Nashville Arts Magazine November 2015

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1 JohnJack Baeder Spencer Joe Bonamassa Bobby Braddock Anton Vesna Weiss Pavlovic John Henry OliviaPhotography Hill Alan Shuptrine Competition nashvillearts.com

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FO R E WO R D B Y SE N AT O R W I L L I A M FR IS T, M. D.

From Darkness to Sight chronicles the remarkable life journey of Dr. Ming Wang, a world-renowned laser eye surgeon and philanthropist.

From Darkness To Sight How one man turned hardship into healing

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s a teenager, Ming fought valiantly to escape one of history’s darkest eras— China’s Cultural Revolution—during which millions of innocent youth were deported to remote areas to face a life sentence of poverty and hard labor. Through his own tenacity and his parents’ tireless efforts to provide a chance of freedom for their son, Ming eventually made his way to America with $50 in his pocket and an American dream in his heart, where against all odds he would earn a PhD in laser physics and graduate magna cum laude with the highest honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT. He embraced his Christian faith and tackled one of the most important questions of our time—Are faith and science friends or foes?— which led to his invention of a breakthrough biotechnology to restore sight.

To date, Dr. Wang has performed over 55,000 eye procedures and has treated patients from nearly every state in the U.S. and from over 55 countries worldwide. He is considered the “doctor’s doctor,” as he has operated on over 4,000 physicians. Dr. Wang has published 8 textbooks, holds several U.S. patents and performed the world’s first laser artificial cornea implantation. He is the recipient of the Honor Award from American Academy of Ophthalmology4

MING WANG, M.D., P H.D. "Dr. Wang is not only a dear friend and the very best eye surgeon, he is one of the greatest people I have ever known.”

— Dolly Parton, Internationally Acclaimed Music Artist

and the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Chinese Physician Association. Dr. Wang is currently the only surgeon in the state who performs 3D LASIK (age 18+), 3D Forever Young Lens Surgery (age 45+), 3D Laser Kamra (age 45+) and 3D Laser Cataract Surgery (age 60+). Dr. Wang established a non-profit foundation which provides sight restoration surgeries for indigent patients who otherwise would never have the opportunity to receive them free-of-charge.

This is a story of one man’s inspirational journey, of turning fear, poverty, persecution and prejudice into healing and love for others. It demonstrates how focus, determination, humility and profound faith can inspire a life that, in turn, impacts that of countless others.

nashvillearts.com

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PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP Charles N. Martin, Jr., | Chairman Paul Polycarpou | President Ed Cassady, Les Wilkinson | Directors

www.facebook.com/NashvilleArts www.twitter.com/NashvilleArts www.pinterest.com/NashvilleArts

www.nashvillearts.com EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING OFFICES 44 West Iris Drive | Nashville, TN 37204 615.383.0278 ADVERTISING Cindy Acuff | Keith Wright 615.383.0278 DISTRIBUTION Wouter Feldbusch | Christian Lester SUBSCRIPTIONS & CUSTOMER SERVICE 615.383.0278 BUSINESS OFFICE Adrienne Thompson 40 Burton Hills Boulevard | Nashville, TN 37215 EDITORIAL Paul Polycarpou Editor and CEO paul@nashvillearts.com Sara Lee Burd Executive Editor and Online Editor sara@nashvillearts.com Rebecca Pierce Education Editor and Staff Writer rebecca@nashvillearts.com Madge Franklin Copy Editor EDITORIAL INTERNS Jennifer Hartsell Harding University Maggie Knox Vanderbilt University Erin Lewis Belmont University Luke Levenson Belmont University DESIGN Wendi K. Powell Graphic Designer ADVERTISING Cindy Acuff cindy@nashvillearts.com Keith Wright keith@nashvillearts.com

COLUMNS Emme Nelson Baxter Paint the Town Marshall Chapman Beyond Words Jennifer Cole State of the Arts Linda Dyer Appraise It Rachael McCampbell And So It Goes Joe Nolan Critical i Anne Pope Tennessee Roundup Jim Reyland Theatre Correspondent Mark W. Scala As I See It Justin Stokes Film Review Joseph E. Morgan Sounding Off

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 for free, or by mail for $5.05 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 Visa or Mastercard number.

THE RYMER GALLERY Chris Coleman

Handmade World Class Performance TEYE Guitars

Also Showing New Photos by Harrison Brammell 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 7

DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE nashvillearts.com

ON THE COVER

november 2015

John Baeder Magic Chef 1975, Oil on canvas , 48 x 72” Article on Page 24

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features

columns

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Elizabeth Sanford At Customs House Museum

24

John Baeder Now and Then at Haynes Galleries

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Delia Seigenthaler The Process Makes Meaning

46

Bennett Galleries Nine Works By Nine Artists

70

54

Constructing Mysteries John Henry and Barry Buxkamper

58

Tennessee for Me Eleven Artists Explore the Beauty of Tennessee at Richland Fine Art

62

2015 Photography Competition

66

Anton Weiss The Abstract Expressionist's Final Solo Show

69

Hydrogen Jukebox Glass & Ginsberg Collaboration Comes to Nashville Opera

70

Phantom Bodies At Frist Center

78

Joe Bonamassa Finds His Muse in Nashville

80

Majestic Masriera An Exquisite Line of Spanish Jewelry Graces E.J. Sain

Peter Fleming At David Lusk Gallery

110 David Yarrow

78

88

Symphony In Depth

92

The Bookmark Hot Books and Cool Reads

96

As I See It

101 Film Review

by Justin Stokes 102 Critical i

by Joe Nolan 103 Theatre

by Jim Reyland

104

Art See

106 Paint the Town

by Emme Nelson Baxter 109 Sounding Off

by Joseph E. Morgan 111 5th Avenue Under the Lights 113 Public Art 114 Art Smart

by Rebecca Pierce 120 NPT

82 Jewel

New Book. New Album.

Never Broken.

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Crawl Guide

100 Art & the Business of Art

52 Malick Sibidé

Regardez-moi: The Photography of

Malick Sidibé

54

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125 Beyond Words

by Marshall Chapman

126

My Favorite Painting

66

62

114

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Bennett Galleries

SPOTLIGHT

Featuring New Work From Nine Artists

Publisher's Note

A Great City Deserves Great Art With so much going on in October it was hard deciding which events to attend. Uptown, Downtown, Eastside, Westside, the whole town was hopping. Fortunately, I was at the right place at the right time when the curtain went up at TPAC for the Nashville Opera’s performance of Puccini's Turandot. What a spectacle!

The sets, the costumes, the singing, the entire production set the hairs on the back of my neck into full attention mode. If you think you don't like opera, you haven't seen Turandot, and you certainly have not experienced the kind of magic that Artistic Director John Hoomes and his team can conjure up. The ovations were richly deserved for a truly outstanding performance. I clapped till my hands hurt. Read about their upcoming performance Hydrogen Jukebox on page 69.

Across town ARTable was in full swing at the Clay Lady’s Campus.

Four artists—a potter, a glassmaker, a painter, and a poet—were engaged in a form of art speed-dating connecting these four artists with eager participants. Four groups spent half an hour with each artist watching, listening, and participating in the creation of art. At the end of the night, the artists’ four pieces were auctioned off to a very enthusiastic crowd. Kudos to Matt Fischer for creating a fun and informative event.

Christina Baker

Kathy Cousart

Scott E. Hill

Korean pianist Joyce Yang took center stage at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. She was mesmerizing, at times attacking the keyboard like a prizefighter. Left hook, right hook, upper cut, she took control of the music and never let up until we were all thoroughly punch drunk with her and her performance. It was a pleasure to watch genius at work.

We welcome our new graphic artist, Wendi Powell, to the Nashville Arts team. We all thank her for making us look as good as we want to be.

Paul Polycarpou | Publisher

Lisa Jennings

Sherrie Russ Levine

Trevor Mikula

Judy Shreve

Butler Steltemeier

Dirk Walker

OPENING RECEPTION November 13 • 5:30-8:30 pm

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

by Catherine Randall

Elizabeth Sanford Inside the Understory

Customs House Museum

Reshaping the Shadows – Unseen Omens (detail) | 2014

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| November 2 through 29

Reshaping the Shadows – Looking for Signs (detail) | 2014

Each piece is a dialogue between myself and my materials.

By her own self-assessment, Elizabeth Sanford doesn’t quite fit into any one artistic style or medium. “People don’t know what to do with me, what box to put me in,” Sanford says.

She is this month’s featured watercolor artist in the series of exhibits curated in part by Nashville Arts Magazine for Planter’s Bank Peg Harvill Gallery at Customs House Museum.

She is, indeed, a pioneer in the world of watercolor, pushing the boundaries between flat paintings and the concept of two- and three-dimensional sculpture.

The woods and forests are a favorite theme. She likes hiding things in the in-between spaces, like the creatures she finds in the woods themselves. “Each piece is a dialogue between myself and my materials.”

Several panels of the 300-pound watercolor paper are built up in eight- to ten-inch distances from the first, giving the work almost a shadow box impression. There are three distinct layers in her sculptures: first, the paint itself; next, the cut-out panels; and last, the meaning the viewer ascribes to it.

It is this unexpectedness that drives her work. It stems from the natural urge to explore; it is her childlike adventure relived. “I am drawn to the luminosity of fluid paint on paper and the look of layered color,” Sanford says.

The effect is unmistakable. Each piece is brightly colored.

Purple texture layers form a stand of tree trunks; cut-out panels of greens stack to create the canopy, burnt umber and UT-orange caterpillars peek out from the curves and corners of a sassafras tree, and a little girl dances with the wind. It is the idea of a visual fairytale that is her intention, she says. “I don’t want to dictate what the viewer sees. I let them experience it themselves.” This public interaction is a deliberate choice to complete this unique work. na

Her choice of subject matter is motivated by her devotion to environmental conservation. It is hard to tell which she is more passionate about, the nature she paints or the art itself.

Inside the Understory is on exhibit November 2 through 29 at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville. For more information, visit www.customshousemuseum.org.

A former oil and acrylic painter, Sanford made the switch because she enjoys the play of water and the unpredictable nature of the medium. “I could dictate the paint with oil and acrylic,” Sanford says. “Watercolor is difficult to control.”

Family Secrets | 2015 | Mixed media | 7” x 29” x 1”

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Lauren Dunn | Everlasting | Acrylic on wood panel | 30” x 30”

Martin Masters Art Show & Sale FiftyForward Martin Center November 13 & 14 The 10th Annual Martin Masters Art Show & Sale offers a diverse and extensive collection of paintings by over 40 artists including Marilyn Wendling, Streater Spencer, Jade Reynolds, Ginger Oglesby, Betty Wentworth, JJ Sneed & Frank Baggett, Frank Gee, John Cannon and more. Guests will find a wide range of styles from plein air and impressionistic to abstract and whimsical. For the first time in the history of this important fundraiser for FiftyForward Martin Center, this year’s show features handcrafted jewelry by Paula Barnett, Nola Jane, and Hugh Bennett.

Sherry Coss, Program and Partnership Director for the Martin Center, recruited artist and gallery owner Ron York to help organize and curate the show.

“Ron has a great reputation for pulling off successful shows, and we have wanted him to help us for some time now,” Coss enthused. “We asked him to also be our featured artist, but he instead suggested we include works from his gallery artists. So now we will have many new and returning artists.”

In celebration of the 10th Anniversary, the two have rearranged and expanded the exhibit area to give the show a fresh new look. York says, “The FiftyForward Martin Center is such a lovely venue with its rough-hewn beams and bucolic setting that makes it an ideal place for an art show. Plus, with a percentage of sales benefitting the center’s programming, it means a lot to me to be involved.”

The 10th Annual Martin Masters Art Show & Sale opens with a cocktail reception including food and live music from 5 until 8 p.m. on Friday, November 13 ($35 per person) and continues with free admission on Saturday, November 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The show takes place at FiftyForward Martin Center, 960 Heritage Way in Brentwood. For more information, visit www.fiftyforward.org.

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November Crawl Guide The Franklin Art Scene Friday, November 6, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Jack Yacoubian Fine Jewelry and Art Gallery is hosting a group show of all of the artists he has presented in 2015.

Gallery 202 is featuring work by Susan Truex. Boutique MMM is presenting artist Christy G. Buckner. Parks is exhibiting work by Sandy Zeigler. Shuff’s Music and Piano Room is showcasing photography by Blake Wylie. Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church is unveiling Until the Light Takes Us, new works by Aaron Hilley and Sterling GollerBrown. Hope Church Franklin is showing paintings by Mark Neubauer and jewelry by Amanda Conley. Pedego Franklin is featuring one-of-a-kind pottery by Melodie Grace. Williamson County Visitor Center is hosting

Christine Patterson | The Arts Company

Browsing Room Gallery at Downtown Presbyterian Church is showcasing Disruption, a mixed-media-onwood installation by artist-in-residence Cary Gibson.

Susan Truex | Gallery 202

artist Caroline Thompson along with musical artist Abigail Wate. St. Philip Catholic Church is presenting the Historic Franklin Quilt Show, including some antique Civil War-era quilts, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on November 6 and 7.

First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown Saturday, November 7, from 6 until 9 p.m.

The Arts Company is hosting an opening reception for Boundaries: Spoken and Unspoken, a new series of photography, mixed media, and words by Christine Patterson. Tinney Contemporary is featuring Topography curated by Jamaal Sheats. The Rymer Gallery is presenting an exhibit of the Teye Music Factory’s Master Guitar series (see page 20). Friends and Angels, curated by the Worrell Gallery of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is on view at the Tennessee Art League Gallery (see page 85). The

In the historic Arcade, Corvidae Collective is unveiling Transmutations, an international group show including Russian artists Olga and Nikolay Prashnov of ShirrStone Shelter. WAG is exhibiting Marginal Texts, paintings

by Watkins Fine Art majors Micah Mathewson and Hayley Vanhoy. Blend Studio is presenting DopeBomb, illustration by Xavier Payne.

Hatch Show Print’s Haley Gallery is hosting a closing reception for master printer Jim Sherraden and Chicagobased musician and painter Jon Langford’s collaborative work.

Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston Saturday, November 7, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Zeitgeist is hosting an opening reception for three carbon tons, work by Jered Sprecher and Michael Jones McKean. CG2 Gallery is presenting New Works by Marcus Kenney. Seed Space is showcasing Wars and Rumors of Wars by Eric Dickson. Atelier Upton is featuring work of H. & Clark Upcycled Leather Goods and the work of Andrew Vastagh, aka BOSS CONSTRUCTION. Channel to Channel is exhibiting Part 2 of Frances Berry’s show LadyLike. Refinery Nashville is showing Continue and Evolve

by Carolyn Fauteux. At David Lusk Gallery Vadis Turner’s time of day and Huger Foote’s now here then are on view

(see page 102). Sherrick & Paul is showing Regardez-moi: The Photography of Malick SidibĂŠ (see page 52). Julia Martin Gallery is unveiling Source Energy by Merrilee Challiss, and 10 percent of ALL proceeds will go to Agape Animal Rescue.

Poverty & the Arts Gallery is presenting a new collection of work by their artists titled Thank You, Nashville, which will celebrate all of the patrons and supporters that have been involved with Poverty & the Arts. Fort Houston is exhibiting a series of atmospheric landscape photographs by Kate Pulley. Infinity Cat Recordings is showcasing Ballyhoo, photographs by Elise Tyler. Ground Floor Gallery is opening their 4th annual juried exhibition, entitled Mark. Curated by Adrienne Outlaw, the show features work by Beth Reitmeyer, Marcus Kenney | CG2 Katie Hargrave, Mandy Cano Villalobos, Jennifer Day, Anders Johnson, John Bruno, David Pittenger, Hasan Nomi Khan, Jesse Kilmon, and Laura McAdams.

East Side Art Stumble Saturday, November 14, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Main Street Gallery is hosting photoSLAM! 2015 by shelia turner Projects (see page 22). Gallery Luperca in association with N&XT is presenting the play Manuscript by Paul Grellong in tandem with an art installation by Leah Sawyer. The Idea Hatchery is showcasing new fall arrivals. From 3 until 5 p.m. the Hendersonville Arts Council is unveiling Women of Abstraction featuring 100 pieces of art from six female abstract artists in Middle Tennessee. Modern East Gallery and Sawtooth Print Shop are also participating.

Merrilee Challiss | Julia Martin Gallery

JACK YACOUBIAN FINE JEWELRY & ART GALLERY

HUNDREDS OF DESIGNS OVER 36 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE & FA M I LY O W N E D F O R TH R EE G EN ER ATI O N S Visit Our Showroom: 114 Third Ave., So. Franklin, TN 37064 (615) 224-3698 www.jackyacoubianjewelers.com Mon-Sat. 10am-5pm

H ISTO R I C DOW N TOW N FR A N KLI N

Teye Guitars Rockin’ at The Rymer Gallery November 1 through 25

by Luke Levenson

Teye does not consider his work art. He focuses first and foremost on the tonal quality of his guitars, and he makes sure to craft them from only the most “superior” materials.

But to Teye, these materials deserve a great deal of consideration on their own.

From November 1 through 25 at The Rymer Gallery, the Teye Music Factory will present an exhibit of Teye’s Master Guitar series. Handmade by Teye himself, these guitars are constructed of carefully acquired woods, metals, and stones that he decides best suit the “soul” of the instrument.

La Mora bass for Cliff Williams | AC/DC

“I’m not cheating with a little mini-computer in the hardware,” said Teye. “These are the real tones of the guitar, coming from the soul.”

And what’s a soul without a body to reflect its modal métier? Without the Mexican turquoise rimming the ebony curves of his “Nautilus,” or the copper inlays of his “El Dorado,” Teye may never have seen his guitars played by the likes of legendary blues guitarist Mick Taylor or AC/DC’s Cliff Williams.

But his success is not due to the avid promotion he gets from celebrities and music magazines. Teye has spent years perfecting the way he builds his guitars. Starting out in the late 1970s as a nomadic rock ‘n’ roll artist, he was familiar with every venue and discotheque in the Netherlands and Germany. He played in a variety of rock and blues bands, always modifying the innards of his Gibson and Ampeg electric guitars.

But change comes fast and often to those who travel extensively. After a couple of years studying flamenco jazz guitar in Spain, Teye saw his first stint of fame when country music star Joe Ely featured him on his 1995 album Letter to Laredo. For a few years afterward, Teye cultivated a reputation in Europe and the U.S. as an acoustic guitar guru, and his experiences with the flamenco groups he played with left a potent mark on his approach to the mechanics of both guitar playing and the guitar itself.

“Just like the flamenco dancer, underneath all the outward beauty of my guitars there’s some intelligence,” Teye said.

This is the model for all series of Teye Guitars. He strives to make the most beautiful guitars on the market—and while he does not consider them art, he recognizes the attention they have brought him. na Teye’s Master Guitars will be on display at The Rymer Gallery November 1 through 25. For more information, visit www.therymergallery.com and www.teye.com.

