His acute powers of observation and his remarkable
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Marian Anderson, 1990, Oil on canvas, 24” x 20”
“To be a good painter,” Kinstler advises, “be a rounded artist, not a specialist.” Those words of wisdom have found their mark. He has mentored many, from his teaching at the Art Students League to his decades of small group outdoor painting workshops. In 2006, he was pleased and delighted at an invitation to travel to San Diego to be feted with an Inkpot Award at Comic-Con International—a tribute from thousands of contemporary cartoonists, graphic novelists, and animators.
Tom Wolfe, 1987, Oil on canvas, 50” x 27”
facility in handling charcoal, pencil, ink, and brush were sharpened by the speed required for illustration and slowed by the steady hand and deliberate choice of line and shadow needed to catch the essence of a live model. Along the way, he spent many hours as an apprentice inker, helping to turn out hundreds of comic strips per week. When he speaks to young artists today, he suggests that they, like stage actors, try to master a panoply of techniques:
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Like his friend Tony Bennett, Kinstler grew up in New York City, Kinstler in Manhattan, Bennett in a modest household in Queens. Both attended New York City’s High School of Industrial Art in Manhattan, but dropped out in pursuit of professional pursuits: Kinstler to become a “journeyman” artist, Bennett to go after singing gigs in clubs and on to musical theater and the big band circuit. Both men joined the war effort when they came of age in the final years of World War II. These days, the two 90+ year-olds, born two days apart, are still at the peak of active careers. By dubbing Kinstler the “John Singer Sargent of our time,” Bennett has given his friend the greatest tribute any portraitist could want. They talk by telephone weekly. Amazingly, and by sheer coincidence, the two will be in Nashville during the same week in March 2018: Bennett for a performance at the Ryman Auditorium on March 20th and Kinstler on March
Alexander Calder, 1972, Oil on canvas, 40” x 34” National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Everett Raymond Kinstler © 1972 Everett Raymond Kinstler
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Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss, 1982, Oil on canvas, 38” x 36”
23rd and 24th for the opening of his exhibition America Creative: Portraits by Everett Raymond Kinstler at Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery.
Placido Domingo, 2015, Charcoal on paper, 20” x 16”
Liv Ullmann, 1984, Oil on canvas, 32” x 38”
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With more than seventy-five portraits in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., Everett Raymond Kinstler is one of the best-known living portrait painters in the United States. His portraits are distinctive both for their dashing brushwork and masterful intimacy. All done from life, requiring at least one sitting before the artist, these portrait likenesses of Presidents and First Ladies, Supreme Court Justices, actors, musicians, fellow artists, business and government leaders, and university presidents can be found in public and private collections across the United States. Many, like his 1980 depiction of jazz great Benny Goodman for the National Arts Club and his 1982 painting of beloved children’s author Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) for Dartmouth University, were commissioned for inductions into professional organizations or as lasting tributes to their accomplishments. The irony is that Kinstler’s outstandingly successful career in portrait painting was never planned. As much as he enjoys the path his art has taken, he cheerfully admits that he would have continued to illustrate comic books and pulp westerns had not television come along to usurp the public imagination in the 1950s. Whereas he had always drawn portrait types to accompany the fictional plots and twists of popular writing, he recognized that he could do as well or better putting his skills to work studying the personalities of real people. And so he has.
light. In the case of President Gerald Ford, who was the first to commission his own presidential portrait, many of his paintings become family favorites. The Ford family was so enamored of Kinstler’s warm, down-to-earth depiction of their patriarch that they commissioned seven additional portraits. While such a high endorsement speaks for itself, it is also echoed by the fact that seven other U.S. presidents have also posed for him.
Life Study for Portrait of John Wayne, 1978, Oil on canvas, 24” x 32”
Will Barnet, 1977, Oil on canvas, 50” x 40”
One of the reasons for his popularity with high profile clients, besides his ebullient nature and generosity of spirit, is that Kinstler not only works hard to find those recognizable sparks of individuality, he also puts his subjects in the best
Kinstler, who has always kept a sketchbook, loves his work. No matter how many clients have graced and re-graced his studio, his consuming interest continues to be interpreting people. “I am hooked because I just enjoy the people I meet.” While some pay minimal attention or take little notice of the artist, many are flattered by his sincere interest in them, which extends way beyond just their facial features, posture, and overall demeanor. Katharine Hepburn, perhaps his most difficult and demanding client, returned again and again. Even when just passing someone in the street, Kinstler remarks, he will always recognize a person who has sat for him in the studio. Often, he spends as many as 80 hours on a portrait. While on rare occasion, as in the case of Ronald Reagan after he had left office, he will travel to a client for a portrait sitting, he says, “One hour in New York [at his Manhattan studio] is better than ten trips elsewhere.” Kinstler maintains a historic, light-filled studio at the National Arts Club building on Gramercy Park, where he first took a studio apartment in 1949. He sought out one of his early idols, James Montgomery Flagg, the wildly popular illustrator who drew Uncle Sam for the 1917 World War I recruiting poster. Kinstler managed to convince the curmudgeonly and impatient Flagg, then about 75 years old, to sit for him. Kinstler’s incisive 1952 portrait of the oncedashing Flagg glowering directly at the viewer (Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery) reveals as much about Kinstler’s skills as a portraitist as it does about its subject. Now nearly forgotten, Flagg was lauded by Time magazine upon his death in 1960 as the most important artist of his day. Kinstler attended his funeral, where another once-famous artist, the muralist Dean Cornwell (known to Nashvillians for his colorful 1930s wall paintings in the Davidson County Courthouse and the John Sevier State Office Building), who was by that time almost begging for commissions, delivered Flagg’s eulogy. An artist’s artist, Kinstler is not shy about his artistic debts. He praises Dean Cornwell as one of the great American illustrators; he uses an easel that once belonged to the prolific Flagg, and he owns a palette used by John Singer Sargent, whose elegant society portraits once made him the toast of America’s wealthy art patrons.
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“
Eight U.S. presidents have posed for Kinstler and many of his portraits are in the permanent collection in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. He will be in Nashville March 22–24.
Everett Raymond Kinstler
know a person has become an incredible force in your life when you can’t imagine your life without them.” While in Nashville for the premiere of America Creative at Vanderbilt University’s Fine Arts Gallery, Kinstler, a master storyteller in words as well as images, will offer a free lecture and demonstration at Sarratt Cinema. And he will have stories to tell, as the exhibition strikes a particularly personal note. It includes what Kinstler considers his own best work: sculptor Alexander Calder in his studio; a beautifully rendered bust-length likeness of singer Marian Anderson that now resides at the Harvard Club; the social critic and author, Tom Wolfe, striking an elegant standing pose; plus a lively and energetic oil sketch of his close friend Tony Bennett. At the close of the exhibition, this special grouping of thirty-one portraits, most of art-and-entertainment-world figures chosen by Gallery Director Joseph Mella and Curator Margaret Walker, will leave Vanderbilt to travel to other venues, carrying with it the joy and ebullience of a master portraitist and his muses. na
America Creative: Portraits by Everett Raymond Kinstler opens with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on March 23 at Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery and remains on view until July 14. In conjunction with the opening of the exhibit, Michael Shane Neal is hosting an onstage conversation with Mr. Kinstler on March 22 from 6 to 7 p.m. at Lipscomb University. A lecture and demonstration by the artist is scheduled for March 24 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Sarratt Cinema. For more information, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/gallery.
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
Although he has long had important clients among Nashville society, it was Kinstler’s artistic friendships with Nashville artists Michael Shane Neal and Dawn Whitelaw that drew him to consider the possibility of the exhibition at Vanderbilt. For decades, Kinstler conducted summer painting workshops in locations from Maine to New Mexico, where Whitelaw, a professor of art at Lipscomb University, and Neal, her former student, were regular attendees. They were also two of his favorites, and the feeling is mutual. Kinstler never taught portraiture in these workshop settings—more valuably, he conveyed the heartbeat of his creative process. Always carrying a sketchpad, he would lead the group to locations, never tiring of catching a quick impression of a landscape or setting. Whitelaw is a skilled plein-air painter— one of the best—and the talented Neal, who still works from Nashville as a home base, has developed his own impressive career in portraiture, with commissions for the U.S. Capitol and the U.S. Court of Appeals. Says Neal: “I first discovered Everett Raymond Kinstler’s work in the pages of a book suggested to me by my college painting professor, Dawn Whitelaw. In the years that followed, remarkably, I would meet Mr. Kinstler, study with him, and become his friend. For more than 25 years, he has fostered my growth as an artist and impacted my view of the world. He has instilled in me the values of craft and the importance of an individual artist’s point of view. He has also taught me the values of hard work, respect, loyalty, devotion, and most of all the power of integrity. He has been there for me since the first day we met, encouraging me, challenging me, believing in me. You
VIOLINS OF HOPE NASHVILLE PRESENTED BY
a citywide dialogue about music, art, social justice and free expression. The Violins of Hope are a collection of instruments played by Jewish musicians during The Holocaust. The Nashville Symphony has partnered with 25 local organizations to offer a series of concerts, performances, readings, discussions and lectures inspired by the sounds and stories of these instruments.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS NASHVILLE SYMPHONY – GUERRERO CONDUCTS THE VIOLINS OF HOPE March 22-24 at Schermerhorn Symphony Center VIOLINS OF HOPE EXHIBIT – FREE March 26-May 27 at the Main Public Library “WE SHALL OVERCOME: CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE NASHVILLE PRESS, 1957-1968” March 30-Oct. 7 at the Frist Center for Visual Arts NASHVILLE SYMPHONY & CHORUS – VERDI’S REQUIEM May 31-June 2 at Schermerhorn Symphony Center
View a complete list of upcoming events at ViolinsofHopeNashville.org FU N D I N G PA RT N E R S
RICK & LYNN SCAROLA
Help bring this project to life. Email giving@nashvillesymphony.org
Lady in Black, Oil pastel on paper, 14” x 11”
WORDS Courtney Adair Johnson
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Where in the World Is Joel Batey
Self-Portrait, 2005, Mixed media on matte board, 40” x 32”
The question has reverberated around Nashville for many years. An exhibit at TSU sheds some light on the elusive Mr. Batey.
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remember the first time I met Joel Batey. I walked into Plaza Artist Materials and he was behind the counter. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but he had the deepest voice and a warmth like we knew each other already or would always know each other. I ended up working with him at Plaza for approximately six years of my eight-year tenure there. We became good friends.
