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spotlight
Empowerment Through Art T
he Mental Health Cooperative presents its second annual Unmasking Mental Illness Art Benefit. The benefit will feature an art auction of works
by MHC clients who have been touched by the agency’s outreach efforts alongside renowned artists such as Alan LeQuire, Amanda Norman, Jacqueline Saporiti, Myles Maillie, and Paul Harmon. Each artist participating in the auction will have a gallery-style setting to display up to five works. The sale of art will support the agency’s mission to let people see the beauty that lies behind the mask of mental illness. The Unmasking Mental Illness Art Benefit also includes an artisan marketplace featuring Atelier, Dody Burkett, Ingrid Burkett, DCXV, Myles Maillie, Sam & Ruby, and Ashley Sheehan. In this impressive collection of jewelry, home décor, clothing, and accessories, you will be sure to find something that tickles your fancy. Raising funds and awareness are equally important for this event. The agency supports underserved populations of adults and children with serious mental and emotional disorders. With over 8,000 clients across 24 counties the MHC uses the money generated from events like this to continue reaching deeper into the community.
Through education and community outreach the MHC hopes to alleviate negative associations with mental illness. Stigmas divide communities and sometimes cause those most in need to avoid treatment or become isolated.
Lorna Sanders
Poverty and homelessness create an additional barrier for the mentally ill to find a path to wellness. Going beyond psychiatric care, the MHC helps develop communities by offering assistance with housing, medication management, crisis resolution, and personal development. The Mental Health Cooperative is here to say “There is life after diagnosis.”
Elizabeth Foster
Event co-chairs Dwaine Anderson, Jacqueline Saporiti, and Amanda Norman expect that more than 450 people will attend the benefit in 2012. Last year’s event raised over $50,000. With this year’s remarkable array of artists, artworks, and crafts, the 2012 Unmasking Mental Illness Art Benefit is sure to break through last year’s total.
Judy Klich
Paige Morehead
10 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
The Unmasking Mental Illness Art Benefit will be held on Thursday, October 11, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Rocketown, 601 4th Avenue South. unmaskingartbenefit.org
spotlight
Ballet in the Park photography by Anthony Scarlati
P
ublic art performances such as Shakespeare in the Park and the symphony’s Community Concerts have brought world-class culture to Nashville’s outdoors. This month, Christopher Mohnani,
artistic director of the Dance Theatre of Tennessee, helps bring dance to our exciting calendar of public events. Mohnani says, “Even today, people think of ballet as a high art form. Our mission is to bring dance to everyone. How can we make this traditional, classical art form more accessible to the general public?” His dream of founding a Ballet in the Park event has its origins in his childhood in the Philippines. He relates, “My first exposure to ballet was at a performance at a park in my home town. I’m very confident it will have the same effect on people watching here.” For the inaugural Ballet in the Park, audiences will be thrilled by a dramatic, athletic performance of Carmen. Mohnani explains, “We said, what could we do for a first ballet show? Should we do traditional ballet, something classical, contemporary, or something that requires a storyline?” The educational aim of the program helped organizers pick the perfect performance. “I like the fact that the audience is seeing it on their own terms. Really the intent was to get them to appreciate the art form. We wanted something that the audience can relate to. Carmen is a nice story. It’s almost like watching a reality show or a telenovela.” The choice of late September for the performance debut was pure instinct for Mohnani. “You can only do it during late summer or early fall because the dancers are going to be doing something so athletic.” Ballet in the Park will run from September 28 to October 1 at Centennial Park. dancetheatretn.org
12 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
spotlight
Christopher Mohnani, Artistic Director of the Dance Theatre of Tennessee
NashvilleArts.com
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Memorias, 2009, Oil on canvas, 48" x 36"
Carretillero a Lapiz, 2011, Graphite and oils on canvas, 40" x 40"
An interesting feature of these walls is the presence of the wires. In places, they are curled and draped like rosary beads across the painting. Other times, they hang, precariously, a part of the culture: neighbors tapping into each other’s electricity in areas that have no electric codes. Yances also sees the wire from a personal perspective. “The wire is hanging. Even though I'm here, my roots are still in Colombia. The wire starts, it goes nowhere, and it dangles off.� Like the wire that is attached at one end and goes nowhere, the walls have a narrative with a beginning that goes on with no end. The power of what we are looking at is a story, 479 years in the making, that will continue and an artist whose talent invites the viewer into that story for a moment. For more information visit yances.com.
