a
August 2012
Lanie Gannon Rusty Wolfe Red Grooms Brenda Stein Photography Contest
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BUTLER STELTEMEIER
All About Balance, My Dear • 16x20
LEIPER's CREEK GALLERY in Historic Leiper's Fork www.leiperscreekgallery.com
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spotlight
9th Annual
Tomato Art Fest by Alyssa Rabun
W
hether you are team veggie or team fruit, don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate all things “mater” at the 9th Annual Tomato Art Fest on August 11.
Founded by Meg and Bret MacFadyen, owners of East Nashville’s Art & Invention Gallery, this festive day unites a crowd of art lovers, tomato lovers, and summer lovers. In the heart of East Nashville’s Five Points region, the festival boasts the best in local tomato art, live music, food vendors, and activities ranging from bobbing for tomatoes to sipping Bloody Marys. The MacFadyens promote the festival saying, “The tomato is a uniter, not a divider, bringing together all fruits and vegetables.” This year, visual artist Andee Rudloff showed just how uniting the tomato can be. Rudloff recruited Nashville community members to help paint her tomato-inspired mural. During this year’s festival, this masterpiece of community art is one of the many pieces that will have you considering the true implications of to-MA-to versus to-MAH-to.
photo: aerial innovations
Browse tasty and tasteful tomato-inspired pieces at the Bryant Gallery and Art & Invention Gallery. Enjoy rows of arts and crafts for sale, including handmade ceramics, blown-glass pieces, and unique jewelry. Satisfy your hunger with foodie favorites like 5 Points Pizza and Jeni’s Ice Cream. Embrace your inner frat guy at the Art Fest Cornhole Tournament. Or if you’re a ginger this is the one day out of the year when you can proudly show off your tomato-red locks at the festival’s Red Head Competition. On August 10, the Eve of the Fest, the Art & Invention Gallery is hosting the Tomato Art Preview Party where you can be among the first to sample the sights and flavors of the upcoming festival. Reservations are required, and the event costs $25. The Tomato Art Fest begins at 10 a.m. on August 11 in the Five Points Intersection of East Nashville. This event is free to the public. Sarah Ogburn, Miz Meg's I'm a Keepin' This
Elizabeth Foster, Tomato Alley
photo: stacey irvin
photo: aerial innovations
tomatoartfest.com
Andee Rudloff and volunteers paint a mural at 5 points
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spotlight
Bryce McCloud
Makes Room for Art L
ocal artist Bryce McCloud gave back to his community in a powerful way this summer. Through the Thomas P. Seigenthaler Fund for Creativity and Room
In The Inn, McCloud led a series of ten workshops with our local homeless population. McCloud, who is the artist and owner of Isle of Printing, was happy to lend a helping hand in his neighborhood. The artist says he “jumped at the chance” to lead the classes.
McCloud enjoys the calming power that art and its creation bring to his life. As a teacher at Room In The Inn, he has seen that effect at work in his sessions. “When I was younger and my mind was troubled, art had the same effect on me. I could do this anywhere, and the same feeling would be there. It’s the therapeutic quality of art. It’s just the act of making.” McCloud has enjoyed getting to know his students through their art. “Before they are homeless, they are people. Homelessness is just a condition. It doesn’t define who they are.” Through a series of self-portrait exercises, McCloud has encouraged students to explore their identities and make statements to their community about themselves. “I think the great thing about this class is that it has given them a new way to talk to each other.”
photo: jerry atnip
isleofprinting.com, roomintheinn.org
photo: jerry atnip
“Making art, you always hope to have an impact on people, and a lot of times that’s an intangible sort of thing. Here, we’re all together. You see it immediately.” McCloud was impressed with the personal impact that the program achieved. “It’s the idea that art can bring people together in a really personal way. That’s how I’ve seen this project. It’s a chance for all of us to get outside of our own activities. We have had a lot of interesting, small moments.”
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spotlight
Celebrating Tennessee Crafts
The Tennessee State Museum will open two new shows on August 24. On My Honor: 100 Years of Girl Scouting, organized by the museum and Middle Tennessee’s Girl Scout Chapter, celebrates the centennial of the Girl Scout organization in Tennessee. The Best of Tennessee Craft: 2012 TACA Biennial Exhibition offers a juried show of works from the Tennessee Association of Craft artists. On Saturday, August 25, the museum will host a family day, Celebrating Tennessee Crafts, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. This free afternoon will offer weaving demonstrations from TACA artists and kids activities by local Girl Scouts.