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Nature Watcher, Enamel on canvas, 42” x 35”
Fast-forward to the beginning of 2018: I am now Gallery Director for the Art Department at Tennessee State University. In the collection there, I found a large painting of Joel’s, actually one of three. I owned a handful of pieces myself, but this one was earlier work than I had seen before, and I was thrilled to find it. I began talking to others who knew Joel and had collected his work over the years, and I heard repeatedly, “Where is Joel?” and “Is he still in town?” I knew that, searching for a warmer region, he had left town a few years ago to live in Florida. I had his mother’s phone number and would call periodically to see if she had heard from him. Jay Trimble, the framer at Plaza, had received phone calls from him once or twice a year, but since last summer, no one had heard from him. Joel has never owned a phone. When he worked at Plaza he lived across the street at Jim DeVau’s apartment complex, now beside Third Man Records. You threw rocks at the window to let him know you were there, to let you come up. His last few years in Nashville, he did not paint—no room to do so or money to buy supplies were typical reasons I heard from him. But I feel like he was always working on his epic graphic novel, compiling years of work, building characters, and conceptualizing the layout.
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Our Madonna, 2008, Mixed media on canvas, 24” x 18”
After talking to others who had collected his work, missed him, loved him and his work, it made sense to put together a show. Where in the World Is Joel Batey? is a response to how we miss him, want to honor the amazing work that he created in Nashville, and inspire others. The earliest work in the show is from 1994, from Michael McBride’s collection. Michael taught Joel and other neighborhood kids art lessons at Edgehill Community Center. “I remember talking with him at 14 or 15 years old, and he was so far ahead in maturity as an artist,” Michael said. “He didn’t realize it, because it was so natural to him. He was able to pick up things, perceiving things as an artist.” This work is a watercolor of superheroes and fantasy creatures, color names written in with pencil; the layout and shading seeming to promise what was to come. I was able to gather a variety of Joel’s work from seven collections in Nashville, ranging from a six-by-eight-foot oil painting to paper drawings, to mixed-media work and slides. The show presents examples of his work through the years, the evolution of his style. Von Derry, owner of Salon Salon in Franklin, has a large collection of his work, from which we chose to hang an insect series that showed some of his loosest brush work.
Christ, Oil on canvas, 24” x 20”
Banshee, Mixed media on canvas, 72”x 47”
The show also includes more-detailed work such as Untitled (Blue Lady), where images appear stacked upon others, the story overlaid with hieroglyphics and imagery. Joel would hide faces in the negative spaces or unlikely places, so that if you didn’t look long enough you’d miss important details or sidelines to the plot. At the opening reception, collectors and friends talked of all the things we remembered about Joel, how work was everywhere in his apartment, lining the floor wall to wall. He was prolific in his making. He would paint on any surface, with any medium. Sam Dunson remarked, “The work fed off him, or he fed off the work.” That summed it up for me: He is represented in every brush stroke, every line. Every decision he made was the artist himself. Joel has no idea I put together a show about him. I hope maybe he can feel the energy! na For more information about Joel Batey, contact Courtney Adair Johnson, Gallery Director at Tennessee State University Art Department, and Reuse Artist at artandrecycling@gmail.com. Untitled (Blue Lady), Oil on canvas, 48” x 40”
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MOLLY SECOURS
PHOTOGRAPHY Jack Spencer
WORDS Peter Cooper
If you've ever wondered why Nashville is such a cool place to live, well, you're looking at her. Writer, thinker, activist, survivor, filmmaker, and that's all before breakfast. Read on.
The key to the whole deal is falling in love. That’s how Molly Secours creates films, and gives talks, and fights for social justice. That’s how she walks in the woods, and that’s how she watches the Nashville Sounds. That’s how she tells stories, and that’s how she came to be an essential, indelible, inspiring Nashvillian whose work has been applauded by collaborators including newspaper genius John Seigenthaler, songwriter laureate John Prine, actor Bill Murray, writer John Egerton, and civil rights hero Reverend Will D. Campbell. It’s as easy as falling in love, which is hard for most of us. Hearts harden, complications ensue, and schedules groan with weight and repetition. But a storyteller has to move past all of that, achieve a level of empathy and appreciation that surpasses habit and even reason, and then make someone care. Molly Secours is a good storyteller, and she’s a good story, too. She left Massena, New York, at 16. She lived out west and spent a profitable but unhappy stint as a computer executive. She was an actor who disliked auditions: “I hated waiting to get chosen, so I quit.” Secours’s work has often been about the unchosen, the disenfranchised. She writes and films to help us remember the forgotten. She moved to Nashville in 1994, having fallen in love with
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a remarkable keyboard player and songwriter named Steve Conn. They headed to Tennessee, soon finding a place in Mt. Juliet near Rev. Campbell, who married them.
Film still from Scouting for Diamonds, Umpire Ed Montague Jr. and Molly Secours at first Spring Training in Arizona, 2015
“I’d never been south of the Mason-Dixon line when I moved here,” Secours says. “In my mind on the plane, I was having a conversation with God or whoever, thinking, ‘What am I doing going to the South?’ The response came: There’s a lot of work around racism, and that’s what you’re going to do. I wound up going to Fisk’s Race Relations Institute. It was the first time I’d ever heard the phrase “white privilege.” I went there and cried every day on the way home. Within two years, they asked me to be on the advisory board. That’s when I started writing about race and criminal justice.” She worked at the Oasis Center, aiding African-American and Latino youth and teaching life skills through video. “I became a filmmaker by default,” says Secours, whose Frenchderived last name translates to “help.” With a grant from George Soros’s Open Society Institute, Secours worked on narratives pieces and documentaries with kids in juvenile justice. A documentary, Welcome to My Hood, ran on the Documentary Channel in 2001, the same year she and Conn split up (they remain close friends).
Film still, Jo Adell before hitting last high school home run
A half-decade later, she was speaking about race and inequality, lecturing at colleges, and appearing as a televised talking head. She was on CNN one night, participating in an unhelpful verbal wrestling match about self-segregation, and she left feeling all kinds of ill. The next week, she was back in Nashville, depressed and contemplating the dire and disastrous things that depressed people contemplate. She visited a doctor, who told her that she had cancer, and that the cancer had spread, wildly. Stage IV. She jumped off the table and paced the room, crying and saying, “I want to live.” By then, she was already a community treasure, albeit a treasure who weighed 103 pounds and whose strength and frailty were in constant opposition. The community came out in strength and support: benefits and hugs and checks from people who had been political friends and enemies. And Molly Secours started falling in love with doctors, and science, and life. “In that time, I got to see other people’s gentleness and vulnerability,” she says. “It was my most beautiful and painful period. When I finished it all, I got stronger, and found myself feeling melancholy. I missed the vulnerability. I saw and experienced things that I wouldn’t have. Without cancer, I wouldn’t have grown into myself.”
Film still, Ed Montague Jr. and Willie Mays
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Healed, Secours started making short-form documentaries called Lasting Legacies, documenting people in life’s late stages and chronicling crucial organizations including the Frist Center. Through this work, she heard about an aging baseball scout named George
Secours is a storyteller, and here was an untold story that involved wise elders who seek talents to elevate. Boggs was an underdog—a spray hitter, without speed or defensive prowess—yet Diggs believed in him. Secours met him, and recognized a love story when she heard it. Today, a documentary called Scouting for Diamonds is on the way. Bill Murray is the narrator, and ex-Nashvillian Dub Cornett is a co-producer. And Secours has interviewed a bevy of scouts and players. When she began the project, she and her dad were on the outs. When she was a child, their connection was sports, and then their connection was lost. In his last two years, they came together, bound by vulnerability and perspective. And by the “Say Hey Kid.”
“
It was my most beautiful and painful period. I saw and experienced things that I wouldn't have. Without cancer I wouldn't have grown into myself.
Molly Secours and Pirates Bench Coach Dave Jauss
“When I called to tell him that I was going to interview Willie Mays, he about lost his mind,” Secours says. “And I remember that Dad said, ‘Well, now, you really are a filmmaker, aren’t you?’” She is. And she’s a strident voice for understanding. And she’s good at falling in love, which is the key to the whole deal. For more information, visit www.scoutingfordiamonds.com and www.mollysecours.com.
Photograph by Katherine Bomboy
Digby, who long ago spotted the talents in Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Wade Boggs. Digby died in 2014, just before she was supposed to meet him, but she’d already fallen in love. Never mind that she hadn’t cared a whit for baseball and hadn’t seen a game in twenty years: She saw the beauty and dignity in scouts, who are the philosophers, scientists, and oracles of America’s national pastime.
Fine Art & Gifts
Sarratt Youth Art Institute www.OGalleryArt.com
Olga Alexeeva, Wonderland, Acrylic, 40” x 40”
A WONDERFUL WORLD OF ART
by Olga Alexeeva & Local Artists
Olga Alexeeva, artist and owner, is available for commissioned works for home and business Art classes by Olga are conducted weekly 615-416-2537
Open 7 Days a Week • Monday-Saturday 10-6 • Sunday 11-5 1305 Clinton St. Ste. 120 • Nashville, TN 37203
POTTERY DRAWING JEWELRY PAINTING PHOTOGRAPHY FUSED GLASS AND MORE WE ARE NOW REGISTERING FOR SARRATT YOUTH ART INSTITUTE ï Ages 5-16 ï ï Early bird discount through April 1, 2018 ï ï One week sessions beginning June 4, 2018 ï For more information and to register: www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattart/ summer-youth-art-institute
WORDS Margaret F. M. Walker
HARVEY PETERSON’S
Whimsical Folk Art Figures Haynes Galleries through April 14
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ith strong classical training and a fondness for the art of the untrained, Harvey Peterson creates thoughtful and whimsical sculptures. These, along with oil-based monoprints, are the highlight of the March display at Haynes Galleries in Franklin. Haynes has shown this work in Maine, where the artist is based, but this is its inaugural showing in Nashville. Peterson earned a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art and had a long career teaching painting in private schools in Baltimore. As he was approaching retirement, he worked to build a cottage and studio on family property in Maine. During that process, he discovered a love for working with wood, and having always been intrigued by folk art, he decided to try making his own. In some ways, his shift into this type of work parallels art historians’ recognition of outsider art as worthy of formal study. Gary Haynes says, “He has become a master of a certain artistic intersection between that which is considered folk art and that which is considered fine art, creating something that is simultaneously contemporary and out of the past.” Most of the sculptures are an unusual size—at around 43 inches they are double the height of a standard doll, but still far from life-size. Peterson explained that the size is largely a result of the capacities of his tools and workshop. With the maximum working size established, details could be more intricate, particularly on the base, which Peterson uses to expand upon the story of the figure it supports.
Red Level Lady (detail), Wood, fabric, level parts, found materials, polychrome, 42” x 14” x 7”
Tape Measure Curler, Wood, fabric, found materials, polychrome, 23” x 43” x 8”
A curious continuum in his oeuvre is play with the shapes that make the figure, particularly the chest cavity. Red Level Lady tips to the side as if rubbing an aching hip. Her chest contains two levels with their bubbles decidedly off-center, exaggerating this figural detail. In contrast, a third level sits within a cavity near where her navel would be, scientifically communicating the balancing act expected in dynamic sculpture.
