Modern Twist Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art | March 22 - May 27
Join us on Opening Day!
MARCH 22 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
activities
&
events for the entire family
Modern Twist examines the traditional art of Japanese basket weaving as the medium continues to gain modern-day recognition as an innovative art form. Organized by the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture and International Arts & Artists, the exhibition brings 38 works by 17 contemporary bamboo artists to North American audiences, showcasing both supreme technical skills and imaginatively crafted sculptures. made possible with support by:
exhibitions presented by:
educational programs supported by:
also on view: Japanese Woodblock Prints: Selections from the Judith & Joseph Barker Collection: In modern Japan, artists reinterpreted the traditional image of beautiful women through the medium of print. This exhibition presents select examples of shin hanga or “new print” from a private collection. this exhibition is a promised gift to hood museum of dartmouth college
the
modern twist was curated by dr. andreas marks, minneapolis institute of arts, collection of the clark center, and tour organized by international arts the exhibition was generously supported by the e. rhodes
&
&
artists, washington, dc.
leona b. carpenter foundation, nomura foundation, japan foundation, los angeles, and the snider family fund. tanabe chikuunsai
iii,
squares and circles,
2005.
bamboo (yadake), rattan, lacquer.photo
©
forrest cavale.
TM
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Charles N. Martin, Jr. Chairman Paul Polycarpou, President Ed Cassady, Les Wilkinson, Daniel Hightower, Directors
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COLUMNS
PAUL POLYCARPOU Editor and CEO
JENNIFER ANDERSON The Great Unknowns
SARA LEE BURD Executive Editor and Online Editor sara@nashvillearts.com
MARSHALL CHAPMAN Beyond Words
REBECCA PIERCE Education Editor and Staff Writer rebecca@nashvillearts.com MADGE FRANKLIN Copy Editor DESIGN TRACEY STARCK Design Director ADVERTISING CINDY ACUFF cindy@nashvillearts.com
TED CLAYTON Social Editor JENNIFER COLE State of the Arts LINDA DYER Antique and Fine Art Specialist SUSAN EDWARDS As I See It ANNE POPE Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND Theatre Correspondent
BETH KNOTT beth@nashvillearts.com
JUSTIN STOKES Film Review
KEITH WRIGHT keith@nashvillearts.com
BETSY WILLS Field Notes
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 $5.00 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.
M2O14 arch
on the cover:
Jesse Hale, Suspension 1, Paintings: Acrylic on canvas red: 18” x 48”; gold: 40” x 15”; blue: 6” x 48”; gray: 10” x 8” Sculpture: Enamel-coated poplar frame with stainless steel and aluminum hardware, 56” x 140” x 5”. See story on page 72.
FEATURES
COLUMNS
13 Spotlights 36 Crawl Guide 38 Art See 44 The Disasters of War 48 Bound for Glory 20 Collaborations in Book Art
64 58
54 Itzhak Perlman
108
Legendary Violinist at The Schermerhorn
Matthew Deric Gore
33 Public Art
Vanitas
35 As I See It
64 The Return of the Art Guitar 68
Jesse Hale Suspending Belief
80
Shifting Winds
40 The Bookmark
Nashville 6 A.M. Anthony Scarlati
72
68 94
Mary Addison Hackett
41 Film Review
Medora
42 Arts & Business Council
Reconsiderations
Hot Books and Cool Reads
Art and the Business of Art
85 Tony Youngblood Unplugged
43 The Great Unknowns by Jennifer Anderson
90 Simin Soroush
50 NPT
94 Terry Rowlett Ramble On
105 Appraise It
98 James Makuac My Life Before: A Story of War and Refuge
108 Field Notes
102 The Last Adios for Two Amigos Molly Secours
118 Beyond Words
106 Theatre
119 On the Town
111 ArtSmart
Featuring Helen Hyde
105
by Marshall Chapman
by Ted Clayton
122 My Favorite Painting
117 Poet's Corner Gary McDowell
44
Featuring David Rathman
NashvilleArts.com
43 March 2014 | 7
WOMEN’S WORK II Opening Reception April 4th | 5:30 - 8:30
Jeanie Tomanek
Kris Prunitsch
Pat Snyder
Helli Luck
Melody Trivisone
Melanie Morris
Lisa Moore
Harriet Goode
Eileen Corse
Charlotte Terrell
PUBLISHER ' S NOTE
Art Creates a City
O
ne of the many pleasures of putting this magazine together each month is discovering the work of a new artist. I remember the day
I opened an email by Alex Hall and nearly fell off my chair as his paintings downloaded on my screen. I had the same reaction to the work of Jesse Hale. His installations are smart, challenging, and fun. You can read about him on page 72, and he›s also on the cover. Way to go, Jesse! If you love the violin it doesn’t get any better than the legendary Itzhak Perlman. He will be bringing his enormous talent and his Stradivarius to the Schermerhorn on March 18. Mr. Perlman will be playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and the orchestra will perform the immortal Fifth Symphony that starts with the four most famous notes in music: da-dada-daaaa. Mr. Perlman graciously answered our questions between performances, and you can read about him on page 54. Definitely not to be missed. I recently saw a 60 Minutes update episode about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Words are really too small to describe the horror that these young boys faced in their struggle to survive. Fortunately the United Nations was able to relocate many of them to cities around the world, including Nashville. James Makuac was one of the Lost Boys that landed here and now calls our city his home. James is also a talented artist, and his paintings that detail his journey from the Sudan to Nashville will be on exhibit at University School of Nashville opening March 1. We welcome David Lusk Gallery to Nashville with their opening March 1. One of their artists, Mary Addison Hackett, is featured on page 80. The gallery is located on Hagan Street in the Wedgewood-Houston area. Stop in and see them; say hi to Dane and Veronica, and take a new painting home with you. You’ll be glad you did. It’s art . . . whether you like it or not.
Karen Laborde
Ruth Franklin
Paul Polycarpou Editor in Chief
March 15, 2014 4:00 - 8:00 pm Global Mall at the Crossings
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
Please enter the mall at the electronics exPress main entrance
n o i t i b i h ex
contact karen@eazeframing.com or nashville-manager@ jerrysartarama.com for more information light hors d’oeuvres & refreshments will be served
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PERFORMANCE SALES EVENT
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CHRISTOPHER SCOTT HUFFMAN
Featured Artist for the 2014 Iroquois Steeplechase Home Stretch, 30x40, Oil on linen
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RON YORK
Orchid Spill Too, 42 x 42, Acrylic on canvas
Totem, 20 x 16, Acrylic on panel
YORK & Friends fine art
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Nashville • Memphis
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SATURDAY, MARCH 8TH 4:00 PM - 7:00PM
Anniversary Event
featuring a SALE of over 75 works by CREASON CLAYTON 1927 - 2006
A PORTION OF SALES TO BENEFIT STARS (Students Taking A Right Stand) www.starsnashville.org SPECIAL HEARTFELT THANKS TO Miss Daisy, MM Event Services, Seay Catering & Events, Something Special, Susan's Catering, Vandy Deli, Whitfield's Restaurant, Liberty Party Rental &West Meade Wine & Liquor Mart
CREASON CLAYTON Lady with Red Fan, 24 x 6, Oil on board
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I
The James M. Cowan Collection Returns to the Parthenon Museum through August 17
n the late 1920s, James Cowan, an I l l inois insurance agent, donated sixty-three works of art to the Parthenon Museum’s Collection under two conditions: Nashville had to build a fireproof gallery in the Parthenon, and his identity had to remain anonymous until after his death.
held at what is now Centennial Park. The experience furthered his admiration of Tennessee and its people.
These paintings became the foundation of the Parthenon Museum’s collection, and now, thanks to the generous support of The Conservancy for the Frederic Edwin Church, The Wreck, 1852, Oil on canvas Parthenon and Centennial Park, the Cowan Collection will be on and William Merritt Chase. display in its entirety for the first time in fifteen years. Born in Hernandez, Mississippi, Cowan spent part of his childhood in Tennessee and considered this state his home because several of his relatives were buried in Tullahoma. In 1897, he was invited to the Centennial Exposition, which was
The Cowan Collection at the Parthenon Museum spans the years 1765 through 1926 and consists of mainly landscapes and seascapes. All the works are by American artists, including George Inness Jr., Frederic Edwin Church, Richard Hayley Lever, Benjamin West, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, Thomas Moran, Lillian Genth,
The James M. Cowan Collection will be on display at the Parthenon Museum through August 17. The Parthenon is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 12:30 until 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.bit.ly/1fwx5Ir
Beyond
the
Bamboo Curtain
Cheekwood’s Modern Twist exhibit changes the way we imagine bamboo by Stephanie Stewart-Howard
C
heekwood curator Jochen Wierich spent time looking for exhibits that touched on the notion of art engaging nature, in hopes of pairing an indoor exhibit with the work of their 2014 Martin Shallenberger artist-inresidence Patrick Dougherty’s outdoor wood sculptures. When the International Art & Artists-sponsored Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art came across his desk, he knew it was right. On March 22, the show opens at the museum. “It’s a perfect complement to Patrick inside,” Wierich says. “It’s a beautiful way to look at how artists deal with nature, especially with materials that are hard, difficult to bend. It’s a miracle what these artists can do with bamboo.”
in the show have been recognized as living national treasures by the country’s government. Wierich relates that there is, in this exhibit, a consistency of quality and skill each object represents, and “each is unique.” He says the piece called Sound of Wind that appears on the exhibit’s book cover struck him particularly. “It’s such a beautiful evocation of wind represented as an object. You can see the different components intertwining: l i g ht , i n no c e nc e , t he alien-ness of the wind.”
PHOTO © MOCHIZUKI AKIRA
Nagakura Ken'ichi, Circle, 1990, Bamboo (madake), lacquer
Bamboo crafting goes back centuries. We know that during the ninth century it was used increasingly in the tea ceremony for bowls and also to create baskets and holders for Japanese flower arrangements. The bamboo basket art grew from these traditions.
He adds that guests should “be open to surprises. This is not what you might imagine as traditional; these are very modern looking, very artistically ambitious objects. Be open to letting their beauty speak to you.” Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art opens March 22 and runs through May 27. At the opening, master artist Ueno Masao will be present to demonstrate his techniques for the public. For more information, visit www.cheekwood.org.
(detail) Uematsu Chikuyu, Sound of Wind, 1991, Bamboo (madake), rattan, lacquer
PHOTO © SUSAN EINSTEIN
PHOTO © SUSAN EINSTEIN
By the twentieth century, Wierich says, it had been embraced as a more sculptural form, with the traditional elements barely visible, using very free forms. “In some, you can still recognize the basket’s form, if you look closely at the small openings in objects where flowers might be set,” he says. The style commands such respect in contemporary Japan that two artists represented
Wierich hopes as we plan our trips to Modern Twist we truly understand that “this is a quintessential form of art in Japan, practiced by a very select group of gifted artists who take years to perfect their craft.”
Mimura Chikuho, Hope, 2004, Bamboo (madake), rattan, lacquer
14 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
GREELY MYATT DLG APRIL 2014
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
516 Hagan St . Nashville . davidluskgallery.com
COURTESY OF THE BLAIR SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Blair School of Music Celebrates 50 Years
The original Blair School building at 1208 18th Avenue South
by Brad Schmitt
B
lair Academy of Music opened in 1964 in a house on 18th Avenue South, a pre-college feeder school for the George Peabody College for Teachers’ School of Music. There was no Vanderbilt affiliation and only one full-time faculty member, piano teacher Roland Schneller.