Memorias de Cartagena, 2008, OIl on canvas, 28" x 22"
Memorias en Colores, 2008, Oil on canvas, 57" x 45" NashvilleArts.com
September 2O12 | 27
Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration Presents the 8 th annual
Eye Ball 2012 9/29 Sat. 5:30pm Renaissance Hotel
EyeBall 2012 chair:
Congresswoman Diane Black “Dancing with the stars at the EyeBall� Stars: Glen Casada, TN congressman Rudy Kalis, anchor, TV Ch 4 Vicki Yates, anchor, TV Ch 5 Shirley Zeitlin, Zeitlin & Co
Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration is a 501(c)3 non-profit charity which has helped patients from over 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge. 28 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
artist profile
photo: Jerry Atnip
East Meets West
Sargam Griffin at Jalan-Jalan by Beth Raebeck Hall
S
argam Griffin believes art provokes the spirit. When
called, the spirit aligns itself with intention, which then leads to the story. This artist feels an extraordinary commitment to each painting and considers each a power that moves out into the world. To create, she begins in silence, eliminating all internal chatter. It is only then that she touches a blank canvas or panel. Magically, like a genie escaping from the bottle, the work begins to speak, to take shape, to guide her. The end result is both captivating and ethereal. “I cannot wait to see how they turn out and to share them with others,” Griffin says.
“
Painting is essential to me. It’s how I express myself in the world. There is a certain level of vulnerability that I’m willing to expose.
”
Titles are deliberate—their genesis lies in deep thought and emotion about powerful subjects. The Fifth Element, The Economy, and Japan demonstrate the fusion of inspiration, intention, and conversation with color and texture. All possess a relevant and luminous identity. These works create great conversation.
NashvilleArts.com
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The Economy, 2011, Oil on canvas, 72" x 60"
“
My intention is to create truthful, real work with depth. It is vital they are compelling from a distance and up close. It all starts with an intention.
Time, 2011, Oil on canvas, 72" x 35"
Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All, 2012, Oil on canvas, diptych, 30" x 30" each 32 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
�
“Painting expands my sense of being,” says Griffin. “My intention is to create truthful, real work with depth. It is vital they are compelling from a distance and up close. It all starts with an intention. It’s important to capture these times of exponential change, as it’s a substantial part of my creative process,” she notes in her soft-spoken manner. Griffin attained her global sensitivities early. Visits to Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Great Pyramids of Giza, and the North Sea made indelible impressions on her young artistic psyche. Later journeys to Africa, India, Switzerland, and Italy are deeply embedded in her remarkable talent.
“
I seek a certain clarity of light and will go to great lengths to find it.
”
A 2006 visit to Rome created a defining moment for her creative vision. “While visiting the Vatican, I wandered off. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by the Collection of Modern Art in the Apartment of Alexander VI,” she notes. The vast rooms of magnificent modern art and sculptures deeply affected her. “It was a divine moment. I was truly speechless. I knew I had to spend the rest of my life doing this,” she says with reverence. Soon after, she began painting large abstract paintings on canvas and museum-quality panels, listening ardently to the voices of paint, pigment, and canvas. For Griffin, her role as an artist is to invigorate, inspire, and illuminate through her work. Illumination is accomplished through deep layering of the highest quality oils, alkyds, translucent
Palatino, from the ArtDoorsTM series, 6' 8" x 3' x 1 3/8"
French pigments, and varnishes or resins, all mixed by hand. Each work contains thirty to forty layers. Griffin says each layer guides the next, until the painting determines it is complete. “It’s finished when it is independent of me,” she says. Griffin takes the art of revelation to an exact level with her new series. ArtDoors™ are substantial works of fine art painted on functional doors. Some pivot, some slide, some are hinged. But, as with all work, she lets the piece guide the creative process. “Wood tells you what it is going to be,” she says. “I use museumquality birch wood and stretchers, but the process is the same. The work is an honest representation of what I am guided to paint. These literally allow the viewer to see what is revealed through the images and colors and behind the door. Sometimes I am shocked at what comes through,” she says with a smile. Sargam Griffin's exhibit East Meets West is at Jalan-Jalan September 12 through December 15. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. Jalan-Jalan is located at 2503 Winford Avenue, Nashville, TN. Summer in Paris, 2012, Oil on canvas, 48" x 36"
sargamgriffin.com jalanjalanantiques.com NashvilleArts.com
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Danley's creative process is anything but self-involved in his recent work as a creative coach under the tutelage of Eric Maisel, a pioneer in his field. After reading a few of Maisel's books, Danley followed up with online courses and telephone calls. Maisel's ideas about balancing art and life inspired Danley to start his own practice. “I get a lot out of helping other people find ways to get their creative work done,” he enthuses. “Somebody might need a tune-up or a push, but it can range from one session to an ongoing relationship.”