Christian Louboutin Lady, Wood, fabric, polychrome, 47” x 16” x 14”
Home Plate Catcher has doors on his chest, disguised as protective pads. They hinge open to reveal an old baseball that appears to be well used and signed by the whole team. Penobscot Man plays even more with the idea of drawers and hinges and what might be within the geometrical shapes evocative of legs and arms. They open to reveal maps and navigational tools. At the figure’s center, in the chest cavity, is a compass, and more are hidden in additional nooks.
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Peterson reveals that his interest in the chest cavity started with the idea that it was simply a box and could be made more interesting with found objects, whether cans of Moxie Soda or clocks. Playing with doors and drawers expands the story of each figure, and investigating these interior spaces acts as a visual metaphor for how one gets to know a person better. Motion is another important element in many of Peterson’s sculptures. Christian Louboutin Lady is mid-stride, as one imagines that wind makes the hem of her dress flutter and draws her hand to her hat. She, like many, even twirls on her rod like a weathervane. One can imagine having this piece in a home and rotating it periodically just to see the new way that lines and patterns play in a space and with our understanding of it. Notice how she doesn’t have legs, but rather just the suggestion of them. Peterson enjoys the challenge and intricacy of carving shoes, and those characteristic Louboutin red soles draw one’s eyes to them. Appropriate for the season, Tape Measure Curler, Peterson says, came from watching the Norwegian team in a recent winter Olympics. The figure is caught in his most dynamic
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Penobscot Man, Carved wood assemblage with mixed media, 41” x 10” x 10”
Old Orchard Beach Bathing Beauty, Wood, fabric, found materials, polychrome, 53” x 16”
lunge, and the tape measures all around him and the base serve to emphasize the importance of precision in this sport. In these and other pieces, motion is countered by sharp angles, often further emphasized by hinging doors and pulling drawers. Peterson’s goal is to evoke the folk art that so inspires him, which is often stiff and awkward. It is a quality he is aiming to preserve. The figures’ delicately carved and intricately painted faces, hands, and hair-dos are where one can see Peterson’s skill and background in painting. They are the organic element in contrast to the boxy and sometimes illusionistic core of the bodies. Peterson says that “each has ten to twelve coats of paint, giving a rich color. I then use a combination of varnishes and a stain that seeps into the cracking, giving the suggestion of age. Finally, there is a matte varnish to seal it all.”
Gary Haynes praises Peterson’s sculptures: “They are great portraits and tell stories; there is a lot of intellect in the work. He really knows how to capture the character of his subject by working around a concept.” Haynes’s favorite parts are the faces, where, he says, “They become figures with real lives.” na Harvey Peterson’s Whimsical Folk Art Figures and Maine Monoprints is on view at Haynes Galleries until April 14. For more information, visit www.haynesgalleries.com.
Harvey Peterson
Tape Measure Lady, Wood, found materials, polychrome, 43” x 11” x 11”
Interspersed with the sculptures in the Haynes exhibition are more-traditional landscapes—vibrant and impressionistic scenes of the land around Belfast, Maine. They are monoprints and roughly the same size because of the rapidity with which Peterson must work to create the image and the print. Most often employing rice paper, Peterson enjoys how the prints have an immediate and translucent quality akin to the watercolors he painted for many years. He reflects on a difference, though—“the magic of seeing the result when you pull the print.”
Shakingofthe Twilight, Rain,Architects, and Vapors A Branch Daigh Rick Reeds, Landscape LLC 84 x 66 inches | 2017
songs from an imperfect life J. RONALD M. YORK
author of Kept in the Dark
Photograph by Paige Rumore Photography
LOOK + LISTEN t h e h a r m o n i e s t h at r e m a i n A n eve n ing of a r t a nd musi c by
J. TODD GREENE T h u r s d a y, M a r c h 2 9 t h , 6 : 3 0 P M A Pay What You Want Exhibit & Album Release Party 900 South Street, Suite 104 | 615.454.4100
www.galerietangerine.com
Launch Party & Author Talk Sunday, March 18 2:00 p.m. Parnassus Books Hillsboro Plaza Shopping Center 3900 Hillsboro Pike #14
www.jronaldmyork.com
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
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I want to be remembered as a servant leader, a person who gave back and inspired the next generation. As a woman of color, I feel it’s my duty to be an example for those young individuals who look like me.
Dr. Emerald Mitchell Founder, Executive Director, Moves and Grooves www.movesandgrooves.org
WORDS Paul Polycarpou
So are you a dreamer or a doer? I am most definitely a doer. I have a vision and I go for it— sometimes before I have thought it through. I go on faith, impulse, and on the possibilities. I believe in myself. I don’t stop till the job’s done. What has been your greatest achievement? Moves and Grooves. This was an idea I had at eighteen years of age. The idea wouldn’t let me go. I was in banking; I taught in Metro Schools, but in the back of my mind Moves and Grooves was always there, where I felt my heart and my purpose were. So to look back fifteen years ago to when this started and today we serve over two hundred and fifty kids . . . I’m able to supply jobs to a staff of twelve. That has been my greatest achievement. What’s your greatest fear? I fear not fulfilling my purpose. That I might not be here long enough, or that I might drop the ball on taking this vision I have to its full conclusion. I want to live a life of purpose.
emotions. I can be guarded because I don’t want to be hurt. But I’m working on that. What music turns you on? I love jazz, Neo soul, R&B, Hip Hop, and musicals. And I’m getting to know country music. I like Dan & Shay. What would you tell the very young Emerald? Continue to believe in yourself. Trust in who you are. Learn from mistakes, and press through no matter what. What do you want to be remembered as? I want to be remembered as a person who saw a need and was proactive about it. I want to be remembered as a person who overcame obstacles in life to achieve what I have. And I want to be remembered as a servant leader, a person who gave back and inspired the next generation. As a woman of color, I feel it’s my duty to be an example for those young individuals who look like me. What keeps you in Nashville?
If you weren’t doing Moves and Grooves, what would you be doing? Courtesy Trevecca Nazarene University
I’d want to be a background dancer for Janet Jackson. If I can’t do that I’d be a writer, a journalist. I love to travel; I’m a boat lover, a horse lover. So maybe vacationing somewhere on a boat, writing my book. What’s your greatest extravagance? Clothes for sure! I’m a shopaholic, a fashionista if you will, designer shoes, handbags, garments, I’m on it. Who has influenced you the most? My father is my greatest influence. He always treated me like a jewel. I was his only girl. Even though my parents divorced when I was very young he remained a consistent part of my life. He was at all my dance performances. He was the first male I ever loved, and he always encouraged me at my weakest point. Who would you most like to have a long conversation with? It’s Oprah, and it will also be Former First Lady Michelle Obama. I respect their intellect and the leadership they have provided. That’s who I want to be. A person who can influence and change a community.
I like the diversity in Nashville. I love the energy here. People can come here with a dream and two dollars in their pocket and make that dream come true. What does a typical day for you look like? I call it beautiful chaos. I wake up at 3:30 a.m. and I attend a 4 a.m. kickboxing class. Then I go home and get my daughters ready for school. I have meetings throughout the day, grants to write. My day ends at six. I go home, fix dinner for the kids, and back at it the next morning.
What’s the most challenging aspect of Moves and Grooves? Marketing ourselves. After fifteen years, I’d hope that the community knows who we are and what we do, but a lot of them don’t. Being visible is the hardest part. Sharing our story. And what’s the greatest joy you get? Seeing my students do something they didn’t think they could. A lot of our students come in with emotional damage; some are two or three grades behind. We use the arts to help excite our students and get them interested in academic areas. What’s your motto? I live by the motto that is on my desk here. Get it done!
What are you good at?
Is your glass always half empty or half full?
I’m good at telling others what to do. At motivating people, encouraging and leading others. And I’m really good at dancing.
It’s always half full! I am eternally optimistic. If it’s half empty it just means there is work to be done. There’s more room for improvement and more opportunities.
So what are you bad at?
What do you wish for?
Time management, and organization sometimes. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but sometimes I’m bad at showing my
I wish for a bigger space for Moves and Grooves. A space our kids can call their own and be free to create. na
Read about the Moves and Grooves ART SPLASH event on page 110.
Artists Talk Portraiture, History, and Identity F
or centuries, women’s portraits that made it into the Western canon gave the subjects little agency. A stroll through any large museum shows nude women in postures either subservient or exalted to goddess-like status. The art world was shocked by Manet’s Olympia. The subject of the painting, likely a prostitute, shocked viewers with her confrontational gaze. The portrait went against the grain of social mores involving women and sex. Rather than being the object of the viewer’s gaze, she stared back with a sense of self-possession and sexual authority. But to her right, in shadow, a black maid presented an enormous floral bouquet. As much as white women had it bad in portraiture, women of color had it way worse. With contemporary giants like Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, and Mickalene Thomas working in portraiture, a new day has dawned on the walls of collectors and museums around the world. Portraiture has become a means of understanding our present by making sense of our past. After winning a MacArthur “genius award” fellowship, Weems described her work in the New York Times: “The work has to do with an attempt to reposition and reimagine the possibility of women and the possibility of people of color, and to that extent it has to do with what I always call unrequited love.” Nashville Arts spoke to three local artists working in the genre today.
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PHOTOGRAPHY Keep3
WORDS Erica Ciccarone
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Promise, 2012, Oil on panel, 42” x 37”
Lakesha Moore
L AKESHA MOORE is interested in how we form and carry
memories. Each of us has an individual history, but we share a collective history as well. She says that tapping into each other’s memories can create opportunities for bonding that reveal our potential. This aspirational spirit comes through in her paintings. Moore chooses subjects that are both still and lively: Fruits, flowers, and people might coexist in nearly equal proportions within the frame. Using a warm palette, she renders everyday people and objects with reverence. Moore is a professor of art education at Tennessee State University, and she features her female students in portraiture. Where does your interest in portraiture come from?
Untitled (Homage to Home), 2017, Oil on panel, 36” x 24”
For some it may feel outdated, but the way you approach it can make it relevant. It started developing in undergrad when I painted portraits of my brothers. I’m the oldest and felt like I was on the outside looking in … I was talking about youth and innocence. In grad school, I was pulled away from using a direct portrait and began to allow the spaces to represent portraits of people. They acted as memorials, spaces of meditation. I used elements of nature to stand in. You think about nature and the strength and resilience you can find there. It’s reflected in humanity as well. We have strength, but there’s also fragility about us. Finding that balance and trying to describe that balance is what I was doing. What stories are you telling? I still find myself talking about youth. I’m working primarily with college students. They have an energy, a thirst. There’s a vibrancy and the hope that they have for where they’re going that I want to capture. Students I talk to are dealing with a lot of things outside of school … Their stories become a way to bolster and strengthen in spite of. The simplicity of their faces, that image, their gaze. They’re not always looking at you … You don’t have to know everything about a person to see their essence. We try to define each other in these very strict ways, and that’s what I’ve been learning from my students. Sometimes, it’s OK not to know. We need that freedom to understand who we are and not be confined by what others expect us to be. When you paint others, do you find yourself in the portraits as well? I find myself in their journeys, so I can relate to them. Being a black female in art, I don’t claim to make “black art.” I make
art that speaks to a broad audience, but because I’m walking in this flesh, I have a certain experience. I want to reflect that experience. These young women show that, and I appreciate their journey. That’s what we have. We have ourselves. We have each other. We need to support that. Learn more at www.lakeshasmoore.com.