Ramzes | an Electric Gypsy in ‘La Canastera’ colors

A portion of proceeds will benefit Gildaʼs Club of Nashville

4231 HARDING PIKE • NASHVILLE, TN 37205 Stanford Square, Across From St. Thomas Hospital 615-321-0500 • 615-483-5995 • www.ninakuzina.com

photoSLAM! The Travel Edition 2015 Main Street Gallery November 14

Wendy Whittemore | Two in Four | St. Lucia

photoSLAM! is like a poetry slam, only with pictures, and it is coming to Main Street Gallery in East Nashville on November 14. Photographers of all ages and skill levels are invited to bring up to ten travel-themed images, which will be shown during two minutes in a fast, urban slam style.

Host Kemi Bennings, spoken word artist and soul singer, will keep the evening rolling with music, encouragement, and plenty of #BAMs.

Wendy Whittemore | In the Ring Seville, Spain

Shelia Turner of shelia turner Projects is bringing this photo-sharing event to Nashville on the heels of five successful events in Atlanta. The first was presented in 2013 at the Hammonds House Museum in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of Sistagraphy, the collective of African American women photographers, and most recently in spring of 2015 with the Atlanta Photography Group.

Focused on bringing communities together

through photography and arts events, Turner is working in conjunction with the Society of Nashville Artists and Photographers (SNAP) to present photoSLAM! 2015 The Travel Edition.

Doors will open at 6 p.m., and artists will be able to sign up until 6:45. At 7 p.m. sharp, the photo slams begin. Entrants may speak about their work, let it speak for itself, create a QuickTime or similar file with audio. As long as it’s travel related and two minutes, it is sure to get a #BAM. BAM cards are given for audience favorites, and a Viewer’s Choice Award will be presented at the end of the evening. photoSLAM! takes place in conjunction with the East Side Art Stumble on November 14 and the photography show Travelogue, A Journey Around the World opening on November 12 at Main Street Gallery. For more information and to sign up online, visit www.photoslam.camera.

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Photograph by Se単or McGuire

NOW AND THEN Haynes Galleries

Market Tower, 2007, Oil on canvas, 30 x 48�

| November 20 to January 9

by Jay Williams

John’s Diner, 1990, Oil on canvas, 24 x 36”

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idely considered one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, John Baeder is best known for his hyperrealist paintings that made the diner the subject of serious art books and historic preservation efforts. His new exhibition at Haynes Galleries in Nashville, John Baeder: Work from 1962 to 2015, includes not only oil paintings and watercolors, but also ceramics and both black-and-white and color photographs. Gallerist Gary R. Haynes describes the concept of this unparalleled exhibition as representing “the total scope of John Baeder’s work.” Timed to coincide with the publication of the new Vendome Press biography of the artist, John Baeder’s Road Well Taken, the exhibition will be on view from November 20, 2015, through January 9, 2016.

Raised in Atlanta, Baeder became an art director for a New York-based ad agency at age twenty-one. Before beginning his advertising career, Baeder studied art at Auburn University and maintained his interest in photography and painting while working at the prestigious Marschalk advertising agency. After creating successful ad campaigns for clients such as CocaCola, he was transferred to a position at the New York offices of a sister company in the Interpublic Group, part of the largest advertising conglomerate in the world.

As Baeder’s career in advertising progressed, so did his urge to indulge his interests in photography and postcard collecting.

New York’s rich cultural environment was the ideal school for a young artist who was about to launch a career in painting.

Although Baeder felt increasingly pulled toward an art career, he achieved great success as an art director because of his experience and pure creativity.

With the energy of a man who has found his calling, Baeder began to paint hour after hour in a makeshift studio in the tenement walk-up at 56th Street and Third Avenue that had been his pied-à-terre while living in Connecticut. Baeder’s first solo exhibition at Ivan Karp’s Hundred Acres Gallery was a groundbreaking artistic statement to the art world. His paintings 26 nashvillearts.com

in that first exhibition—such as Octo Cottage (1972, acrylic on canvas)—reflected his interest in roadside architecture and postcard images, which were a radical departure from orthodoxy.

Baeder has been much more than a “diner painter,” as evident in the range of works on view: little-known black-and-white photographs from the 1960s, imaginative Kitchen Series stilllife paintings, original diner-inspired ceramics, photographic Studio Still Lifes, and his most recent cycle, stunning oil paintings of classic aircraft of the 1930s and 40s.

Through the years, Baeder has often found inspiration in Americana from his wide-ranging collections of postcards, original and collected photographs, hand-painted signs, scale-model automobiles, and other ephemera. To reveal this vital relationship, Baeder and Haynes have selected some of the most significant objects from his extensive collections to exhibit alongside this cornucopia of original artworks.

Entering the galleries, viewers will first encounter Baeder’s early black-and-white photographs. Well before Baeder delved deeply into the work of Walker Evans, Russell Lee, and the other important Farm Security Administration photographers, he had begun to shoot black-and-white photographs with Lockheed P-38L “Lightning”, 2015, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40”

much the same spirit and content. His eager vision also led him to storefronts, street corners, and window displays in the neighborhoods of New York City that would have interested Esther Bubley or Walker Evans when they walked the city’s streets. On advertising assignments in Europe, Baeder made striking photographs while exploring London, Florence, Munich, Frankfurt, Rome, and Paris. Particularly noteworthy among the 1960s photographs on view are a delightful image of a little man with a cane peering into a barbershop window, and a striking portrait of the jazz pianist Dave Brubeck.

Moving to the adjacent galleries, visitors to the exhibition will encounter Baeder’s recent Aero Series paintings, inspired by his childhood collection numbering hundreds of photographs of classic aircraft. These paintings reflect his early delight in observing these aircraft as sculptural forms, great examples of modern design that formed indelible impressions on Baeder’s youthful psyche. “I am going back to images that lit up my imagination in my youth,” Baeder explains. “When I was a kid, I loved old military aircraft. I still do.” His very first aircraft painting—a large (42 x 66-inch) oil on canvas of a World War II Navy torpedo bomber, the Curtiss SB2C-4 Helldiver—captures this youthful passion. Commissioned by Ivan Karp for a 1973 all-aircraft exhibition at OK Harris Works of Art, the painting

became the prototype for his recent Aero Series. When Baeder began painting the series canvases, he conceived them “in black and white,” but actually employed varied monochromatic hues, giving himself a color problem that he considers far more difficult than applying naturalistic color.

Of the sixteen aircraft represented in the show, all are classics of aeronautical design, and several (in addition to the Helldiver) are illustrious warplanes of World War II: the shark-mouthed Curtiss P-40F Tomahawk, the Vought F4U Corsair, and the Lockheed P-38L Lightning. The proportions of the aircraft, combining massive engine cowlings with long, tapering fuselages, hint at their awesome potential. Some of the airplanes are associated with the period between the world wars. For instance, Baeder included an example of the Lockheed Vega, the same model of plane piloted by Amelia Earhart in her trans-Atlantic flight to Ireland, but painted here in the long-haul workhorse livery of Shell Oil Company. Other aircraft in the series represent experiments in technology and the individuality of an aeronautical designer’s vision. Baeder selected the Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket, a twin-engine fighter prototype of the early 1940s, for its unique wing-forward configuration and futuristic proportions. Although only one example of the Skyrocket was actually built, the unique design was adopted by the World War II comic-book hero Blackhawk for his fictional air squadron.

Baeder manages to emphasize the overall uniqueness and sculptural quality of all sixteen aeronautical designs while including only significant details. This strategy, combined with his monochromatic palette, helps the viewer see each aircraft as a unique whole, not as a collection of highly technical parts.

All the while, Baeder’s subtle brushwork softens the edges of

hard shapes and unifies each composition.

Baeder’s forays into non-diner imagery do not mean that his more-than-forty-year involvement with diners is a thing of the past, as the adjoining gallery gives ample evidence. Gallery visitors will be greeted by his classic 1990 oil on canvas John’s Diner. In this section of the show, visitors will also find several examples of the artist’s paintings of food trucks. Understanding that they were closely related to the food wagons that predated diners, Baeder was the first to recognize the importance of these colorful mobile restaurants.

The source for many of the artist’s later diner paintings is what he calls “innocent images” that he rediscovered while taking stock of his documentary photography of the sixties. His archive contains hundreds of Kodachrome slides shot purely as documentation, not with the idea that they would be the subjects of paintings. “I play archaeologist in my studio [these days], as opposed to discovering promising sites along the road,” Baeder comments. “These treasures of the past have taken on a patina of time, giving them deeper significance.”

Diner, Worcester, Massachusetts (2009) is a prime example of Baeder’s reductive approach to these images. By eliminating nonessential signage, cars, and other elements, he omits anything that would potentially draw attention away from essential relationships. What remains as subject matter is simply the diner and contextual elements that give it meaning.

His greater emphasis on the abstract patterns of shape and hue elevates these realist paintings beyond simple documentation.

As with all his diner paintings, the Worcester watercolor has a distinct personality and mood created by the harmony of both light and dark forms as well as vertical and horizontal elements (the masculine tower and skyscraper contrasted with the grounded, feminine diner).

Perhaps the most outstanding of the diner canvases on view is his Star Diner (2012, dedicated to the memory of Ivan C. Karp), depicting a small, nondescript diner in Queens, New York. The restaurant is clad in siding that Baeder considers the visual equivalent of a double-knit suit—a brown, tan, and beige material that now seems as superannuated as old, cracked linoleum. On the massive wall that extends above the diner, a huge, remarkably eroded sign dwarfs the restaurant, its peeling painted lettering announcing HEBREW NATIONAL. In smaller capital letters the words KOSHER DELICATESSEN appear just over the diner’s sign. Closer examination reveals Baeder’s clever use of words in the slogan visible above the door. “You Ring We Bring – Call Sammy” is a play on Baeder’s pet term for “sandwich” and homage to a friend’s dog.

After seeing the painting, a former resident of the neighborhood wrote in praise: “The wonder of it is the Hebrew National billboard, in all its peeling scabrous glory.”

Baeder’s painting carries us back to a different time and place through his masterful use of texture, color, and composition.

London, England, 1965, Archival digital print, 7 x 8” 28 nashvillearts.com

SouthWest Motel, 1977, Archival digital print, 30 x 40”

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Photograph by Señor McGuire

There are some photographs that scream to be paintings, and some that just want to be photographs.

Star Diner, 2012, Oil on canvas, 30 x 48�

Some visitors to the show may be surprised to see Baeder’s diner-inspired ceramics. Towle/Sigma manufactured a line of twenty products, including a three-part diner-shaped condiment set, a ceramic street scene with a hotel, bar, and movie theatre canister set, bookends, menu board frame, candle holders in the form of gas pumps, and, of course, coffee mugs. The ceramic line became further evidence of the staying power of “diner consciousness.” Baeder told the New York Times, “These objects are a way of sharing my ideas on a more popular level.”

The exhibition continues with color photographs from Baeder’s American Roadside series, including images of colorful signs, mom-and-pop motels, independent gas stations, and vintage vehicles. Like his black-and-white photographs from the 1960s, these documentary images reflect Baeder’s sensitivity toward vernacular culture, the milieu of the everyday American. Asked by art critic Peter Frank why he chose to use some photos as the basis for oils or watercolors while allowing others to be presented in their original form, Baeder replied with Zen-like

Diner's Club Trio, 2003, Watercolor on paper, 14 x 22”

Sabrett’s, 2010, Oil on canvas, 30 x 48”

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Grandma’s Diner, 2009, Watercolor on paper, 13 x 19”

photography” to work artistic magic.

humor: “There are some photographs that scream to be paintings, and some that just want to be photographs.”

Some of these photographs, such as Trailer, Arizona Route 66 (1975), were commissioned for a grand exhibition at the Smithsonian based on architect Robert Venturi’s research Signs of Life: Symbols in the American City. He continued the series after the exhibition with Southwest Motel (1977), Beverly’s Luncheonette, City Island (1980), and other color photographs in the same spirit.

To a significant degree, Baeder’s sensibilities center on the pure visual joy of color, form, and design (what he considers the “old basics”). This is the case with a still life built around an old Redbook magazine and a cream, red, and black 1956 Buick Roadmaster, surrounded by a fire-engine-red ceramic bowl filled with Red Delicious apples and glistening ripe strawberries. In this visual treatise Baeder seems to ask us, how many ways can we think of the color red? As a product of nature, as a symbol of power and speed (as in the Buick), as a fashion metaphor, and as a pure expression of energy to excite our vision. Baeder is as much of a purist in this still life as Josef Albers, reveling in the strength of this limited palette.

Those who find their way to Haynes’s back galleries will be rewarded with another visual treat—two series that illustrate Baeder’s long-term interest in the still life. His Kitchen (or Window Sill) Series with its depictions of little ceramic chefs and dancers and pinup-style figurines may seem unrelated to his other subject matter—but to Baeder they are connected at an archetypal level. Like the small figures of household gods and miniature shrine figures of ancient Roman gods and goddesses, these figures “live” in one of Baeder’s most intimate spaces: his kitchen. He sees them every day, and they are objects of great affection. To him, the figurines represent “little ‘gods’ that are my friends.

All these figures are Jungian, archetypal—they cover the gamut from food to sex.”

Another Studio Still Life features a scale model of a 1941 Fleetwood Cadillac, a classic car that Baeder actually owns and has loved since his youth. Baeder explains a crucial element in this composition that symbolizes his sensitivity to refinement and style: “The photograph includes a vase I grew up with. My mother’s initials are engraved on the vase; and I have fond memories of her using it for gardenia blossoms from our backyard bush. . . . It has great flair, like the Cadillac.”

Baeder’s recent Studio Still Lifes are very different from the photographs he shot earlier in his career. Like the earlier Kitchen Series, they seem to be views into an alternate reality. Capitalizing on photography’s ability to seduce the eye, they have an even greater sense of the surreal about them. Baeder explained that he had “always been fascinated with the camera’s ability to render reality and illusion.” Incorporating imitation flowers, vegetables, and fruits, as well as scale-model cars, books, and other objects in his compositions, he used the medium of “pure

Baeder’s selection of elegant antique perfume and cologne bottles in For My Aunt Emmy and Uncle Zolty—crowned by two lovely roses and grouped with a 1934 Packard Phaeton— may seem like a purely aesthetic choice. However, closer inspection of these Art-Nouveau bottles reveals the name Baeder on the labels or impressed into the glass.

These sophisticated containers of frosted and clear glass with their decorative gold labels were once filled with 33

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the Baeder company’s finest colognes and perfumes, which were offered by chic department stores alongside those of the finest French parfumeries. In fact, this still life with its lovely harmony of pinky-peach, yellow, gold, and crystal forms is a memorial to the Baeder family and their perfume business, based in Budapest, Hungary. The artist’s uncle, and ten other family members, many directly connected with the cosmetics firm, were victims of the Holocaust.

Through Baeder’s artistry, the inanimate objects in his Studio Still Lifes are given soul—inanimate meaning “without animus,” and animus being the Latin for soul. In these magical photographs Baeder records his road trips of the mind, instead of outward ventures along the veined highways of a roadmap. Presenting to us the “souvenirs” of his inner road trip, he unifies time and space in the imagined dimensions of his art.

Baeder’s collections of objects and images, examples of which are on view, have been a critical source of inspiration for all his artistic endeavors, not just his Studio Still Lifes. Each hand-painted sign, scale-model automobile, or figurine is strongly attached to feelings woven into the fabric of his Trailer, Arizona Route 66, 1975, Archival digital print, 30 x 40”

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psyche, as Eudora Welty described: “The human mind is a mass of associations— associations more poetic even than actual.”

Like Welty’s stories full of local color, Baeder’s paintings, distilled from the world that his collections represent, are “fictions” that convey truths. “All my collections are an extension of me,” he explains. “I don’t care if it’s a piece of junk, if it has spirit about it.

That’s what I love about it. It’s like going to a museum and seeing an artifact from the sixth century; what’s the difference?”

Baeder’s personal passion for the visual culture of America became a quest to document the essence of the nation’s identity. Like Charles Kuralt and Bill Moyers, Baeder has seen the material culture of mid-twentieth-century America as a grand metaphor to make his viewers understand that, in the words of Charles Baudelaire, “We are enveloped and steeped as though in an atmosphere of the marvelous; but we do not notice it.” na John Baeder: Work from 1962 to 2015 will be on exhibit at Haynes Galleries from November 20 through January 9, 2016. For more information about the artist and the exhibition, visit www.johnbaeder.com and www.haynesgalleries.com.

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by Susan Knowles

deliaSEIGENTHALER

The Process Makes Meaning

T

wo summers ago, University School art teacher Delia Seigenthaler spent two weeks of her precious time off taking an art class. Working with Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor at Anderson Ranch, a serious art retreat and craft school located high in the mountains of Colorado, both guided and reinforced her direction as an artist. Higgins O’Connor creates large, free-standing sculptural forms from scavenged materials, such as scrap cloth, upholstery, foam, bedspreads, clothing, blankets, and other stray fabrics. She binds and sews them together, attaching them to her own armatures, then adorns them with found objects and additional stitching and shaping to create otherworldly beings, often big-headed creatures.

Seigenthaler has always created “collage,” a juxtaposition of materials assembled out of used and worn items. She is inspired by things others have left behind. Collage is usually thought of as paper pasted on a flat surface, but Seigenthaler pieces and layers in three dimensions as well as two. Such an “indirect” way of working keeps her surprised and wanting to see where it will lead. “I like the process of putting things together and letting them explain themselves to me.” So, it was not so much that she learned anything particularly new at Anderson Ranch as that she picked up some techniques to further an already well-developed sense of where she is going as an artist.

For years she has worked with discarded dolls, taking them apart to use the heads and hands in sculptures or casting new ceramic heads from the original rubber or plastic ones. The faces and hands, transposed into a new context, are transformed by a sort of benign artifice into small beings that can play out a variety of imagined narratives in the minds of an audience. Lately she has begun repairing the discarded doll bodies, which are often falling apart after years of neglect, adding new fabric and remaking them into precious objects that she thinks of as receptacles of emotions.

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Photograph by Tina Gionis

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I like the process of putting things together and letting them explain themselves to me.

Family | 2015 | Mixed media collage | 12”x12” 41 nashvillearts.com

By the Water | 2015 | Mixed media collage | 8”x10”

Puppets | 2015 | Mixed media collage | 12”x12”

Landscape with Children | 2015 | Mixed media collage | 12”x12”

traditional clay medium. He also introduced them to folk and self-taught art and to other unorthodox artists such as the Chicago Imagists. Since Seigenthaler already had the skills, she was set free to pursue ideas.

In her most recent body of work, she has taken apart old children’s books, adding clippings from other books and magazines and bits of fabric on which she has “drawn” with a sewing machine. These “collaged” paintings are pieced and layered onto a smoothly gessoed canvas surface, with cuts or tears to reveal what might lie underneath, possibly even a section of one of her drawings or prints. These canvases are what she calls “little stories without beginning or end,” vignettes often having to do with domestic life, home settings, and the lives of women or children. They are titled very simply, so viewers can intuit the emotional content and interpret the scene for themselves. At first impression, Seigenthaler’s works might seem playful and slightly awkward in a childlike manner. A closer look reveals tidiness around the edges and careful construction methods. Once the imagery sinks in, these pieces reveal a serious edge connecting them to adult emotions and situations.