“He’s still teaching pre-college students, and he’s serving as co-chair of the piano department. He has been here 50 years!” enthuses his wife, Pam Schneller, now an associate dean for the Blair School. Indeed, the school will recognize Professor Schneller’s five decades of commitment in a special anniversary concert in September. That’s just part of the school’s overall 50th anniversary celebration, which kicks off March 16 with a special concert that features, well, students, of course. The Blair Children’s Chorus—more than 100 strong—will be joined by the Symphonic Choir and the college orchestra to close out the free event with the fifteenminute Mass of the Children. Also featured that afternoon: Blair senior Sean William Calhoun, 21, a Bellevue native who grew up in Blair’s hallways, will present and help perform his original piece, Divertimento, with the help of three other students. “It’s a fun piece,” Calhoun says. “I wanted something jovial in character,” he added. “It’s not a fanfare; it’s a very optimistic-sounding piece, celebratory in nature.”
COURTESY OF THE BLAIR SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Today, the Blair School continues to provide music education for Nashville’s children and teens, but it also serves as the music department for Vanderbilt University. Oh, and it has 62 full-time faculty—and Roland Schneller is still one of them.
Pre-college students at a chamber music recital
COURTESY OF THE BLAIR SCHOOL OF MUSIC
Dean Schneller says 50 years of music education are worth celebrating. “We feel like birthdays are important,” she says. “Blair’s mission was always to provide first-class teaching and concerts by first-class artists and musicians. We’ve tried to remain faithful to that mission for 50 years.”
Vanderbilt Opera Theatre’s 2013 steampunk-inspired production of Into the Woods
There have been some small additions to what Blair offers. Folk music classes are now offered for those who like to put down the violin and pick up the mandolin now and then, Schneller says. And the school is considering offering some post-graduate classes or certifications, though Schneller is quick to add that there are no plans yet to add a grad school. For now, she says, the school is focused on the 50th anniversary festivities. “We look forward to celebrating our heritage and look forward to our future as well.” For more information on Blair School of Music and a complete calendar of 50 th Anniversary events, please visit www.blair.vanderbilt.edu.
16 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
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HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT
DANIEL SMITH Oil on canvas 202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 • www.gallery202art.com • 615-472-1134 Visit Us During “Franklin Art Scene” March 7, 6-9pm 18 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Matthew Deric Gore, Artichokes, Oil on canvas, 24” x 36”
Werner, Gore, and Rowell Centennial Art Center Through March 26
S
everal years ago, lightning cut down a 400-year-old oak tree at the Brentwood Library, but it lived on in the hands of local artists. Members of the Tennessee Association of Woodturners collected as much of the wood as possible and made pieces to remember the old tree. Some pieces were donated to the library, and others were sold to support the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home. One piece, a vase made by Barry Werner, is featured in a local artists exhibit through March 26 at Metro Parks’ Centennial Art Center. “Creating a valued object from a tree, one of God’s great gifts, gives me immense
by Wendy Wilson satisfaction and a deep appreciation of our natural world,” Werner says. Werner became engrossed in woodturning after retiring from his 33-year career at Bridgestone/Firestone, where he worked in customer service, logistics, and distribution, serving last as a factory warehousing manager. As a woodturner, he works with a lathe, a machine that holds a piece of wood and spins it horizontally while the artist applies hand tools. His other pieces in the show include bowls, wine-bottle stoppers, wall hangings, and sculpture. He is fascinated by the character
Barry Werner, Ginkgo Leaves, Woodburned Maple Wood Vase
of natural wood, and his pieces include bark, knots, evidence of insect damage, and other natural flaws. The show also features pieces by oil painter Matthew Deric Gore and illustrator Hannah Maxwell Rowell. “I hope that viewers will see the humor in my paintings,” says Gore, who left his design profession in 2008 to further pursue oil painting. “My work can sometimes contain darker elements, but I try to treat those themes with a gentle, whimsical touch.” For her work, Rowell collaborates with her 5-year-old twin daughters, pairing the children’s doodles with her charcoal drawings.
(detail) Hannah Maxwell Rowell, Watcher (with Aviana), Charcoal, 28” x 22”
NashvilleArts.com
The exhibit at Centennial Art Center is open through March 26. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.nashville.gov/cac. March 2014 | 19
Art on the West Side
N
Fine Art and Craft Sale
March 29 and 30 at the Gordon Jewish Community Center
by Rebecca Pierce Paige Morehead, Jade Reynolds, David Nichols, Vicki Denaburg, Laurie Samuels, Vicki Shipley, Bradley Tyler Wilson, Tom Turnbull, Timothy Weber, Eva Marie Pappas, Judit Pap, Madonna Bush, Nola Jones Smodic, Hugh Bennett, Debe Doher, Paula Barnett, Teresa Hays, and Vickie Vipperman.
ashville’s newest fine art and craft show promises not to disappoint with 41 of the area’s best artists, jewelers, and crafts people participating. Staged at the Gordon Jewish Community Center (GJCC) and co-chaired by artist Rhonda Wernick and artist/gallery owner Ron York, Art on the West Side: Fine Art and Craft Sale is already generating a buzz of expectation and delight. As an added bonus, proceeds from the show will directly benefit GJCC Art Programs for adults and children and the Melvin Case Christmas for Kids Foundation.
Co-chair Rhonda Wernick, who serves on the board and teaches painting classes at GJCC, was the driving force in bringing the show to the center. “I thought this would be a great thing for us to host, and I knew we could do it. Our vision was to make it a Nashville community event, and it was amazing how quickly this large and energetic committee came together.”
Philanthropist and artist Martha Case Nemer will be the featured artist for the inaugural event. Known for her eclectic and engaging oil paintings, Nemer started painting strictly as a hobby in the early 1990s, displaying her work at her store. “This is the first art show I have ever been involved in. I haven’t sold much work since I retired and closed the Cotton Mill, so I am very excited,” she candidly commented. Since establishing The Melvin Case Christmas for Kids Foundation in 2000, Nemer has donated 100% of the sales of her work to the foundation. For Art on the West Side she will donate 30% to GJCC, like the rest of the participating artists, and the remainder to the Foundation.
Martha Case Nemer, Rosalita, 2013, Oil on canvas, 24” x 12”
Art on the West Side opens with a cocktail reception on Saturday, March 29, from 6 until 10 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person. On Sunday March 30, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. admission is free. Activities for children will be provided by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The GJCC is located at 801 Percy Warner Boulevard. For more information, please visit www.nashvillejcc.org and www.facebook.com/artonthewestside.
The Foundation was established after the death of her extraordinarily charitable brother and since its beginning has distributed over 10,000 toys and stuffed animals through local charities. In 2005 the Foundation established two needbased nursing scholarships at Tennessee Technological University School of Nursing. Co-chair and designer of the show Ron York enthused, “With plenty of parking and a spacious interior, the GJCC lends itself extremely well to an art show. The first time I visited the space, the interior designer in me took over, and I could immediately see how much we could do to present a show that would flow nicely and at the same time beautifully showcase the art.”
Tom Turnbull, Red Vase, Porcelain
Among the artists exhibiting are Marilyn Wendling, Bitsy Hughes, Streater Spencer,
20 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Vicki Denaburg, White Orchids, Mixed media on canvas, 48” x 36”
Hitting the High Notes
Jalan-Jalan
The 2014-15 Nashville Symphony Schedule
PHOTOGRAPH BY SUSSIE AHLBURG
Indonesian Antiques • Ancient Modern Design
Ingrid Fliter
T
2/13/14 1:08 PM
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE PARKER
he recently announced 2014/2015 Nashville Symphony classical concert season is chock full of captivating Open Fridays and Saturdays 10-4 performances and stellar talent. Highlights include a one-night-only appearance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a new and also By Appointment work by Nashville composer Conni Ellisor written especially for bassist Victor Wooten, and an 2503 WINFORD AVENUE • NASHVILLE, TN 37211 appearance by baritone Thomas WWW.JALANJALANANTIQUES.COM Hampson. Notable concerts include an All Rachmaninoff evening with pianist Olga Kern, Tchaikovsky’s JalanJalan_0214HV.indd 1 Pathetique with pianist Ingrid Fliter, pianist Jonathan Biss performing Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto; Dvořák’s “New World” symphony, and Benjamin Britten’s epic War Requiem featuring the full orchestra along with a chamber Victor Wooten orchestra, children’s chorus, the Nashville Symphony Chorus, and three vocal soloists. Also recently revealed is the appointment of Assistant Conductor Vinay Parameswaran, a 2013 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Otto-Werner Mueller as the Albert M. Greenfield Fellow. Parameswaran will lead all of the orchestra’s education and community engagement programs, including the Young People’s Concerts for school children and the Saturday-morning Pied Piper Children’s Series. He will also serve as the cover conductor for Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero and is slated to conduct the orchestra for the Nashville Symphony’s March 18 performance with legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman. Season tickets are available now. Subscription prices for the 2014/15 season start at $174 for a seven-concert package—which also includes free bonus concerts for both new and renewing subscribers. For a full list of Nashville Symphony 2014/15 classical concerts and special events, visit www.bit.ly/1mrYZhK.
NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 21
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Art History Class Lifestyle Lounge & Gallery Comes to Historic Jefferson Street by Cass Teague
T
PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC WILLINGHAM
haxton Abshalom Waters and his wife Deyonna recently opened a unique art gallery and school featuring monthly exhibitions, vintage treasures, lectures, and cinema. The venue also includes a lending library, an Internet café, and studio space for private lessons. Their mission is to facilitate culture and historical study through discussion and art. Thaxton says the Art History Class Lifestyle Lounge & Gallery is “a place for me to exhibit my work and antiques I pulled from all across the Southeast region staged into installations that relate to a painting so we can have a 3-D moment . . . not only a painting; we can have an antique that goes along with it and a lecture that goes along with everything that’s happening.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC WILLINGHAM
The location was chosen very deliberately. It is within walking distance of Arna Bontemps’ house, James Weldon Johnson’s house, David Driskell’s home, and the art department of Harlem
Renaissance great Aaron Douglas. With so much rich history surrounding the gallery, the couple hopes to capture that spirit and present it in a modern way. Waters explained that the words art, history, and class were intentionally selected for the name. “Art encompasses sculpture, painting, drawing, dance, clothing, style—just the way we move. History: we want to retell these narratives in a modern context, get the history of a J.C. Napier or a Preston Taylor and retell it in a modern context to bring light to those great giants. Class is to focus on these social structures in a scholastic, academic way since we’re around Meharry, Fisk, and TSU.” Art History Class Lifestyle Lounge & Gallery, 1305 Jefferson Street, is open Monday through Friday from 12 until 6 p.m. and Saturday from 12 until 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.arthistoryclass.tumblr.com.
Paul Penczner Works at Auction March 4 through 26 at McLemore Auction Company
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uring a career that spanned nearly seven decades artist Paul Penczner gained international renown, and his works can be found in prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Smithsonian, the Vatican, and the White House. Upon his death in 2010, Penczner donated his entire personal collection of his own work to establish an endowment in his name at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Department of Physiology. Though the university has sold several works from the collection over the past year, McLemore 24 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Auction Company, on behalf of the University Foundation, will auction more than 270, including original paintings, drawings, block prints, and lithographs. The auction catalog will be available for online bidding beginning March 4. The collection will be available for a special auction preview on March 25 at the W.O. Smith Music School. The auction closes March 26, beginning at 10 a.m. CT. For more information and to place bids, visit www.mclemoreauction.com. The Double Portrait of Wanda Wilson, 1994, Oil on board, 30” x 24”
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Jeffrey Steele and Friends
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7th Annual Benefit Concert for Teens March 11
Steele and his family created the Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund after 13-yearold Alex passed away in a 2007 ATV accident. Since the fund’s inception, more than $171,000 in grants has been awarded to organizations that aid youth in Middle Tennessee. One of the fund’s focuses is providing safe opportunities for young people with an interest in skateboarding, which was Alex’s passion.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY SCARLATI
he Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee presents the 7th Annual Jeffrey Steele & Friends Celebrity Concert. Performing in memory of Steele’s late son, Alex LeVasseur, will be Jeffrey Steele and his band along with Montgomery Gentry, Chris Janson, The Shuggah Pies, LoCash Cowboys, Steve Cropper, and more. Great American Country’s Storme Warren will host.