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Eva Young
East Monarchs: Sibyl, Summer Stewart, model
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VA YOUNG wants us to look at her. The 21-year-old artist creates photographic self-portraits in the style of Frida Kahlo, but with an Afrofuturistic bent. In other works, she dresses models in the clothing she imagines her ancestors wearing, a practice that speaks to the fact that Westerners of African ancestry often cannot trace their family tree beyond the diaspora. Young is without pretention, listing Nick Cave and Kerry James Marshall as influences right alongside Solange and Hannah Montana. For Young, the photographic portrait is a way to control how she and her people are represented. When did you start to think of yourself as an artist? I think because I am so self-critical, I was afraid of giving myself that title at first. I remember someone told me there’s a difference between being a creator and an artist. Everyone can create, but artists tell a story. What story are you telling? Because I come from an identity with so many layers of politics in it, as a queer femme-identifying person, a lot of the art my community creates is still representing the weight we go through. Just recently we started learning to be political but expressing it in a very beautiful way––not as heavy. The black body in general is political, so I use that as a tool to create more fantasies for us to see. Your self-portraits remind me of Frida Kahlo because there’s so much self-love in them. I think women in my generation really struggle with that. West Monarchs: Formed in Sacred Land, Jordan Rhes Hubbard and Miranda Garza, models
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It was so natural, actually. I have a great support group in
friends and family. It’s so normal to take pictures of yourself in this age. My generation is used to documenting ourselves, and I think that’s why it was so comfortable to do. What’s your composition process? These are outfits I wear on a regular day. I think the process of getting ready every day is a performance and art piece, like getting ready for a ceremony. It’s putting on armor to protect yourself, but it’s also a way to receive a lot of negative or good energy. What’s coming up for you? I’m creating a tribe called Meta, and it’s a representation of my black identity, specifically as a queer-identifying person.
This whole series is me giving a story to the ancestors that I never knew about. Giving them a story is giving back power that was taken from them. I’ve been creating all these clothes that would represent what they would look like and getting friends that would represent the collective. Black people and queer people are never viewed as a collective. We’re viewed as a mass. Putting a name and identity to that gives me all the power back. What about the arts in Nashville is exciting for you? It’s a great place to start evolving into showing the different aspects of creatives and artists. There are a lot of weirdos here, and this is a time when they’re getting exposed. That’s a good thing. Learn more at @raeyoyoung on Instagram.
Keisha, 2016, Colored pencil, 17” x 14”
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Micheala Intveld-Sutherlin
ICHEALA INTVELD-SUTHERLIN’s work reflects the world around her through dreamlike prisms. In her colored-pencil portraits, she pulls rich color from the faces of her models, sometimes using heavily saturated hues of blue and purple to stand in for black and brown skin tones. The resulting portraits convey strength and resolve. In a recent series, IntveldSutherlin draws from her own experience to explore the cultural place of women’s hair. In one charcoal print, an adult hand pulls a comb through the coarse hair of a young girl. Her face is out of the frame, but the tension is evident, revealing the sometimes-fraught relationship between generations that can be played out in grooming.
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“
Someone told me there’s a difference between being a creator and an artist. Everyone can create, but artists tell a story.
friends because I know them so well. I can take a look at a face and know how they’re feeling. There’s something about the colors and shading you use that reminds me of the film Moonlight. Director Barry Jenkins and cinematographer James Laxton have earned praise for their use of light to make black skin almost shimmer. How does light factor into your portraits?
Wrapped, 2016, Colored pencil, 17” x 14”
Intveld-Sutherlin is a senior at Fisk University, and in addition to her artistic practice, she’s a communications intern at the university and the president of Tanner Arts Society, the oldest organization on campus. She’s also a capable graphic designer with a growing portfolio. How do you choose your models? Especially because I’ve been doing work in school, my images are what I see on social media or what kind of musicians I like. Lately, I’m doing more of my friends and asking them to be models, which gives me more control over the image. It’s becoming more personal. Why is this more personal? I gravitate toward portraiture because I’m very interested in human emotions and how they’re expressed through body language and expressions. It’s interesting to see this in my
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Light is very important, especially when I’m looking for random images to practice on and grow from . . . I like a lot of contrast. It’s found in my color choices. My dad is an artist, and when he gives me a critique, he asks, “Does it pop?” I try to emphasize shadow. I feel like a lot of portraiture has narrative. What stories are you telling through your work? I agree that there are stories in portraiture. I think some are very open to interpretation. In some of my [recent] work, they tell a story about growing up with black hair . . . Those three are titled based on things I was told when I was little. The first that I did is Big Girls Don’t Cry. If you would touch the brush, I would cry. What’s your relationship like with your hair? I used to hate my hair, actually. I was always a frizz ball. No one knew what to do with my hair. My mom is white, so she wasn’t used to it. To the black side of my family, my hair didn’t cooperate. I damaged it in trying to straighten it. In college, I decided to stop using heat. I said, my hair is going to be healthy, and I will love it for what it is.” Now my hair is part of me. Learn more at www.drawnlovely.com. na
Molly Tuttle
Summer classes so skillful, you’ll be able to ask for a raise in the fall.
1938 Martin 00-42
GUITAR LOVE FIND IT AT
Register for summer classes at watkins.edu starting April 1st.
W.
The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center
Celebrating Women’s History Month
ART ON THE WEST SIDE
5th Annual Fine Art & Craft Show April 21-22
PHOTO BY: ASHLEY HYLBERT
2018 Featured Artist: Harold Kraus
Shown: Hope in the City, Kathleen Conover, Watercolor, 22x30
Kathleen Conover: Industrial Evolution Narrative Illusions: The Visions of Mindy Herrin Celebrating Women in Business Julia Martin: HYPNAGOGIC Sponsored by
Opening Cocktail Reception & Sale Saturday, April 21 • 6–9 pm $15 suggested donation
Customs House Museum & Cultural Center 200 S. 2nd Street, Clarksville TN 931-648-5780 www.customshousemuseum.org Tues—Sat 10—5 Sun 1—5
Exhibit & Sale Sunday, April 22 • 10am–4pm Jazz Brunch • 10am–1pm (no charge) artonthewestside.org
SOUNDINGOFF Film still from Hercules in the Haunted World
BY JOSEPH E. MORGAN
Nashville Opera Cinematic Camp at TPAC
A
s the Oxford Dictionary defines it, “camp” is a “deliberately exaggerated and theatrical behavior or style,” a style that is very well exemplified in Mario Bava’s Hercules in the Haunted World. Composer Patrick Morganelli must have recognized that opera is a genre that specializes in both heroes and exaggerated behavior when he decided to set Bava’s work to an operatic score, replacing the motion picture’s soundtrack. Nashville Opera gave a delightful performance of it, now titled Hercules vs. Vampires, on January 27 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall.
so terribly done visually, even for a work of obvious camp, that it distracted from Morganelli’s fine effects. In all, the evening was quite fun, no less because many of the audience were in costume (Medusa was remarkable) and passionately cheering from the balcony. Nashville Opera will return on April 6 to close their season with Carlisle Floyd’s tragic Susannah, a lushly melodic Appalachian folk opera set in a small mountain town in Tennessee.
Film still from Hercules in the Haunted World
The best scene in the work is undoubtedly the duet between Hercules and Medea the oracle as played by soprano Emily Tweedy with a bright instrument and exacting intonation. The film at this point, with the oracle masked, was at its most believably creepy and otherworldly. On the other hand, the fight scene between Hercules and the evil monster Procrustes was more difficult. The music for the scene was dramatic and exciting, but in the movie, the character’s rubber suit was just
Photograph by Anthony Popolo for Nashville Opera
For more information, visit www.nashvilleopera.org.
Led by the Artistic Director of Intersection, Kelly Corcoran, the orchestra performed a score that was closely aligned with the events that occurred onscreen, while the libretto provided ample moments for levity at the absurdity of the hero. Baritone Conor McDonald added to the comedy by performing the role of Hercules with a robust yet seemingly naïve interpretation. Similarly, soprano Melissa Shippen sang the Dianara (Hercules’s love interest) role with a beautiful innocence, while as the Queen of the Hesperides she was quite commanding. Of the entire cast, bass-baritone Jeffrey Williams, as the heinous Lycos, seemed to be having the most fun.
Mark W. Scala Chief Curator Frist Center for the Visual Arts
The Stain Sublime:
Ellen Gallagher & History Painting W
ho can doubt that we are living in a time in which our sense of historical moment has become increasingly palpable? As we ponder how actions taken in our upsidedown age will shape the future, we also reflect on how our predecessors’ actions helped produce, for better or worse, this very moment. Maybe because of the Frist’s upcoming exhibition on ancient Rome, or of current disputes over Confederate monuments (which echo the statuary of the Roman Empire in its efforts to concretize the legacies of leaders in perpetuity, however ignoble they in truth may have been), I am thinking about art that is intended to convey particular views of history—art meant to inculcate later generations with an ideology that we as a culture or subculture feel defines us.
These are our history painters—the class of artists who in the days of the academy were considered top tier because they used their extraordinary technical skills to unite a wide audience in the belief that knowledge of certain seminal and admirable events solidifies a people’s pride in their nation’s history. Think Washington Crossing the Delaware. But the artists I mention, who are all black, forgo the clarity of traditional history painting (which, in unambiguously articulating values that support the structures of power, often foster duplicitous narratives) to speak instead of the pathos, complexity, and contradictions of American experience. They make it clear that the shadows of personal pain, injustice, and oppression define a nation’s identity every bit as much as positive markers of achievement or parables of virtue.
This is a plus or a minus—parents can teach their children, through art, that an appreciation for beauty and a dedication to ideals of equality, tolerance, and human progress should be constants through time, to be embraced and sustained. Or people can advocate for the continued public presence of artworks that were created to perpetuate ideologies that are by today’s standards abhorrent, with ennobling portraits of the agents of such stains as militarism, imperialism, and slavery (mis)leading the impressionable and misbegotten to ask, “Who were these heroic men, and how can we be like them?”
An extraordinary example of this is Ellen Gallagher’s An Experiment of Unusual Opportunity, which takes the question “Who were these men and how can we be like them?” and recasts it as “Who were these men and how can they have done what they did?” And, for white people, the follow-up question becomes “How can we confront our own culpability in their great sin?”
The irony of Confederate apologists bemoaning the removal of their statues as an “erasure” of the history of Southern rebellion is that they are complicit in a much more toxic erasure of a history that people of color have lived and continue to live, and remember in a way that white people are unable to even pretend to understand fully or feel deeply. Less aggrandizing and more provocative, the historical markers of our era are being created by artists like Kara Walker, Radcliffe Bailey, and Ellen Gallagher, to name a few, who depict history not just as a series of exemplary achievements, but as a story of violence and injustice that is as formative as any positive milestone.