Anne Rob, Scuttlefish Bracelet 2
tnmuseum.org
Rebecca Ruegger
Two at Gallery One Mark your calendars for August 25 when artists Rebecca Ruegger and Steven Seinberg open new exhibitions at Gallery One in Belle Meade. Ruegger, a Williamson County artist, displays a new collection of sculptures in mixed media. In her first show at the gallery since 2009, Ruegger brings her illustrative sense of the world to three dimensions. The artist’s whimsical yet sober sculptures capture the linear quality, attenuated Steven Seinberg limbs, and narrative elements that defined her work as a successful illustrator. Her anthropomorphized animals incorporate beautiful geometry and expressive qualities into a fascinating and unusual series of works. Seinberg, an abstract painter who hails from North Carolina, makes his Nashville debut at the show. Seinberg’s large-scale, abstract paintings incorporate script, gestural flourishes, and myriad colors in works that seem monochromatic when viewed from a distance. Both soft and dramatic, Seinberg’s paintings pair well with the emotional depth and attention to detail in Ruegger’s art. Galleryone.biz 14 | August 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
photo: Hunter Armistead
artist profile
Red Grooms In a New York Frame of Mind by Nancy Cason
R
ed Grooms is as animated and accessible as his art. Over the crackle of the speakerphone, he greeted me with the warmth and enthusiasm of a longtime friend. Although we’ve never met, his voice, softened with a trace of familiar Southern drawl, made it easy to imagine the boyish, redheaded artist who left Nashville in 1957 to take on New York—and, in doing so, put his distinctive stamp on American art. The images spread out around me—highlights of his vast artistic output in paintings, prints, films, sculpture, and mixed-media installations—attest to fifty-plus years of groundbreaking innovation. At age 75, Red Grooms has just installed his largest work ever and shows no sign of slowing down.
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Red Grooms Opens Up About Art, Love, and Life in the Big Apple Q. I understand you celebrated a big birthday in June. Was that an occasion for looking back?
A. I’m glad to have reached this age, and actually I feel young—until I get on the subway and people jump to their feet to give me a seat! I was telling my wife that I was looking forward to speaking with you, but then all of a sudden I realized there’s a responsibility, because you’re supposed to know something when you get to this age. Q. Well, you’ve been described as one of the most imaginative and prolific artists working today. Can you explain that driving force behind your work?
A. I guess it’s partly the life around me, really. I get my inspiration from others, from things that excite me and have ever since I was quite young. I enjoyed very much movies and all kinds of theatrical events, such as circuses and carnivals and Ice Capades. Those kinds of shows showed me a different world, a world to aspire to.
Forced Entry, 2010, Oil on canvas, 14" x 14"
Q. And New York provided just the stage?
A. Yes, absolutely. A good half or more of my work has been about New York City. I live in Lower Manhattan, in Chinatown really, and can just go outside when I need inspiration. Everybody feels like a star here, and they are in a certain way, because everybody makes up the dynamic of the whole city. And since the city is famous—one of the great cities in the world—that makes for a lively group here. Right now, the new 1 World Trade Center is going up right under my nose. I can see it from my easy chair. Two weeks ago it reached the height of something like twenty-one feet higher than the Empire State Building. It’s just staggering to watch the work that the construction workers do. Q. You also witnessed the devastation of September 11 first hand. How has that tragedy changed your life?
A. I mark time by [events that happened] before 9/11 and after 9/11. That’s basically how I keep track of the time I’ve lived here. [Silence.] Humans have an amazing ability to either forget or abstract something like that, but I end up getting quite emotional when I start talking about it. I remember at the time it happened, I was aware that I didn’t think I would see such a tremendous event during my life. I didn’t expect to ever see anything like that. Q. You’ve been at the center of the New York art scene for many years. What’s going on now that you find exciting?
A. There are different trends of course. But one trend is work by young artists that is kind of funky, but it’s well-made funk . . . very skilled and very well put together. That’s something that interests me because my work has always been funky—probably more funky than the funky work that’s being done now. But the funky work that’s being done now is enjoyable because it is so well crafted.
Count Tribecula, 2011, Tempera and acrylic on board, 60" x 40"
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I don’t know how many galleries there are in New York . . . but when you get out and walk around, you’ll see wonderful things that will blow you away. Chelsea is still at the center of things, but there is a new art scene down on the Lower East Side, near East Broadway. There are a lot of the galleries down there showing young artists primarily.