This year, a portion of the evening’s proceeds will go to The Beat of Life, an organization providing therapeutic music programs to Middle Tennesseans in need.
The evening will also include a live auction, with items such as an ACM ticket package, a Black Crowes autographed guitar, an event guitar signed by the evening’s performers.
The 7th Annual Jeffrey Steele & Friends Celebrity Concert, March 11, at 7 p.m., Franklin Theatre. For tickets visit www.cfmt.org/attend.
SATURDAY, MARCH 15TH Preview 2pm-5pm Artist Reception 5pm-8pm
SUNDAY, MARCH 16TH 12pm-4pm
THE HARPETH ART CENTER & GALLERY home of
Mud Puddle Pottery Studio
462 Highway 70, Pegram, TN 37143
Carolyn Boutwell Michael Brooks Ben Caldwell Seth Conley Carla Christina Contreras John Cowden Regina Davidson Thomas Farris Francesca Lynn Faucette Lisa Gardiner Melissa Hancock Nancy Hilgert
Linda Hobdy Andra Hughes Sharon Ingram Marcia Lara Lisa Jennings Lynne Looney Linda McLaughlin Jim Mooneyhan Nancy McCune Sylvanye Roh Sam Simms Rotonya Troup
www.ArtConnectNashville.com Lisa Jennings
PRESENTED BY Tradebank Nashville Harpeth West Chamber of Commerce benefiting Cheatham County Animal Awareness Foundation
Ben Caldwell
13th Annual Birdhouse Thing W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School
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March 18
nce again Nashville artists and celebrities have given their time and talent to create some of the most artful and unique birdhouses ever! At the 13th Annual Birdhouse Thing, enjoy fine hors d’oeuvres from Nashville’s premier caterers and bid on your favorites knowing that the proceeds will give the gift of music to young people. This year’s event will also offer original art as well as gift packages to local businesses. And the silent celebrity online auction through w w w.mc lemoreauct ion.c o m w i l l return.
Bob Sillers, The Contented Birdhouse
Through The Birdhouse Thing the non-profit music school is able to provide youth on reduced and free lunch programs the opportunity to study music for just 50 cents per lesson.
The Birdhouse Thing takes place at the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School on Tuesday, March 18, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. For tickets and information, please visit www.birdhousething.com.
presents
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Carrie McGee, Wild Green Winter, 2013, Mixed media, 42" x 60" x 4"
Recent Works by Carrie McGee and Jeri Eisenberg Cumberland Gallery through April 5
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by Wendy Wilson McGee’s work in the exhibit includes Residue Compartments, a grouping of glowing, transparent containers stacked from the ground. It’s a new approach for McGee, whose pieces are often suspended from above. “With hanging pieces there is an awareness of gravity—weight and structural connection are always there to contend with,” she says. “The Residue Compartments are free of those constraints and signal a new direction that suggests scaling up and presenting in the round.”
eri Eisenberg started her working life as a lawyer but ended up following in the footsteps of her artist father. “Art and photography were always around my home,” she says. Her father was a commercial artist who worked in graphics studios on Madison Avenue retouching photos. Eisenberg picked up photography in high school and after realizing law wasn’t a good fit, decided to pursue it more, even returning to school for an MFA.
Having grown up in the New York City area, Eisenberg now makes her home on eighteen acres of wooded land on the east side of the Hudson River not far from Albany. She captures this wooded landscape in A Sojourn of Seasons, her series in the exhibit. Eisenberg uses an oversized pinhole camera or a radically unfocused lens, creating blurry, dreamy images. Each image is layered onto Japanese kozo papers and infused with encaustic wax. She began working on A Sojourn of Seasons when her father
Jeri Eisenberg, Dogwood (Red), Edition 1 of 12, No. 3, 2013, Archival pigment ink on Japanese kozo with infused encaustic, 36" x 34"
started losing his vision and memory. She imagines that what she created artistically may be similar to what her father now sees in reality. Despite the loss of definition, essential qualities remain, she says. Eisenberg’s photo-based work can be seen through April 5 at Cumberland Gallery in Green Hills, along with the mixed-media art of local artist Carrie McGee.
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McGee has a background as an abstract painter. Her mixed-media pieces involve some degree of hand painting. She is drawn to using overlooked materials and experimenting, and she says her goal has always been to develop a unique personal language. “The challenge of how to construct and present the work is ongoing,” she says. “It’s all about problem solving.” For more information on the exhibit visit, www.cumberlandgallery.com.
Building A Sand Castle on quarter inch glass is like building a dream and realizing all things are possible! Call and schedule an appointment or visit any Saturday between 10 am & 4 pm.
Building A Sand Castle, 54 x 37, Mixed Media A 3-dimensional, multi-media painting on 1/4� glass that created itself!
Wisdom f o l r a e P Art PearlofWisdom_0314H.indd 1
Jan Hittle
523 Old Hickory Blvd | Old Hickory, TN 37138 (615) 766-5947
2/12/14 9:32 AM
PHOTOGRAPH BY SOPHIA FORBES
GasLamp Antiques Celebrates Ten Years on March 15
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asLamp Antiques will mark their tenth anniversary with a birthday bash featuring hourly gift card drawings, an assortment of giveaways, dealer sales, special music, and refreshments.
Indian, Carol Curtis, Watercolor, 30 x 22
GasLamp Antiques & Decorating Mall opened in 2004 in the upstairs of the Staples building at 100 Oaks. With just a few dozen dealers and a small staff, the mall steadily grew, until the dealer waiting list was well over 200. In August 2012, GasLamp Too opened its doors, doubling the mall’s size and offerings. “We’ve grown so much in ten years,” said Lauren H. Bugg, owner of GasLamp Antiques and GasLamp Too. “The mall has progressed in many ways—from what we offer to whom we serve. We’re also so proud of the incredible talent who call GasLamp and GasLamp Too home. On March 15, we want to thank everyone who has given us these wonderful ten years!” Today, GasLamp Antiques and GasLamp Too boast 50,000 square feet of climate-controlled space and are home to nearly 400 vendors offering an assortment of high-quality antiques, retro furnishings, home accessories, books, industrial pieces, collectibles, and more. The tenth anniversary event takes place at both locations on Saturday, March 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.GasLampAntiques.com.
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Daffodils, Carol Curtis, Watercolor , 8 x 8
Follow me to English & Company
This image is also available in 18 mesh stitch- painted Zweigart needlepoint canvas
carolcurtisart.com
ENGLISH & COMPANY
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Home Consignments
118 Powell Place • Nashville, TN 37204 Mon. - Sat. • 10:00 - 5:00 • (615) 315-5589 englishandcompanytn@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook
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Public Art Encourages Nashvillians to Get Moving by Anne-Leslie Owens, Public Art Project Coordinator
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e all know that art can move you, but can it literally get you moving? Public art designed for the new Lentz Public Health Center intends to do just that. When completed in June 2014, the Lentz Public Health Center on Charlotte Avenue will feature an interactive public artwork spanning three floors alongside the atrium staircase. Outside, visitors to the new building will be greeted by an artist-designed bicycle rack that combines whimsy with function. The interior artwork, Erik Carlson’s Circulate, is noticeably different from the rest of Metro Art’s public art collection. Combining art and technology, this public artwork will change in appearance as it responds to movement. To make this happen, Carlson is using LCD smart glass disks that fade—between clear and opaque—as people move up and down the staircase. A camera on the opposite side of the atrium will read this movement, which activates the changes in the glass disks. Carlson designed the interactive artwork to encourage people to use the stairs while providing engaging artwork viewable from all three floors of the atrium. As part of our city’s green and healthy living initiatives, Metro Arts has commissioned local and regional artists to design bike racks. Are We There Yet? by Duncan McDaniel will be installed in
Erik Carlson, Circulate
front of the Lentz Public Health Center. McDaniel, a Nashville artist, also designed the Soundboard Sliders bike rack located on 12th Avenue South. Whether you bike, walk, or ride, you will want to check out this exciting new public art. To view the entire public art collection online, please visit publicart.nashville.gov.
Heaven On Earth! Artists, Writers, Musicians ~ A Professional Artist's Retreat!
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Fiona King • 615-417-3434 • Nancy Brock • 615-406-6083 S O U N D A DV I C E , P R OV E N R E S U LT S
Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993, Transparency on lightbox, 8’ x 13’ x 1’ © Tate, London 2014
As I See It
Shifting Winds As March winds begin to blow over the Northern Hemisphere, I find myself thinking about Jeff Wall’s A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993. The image is dominated by a flat, open landscape. Four figures stand or crouch against a gust of wind that is powerful enough to upend their world, scatter papers, lift coattails, and blow away a hat. Wall pays homage to a print by the Japanese painter and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai, Travelers Caught in a Sudden Breeze at Ejiri, 1832, from the portfolio The Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. The scene appears to be spontaneous, a sudden change in atmospheric conditions caught on film, an example of what Henri Cartier-Bresson referred to as a decisive moment. At the same time, we sense that the composition has been staged or set up. The large scale suggests history painting and the labor-intensive process of constructed imagery. Rather than paint, Wall fuses photographs, in this case over one hundred of them, to create a tableau. In the final stage of production, a color transparency is mounted on a lightbox giving off an inner glow reminiscent of the earliest film techniques. It is this combination of modern technology and references to art history that is at once compelling and confounding. Old and new converge.
Wall claims that his technique, which grows out of the traditional medium and practice of photography, is a cinematographic practice. Stillness and movement merge. Despite its verisimilitude, Wall’s image does not picture the world in a photographic way but rather in a symbolic or allegorical way. The period when Hokusai’s prints exerted the most profound influence on aesthetics in Europe and America, the mid and late nineteenth century, coincided with the invention and proliferation of photography. Both sources informed the evolving modernist taste for flatness, cropping, fragmentation, and distorted perspective. A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) depicts a moment in time as well as a moment in history that shares with the present a shift in the way the world is pictured.
NashvilleArts.com
Susan H. Edwards, PhD Executive Director & CEO Frist Center for the Visual Arts March 2014 | 35
CRAWL GUIDE The First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown takes place on Saturday, March 1, from 6 until 9 p.m. The Arts Company will present How the West Was One: New Photography by Jerry Park & Nick Dantona, which offers current interpretations of dramatic Western landscapes. Also slated is photography by Ansel Adams’ protégé Robert Kohlbrener featured in the exhibit Classic Western Photographs by Robert Kohlbrener. Tinney Robert Kohlbrener – The Arts Company Contemporary will host Luminous – The Encaustic Work of Tom Brydelsky in the front gallery and works by Kathryn Dettwiller in the rear gallery. The Rymer Gallery will exhibit From Here to There featuring new paintings by Trevor Mikula and will also showcase new photographs by Nancy Lee Andrews. Tennessee Art League will display impressionistic work by guest artist Sherrie Russ Levine.