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Rather than employing legible imagery to teach a clear moral lesson, Gallagher has envisioned a history that is as epic and ungraspable as the long shadows and twisting roots of racism itself. The painting shows a convoluted set of organic elements that seem to reside underwater, including perhaps an octopus, seaweed, and coral—a world beneath that bespeaks pure mystery. This murky imagery invites the viewer to try to decode it—to go beyond its boundaries to look more deeply into the story to which it alludes. The title contains the necessary clue. It refers to a fourdecades-long research program (1932–1972) at the Tuskegee Institute, when black men with syphilis went untreated so that doctors could study the disease as it progressed over time. The men were not told that they had syphilis—only that they
Courtesy Tiernan Morgan
BY MARK W. SCALA
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
ASISEEIT
Ellen Gallagher, An Experiment of Unusual Opportunity, 2008, Ink, graphite, oil, varnish, and cut paper on canvas, 80” x 74” Collection of Larry Gagosian (promised gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art). © Ellen Gallagher. Courtesy Gagosian
were receiving free medical care for having “bad blood.” The experiment continued, without the consent of the men being studied, even after the mid 1940s, when it was determined that penicillin could cure the disease. If the painting leads one to wonder whether the unethical medical research at Tuskegee was an anomaly, further digging reveals that there have been numerous such experiments on the bodies and minds of poor people, black people, and incarcerated people, in which scientists have secretly tested the effects of such things as radioactivity, biological weapons, and physical and psychological torture.
So, like any good history painting, An Experiment of Unusual Opportunity triggers an emotional response to something that is larger than the particular event it describes. Showing the suppression of empathy as manifested in a scientific method that reflected—consciously or unconsciously—the attitudes of a system built on inequality, the work describes a sickness far more virulent than syphilis. na An Experiment of Unusual Opportunity will be on view next summer in the exhibition Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. For more information, visit www.fristcenter.org.
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Carter County, Tennessee, 2013 A realistic appearing toy gun mounted as a chevron on the hood of a car. The owner was a devil worshiper. The palette of many images included in Warning Shots includes red; to me it suggests violence, as in blood.
Warning Shots
A Photographic Essay
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY Mike Smith
Upon my retirement from teaching photography at East Tennessee State University for thirty-six years, I had an opportunity to create an exhibition of my recent work at the B. Carroll Reece Museum. That show was titled Parting Shots. The works here were chosen from that exhibition. This selection of works partially represents my response to the national election cycle of 2016. During that year the Republican primary debates, the subsequent presidential campaign, and the questionable election results inflicted upon our country an alarming level of animus and division. Widespread bigotry highlighted our nations’ growing religious intolerance, continual racial inequality and hatred, profound economic disparity, frightening homophobia,
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unending misogynistic attitudes and violence against women, our continually escalating gun violence, and a pervasive level of sexism. Those “values” are manifest in these pictures. I include children because their moral compass is subject to daily challenges within this toxic environment. Not only are they listening, as is often said, they are also looking. So am I. A forthcoming book titled Warning Shots will include these and other works relating to the topics above. na Mike Smith’s photography will be included in Cumberland Gallery’s exhibit Discontent running from March 3 through April 14. He will be present for the opening reception on Saturday, March 3, from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, please visit www.cumberlandgallery.com. See more of Smith’s work at www.mikesmithphotographs.com.
Bristol, Virginia, 2012 Racism. I see it every day I am out working with my camera. Please note the revolver pointing directly at the reader in the upper-right corner. The shadows, including my own, appear purple as well as the figures.
Carter County, Tennessee, 2016 This window, located on the back side of a shed, faced an expansive, beautiful farming landscape I was studying. Often I literally stumble upon my subjects. I work without preconception of what I might find on any given day and accept what I do find as raw material for my photographs. The picture to me, in context to the other images in Warning Shots, suggests a faded glory, akin in some way to the Confederacy.
Southwest Virginia, 2015 A relatively bizarre modern-day expression of Confederate “heritage.” Made by a man who named his property “The Confederate Estates.” I think of it as a head on a platter. One could also see the dish as representing technology, or a means to broadcast and receive information, including racist values.
Southwest Virginia, 2015 Usually a nutcracker is related to Christmas. This one, its noose and red spattered paint on the distant structure, conjures all manner of bad.
Watauga County, Tennessee, 2014 Some days are better than others. I met this poised young lady in Watauga, a very small hamlet between Johnson City and Elizabethton. I would venture to say that there are not many African-American families living there. Children are sandwiched between dark and dubious values in Warning Shots.
Carter County, Tennessee, 2014 Again, central to the book, Warning Shots, are family and children. Violence and racism are themes touched by many of the images included. This photograph of the broken family on the porch includes a rebel flag; a lost cause, reflected in the window. Among the trash and the discarded children’s portrait are the family dog and an oxygen-starved, cyan dad, partially obscured in the heap.
ARTSMART
A monthly guide to art education
TENNESSEE ROUNDUP
Photography by iStock.com
Arts Education in Your Community
March marks the annual arts advocacy efforts taking place around the country. Tennesseans for the Arts (TFTA) is a statewide group that “advocates for the arts at all levels as a strong, unified voice throughout Tennessee.” TFTA’s annual gathering of supporters for Arts Advocacy Day 2018 takes place on March 7th at the Nashville Public Library. This got me thinking about my work and the privilege of learning from constituents about the power of the arts and their interest in making positive arts experiences possible for young people. They are parents serving on PTOs, students interested in accessing a particular art form, artists wanting to share talents, or organizations reaching out to help their communities. When advocating for arts learning, you may be wondering where to start. See below for some helpful resources. • Americans for the Arts (AFTA) leads the national network of organizations and individuals who “cultivate, promote, sustain, and support the arts in America.” AFTA’s Arts Education— Getting Started explains basic definitions and answers the what, why, where, who, and when in arts education. Another feature to look for is the Arts Education Field Guide naming the national, state, and local partners who are part of the arts education ecosystem. The guide also helps pinpoint what needs and assets may exist in your community.
Photograph courtesy of State Photography
• The Kennedy Center published the Arts Education Advocacy Toolkit, a how-to advocacy guide. Not only does this document
by Ann Talbott Brown Director of Arts Education Tennessee Arts Commission
lay out how to create an advocacy plan, but it also describes “The Habits of Effective Arts Education Advocates,” which begins with getting clear on what you believe and letting “your beliefs [. . .] be the guide for your actions.” • Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a center within the Education Commission of the States devoted to “advancing the arts in education through research, policy and practice,” authored Preparing Students for the Next America: The Benefits of an Arts Education. This research-based bulletin offers a snapshot of how the arts support achievement in school, work, and life by showcasing arts education within a broader context. • ArtsEdSearch, a project of AEP, is an “online clearinghouse that collects and summarizes high-quality research studies on the impacts of arts education.” This database contains 200 studies and is designed for policymakers and education leaders to understand and communicate arts education from four perspectives: student outcomes, educator outcomes, during the school day, and during out-of-school time. To summarize the resources above: Understanding what you believe, supporting these beliefs with research, and positioning your efforts within a broader context and ecosystem may be helpful as you march forward in arts education advocacy. For more information, visit www.tnartscommission.org.
by DeeGee Lester
ARTSMART
Photograph by Caitlin Harris
Scholastic Art Competition: America Vision Nominees For the 27th year, Cheekwood hosted the Scholastic Art Competition and Exhibition for Middle Tennessee. A program of the prestigious Alliance for Young Artists and Writers (est. 1923), this national competition recognizes and celebrates exceptional young artists, grades 7–12. This year 922 students from 264 area schools, programs, and institutions submitted 1,602 works of art. Gold and Silver Key Awards are given in eleven categories, with five American Vision nominees (listed below) moving on to the national competition.
ASHLYN ANDERSON Senior, Franklin High School Tierra y Libertad (Printmaking)
Most Scholastic Art submissions focus on contemporary issues, images, and the people and objects students encounter in their own lives. Franklin High School senior Ashlyn Anderson opted to reach back into history to create a powerful print image that captures and engages the viewer on multiple levels. Anderson’s passion for thinking creatively and expressing herself captured two Gold Key Awards, but it was her reaction to a unit in AP History about the Mexican Revolution that sparked the idea that catapulted one of those pieces to an American Vision nomination. “Mexican identity and symbols were apparent in every facet of that war, and my goal with Tierra y Libertad was to tie the meanings and symbols together in the face of one man,” says Anderson. “Beneath the death tolls and the savagery of war, there are people. I want to make viewers stop and reflect and identify with this man.” Her technique echoing the tradition of Realismo Mágico (Magic Realism) startles the viewer with multiple layers—clues, phantom images, and embedded symbols scattered throughout the image as details of the man’s face and clothing. The impact is a compassionate and unforgettable statement on war.
Ashlyn Anderson, Tierra y Libertad, Ink, linoleum relief print on paper, 8” x 10”
That compassion for people is also reflected in Anderson’s career goal to attend Samford University in Birmingham and to become a nutritionist, while finding ways to keep and incorporate art into her life and work.
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ARTSMART HALEY GILL Senior, Hendersonville High School Submerged Mother (Painting) The unique quality and unusual perspective of Haley Gill’s painting, Submerged Mother, captured the 2018 Scholastic Art Awards program cover, catching the artist off guard as she entered the exhibition hall. “It was everywhere, staring back at me,” she laughs.
The American Vision nomination was one of Gill’s five awards (including three gold and two silver), and a portion of the focus of her AP Art class at Hendersonville High School. AP students may consider their strength and breadth in various mediums, but are required to create twelve works around one topic. As an approach to her work, Gill experimented with vibrant colors, looking at the values and assigning different colors to each value. The results in the customary appearance of features such as skin tone are astonishing. “My topic centers around a concentration on the sentimental value of childhood memories and stimulation,” she explains. Submerged Mother reflects her childhood memory of a mother’s purity and pride. “My mom holds herself with pride and her partial submersion in the tub reflects her clean image.” The American Vision nomination is another step toward a career in art. Gill plans to expand her portfolio and attend a community college before transferring to a university.
Haley Gill, Submerged Mother, Acrylic paint, 24” x 36”
REED HERRING Senior, Summit High School Ollie (Photography) Unlike other students in the Scholastic Art Competition, American Vision nominee Reed Herring admits that for years he “wasn’t interested in art at all” and had his focus on a career in engineering. However, by midway through his sophomore year, the Summit High School student realized he “hated” engineering and switched to photography—a field in which he would like to “make a career.” Over the past two years, Herring has explored mediums including digital design and graphic communication. “That last one is new this year. Our class will be the guinea pigs for that one,” he laughs. Herring’s American Vision nomination, Ollie, captured a moment in the rambunctious activities of Oliver—one of the photographer’s twin nephews. “I was lucky with that pose, including capturing that little flash of light in his eye as he peeked out from behind the window shade.” Although Herring’s photography has focused on portraiture and creating art within that medium, he admits his dream career would be as an editorial photographer in the mold of iconic Life and Look photographers from the past, but admits, “In the digital age those careers don’t exist. You don’t have one photographer 96
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Reed Herring, Ollie, Photograph, 11” x 13”
covering an event; you have a bunch, so my photography will be for me, with a career in graphic arts.” He is considering two years at a community college before transferring to his dream college—Savannah College of Art and Design.