Man in the Field II | 2015 | Mixed media collage | 10”x 8”

These are personal pieces. She says she feels compelled to make them and is even a bit self-conscious talking about them. When she went public and exhibited some of them in a recent Nashville gallery show, they garnered great response, but she is reluctant to part with them.

On a tabletop and on her studio walls are both twodimensional and three-dimensional works in larger formats.

A tall square post holds a large sculptural head made of found fabrics and other materials that have been stitched and bound together. The eyes are revealed through uneven holes cut through several of the top layers, as if to underscore their enduring, all-seeing vision. It is a powerful piece. Seigenthaler’s next series is clearly underway, and she is excited for the future. She is beginning to see that there will be time to create art, to travel, and to use the artistic skills she has been perfecting by inventing projects for her students at University School.

Seigenthaler studied design, printmaking, and ceramics at Middle Tennessee State University. She credits two influential teachers: Phil Vander Weg for introducing her to both two- and three-dimensional design, and Susan Kowalczyk for inspiring her to move into ceramics.

Kowalczyk moved on to Alfred University, an international hub of ceramic experimentation that has produced many of the foremost artists working in clay today. Seigenthaler stayed in Tennessee, and fortunate timing placed her in a similar crucible of creativity—the brand new Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, Tennessee.

In addition to full-time teaching for the past fifteen years, she has been busy raising two creative sons. In 2001, she founded the Artist in Residence program at the Campus for Human Development/Room in the Inn program for homeless adults. All of these have fed her creative side, she muses, giving her back as much as she has given. She also counts herself fortunate that the University School curriculum is intended to be experiential and intuitive and that she is encouraged to teach that way. Seigenthaler leads by example. Drawn to art that is ambiguous but also touches one’s humanity, she wants her students to embrace something similar in their own art making—and in their lives to come. na

For minimal tuition costs, she worked with the first wave of artist-in-residence instructors: furniture maker Wendy Maruyama, glass artist Hank Murta Adams, and ceramic sculptor Tom Ripon. Encountering artists who were making a living with their work was priceless, Seigenthaler says, and she met students at the Craft Center who remain close friends to this day, like Lanie Gannon and Rob Ogilvie. Most of all, she recalls, the students at the Craft Center learned to produce at a level of perfection that was unrivalled in academic art departments. Several years later, in graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago with Tom Ripon as her teacher, Seigenthaler realized she was several steps ahead of her fellow students. In addition to inspiring students by his relentless work ethic, Ripon encouraged them to experiment by combining new content with the

For more information about Delia Seigenthaler, please visit www.deliaseigenthaler.com.

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Bennett Galleries Nine Works By Nine Artists Opens November 13

Scott E. Hill | Fire | Oil on board | 36” x 30”

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ennett Galleries, a sprawling operation that represents seventy-five artists, is exactly the kind of place—a mélange of price points and styles—that would fête new and seasoned artists with equal aplomb.

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by Karen Parr-Moody

And that is what it will do at its November exhibit, which is usually dedicated solely to heavyweight Scott E. Hill. The gallery is putting eight other artists on the roster with him for an eclectic offering.

Fine artist Miranda Herrick, who curated and will install the show, said that Hill, whom the gallery has represented for around twenty years, usually fills up about half of the gallery with his new paintings. But this year he refrained from producing as much work, leaving more of the space for relative newcomers to fill.

Christina Baker | Message in a Bottle | 30” x 30”

“Scott is unusual in the art field,” Herrick says. “He feels strongly about giving other artists a leg up, as opposed to— in this very competitive field—a lot of artists who try to avoid that. He just feels that that is part of being an artist and part of being in an artists’ community.”

Beyond Hill, the roster of talent includes Lisa Jennings, Butler Steltemeier, Dirk A. Walker, Kathy Cousart, Christina Baker, Judy Shreve, Sherrie Russ Levine, and Trevor Mikula.

Herrick says, “These are artists who are, to some degree, new to us or are doing something new. We’re looking at the exhibit to spotlight nine artists of whose work we’re incredibly proud. We want them to get a little recognition for doing something incredibly special.”

Bennett Galleries has long featured a vivacious blend of art.

It carries everything from the massive canvases of Matthew Hasty to the 3-by-3-inch oil paintings of Amy Crews—and lots in between.

“As far as eclectic imagery and variety of price points, there’s not really anything else like it in Nashville,” Herrick says.

“People will come in to decorate their homes, and they can pick out twelve pieces, each one the perfect piece for every spot. And this show will certainly be a good taste of the variety we have.”

Hill is known for his meticulous oil paintings, while Jennings creates mixed-media pieces that are loose and inviting.

Steltemeier, who is well known for her watercolors of fantastical animals, has translated that work into sculptures fabricated out of organic material for the show (think bug parts, rose petals).

Sherrie Russ Levine | Queen for the Day | Oil on canvas | 24” x 18”

Then there is Cousart, whose childhood love of color is manifested through tender flowers on abstract backgrounds.

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Baker brings her genre of peaceful abstraction to the group. Shreve uses a variety of media on birch panels to create charming narratives in a folk-art style, while romantic landscapes fill the canvases of Levine.

Mikula, with his playful colors and happy shapes, brings a sense of whimsical animation to the canvas by boldly placing his paint with a palette knife. His canine portraits will enchant dog lovers.

Walker has come into his own with impressionistic cityscapes, including new pieces of Nashville skylines and landmarks.

He says, “One piece, which will be the showcase piece, is a 48-by-60-inch painting of the Nashville skyline from across the river. Then I’ve got one which will be of Union Station that has a little bit more of my typical style, with people kind of milling about.” Another of Walker’s paintings will feature the Broadway strip of Nashville’s famous honky-tonks, including Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.

Butler Steltemeier | Adopted | Oil on canvas | 16” x 20”

So if your holiday list includes art lovers, this show will offer one-stop shopping. If you can’t find it here, you’re simply not looking hard enough. na Spotlight, Featuring Nine Works by Nine Artists opens at Bennett Galleries on November 13 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.bennettgalleriesnashville.com.

Lisa Jennings | Morning Caw | Mixed media on canvas | 48” x 60”

Dirk A. Walker | Day At The Louvre | Oil on canvas | 40” x 40”

Judy Shreve | When Elephants Dream | Mixed media on board | 23” x 23” 48 nashvillearts.com

Photograph by Peyton Hoge

Cherish the Night with Vince Gill and Friends Country Music Hall of Fame | November 20 It’s not every day three creative Nashville luminaries get together in recognition of a single cause. On November 20, Vince Gill, Ron York, and Students Taking A Right Stand (STARS) will occupy the Country Music Hall of Fame for the seventh annual Cherish the Night with Vince Gill and Friends. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a silent art auction and reception before settling into the CMA Theater at 8:30 for an intimate performance by Vince Gill and his surprise guests.

Arranged by gallery owner Ron York, the silent auction will feature more than seventy original paintings, photographs, and crafts donated by local and regional artists. Kim Barrick, Arthur Kirkby, and several other award-winning painters have contributed work to be sold this year, and jeweler Barbara Murnan has prepared a show of her handcrafted pieces.

All of the proceeds from the auction will go into funding the efforts of STARS on an interactive level. For the first time since its formation in 2008, Cherish the Night will open the bidding a week before the event through an online bidding platform called Gesture. Ticketholders will be sent the link to the Gesture website where, after registering, they can see, read about, and bid on the art being featured at the auction from their smartphone or computer.

“Each year, we add a new element to Cherish the Night,” said Chief Development Officer of STARS Erin Daunic. “I think going high-tech with Gesture is going to be a really significant addition to the experience of our guests.”

Some other significant additions: former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean will be in attendance to receive the prestigious Accepting Differences Among Mankind (ADAM) Award, and Ron York’s upcoming studio album Wildflowers will play on the speakers as guests find their seats before the Vince Gill concert.

Cherish the Night with Vince Gill and Friends will be held on November 20, 6 to 11 p.m., at the Country Music Hall of Fame. For more information and ticket sales, please visit www.starsnashville.org.

Lisa McReynolds | Long Road Home Acrylic on canvas | 18” x 18”

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malickSIDIBÉ

by Erica Ciccarone

Regardez-moi: The Photography of Malick Sidibé Sherrick & Paul | November 5 to January 9

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we associate these images with those from our own lives.

We recall that to arrive in our twenties is to have somehow swaggered out of adolescence with confidence and grace.

The work accesses our desire to be back there, to be young and dancing, with a date no less, to truly live in the moment of the song as we hear it, and to have the world unfurled at our feet. Regardez-moi. Look at me.

herrick & Paul will close out 2015 with a rare treat for art lovers and cultural connoisseurs with an exhibition of photography by Malick Sidibé, whose post-independence photographs of Mali explode with colors, even though he uses only black-and-white film.

In the late 1950s, Western music had arrived in Mali, and with it came fashion, dance moves, and the infectious energy of youth. With his first camera, a Brownie Flash, young Malick Sidibé went to nightclubs and p hot og r a p he d th i s legion of well-dressed, contemporary Malians.

Then, in 1960, Mali won its independence from France, and many years of political transitions and economic instability followed.

Although they do read as snapshots, they are masterpieces of composition.

Within his frame, people are both larger than life and deeply familiar, while still maintaining their own personal sense of decorum. Even when photographing his friends as they swam in the river, the boys in their shorts, the girls in their underwear, there is no sense of indecency. “It’s like the earth and the sky belong to them. They can yell and shout as much as they want,” he said in Dolce Vita Africana.

“For me, photography is all about youth,” says Sidibé in Dolce Vita Africana, a documentary Surprise Party | 1964 about his life and work.

“It’s a happy world, full of joy; that’s what it is for me. It’s not some crying kid on a street corner or a sick person.”

This sense of self-possession is especially poignant in his portrait photography. Whether his subject is a schoolgirl or a politician, Sidibé endows each with a sense of royalty, a composure that radiates strength and assuredness. It’s no surprise to me that decades into his career, with work shown at museums and in private collections around the world, and with the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement under his belt, he still welcomes local visitors to his Bamako studio for portraits. It is through his portraits that we are reminded that the Malian Empire was for centuries one of

Sidibé would stay out all night taking photos and arrive home at dawn to develop them. His dancing snapshots have become iconic. In one, a young man leans into a near backbend on the dance floor while his date boogies beside him. Titled Regardez-moi, the photograph conveys pure jubilation. Nothing is more important to this couple than having fun. Not the country’s political transition or economic hardship, not the expectations of parents or teachers. The reason Sidibé’s club photographs are so well loved is that 52

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2 Jeunes Amies Jour de Fete | 2001 ©Malick Sidibé. Courtesy of the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York and Sherrick & Paul, Nashville

Vues de dos | 2002

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Within his frame, people are both larger than life and deeply familiar, while still maintaining their own personal sense of decorum. three controlling powers of trans-Saharan trade.

I don’t think Sidibé would call his work political, but I can’t help but read it as such. Like most Americans, I am capable of having a myopic view of Africa. So little of our historical education is devoted to the continent, and what little news makes its way into our purview is mostly of poverty, war, and government corruption.

Sidibé teaches us that Africa is a vast continent of many, many narratives.

Susan Sherrick first learned of Sidibé’s work when she was living in New York. “It got in my head—the clothes, the patterns, the design and the dancing, the relationships between the people in the photographs . . . I was so intrigued by it. I hadn’t seen anything like it before.” Now with her own gallery, Sherrick contacted Jack Shainman, who represents Sidibé in the U.S., and he was enthusiastic about a show in Nashville. na See Malick Sidibé's exhibition from November 5 to January 9 at Sherrick & Paul. For more information, visit www.sherrickandpaul.com.

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constructingMYSTERIES John Henry and Barry Buxkamper Cumberland Gallery

| Through December 24

by F. Douglass Schatz

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nternationally renowned sculptor John Henry will be exhibiting at Cumberland Gallery along with Nashville’s iconic painter Barry Buxkamper through December 24.

certain scale and which will not. The pieces he has selected for this show highlight his experience in recognizing these formal relationships and the possibilities within monumental art construction.

Henry, known for his large-scale steel constructions, has sculptures in major collections and sculpture parks throughout the world. The scale of his work ranges from just a few feet in height to one hundred feet or more. For this exhibition, he will be showing smaller tabletop-sized sculptures, some unique and some from small editions.

Compositionally elegant and visually balanced, each piece is a collection of lines and planes that work together to form a dynamic relationship with the space around them. Of particular note in these works is the seamless joinery that is a trademark of Mr. Henry’s more recent sculptures. Even his large-scale works have a system of construction that hides connections and bolts, allowing the viewer to focus on the form rather than the vagaries of construction.

While most sculptures in the show reflect their true size, several of the pieces are maquettes for larger, more monumental works. Mr. Henry has an uncompromising eye when it comes to knowing which forms will be successful at a

One remarkable thing about the small works is that even though one can see the whole sculpture, one is still compelled to walk around each piece in order to see the relationships among the various lines and forms. I have

John Henry | Terrain | 2002 | Black steel | 22" x 16” x 28”

Barry Buxkamper | Wobble 5: Leaving Bhutan | 2015 | Acrylic on unstretched canvas | 30” x 36”

always thought that one basic test of a successful pedestal piece is whether or not the viewer feels compelled to walk around to the other side—and these sculptures have the presence and energy to do just that.

in this show, his visual language communicates form and space to the viewer in a complex yet very accessible way.

Mr. Henry’s intuition about line, form, and materials for the last forty years has placed him firmly atop the pantheon of structural steel sculpture making.

Often people describe Henry’s work as an extension of Constructivism or more recently, Abstract Expressionism.

Certainly, the architectural size and clean metal lines of his sculptures are Constructivist in spirit. Similarly, like many Abstract Expressionist works, his sculptures have a spontaneous quality and are also highly planned out and meticulously constructed. However, when asked about his work, John Henry talks less about being a sculptor and more about being a builder, a term he first heard used in this context by outsider artist Herman Rusch. Mr. Henry likens the builder terminology to those artists who use intuition and inner vision rather than literary vocabulary and references.

He states, “Years ago cultures had a visual language and understood it. Now, though, we are out of practice and are still trying to understand. We have the need for language as a reference rather than experience as a reference. Art is not necessarily for immediate communication, but the experience of learning experience itself.” As one can see

Barry Buxkamper, one of Nashville’s premier painters, will also be showing at Cumberland Gallery. He will be exhibiting new paintings from several bodies of work, including his Wobble series, among others. Buxkamper’s work combines the mastery of technique with mystical inventions within his autobiographical oeuvre to arrive at beautifully imagined scenarios and painted constructions.

Buxkamper’s work is deeply steeped in humor while retaining a certain vibrant darkness. On the surface, his work is often humorous and lighthearted, but at the same time, it can hint at the dangerous and be quite serious.

For example, in Medical Center he uses surreal or almost cartoonish scenarios to speak about the experience of his late wife, Margret’s, battle with cancer. The composition includes a hospital, lightning, alligators, rats, and a blender all within the context of a medical care situation. The 55

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Barry Buxkamper | Jilting Arcadia 3 | 2015 Acrylic on unstretched canvas | 35” x 28”

Barry Buxkamper | Jilting Arcadia 1: With Apologies to Albert Bierstadt 2015 | Acrylic on unstretched canvas | 35” x 28”

juxtaposition of characters and elements becomes a surreal comedy on one hand, but it sums up perfectly the absurdity, pain, and helplessness that one feels as a participant in that level of the medical abyss. His paintings walk a fine line between playful overtones and sinister undertones, while never appearing fanciful or overbearing. These works by Mr. Buxkamper are serious, but they are not grim.

sees the inside of the car door and the adjacent natural scene out the car’s window. The doors are painted to resemble different materials such as wood and stone. As Mr. Buxkamper explains, “It’s a continuing theme in my work: nature made and non-nature made.” More pointedly, he says, “Nature occurs in a car for most people.” These are perhaps not as autobiographically specific as some of his other paintings as they recall the ubiquitous suburban vacation that many have experienced, but they are relatable to many people. The surreal treatment of materials depicted and the landscapes that he chooses to include provide humor while also commenting on the state of our modern car-centric society.

Some of his paintings seem just on the edge of disaster, but certainly have hope just around the corner. As Mr. Buxkamper says, “There is drama on the horizon” in these works. In one from his Wobble series, Buxkamper paints about a harrowing personal experience on a mountain road in Bhutan. He appears within the composition of a mountain road scene, where the road has washed away and a truck is in danger of falling off the precipice. With the help of a hummingbird in his hand, the self-portrait in the composition paints the beginnings of a tunnel for the truck to escape off the mountain. This clever wit and curious use of the self in Mr. Buxkamper’s work gives fresh life to the discipline of painting in an oftentimes cynical contemporary art climate.

Both exhibitions at Cumberland Gallery of John Henry and Barry Buxkamper showcase two Tennessee artists at the top of their craft. Though differing in approach, the beautifully rendered forms, vivid imaginations, and the attention to detail from each artist cannot be overstated. na Recent Works, Barry Buxkamper and John Henry will be on exhibit at Cumberland Gallery through December 24.

Paul Polycarpou will interview John Henry on Thursday, November 19, 6-8 p.m. For more information, please visit www.cumberlandgallery.com.

In another series, Mr. Buxkamper paints outdoor scenery as if viewed from the interior of a car. In each painting, one 56

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John Henry | Traveler | 2008 | Painted red steel | 21” x 15” x 9.5”

Compositionally elegant and visually balanced, each piece is a collection of lines and planes that work together to form a dynamic relationship with the space around them.

Tennessee for Me Eleven Artists Explore the Beauty of Tennessee at Richland Fine Art November 12 through 28

by Brittany Greenquist Tennessee is a remarkable state, lavishing us with beautiful natural landscapes and friendly faces. As a resident, it’s possible I’m partial, but there’s no denying that there’s something special about it, and I’m not alone in my admiration of this fair land.

Nashville gallery Richland Fine Art Inc. is presenting a November show Tennessee for Me that passionately portrays inspiring scenes from across the region. The exhibition, open November 12 through 28, displays the work of eleven of Tennessee’s finest artists: William Buffett, Kristin Clark, Paula Frizbe, Sheryl Hibbs, Gayle Levee, Jean McGuire, Michael Shane Neal, Lori Putnam, Dean Shelton, Dawn E. Whitelaw, and guest artist Kathie Odom.

Paula Frizbe | Road to Brenda’s | 2015 | Oil on canvas | 30” x 40”

“I am often asked if Richland offers local artwork that depicts life in the South,” says Richland Fine Art president Clay Whitelaw. “This exhibition, Tennessee for Me, is my answer. The show will feature more than forty paintings from eleven exceptional Tennessee artists, each with a different point of view, each painting his or her favorite subject matter. This is a rare opportunity and promises to be a great treat for every art lover.”

Michael Shane Neal, a sixth-generation Nashvillian, will be holding a special presentation during the exhibit called “Faces of Tennessee,” based on the residents he has captured over the years. Neal explained his inspiration behind the presentation saying, “Tennessee is home. It’s a part of who I am. The beauty of the state, the diversity of the land and its people have been an inspiration for me as an artist since I was a kid.”