photo: rob lindsay
Danley's paintings are figurative and realistic but also postmodern in their dialog with art history. The new painting of the reclining woman in Danley's studio is called Olympia. The title is a reference to Édouard Manet's masterpiece of a reclining nude, which was in turn inspired by Venus of Urbino by Titian. Titian's 1538 painting compares a nude to a goddess. Three centuries later, at the dawn of modernism, Manet realistically painted a prostitute defiantly staring back at the viewer. Danley's figure wears contemporary clothing and is seen from behind. Her downward gaze seems demure, but the white ear bud headphone Danley added subverts the expectations created by the image's predecessors. The subject here has simply turned her back on the viewer. The only value she seems to embody is that of self-involvement.
Danley is coaching clients from diverse disciplines, including book authors and photographers. “It's really a great tool for anyone who's trying to find a better path through their creativity,” says Danley. And he ought to know. The Painting Painters Paint group show opens at Todd Art Gallery on the MTSU campus, August 27–September 20, 2012. Jeff Danley is represented by Cumberland Gallery. cumberlandgallery.com jeffdanleypaintings@gmail.com
Olympia, Oil on canvas, 40" x 60" 44 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
in the gallery
Nina Kuzina
Surrounded by Strausers by Bernadette Rymes | photography by Jerry Atnip
L
ocal gallery owner Nina Kuzina welcomes the work of a historic American painter to her Nashville boutique.
Kuzina is hosting a special show of works by Sterling Strauser (1907– 1995). The artist hailed from small-town Pennsylvania, and his work became a staple in the holdings of Nashville’s Lyzon Gallery through the continued support and patronage of Lyzon founder Myron King. Recently, Kuzina and Ron King talked about the scores of Strauser paintings that are now available to the public, sharing the story behind the collection with Nashville Arts Magazine. King explains that his father developed a friendship with David Berliuk, a neighbor of his parents in New England. It was through his relationship with Berliuk that Myron King became a supporter of Strauser. King relates, “Berliuk found Sterling and said isn’t it wonderful to find this man in this quaint little village. At the time, Strauser was an office manager in a boiler works.” Both Berliuk and
Sterling Strauser, Red Bud, 1989, 48" x 24"
Sterling Strauser, The Burliuks, 1955, 20" x 24" 46 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
Sterling Strauser, The Circus, 1960, 36" x 48"
Sterling Strauser, The Photographer, 1976, 28" x 22"
Sterling Strauser, Jason's Garden, 1991, 24" x 48"
the elder King were impressed with Strauser’s untrained, natural style. King continues, “The self-taught nature is what allowed him to have freedom.”
Sterling Strauser, Magnificent Floral, 1976, 28" x 22"
Sterling Strauser, Forest of Nudes, 1963, 14" x 30"
Lyzon Gallery sold Strauser’s work for over thirty years, and King still holds a treasure trove of paintings that has never been open to the public. This summer, he offered Kuzina, a Strauser collector herself, the opportunity to sell the original paintings through her gallery. Kuzina says, “I am absolutely honored and thrilled because I’ve had a relationship with Ron and Lynn King at Lyzon Gallery for many years. We have in excess of one hundred paintings, most of which have never been viewed by anyone.” When asked about his favorite qualities in Strauser’s paintings, King replies, “It’s the color combinations and some of the marbleized swirls. That jewel-like quality in the colors. The ability to draw so simply shows his mastery at work.” The Strauser story continues at Nina Kuzina Fine Art at her new location in Belle Meade. ninakuzina.com NashvilleArts.com September 2O12 | 47
photo: Martina Chavez
photo: Americana Music Association
Buddy Miller
The thirteenth annual Americana Music Festival & Conference returns to Nashville September 12–15. Produced by the locally based Americana Music Association, this hybrid of business conference and music festival brings together industry professionals, artists, and fans for a multi-level experience: registered conference attendees who are interested in the business side of Americana gather for various panel discussions and workshops during the day; over the course of the four nights, conference goers and fans gather for the festival portion of the event, which, in addition to hosting the annual AMA awards show at the Ryman, showcases over one hundred artists in select Nashville venues.