ARTSMART twins while coloring, they were told the babies were “connecting senses.” Inspired by that remark, the parents enthusiastically encouraged their daughters’ artistic endeavors. The results were years of classes and awards, including the recent Scholastic Awards (Aloura—one gold; Deianera—three gold, four silver, and an American Vision nomination). “My sister is very good at art, too,” says Deianera. “We’re always in competition with each other. She inspires me.” Her own prolific output can be measured in the accumulation of awards across a variety of arts categories, but she admits painting is her favorite. “It’s the most challenging in many ways, but also the easiest in allowing you the opportunity to work on a portion, then go back and see things and fix them, painting over and over until you are satisfied.” Smith spends as much time as possible on her art, whether it’s her AP project (with a focus on hands, as in A Charcoal Study), or building her portfolio. Art is the place where she feels the most confident.
Deianera Smith, A Charcoal Study, Acrylic paint, 24” x 29”
DEIANERA SMITH A Charcoal Study (Painting)
That confidence was bolstered by attending Governor’s School for the Arts. “The teachers would make you question what you do and why, and explore new angles and find new ways to be creative.”
When the parents of Deianera and Aloura Smith asked doctors about the weird noises exchanged between the six-month-old
After graduation, Smith plans to attend APSU and to become an art teacher.
Senior, Hendersonville High School
MADISON WEATHERS Senior, Hume Fogg Academic Magnet Never Too Old (Photography) Beginning six years ago as a hobby, photography lured Hume Fogg’s Madison Weathers to take “one class just for fun” during her final year, and the result was a Scholastic Art Competition submission, a Gold Key award, and an American Vision nomination. “I was totally surprised,” says Weathers. In addition to the excitement of the Scholastic Art Competition, Weathers says she has enjoyed her class tremendously. “Taking this class allowed me to find meaning, to think on a deeper level, and to consider things visually, rather than as subject matter for a photo. I learned how to fully appreciate others’ art and vision, but also to visualize my thoughts and display meaning through something without words.”
Madison Weathers, Never Too Old, Photograph, 5” x 7”
Her award-winning image, Never Too Old, captures her 93-year-old great grandmother in a moment that resonates with generations. Through her images, including those she captures on mission trips to places like Uganda, Haiti, and Equador, Weathers’ goal is to help viewers see themselves in the faces and journeys of others. “Photography allows me to step outside my
comfort zone; to have a new perspective on the world.” After graduation, she plans to attend East Tennessee State University where she will major in chemistry and then pursue a career in forensics, but her camera will always be within reach.
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ARTSMART
Bryan with the cast of Tarzan
Photography by Nancy Keen Palmer-Gift
Ensworth’s Donnie Bryan: Bravo!
One more curtain call; one more bow; one more resounding “Bravo!” Beehive: the 60s Musical marks the final theatrical performance for Ensworth School seniors and the farewell performance for Donnie Bryan, the school’s long-time and much-loved Chair of Visual and Performing Arts. The production, March 8–10, brings together the full spectrum of talent within that department— theater, visual arts, dance, instrumental, choral, and the Ensworth rock band. “I love this show because the kids get a music history lesson,” says Bryan. From social chaos and Vietnam to Motown and “Abraham, Martin and John,” this musical resonates across generations and demonstrates relevancy with today’s world. “We haven’t learned a thing,” Bryan says. Described as “the ultimate celebration of 1960s female empowerment,” Beehive features the music of iconic singers including Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Leslie Gore, and others who elevated the power and presence of women in the world of entertainment and social and political action. The passion, soul, and presence of each of these performers and their memorable songs are presented by a powerhouse of ten young women (four of them freshmen) within a cast of forty-two performers and ten musicians.
Photograph by Drew Cox
“I always pick a musical,” says Bryan, whose previous
by DeeGee Lester Director of Education The Parthenon
Bryan leading rehearsal for Beehive
productions have also included Ring of Fire, Aida, and Tarzan: The Musical based on the Disney film. That selection allows for the greatest number of participants within the department, while also spotlighting the creative talents of visual artists (set design) and the school’s outstanding theater tech team. Building on his previous association with Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW), Bryan arranged an original adaptation and the first-ever high school production of this popular Broadway musical which can be offered by TRW to other schools. Bryan’s script adaptation, with new narration and a different order, also allows building in male performers. A past similar collaboration enabled Bryan to expand the Johnny Cash musical Ring of Fire from eight performers to forty. The title Beehive refers to the “beehive” hairdos of the era. “Students were amused when I explained the whole process of spraying and sleeping with the hairdo wrapped in toilet paper,” Bryan laughs. With forty wigs and cases of hairspray, he muses that “somewhere there’s a warehouse that thinks the beehive is coming back into style.” This big, bold, nostalgic production is the perfect closing act to mark the end of Bryan’s thirty-seven-year career in high school arts. “I have loved it,” says Bryan. “This is a great group of seniors, and I will toss my cap with them at graduation.” Bravo! For more information, visit www.ensworth.com.
Eclectic Home Furnishings and Design
2205 bandywood drive in green hills • nashville, tn 37215 www.margischair.com • 615.463.3322
ARRATT GALLERY AT VANDERBILT
Figure and Fugue March 5 - April 13, 2018
Ajean Ryan
Andrea Hoelscher
Gerry Bannan
LOCATED ON THE MAIN FLOOR OF SARRATT STUDENT CENTER AT 2301 VANDERBILT PLACE, NASHVILLE, TN 37235 Visit us 7 days a week from 9 a.m–9 p.m. during the academic year. Summer and holiday schedule hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattgallery
ARTSEE
Debria Tyler reciting poetry during O’More College of Design’s exhibit, What’s Love Got to Do with It
Maddie Vickers, Hunter Vickers at Tinney Contemporary
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Blair Tramel and Connor Cummins at Julia Martin Gallery
Brittani Collinsworth, Cameron Cook and Nina Rodriquez at Tinney Contemporary
ARTSEE
Photograph by John Jackson
Grace Jennings at David Lusk Gallery
Photograph by John Jackson
Lorraine Ensley and John Besser at O’More College of Design
Jennifer Pepper at The Browsing Room Gallery
Bridgette Welch and Brandon Cogdill at Watkins Art Gallery
ARTSEE
Ken Thompson, Moscha Thompson, Brittany Goodrich and Erick Watson at Blend Studio
Bill Schumm and Terrell Thornhill at 208 Gallery
Suzanne Pfeil and Peter Wells at Blend Studio
Joe Nolan, Antonia Oaks and Ryan Hogan at Zeitgeist
Devlon Holton and Crystal Chen at Zeitgeist
Shepley Jennings, Shannon Smith, and Ansley Hampton at David Lusk Gallery
Molly Rose Fox, Rose Fox and Mic Fox at Julia Martin Gallery
Lexie Roland, Carrie Null, Hannah Taylor and Grace Claypool at Open Gallery
Russom Desta, Karmen Brooks and Efou Aghimien at The Rymer Gallery
ARTSEE
Ryan A. Carter, Travis O’Neil, and A.J. Melbert at Tinney Contemporary
Stephen Watkins at Tinney Contemporary
Manny Cuevas and David Martinez at O’More College of Design
ARTSEE
Sterling Atkins, Micole Azuogh, Patrica Timi, Uchenna Nwosu and Abubakarr B. at The Arts Company
Christian and Jon Buko at The Rymer Gallery
Photograph by John Jackson
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL NOTT
ARTSEE
John Hussy and Deitre Chischke at Zeitgeist
Cloe Namias, I-Queen Smart and Emma Uraih at The Rymer Gallery
Kenny Wheeler and Taryn Peck at The Arts Company
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POCKETLINT BY LIZ CLAYTON SCOFIELD
Liz Clayton Scofield is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, thinker, all-around adventurer, and nomad. They hold an MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. See their art at www.lizclaytonscofield.com.
Meditation on Art as Love and Care for Self and Others people and places of home/love (Love Hill, August 2017)
Because I love you,
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I no longer fret to find meaning, create meaning, desperate always to generate meaning to make life meaningful. There simply is meaning: in looking in your eyes, in breathing you, in the conversations that unfold, in touch. I need less assurance that my life matters. I matter and I do not matter because I love you.
meaning of life or that I will stop creating because I have become complicit through my love for you. Rather I want to create more, so that I can communicate to you how much I love and that my love for you inspires love deeper for the world, for all beings, joy, for the sun and moon and stars. This love inspires me to do and be and make and love entirely and continue becoming, because to love you is to grow with you and always keep growing with you and for myself. It is the promise of our love.
This does not mean you are the reason for living or the only
Because I love you, though, I no longer feel the necessity to
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longing to belong (under Betsy’s broco tree, August 2017)
sunrise (Wilmington, August 14, 2017)
attempt to validate my existence, to prove myself as an artist day in and day out. Loving you and becoming together is enough art to convince myself. All else sprouts from this fertile bed.
different, uninhibited, misunderstood.