Dawn E. Whitelaw | Strickland’s Glory | 2015 | Oil on canvas | 20” x 24”

Along with Neal, Gayle Levee, an artist originally from Boston who has called Tennessee home for the past twelve years, will be holding a demonstration of her painting skills.

Her bio reveals that her “artistic style found its true voice in New England, where she began mastering the techniques of painting encompassed by a movement known as the Boston School of Impressionism.”

Both presentations will take place on Saturday, November 21. If you plan to attend, please call the gallery for free reservations.

Lori Putnam | Warm Thoughts | Oil | 6” x 12” 58

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Kathie Odom | Pop’s Shop | Oil | 14” x 18”

It’s clear that every artist involved has captured a part of Tennessee in a way that is moving and wholly unique. With deep shadows and rich colors, Sheryl Hibbs’s Soul of the City embodies the powerful history of Tennessee’s vibrant music life, while Paula Frizbe’s Road to Brenda’s portrays the region’s idyllic outdoors with a view of a country road that seems to lead to a simpler time.

Native Tennesseans, new residents, and visitors alike will find the rich history and beauty of this state made even more compelling through the craftsmanship of these remarkable artists. na For more information about Tennessee for Me at Richland Fine Art, November 12 to 28, please visit www.richlandfineart.com.

Michael Shane Neal | Knotty Pine | 2014 | Oil on board | 14" x 18" 59 nashvillearts.com

Celebrating 22 Years The Annual Murfreesboro Art Studio Tour November 21 through 22

Alan Daigre

by Justin Stokes

B

uilding upon the rich visual harvest of Rutherford County’s creative avenues, the Art Studio Tour makes its 22nd trip around the sun on November 21–22.

Just in time to prepare for holiday gift giving, these two days of in-home craft and art surveying will certainly help mark some names off your list.

Anne Rob

The stops on the tour are cherry-picked by parent organization Stones River Craft Association to reflect the best that the county has to offer. According to the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, the studio tour pulls in over 282,000 residents per last year’s head count.

Ten studios will harbor the passions of 30 to 40 guest and native artists that massage clay, make hats, string stones into jewelry, forge iron, and drag paint across canvases, providing an exclusive observation bay for craft and art tradition.

“The Studio Tour allows those in the community to get a glimpse into the daily working lives of self-employed artists,” says Alan Daigre, whose cabinetmaking and hosting of the tour have involved him in the event for nearly a decade.

“We want folks to learn that there are many opportunities to shop local and support local artists right in their own back yard.”

Making this year “bigger and better,” two new studios are added to the tour: Dawna Magliacano (choice artist whose new 903 Studio has captured local attention) and ceramicist/multi-media manipulator Susan Rodehaver. Many makers will offer the opportunity to purchase commissioned pieces, as well as discontinued items at a reduced rate.

Dawna Kinne Magliacano

As the tour is expecting a thousand attendees over the two-day period, Daigre advises getting a head start. “We suggest folks start early on Saturday and allow time to enjoy the beautiful back roads of Rutherford County as well as all that Murfreesboro has to offer. Make it a point to talk to the artists and learn about the processes they use to create their work. Art always is more meaningful when a personal connection is made.” na The annual Murfreesboro Art Studio Tour will be held November 21 and 22 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, enthusiasts are offered both the tour’s website www.artstudiotour.org and social media, including the event’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/boroartstudiotour for updates, the possible means to speak directly to a tour representative, and any changes made in real time that might occur during the tour.

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2015 Nashville Arts Photography Competition This year’s photography competition brought in an outstanding collection of images from amateurs, professionals, hobbyists, and just about anyone with an iPhone and a keen eye. Every subject matter was covered—abstracts, landscapes, portraits, nudes, documentary . . . even the weird and the absurd were represented, and we enjoyed looking at every single one of them. For the record, when we judge we do not know who the photographer is or their status. We judge simply on the image we are looking at. This year the judges were Paul Polycarpou and Sara Lee Burd of Nashville Arts Magazine and the guest judge was Jerry Atnip. Here are our top ten picks. You can see all the entries online at www.Nashvillearts.com and make your own selections. Thanks to all who entered and to Chromatics for sponsoring the prizes for first, second, and third place. See you all again next year.

Sponsored by

1ST PLACE

$500 CASH

Miles A. Tudor, Shadows: While on a group outing, looking down from a parking garage, the shadows from the trees caught my eye. I set up and composed in the camera and was giving some thought as to whether it would make a good photo when a lady walked by and I thought her shadow added interest. I waited a while and three people strolled into view. After I reviewed the result in the camera, I was so pleased that I settled for taking this one shot.

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2ND PLACE

$300 CHROMATICS GIFT CERTIFICATE

Al Wood: I was on the other side of Broadway in downtown Nashville when I saw the lady sitting in the window with her eyes fixed on something. At first I thought it was the horse but now I am not sure it was anything in particular.

3RD PLACE

$200 CHROMATICS GIFT CERTIFICATE

Julia W. Gary, Adonis of the Sea: During a photography trip to Havana, Cuba I spent an afternoon walking along the Malecon (carrying my FE2 Nikon and rolls of black and white film) watching and photographing the locals as they interacted with each other.

I happened upon this muscular young man sitting on the wall and noticed how the sun outlined his body and played on his skin, emphasizing the beauty and hope of the Cuban people.

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Garrett Mills: When I was walking in an area of strife I came upon this scene.

Bob Greenberg: The photo was inspired by Lewis Hine’s iconic photograph Mechanic at Steam Pump in Electric Power House, 1920. My picture was taken in an electric power sub-station that contained a similar wrench, which gave me the idea. There is a deliberate arrangement of harsh lighting from above to delineate the subject’s musculature. Arranging the lighting took about 45 minutes with 4 frames being taken in about 2 minutes.

JayBee: This was a sunrise shoot, as we wanted to capture a oneness with nature, as nature revealed itself from darkness.

This first translated into a connection with the water, but that connection didn’t feel quite close enough, so I layered in another connection by Percy kissing himself in the water.

Emily Beaver: Shot on 35mm film with a Lomo LC-A camera using natural light, alongside Regent’s Canal, London. Jennifer adjusts her headscarf in preparation for her 60s Italian film inspired portrait.

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Photograph by Mark Mosrie

GUEST JUDGE Jerry Atnip In my years of curating photography exhibitions and jurying competitions, I have found that there are two scenarios that are a bit difficult to encounter. First are the times when it is a challenge to find images worthy of inclusion. The other is when it’s hard to eliminate images to get down to the prescribed number of choices.

This competition was of the latter. The selected artists (and I don’t use that term flippantly) have distinguished themselves as being fearless in their use of the medium.

Looking at the finalists, you see those who’ve used principles established by artists that have excelled in this discipline. On the other hand, some have shown their familiarity with and mastery of the contemporary styles of today’s photographic art stars.

Neither is better nor worse than the other. They both have a strong and deserved place in the art of photography. While you may have a personal preference for one style over another, know that these chosen images are all worthy of your consideration and appreciation. na

Ryan Musick, The Seeker: All artists listen. They observe, sometimes their outward environments and experience and sometimes their own inner dialogue. To me, this piece represents the reflective nature of that journey.

Penny Felts, Ode to Degas: I took this photo with a Polaroid SX 70 camera and the new film by Impossible Project.

My model here is Kara Dixon. As with all of my photos, I started with a concept and then hoped for magic.

Joe NuÑez: This is a photo of my good friend Corey Rosson doing a wallie nollie.

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antonWEISS

by Annie Stoppelbein

The Abstract Expressionist's Final Solo Show L Ross Gallery | November 4 through 28

S

tanding and talking before one of his paintings in progress, the sheer size of which commands attention, seventy-nine-year-old Anton Weiss is brought back to a state of childlike wonder. He is preparing for his final solo exhibition at L Ross Gallery in Memphis. The show will run from November 4 to 28 and present works from all of Anton’s nine lives— watercolors, monotypes, oil paintings, metal, and sculpture.

Anton’s work is birthed of spontaneity. He has no idea what he will make, but experimentation propels him.

Instinctually, he creates a push and pull using basic but universal elements of art: color, shape, and depth.

He engages with the energy of the canvas by gliding a small piece of paper over the surface, unsure of where it will land. Undercurrents in the painting are more important than just covering empty space.

Color on top of color yields vibrancy. “I want this to go as far back as I can take it.” He is looking for lucidity and tension to coexist in every square inch, and every inch needs to simultaneously function as a part of the whole.

Fenestra | 1999 | Mixed media | 44” x 68”

In recent years, Anton has found new mediums. He alternates between painting and sculpture to avoid boredom and fatigue. As he is no longer physically able to work in metal forging, Anton’s sculptures are made from found wood. Positioned in the middle of his studio is a tall, thin form of a female holding a bird.

He is in the process of layering textured paper over the surface, searching for cohesion. It is rare for Anton to finish a piece without having extensively reworked it. “It’s a constant evolution because every piece is one of a kind.”

At eight years old Anton knew what he wanted to be, effectively making him the third artist in his family unit. His father supported them with his craft, and his mother painted for pleasure. The story of his youth is nothing short of cinematic.

Born in Yugoslavia and of Austrian descent, Anton found himself and his family in the midst of World War II. His father was forced to join Hitler’s army, while Anton, his mother, and grandparents were placed in

Opus in White #3 | 1996 | Oil on canvas | 60” x 60” 66 nashvillearts.com

concentration camps. His highly intelligent mother spoke six languages, and that enabled her to escape. Shortly after, a freedom fighter emancipated Anton and several other children. The group spent nine months traveling from Yugoslavia to Austria by night, in the cold, and hiding by day. Anton never knew his liberator’s name.

When they arrived across the border, Anton says, neutral Austria was, to them, a whole new world. His family found a sponsor that brought them to America, specifically Springfield, Tennessee. The organization funding the sponsorship saw promise in Anton’s artistic abilities. He started at Watkins Institute of Design and Film, where he eventually returned as head of the Arts Department. From there he moved on to New York City and enrolled at the highly revered Art Students League in 1956.

The end of the war saw the beginning of modern American art. There were rebels breaking from the traditional realists of the Art Students League, giving credibility to the country as an innovative arts player. Anton gives a clear definition: “Abstract expressionism is a departure of realism, a departure of an emotional state. Rather than art images, it just exists without necessarily having meaning.

It relates to a lot of people.”

The movement marked a simplification of thought, and this appealed to Anton. He was tipped off to attend class with Hans Hofmann, who spearheaded the style. Despite having studied at the most notable institutions in the country, it was Hofmann’s teachings that most resonated with Anton. “He encouraged the student’s identity rather than adopting what he did. That was a gift that can’t be replaced.”

Gallery owner Linda Ross, a friend of Anton’s for twentyeight years, aims to honor his career and incredible life with this exhibit. L Ross celebrates their ten-year anniversary on the show’s opening day. Coincidentally, it was Anton’s work that was on display ten years ago, for their first show. Linda says, “Over the years he has been such a well-received and beloved artist that almost everything he has done has been sold.” This, the apotheosis of Anton’s career, will be the chance to act for those who have always wanted to collect his work. na Anton Weiss’s exhibit Layers: Work Through Decades will be on exhibit at L Ross Gallery in Memphis, November 4 through 28. An artist's reception will be held on November 6. For more information visit www.lrossgallery.com.

Photograph by Anthony Scarlati

Now Anton hopes to foster a new generation of artists.

With thirty years of teaching experience, he still instructs a small group once a week at Harpeth Art Center. He shares a studio space with his partner and fellow artist, Lisa Jennings, at their quiet home outside Nashville, where they continue to inspire each other’s work.

Balance | 2012 | Mixed media | 38” x 26” x 12”

Hydrogen Jukebox Glass & Ginsberg Collaboration Comes to Nashville Opera Noah Liff Opera Center | November 13–15

by Joseph E. Morgan

O

n November 13–15 the Nashville Opera will present Philip Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox in the intimate Studio Theater at the Noah Liff Opera Center. Hydrogen Jukebox is a unique document of the twentieth century avantgarde, combining Philip Glass’s emotional minimalism with the socially critical counter-culture poetry of Allen Ginsberg, two of the most creative voices of their generation. Although it might seem dated, with topics focused on a time period stretching from the 1950s to the 1980s, the production promises an event that will prove to be powerfully nostalgic yet immediately relevant.

Composer Philip Glass

The collaboration began as a result of a chance meeting of the two artists in a bookstore in New York. It was just after the 1988 presidential election, and they were frustrated at the lack of attention being paid to the struggles of the real world. As Glass remembers: “. . . neither Bush nor Dukakis seemed to talk about anything that was going on. I remember saying to Allen, if these guys aren’t going to talk about the issues, then we should.” The resulting work, a collection of twenty songs setting poems and texts from across Ginsberg’s career, evades any traditional narrative structure and is instead what Glass calls a “portrait” of America—an America concerned with life, death, the atomic bomb, sex, drugs, and war.

At its premiere it was staged as a kind of contemporary commedia dell’arte, featuring six vocal parts representing six archetypal American characters—a waitress, a policewoman, a businessman, a priest, a mechanic, and a cheerleader.

Recent productions have abandoned these characters, naming them only by their voice type and placing Ginsberg at the center of the drama, personifying him as “the Poet.” Nashville Opera seems to be following this trend, but with a completely new interpretation, featuring a cast of six singers, most of whom have been heard before here or near Nashville, including Hanna Brammer as Soprano I, Rachele Schmiege Soprano II, mezzo-soprano Caitlin McKechney, tenor Stefan M. Barner, and bass-baritone Peter Johnson. Baritone Patrick McNally is having his debut here with this production and as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte later in the season. Finally, actor Henry Haggard will play the Poet.

Poet Allen Ginsberg

Maestro Dean Williamson, NO’s new Music Director, will lead the Nashville Opera Chamber Orchestra in realizing Glass’s innovative score, which is written for two woodwind choirs, synthesizers, and extensive percussion as well as the six voice parts. The music maintains a light grounding in the text, but also demands a good deal of interpretation from the listener, as Glass himself has stated: “A portrait in music need not be a complete portrait. If you have some indication, we as listeners fill in the rest.” Ultimately, Hydrogen Jukebox, with its combination of beat poetry and downtown avant-garde, promises to be one of the hippest events on the Nashville scene this season. na The Nashville Opera presents Hydrogen Jukebox November 13 to 14 at 8 p.m. and November 15 at 2 p.m. in the Noah Liff Opera Center and will feature a talkback session with the artists, Director John Hoomes, and Maestro Williamson at the conclusion of each performance. For more information, visit www.nashvilleopera.org. *This production features adult content and language and is not recommended for younger audiences.

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Nashville Opera CEO and Artistic Director John Hoomes

phantomBODIES

by Daniel Tidwell

Frist Center

| Through February 14

Sally Mann | Semaphore | 2003 | Gelatin silver print | 15” x 14”

P

hantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art is the culmination of a curatorial conversation about representations of the human body in art that began in 2009 with Paint Made Flesh and continued with Fairy Tales Monsters and the Genetic Imagination in 2012. Taken as a whole the three exhibitions provide an expansive look at ways in which artists have portrayed the body through the physicality of paint; through myth, folklore, and genetics, and finally through the mind’s relationship to the body and its spirit.

“Phantom Bodies is concerned with conveying the sensation of the absent body,” says curator Mark Scala. “The title comes from the phenomenon of the phantom limb, the feeling that a body part that 70 nashvillearts.com

has been removed is still present.” Scala, who curated all three exhibitions, says that as he developed this exhibition he discovered artists who were using their art to not only explore death and loss, but to address larger questions at the root of our humanity such as “spiritual forces that extend out into the world through the body and may transcend the physical.”

Concepts such as these at the very core of art in Scala’s view.

“Since early on, art has been used to give form to invisible forces within and outside of ourselves, to trigger memories, to metaphorically deny death by eternally freezing a simulation of life. Art may be thought of as the phantom memory of culture, connecting people and ghosts across time and space.”

Barry X Ball | Envy | 2008-12 | Pakistani onyx and stainless steel | 23” x 17” x 10” Barry X Ball | Purity | 2008-12 | Mexican onyx and stainless steel | 24” x 17” x 11” Pedestals | Macedonian marble, stainless steel, wood, acrylic lacquer, steel, nylon, and plastic | 45” x 14” x 12” Christian Boltanski | Untitled | 1989 | Clothing, black-and-white photographs, and lights | 111” x 64” x 7”

Many of the works in Phantom Bodies reference violence or may contain actual traces of violent acts. About these works Scala says that, “an object’s history of violence makes its aura more keenly felt. Our greatest empathy lies with those who have suffered the traumas that we most dread.”

One such work is Teresa Margolles’ Lote Bravo, a sculpture of stacked rough-hewn bricks fashioned from sand take from an area of Ciudad Juárez where the bodies of many murdered women have been recovered. At first glance, the work appears to be an imposing minimal sculpture, but when one becomes aware of the fraught nature of its materiality the work is transformed into a deeply evocative meditation on murder, violence, and loss.

While the deeper content of this piece may be elusive to some viewers, Scala feels that it references universal forms in a way that provides clues to this content: “Many tributes to the dead have been in the form of stones or bricks. Without our knowledge of the specific motives for the creation of these edifices, we can still feel… their…“ mute power as eternal markers of grief and memorialization. Margolles’ minimal treatment of the bricks encourages the viewer to think about the anonymous (to us) women whose DNA may be present in the clay, not the skill it takes to make bricks, or to make art.”

Some of the most striking images in the show are Deborah Luster’s portraits of female prisoners in holiday costumes taken at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel. “Convicts are already the living phantoms of society, forgotten and invisible,” says Scala. “By being photographed in disguise, the women retreat deeper into the protective veil of the phantasm.”

These haunting and macabre photos were motivated by the brutal murder of Luster’s mother when the artist was a child.

“

Art may be thought of as the phantom memory of culture, connecting people and ghosts across time and space.

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller | Exquisite Corpse, enfant | 2012 | Mixed media | dimensions variable 72 nashvillearts.com

Anish Kapoor | Mother as a Mountain | 1985 | Gesso and powder pigment on wood | 55" × 92" × 41"

Adam Fuss | Medusa, from the series Home and the World | 2010 Gelatin silver print photogram, edition 3 of 9 | 95” x 57”

“The murder traumatized her for years,” according to Scala, “but eventually inspired her to go to different prisons to learn the stories, build rapport, and convey through photography the humanity of people who commit crimes.

An expression of deepest compassion, Luster’s project honors the memory of her mother in a very moving way, giving her, in her words, a way to ‘touch the disappeared.’”

Many of the pieces included in Phantom Bodies evoke a poignant otherworldliness, as if the artists have, in some enigmatic way, breathed life into inert materials. Alicia Henry’s Untitled (Brown, Red, White, and Blue) is one such work that “seems to be mysteriously sentient,” in Scala’s view. “The installation of body shapes and masks, made from skin-like materials that are often sutured to suggest wounds and healing, conveys a timeless stoicism that may be seen as a response to personal pain or racial injustice.”