Nancy Lee Andrews – The Rymer Gallery
In The Arcade, WAG will exhibit Blocks: Constructed Exclusions, a collaboration by Watkins students Mika Agari, Upreyl Mitchell, Sharon Stewart, and Weng Tze Yang. BelArt Gallery will show paintings by Marleen D e Wae le - D e B o c k . L Gallery will feature paintings by Abstract Expressionist Carol Lena Saffell. OPEN Gallery, operated by Lipscomb University Department of Art students, will present Soft Butch by Marleen De Waele-De Bock – Benjy Russell. BelArt Gallery
Watkins student collaboration – WAG
Hatch Show Print, located in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, will display designer-printer Laura Baisden’s piece depicting the Tennessee state bird, which was commissioned by the Omni Nashville Hotel. Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston will take place from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 1. David Lusk Gallery will open their new Nashville location with the inaugural exhibit OPE N I NG fe at u r i n g works by 23 multigenerational artists. At their new space in Track One, Seed Space will unveil Matt Gilbert’s Font Flowers and Travis Tad Lauritzen Wright – David Lusk Gallery Janssen’s multi-media installation Conversion. From 5:30 to 9 p.m., the Track One Garage Warehouse will present Carl Oliver Synthesis, a long-form modularsynth improvisation. At 9 p.m. the warehouse will become a massive multimedia experience when Chicago glitch Nick Briz – Track One Garage Warehouse artists Nick Briz and Jon Satrom perform with several Nashville experimental artists. Popup space 444 Humphreys St. will host Brooklyn artist Allie Kuzyk, whose works present playful illustrations rooted in pop-culture headlines, and work by illustrator Kevin Guthrie, who immor ta lizes popu lar personalities on the sides of torn beer cases. Fort Houston will show Bradley Marshall’s I’m Only Sleeping, images from a five-year exploration of the visual dialect Allie Kuzyk – 444 Humphreys St. of Southern recreation and diversion. Zeitgeist will present Trace Element from painter Lars Strandh and the collaborative project Harmony of the Spheres from Phillip Andrew Lewis and Kevin Cooley.
Audrey Collins – Bob Parks Realty
36 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
The Franklin Art Scene takes place on Friday, March 7, from 6 until 9 p.m. in historic downtown Franklin. Jack Yacoubian Jewelry and Fine Art Gallery will kick off Nashville-based artist Susan Goshgarian McGrew’s exhibit From the Masai Mara to the
Serengeti. Gallery 202 will feature self-taught painter Daniel Smith, who takes a childlike approach to creation. Bob Parks Realty will showcase artwork by students from Battle Ground Academy including Annie Kennedy, Rachel Fowke, Madeline Jewell, Lily Kruse, and Audrey Collins. Boutique MMM will host Shannon Haas, a third-generation artist whose art reflects her love for simplistic, natural subjects. The Elsie McClurg – The Savory Savory Spice Shop will exhibit Spice Shop architectural and landscape paintings by Elsie McClurg. Stites & Harbison law firm’s featured artist is Joseph “Dzuback” Bibb. O’More College of Design will launch an exhibit by Nashvillebased painter J. Todd Greene.
J. Todd Greene – O'More College of Design
On Thursday, March 20, at 7 p.m., UnBound Arts will host Third Thursdays at The Building with work by artists Arthur Kirkby and Shaun Shiveley and music by Nashville Jazz Workshop graduates Donna Venardi and the Ladies of Jazz.
Women’s Work II Opening at Bennett Galleries April 4
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Eileen Corse, Steppin Out, 2014, Oil on canvas, 40” x 30”
Women’s Work II opens with a reception on April 4 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Bennett Galleries, 2104 Crestmoor Road. To learn more about Global Fund for Women, go to www.globalfundforwomen.org. For more information on the exhibit, visit www.bennettgalleriesnashville.com.
Beautifully Unconventional
JackYacoubian_0314Q.indd 1
nce again Bennett Galleries will celebrate female artists and the women’s perspective in art by devoting the entire gallery to a women-only exhibition. A reprise of one of their best and most popular shows ever, Women’s Work II showcases new work from Lisa Moore, Eileen Corse, Helli Luck, Kris Prunitsch, Harriet Goode, Ruth Franklin, Karen Laborde, Melanie Morris, Jeanie Tomanek, Pat Snyder, Charlotte Terrell, and Melody Trivisone. Women’s Work II is aimed at bringing women together to encourage and inspire, and a portion of sales from the show will be donated to Global Fund for Women.
WE C A N RE M O U N T YO U R D I A M O N D IN ONE OF THESE MOUNTINGS
2/15/14 4:10 PM
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nconventional – Nashville’s Music City Center is a stunning 152-page coffee table book documenting the extraordinary artwork found throughout Nashville’s new convention center. This amazing collection of public art and how it complements the iconic architecture of the Music City Center is documented through striking photography and informative essays which show just how special both the facility and the art collection are. The 12” x 12” art book is available in either a hardcover Case-bound with book jacket version for $65 or as a soft-cover Perfect-bound with gatefold covers for $49.95. Both are Smythe-Sewn and printed on Athens Silk paper. For more information or to order Unconventional– Nashville’s Music City Center, please visit www.nashvillemusiccitycenter.com.
NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 37
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER HAMRICK
Professor David Badger (back), Professor Joonghwa Lee at Baldwin Gallery at MTSU
38 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Lana Finch, Gary & Eva Oglander at Lipman/Sotheby's
PHOTOGRAPH BY SOPHIA FORBES
Sutton Lipman Costanza, Larry Lipman, and Alexa Lipman at Lipman/Sotheby's
Robert and Agata Bond at Zeitgeist
PHOTOGRAPH BY SOPHIA FORBES
Stephanie Lloyd, Staci Shepard, and Chris Mannino at Lipman/Sotheby's
PHOTOGRAPH BY SOPHIA FORBES
Thaxton Waters with guests at the opening of Art History Class Lifestyle Lounge & Gallery
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN JACKSON
SEE ART SEE ART SEE
Professor Harold Baldwin (Gallery namesake), Jerry Uelsmann, Maggie Taylor at MTSU
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER HAMRICK
Sarah Cameron , Matt Grieser at Tinney Contemporary
Walter Schatz at MTSU
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPHER HAMRICK
The Arts Company
Carol Saffell at L Gallery in The Arcade
SEE ART SEE ART SEE A. Coleman and Corrie Cecil at Fort Houston
Jason Frazier at The Arcade
The Rymer Gallery
Trevor Mikula and Erin Proctor Herb at The Rymer Gallery
Lacy Morrison, Sean Kelly at 40AU Gallery in The Arcade
Andee Rudloff, Ryan Schemmel, Stacey Irvin at Fort Houston NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 39
The Bookmark A Monthly Look at Hot Books and Cool Reads
For more information about these books, visit www.parnassusbooks.net.
The Adventures of Henry Thoreau: A Young Man’s Unlikely Path to Walden Pond MICHAEL SIMS Former Nashvillian Michael Sims has written a book chronicling the ten years in Thoreau’s life beginning with Harvard in 1837 and ending as he walked away from Walden Pond after living in his long-dreamed-of cabin for only two years. It tells the dramatic (and at times heartbreaking) story of how a troubled young man found a meaningful life in a tempestuous era.
Bark: Stories LORRIE MOORE This new collection of stories by one of America’s most beloved and admired shortstory writers is her first in fifteen years, since Birds of America. In these eight masterful stories, Lorrie Moore, in a perfect blend of craft and bewitched spirit, explores the passage of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal her own exquisite, singular wisdom. Ms. Moore has recently moved to Nashville to join the English Department at Vanderbilt as the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English. Meet her on March 28. Check parnassusbooks.net for details.
Susanna and the Elders, 2013, Wool, cotton and silk thread on tulle fabric, 48 in x 46 in
The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone DEBORAH MADISON Originally published in 1997, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone was both ahead of its time and an instant classic and has endured as one of the world’s most popular vegetarian cookbooks. This revised edition features 1,600 recipes suitable for vegetarians, vegans, and everyone who loves fresh produce and good food. “Comprehensive doesn’t even begin to describe this all-encompassing classic of a book. Deborah Madison’s thoughtful and modern approach to cooking vegetables makes her a top authority on the subject, as well as a marvelous practitioner, crafting the most delicious dishes and exciting flavor combinations.” – Yotam Ottolenghi
Portrait Paintings & Works on Tulle
Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling BECCA STEVENS In this moving memoir, Nashville’s own Becca Stevens tells how the women she began helping fifteen years ago through Magdalene House and Thistle Farms have been the biggest source of her own healing from sexual abuse and her father’s death when she was a child. Wise and reflective, Snake Oil offers an empowering narrative as well as a selection of recipes for healing remedies that readers can make themselves. The book is out in paperback this month.
Portrait of an Artist, 2013, Oil on canvas, 16 in x 12 in
Visit meghanvaziri.com or call (901) 246-4250 for portrait commissions or other inquiries.
Film Review
Film still from Medora
Hope Through Hoops Medora Review
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by Justin Stokes
ompetitive sports have always served as a gauge for the collective pride of an area. The team that gets the loudest cheer is the most loved. So what happens to the competitive spirit of a community when once-proud small towns— the backbone of America—are eroded by economic difficulty? Medora, the documentary from Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci’s Olive Productions, sets out to answer this question. The product of six hundred hours of shot footage and a crowd-funded effort to finalize post-production, Medora has been called by several critics one of the most important sports documentaries of the year. Summarizing the emotions of favorites such as Hoosiers or Rocky, it is a true depiction of the troubles an underdog faces and what it really means to become a champion. The audience follows several members of the Medora Hornets basketball team in the slowly dying town of Medora, Indiana. The struggles of these youth, who belong to the smallest student body in the area, are shown through the effects of the poverty, addiction, depression, and overall lack of opportunity that have produced this landscape of broken homes and closed businesses. Facing a potential consolidation with other schools that would assimilate the student body and erase Medora’s identity, the school’s basketball program works to keep youth out of trouble and on a future path that will open doors previously closed to their families. This is an affirming film that shows the importance of extracurricular activities to public schools as these programs smooth away the rough edges of childhood, preparing young adults for the rest of their lives. The Medora Hornets, like all sports teams, symbolize our desire for success and our looming fear of failure.
Medora, another piece in the Community Cinema series, is scheduled for Wednesday, March 26, at 11:30 a.m. in NPT’s Studio A inside the NPT Arts Center at 161 Rains Avenue in Nashville. Each screening in the series includes a light lunch and a discussion about the film. Those attending are advised to RSVP by the Monday prior to the screening. Further information can be found online at www.wnpt.org.
THE INTERGALACTIC NEMESIS LIVE ACTION GRAPHIC NOVEL BOOK 1: TARGET EARTH
‘Something you must experience if you’re a fan of awesome!’ -collider.com
March 7th & 8th at 7pm Tickets: $40 $20 (age 12 & younger) OZNASHVILLE.COM
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by Tyler Middleton
n February, we kicked off our column with common questions asked by artists. This month, attorney Tyler Middleton of Graffam Middleton joins us for Q&A to dig deeper into the nuances of business structures for artists. Q: When should I formalize my business structure? A: Every artist is different and will have varying circumstances that will determine when and how to formalize. For many of my clients, the question often comes up when they are first approached with an agreement. Having a formal entity enter into the deal can be advantageous to insulate the artist personally. It is always best to take a look at the agreement’s specific impacts, in conjunction with your broader career goals, to make this decision.
Q: Which type of organization is the best fit for me and my work?
Q: What common mistakes should I avoid?
A: Common options include the general partnership, limited liability company (LLC), and corporation. Each will present pros and cons that may be significant depending on your situation, so it’s important to meet with an attorney to help you choose a structure that moves you toward your goals. In Tennessee, when two or more people engage in a venture, the default position is that you have formed a general partnership. One advantage to this kind of entity is largely a practical one—there is no formal filing requirement or fee. On the other hand, partners in a general partnership are not protected from personal liability, so the savings may not justify the potential personal risk. Many organizational structures are designed to keep the artist’s individual assets separate from their professional ventures. For example, if an issue arises while an artist is on the road, her touring company would take on the potential liability, while her personal money and property, as well as assets related to her songwriting and recording career, would be protected.