I’ve got my hand deep in my pocket looking for words. Got a ball of fuzz and a bunch of peppermints from this time last year, when my heart was breaking and I was falling in love with something, trying to find a sense of home. I was in Atlanta then, on the cusp of jumping ship. A year later, I’m still working on that sense of home, wondering what that is after all: some vague idea that I still so desire; a mythology. Two years ago, I was in Bloomington curled up on the concrete floor of my studio, crying desperately, stuck in the frustration of overwhelming anxiety preventing me from the one thing that I most wanted: to Do. A concrete floor is one of my favorite places to cry. The cold on your skin reminds you of physical feeling, connection—a grounding sensation. Overcome by my desire to Do, lost in my inability to Do, I lay there, cold and crying. I felt disconnected from my practice as an artist. I felt disconnected from community. Today I feel a little caught up and lost in my wandering. On a cold, dreary day, after the groundhog has declared six more weeks of winter, I feel a little lonely, a little homesick. I miss sitting in quiet with a friend who’s known me through lifetimes; I miss a city that I’ve known long enough to complain about how it’s changed: Home? Artistic practice can be lonely and isolating. As artists, we build communities and thrive in collaboration and conversation as ways to connect and create, to remember to wander outside of ourselves, to find grounding and communion with others. Loneliness, after all, is not being alone but rather feeling disconnected, alienated, different from those around you. Stereotypes of artists abound: the tortured, the starving, the eccentric, the wild. Marked,
Wandering can be lonely, too. Wandering/artistic practices require care and love to sustain. When we practice compassion as artists, we remember that others, too, are seeking the connection, community, love, care, and support that we too are seeking. We are reminded to give the care to others that we ourselves desire. When we show up as ourselves, for ourselves, and open to others, we can forge the communities we need to survive as artists. Today I am reminding myself to show up for myself: I am putting on my shoes and a water-resistant coat, and I’m going out into the world. I’m rubbing up against the energy of others and writing, because I am here to wander on another day. I am practicing the love and care for myself so I remember how to practice it for others. I’m remembering the sensation of crying on a cold studio concrete floor two years ago, overwhelmed, facing the impossibility of making a single mark, facing the crippling sensation of Not-Mattering/ Meaninglessness. I’m giving myself some space to miss the familiarity of a city, of worn-in friendships, of comfort. I’m taking a breath. Exhale—I’m honoring myself for the tools I’ve developed in these past two years (and the lifetimes before)— – inhale—for facing the anxiety of a blank page and writing about this wandering tale and the skills picked up along the way— – exhale—and continuing to share them with you— – inhale—in an effort to participate in this conversation of wandering, love, compassion, and support— – exhale—to nurture the art that sprouts when we show up and care for one another. na
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BY ALYSHA IRISARI MALO
POET’SCORNER
Alysha Irisari Malo is an interdisciplinary visual artist, poet, and curator. In addition, she and her husband, Eric Malo, are the Co-Founders of CONVERGE, a community of creatives who collaborate on interdisciplinary projects that have a positive social impact. Learn more at alyshairisarimalo.com and Facebook.com/ConvergeNashville.
I - 40 W Twin deer locked in an embrace. Legs extended, ankles positioned to fit together like puzzle pieces, tied together with twine. Fur ruffling in the wind, at sixty miles an hour. Mirror eyes don’t make contact with one another. Were you strangers or sisters at the end? Underneath the bodies, a low, red wagon covered in a thin sheet of dust putts along, camped in the fast lane. As I pass I glance into the front seats and spy a cigarette barely held between two lazy fingers, smoldering end peeking out of the cracked window. Pharmacy store glasses and stained wrinkles on one, trucker hat worn high on the crown of the other, mouths puckered by distaste and time on both. The destined consumers.
Background photograph by Alysha Irisari Malo
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE WICKED
MARCH 28 – APRIL 22 TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER GREEN MEANS GO 615-782-4040 • TPAC.org
Courtesy of Queen Productions Ltd.
Arts Worth Watching Freddie Mercury and Brian May in Queen: Rock the World
ROCK ON
Beatles or Stones? No need to choose. Concert for George, a 2002 memorial concert celebrating George Harrison, airs Friday, March 16, at 7 p.m. The show includes Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Billy Preston, and others. What’s new is old again. Remember the “original” version of Oasis’s “Wonderwall”? If you like throwback interpretations of pop songs, don’t miss Postmodern Jukebox – The New
Classics, Monday, March 19, at 8 p.m. The group’s old-school interpretations (swing, sixties pop, mid-century pop) of songs by Beyoncé, Radiohead, and others first became popular through viral YouTube videos.
BY THE BOOK A new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 150-year-old story of the four spirited March Sisters premieres on public television this May. Get a sneak peek with Little Women: A Timeless Story, airing Sunday, March 4, at 7 p.m. and airing several more times this month on NPT and NPT2, including Friday, March 9, at 11 p.m. Call the Midwife, the popular series based on the memoirs of 1950s midwife Jennifer Worth, returns for a seventh season beginning Sunday, March 25, with back-to-back episodes at 7 and 8 p.m. A West Indian midwife joins the team this series as the show explores the Caribbean immigrant experience in 1960s England. To make a donation to NPT, please go to wnpt.org and click the donate button or phone during our March Membership Campaign. Encore presentations of many of our shows are broadcast on NPT2; enjoy 24/7 children’s programming on NPT3 PBS Kids.
Courtesy of © Kevin Mazur
What’s old is new again. A rock band carrying on after the loss of a legendary drummer or guitarist is rough enough; losing a charismatic front man might seem an insurmountable challenge. But Queen has managed to keep going despite the 1991 death of Freddie Mercury, and the band’s collaboration with Adam Lambert has been well received. Still, to see what the early fuss was about, rock out with Queen Rock the World, a concert film from the band’s 1977 News of the World tour. The show premieres Tuesday, March 6, at 8:30 p.m. and airs a few more times on NPT and NPT2, including Sunday, March 11, at 10:30 p.m.
Performing classic albums live in their entirety is not just for tribute bands; it’s also a trend embraced by the original bands—U2 and the Joshua Tree, for example. The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers at the Fonda Theatre was recorded in May 2015 as the group opened their Zip Code tour (which later came to Nashville). The group performed their iconic 1971 LP in the historic Los Angeles venue, thrilling audiences with songs like “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?” with its virtuosic guitar break. The concert premieres on Thursday, March 15, at 7:30 p.m.—that’s just a couple of weeks before Exhibitionism, the Stones exhibition, opens at Nashville’s Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.
Courtesy of MASTERPIECE on PBS, BBC and Playground
March blows in with our annual spring Membership Campaign and a huge selection of special programs, including many music shows and performance ticket offers with your generous donation to NPT. This March also marks the 50th anniversary of Fred Rogers’s beloved children’s show. Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like, a tribute hosted by Michael Keaton, premieres Tuesday, March 6, at 7 p.m. The program features Whoopi Goldberg, Yo-Yo Ma, Judd Apatow, Esperanza Spalding, Chris Kratt, John Lithgow, and Sarah Silverman.
Mick Jagger performs in The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers at the Fonda Theatre
The March Sisters of Little Women on Masterpiece
March 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
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Saturday
am Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Dinosaur Train Bob the Builder Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Pinkalicious & Peterrific Splash and Bubbles Curious George Nature Cat Sewing with Nancy Sew It All Garden Smart Martha Bakes Nick Stellino: Storyteller in the Kitchen Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television noon America’s Test Kitchen pm Cook’s Country Kitchen Pati’s Mexican Table Lidia’s Kitchen Simply Ming Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Woodsmith Shop American Woodshop This Old House Ask This Old House A Craftsman’s Legacy PBS NewsHour Weekend Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville
This Month on Nashville Public Television
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 Samantha Brown’s Places to Love Dream of Italy Travel Detective with Peter Greenberg Globe Trekker Changing Seas Two for the Road America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend British Antiques Roadshow
Call the Midwife Season 7 brings a new midwife into Nonnatus House.
Begins Sunday, March 25, 7 pm
* Some programs may be preempted.
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
Independent Lens: Delores A 50th-anniversary celebration.
A profile of activist Delores Huerta.
Premieres Tuesday, March 6, 7 pm
Tuesday, March 27, 8 pm
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Spokane, Hour 1. 8:30 Everly Brothers – Harmonies from Heaven The story of Phil and Don told through interviews and performance clips. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Rhythm, Love & Soul
7:00 Best of Trains Around 7:00 Patsy Cline: North America American Masters 10:00 BBC World News Rosanne Cash 10:30 Last of Summer Wine narrates this profile of the country singer. 8:30 Celtic Woman – Homecoming: Ireland 10:30 Queen Rock the World
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7:00 Little Women: A Timeless Story A preview of the new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel coming this May. 8:00 Carol Burnett’s Favorite Sketches 9:30 Hamilton’s America 11:30 Rick Steves’ Europe: Remote, Sacred, Wild
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7:00 Jimmy Buffett: Buried Treasure A retrospective for Parrot Heads. 8:00 Celtic Thunder X A new show celebrating 10 years of Celtic Thunder with 27 songs. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Celtic Woman – Homecoming: Ireland
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7:00 Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like Michael Keaton hosts this 50th-anniversary program featuring special guests. 8:30 Queen Rock the World The band’s 1977 News of the World tour captured in a neverbefore-seen film. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 AfroPop Fatal Assistance. Raoul Peck’s film about Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Hamilton’s America 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Victoria on Masterpiece Comfort and Joy. Season 2 finale. Albert tries to re-create the Christmases of his youth.
Thursday
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7:00 Music City Roots Live Ashley Campbell; Bonnie Bishop; Billy Strings. 8:00 Frontline Weinstein. The elaborate ways Harvey Weinstein and those around him tried to silence his accusers. 9:00 Makers Women in Hollywood. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center Sheryl Crow.
Friday
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. 7:00 Nature Naledi: One Little Elephant. 8:30 The Highwaymen Live at Nassau Coliseum Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson in concert. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Patsy Cline: American Masters
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers at the Fonda Theatre A “secret” show recorded in May 2015 in L.A.’s historic theater. 9:30 Rick Steves’ Europe: Remote, Sacred, Wild 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Antiques Roadshow Spokane, Hour 1.
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7:00 Concert for George A 2002 memorial concert recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall. 9:30 Rick Steves’ Tasty Europe 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Jimmy Buffett: Buried Treasure
7:00 NPT Favorites 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:00 Survival Guide for 8:30 Joe Bonamassa 7:30 Doo Wop Generations Pain-Free Living with Live at Carnegie Hall A My Music special Peggy Cappy – An Acoustic featuring The 8:00 The British Beat Evening Drifters and other Petula Clark hosts this Recorded in January legends of the genre. My Music visit to 2016. 10:00 BBC World News London and 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine other UK places that 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Queen Rock the World launched the British 11:00 The Bee Gees One Invasion. for All Tour – Live 10:00 BBC World News in Australia 1989 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Brothers Gibb 11:00 Little Women: A perform in Melbourne. Timeless Story
Wednesday, March 14, 7 pm
Wednesday
Wednesday, March 7, 8:30 pm
Tuesday
Nature: Naledi, One Little Elephant
Monday
Joe Bonamassa Live at Carnegie Hall – An Acoustic Evening
Sunday
Nashville Public Television’s Primetime Evening Schedule
March 2018 3
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6:30 This Land Is Your Land A My Music special celebrating folk music. 8:00 Everly Brothers – Harmonies from Heaven 9:30 The Forever Wisdom of Dr. Wayne Dyer An inspirational memorial tribute to the iconic thinker. 11:30 Rick Steves’ Delicious Europe
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6:30 Johnny Mathis – Wonderful Wonderful 8:30 Memory Rescue with Daniel Amen, M.D. 10:30 Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like
6:30 Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville Special A behind-the-scenes look at the show. 8:00 Rhythm, Love & Soul A My Music special highlighting Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, Gloria Gaynor and others. 10:00 Forever Painless with Miranda Esmonde-White A new special from the Aging Backwards host. 11:30 Rick Steves’ Tasty Europe
Saturday
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for NPT, NPT2, and NPT3 PBS Kids.