Q. I read a New York Times article in which Thomas Hoving commented: “Red Grooms so perfectly captures New York City in his art that at times we may forget it is art we are experiencing and not the city itself.” Has your work contributed to the perception people have about New York?
A. There have been times that people have said that. But when I did work that convinced people I knew something about New York, I didn’t actually know the reaction it would have. One piece in particular, The Subway [part of his much-loved sculpto-pictorama Ruckus Manhattan, 1975], had these rather wompy, grotesque kinds of people that represented the subway riders. They actually kind of shocked people, the way I did them, and it surprised me that they got this strong reaction.
Spy Cab, 2011, Acrylic on paper, 20" x 23 1/2"
Joseph's Bridge, 2004, Enamel on wood
Q. Speaking of strong reactions, your largest work ever—the home run celebration sculpture for the Florida Marlins’ new stadium—just debuted and has kicked up quite a ruckus in the sports world. [With each Marlins home run, the spectacular 75-foot-high, art deco-inspired sculpture in bright tropical colors comes to life, with jumping marlins, wing-flapping flamingos, soaring gulls, rolling ocean waves, flashing lights, and geysers of water.] Have you seen it in action?
A. Yes, I have. It was a close game [referring to a recent televised game between the Marlins and the Mets], and right up at the very last out, Stanton, a big hitter for the Marlins, hit a home run. The ball almost hit my piece, and the [Mets] announcer finally let out his pent-up frustration. He described my work as “that ridiculous mechanical sculpture.” But I realized . . . it’s supposed to provoke the other team. It’s only the Marlins who get the celebration. Q. You collaborated on the design of the Marlins piece with your wife, Lysiane. Can you tell us more about that?
Mr. Bones, 2011, Tempera and acrylic on board, 60" x 40"
A. It was a mom-and-pop operation entirely. Lysiane is a trained architect, and she really helped with the proportions of the piece and the internal design factors. We basically built it and conceived it through models. You know, one of the announcers at the Marlins’ ballpark called me a conceptual artist, and I thought, how did they come up with that? NashvilleArts.com
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That’s not me at all. And then I realized that this work is completely conceptual in the sense that it was totally done by models. We also worked with an engineering team, and the mechanics and everything are great. I couldn’t possibly have done this without a big team to help. But I’m actually responsible for how it looks, you know. That’s one reason why the artist has to take all the credit— because it may go wrong. [Chuckle] You don’t want anybody else to take the heat in case that happens. Q. You and Lysiane spend summers in Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountains. That must be quite a change of pace from living in the city.
A. Yes, but we really love it. We wanted to be in places that were very different but very special, each one. Both of them are kind of extreme—one with hardly any people and one with just millions of people. I really wanted to live in the country, to have a total country immersion. And you know what? I am at a complete disadvantage. You know, country people have this terrific knowledge of stuff I don’t know anything about. I can’t tell one
tree from another . . . I don’t know how to grow anything . . . or even how to drive a four-wheeler. It’s actually humorous, this disparity in life knowledge. Q. Is there any one artist who inspires you at this point in your career?
A. Well, you know, artists don’t actually retire, and that’s an inspiration. In fact, some artists have terrific late careers. I was just reading about Picasso. He lived to be almost 92, I believe. When he was in his late eighties, about the time neo-expressionism was becoming the hot thing, he really let it all hang out with his series of musketeer paintings. He definitely had the inspiration to pull off a good one when he got older. Red Grooms's work is currently on display at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art in the exhibit Permanent Residents: Artist's from Cheekwood's Collection until September 22. cheekwood.org/Art/Exhibitions.aspx Red Grooms is represented in Nashville by Cumberland Gallery and in New York by Marlborough Gallery. cumberlandgallery.com marlboroughgallery.com
Canal, Walker Split, 2003, Acrylic on wood
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photo: mark tucker
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ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Gibson Custom's Artist in Re s idence, James A . Willis : The NewYork City Special. An original, one of a kind work of art inspired by New York skylines and expressed in the legacy of Gibson guitar. To learn more about the Artist in Residence program and the most legendary brand to ever embrace and support fine art worldwide, visit us @ facebook.com / AIR.GibsonCustom . For more information about The New York City Special , email to: CustomArti st.Resident @ gib s on .com James A. Willis, the program 's inaugural artist, has been profiled in American Art Collector, Art & Antiques, and RefuelMagazine .com, among others and is currently the recipient of a studio space endowment from CHASHAMA, a nonprofit arts organization based in New York City .
artist profile
Rusty
Wolfe
A Progression of Circles
photo: lawrence boothby
by Deborah Walden
A
few years ago, Rusty Wolfe looked out the window during a flight. The landscape below him appeared infinite.