A: It is important to take charge of your creative career, avoid being too casual about how you manage your business, and be diligent about its professional health. Make sure that you consult with a professional advisor regularly so that they can help you make decisions about how to organize your business and spot any potential issues before they happen. Investing in those resources on the front end saves you from spending significantly more time and money to correct mistakes down the road. Tyler Middleton’s legal practice focuses primarily on the representation of recording and performing artists and creative companies in all areas of the entertainment industry. Tyler has served as a board member of the Nashville Film Festival since 2008. She proudly volunteers for the Volunteer Lawyers & Professionals for the Arts. For more about the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville visit their website at www.abcnashville.org.
The Great Unknowns
Arthur Kirkby by Jennifer Anderson
Tammy Whynot, 2014, Acrylic, spray paint, and stencil, 36" x 36"
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Generally viewed as a cautionary tale by fellow students and their parents, he dropped out of high school only to be lured back to formal study by discovering Andy Warhol through the book Edie. He soon started taking pictures of his own “Edie,” a friend named Margaret whose mother was an art history professor at the University of North Alabama. He got his GED and attended her classes to add knowledge to his artistic thought and expression. He majored in foreign languages and journalism Arthur Kirkby with Waylon only to be continually drawn back to painting.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TIFFANI BING
t his home, the walls were filled with the family’s artwork. He spent afternoons after school propped in front of the television at his Gramma’s house with a TV tray, a National Geographic, and paints, recreating the images he saw in the magazine. Raised in a military family, he had two constants in his life: the creative vibe in his home and his love of painting.
After moving to Nashville he displayed his work in a friend’s design studio and eventually sold the whole show. Since then he has brought his distinctive flair to various creative endeavors, including visual and performing arts, work in radio and as a recording artist, interior designer, and hair stylist. It was during his work in interior design that he discovered stencils. He began to experiment with hand cutting his own stencils and painting them. Using his love of Warholesque colors and found objects, he immortalizes the icons he comes in contact with. His first work captured the essence of the much-loved Miss Sarah Cannon, aka Minnie Pearl, and can now be seen hanging in Connie Britton’s “studio” on the set of the TV show Nashville. Part camp and part pop-culture comment, his work is brilliant in every way. An opening featuring Arthur Kirkby’s work will be on view at Third Thursdays at The Building starting March 20 at 7 p.m. and continuing through April 16. For more information contact unboundartsnashville@gmail.com.
EXCLAMATION, 2014
Jim Sherraden
H A L E Y G A L L E RY
224 5th Avenue South • Downtown Nashville 615-256-2805 • HatchShowPrint.com Hatch Show Print is another historic property of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, a section 501(c)(3) non-profit education organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964.
Steve Mumford, A typical Iraqi checkpoint in Baghdad in 2007 as the US raced to get Iraqi forces in place. It seemed to me that what the Iraqis lacked in finesse, they often made up for in boldness. 2007, Ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper
the disasters of war Two Views of Conflict at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts through June 8
by Daniel Tidwell
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wo very different views of war and its impact on ordinary people—one brutally frank, the other cool and detached—take center stage at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts through the work of Francisco Goya and Steve Mumford and their singular meditations on the nature of war and its inherent tragedy. Goya’s iconic series of prints, The Disasters of War, graphically depicts the horrors of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in the Peninsular War from 1808–14. In these intimate works, which were inspired by eyewitness accounts and imagination, Goya dives head first into the atrocities of the conflict, presenting scenes of
Francisco Goya, No se convienen (They Do Not Agree), ca. 1811–12, Etching and drypoint, burin, and burnisher, 5.7" x 8.5"
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rape, murder, torture, dismemberment, combat, execution, and famine. Although the series was first published in 1863, time has lessened none of its visceral power to shock. Describing the unflinching quality of the work, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti once wrote, “In Goya’s greatest scenes, we seem to see the people of the world exactly at the moment when they first attained the title of ‘suffering humanity’. They writhe upon the page in a veritable rage of adversity.” The Disasters of War occupies a special place in art history—as an important anti-war statement and as one of the first works to break with academic practice, laying bare Goya’s own true feelings about the war. “Goya broke from a tradition that exalted individual military leaders as heroes—such as the grand equestrian portraits of Napoleon by David, Gericault and others being made around the same time—to focus on the negative aspects of war and the terrible impact it has on ordinary soldiers and civilians,” according to Frist Center Curator Katie Delmez.
Francisco Goya, No saben el camino (They Don’t Know the Way), ca. 1813–14, Etching, drypoint, burin, and burnisher, 6.9" x 8.7"
Since 2003, Mumford has worked on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, embedded with U.S. troops, creating sketches, watercolors, and large-scale paintings that provide an insider’s look at the mundane nature of daily life during wartime and the tragic consequences of combat. Mumford’s original intent was to capture his own experiences with troops along with Iraqi and Afghan citizens, according to Frist Center curator Mark Scala. “While striving to be accurate in what he depicted, Mumford acknowledges the inherent subjectivity to his process in which a drawing or watercolor takes awhile to complete, and the scene changes in front of him,” says Scala. “These are impressions, not documents.”
Steve Mumford, Under cloudy skies a 2/3 Marines platoon waits to leave as their replacements arrive. 2011, Ink and watercolor on paper
“Even the medium can be seen as a reflection of this more ‘democratic’ and bleak perspective with the limited color palette and smaller scale of the work. There really is nothing heroic or grand in these images.” According to Delmez, “He was not making them with a particular patron in mind. In fact, they were only published for distribution thirty-five years after his death.”
Many of Mumford’s watercolors have the poetic, color-washed look of Winslow Homer, while others have the more awkward feel of a courtroom sketch. “There are clearly different intentions from one body of work to another,” according to Scala. “Some are more pure reportage; others are meant to be more aesthetically pleasing.” In 2013, Mumford was allowed access to Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba to create illustrations for a story in Harper’s on the trial of an accused terrorist. Scala feels that these are “perhaps
Goya is the creator of some of the great masterpieces of Western art, including The Third of May, a heroic depiction of Spanish resisters; The Nude Maja, a groundbreaking depiction of the naked female form, and wildly inventive and dark works such as Saturn Devouring His Son from late in his career. “Goya is sometimes called the last of the great ‘Old Master’ painters because of his subject matter,” according to Delmez, “and the first of the modern artists because of the psychological intensity of much of his work. I think this dichotomy is what makes his work so compelling now, two hundred years later.” Steve Mumford’s War Journals, 2003–2013, provide a twenty-firstcentury counterpoint to Goya’s ruminations on war. Where Goya’s outrage over war’s bestiality and horror is clear in his images, Mumford’s personal views of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are nearly impossible to glean from his journalistic approach to portraying life in a war zone.
Francisco Goya, Y no hai remedio (And There Is No Remedy), ca. 1811–12, Etching, drypoint, burin, and lavis, 5.7" x 6.5"
NashvilleArts.com
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Steve Mumford, A patrol from 1st Cav 4/9 checks in with Iraqi checkpoints throughout Haifa Street and Khark in Baghdad in 2007. I had been in this area in 2004 when it was a Sunni insurgent stronghold and US forces couldn’t move down the street without being attacked. 2007, Ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper.
the most evocative of his courtroom sketches.” These works round out the exhibition and are fascinating because military censors have redacted information from the works—bringing to mind the larger, more complex issue of U.S. foreign policy as it relates to war. In addition to these smaller works, Mumford creates large-scale, heroic paintings that reference history painting to ironic effect. In one monumental work from 2010 Empire, measuring 8 x 11 feet, he shows a group of blindfolded prisoners in orange prison jumpsuits as they are ushered into the belly of a large military plane by armed troops under cover of night. It’s an arresting image but again one that has no clearly discernible point of view. For Scala, “The work conveys irony and ambivalence regarding the politics and morality of the war . . . providing a broader historical context . . . as an astute counterpoint to the more immediate sketches of the war zone.” Unlike Goya, Mumford’s goal has never been to portray the extremity of war or to be political. Rather his goal has been to point out how oftentimes not much happens in a war zone. Troops and civilians alike go on living their daily lives. Even though the threat of direct combat may loom large, they are able to “find normalcy in the spaces between conflict.”
Steve Mumford, A patrol from India Co, 3/6 Marines get a visit from a couple of tough old Afghans, possibly Taliban themselves. 2010, Ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper
The pairing of these exhibitions provides viewers with “a fascinating opportunity to examine the ways two artists working in very different times with different motivations and levels of entanglement with each conflict handle the subject matter,” according to Delmez. “Neither Mumford nor Goya tells the whole story of war. Who could?” says Scala. “But together, they cover an enormous amount of territory.” Goya: The Disasters of War and Steve Mumford’s War Journals, 2003–2013, Frist Center for the Visual Arts through June 8. For more information visit www.fristcenter.org.
Francisco Goya, Que valor! (What Courage!), ca. 1811–12, Etching, aquatint, drypoint, burin, and burnisher, 6.2" x 8.3"
46 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Vibrant colors aren’t just for spring
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Carrie McGee, Invitation to See, Rust and acrylic pigments on transparent acrylic sheets
BOUND FOR GLORY Twenty Collaborations in Book Art at the Nashville Public Library through July 27
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by Joe Nolan
ook artist Britt Stadig’s new exhibition of collaborations aims to educate viewers about book art while simultaneously challenging some of Nashville’s top creators to get between the covers themselves. Stadig has lined up some of Middle
Tennessee’s best contemporary artists, including Carrie McGee, Lain York, and Alicia Henry, and the most remarkable aspect of 20 Collaborations in Book Art is how each artist’s voice comes through in these novel forms.
Carrie McGee is known for her assemblages of acrylic blocks stained with rust and acrylic paint, and the familiar aesthetic is front and center with Invitation to See. The artist cues her panels in a colorful sequence on a pedestal at the center of the gallery—it’s McGee’s play on a “tunnel book.” This book form was invented in the eighteenth century and was inspired by the theatrical set design of the time. Generally, tunnel books have a front and back cover that aren’t joined by a spine. As the covers are pulled apart, the pages—which are joined on each side—expand like the bellows of a concertina,
Mel Ziegler, Book of Many Faces, Digital prints, plaster bookends 48 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Sue Mulcahy, Choices, Charcoal, gesso, crayon, graphite, soot, acrylic medium, wax on rag and rice papers
Lain York, Stock Characters/Dialogue Boxes, Cut vinyl
forming a kind of rectangular tube. Readers gaze through peepholes in the covers of the books and are treated to illustrations, pop-up elements, and even text receding into the three-dimensional space defined by the connected pages. McGee’s take on this form offers the depth and shape of the form while the colorful washes, painted geometric shapes, and rusty residues on her panels stand in for the fantastical figures that might populate a more traditional volume.
The images in Lain York's Stock Characters/Dialog Boxes are cartoonish and irreverent, and the techniques—often purposely slapdash and offhanded—are a perfect match for this compendium of colorful characters.
Mel Ziegler’s contribution to the exhibition is also a foldout book but one that plays with more familiar conventions. Ziegler’s volume is sandwiched between two bookends in lieu of front and back covers. The bookends are replicas of Mt. Rushmore, and his book opens to reveal a series of portraits, taken from kitsch memorabilia, of the presidents who grace the mountain. Each is printed on the folded sections of one long page. Grouped together, the portraits reveal that these are more types than representations of real men.