Visit wnpt.org for complete 24-hour schedules
Tuesday, March 13, 8 pm
Wednesday, March 28, 9 pm
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Saturday, March 24 & 31, 8:30 pm
Still Open All Hours
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:00 NPT Favorites 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 10:00 BBC World News 8:00 NPT Favorites 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
7:00 Nature 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:00 Music City Roots Live Leave It to Beavers. 7:30 Volunteer Gardener My Bubba; The Coal 8:00 NOVA 8:00 Janis Joplin: Men; Mountain Heart. The Great Math American Masters 8:00 Loretta Lynn: Mystery. 10:00 BBC World News American Masters 9:00 WWII Mega Weapons 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 10:00 BBC World News Battleship Yamato. 11:00 Women Outward 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Japan builds the Bound 11:00 Front and Center biggest battleship In 1965, the first group Seal. in the world in an of young women took effort to dominate the part in an Outward Pacific. Bound survival course. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Iggy Pop.
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7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
Celtic Thunder X
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7:00 Makers Women in Business 8:00 Independent Lens Dolores. Dolores Huerta tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Cesar Chavez. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:02 Vel Phillips: Dream Big Dreams
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WWII Mega Weapons: Battleship Yamato
7:00 Call the Midwife Season 7 premiere. Lucille, a new Nonnatus midwife, is called from her sick bed to deal with a breech birth. 8:00 Call the Midwife West Indian midwife Lucille faces racism and prejudice. 9:00 NPT Favorites 11:00 Independent Lens Rat Film.
7:00 Antiques Roadshow St. Louis, Hour 3. 8:00 Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death An astrophysicist, preacher, philosopher and artisanal mortician grapple with universal questions of mortality. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:02 Mankiller Wilma Mankiller, the first woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow 7:00 NPT Favorites Spokane, Hour 3. 10:00 BBC World News 8:00 Postmodern Jukebox 10:30 Last of Summer Wine – The New Classics The music group transforms pop music into historical styles. 9:30 Rick Steves’ Delicious Europe 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
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7:00 The Bee Gees One for All Tour – Live in Australia 1989 9:00 NPT Favorites
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Easter. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Still Open All Hours 9:00 Prime Suspect: Tennison on Masterpiece 10:30 The Songwriters Ray Stevens. 11:00 Globe Trekker Top 10 South American Adventures.
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show 200 Years of American Music, Part 2. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Still Open All Hours David Jason leads this special revisiting the popular Britcom, Open All Hours. 9:00 Prime Suspect: Tennison on Masterpiece The Prime Suspect prequel. 10:30 The Songwriters Gretchen Peters. 11:00 Globe Trekker Nigeria.
&Grooves
WORDS Amanda Dobra Hope
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id you know that 170,000 kids in Tennessee are home alone after school lets out for the day? Emerald Mitchell, founder of the after-school non-profit Moves & Grooves, worried about what would become of them without proper guidance, care, and support. Having grown up in an underserved community herself, Mitchell was fortunate enough to be mentored by an organization in her hometown that continues to serve as a support system for her to this day. What began from Mitchell’s love of dance became a one-stop shop for students’ “home away from home” after school. In addition to dance classes, Moves & Grooves provides healthy snacks, physical exercise, a dance performance team, homework and literacy support, and even team education and college and career readiness. “We aim to revolutionize the after-school program for young people,” Mitchell explains. Moves & Grooves previously had their own dance studio and arts space in the Global Mall in Antioch and dedicated spaces in many schools. However, with changing economics and school overcrowding, the organization no longer had a home base, which forced them to disconnect from many of the students they were serving. Though Moves & Grooves still
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ART SPLASH
operates in the remaining schools, Mitchell wants to provide the same stability and support for these kids as she received growing up, which is why her number-one goal right now is finding a new home base. Though Moves & Grooves has always relied heavily on federal grants, Mitchell realized that her program could again be disrupted if that well were to run dry. Enter ART SPLASH, the group’s yearly fundraiser, designed to reach out to the community on a grass-roots level, providing an opportunity for local donors to support their community’s youth. This year’s ART SPLASH theme, Emerald City, along with the slogan “There’s no place like home,” speaks to their numberone need at this time: a home of their own. ART SPLASH will feature live entertainment, dance performances by Moves & Grooves students (their performance team previously brought home national titles), live painting by local artists, food, a photo booth, a silent auction, and much more. You can also help by purchasing a yellow brick, which will be part of the foundation for the organization’s new building. na ART SPLASH will be held at the Noah Liff Opera Center at 3622 Redmon Street in Nashville on Thursday, March 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.movesandgrooves.org.
Courtesy Trevecca Nazarene University
Courtesy Trevecca Nazarene University
Moves
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ARTS&BUSINESSCOUNCIL
BY JILL MCMILLAN
Advocate
for the Arts This March and All Year Long For over 30 years Americans for the Arts, in partnership with over 85 other organizations, has hosted Arts Advocacy Day in March. Arts Advocacy Day is the largest assembly of its kind, bringing together a broad cross section of cultural and civic organizations in related gatherings across the country to raise their voices on the benefits of the arts in our communities. This past year has brought challenges to funding for the NEA and other cultural agencies, arts education policy, charitable tax deductions, and more. Advocacy is more important than ever, especially as we continue to understand the significant return on investing in creativity. Art can and must play a critical role in the everyday life of every person, in our schools with a well-rounded STEAM education, and in our communities. There is an urgent need to advocate for meaningful change in attitudes and recognition that the arts are not only nice but necessary to the wealth and well-being of our society. This March, join the Arts & Business Council in advocating for the arts to ensure a vibrant future for Nashville. Want to take action but not sure where to begin? • • • • • •
Join Tennesseans for the Arts for Arts Advocacy Day at the Nashville Public Library on March 7 Speak to your local community groups about how the arts change lives Join an arts advocacy group like Nashville Arts Coalition, Tennesseans for the Arts, or Americans for the Arts Show your support by buying a specialty arts license plate Know your legislators and write them about issues affecting the arts Invite people to participate in local arts events with you
Photograph by Ethan Palm
Most of the time advocacy is about simple communication with those you come into contact with. Telling others about the arts or the specific work you or your organizations do is one of the strongest ways you can be an advocate every day. Check out the advocacy section on the Arts & Business Council’s website to get data about the impact of the arts as well as more ideas about how to make your voice heard this March and beyond.
Jill McMillan is the Executive Director of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville, where she is thrilled to serve the cultural sector at the intersection of arts and business. You can reach her at jmcmillan@abcnashville.org.
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Join us for these great workshops! SHADOW MAY • Master Series Workshop Saturday, March 3 JEFF BROCKETT • Intro to Woodturning Saturday March 10 MARK SCHLICHER • Figurative Sculpture 3 Day Workshop March 22-25 1416 Lebanon Pike, Nashville, TN, 37210 • 615.242.0346 Hours: M-F 8am-4:30pm, Sat 10am-2pm
Farewell to the Elvis Chair ... Last week, three men in a large, white van from the Jean and Alexander Heard Library [Vanderbilt] came to my house and hauled away just about everything I once deemed important— letters, postcards, journals, early recordings, manuscripts, press, music videos, VHS tapes of TV appearances, demo cassettes, legal pads filled with lyrics and song ideas, show posters ... you name it. I even parted with my most treasured possession—an autographed picture of Robert Mitchum on which he inscribed “To Marshall—With enthusiastic appreciation of your talents— and your kindness—Robert Mitchum.”
Williamson County Culture
BEYONDWORDS
Photograph by Anthony Scarlati
ry Eve st fir ! ay Frid
BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN
At first, I only wanted to let Vanderbilt have things that would make me look good in posterity. But then I thought, Hell, the weird stuff’s the most interesting! So into the van went everything. Including a 1979 issue of Penthouse in which Penthouse Pet of the Month, Dusty Jackson, proclaims that Marshall Chapman and Dolly Parton are her two favorite artists. Then proceeds to explain why (not printable here). Needless to say, when I went home to Spartanburg that Christmas, I remember being besieged at a cocktail party by men—many of them friends of my parents—wanting to know (1) if I knew Dusty Jackson personally, and (2) if I did, would I introduce them to her. And please be assured that there is nothing quite as surreal as seeing one’s name in print adjacent to close-ups of certain parts of the female anatomy rarely exposed to daylight. Once I started going through everything, letting go became easier and easier. Stuff I never thought I could part with, like the chair that Elvis Presley once sat in at the Piedmont Steak House in Spartanburg. My mother got that chair for me at an auction in the spring of 1997 after the venerable restaurant had closed its doors for good. For over twenty years, The Chair occupied a sacred place in my dining room. Guests would arm wrestle over who got to sit in it. My one regret is that I didn’t keep a register of who actually did sit in it—both the famous and the infamous. But for the record, James McCullough of Vanderbilt Acquisitions was the last person to sit in the Elvis Chair before it left my house for good. And somehow, that seems fitting. Marshall Chapman is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter, author, and actress. For more information, visit www.tallgirl.com.
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MYFAVORITEPAINTING DONNA GLASSFORD, ARTIST AND ART CONSULTANT
ARTIST BIO: DeLoss McGraw DeLoss McGraw’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. His pieces have received critical acclaim in over 80 solo exhibitions and are collected by such eminent institutions as Oxford, Syracuse, Temple, and Cornell Universities, as well as by the Whitney Museum of American Art Library Collection, the Library of Congress, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His illustrated version of Alice in Wonderland won the Society of Illustrators’ Book of the Year Award for 2002. In Nashville, McGraw’s paintings are in the Vanderbilt University and Medical Center’s art collection, the Nashville Public Library Main Branch, and local private collections.
DeLoss McGraw, Alice, Gauche, 11” x 10”
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or me, it is just impossible to identify my “favorite painting.” My collected artworks are like beautiful children, and we all know a parent is not supposed to play favorites. So I selected DeLoss McGraw’s Alice as one of my favorites because it is first thing I see when I wake up in the morning. I placed this painting at the foot of my bed because of the screaming vibrant, dominant yellow, which makes Alice my first wake-up call and because it reminds me of my mother, coincidently named Alice, who lyrically lulled me out of bed throughout childhood.
Ultimately, I think DeLoss McGraw is one of the finest colorist painters today. His use of color almost exclusively rendered in gauche is absolutely stunning and subtly methodical. Mystified after looking at McGraw’s artwork, I often revisit Josef Alber’s book Interaction of Color. Aha! na
“When you really understand that each color is changed by a changed environment, you eventually find that you have learned about life as well as about color.”—Josef Albers Donna Glassford
Photograph by Sheri Oneal
This painting was one of many commissioned in 2001 by Harper Collins Publishers to illustrate a new version of Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The painting illustrates the unfortunate situation Alice found herself in after drinking from a little bottle labeled “DRINK ME.”
H AY N E S GALLERIES PRESENTS
POINTS OF VIEW
A N E X T R A O R D I N A RY C O L L E C T I O N O F L A N D S C A P E S & S E A S C A P E S B Y S O M E O F TO D AY ’ S M O S T A C C L A I M E D PA I N T E R S NOW THROUGH APRIL 14, 2018
H AY N E S G A L L E R I E S . C O M