Phantom traces of the body embedded in the earth can be seen in Ana Mendieta’s Volcano Series No 2 where the artist formed a body-shaped cavity in a mound of earth, then destroyed it in an eruption of fire and smoke.

Like this site-specific sculpture, much of Mendieta’s work was ephemeral—exploring issues of feminism, sexuality and spirituality while navigating the nexus between land art, performance art, and body art. In the video Butterfly, “She filmed herself with iridescent wings—symbolizing the ephemerality of life—transformed into pure colored light,” says Scala. “Both works convey the notion of sublimation, literally referring to the passage of a solid into a gas and metaphorically indicating the union of the human soul with the forces of the universe.” In the art world, Mendieta has an almost mythical status derived from her childhood as a Cuban immigrant, the shamanic nature of her work, and her tragically violent death in 1985, and in many ways her biography echoes the themes addressed in Phantom Bodies.

Loss, longing, and the desire to memorialize those who have preceded us in life are universal experiences that for eons have given rise to the unknowable questions of the afterlife.

Phantom Bodies is a fascinating look at how contemporary artists are addressing such issues. Frist Center Executive Director Susan H. Edwards describes the work in the show as “aesthetically, viscerally, and intellectually profound…

We are pleased that Mark has identified artists from our community and region to include with some of the most renowned and provocative artists working today.”

“The idea of a vestigial presence-in-absence can speak to anyone who has sought internal compensation for loss,” says Scala. “There is something in this exhibition that I hope every visitor will find to be of value.” na Phantom Bodies: The Human Aura in Art will be on exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts through February 14. For more information visit, www.fristcenter.org.

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TENNESSEE FOR ME

EXHIBITION DATES November 12-28 OPENING RECEPTION November 12 6-8pm SPECIAL PROGRAM BY MICHAEL SHANE NEAL Faces of Tennessee November 21 PAINTING DEMO BY GAYLE LEVEE November 21 call for free reservations 615•2 9 2•2781 PARTICIPATING ARTISTS William Buffett • Kristin Clark Paula Frizbe • Sheryl Hibbs Gayle Levee • Jean McGuire Michael Shane Neal • Lori Putnam Dean Shelton • Dawn E. Whitelaw Guest artist Kathie Odom GRACE’S PLAZA • GREEN HILLS

www.richlandfineart.com

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Words by Walter Carter Photography by Charles A. Daughtry

joeBONAMASSA

Finds His Muse in Nashville Ryman Auditorium | November 16 & 18

N

ashville is not usually thought of as a center for blues music, but Joe Bonamassa is changing that. Although the blues guitar star still lives in Los Angeles, his upcoming two-night stand at the Ryman Auditorium and his upcoming album should be claimed by Nashville as homegrown music.

His regular co-writers are Nashville tunesmiths; he records in Nashville, and his touring and studio band features longtime Nashville pickers Michael Rhodes on bass and Reese Wynans on keyboards.

Born and raised in central New York state, Bonamassa was a blues prodigy, opening shows for B.B. King at the age of twelve. Today, at thirty-eight, he’s the shining light of a new generation of bluesmen, with a broad base of influences that encompasses the old masters (acoustic and electric), the Clapton-Page-Beck school of blues-based rock, and any other musical style that can be injected into the blues. Moreover, Bonamassa has emerged as a new business model for musical performers— acting (with his manager) as his own booking agent, concert promoter, and record label.

While on tour in Germany in October, Bonamassa took a few minutes to talk on the phone about Nashville, the blues, and the blues business.

WC: What first attracted you to Nashville?

JB: We’ve been playing Nashville ever since I started

touring, but in the last three or four years I’ve been writing there and recording there. You have to go where all the best guys are for writing and recording. When I asked my friends, the answer was always Nashville. Even my friend Keb’ Mo’—I got his storage locker in L.A. because he vacated it to move to Nashville.

WC: Your business organization is seen as a model

for success in a time when the music business is struggling, record labels in particular. Was that by design or by happenstance?

JB: It

was ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, a situation where the music industry, the traditional label system . . . they wanted me to just crawl into a hole and just die. Nobody would buy me. This was a lost cause. My manager, Roy Weisman, and I decided to shut all the doors. We’re not using an agent, not using a promoter. They would never approach a promoter about doing a show at the Ryman. If they had their way we would be playing a club—not that that is bad, but I wanted to play the Ryman. I wanted to play Carnegie Hall. When you take the promoter out of it you figure out very quickly it’s not very hard to promote a show. When you take the artist guarantee out of it, it gets really easy. Just set up the Joe Bonamassa pretzel wagon.

Owning the record company has been a real asset because it allows me to put out product the way I want to.

WC: How did you find co-writers?

JB: The

first person I called was James House [best known for his own hit “This Is Me Missing You”].

His wife, Barbara, runs the studio for Ben Folds.

James and I have worked really well together over the years. Then I got hooked up with Jeffrey Steele, Jerry Flowers, Jonathan Cain, and Gary Nicholson.

We wrote the last album in a matter of a couple of weeks. These guys are songwriting dudes.

WC: Co-writing is a way of life in Nashville. Did you fit in right away?

JB: Co-writing is like going to a dinner party. It’s polite

to bring a small appetizer or a bottle of wine. In cowriting it’s polite to bring something, and that’s what I did. I’m not looking for a hit. There aren’t really hit singles in blues, where I come from. I just said, whether it’s three minutes or six minutes let’s just write something that works for me that I can sell.

WC: A few months ago you were house-hunting in Nashville.

JB: I ended up buying a house in Laurel Canyon [in Los

WC: Many people think of blues as a limiting musical

Angeles]. The thought of moving all those amps, putting them on a truck, I thought, this is gonna be dangerous. I’ll probably get an apartment in Nashville, some place small, and stop paying the hotel bills. na

form, with three chords and a set song structure.

How do you deal with that?

JB: You

have to introduce different styles into it.

I’ve never been a traditional blues player by any definition of the word. To me, everything’s fair game. Rock, country, jazz, punk . . . You can season it with anything.

Joe Bonamassa will perform at the Ryman Auditorium Monday, November 16, and Wednesday, November 18. For tickets and additional information, visit www.ryman.com and www.jbonamassa.com.

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RED CASCADE BOUQUET NECKLACE 18K yellow and white gold necklace with brilliant cut diamonds, round cut and pear cut rubies, and fired enamel RENAISSANCE PRINCESS PENDANT BROOCH 18K yellow gold pendant brooch with brilliant cut diamonds, one cultured pearl, and fired enamel CARNATION RING 18K yellow gold ring with brilliant cut diamonds and fired enamel RED SNAKE BRACELET 18K yellow gold bracelet with brilliant cut diamonds, round cut yellow sapphires, and fired enamel NEFERTITI EARRINGS 18K white and yellow gold earrings with 2 pear cut sapphires, 40 brilliant cut diamonds, and fired enamel

majesticMASRIERA An Exquisite Line of Spanish Jewelry Graces E.J. Sain Likewise, it’s still possible for today’s expert Masriera smiths to duplicate the originals—along with working using Lluis’s many original drawings.

Each jewel takes some six to eight weeks to individually cast, enamel, and set, by jewelers and enamellers who’ve received three years initial training, then another four specific to Masriera’s work. The enameling is of especial interest: Lluis was a trained painter, and the enameling looks as though it’s a painting itself. The enamels utilized are proprietary, based on Lluis’s original formulas.

by Stephanie Stewart-Howard “I am here working and already calculating how I will fashion lovely things when I return and wage furious competition against other jewelers who, on seeing one of my gilt objects, will have fits of dizziness, convulsions, and other similar symptoms such as are usually produced by jealousy and rage.”

That process requires heavy gold, 18 karat (later washed with 24 karat for added softness of color) to temper through between ten and fourteen individual firings. This strengthens the piece, as well as gives it the distinctive beauty and intense hues the works are known for.

So said gifted and prodigious Lluis Masriera in a letter home to Barcelona in 1890. The third generation scion of the family known already for producing exquisite jewelry and art (the family jewelry-making business was established in 1839 by his grandfather) was studying at the time with the enameling master F.E. Lossier in Geneva, mastering the painstaking techniques the company still uses today.

A decade ago, the company went to the city of Barcelona, says Lake, and began to work to revive the old artisans’ guild so that this kind of training and tradition will not be lost.

Nothing Masriera does is mass produced, unlike so many major jewelry companies today. There is great value in that labor.

Lluis proved himself a master, and his work came to be deeply associated with Catalan Modernism, recognized today as a variant of Art Nouveau—beginning with his first collection in 1901. He would later adopt the Egyptian Revival styles associated with 1920s Art Deco, blending the two for an astonishing collection of much lauded, vividly colored jewelry using intricate goldsmithing techniques, enameling, and precious stones.

“Lluis made many rings,” says Lake, “and we market fifteen to twenty periodically for wedding or engagement, using more colored stones as they did in his time. There really is a timeless beauty in them. Each piece is touched by ten, twelve different artisans as it’s created.” Some of this production process can be viewed online at the company’s website.

Lluis passed away in 1958, after merging his business with the Carrera Brothers back in 1915. By 1985, the entire business had been purchased by another gifted Barcelonabased jewelry-making family, the Bagués brothers. Now, his complete legacy lives on with the still-enduring Masriera collection from Bagués-Masriera.

Each piece by Masriera shares a sense of the romance and artistry of the early twentieth century, its rich, subtle colors, its flowers and leaves that look painted, drawing wearers to specific jewels.

The Masriera line is available at E.J. Sain in Nashville, and U.S. representatives Sally Lake and Jeff Ockunzzi will be here December 10–12 to show it in detail.

Sally Lake compares their one-of-a-kind appeal to the lure of mechanical watches in a high-tech market: not only are they gorgeous, but they speak to craftsmanship uniquely in an era fraught with mass production and duplication. na

Lake says part of what makes this line special is that everything is still done by hand, the old-fashioned way.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Masriera family took the unusual step of making original molds or dies for their pieces, as they did for the silverware they made.

E.J. Sain will feature Masriera, Sal Praschnik, and Mason-Kay at the annual Holiday Open House, December 10–12. For more information, visit www.ejsain.com and www.bagues-masriera.com.

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JEWEL

by Bob Doerschuk

New Book. New Album.

Never Broken.

O

dds are that Jewel’s journey isn’t even halfway done. Yet already she’s been through more than most of us can process in one lifetime. She’s handled her many ups and downs with an uncommon grace. More impressive, rather than complain about her hardships and crow about her triumphs, as memoirists tend to do, she has made it a priority to pass along what she’s learned to all who will hear her songs or read her autobiography.

Never Broken, published in September by Blue Rider Press, traces her first forty-odd years, beginning in an Alaskan wilderness almost too vast to comprehend, leading to wildly different environs in Hawaii, back to Alaska, and on to music studies in Michigan, a homeless spell in Los Angeles, and swanky soirees in Hollywood, New York, Europe, and wherever else celebrities seek their swank.

Based on this history, it’s impossible to predict what lies ahead for this singular singer, songwriter, poet, and now author. A life of letters in some ivied academic institution, imparting knowledge to eager acolytes? Or a return to the wilderness, say a Scottish island, letting the crash of surf inspire new works? It may not be too late for her to sign up for that trip to Mars being planned for just eleven years from now. Nothing seems beyond the pale.

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nashvillearts.com

With Jack Nicholson at the Venice Film Festival

For now, though, Jewel has settled in Nashville. Maybe she’ll look back on our town as a place to catch her breath after all that came before—complex family relations, immersion in deep waves of love tempered by sorrow and ultimately redeemed by the birth of her son. Or maybe she’s here to stay.

“I’ve been recording in Nashville since my first album [Pieces of You, 1995],” she says. “But I came here mainly because of the sense of community. I was always told that if you get famous, you hang out with other people who influence each other, like Paris in the 1920s, where painters would hang out with writers who’d hang out with musicians who’d hang out with philosophers. That was never my experience in Los Angeles or New York; Nashville is much closer to that.”

It’s easy to see how community became a priority for Jewel Kilcher. Through the first half of Never Broken, her world centers on a tiny house surrounded by miles of open Alaskan land, in which a hard-drinking father struggled to raise her and her two brothers. Their days and nights could be magical. They could also be brutal. A few decades later, she found herself anything but alone, in a swirl of adoring fans, improbable romances, and eventually lawyers, record executives, and others entangled by their greed.

Never Broken challenged Jewel herself to turn around at least one aspect of her self-image. The renown she’s earned for her song lyrics and poetry actually made it difficult for her to get the project in gear. “I felt like I was writing badly because this was my first long-form book,” she admits. “I’d never had the patience to do anything like this before, and it proved to be a very, very different process. I had to learn how to carry multiple arcs over long periods of time, foreshadowing without giving things away. What I’d valued heretofore was to use very few words to say a lot. With a memoir, there were times I just had to recite history to move from Point A to Point B, so not every moment could be so potent. I had to find a good pace so I didn’t lose the reader.

“But there are also moments where I could become more poetic,” she allows. “Where I wanted to give a sense of weight or poignancy or importance to a passage, I’d slow it down. If you look at where I write about how Ty [Murray, ex-husband] fell in love, I used a much more lyrical style, much more descriptive.

I lean into it to create a change and hopefully help the reader sit up and take note."

Jewel’s move to Nashville followed a decision she had made to dig a little deeper into country music as a vehicle for her expression. With John Rich producing, she released Sweet and Wild in 2010. This year, she maintains a connection to the genre through appearances by Dolly Parton and Rodney Crowell on Picking Up the Pieces.

“But for me it’s more about values than genre,” she says. “If I approach my music from a values base, I don’t leave my values even if I experiment with different genres. That’s something that record labels don’t often understand. In fact, I find genre fascism pretty shocking. It’s like me going into my closet and somebody saying, ‘You’re gonna have to pick whether you’re a sweatpants girl or a dress girl forever, the rest of your life.’ Well, why not be both? That’s how I feel about music.” na Jewel’s Never Broken is available at bookstores and online. For more information about the book and artist, visit www.jeweljk.com.

Photograph by West Kennerly

We’ve heard similar psychodramas from tell-all bestsellers, but Jewel’s narrative stands separate from them. First, she writes with compassion, even when focusing on former antagonists and onetime lovers. And always, she seems driven to share what she’s learned, in long lyric passages and wise epigrams— i.e., “Betrayal converts our innocence to wisdom” or the very last line in the book: “Be the architect of your dreams.”

“That’s one reason I wrote the book,” she says. “I don’t have a tremendous need to talk about myself—that’s not how I was raised—except to be able to communicate. It’s sort of a paradox that through self-reflection you find commonality with somebody else. This wasn’t just a conversation with myself in a mirror. As I was writing, I was having a conversation with whoever would be reading what I had to say and maybe helping them turn things around.”

Performing at the Coors Theater in San Diego

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Friends and Angels Worrell Gallery Pop-up for Nikki Mitchell Foundation Tennessee Art League

| November 6 to 29

Steve Wariner | Rodeo Cowboys | Watercolor | 11” x 14”

Rance Jones | Blacksmith Still Life | Watercolor | 24” x 24”

by Erin Lewis

Aleksander Titovets | Divine Curtain | Oil on canvas | 24” x 30”

The Worrell Gallery and 161Art, an artist representative company, present Friends and Angels, a pop-up gallery within the Tennessee Art League Gallery, November 6 to 29. Scott and Kim Mele, co-founders of 161Art, organized the event to promote unrepresented artists. The Friends and Angels exhibit showcases a wide range of genres and mediums through the works of 21 artists.

Scott Mele brings more than 25 years of experience to the burgeoning art market. He and his wife, Kim, represent Bob Jones and Janel Maher. Before Mele represented him, Jones was faced with closing his gallery. “And that is a shame. When someone with that much God-given talent can’t make a go of it,” said Mele. The pop-up aims to change this.

Bill Worrell, Bob Jones, and Walt Wooten capture the spirit of the Southwest through their paintings and sculptures.

John Maisano and Janel Maher design dynamic and lifelike sculptures. Marti Perkins represents the art of jewelry. William A. Suys and Aleksander Titovets create harmonious oil paintings of landscapes. Rance Jones and Bob Gray brighten things up with vibrant hues through their stunning watercolor and Southern imagery. Steve Wariner cherishes the Southern Americana charm in his paintings. John Scarpati creates surreal images through photography. The other contributing artists are Michael Henington, Sandra Stevens, Lyuba Titovets, Vicki McMurry, Betsy Ranck, Barry McCuan, Lynne Windsor, David Griffin, and Jim Eppler.

“We are hoping to bring exposure to artists who have not presently been represented here in town but sell well elsewhere in the country,” said Mele. “There’s a lot of local talent here not currently represented in any galleries, and we want to give them the exposure they deserve.” If all goes well, Kim and Scott Mele would like to do a similar pop-up gallery once a quarter.

During the show a silent auction and cash bar will be held to raise money for the Nikki Mitchell Foundation, a Pancreatic Cancer non-profit. na Friends and Angels is on view at the Tennessee Art League November 6 to 29 with artist receptions on November 6 and 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. Visit www.161Art.com for more.

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Ancestors: Ancient Native American Sculptures of Tennessee Tennessee State Museum

| Through May 15

The largest group of ancient Native American statues in the Tennessee-Cumberland style is now on view at the Tennessee State Museum. Created by indigenous peoples living in Tennessee, the statues date from the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Ancestors: Ancient Native American Sculptures of Tennessee showcases a Pre-Columbian stone statuary tradition that was found primarily between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The statues were often found in ancestral pairs with each containing a male and a female. The pairs were separated upon discovery, and most were taken far outside of Tennessee. This exhibit reunites some of the pairs and includes many statues that have never been shown before now.

A highlight of the show is a male sculpture that is a splendid example of Mississippian statuary and considered to be among the greatest pieces of ancestral Native American art found in the United States. At 19� high, he has made his way onto numerous book and magazine covers and is included on a U.S. postage stamp in the Art of the American Indian series. In 2014, this statue, on loan from the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, officially became recognized as the State Artifact. He will join his female mate, which has been graciously loaned by John C. Waggoner, Jr. of Carthage, Tennessee. They were discovered at the Sellars Farm State Archaeological Area in Wilson County, Tennessee, which was once a Native American village from the Mississippian period occupied approximately 700 to 1,000 years ago.

Kneeling male figure found in Humphreys County, Tennessee, From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ancestors: Ancient Native American Sculptures of Tennessee will be on view at the Tennessee State Museum’s Changing Galleries through May 15.

For more information, please visit www.tnmuseum.org.

Seated female figure found in Smith County, Tennessee. From the collection of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Photography courtesy of the Tennessee State Museum

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5 1 0 1 H a r d i n g R o a d t N a s h v i l l e , Te n n e s s e e 3 7 2 0 5 t 6 1 5 . 3 5 3 . 1 8 2 3

Photograph Courtesy of NSO

SYMPHONYINDEPTH NOVEMBER 2015

Breakfast at the Schermerhorn with Coffee & Classics Series Friday mornings may seem like an unusual time for a concert. After all, it’s nighttime when downtown Nashville comes alive with music lovers seeking out every possible genre, from classic country to classical masterworks.