“
It’s not about what’s hip, or what’s cool; but what’s honest, what’s real, and what’s great music.
”
Upon assuming his role, Hilly suggested the name of the event be changed: what was formerly known as the AMA Conference would now become the AMA Music Festival and Conference. “I said that if we build something that is dependent or reliant on the music industry we will die quickly . . . it was that movement that doubled our festival attendance . . . a subtle shift, but the word ‘festival’ is festive, is inclusive, while ‘conference’ is exclusive, is about business.” Attendance has increased from 5,600 to photo: Americana Music Association
Stinson and his audience have likely heard the term “Americana” by now. What was once a rough-and-tumble stepchild standing at the back door of the music business has come into its own, with acts (Rosanne Cash, Mumford & Sons, the Avett Brothers, et al.) now selling six figures— no simple feat in the non-proprietary Internet culture, where a lot more music is heard but much less purchased.
Bonnie Raitt
Jed Hilly, in his sixth year as executive director of the AMA, prefers “community” to “genre” when describing the music and the artists who create it. “[What amazes me] is watching Grace Potter look at Levon Helm playing drums. Levon’s head going off to the gods when listening to Mike Farris sing. Having Emmylou [Harris] sit down and tell me about a band called Low Anthem . . . this appreciation that goes beyond the age demographic: it’s not about what’s hip or what’s cool, but what’s honest, what’s real, and what’s great music.”
Levon Helm, Buddy Miller and Sheryl Crow
NashvilleArts.com
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photo: Americana Music Association
over 12,000 during the four-day event. Membership has grown from 1,000 to 1,600 since Hilly’s tenure began in 2007. “I think the local staff, and the execs, do a great job of growing it, branding it,” says R.S. Field, industry veteran and producer of three number-one Americana releases. Surveying the acts for this year, the level of mainstream notoriety has gone up as well, speaking to the rise in awareness and interest in this richly diverse community: multi-platinum-selling Grammy winner Bonnie Raitt (who will appear for the conference’s keynote interview), the Wallflowers, Punch Brothers, Richard Thompson. A look at the Americana radio chart finds Raitt’s new release, Slipstream, alongside bluegrass master Jerry Douglas, the gritty New Orleans funk of Dr. John, and younger generation acts such as the Lumineers.
“Like fine art, that’s the stuff that has legs,” said Hilly, when speaking of artists in the Americana community who are, in their own way, studying the masters.
Richard Thompson
photo: Americana Music Association
“When you hear Dave and Gil [David Rawlings and Gillian Welch], you hear American country traditions; in Bonnie Raitt you hear American blues traditions . . . It’s the amalgam and influence of all of these things that makes Americana a contemporary art form. Like a great sculptor or painter, Picasso didn’t start off creating abstract art; he studied the masters, [and] then went on to create his own genre, basically.” This working through tradition towards something new is, of course, nothing new in the arts: in literature, poet James Wright’s first two books of skillful yet imitative formalism were followed by The Branch Will Not Break, a startling departure from the influence of his heroes like E.A. Robinson towards a new interest in Eastern and Latin American forms and attitude, while in subject still inhabiting the American post-industrial landscape. This year’s festival will see additional venues and featured shows: BMI will present Phil Madeira with special guests from Mercyland: Hymns for the Rest of Us on Thursday, September 13, at the Downtown Presbyterian Church from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Madeira, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Mullins, North Mississippi Allstars, Buddy Miller, and surprise guests will reprise their songs from the critically acclaimed album. In addition to free admittance with badges and wristbands, there will be tickets available at the door for $10. For continued coverage of the Americana Music Festival and Conference, including videos and interviews, visit nashvillearts.com. americanamusic.org
Lucinda Williams
58 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
exhibit
Rebecca Ruegger & Steven Seinberg Gallery One Exhibit by MiChelle Jones
W
hispers, Gallery One’s first show of the fall season, pairs two artists whose work is very different, yet complementary. Long
affiliated with the gallery, Middle Tennessee painter Rebecca Ruegger branches off into new territory with a shift in medium, while Asheville-based painter Steven Seinberg is making his Nashville debut. “I can visualize the work showing together,” Gallery One’s Shelley McBurney says. “There’s a complexity, quietness, and organic quality to both artists’ work.”