It stretched without boundaries in arching grids of color. It’s a vision any passenger with a window seat has observed. But for Rusty Wolfe, this bird’s-eye view translated into a series of map-like works of art. Gazing at one of Wolfe’s compositions, the viewer gets a glimpse into a world that is curiously different from everyday reality. Discs of color hover, float, and bounce in space. Channels of sparkling pigment flow rapidly across glossy surfaces. It’s as if the artist is giving us access to a view somehow above and beyond our own. Talking to Wolfe, it becomes obvious that is exactly what is happening. Wolfe, the son of a famous inventor, inherited his father’s genius, but a learning disability made school difficult. Science, literature, or math did not offer an easy or direct path for him. “I saw the world through a different set of eyes because I couldn’t learn the traditional way that people learn. I learned about the world
Inspiration II, 2008, Mixed media on panel, 48" x 48"
through my hands.” Wolfe, who claims he was raised to “work like a fool or be one,” poured his energy into a creative life. He adds, “A lot of my work has an originality that is a byproduct of dyslexia.” A natural problem solver, Wolfe has overcome difficulties in his personal life and his art to make lasting innovations. “I try to take the worst aspect of whatever I’m working with and make it into the best.” He flourished as a songwriter, with tunes recorded
“
It should come as no surprise that his forays into two-dimensional art have become a standard of craftsmanship and inventiveness.
”
by Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn. Wolfe moved on from music to design, where his innovative approach to space made him a rising star in the industry. As a young man, he built the sharks in the epic film Jaws. To understand Wolfe’s art, one must know his materials. Lacquer is both his medium and his muse. He says, “I went into lacquer because it’s a commercial medium that’s used very little. It’s a commercial coating with an acetone base.” To his knowledge, Wolfe is the only artist working with lacquer as a medium, and no one else in the world
Free Floating, 2008, Mixed media on panel, 24" x 48"
Medley, 2011, Mixed media on panel, 48" x 16"
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Blueberry Hill, 2008, Mixed media, 16" x 52"
applies it in his style. Because of its inherent thinness, lacquer is difficult to manage. Wolfe actually invented the tools and processes that he uses to manipulate it on his surfaces. He feels that invention is in his blood. His father created the first wind turbine, and Wolfe has built machines that create swirls of lacquer and designed new mechanisms that use gravity and centrifugal force to control his medium. It is his scientific understanding of lacquer that defines his work. The artist uses the viscosity of lacquer to produce landscapes of form that ebb and flow with vibrant color. He explains, “If you had a pool of honey and you poured it on a table and then you were to take the same amount of water, it would immediately run to the edge of the table.” Lacquer behaves in a similar way. Wolfe’s “induced” paintings are created by placing Plexiglas on a table. By adding lacquers that have been thinned with acetone to thicker areas of the medium, the artist replicates the effect of putting water and honey on a flat surface. The thinner lacquer flows to the edge of the table, cutting tributaries through
Colours, 2008, Mixed media on panel, 76" x 24"
Full Bouquet, 2006, Laquer on Plexiglass, 72" x 72"
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the thick areas of color. Wolfe tilts the table in different directions to control the flow. “Gravity is a funny thing,” Wolfe relates. The result is a vast, moving web of pure and bright hues. The works look almost like photographs because of their clarity and brilliance. Wolfe’s circular compositions, inspired by his midflight revelation, vibrate with pure colors and geometric harmony. “Many people will look at this series and say it reminds them of maps,” Wolfe claims. If so, these works look like road maps to the heavens. There is something cosmic, celestial about these creations. They evoke thoughts of physics, with a molecular quality that captures speed and gravity. Wolfe describes them as “a progression of circles.” In one he sees a “landscape with flowers coming up,” in another “the ripples in a pond.” These geometric works seem to reference the physical world in form and behavior. Wolfe says, “It’s movement.” He describes the gravity at play in one work: “The larger circles are staying near the bottom. It’s a crescendo, like boiling water.” In his cosmic, abstract circles and his rivulets of pigment, the artist, like his father, has harnessed motion and speed. His inventions in technique and design have no horizon. Wolfe moves from one big dream to the next. His latest venture will transform his sculptures, now small enough to sit in homes, into large-scale outdoor works. “I have a no-fear approach to life. I can’t catch up to my thoughts,” the artist smiles. For more information or to contact Rusty Wolfe, please visit rustywolfe.com.