But for the Nashville Symphony, Friday mornings have opened up a perfect opportunity to develop a unique programming niche that gives individuals the chance to enjoy a stirring classical performance in a completely different way.

and coffee and pastries are provided in the main lobby prior to each show as well, creating a social and festive atmosphere for concertgoers.

In addition, attendees are also treated to a pre-concert lecture by the concert’s conductor from the stage.

Informative and entertaining, the informal talks can include anything from humorous anecdotes about the composer to tips on what to listen for in the piece. These lectures strengthen the connection between the audience and the orchestra, as well as the piece of music, and are a favorite among Coffee & Classics regulars.

The Symphony’s Coffee & Classics series, taking place at 10:30 a.m. on Friday mornings, offers all the pageantry of a performance by the GRAMMY®-winning orchestra in a relaxed, casual setting. Introduced in 2013, the series has quickly become a huge hit with Nashville audiences.

Though still relatively new, the Coffee & Classics Series has proven very successful. Ticket sales in the second year increased by 126 percent, and interest in the performances continues to grow as they attract an increasingly diverse audience.

“Initially we saw these shows as a way to bring back subscribers and patrons who, for whatever reason, could no longer attend concerts here at night, but they have since evolved into an important part of our annual programming,” says Larry Tucker, the Symphony’s vice president of artistic administration.

“It’s exciting to see the crowds for these concerts evolving beyond the original target demographic,” says Emily Shannon, Nashville Symphony director of ticket services.

“Young professionals, parents with children, and even college students are all taking advantage of the distinctive opportunity to hear our orchestra on Friday mornings.”

Modeled around similar programs at other orchestras, the Coffee & Classics concerts showcase one or two classic pieces of repertoire, with past seasons having featured everything from Beethoven and Mozart to SaintSaëns and Copland.

Tickets start at only $25 including fees, offering tremendous value,

There are three more chances to experience these unique concerts yourself during the 2015/16 season: November 20, 2015: Sibelius’ Second Symphony February 19, 2016: Pictures at an Exhibition May 6, 2016: Dvorák’s Seventh Symphony na Learn more about the Symphony’s Coffee & Classics Series, including ticket discounts for groups, at www.nashvillesymphony.org.

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THEBOOKMARK

A MONTHLY LOOK AT HOT BOOKS AND COOL READS

City On Fire Garth Risk Hallberg Well before its publication, this substantial novel (which weighs in at around 900 pages) was getting lots of buzz among early readers.

In his search for answers about a shooting on New Year’s Eve 1976 in Central Park, a detective finds himself crossing paths with distinctive characters from among the city’s powerful elite as well as the downtown punk scene. It’s almost impossible not to compare this epic debut and its many interconnected storylines to other NYC zeitgeist novels such as Bonfire of the Vanities, but Hallberg’s debut has an allure all its own.

Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Works: 2004-2014 Andy Goldsworthy Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist living in Scotland whose works can be found all over the world. His new book of 200 photographs will thrill art lovers and nature lovers alike. From the publisher: “On an almost daily basis, Andy Goldsworthy makes art using the materials and conditions he encounters wherever he is, be it the land around his Scottish home, the mountain regions of France or Spain, or the sidewalks of New York City, Glasgow, or Rio de Janeiro.

Out of earth, rocks, leaves, ice, snow, rain, sunlight, and shadow he creates works that exist briefly before they are altered and erased by natural processes.” In that way, Goldworthy’s art does the impossible: it stops time for an instant.

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Golden Age Jane Smiley Here’s the final book in the “Last Hundred Years” trilogy that began with Some Luck and continued with Early Warning. This one opens in 1987, and as the years tick by, the Langdon family faces changes and challenges unlike any they’ve encountered before. What will go down among the sibling rivals who have scattered as far as New York, DC, and Iraq? What will become of the family’s Iowa farm? The Pulitzer Prize-winning Smiley is a modern American master of storytelling, and we are pleased to welcome her to the Salon@615 author series on November 18.

The Southerner’s Cookbook: Recipes, Wisdom, and Stories Editors of Garden & Gun Here’s the cookbook you’ll want two (or more) of: one to keep and at least one to give away. The editors of Southern lifestyle magazine Garden & Gun have assembled 25 of their best chef-sourced recipes, plus 75 brand new recipes developed just for this book. With fascinating backstories on how traditional dishes came to be—plus essays from some of the magazine’s most notable contributors, such as Julia Reed, John T. Edge, and Rick Bragg— this beautiful volume will be as comfortable on your coffee table or open at your bedside as it will in the kitchen.

T

he work of Peter Fleming is nuanced and precise. As he

is a true student of his craft, his pieces are always juxtapositions of style and practicality, and the closer one inspects these

Photograph by Rob Lindsay

objects, the more subtleties present themselves. Much like the artist himself, his objects are poised and deliberate.

Possessing a comprehensive view of his craft, and being enmeshed in the process, Fleming finds the work naturally becomes a challenge on more than one level.

Here is Peter Fleming in his own words...

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by Jesse Mathison

“One thing that separates me from a lot of other artists is that I’ve been building furniture for twenty years. I study history and I teach the history of decorative arts, and I’m constantly informing myself so I’m not just shooting off the cuff. It’s about more than having just an intuitive response to things, which is as far as it sometimes goes in the design world. I want to go deeper into that. So when I teach the history of decorative arts I teach it as the history of material culture, and that’s an important distinction because when people say decorative arts they think of really rare and precious and expensive things, but when you think of it as material culture, it expands.

peterFLEMING David Lusk Gallery November 17 to December 23

“The design process is that you draw draw draw, and then you build. But because I’m doing it myself it’s more sculptural, and that changes my plan. I’ll think I have this idea for what I want to do, and then as I start building it (because I’m the one building it as opposed to sending it off to be built) I’ll change things, because it’s only once you’re in the middle of the process that you can start to see it. You can’t really see things until they’re right in front of you, and that’s especially true for the design world because we live on paper, and usually it’s someone else’s hands that execute the idea.

“And what I’ve found recently is that I have to be able to make some mistakes in the process. If I’m not making mistakes then I’m not trying hard enough, so sometimes I’ve needed other people to help me edit, because I’m trying to say too much or I need someone else’s perspective to say, You don’t always need that extra detail. But I do want to make sure that people see the use of fragments and antique fittings and things like that, the small touches, because sometimes they’re the driver of a work, like the wheels on a cart.

Hertzog | 2015 | American black walnut, steel, graphite | 45” x 16” x 3”

“Sometimes I’ll find bits and pieces and I won’t know how I want to use them, but then entire structures will grow out of trying to work around these objects. For example, one of my pieces was constructed around a set of wheels that I didn’t know exactly how I wanted to use and eventually turned into a hold or stand, which, generally speaking, is a piece of furniture that we no longer use. And another piece of mine is a serving cart, and the entire notion of serving somebody from a cart doesn’t exist anymore. So that’s a big part of how I think about things, those rituals of life that have or had a specific piece of furniture.

“Ultimately, I like the idea of the things that I do being approachable and not saying, I’m too important [for you] to come near me. I want them to be held and used and lived with. Most people see objects only as practical, so that’s the bubble I’m trying to burst, of function being seen purely as a practical thing, of objects being strictly functional. Most people don’t see furniture that way, so it’s important to place it in this other context, as well as other objects that could be functional from a psychological perspective." na Peter Fleming’s Wrapped will be on exhibit at David Lusk Gallery November 17 through December 23. For more information, visit www.davidluskgallery.com/nashville.

Burges | 2015 | Gesso covered chest illustrated in graphite and charcoal with enamel interior and antique brass fittings with an enameled and wax steel frame | 52” x 38” x 15”

Tea Cart | 2015 | Carrara marble, steel with bole and wax finish, strap leather, antique brass

Photograph by Jerry Atnip

ASISEEIT

BY MARK W. SCALA

Mark W. Scala Chief Curator

Frist Center for the Visual Arts

Chris Ofili: Deepest Blue Emerging into the rambunctious London art scene of the 1990s, Chris Ofili’s paintings were chock-a-block with riffs on post-colonialism, Catholicism, hip-hop and comic book cultures, Afro-Caribbean iconography and gaudiness, and a host of other referents. Ofili garnered widespread attention in the U.S. when his painting The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) was included in the Brooklyn Museum’s 1999 exhibition Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection. The work depicted a black Madonna embellished with elephant dung, images from Blaxploitation films, pornography, and glitter. Seeing it as blasphemous, New York mayor Rudy Giuliani briefly withdrew funding from the museum. Despite the resulting notoriety, Ofili was soon widely recognized as an artist of great originality, whose works embody a perverse ‘theory of everything,’ in which history and contemporary life, holiness and sin, beauty and disgust are braided together as if each needing the other to exist.

If such concatenation requires a measure of cultural literacy to unthread, a recent series of dark and amorphous paintings has an immediate impact—the shadowy images enter the brain through the gut, almost before they can register in the eye. Ofili began the series soon after moving from London to the Caribbean island of Trinidad in 2005. Inspired by the emotional potency of the color blue, he limited his palette to ultramarine, Prussian, and cobalt blues. Roughly hewn figures and nocturnal atmospheres are painted over a silver ground that in low light gives off a moonlike luminosity that echoes the rural Trinidadian night, unbanished by the glow of electric lights.

As one’s eyes adjusted to the dark gallery in the New Museum’s 2014 retrospective Chris Ofili: Night and Day, the imagery in these blue paintings appeared gradually, while never quite shedding its murkiness. Because of the reflective nature of the paint, it was hard to see an entire scene from a single vantage point. Viewers peered and squinted, walked and weaved forward and back, ever more acutely aware of their bodies in a dance with the paintings. Many paintings tell you where best to stand.

These ones told you to keep moving.

Chris Ofili | Iscariot Blues | 2006 | Oil and charcoal on linen | 111" x 77" © Chris Ofili. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London

Each painting contains barely decipherable silhouettes of figures, which fade in and out of focus, overlapping and melding together like Balinese shadow puppets.

Viewers may sense that something important is occurring beneath the veil of night, but might find it hard to say 96 nashvillearts.com

exactly what it is. The works’ underlying narratives are hinted at in their titles. Iscariot Blues (2006) shows two musicians on a bridge next to a hanged figure. The title suggests that this is a hanged Judas, the New Testament betrayer who is the inspiration for the bobolee—a stuffed effigy of Judas that is beaten and dragged by crowds in punishment—in Trinidad’s Good Friday rituals. Ofili notes that in Trinidad, there is a “nonchalance about death;i” if somebody dies on the street, people just go about their daily business, no gawking onlookers, not even a blanket pulled over the face. With its inescapable allusions to lynching, the work may be read as a parable about a more widespread indifference toward the racially motivated murders that plague our own history, even up to this moment.

Blue Devils (2014) also finds metaphorical resonance in the local. The work was inspired by the “blue devils” of Trinidad, blue-painted frights who emerge during Carnival to dance together in aggressive postures to a potent drumbeat, snarl at onlookers, wave baby dolls stuck on pitchforks, drool fake blood, in general behave menacingly in a way that outside of Carnival season would never be tolerated.

Ofili finds a connection between the official sanctioning of these intimidating actions and the frequent public and juridical acceptance of overly aggressive police stops and harassment of black people in the United States, Britain, and throughout Europe. As is often true in confrontational situations that take place in the shadows, the details are foggy, hard to decipher. We vaguely recognize a black man surrounded by policemen, but cannot swear to the details or circumstances; maybe he is being threatened, maybe not. But the deep blue surround is a synonym for the fear that many people of color often feel upon encountering the police.ii Tellingly, blue devils is also a term that describes a profound depression, a feeling that dominates these emotionally burdened works.

The paintings are part of Ofili’s Blue Rider series, named for the German expressionist movement founded by Wassily Kandinsky and others that articulated spiritual and psychological values, the evils of materialism, and the connection between music, art, and emotion. With themes of sacrifice and human tragedy, and with the linear arrangement of the paintings reminding us of Catholicism’s Stations of the Cross, the installation’s religious allusions are palpable. The gallery is like a chapel, where one can feel the blues pulsing through the darkness. na See Calvin Tomkins www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/unknown-6 For discussion of this work in the context of police intimidation of people of color, see www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/28/chris-ofilis-blue-devils-black-men-police i

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YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

Sunday, November 8 • Noon until 4 featuring RON YORK artist • composer • musician

Wildflowers, Acrylic on panel, 10” x 10”

Please join the 40 plus artists of York & Friends as we kick off the holiday season with a benefit for BELMONT MANSION and celebrate the CD release of York’s third album WILDFLOWERS. 107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 • 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net 98 on www.yorkandfriends.com • Follow us at York & Friends Fine Art nashvillearts.com

Annual Holiday Open House York & Friends Fine Art November 8

YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis

NANCY RHODES HARPER

Ron York | Ebony | Acrylic on panel | 6” x 8”

The annual holiday open house at York & Friends Fine Art is a great way to start getting into the holiday spirit. Feast your eyes on great art, enjoy appetizers and libations, and hear the lush melodies of York’s newest CD, Wildflowers, playing in the background.

For the first time in this celebration’s five-year history, Ron York will be the featured artist. His colorful, often whimsical paintings will be on sale with 50% of the proceeds benefitting Belmont Mansion. York & Friends new and established artists, such as Nancy Rhodes Harper, David Swanagin, Brenda Buffett, Gay Petach, Bitsy Hughes, Streater Spencer, Jennifer Padgett, Lee Hamblen, and more will also donate a percentage of sales to the mansion.

The Holiday Open House will also serve as the official CD Release Party for York’s third album, Wildflowers, a new collection of original instrumental compositions. Until just over a year ago, most people knew York as an award-winning interior designer, a gifted painter, and successful gallery owner, but he originally aspired to be a musician and studied voice and piano at Belmont University. In 2013 York began playing piano again and subsequently began composing. His first two albums, Renderings and Nightfall, have garnered fans from all over the world through Jango online radio. As with his first two CDs, Wildflowers was engineered and produced by music great Ron “Snake” Reynolds.

The Annual Holiday Open House at York & Friends Fine Art takes place on Sunday, November 8, from 12 until 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.yorkandfriends.com. To hear his music, visit www.yorkandfriendsmusic.com.

The Actress, Oil on linen, 48” x 36”

107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net www.yorkandfriends.com Follow us on

at York & Friends Fine Art

Here at the Arts & Business Council, November means negotiation skills. In addition to the Negotiation Strategies workshop ABC is presenting with the Nashville Chamber this month, we interviewed negotiation specialist Leigh Ann Roberts to get the inside scoop on negotiation skills for artists: Q: When might artists have to negotiate?

A: Artists are small business owners, and as a small business owner you’re constantly negotiating time, terms, and resources. For example, I have clients creating a body of work over time or contracting with designers and galleries. If those relationships aren’t negotiated properly it can cause, at a minimum, hardships to the artist and, at a maximum, impede their ability to do the work or harm long-term relationships.

So it’s critical to think about these conversations in advance and prepare for them skillfully.

Q: What’s the most common mistake you see artists make when negotiating?

A: They don’t prepare, and they don’t advocate for their own interests. Winging it makes you show up less congruent with your brand, so carve out time to research and organize your thoughts. Every minute you prepare will pay off.

Q: What’s your best advice?

A: Planning plays a direct role in success and creates an opportunity to reach out to colleagues and research in preparation. If there is a sticking point (such as rates) that’s where research comes into play. Data is incredibly persuasive, and it will help even the most introverted or accommodating personality be skillful and influential.

Other quick tips that Leigh Ann shared were: Check out Harvard’s Getting to Yes model; think in advance about the interests of each party, and brainstorm potential options to meet both expectations.

Get into an accountability conversation with a mentor or colleague to develop their approach and skill in this area.

Negotiation skills aren’t personality or IQ based. They’re an emotional intelligence competency that every artist and business owner needs and can move the needle on. na For more information, please register for our Negotiation Strategies workshop November 10 at www.abcnashville.org/what-we-do/register.

Photograph by Gregory Byerline

ARTS&BUSINESSCOUNCIL

BY LEIGH ANN ROBERTS

Leigh Ann Roberts, JD is a professional development trainer, executive coach and consultant with Circle Center Consulting, LLC. Visit her at www.thecirclecenter.com.

Hear Me Now

Lucas Eytchison​and Jason Jones in Hear Me Now

Powerful New Film Tackles School Bullying Head On Both the plus and minus of writing about film are that there are too many films to write about. As a contributing writer, it’s often the case that I miss great opportunities to showcase local works or sleeper hits that wouldn’t have been covered by anyone else.

Rather than cover one of the many great films playing at the Belcourt or on NPT, I thought that this month I would try a different approach and focus on a great, locally made project.

A documentary titled Hear Me Now is that project. A joint effort of filmmakers Bill Cornelius and Steven Knapp, the film takes a scholarly approach to the social cancer that is the classroom bully.

Those tormentors, who crave the ill-gotten notice of their peers, want to remain dominant in the hierarchy of the classroom.

The warped psychology of an antagonist, aside from its anomalous characteristics, should provide an endless fascination for those curious simply based on self-interest. If bullying is a problem, then how are we to prevent its harmful effects without understanding it first? Isn’t this perusal of the classroom tyrant important information for the mental health of future generations?

And what kind of psychic imprints can negativity leave on soft minds?

Cornelius, the film’s initial driving force, knows the answers to these questions all too well, as he has read every part in the drama of campus antagonism. Starting out as a bully himself, his relocation from the South to a Chicago suburb meant a power reversal.

“I was ostracized and picked on for not only being the new kid, but for being from the South and having a ‘hick’ accent,” says Bill. “Verbal abuse directed towards me became a trend among a large percentage of my class. I dealt with this on a daily basis for the next three years. It destroyed my confidence and the way I viewed who I was as a person.”

Partner in the production Steven Knapp made for the perfect collaborator, sharing a similar perspective and a need to make amends for the past. It was that joint experience that bonded them and made them hold true to a promise of empowerment and education with Hear Me Now. na For a full interview with Cornelius and Knapp visit www.nashvillearts.com. See Hear Me Now at the Belcourt Theatre on November 3 at 7:15 p.m. For more information and updates on future screenings check out www.hearmenowmovie.com.

Justin Stokes is the founder of the MTSU Film Guild, a student organization which functions as a production company for student filmmakers. He is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and social media manager.

FILMREVIEW

BY JUSTIN STOKES

BY JOE NOLAN

CRITICALi

.

Huger Foote, Untitled (Beach Scene) | 2015 | Archival pigment print | 16” x 24”

David Lusk’s latest offerings pair Huger Foote’s wide-ranging photography with Vadis Turner’s sumptuous fabric wall sculptures. The two might seem like odd gallery mates, but they make a match in their bold colors and their emphasis on the physical sensibilities of their respective media.