Emerge 4, Oil and graphite on canvas, 50" x 60"
Even with their diminished legibility, the words— snatches of his thoughts or lines from poetry—retain their significance for the painter. Poetry, Seinberg finds, fits the rhythm of his paintings. Poems are also the source of many of the pictures’ titles. Whatever Is Not Stone Is Light, for example, comes from a work by Octavio Paz, one of Seinberg’s favorite poets. photo: Steven Seinberg Studio
McBurney says the subtle and muted essence of Steven Seinberg’s abstract paintings led her to fall in love with the work. “I’m drawn to that, work that is contemplative,” she says. Around eight of Seinberg’s oil-on-canvas paintings spanning the last few years will be on view in Whispers. Seinberg imbues the canvases with a sense of movement that parallels that of flowing rivers. His goal is to capture a long time period in the life of the waterways and their ecosystems. “The thing about the river that always draws me is this kind of continuous, almost effortless movement; everything is moving forward,” Seinberg says. His paintings have a watery, floating feeling as layers of barely discernable elements blend into mere suggestions of imagery and color. In the diptych Flow Through, bits of writing rendered in graphite look more like river debris or perhaps silhouettes of birds than readable text. Seinberg considers the text to be another line-making tool as the specific words are obscured in the process of creating the painting. Their form mimics the drips of paint that are part of each of his works.
Flow Through, Oil and graphite on canvas, diptych, 74" x 146" 78 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com
Steven Seinberg
The painting is one of a series based on the poem and consists of a large expanse of cloud-like grayness through which the title words float, legible but smeared, as though washed away by water. A low horizon sits above large ovals of paint at the bottom of the piece, a reference to river stones. “That line in particular just fits what I was looking at, being interested in the different times of day and the light on the water,” he says. Though Seinberg spends a lot of time on rivers—flyfishing, traversing them on boats, or walking along the banks—and shoots a lot of source photos, once he starts painting, he works more from what’s in his head, aiming to capture a feeling of the subject rather than a direct depiction of it. “At a certain point it switches from almost abstract expressionist painting to looking at the movement and making order of it,” he says. “A lot of it is looking and not painting sometimes.”
The sculptures feature anthropomorphic interpretations of unspecified mammals—some have deerlike heads and limbs, others have long, rabbity ears. Ruegger is also working on pieces where leaves grow out of human heads. She uses modeling clay to make any parts she can’t carve, and she’s not afraid to mix different woods in one piece. “I have no problem with attaching an arm from one tree and a leg from a willow or a leg that’s oak,” she says.
Change, Mixed media, 13" x 14" x 13"
New direction for Ruegger Two things led to Ruegger’s foray into sculpture: conversations with a fellow artist and the discerning eye of one of her dogs. Max, her 135-pound Lab, has a habit of depositing a treasured stick onto a pile on the back porch after every traipse through the Middle Tennessee countryside where Ruegger lives and works. One day Ruegger looked at the pile and saw “a little head, little arms and legs sticking out.” This followed closely after a series of discussions between Ruegger and woodturner Brenda Stein about vision, artistic process, and inspiration that had Ruegger thinking about what she might want to do if she worked in wood rather than watercolor and oil.
photo: anthony scarlati
She suddenly thought, that’s an unusual pile of wood; why don’t you just give it a try? So she did. A friend bought the first piece, and Ruegger was encouraged to share her new direction with McBurney, who expressed interest. She plans to exhibit nine or ten sculptures in the Whispers show.