Untitled (The Wildflower series), 2010, Mixed media on panel
Mirror, 2008, Mixed media on panel, 60" x 60"
“
There is something cosmic, celestial about these creations. They evoke thoughts of physics, with a molecular quality that captures speed and gravity.
”
Revelation, 2011, Steel, 28" x 22" x 3/4" NashvilleArts.com
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collection
Jeff Lynch
The Curious Collector by Sophie Collette | photography by Jerry Atnip
A
rt has been an integral part of Jeff Lynch's life for as long as he can remember.
“The first thing to say about it is that I have been drawn to art since I was a small boy, as early as four or five years old. It was part of my DNA from the beginning,” he says. In college at Vanderbilt, Lynch was a contributing artist and art editor for a campus magazine. When he opted to pursue finance rather than studio art, he did not turn his back on creativity. Lynch explains, “All of those early years, I painted and drew. My love for art never left, but my opportunity to create was put on the back burner.” Beginning his collection as a young professional, Lynch above : Zac Freeman, Mike, Assemblage on board, 26.25” x 32”
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found a new outlet to express himself. “On a trip to New York in 1991, I bought my very first piece of art. I was so excited about it! All that did was stoke the fire. Collecting is one of the ways I express my passion, and one of the most fun parts about art is being able to share it.” Lynch describes his evolution as a collector with a historical analogy. “The very first group of artists that fascinated me were the impressionists, from an art history class in junior high. When the impressionists first started making art, it was perceived as garbage. Maybe that’s a representation of how it’s been for me. My tastes didn’t change. They just broadened and blossomed. I became fascinated with contemporary art.”
Anatoli Levitin, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, 45” x 42”
TR Colletta, Timeless, 60” x 72”
Ray Hare, Pear with a Pair, 48” x 72”
Alexander Khoduk, Consecrating of the Cross, 55 3/8” x 71.5”
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Evidence of Lynch’s blossoming taste for contemporary art permeates his home. Mike, a mixed-media work by artist Zac Freeman, hangs directly across from his front door, greeting entering visitors. From a distance, it seems like an intricate and realistic oil portrait. Up close, it reveals bottle caps, Legos, and bits of broken toys.
Lynch relates, “Mike fascinates me. That piece is transcendent. How do you take junk and turn it into something that absolutely grabs you? That’s where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. That’s the magic of art.” For Lynch, the mystery of an artist’s intention is part of the joy of experiencing a work. Speaking of Pear with a Pair by Ray Hare, he says, “This is a painting that looks perfect. Everything about it is perfect,
Kathleen Stephenson, Ceramic
and yet the artist took bruised pears and painted them exactly as they are. They are not beautiful, and yet the painting is almost aesthetically perfect.” Describing Ambition by Adam Normandin, Lynch ponders, “There is a guy in a workshop pulling a rope with all his might, but there is a huge part of the story that we don’t know. What is he trying to pull? It captures a vignette, a human struggle. How do you capture a concept without a narrative? This is beautifully rendered art, and I loved it for that, but you start pulling back the layers . . . ” This vision of art rhymes with Lynch’s take on human nature. “We are multilayered individuals,” he says. “Most of our lives are built around practical things, but I can’t imagine what my life would be without art. It gives me pleasure, gives me joy, gives me an escape. It’s not confined to a mechanical, dry, objective world. Those things don’t give you that additional layer—that indefinable ingredient that art does. In that regard, art is like food for the soul.”
Roberto Bernardi, Il Sognotore, 17” x 23”
Jeff Lynch
Adam Normendin, Ambition, 24” x 53”
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photo: Rick Malkin
theatre review
Into the Woods
at the Larry Keeton Theatre by Amanda Stravinsky
T
he Keeton Theatre transported their audience Into the Woods through Stephen Sondheim's adult take on the world of fairy tales.