One of the most powerful pieces in the show is Alecia Henry’s A Tale. Featuring combinations of board, gesso, and fabric that make the work unmistakably Henry’s, A Tale is a series of masks that serve as the pages in a visual narrative meant to challenge the Anglo-Saxon biases of traditional fairy tales. Containing real mystery, beauty, and even some scary surprises, the stack of masks rests on a pile of dirt within a beautifully bound box made by Stadig. The combination reminds us that the best fairy stories put the “fun” in “funereal.” The exhibit 20 Collaborations in Book Art will be on display in the Nashville Public Library Art Gallery through July 27. To see all of the books online visit www.20collaborations.com.
Alicia Henry, A Tale, Mixed media
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Arts Worth Watching It was, at the time, a gathering of the finest classic and contemporary singers, songwriters, and musicians in popular music on one of the world’s greatest stages. Now, more than twenty years later, Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration still holds up as one of the best tribute concerts ever staged. Taped in 1992 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Dylan’s debut, the concert sold out more than 18,000 seats in just over an hour. Those paying homage to Dylan included The Band, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash, Eric Clapton, Shawn Colvin, George Harrison, Richie Havens, Roger McGuinn, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder, Ron Wood, Neil Young and more, including Dylan himself. Among the highlights that Great Performances has gathered for this encore presentation, airing on NPT on Sunday, March 16, at 7 p.m., are folk-revivalist Tracy Chapman singing a haunting rendition of “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” Wonder offering a heartfelt version of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and the late George Harrison picking through a rollicking version of “Absolutely Sweet Marie.”
Very few of the Bee Gees concerts were filmed, but fortunately for music fans and public television viewers, cameras were rolling in 1997 when frequent Nashville visitor Barry Gibb and his late brothers, Maurice and Robin, played the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The Bee Gees: One Night Only, on NPT Wednesday, March 12, at 7 p.m., features the group showcasing many of their greatest disco and pop hits, including “How Deep Is Your Love,” “To Love Somebody,” “Massachusetts,” “You Should Be Dancing/Alone,” and many more. A concert special featuring Nashville resident and former member of the Doobie Brothers Michael McDonald by himself would be an occasion to tune in to NPT, but add Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and Boz Scaggs, and you’ve got a supergroup. They call themselves
The Dukes of September, and NPT brings you one of their highspirited performances on Thursday, March 13, at 8 p.m. Songs include many of their individual greatest hits and chart-topping favorites from the 60s and 70s, among them “What A Fool Believes,” “Low Down,” “Lido Shuffle,” “Pretzel Logic,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Reelin’ in the Years,” and many more. Other concert specials of note this membershipdrive month on NPT include A Celebration of Blues & Soul: The 1989 Inaugural Concert, a world television premiere of a concert taped in 1989 and presumed lost for nearly twenty years. Airing Tuesday, March 4, at 8:30 p.m., the show features dazzling performances from some of the biggest names in rock and blues history, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dr. John, Bo Diddley, Ronnie Wood, Delbert McClinton, Sam Moore, Percy Sledge and more. NPT’s Monday night indie film showcase resumes on March 24 at 9 p.m. with Independent Lens: All of Me: A Story of Love, Loss, and Last Resorts, the story of a group of longtime friends—the “Girls”—who have been morbidly obese for years. They met via the Austin chapter of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance but are now going through the life-changing process of weight-loss surgery— and the host of issues and consequences it can lead to—in an effort to lose hundreds of pounds. The following Monday night, March 31, at 9 p.m., it’s Independent Lens: Medora, a profile of a once-booming rural community in Indiana with a thriving middle class that has seen its factories and farms close as the population dwindles. A deeply personal look at small-town life, the film follows a down-but-not-out varsity basketball team as its struggles to compete, paralleling the town’s own fight for survival.
50 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Weekend Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 5:00 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00 6:30
Saturday
am Electric Company Angelina Ballerina Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Dinosaur Train Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Sewing with Nancy Martha’s Sewing Room Garden Smart P. Allen Smith Simply Ming Cook’s Country noon America’s Test Kitchen Bringing it Home with Laura McIntosh John Besh’s Family Table Martha Bakes Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Woodsmith Shop The Woodwright’s Shop Rough Cut with Tommy Mac This Old House Ask This Old House Hometime PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Tennessee’s Wild Side
ThisMonth
March 2014
Nashville Public Television
Sunday
am Sesame Street Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Word World Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads A Word on Words Nature noon To the Contrary The McLaughlin Group Moyers & Company Washington Week with Gwen Ifill Globe Trekker California’s Gold Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Charlie Rose: The Week
In the final volume of the NPT original series, trace the growth of Music City from the 70s to the turn of the century with photos and Follow seven former members of the Amish community stories from those who were there. as they reflect on their decisions to leave. Thursday, March 6 at 7:00 PM Tuesday, February 4 Wednesday, March 12 at 9:00 PM 8:00 PM
Daytime Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00
am Classical Stretch Body Electric Arthur Wild Kratts Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Dinosaur Train Sesame Street Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Sid the Science Kid Thomas and Friends Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood pm Caillou Super Why! Dinosaur Train Martha Speaks Clifford the Big Red Dog Peg + Cat The Cat in the Hat Curious George Arthur WordGirl Wild Kratts pm PBS NewsHour
Nashville Public Television
Mr. Rogers and Me Discover the lasting legacy that a chance meeting with the legendary children’s TV host had on an up-and-coming producer.
Sunday, March 9 7:00 PM
Call the Midwife Season 3 The third season takes viewers to 1959, the eve of the Swinging Sixties, as the winds of change sweep through the country and the residents of Nonnatus House face momentous changes of their own.
Sunday, March 30 7:00 PM
wnpt.org
Monday
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow El Paso, Tx - Hour One. 8:30 Bee Gees One Night Only One of the very few Bee Gees performances ever filmed, the special from 1997 at the MGM Grand showcases many of their greatest disco and pop hits, including “How Deep Is Your Love” and many more. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Crosby, Stills and Nash 2012
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7:00 Dr. Wayne Dyer: I Can See Clearly Now Dr. Dyer presents personal stories as well as various philosophical and poetic illustrations to explain that each of our lives is a tapestry composed of all of the choices we’ve made and will make. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Heartbeat of Home A new show from the producers of Riverdance.
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7:00 Mister Rogers & Me 8:30 Crosby, Stills & Nash 2012 Crosby, Stills & Nash perform fan favorites such as “Carry On/ Questions,” “Marrakesh Express,” “Long Time Gone,” “Southern Cross,” “Teach Your Children” and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." 10:00 Ed Sullivan’s Rock And Roll Classic Classic song performances from 1963-1968.
Tuesday
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7:00 Sam Cooke - Legend 8:00 American Masters Harper Lee: Hey Boo. Behind the perennially million-selling To Kill a Mockingbird was a young Southern girl who once said she wanted to be Alabama’s Jane Austen. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Bee Gees One Night Only Includes “You Should Be Dancing/Alone” and many more.
7:00 America’s Wild West Meet the men and women who helped to tame the American west: rebels, pioneers, and icons of the frontier culture. 8:30 Celebration Of Blues & Soul: The 1989 Inaugural Concert Steve Ray Vaughan and other big names in blues and rock history. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Dr. Wayne Dyer: I Can See Clearly Now
Great Performances - Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell in Concert Wednesday, March 12 7:00 PM
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America’s Wild West Tuesday, March 4 7:00 PM
7:00 Heartbeat Of Home From the producers of Riverdance, enjoy a music and dance spectacular featuring the dynamic components of traditional Irish, Latin and Afro-Cuban music and dance. 9:00 Suze Orman’s Financial Solutions For You Orman’s latest special helps “find financial solutions for you.” 11:00 Suze Orman’s Financial Solutions For You
Sunday
Primetime Evening Schedule
March 2014 Thursday
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7:00 Great Performances Steve Martin And The Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell in Concert. Songs combine Martin’s inventive fivestring banjo playing with Brickell’s heart-tugging vocals. 9:00 Nashville: The 20th Century in Photographs, Vol. 4. Nashville history. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 American Masters Harper Lee: Hey Boo.
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7:00 Il Volo: We Are Love The three young Italian tenors sing in English, Spanish, French and Italian for their second PBS special, taped at The Fillmore Theatre in Miami. 8:30 Joe Bonamassa: Tour De Force – Live in London Bonamassa’s rise from the intimate club environment to the prestigious Royal Albert Hall. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 America’s Wild West
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Friday
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13 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads Ridin’ The Rails 8:00 Great Performances Dukes Of September. Rock & roll royalty Donald Fagen (Steely Dan), Michael McDonald (The Doobie Brothers) and Boz Scaggs join forces to form their own new super group, delighting audiences with new performances of their greatest hits. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Mister Rogers & Me
14 7:00 Rick Steves’ Italy: Cities of Dreams Steves tours the ancient glories and back-street riches of three great Italian cities - Rome, Venice and Florence. 9:00 Sam Cooke - Legend Discover the life of the singer, songwriter, business man, family man and civil rights activist. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Rick Steves’ Festive Europe 11:00 Moyers & Company
7:00 Nashville: 7:00 Easy Yoga: The The 20th Century Secret to Strength in Photographs, Vol. 4 and Balance with In the final volume of the Peggy Cappy original series, trace the 8:00 60s Pop, Rock & Soul growth of Music City (My Music) from the 70s to the turn Enjoy favorites of the AM of the century with phoradio era, from Paul tos and stories from Revere & The Raiders, those who were there. Gary Lewis & The Kings8:00 Doc Martin: Revealed men, The Ventures, and 9:30 America’s Wild West more. Peter Noone and 10:00 BBC World News Davy Jones host. 10:30 Celebration Of Blues 10:00 BBC World News & Soul: The 1989 10:30 America’s Wild West 11:00 Moyers & Company Inaugural Concert
Tennessee Crossroads Ridin’ the Rails Thursday, March 13 7:00 PM
Wednesday
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15 7:00 Burt Bacharach’s Best (My Music Presents) This special includes original artists performing Bacharach’s hits from the 1960s-1970s. 8:30 Paul McCartney & Wings: Rockshow Recorded during the 1976 North American tour. Classic hits include “Lady Madonna,” “Blackbird” and “Yesterday.” 10:00 Suze Orman’s Financial Solutions for You
8 7:00 Titanic Band of Courage Belmont musicians perform 18 songs taken from the officially issued “White Star Songbook” that was provided to the musicians and first class passengers on the Titanic. 8:30 Ed Sullivan’s Rock And Roll Classic Classic song performances from 1963-1968. 10:30 Dr. Wayne Dyer: I Can See Clearly Now
7:00 Daniel O’Donnell Stand Beside Me A concert celebration of Irish, country, gospel, rock, movie and longtime Daniel O’Donnell favorites. 8:30 60s Pop, Rock & Soul (My Music) Enjoy Paul Revere & The Raiders, Gary Lewis & The Kingsmen, Question Mark & The Mysterians and more. 10:30 60s Pop, Rock & Soul (My Music)
Saturday
Nashville Public Television
wnpt.org
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7:00 Call The Midwife Season 3, Part 1.The nuns and midwives of Nonnatus House move into their new premises, and Sister Winifred, a slightly innocent young woman, arrives from the Mother House. 8:00 Masterpiece Classic Mr. Selfridge. Season 2, Part 1. Jeremy Piven reprises his role as Harry Gordon Selfridge. 10:00 Bluegrass Underground
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Paul McCartney & Wings: Rockshow Saturday, March 15 7:00 PM
7:00 NPT Favorites
APRIL
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7:00 The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama Leap of Faith. Revolutionary armies brought ghetto walls crashing down - allowing Jews to weave their wisdom and energies into modern life in Europe. 8:00 The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama Over the Rainbow. 9:00 The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama Return. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
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7:00 Story of the Jews with Simon Schama The Beginning. The Jewish experience begins 3,000 years ago with a tribal people in a contested land. 8:00 Story Of the Jews with Simon Schama Among Believers. 9:00 Frontline TB: Silent Killer. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 Final Hours: Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight
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7:00 African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross Rise (1940-68). Examine the road to civil rights. Beginning in World War II, African Americans who helped fight fascism abroad came home to face the same old racial violence. 8:30 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 Great Performances Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert.