Rebecca Ruegger
In Change, what Ruegger describes as a “little being” is undergoing a metamorphosis. The creature kneels like a fawn or colt that’s still unsure of its legs—the pose is not unlike that of a ballerina kneeling on one knee— while branches shoot from the back of a corset (“new life, new growth,” Ruegger explains). The piece is around a foot tall; pieces in the show range from this size to just under three feet tall. Ruegger’s sculptures have painterly patinas, warm, brown tones drawn from the wood and other found objects and sometimes enhanced by staining or dyeing. The found components also suggest the compositions. For example, Prayer Without Words began as two sticks brought to Ruegger by Self-Rising Flower, Mixed media, a friend. Their form suggested 10" x 18" x 6" the torso and legs of a walking figure, which is exactly what they became in the finished piece. The long, lean figure stands astride a pile of brambles while lifting an offering skyward. Similar in composition is Self-Rising Flower, which grew out of a rusty can Ruegger found in a burn pile while out walking. Next she found the sinuous piece of wood that became the torso of the creature rising out of the can. Strands of beads are intertwined with a pile of thorns at the base. The broken chain around its neck represents the idea of freedom, of someone or something taking care of things on its own. Though there is a story behind each piece and a reason for every element on them, Ruegger prefers not to reveal the specifics. “I want the viewer to bring their own life story to the work and connect with it in some way,” Ruegger says. The exhibit, entitled Whispers, runs August 25 through September 22. galleryone.biz
On a Velvet Night, Mixed media, 16" x 8.5" x 7" NashvilleArts.com
September 2O12 | 79
art around
Artful Day Trip by Emme Nelson Baxter
Paducah, KY You don’t have to travel to Paris or Rome to visit an art destination. Just a couple of hours to our north, Paducah, Kentucky, holds surprises in store for local art lovers. The city has a wealth of artistic diversity, thanks to its 12-year-old Artist Relocation Program. This historic-preservation project has transformed a declining neighborhood into the vibrant artist community known as the Lower Town Arts District. You can even enjoy an art crawl through the district on the second Saturday of every month.
While there, check out the work by these relocated artists:
The conversion began when the forward-thinking city purchased dilapidated properties and sold them for one dollar to artists who promised to relocate and work there. About 35 artists are currently part of the program. The 20-block neighborhood features residences, shops, art galleries, studios, and restaurants. Lower Town abuts historic downtown, and both sectors are part of the city’s Renaissance Area.
renzulliart.com
Gallery 5, owned by Bill Renzulli, a self-taught landscape artist who left his practice of internal medicine in Maryland for an art career. His primary mediums today are pastel, clay mono typing, and acrylic.
Studio Miska, Carnival, Intaglio etching
Studio Miska, featuring the work of printmaker Freda Fairchild, a Kentucky native. fredafairchild.com
Studio Mars, owned by modern painter Paul Lorenz, formerly of Chicago. The gallery is a working studio, so if you come by and it is closed, just knock on the door. paullorenz.biz
Gallery 5, On the Piazza Maggiore in Bologna Italy, Watercolor, 20" x 30"
National Quilt Museum Gallery
The National Quilt Museum is an absolute must-see attraction in downtown Paducah. “It is not your grandmother’s quilts,” notes Lisa Thompson, executive director of Paducah Renaissance Alliance. This destination is a perfect stop for families, modern art lovers, design enthusiasts, and history buffs. At 27,000 square feet, this cultural gem is the world’s largest devoted to the medium. The main gallery features items from the 320plus collection, while the side galleries showcase touring exhibits of fiber art. From National Quilt Museum Gallery September 14 to December 10, the museum will host the works of Priscilla Sage. The abstract, threedimensional textiles by this college professor and longtime fiber artist will make you rethink your definition of quilting. paducah.travel/visitors/arts-culture
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crafts
Handmade Stories at the TACA Fall Craft Fair by Currie Alexander Powers
T
here lives in each of us a desire to be unique, and we express that desire through the clothes we wear, the way we decorate our homes. Our search for something that
no one else has can be frustrating in this age of mass production, fads, and the imperative of manufacturers to steer consumers back under the edge of the cookie cutter. But the need to express ourselves is essential to our identity, and we are thrilled when someone gives us the ultimate compliment—“Oh, I love that necklace you’re wearing. I’ve never seen anything like it.” In every culture, artisans have produced objects of beauty and function, developing the traditions of skilled workmanship that were largely forgotten after the Industrial Revolution. Their craft was finely honed, furniture sanded by hand, bowls spun one at a time on a potter’s wheel, glass blown that captured moments of time in their trapped bubbles and perfect imperfections. What we miss today is the hand of man in the creation of our belongings, seeing a blanket woven on the loom in front of us, not coming off a conveyor belt to be wrapped and boxed with thousands just like it.