A cast of familiar characters turns classic stories on their heads: Cinderella (Laura Crockarell), Jack and his beanstalk (Jonathan Perry), Rapunzel (Tonya Pewitt), Little Red (Stella London), and the Baker (Cee Anthony) and his wife (Janette Bruce) each wish for better lives at the opening of the play. The resulting changes in their lives use comedy and cleverness to embody the theme: Be careful what you wish for. Jim Manning's set included dark wooden alcoves filled with books. A touch of magic (or movement) was used to open them on their hinges, painted as rooms on the reverse. These rooms offered whimsical abodes for Cinderella, Jack, the Baker and his Wife. photo: Rick Malkin
The area’s musical talent was on display, as characters sang about their respective wishes. These longings led them into the woods where their lives intertwined. Janette Bruce, the Baker's Wife, shined in these forest scenes. Her voice filled the auditorium of the Larry Keeton Theatre as she boomed one song after another. Bruce’s rendition of "Moments In the Woods" right after her tryst with Cinderella's prince was heartfelt and believable. Comedic reliefs came from Cee Anthony, Darin Richardson and Flynt Foster. Cee Anthony's facial expressions during his lines displayed pure comedic genius. He livened up the stage when he entered and continued his energetic performance until his final exit. Costumes by Laura Higgins were simple but effective. No glitz or glamour was needed to produce an outstanding, visually appealing display. With the cast under the direction of Kate Adams, Into the Woods at the Larry Keeton Theatre entertained from beginning to end. The Circle Players will perform Elton John’s Tony Awardwinning pop musical AIDA August 10 to 25 at The Keeton Theatre. Visit thelarrykeetontheatre.org for more information.
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Critical i Chris Scarborough, The Modernist, at The Frist Center
by Joe Nolan
F
eaturing the drawings of Erin Anfinson, Kristi Hargrove, Mark Hosford, and Chris Scarborough, Metamorphoses is showing in the Frist Center's Conte Community Arts Gallery through October 28. The space often hosts projects
Matt Christy, Untitled, at Threesquared
created by specific, diverse Nashville communities, but a display of contemporary drawing makes for a pleasant change. The show is strong all around, but Scarborough's inclusion was a pleasant surprise, and Hargrove's work in the show continues her fascinating exploration of the relationship between sculpture and drawing. Scarborough's work often borrows elements from Japanese anime, and in The Modernist a deer is given the enlarged, glassy eyes found in Japanese cartoons. The deer's realistic rendering is also subverted by Scarborough's exploding of its back into a range of cascading cubist planes. With Peep Hole II, Hargrove draws the outline of a friendly dog but fills it in with unexpected textures that simultaneously evoke both fabric and flesh. In her Inchoate series, she creates threedimensional bubbles that push out from her surfaces by drawing with intense pressure on the back of the paper. Threesquared Gallery closed Matt Christy's Arguing Alone is Lonely at the end of July. The show featured paintings, drawings, and collages that explored the idea of “the masses.” Christy's work is process-based, and the best pieces achieved a compelling balance of improvisational energy and thoughtful discerning.
Matt Christy, Untitled, at Threesquared
fristcenter.org/calendar-exhibitions/detail/metamorphoses threesquaredgallery.com seedspace.org
photo: Dane Carder
Nicole Baumann's Fortune Holiday runs through August 24 at Seed Space. It features the artist's hand-embroidered paper flowers, ice cream cones, and wood axes in an installation that explores memory and nostalgia. Baumann's craftsmanship is undeniable, but I would have liked to see a bigger display, as the gallery threatens to swallow her tiny elements. Fortune Holiday, works by Nicole Baumann at Seed Space
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Photo: anthony scarlati
my favorite painting
Terry L. Spurlin, DDS I
came across the painting FACES while browsing in a fine furnishings store in South Nashville. I was
immediately drawn to the vibrant colors and the multi-dimensional texture of the painting. The painting has special significance to me because of my interpretation of its meaning. When I look at the painting, I see a man and a woman in intimate proximity to one another. In between the two is an eye that I interpret to be symbolic of God’s presence in the relationship of the couple. I was recently divorced when I came upon this painting; therefore it had a special meaning to me. Having the intimate presence of God in all of our relationships is, in my opinion, the only recipe for true happiness and success. A r t i s t i nfo Ronald G. Baldwin discovered his love of art as a teenager in Iowa. A high school teacher and mentor helped introduce the artist to his lifelong passion. His creativity, though, took an unusual route. The painter worked in faux finishes and murals for nearly 30 years before becoming a fulltime artist. Based out of Atlanta, Baldwin has art in collections around the nation. He is particularly popular in Nashville among country music stars. Marty Stuart, Rascall Flatts, Phil Vassar, and Trace Atkins all own Baldwin’s work. His paintings, which often include musical themes, also grace the halls of the Julliard School of Music and the Nashville Symphony. His work is defined by lively textures, bold colors and strong, geometric elements. ronaldbaldwin.com FACES by Ronald Baldwin 90 | August 2O12 NashvilleArts.com