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7:00 Nature White Falcon, White Wolf. 8:00 NOVA Wild Predator Invasion. We have killed the predators that formerly thrived at the top of the food chain in the wild. 9:00 Secrets of the Dead Carthage’s Lost Warriors. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Bonnie Raitt/Mavis Staples.
3 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Civil War: The Untold Story 9:00 Doc Martin Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 NPT Favorites
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Pride & Joy Filmmaker Joe York spotlights the traditionbearers of Southern foodways, presenting intimate portraits of men and women who grow, prepare and serve Southern food and drink. 9:00 Doc Martin Sickness and Health. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine
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7:00 Nature What Plants Talk About. How plants behave. 8:00 NOVA Cold Case JFK. 50 years later, NOVA asks: Could modern investigators do better? 9:00 Secrets of the Dead The Lost Diary of Dr. Livingstone. New forensic techniques are being used to study the famed explorer’s lost diary. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 Sam Cooke - Legend Discover the life of the singer, songwriter, business man, family man and civil rights activist, whose timeless appeal transcends all barriers of Celtic Woman race, faith, and talent. Emerald Written by Peter GuralMonday, March 17 nick and narrated by Jef8:00 PM frey Wright.
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7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 NPT Favorites
Visit wnpt.org for complete 24 hour schedules for NPT and NPT2
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Kansas City, Hour One. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Atlanta, Ga - Hour Two. 9:00 Independent Lens Medora. A community beset by a crippled economy and dwindling population is the setting for this documentary, following a varsity basketball team over a season. 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange Boys Of Summer.
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Baton Rouge, Hour 3 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Atlanta, Ga - Hour 1. 9:00 Independent Lens All Of Me: A Story Of Love, Loss, and Last Resorts. Weight-loss surgery is about to upset everything friends knew about health and love. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange War Don Don.
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow El Paso, Tx - Hour Two. 8:00 Celtic Woman: Emerald This all-new stage production celebrates Ireland and the Emerald Isles’ spellbinding Celtic heritage through a presentation of traditional Irish anthems, pop standards and original music by Emmy-nominated music producer David Downes. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 NPT Favorites
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7:00 Masterpiece Sneak Preview Mr. Selfridge, Season 2. 8:00 Great Performances Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert. This once-in-a-lifetime concert included Tom Petty, George Harrison, Kris Kristofferson, Eric Clapton, John Mellencamp, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Neil Young. 10:00 Dr. Wayne Dyer: I Can See Clearly Now
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7:00 Amish Shunned: American Experience Seven former members reflect on their decisions to leave the Amish community. 9:00 Live From Lincoln Center Patina Miller. Winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, Miller is at the very top of her game. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
Masterpiece Classic Mr. Selfridge Sunday, March 30 8:00 PM
7:00 NPT Favorites 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Spring. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Café Out with the Cold. 9:00 Miranda Dog. 10:30 NPT Favorites
Nashville Public Television
5 7:00 Lawrence Welk Show 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Cafe
29 7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Springtime In The Rockies. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Cafe Out With The Cold. 9:00 Miranda Dog. 10:00 Globe Trekker Mozambique.
Crosby, Stills & Nash 2012 Sunday, March 9 8:30 PM
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7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last Of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
Itzhak! Legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman brings Beethoven's Concerto to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center
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by Bob Doerschuk by Bob Doerschuk
n times of economic challenge, symphony orchestras throughout the United States have tended to pare down their traditional staple of classical performances in favor of more pop-oriented events. It’s a rare thing to feature a virtuoso in the old-school sense within this presumably more “accessible” mix; rarer still is it when that artist can go toe to toe with jazz crooners and Broadway medleys in selling tickets and, beyond that, give attendees an experience beyond merely entertaining. This is why Itzhak Perlman’s March 18 appearance at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center is so exceptional. Perlman is arguably today’s greatest master of the violin. More than that, he is already a musician of historic achievement. His place in the pantheon is assured among Paganini, Heifetz, Oistrakh, and the other immortals of his instrument. He has explored the landscape of violin music, from Vivaldi to Tchaikovsky to Scott Joplin’s rags to Klezmer. His resume is a where-do-you-start litany of distinctions, of Grammy Awards and Kennedy Center Honors, performances for presidents and queens, and epic tours throughout the world. Not only that: At his upcoming concert, with Vinay Parameswaran conducting the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Perlman will perform Beethoven’s only Violin Concerto, a work rooted in the repertoire and thus a challenge both for artists in search of its essence and audiences open to new insights into a familiar piece. NAM: When did you begin playing the Beethoven Concerto? IP: Oh my God! I was about 17. The Beethoven Concerto is like a journey. You start it and it never ends. You always look for what’s going on with the piece. Every ten years you start to look at it slightly differently. I’m still relearning it. It’s an amazing piece. NAM: How has your performance of the piece changed over the years? IP: If I listened to a recording from thirty or forty years ago I would
say, oh I wouldn’t do it like this; that’s okay but not for me today! I’d have a different point of view about phrasing. Five or seven or ten years ago, there would also be differences, but they’d be more subtle. That’s the code word: subtlety, how the phrasing goes. But every performance is also different. That’s always a good sign. In other words, you don’t want to get yourself into a situation where you’re playing something that you played yesterday or last week or last year and just follow the recipe or the road signs. It’s always got to be a little bit of an adventure. With a concerto like Beethoven’s, that’s very easy because it’s such a great piece. NAM: Is there a conflict between striving to bring out the essence of a composition as opposed to injecting some element of yourself into the music, so that it becomes identifiable as one of your interpretations? IP: That is totally true. You cannot help but put yourself into an interpretation, because it’s you. Our interpretations are like fingerprints. Everybody has his own individual fingerprint. In the long run, you are an individual and that’s the way you play. The way I play is the way I play. I’ve got my sound. I’ve got my tone. It’s like you’re talking: You may be talking about different subjects, but it’s still your voice. So the way I do it is myself, but you have to then do what you’re supposed to do musically. What you don’t want to do is to play every piece the same way. In other words, you don’t want to do the Violin Concerto by Beethoven and play it like it was something by Brahms or Tchaikovsky or Paganini and so on. The Beethoven Concerto is a classical piece, so you don’t want to play it like a romantic piece or a contemporary piece. That’s the part that you are supposed to pay attention to from the musical point of view. NAM: So do you more actively study each piece as your performances draw nearer? IP: No. Basically what happens is that every time that I play a piece, I hear other things. In other words, it’s not like I’m making a
54 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY AKIRA KINOSHITA
Itzhak continued
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spreadsheet and saying, okay, Bar One, play softly. Bar Two, with a little more feeling. Bar Three? Forget about Bar Three! I do a lot of it at rehearsals. If I haven’t played the piece for a while, sometimes I just sort of marvel at it, like, oh my God, this is an amazing piece! But I don’t do any real planning ahead of time. NAM: What does the cadenza stand for in a composition? IP: It’s a little bit of showing off with some of the themes. It’s kind of a play on harmonies. It’s an opportunity to be a little virtuosic and still present the theme. NAM: Many different cadenzas have been written for this work. Which one do you play? IP: I’m playing the Kreisler Cadenza, written by Fritz Kreisler, a wonderful violinist. I’ve been playing it all along. I love it. NAM: Beethoven’s concerti focus largely on the piano. For violin, he wrote only this piece. Does his approach toward writing for violin reveal something different about him than one gets from the piano repertoire? IP: I actually don’t think so. For me, his writing for the Violin Concerto is quite pianistic. What makes it so difficult is that it’s full of scales and arpeggios. And you’ve got a couple of pretty tunes. That’s basically it, so everything is about the architecture. NAM: How would you advise your audience, especially those who already know this concerto, to listen to your performance? IP: Every time you go to a concert, you are basically listening to a new piece. If it’s the Beethoven Violin Concerto and you know it very well, it’s still new. It’s supposed to be new. That’s the reason for live concerts. Otherwise, just buy a recording and listen to it. When somebody says, “You haven’t played this piece the same way that’s on your recording,” thank God! Every piece has got to be new. NAM: Beethoven dedicated this work to the violinist Franz Clement, who reportedly received the music so late that he had to sight-read the cadenza at the debut performance. The story is that he expressed his exasperation in an encore by playing one of his own compositions—on one string while holding the violin upside down.
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IP: I’ll believe anything and I won’t believe anything [laughs]. Sometimes those little stories tend to become a bit exaggerated. They said the same thing about Paganini, when there was someone who didn’t like him, so he sort of cut out his strings so they would pop under pressure. He remained with only the G string to play on—and then, of course, he did it. There are so many stories, and I would say ninety percent of them are probably not true. But they’re good stories! So I’m not going to say this story is true or wrong— but don’t believe everything you read!
Itzhak Perlman will perform with the Nashville Symphony at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on March 18 at 7 p.m. For more information visit www.nashvillesymphony.org.
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Goya: The Disasters of War is a collaboration of the Pomona College Museum of Art and the University Museums of the University of Delaware. It is curated by Janis Tomlinson, Director, University Museums, and circulated by the Pomona College Museum of Art. Steve Mumford’s War Journals is organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.
T H E F R I ST C E N T E R F O R THE V I S UA L A R T S I S S U P P O R T E D I N PA R T BY:
FEBRUARY 28 THROUGH JUNE 8
Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission
Francisco Goya. No se convienen [They do not agree] (detail) from Los Desastres de la Guerra, 1st edition, plate 17, 1863. Etching and dr ypoint on paper, 5 11/16 x 8 7/16 in. Pomona College Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. Norton Simon, P74.99 | Steve Mumford. 4537_Helmand Surge (detail) [Far from relaxed, these Lima Co, 3/6 Marines (on a patrol out of Camp Coutu, Marja) are watching for insurgent activity while an Explosives and Ordinance Demolition team defuses a large IED meant for our patrol], 2010, Pencil and watercolor on paper, 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist © Steve Mumford
VA N I T A S Matthew Deric Gore's Masterful Paintings Capture the Humor of Life . . . and Death
D
by Cat Acree
eath is coming for Matthew Deric Gore—and for all of us, of course—but it hasn’t gotten him yet. And in the interim, there’s no harm in poking fun at the old specter.
Vanitas (Latin for “vanity”) still-life paintings of the early seventeenth century took death quite seriously. Skulls and rotting fruit were placed alongside seashells, rich fabrics, and opulent wine goblets. These scenes were intended to remind people of the brevity of life, the inevitability of death, and the transience of earthly possessions. There’s no point to all this stuff, when we’re just going to die anyway. Nashville native Gore’s large-scale oil paintings nod at classic vanitas, but he also recognizes something funny about death. Or rather, capital-D Death, as he’s an actual character here, like the skeleton who visits all levels of society in Hans Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcuts. In Gore’s work, however, the skeleton is having some fun. In Long Live Vaudeville, a colorful little clown pulls back a red satin drape to reveal Death, his bones glowing in the harsh light, a red fez tipped over one eye. In The Collector, Death has donned an eighteenth-century blouse and blue turban, and he muses over a campy Venus de Milo souvenir kept safe in a glass cloche. In both of these scenes, the skeleton’s face looks genuinely happy, not the toothy grimace that takes sick pleasure in mankind’s inevitable demise.