Jin Powell
TACA, the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists, has a mission to bring the traditions of craft to us with the second of their two yearly craft festivals held in Centennial Park this September 28–30. The non-profit, statewide
Teresa Merriman
organization, founded in 1965, is dedicated to encouraging, developing, and promoting crafts and craftspeople in Tennessee. With more than 200 artists who work with wood, clay, glass, textiles, and paper exhibiting at the Fall Craft Fair, they provide an opportunity for the public to interact with artisans and their work. Liz Zinke, TACA’s marketing director, came on board for the spring craft fair and came away from the festival Jeff & Jaky Felix inspired the same way you would imagine many of the 50,000 visitors who have attended the events in the past have. “I left with several treasures from incredibly talented artists. When I look at each of the pieces, I remember the artist, their story, and the connection that instantly drew me in to take a closer look. Craft is incredibly personal—it is handmade, and each piece tells a story.” The fall festival will mark the first to be sponsored by Regions Bank, and TACA expects the attendance to be high. As Zinke says, “I invite everyone to come to our Fall Craft Fair and find what speaks to you.” The fair will be open Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission and parking are free.
Molly Barnes
Annette Morrin
For more information on TACA and the Fall Craft Fair go to tennesseecrafts.org. NashvilleArts.com
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Bill Traylor, Untitled [Blue Man on Red Object]
Hans Schmitt-Matzen, Aerial Maneuver #9
Dooby Tomkins, Random Facebook Status Update
Critical i by Joe Nolan
S
ummer can be a slow time for gallery going, but three recent shows found me beating the heat, staring at walls full of drawings, paintings, and photographs.
Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1854. An illiterate farmer, Traylor didn't begin creating his startlingly modern drawings until he was 82 years old. The artist's images of animals are loaded with personality, and his depictions of characters engaging in frantic, bizarre, unexplained activities positively crackle with intensity. Traylor's eponymous exhibit at the Frist Center is required viewing for anyone going to see their Creation Story: Gee's Bend Quilts and the Art of Thornton Dial. Hans Schmitt-Matzen's Aerial Maneuvers at Zeitgeist found the artist continuing to explore the relationship between painting and photography, applying his own expressions to the surfaces of appropriated black-and-white aerial photos. Schmitt-Matzen added thick, oozing gestures of black-and-white paint as well as repetitive patterning that spoke to and contradicted the images he obscured in the process. The work contrasted the strict, still pictures created by airplanes and cameras with the flowing, sensual capacities of paint put at the service of an artist's hand. Aerial is on my short list of the best of 2012.
Shane Doling, Stress/Possession
Photographer Shane Doling and painter Dooby Tomkins opened their Brick Factory show during the July Art Crawl. Dooling's surreal photographs referenced the 1970s thriller Possession, and the artist's no-nonsense clipping of his shiny, unframed prints directly to the wall gave them a sensual presence that felt almost sculptural. Tomkins' large paintings combine pop culture imagery in absurd compositions. Work similar to Tomkins' is often accomplished through printing, and his comparatively painterly panels stand out in contrast. Tomkins becomes a better painter with every exhibit, and his new images are all the more striking and hilarious when his rendering is at its most rigorous. fristcenter.org
zeitgeist-art.com
brickfactorynashville.com
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Photo: anthony scarlati
my favorite painting
A. Jane Alvis
Chair, Metro Nashville Arts Commission; President, Alvis Company
T
his seemingly simple painting is anything but that. It is a very early piece by Kit Reuther,
one of my favorite artists. I was drawn initially to the quiet beauty but became more intrigued by the mystery of it. I love the simple line drawing of the building with the beautifully rendered, almost realistic leaf. An in-person viewing reveals many layers of subtle color on the entire canvas. To me, the painting is full of interesting secrets. It is one of the first things I see each time I walk into my home, and I always find it calming and intriguing at the same time.
Kit Reuther, Blueprint, 1996, Oil on canvas, 36" x 24"
A r t i s t i nfo The work of Nashville abstract painter Kit Reuther has become a staple of the city’s art scene. Reuther’s oil paintings have also been featured in shows around the country, including exhibitions in San Francisco, Santa Fe, New York, and Charlotte. The artist’s work was selected to represent our state in A Tennessee Collection at the Tennessee Senatorial office in Washington, DC. Reuther claims, "While my work has moved towards abstraction over the last six or seven years, it is always interesting to look back at earlier work and see some hints of what was to come. I remember being focused on horizon lines and atmospheric depth at the time of that painting, and those interests have followed me along the way. I chuckled when I saw the little blue linear house, because I am currently working on a painting that is all about blue lines, but the house has vanished!" Kit Reuther is represented by Cumberland Gallery. kitreuther@mac.com
98 | September 2O12 NashvilleArts.com