Lusk is showing over a dozen of Foote’s vibrantly colored images, scanned from vintage prints the artist spent years curating from his vast archive. Many of the prints were scratched, creased, or torn, but Foote chose to scan these anyway, including the wear and tear of the old prints as part of the show. Viewers will find double-exposed images here alongside battered Polaroids and worse-for-the-wear landscapes, all blown up into perfect prints that capture all of the imperfections. The lack of preciousness here is a welcome one that brings a rough physicality to an exhibition of photography—a medium normally known for its pristine displays. Highlights here include a portrait of William Eggleston and a snap of actress Rachel Weisz holding a revolver, taken on a visit to a film set.

Vadis Turner’s wall sculptures are known for their grabbable sensuousness, and fans of the artist’s soft textile surfaces and dripping ribbons won’t be disappointed. However, the most interesting works here are small collages that feature painted backgrounds decorated by cut paper and bits of fabric. Viewers might assume that the smaller pieces are studies for Turner’s larger sculptures, but the collages are actually inspired by their comparatively massive counterparts. These might be just a smart effort by the artist to make smaller, more affordable works for sale, but the result is also another take on Turner’s exploration of the line between sculpture and painting. These works offer a new perspective on a familiar aesthetic, and it’s a welcome one. na Huger Foote’s now here then and Vadis Turner’s time of day will be on exhibit at David Lusk Gallery through November 14.

For more information, please visit www.davidluskgallery.com/nashville.

Vadis Turner | Six | 2014 | Dye, ribbon, hotel towel | 47” x 30” x 4”

EMILY DICKINSON

Jim Reyland’s STAND, starring Barry Scott and Chip Arnold, voted Best New Play by the Scene, enjoyed a successful National Tour sponsored

by HCA. See www.writersstage.com.

BY JIM REYLAND

The Belle of Amherst Comes to Life

| Begins November 6

The Filming Station Emily Dickinson produced some 1800 poems in manuscript; only seven were published during her lifetime. She was a pure, untethered artist with never a moment of worry about fame and fortune, just the true artistry of her words.

Actually, that’s not true. Even though Emily Dickinson was quite the recluse, she wanted recognition for her efforts just as much as any other poet of her time. It didn’t happen though, not until long after she died.

The Belle of Amherst by William Luce, directed by Melissa Carrelli and staged in the Filming Station’s intimate theatre, features Caroline Davis as Emily Dickinson. Friday and Saturday evenings, November 6 to 7, 13 to 14, and 20 to 21 at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays, November 8, 15, and 22 at 2:30 p.m., 501 8th Avenue South. Tickets $25 (includes parking). For tickets and information visit www.thebelleofamherst.wordpress.com.

Now, drawn from her poems, diaries, and letters, playwright William Luce’s one-character show (which premiered in 1976) brings Dickinson to life by using a stream-ofconsciousness flow of prose and verse in The Belle of Amherst.

The Belle of Amherst will be produced at a new, relatively unknown theatre facility, The Filming Station, located on the Downtown Roundabout. Using reclaimed brick from a nearby demolition, found materials, recycled supplies, and ingenuity, the venue is the resurrection of a historic 1935 gas station that serviced the city for generations and now includes performance and special-event spaces. It has been little used for live theatre, but with the need for more quality performance spaces in Nashville, perhaps its time has come. na

Caroline Davis as Emily Dickinson

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Photograph by Melissa Carrelli

“Emily constantly surprises me,” says director Melissa Carrelli. “She is at once ordinary and, at the same time, eccentric. We are all aware of her eccentricities; however, the play allows us into Emily’s heart and gives us insight into her experiences. The process of fitting into society molded her into who she ultimately became. In the play, her poetry becomes a photo album of her journey.”

Mary Grissom, Patrick DeGuira at Ground Floor Gallery

Tony Youngblood, Erica Ciccarone at Ground Floor Gallery

Teri Alea, Stacey Irvin at Ground Floor Gallery

ARTSEE

Andri Alexandrou at Seed Space

Susan Tinney, Wesley Clark, Sarah Wilson at Tinney Contemporary

ARTSEE

ARTSEE

At The Rymer Gallery At Ground Floor Gallery

Maria Amaya at The Rymer Gallery

Courtney Pierce, Dylan DeRossett at Track One

Melanie Moran, Chris Moran at Track One

Michelle Germany at The Rymer Gallery

Katie Wolf, Sara Lederach, Carmen Jaudon at The Arts Company

Micaela Bray, Stephen Smith at The Rymer Gallery

At The Arts Company

Antonia Oates and Joe Nolan at Seed Space

PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN JACKSON

ARTSEE

Shinique Smith and students at Frist Center College Night

ARTSEE

ARTSEE

Nicholas Bradley Bellos, Alesandra Bellos at Ground Floor Gallery

Mandy Rogers Horton at The Arts Company

Miranda “Mecca” Crump applying henna at Frist Center College Night

At Tinney Contemporary

Lisa Bachman Jones, Campbell West at The Rymer Gallery

Rachel Bubis at CG2

Jack Spencer, Erin Schumacher at Track One

PAINTTHETOWN

BY EMME NELSON BAXTER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIFFANI BING

Swan Ball Chairs Nan Cox and Elizabeth Akers

Laura Niewold and Sarah Reisner

Swan Ball In mid September, the Swan Ball 2016 Auction kickoff brought scores of members of its industrious committee to Katie and Ben Gambill’s house on Chickering Road. Swan Ball 2016 chairmen are the ever-sopopular and even-keeled Nan Cox and Elizabeth Akers. Assuming the daunting role of auction chairs are Deborah Lovett, Robin Puryear, and Ashley Rosen. Guests enjoyed a buffet supper and got amped thanks to pep talks by auction advisors Lee Robinson, Sandra Lipman, and Sylvia Bradbury. On hand for the event were Mary Lewis, Sandy and Jay Sangervasi, Mary Spalding, Hilda and Jim McGregor, and Elizabeth and David Dingess. The following week the rest of the 2016 committee dropped by Patti and Brian Smallwood’s chic home in Williamson County for coffee and to collect their job assignment folders. The Patrons Party is slated for June 1 at Kathryn and David Brown’s residence, while the ball itself will be held June 4, 2016, at Cheekwood.

Laura Chadwick and Susan Dyke recently opened up their lovely store, Epergne on Highway 100, to the team putting together the Frist Gala for spring 2016. The committee was offered coffee, refreshments, and “thank-yous” in advance from event co-chairs Daphne Butler and Elizabeth Dennis. The April 9, 2016, gala will help underwrite the exhibition Treasures from the House of Alba: 500 Years of Art and Collecting, which runs February 5 through May 1, 2016. This collection is comprised of some 130 rarely seen masterpieces belonging to one of Spain’s most prominent families.

The black-tie gala will be preceded by a March 2 patrons party that will be hosted at the Frist Center by Judith and Richard Bracken, Jana and Ansel Davis, Kate Grayken, and Lynn and Ken Melkus.

Photograph by Tommy Lawson

Frist Gala Kickoff

Photograph by Tommy Lawson

Auction Chairs Deborah Lovett, Robin Puryear, Ashley Rosen

Photograph by Susan Adcock

In early September Teri and Brad Worthington hosted the Prelude Party for the committee putting on this year’s Symphony Ball. Their Hillwood home was filled with society mainstays, who were all elated to be commencing a new season. Chairing the December 12 event at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center are Sarah Reisner and Laura Niewold. Both of these women are juggling this formidable undertaking as they manage their fulltime careers as attorneys. The big splash shared that evening was that Miranda Lambert will be presented with the ball’s annual Harmony Award.

The chairs, who are working with designer Bruce Pittman, added that the look of the night will have an Art Deco feel with liberal use of the 2015 Pantone color of the year, “Marsala.” Spotted out were Hilda and Jim McGregor, Barbara Bovender, Barbara Burns, Courtney and Jim Fitzgerald, Sylvia Bradbury, Alan Valentine, and Amy and Overton Colton.

Photograph by Mary Catherine Glassford

Alan Valentine and Teri Worthington

Symphony Ball

Photograph by Mary Catherine Glassford

Photograph by Susan Adcock

September ushered in the next social season with many of the city’s top benefits hosting committee kickoffs. Let’s take a closer look.

Frist Center's Executive Director and CEO Susan Edwards with Frist Gala 2016 Co-Chairs Daphne Butler and Elizabeth Dennis

Susan Dyke and Laura Chadwick

Photograph by Tiffani Bing

Emme is a seventh-generation Nashvillian and president of Nelson Baxter Communications LLC.

Photography by Tiffani Bing

Photography by Tiffani Bing

Vibrant color was a big exclamation point at the third annual Fall Harvest Dinner at Cheekwood for 200 happy folks who gathered at Botanic Hall on October 4. Carla Nelson and Kim Looney chaired the event, which benefits the Horticulture Society of Middle Tennessee and Cheekwood.

Long farm tables topped with plates in plum, pea green, teal, and lemon yellow mimicked the colors visible through the glass wall of Botanic Hall.

Twinkle lights draped about the slightly curved table design. Dani Kates prepared a wonderful repast featuring porchette with horseradish crème fraîche, smoky black-eyed peas, roasted sweet potatoes, and shaved Brussels sprouts. Enjoying the fresh air, the brilliance of the Robertson Ellis Color Garden with its smattering of Jaume Plensa sculptures, and fine dining were Dean Reeves, Judith and Jim Humphreys, Laura and Charlie Niewold, Helen Dale, Gretchen White, Amy and Brannan Atkinson, Rita and John Maggart, Noah Spiegel, Judith and Richard Bracken, and Patsy Weigel.

Harriet McHenry, Anne Sheppard, and Ann Barge

Photography by Tiffani Bing

Photography by Tiffani Bing

Dean Reeves and Carol Ann Smith

Scott and Lynn Kendrick and Laurie Eskind

Pumpkins at Cheekwood

Photograph by Peyton Hoge

Cheekwood Fall Harvest Dinner

Photography by Tiffani Bing

Nancy Russell and Andrew Potts

Michael Dixon and Brian Setzer

Photograph by Reed Hummell

Amy and Brannan Atkinson with Patsy Weigel

Photography by Tiffani Bing

Now here’s a dangerous triumvirate: Nan Parrish, Patsy Weigel, and Judith Bracken are co-chairs of La Belle Notte, the black-tie benefit for Nashville Opera. Don’t you just know this bash will be the cat’s pajamas with those fun ladies in charge? The committee gathered in force in early October at the home of Michael Dixon and Brian Setzer on Iroquois Avenue in Belle Meade. Co-hosting with the homeowners were Sheliah Wall and Nan Parrish.

Guests enjoyed cocktails and some vittles prepared

by Kristen Winston. Oh, and the hot skinny is that Gary Morris will be the featured entertainer for the evening themed “Opry to Opera.” The January 23, 2016, event will take place at the Hilton Downtown.

Giving the chairs a big “bravo” were Ann Marie McNamara, Rusty Terry, Sassy and Frank Carroll, Tooty Bradford, Meredith Weigel, Nancy Russell, and Lucie Carroll.

Photograph by Reed Hummell

La Bella Notte Kickoff

Kevin and Carla Nelson and Rhett Harris

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ALIAS’s Season Opener a Success On October 13 ALIAS, Nashville’s most generous chamber ensemble, kicked off its 2015–16 season with a concert at Turner Hall in Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music. Since its origins in 2002, the group has sought to provide an “innovative repertoire and artistic excellence” while giving back to the community: This concert was no different. Adopting the nonprofit Safe Haven Family Shelter as its “spotlight” partner, the group presented an inspiring concert of four eclectic and virtuosic pieces, all the while donating 100 percent of its ticket price (minus fees) to Safe Haven.

The concert opened with Benjamin Britten’s Phantasy, Op. 2 for oboe and strings. The piece is an arch form that Britten wrote while a student at the Royal College of Music. It received a performance on the BBC, which was a break-out moment for the young composer. ALIAS performed it with subtlety. In particular, Roger Wiesmeyer’s oboe maintained a powerful, independent lyrical presence against the framing march in the strings.

much better after intermission. Eric Ewazen’s Ballade, Pastorale, and Dance (1993) is a nostalgic composition for flute, horn, and piano that follows the pattern of a Baroque trio sonata in a fastslow-fast pattern, ending with a dance. The central movement pictures “a nice snowy winter evening” with sleigh bells sounding on the piano. Here the nuanced interaction between Melissa Rose (piano), Leslie Norton (French horn), and Philip Dikeman (flute) was remarkable.

For the last piece, Andy Akiho’s LIgNEouS 1, ALIAS pulled all the stops. This demanding piece, which features fast and tightly interlocking counterpoint using extended techniques (violins played with the wood of the bows, birch sticks drug across the marimba’s resonators), was mesmerizing. The extended techniques were not gimmicks, however. They were delicately employed to expand the ensemble’s soundscape.

In all it was an intimate and wonderful evening of contemporary music and a great start to the new season. The rest of ALIAS’s season will feature two more concerts on February 10 and May 3, 2016, when they will partner with the Nashville Freedom School Partnership and the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence, respectively.

For more information about ALIAS, visit www.aliasmusic.org.

Christopher Farrell’s Needle and Thread for flute, viola, and harp was about the merging of melodies as the titular metaphor. This intricate work was substituted at the last minute for Karim Al-Zand’s The Art of Conversation for string quartet, which had to be cancelled last minute due to injury.

Joseph E. Morgan is an Assistant Professor of Musicology at Middle Tennessee State University. His primary areas of research focus on the works of composers from the early 19th century.

The two opening pieces were interesting, but the concert got

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SOUNDINGOFF

BY JOSEPH E. MORGAN

by Logan Halsey

davidYARROW

L

ondon-based fine-arts photographer David Yarrow has trekked to all corners of the globe, smothering his cameras in pheromones, negotiating with tribespeople, and wading across the crocodile-infested waters of the Nile just for the chance of a shot that, after weeks of planning and waiting, might be deemed worthy of his world-renowned portfolio.

Now, Yarrow has sought out Nashville, hand-selecting our own Tinney Contemporary to feature a selection of his narrative and portrait photography of wildlife and indigenous peoples in March 2016.

“We are incredibly honored and excited that David sought us out to represent his work,” says Susan Tinney. “We can't wait to introduce his hauntingly beautiful images to collectors and look forward to his book signing and show." Yarrow, a Nikon Ambassador, has amassed an awe-inspiring portfolio of masterwork photographs, each enormous print promising to radically transform any wall into a timeless and transcendent testament to the formidable power and grace of the natural world.

Heaven Can Wait finds in the humble giraffe a perfect image of spiritual transcendence. A mast-like neck extends gracefully out from the jangling chaos of limbs beneath, baring at its extremity the sevensided geometry of its timeless face, which points with

one ear unmistakably to the heavens. The enraptured beast is trailed in staccato rhythm by clouds of dust that drift ghostlike along the surface of the earth, completing lines implied by the heavenly rays that pierce into creation from above.

Mankind captures its namesake standing out amidst a roiling chaos of cattle and dust, as though arising out of the mists of creation. Like an alien landscape rendered in East Asian inkwash painting, angular masses of black spires of bowed horn and gnarled branch are washed over by the oceans of white dust, the horn-black silhouettes of mankind distinguishing themselves by dignity and grace alone.

The fantastic content of Yarrow's work consistently brings viewers to question if what they are seeing could actually be real, yet through the stunning definition of his photographs as well as his refusal to artificially alter them, one cannot pass through to either belief or disbelief.

The effect is as though one is suspending their disbelief in reality itself.

The natural becomes the supernatural. The response is not fear but, in every sense of the word, bewilderment. na

Lion King | 2014 | Dinokeng, South Africa Archival pigment photograph David Yarrow will be featured at Tinney Contemporary in March 2016.

For more information, visit www.tinneycontemporary.com and www.davidyarrow.photography.

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BY SUSAN TINNEY | TINNEY CONTEMPORARY

UNDERTHELIGHTS

5th Avenue of the Arts Guest Curators Provide An Alternate Perspective

Tinney Contemporary’s current show, Jamaal Sheats’ Topography, is our fifth guest-curated exhibit. The idea of an annual guestcurated show began when Tinney Contemporary artist Pam Longobardi inquired whether she could organize an exhibit of all female artists in our gallery. Until then, it had never dawned on me to hand over the curatorial reins, but I was intrigued with the idea and trusted Pam’s ability to organize a thoughtful and beautiful show. Many of the women I met through that exhibit continue to be a part of both the gallery’s portfolio and of my personal life. It was a critical success, and from that point forward we’ve continued the event. What I discovered with our gallery in the hands of an alternate curator were distinctive ideas, new perspectives, and introductions to artists with whom the gallery might not be familiar. These exhibits have resulted in great relationships and, in many instances, gallery representation.

If you have not had an opportunity to see Topography, please do

by November 28. The show is profoundly moving and sublimely executed. Thematically the five-artist show, featuring Jamaal Sheats, Wesley Clark, Alicia Henry, Alfred Conteh, and Jamea Richmond-Edwards, explores the multilayered issues of race, identity, relationships, mapping, and memory. Individually, each of these artists has created strong work that deserves time for both reflection and conversation.

Pam Longobardi | Infinite Cosmos | 2011 | Mixed media | 50” x 33”

www.tinneycontemporary.com

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5361 Mount View Rd. • (615) 731-5901

8 p.m. Friday, November 13 • 8 p.m. Saturday, November 14 2 p.m. Sunday, November 15 Ingram Hall FR EE A D M I S S I O N • FR EE PA R K I N G

The musical and literary soundscape of Nashville just became a little richer. Earlier this summer, Metro Arts commissioned seven talented, Nashville-based writers, musicians, and sound artists to look for inspiration within the public art collection, resulting in new works based on a public artwork.

NOTE: Please make certain to arrive promptly – there will be absolutely NO late seating for these performances.

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

LEON ARD BERNS TEIN

2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212

Details about the Fall 2015 concert series may be found at blair.vanderbilt.edu

Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan | Light Meander | 2015 | Stainless steel plate and tube, hardwood, color-changing LED strip lights, and acrylic rod | 45’ x 3’ x 1’

The new compositions can be found on ExploreNashvilleArt.com under Soundcrawl. You are encouraged to visit each of the artworks and experience the compositions while you view the artworks.

It’s a rich auditory experience, ranging from Chance Chambers’ poem about what can transpire over the air waves, inspired by On Air, to Robbie Lynn Hunsinger actually playing the sculpture Tool Fire as an instrument, resulting in a somber work that takes you back to those two days in 2010 when the rain just wouldn’t stop.

Joe Nolan’s upbeat “Rockin’ Mockingbird” “celebrates the joy of making music.” Catherine Moore said of her work, “‘Wasioto’ [wah- see-OH-tuh], the Native American name for the Cumberland River, is part poetry, part narrative braided with separate ideas and voices.”

Sara Estes’s short story, based on an exploratory adventure on the Cumberland River, was inspired by Light Meander. An excerpt: “I wondered if one day we might lose these terms entirely, words that articulate the nuances and specificities of the natural world.

Language has a Darwinian way of anointing things, of signaling what we hold dear and what we deem worthy of carrying into the future. If we forget how to talk about nature, perhaps we will forget about nature itself.”

Two classical compositions by William Moon, inspired by Emergence, and Christopher Farrell’s Thread & Needle Now round out the group.

This project was supported in part by the Bonnaroo Works Fund and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. For more information on this and other public art projects, please visit on your mobile device ExploreNashvilleArt.com or from your desktop www. publicart.nashville.gov.

Photograph by Sara Estes

All concerts at the Blair School of Music are free and open to the public unless specifically stated otherwise. For complete details about the upcoming events at Blair, visit our website at blair.vanderbilt.edu

View of the Cumberland River

PUBLICART

Leonard Bernstein’s Mass

Soundcrawl

Photograph by Peyton Hodge

Vanderbilt Opera Theatre, Gayle Shay, director Vanderbilt University Orchestra, Robin Fountain, conductor AND Vanderbilt University Choirs, Tucker Biddlecombe, director PRESENT

BY CAROLINE VINCENT, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC ART

Photograph by Stacey Irvin

BLAIR CONCERT SERIES 2015-2016

artState SMART of the Arts

A few short years ago, I was six months and a flood into this job. I found myself wading through notes from a strategic focus group and was surprised by two ideas that were recurrent: “We want Metro Arts to lead” and “We need to show collective impact.” When you are new to a job and a sector, you tend to synthesize and absorb. I was intrigued by the call for us to lead but also scared of the responsibility. While I sat there, sipping coffee, reading notes, a dim idea began to emerge. What if we put a few smart artists and cultural organizations in a room and brainstormed what “shared value” could look like? Was that crazy? Was that leadership or was it a rabbit hole?

Make Room for Everyone—From the very beginning the idea was that Artober was an umbrella that everyone could live under. The brand fits film and fashion and poetry and sculpture and book arts. It works for galleries, universities, and artist coops. Metro Arts supplies the visual tools, hash tags, and collective use translates to groundswell. That is why planning meetings are open to Caroline Randall Williams reading anyone, and new ideas are always at Southern Festival of Books welcome. This open nature has allowed partnerships like NECAT, the Nashville Scene, and our work with TEDxNashville to flourish.

Nashville Print Crawl

the event platform now fueled by NowPlayingNashville.com.

Over time the energy now goes into generating real-life conversations with audiences about the arts and how they are involved daily in our creative city. Moving from a platform for events to a platform for conversations about the relevance of art in our lives drives collective impact.

Empower Artists—The most stellar thing about Artober is the platform it gives individual artists, from art teacher Ted Edinger, who builds out a monthly unit for his kids at Tulip Grove Elementary, to Jennifer Knowles and Kelly Koeppel, who work across the letterpress community to create the Nashville Print Crawl, to Matt Fisher at Picture This Gallery, who hosts ARTable and the annual artist talk event in Hermitage. For those without publicists or media budget Artober provides a framework to elevate their cultural contributions as part of the whole that makes us the IT city.

Don’t Be Afraid to Stop—Every year when we sit down to plan for Artober the first question I ask our team is: Is this still relevant? Are we still showing collective impact? Are we bringing value to cultural organizations and artists and the city?

If that answer is ever no, we’ll stop. But we aren’t there yet.

Photograph by Yve Assad

Long story short, I called that meeting, and about fourteen folks showed up. By the end of lunch an idea formed—a campaign to message the beauty and value of arts to the city. A few more meetings with a few more people and we had a name—Artober Nashville. Now dozens of meetings, five years, and 250 partners later, Artober Nashville is one of the largest cultural celebrations in the Southeast and a model for other cities. As we blow the candles out on our fifth birthday, it begs reflection on why this crazy collaboration works.

Photograph by Isaac Darnall

by Jennifer Cole, Executive Director, Metro Nashville Arts Commission

Photograph by Dipti Vaiyda

Photograph by Jerry Atnip

A monthly guide to art education

Focus on Capacity—As more people came to the table to help frame and plan, it became clear that we could use this as a bonus opportunity to build skills within the ecosystem. We’ve added workshops on arts advocacy, best practices in social media and branding, and collaborations. In some instances, this has allowed small organizations and artist-driven enterprises to broaden their exposure and presence in the big tent, and we’ve doubled our partners in the last two years.

Create Public Conversations—Early on, our focus was building

Our Town Cumberland Riverfront Park Event 2015

Nashville Symphony: Accelerando

by DeeGee Lester Proud of Nashville’s growing reputation as a welcoming and diverse city, the Nashville Symphony is set to launch Accelerando in September 2016, expanding the popular moniker “Music City” to engage and inspire young musicians from underserved communities and to build a pipeline of orchestral talent for the future.

Embedded within current national discussions on the diversity of American orchestras is recognition of the need to reach a new generation of potential talent and to recognize the lack of access for children in underserved communities to instruments, lessons, and performance pathways that will allow them to achieve their dreams.

Together with community partners, including Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, Metro Nashville Public Schools (Music Makes Us), Conexión Américas, and Choral Arts Link, the symphony steps up to reflect inclusion and equity and to challenge the national reality that only 5 percent of orchestra musicians and directors represent diverse backgrounds.

That qualitative aspect means that the initial group of program participants will be limited to four or five students, following a rigorous selection process including application, audition, and provisional trial lessons. The young musicians continue the program throughout high school. Each year, the process will add another small class of students.

A selected group of talented students in underserved communities, who combine a passion for classical music with discipline and motivation, will receive year-round instruction and mentoring from symphony professionals. “The mission,” points out Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero, “is the promotion of classical music skills and development of an orchestral repertoire.” The full resources of the symphony, ranging from guidance and counseling and financial and logistical assistance to performance opportunities, are harnessed to guide these students in preparing for a professional musical career.

Informational meetings for parents and students will begin in January, with auditions for students in grades 4–8 taking place in March and April. Provisional acceptances will be announced in May, with trial lessons for provisionally accepted students taking place throughout the summer of 2016. In September, the inaugural class begins.

“Through Accelerando, we are opening and expanding horizons, and we are excited to help identify, promote, and nurture students for opportunities and lives in classical music,” says Laurie Schell, Director of Music Makes Us.

says Choral Arts Link founder Margaret Campbelle-Holman.

The dreams of many for Accelerando and for Música Ciudadana Educación match those of Conexión Américas co-founder Renata Soto. “My dream is that we have the next Giancarlo Guerrero.”

For information, visit www.nashvillesymphony.org/accelerando.

Photographs Courtesy of Nashville Symphony

Symphony president Alan D. Valentine emphasizes the qualitative rather than quantitative goals of the program.

“

We want to be known as Music Education City,

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Photograph by Juan Pont Lezica

Teaching Big Kids

by Cassie Stephens Art Teacher, Johnson Elementary

So all day long, I teach The Littles, kindergarten through fourth grade. They’re a super fun bunch, each grade with their set of age-appropriate abilities and big imaginations. And I’ve been hanging with this age group for the entirety of my art teaching career, which means that I often wrongfully assume I’ve seen it all. Until last Friday when a kindergarten class conspired to prove me wrong.

Let me set the scene for you: fade-in with kindergarten kids collecting their painting supplies, aprons, and preparing to create masterpieces. Suddenly, I hear a cry from across the room: Mrs. Stephens! I have paint on me! Not missing a beat, I say what I always say, “It’s art class! We’re supposed to get messy!” And that’s when I hear a collective Uh-oh! from the children, and I turn around to see that said Paint-On-Me kid has decided to solve her own problem by removing her top.

That’s right, we went topless in the art room. Before I could even attempt to collect my thoughts and her shirt, I hear “I can see her niblets!” from across the room.

You win, kindergarten. You win.

Hardened by that kindergarten battle, I had no fear teaching Big Kids at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. I was invited

by Rosemary Brunton, Associate Educator for Community Engagement, to lead a needle felting workshop inspired by the postcards at the Wiener Werkstätte exhibit. I discovered the art of needle felting several years ago and have since refashioned many thrift store dresses and sweaters with this favorite medium of mine. Because there’s not much literature on the medium out there, I’ve done a lot of exploring and making it up as I go along. It’s led me to become familiar enough with the medium to introduce participants in the workshop to a variety of techniques.

We started our daylong art-making event with a fabulous guided tour of the exhibit. In case you didn’t know, the Frist offers a ton of these community outreach classes that are always reasonably priced and extremely well led. From there, I was on as teacher leading these big kid artists through some of my favorite needle felting techniques. At the end of the day, we had all created needle felted postcards, which we sent to loved ones, and a larger, more elaborate needle felted masterpiece.

Some even had time to create a needle felted wearable work of art!

And I can proudly say that no one, not a single participant, decided to take their top off and show their niblets.

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Brave New Education and Outreach Programming Emerges

I arrived at OZ Arts Nashville in January 2015 to further the important work that had begun complementing the artistic programming with education and outreach activities. Since that time, we have served more than 2,500 students and adults, providing them with hands-on and up-close experiences in more than six disciplines of study—visual arts, music, theater, dance, film, and literature. We look forward to expanding and accelerating these activities.

OZ Arts Nashville’s mission advocates for the creation, development, and presentation of significant performing and visual artworks by leading artists whose contribution influences the advancement in their field. The curiosity we found for more knowledge about the work presented here indicated that there was a real thirst for contemporary arts education.

schools are out of session. School Days feature Nashville-based teaching artists in the disciplines of visual art, music, dance, and theater, creating a day-long rotational program of activities around a single uniting theme. Themes for the 2015–2016 school year are Courage, Future, Fame, and Love.

While our initial work has been focused on providing arts access for youth in Nashville, we are also offering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to the adult community. Last May the Trisha Brown Dance Company offered an adult master class for dance and choreography in partnership with the Centennial Performing Arts Studios. A similar program was offered in October with Kyle Abraham’s company, Abraham.In.Motion. In Spring 2016, look out for a variety of diverse programs (including a lunch and learn series) that will provide Nashvillians the opportunity to explore the themes and questions provoked by the innovative, trail-blazing artists presented at OZ Arts Nashville.

We hope to see you here!

For more information and schedule details, visit www.OZartsnashville.org.

All Photography by Lauren Cochran

OZ Arts Nashville, a contemporary, multi-arts center, is a story of progress and change much like the city it calls home. At a challenging personal crossroads, OZ Arts Nashville Founder, Cano Ozgener, found inspiration and healing in music and the arts. It was this experience that influenced the next chapter in his history and that of Nashville’s: brave new art.

by Lauren Cochran Director of Education & Outreach

Photograph by Jen and Chris Creed Photography

OZ Arts Nashville

As a part of the artistic program, the second annual Family Day at OZ took place in August. More than 800 people participated in this family-centric program, which included more than 20 art-making activities and a main stage performance by Paul Dresher’s Ensemble of Sound Maze. Dresher remained in Nashville for an additional three days, introducing more than 300 students to the sounds and delights of 15 newly created instruments that comprised Sound Maze.

Our OZ School Days Program was created to provide a meaningful day of multi-arts activities for students when

Inventor and musician Paul Dresher with home school students during Sound Maze

Students trying on Alex Lockwood’s wearable art masks during a tour of the artist’s installation Family Day collaborative chalk mural with artist Andee Rudloff

Rosewalker Arts Skilled Restoration of Antiques and Decorative Art

Richard & Carolyn Sullivan rosewalkerarts.com • 615.876.8500

Courtesy of Joseph Sinnott, WNET

Arts Worth Watching

This month NPT takes to the stage with a selection of performance and music programs.

WORDS AND MUSIC

Courtesy of Joan Marcus

Two-time Tony Award-winner Chita Rivera’s Broadway credits include West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Nine. Most recently she appeared in a Tonynominated role in The Visit, the final collaboration of songwriting team John Kander and the late Fred Ebb with playwright Terrence McNally.

Santino Fontana (Moss Hart) and Tony Shalhoub (George S. Kaufman) in a scene from Lincoln Center Theater’s production of James Lapine’s ACT ONE.

Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ to Do, airing Friday, November 6, at 8 p.m. on Great Performances, was recorded before a live audience at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room with a snowcovered Central Park and Columbus Circle as a stunning backdrop. The program includes interviews with Kander and McNally, The Visit director John Doyle, and Rivera’s former co-stars Carol Lawrence, Dick Van Dyke, and Ben Vereen.

SHOWSTOPPING SONGS There’s a Kander and Ebb reprise Friday, November 20, at 8 p.m., with First You Dream: The Music of Kander & Ebb. The duo was honored with Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy awards over the course of their career. Here, Broadway stars Kate Baldwin, Heidi Blickenstaff, James Clow, Norm Lewis, Julia Murney, and Matthew Scott perform “New York, New York” and songs from Cabaret, All That Jazz, and other shows. Singing and dancing along is strongly encouraged.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli is back Friday, November 27, at 8 p.m. with a new Great Performances show recorded in September at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. Andrea Bocelli: Cinema features songs from The Godfather, Dr. Zhivago, Love Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and other films. Bocelli sings in five languages in the concert and welcomes actors John Travolta, Ryan O’Neal, Ali MacGraw, and Andy Garcia onstage to tell the films’ stories.

Celtic Woman: Destiny, a new special highlighting the Irish quartet, airs Monday, November 30, at 8 p.m. The concert was taped in Dublin’s 200-year-old Round Room, the site of the first meeting of the Irish Parliament, and includes footage of Ireland’s natural wonders.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC Music City Roots’ third season continues Fridays at 7 p.m. with performances recorded in the Factory at Franklin. Wednesday, November

25, at 11 p.m., Austin City Limits Presents showcases the 2015 Americana Music Association Awards taped at the Ryman Auditorium earlier this fall.

Music, the latest Craft in America documentary, is about artisans who make handmade trumpets, timpani, etc., and the musicians who play those instruments. Jake Shimabukuro (ukulele), Tony Ellis and Rhiannon Giddens (banjo), and Joan Baez (guitar) are among the guests. The show airs Friday, November 20, at 9 p.m. Be sure to catch Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings, Tuesday, November 3, at 11 p.m.

Vintage recordings and new performances— along with appearances by Merle Haggard, Charlie Daniels, Connie Smith, and others—are part of the Chuck Wagon Gang: America’s Gospel Singers—The Legacy Lives On. The special about the long-running gospel group airs Saturday, November 28, at 7 p.m. na If you enjoy arts programming on NPT, please show your support by going to our website, www.wnpt.org, and clicking the donate button. To watch encore presentations of many of our programs, tune in to NPT2, our secondary channel.

Courtesy of Mark Markley

At 9 p.m. that night, Onstage in America: Honky is a lighthearted satire of contemporary racism in America that also manages to be hopeful for the future.

Chita Rivera

Theater giant Moss Hart was known for writing (The Man Who Came to Dinner, with George S. Kaufman), directing (the original production of My Fair Lady), and producing (Camelot). His 1959 memoir was the inspiration for James Lapine’s ACT ONE, airing Friday, November 13, at 8 p.m. on Live From Lincoln Center. The cast features Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin, and Santino Fontana.

Kamaka ukuleles in progress

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Magnolia maneuvers . . .

About a month ago, I decided to move a Southern Magnolia from my property. The tree had simply grown too big for the space it occupied. Plus, it was starting to crowd a couple of Little Gem Magnolias.

Eighteen years earlier, the Southern Magnolia had been a housewarming gift. Sporting only a few leaves, the baby sapling had arrived in the mail with papers certifying it had been grown from a seed taken from a tree in Joel Chandler Harris's yard in Atlanta. (Joel Chandler Harris authored the Uncle Remus stories.)

The tree now stood at over thirty feet. Was it too big to move?

The next day, I’m standing in my backyard with a tree-transport specialist, who says he can move my Southern Magnolia “anywhere in Davidson County” for a thousand bucks. He owned and operated a couple of machines called “tree spades” that I later learned cost a hundred thousand dollars each.

“That Little Gem will have to be moved out of the way,” he said.

“And we’ll have to make sure there aren’t any wires running underground. I’ll contact the One-Call folks and have them check it out.” I asked how much my tree was worth. “Oh, I’d say between four and five thousand dollars.”

I posted a note on my neighborhood Message Board. I described the tree (including the Joel Chandler Harris connection), basically stating that whoever paid the moving cost could have it.

Twelve people responded.

After a few dead-end leads, I met with an older, no-nonsense lady in Hillwood. Her yard was spacious and would accommodate the tree. This lady subscribed to the axiom that one can never have enough magnolias.

Moving day arrived, and things got complicated. Just as the treetransplant man was about to plunge the four gigantic blades on his machine into the earth around the Southern Magnolia (whose branches were now bound by ropes to prevent damage during transport), things suddenly came to a halt when he noticed a pipe running down a nearby telephone pole. The pipe contained the electrical wires running from the alley to my house. Evidently the One-Call folks had failed to mark it.

“I can’t do this, unless I can see where that pipe is in the ground,” he said. “And even then, there’s no guarantee. It might be too close. You sure you want to do this?”

I was sure. I called in some guys. Two days later, a deep ditch was dug that exposed two pipes. As it turned out, those pipes were for cable and phone. More digging.

More delays. I called the lady in Hillwood to explain the situation. She was cool.

Finally, the pipe containing the electrical wires was exposed. It wasn’t too close.

We were back in business.

The tree got moved and nobody got hurt. www.tallgirl.com

BEYONDWORDS

Photograph by Anthony Scarlati

BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN

MYFAVORITEPAINTING

BY JANE-COLEMAN HARBISON REGISTRAR, CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART

When my friend Michael Meredith recently moved his studio to Chattanooga, he went about finding long-term homes for some of the larger paintings he couldn’t easily take with him. As the Registrar at Cheekwood, I joked about typing up a professional loan agreement laying out the terms of the arrangement. Michael laughed and said that wasn’t necessary. Three of the four paintings I chose to borrow are part of a series the artist calls “The Highway Paintings,” which are inspired by views seen across North Carolina.

They now fill the walls and stairwell of my townhome in Sylvan Heights.

My favorite painting transports my mind to a place of nature and peace. I love how Michael’s abstract works contain distinct elements of the Southern landscape. I think about the serene mountains situated above the motion of the road, which we see through the bold straight lines dissecting the top of the painting. The aqueous blues, purples, and reds in the bottom half of the painting remind me of the ground water between beds of limestone and shale. Some of Michael’s other paintings contain bits of charcoal adhered to the canvas, pulling the viewer’s imagination towards the interior of the mountain and the ancient geology of a riverbed.

Untitled | 2009 | Acrylic on canvas | 52” x 52”

ARTIST BIO: Michael Meredith Michael Meredith is from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Since receiving his BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, he has dedicated his time to environmental conservation in Arizona and Tennessee. His artwork explores ideas of cultural narrative in landscape as well as transitory memory of space and ranges from abstraction to illustrative prints. He is currently working on a series on Tennessee State Parks and a documentary film on walking across the state called Tennessee Walking Men. He currently resides in Chattanooga. His work can be found at www.michael-meredith.com and www.tennesseewalkingmen.com.

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Photograph by John Jackson

Michael Meredith is intimately acquainted with the natural environment around him, and this relationship is conveyed in a highly personal manner through his paintings. I’m so happy I get to share in that experience by having his artwork displayed in my home. na

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“I am easily impressed... the best is always good enough.”

The Hill Center, Green Hills 4017 Hillsboro Pk, Ste. 305 Across From Whole Foods Nashville (615) 385-1212 • www.ejsain.com