Oh, and by the way, the skeleton’s name is Kelley. Why? “There are two stories,” Gore explains. “One is that he’s named after DeForest Kelley, who is the actor who played Bones on Star Trek. And the other is that he is S. Kelley Ton.”
The Mysterious Stranger, 2011, Oil on canvas, 40” x 30”
“I’m forty-four and probably
won’t get to eighty-eight. . . . I need to get stuff done. I need to be reminded of that.” Not everyone finds death so amusing, but Gore doesn’t believe it has to be so ominous, so overbearing. “I don’t mind being reminded of [death] simply because this is something that I really want to do— painting—and it’s something that I’ve come to late [in life],” says Gore, who worked for many years in design and illustration and has dedicated only the last ten years to painting. “I didn’t really take [painting] seriously when I was in my twenties or even up into my thirties. I can kind of feel Kelley over my shoulder, over here. I’m fortyfour and probably won’t get to eighty-eight. . . . I need to get stuff done. I need to be reminded of that. And I can be reminded in a fun way.” Objects from Gore’s home or thrift stores are painstakingly positioned along the diagonal lines of a triangle, and he often takes hundreds of photographs in order to get every angle exactly as he wants it. The drama and mystery of these scenes come from Gore’s arresting, moody choice in lighting, as the objects are illuminated by a sharp shaft of light coming from stage right, inspired by tenebrism and the chiaroscuro paintings of Caravaggio. A Fine Romance, 2013, Oil on canvas, 36” x 24”
The Collector, 2012, Oil on canvas, 24” x 36”
Over the years, the objects have gained more and more of the whimsy that now defines Gore’s work. At first, one little rubber
ducky might make its way into a painting. Now, stuffed toys have tea in the presence of a doll taking a bath (Cleanliness Is Next to Clownliness). Many of these items are put together for formal reasons: color, texture, shape. But with Kelley’s obvious symbolism, and with other classic vanitas symbols (cut flowers representing death, books as knowledge), a rubber ducky has the potential for deeper meaning. When a viewer recognizes an object from his or her childhood, suddenly it becomes more than a visual complement, and what was intended as objective ends up being very personal. “One thing I get a lot of is, I just want you to know my mother had that,” says Gore. “I feel like sometimes I have to go out and find the one person who will connect with that piece.” At these paintings’ darkest, Death is ever watching, looming over objects that remind us of Grandma’s house. But at their lightest, they’re all in good fun. Pointing at Kelley, Gore says with something close to a giggle, “He’s cute. Why is he being cute?” An exhibit of Gore’s paintings is on display at the Centennial Art Center until March 26 and at Haynes Galleries through March 22. For more information visit www.bit.ly/1bGcNLK and www.haynesgalleries.com.
Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life, 2012, Oil on canvas, 40” x 30”
PHOTOGRAPH BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD
A Prince Among Dandies, 2013, Oil on canvas, 40” x 30”
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Auburn, Art Deco Series, Gibson L-5, 2000, Curly maple, sitka spruce 64 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
The Return of the Art Guitar
Jazz Moderne, Art Deco Series, Gibson L-5, 2000, Curly maple, sitka spruce
O
by Ronnie Brooks
rnate stringed instruments are nothing new. As far back as the 1500s, European luthiers built stunning guitars, lutes, and mandolins out of contrasting woods inlaid with intricate ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoise-shell marquetry.
While guitars had become fairly plain by the early twentieth century, American-made mandolins and banjos were often elegant—even bombastic. Many top-of-the-line models featured jewel-inlaid headstocks, engraved gold-metal parts, detailed herringbone trim, and engraved mother-of-pearl fingerboards atop elaborately carved necks. With world wars, depressions, and changing economies, instruments devolved from exquisite parlor pieces to more functional, workmanlike styles, often ordered from catalogs. A few companies still sold eye-catching, expensive guitars. But instead of being presented as pieces of musical art, they were marketed as the tools used to create it. Thankfully, the “art guitar” is making a comeback, and it’s happening right here in Nashville at Gibson Custom. Over the past several years, Gibson Guitars’ master luthier Bruce Kunkel has combined his passions for fine art, woodworking, and instrument design to create some of the world’s most extraordinary guitars.
Auburn, Art Deco Series, Gibson L-5, 2000, Curly maple, sitka spruce
Gibson's Tribute to the Twentieth Century, Gibson 1939 Super 400, 2000, Curly maple, sitka spruce
Sophisticated Lady, Art Deco Series, Gibson 1939 Super 400, 2000, Curly maple, sitka spruce
A soft-spoken New Jersey native, Kunkle left careers in painting and furniture making behind when he moved to Nashville in 1992 to pursue songwriting and instrument building. He impressed Gibson executives with his custom-made instruments and was hired to build replicas of the company’s turn-of-the-century showpiece banjos for their centennial in 1994. At the time, there were only eight employees in their custom shop, and with Sr. Vice President/GM Rick Gembar, Kunkel helped spearhead Gibson Custom, the specialized division that creates the brand’s high-end, hand-finished instruments. A group of craftsmen has been assembled who are, in Gembar’s words, “devoted to building historically accurate guitars and art guitars.” While Gembar oversees production of limited-run, collectible versions of Gibson’s most iconic guitars (such as the popular Les Paul solidbodies from the late 1950s), Kunkel creates singular masterpieces that honor a broad range of subjects and styles and pay tribute to cultural icons and events. Some of Kunkel’s art guitars are commissioned by private collectors. Prices for these vary, according to the intricacy of the design, the materials used, and the time required to finish—typically from one to six months. But many of his pieces are not for sale. Instead, they stay carefully stored in the factory’s catacombs, occasionally displayed to visitors or showcased at industry events. There’s even one on display at the Smithsonian Institution.
Auburn, Art Deco Series, Gibson L-5, 2000, Curly maple, sitka spruce
“Bruce comes up with unbelievable art pieces,” says Gembar. “Hopefully, someday we’ll have a museum that they’ll go into. They should be on display.”
66 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP
Luthier Bruce Kunkel at Gibson Custom
While Gibson gets promotional mileage out of Kunkel’s unique instruments, the emphasis is clearly on their artistic value. The company has turned down an offer of $600,000 for one of his guitars and continues to encourage new projects. Kunkel and Gembar both acknowledge the remarkable support they’ve received from Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. “Henry’s given us the freedom over the years to do this,” says Gembar. “When you put six months into [one] guitar, and then you go, we’re not selling it, that’s a big commitment to what we’re doing.” Kunkel echoes the importance of the company and the brand. “[Company founder] Orville Gibson was an artist. There’s not a more artistically designed line in the music industry,” he says, adding, “There’s not another line I’d want to work on.” It looks like Orville would be proud. For more information about Gibson Custom visit www.gibson.com.
Gibson's Tribute to the Twentieth Century, Gibson 1939 Super 400, 2000, Curly maple, sitka spruce
NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 67
Nashville
6 a.m.
This month we launch our new photography series Nashville 6 A.M. We asked twelve Nashville photographers to capture the essence of our city each month between 6 and 7 a.m. We gave them no guidelines other than the photography must take place on one day, within the time limit, and within Nashville city limits. At the end of the twelve months we will publish a book of the photographs and exhibit them at a local gallery. This month Anthony Scarlati, who was not aware that 6 a.m. actually existed, finds his way downtown. Here's what he came back with. by Anthony Scarlati
I
never thought I would find myself sitting in the Hermitage Cafe at 5:30 in the morning drinking coffee and telling lies with the locals. Don’t get me wrong; I love the Hermitage. It’s the 5:30 a.m. and still dark that is a stretch for me. With this project running through my head for weeks, I could not think of a better place to watch the clock and wait for 6 a.m. The images that I wanted I had imagined for days, and I now had one hour to find each one and leave room for the unexpected. I wanted people. I wanted faces coming to the city to work. I wanted feet; I wanted handbags, and I wanted the hustle of the city coming to life. The corner of Broadway and 1st Avenue is where I found just that. With the Music City Star working its way into Riverfront Station, busses lined the streets waiting to whisk each person off to their day. As the train came to a stop, the doors slid open and feet flooded to the pavement like a waterfall. Within minutes the train cars were empty, and the filled buses pulled out, one after another, each heading in a different direction. The sun was now up; the twenty-something degrees had my fingers frozen, and I still had fifteen minutes before 7 a.m. So I wandered in search of maybe something more. I found a shadow and a landscape with one minute to spare. There is something so beautiful about watching a city come to life. Everything feels so new, so fresh. For me it all started with a lie or two over coffee with a few new friends.
For more information about Anthony Scarlati and his work visit www.scarlati.net.
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g n i d n e p Sus f e i l e B
la i son Bal nn i u e s yQ Je s yb by h p ra to g Ph o th Ma
rd
Jesse Hale's very High Strung ART
“F
or the longest time I’ve thought in forms; I see blocks of color in my head, and the original idea for this work was to see these forms in reality.”
That began our discussion of Suspension 1, Jesse Hale’s newest piece. It is a combination of painting and sculpture, an optical piece dealing heavily with emotion and perspective. The background consists of a quadriptych, and the foreground is dominated by stainless steel cable set within a frame at various angles. There is a fifteen-inch distance between the two components, a space that is essential to the underlying themes of the work. The art of Jesse Hale is much about harmonies and divisions, which is in part due to his background in music. It is also about emotion. Suspension 1 is a combination of the two, a work split in half both structurally and conceptually. The acrylic background is emotion; the steel cables are rationale. Taken together, it is a piece that tries to make sense of the whole. I asked about the background and if there was any connection between color and specific emotions. “Of course,” replied Jesse. “What’s the point of me making this if I’m just putting color on the wall? I don’t have time for that. My original intent for the piece was for it to be a sort of emotional timeline, read from left to right. So that’s the background. I also wanted to create depth and an actual geometric range of mountains, and that’s the underlying composition.” The first canvas is painted red, suggesting passion, crisis, adversity. It’s a steep incline, an object that must be dealt with. The second canvas (yellow) is akin to peace and prosperity,
“if you can let go of that sense of perfection and take it for what it is, it’s beautiful.”
Suspension 1, Paintings: Acrylic on canvas red: 18” x 48”; gold: 40” x 15”; blue: 6” x 48”; gray: 10” x 8” Sculpture: Enamel-coated poplar frame with stainless steel and aluminum hardware, 56” x 140” x 5”
NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 73
based on geometric concepts, much like generative art, in which you follow a simple, numerical division and repeat it over and over again. “I followed it within a limited scope,” Jesse explains. “Once I came up with that I came back to these paintings, started overlaying ideas to see what would happen, and thought well, what if this is what ties everything together?” The resulting harmony proves to be somewhat elusive, which very much reflects the philosophies of the artist: “When we consider our existence, we are faced with this choice. We can perceive it from only one vantage point at a given time, namely our own. We can never stand far enough away to behold its simultaneity and unity, and, conversely, we can never stand close enough to definitively explain
Sometimes it makes sense. Most of the time it doesn’t. We are too small. We can believe it is chaos, or we can believe it has meaning.”
the whole.
Passage 1:1, Acrylic on canvas, 18" x 18"
For more information about Jesse Hale please visit www.www.jessehale.com.
a sunny, golden space. It is a season of ease, a brief respite that transitions into the third, awash in shades of blue. “I wanted to make the third panel really narrow and long,” says Jesse. “It’s settling into real life, normal life. It’s the long haul, reflection, and sadness. It’s an uphill thing, too.” This leads to the last canvas, succinctly poised in the bottom-right corner, composed in black, suggesting death or resolution. We talked next about the foreground elements, the cables intersecting at various angles. “When you stand in front, you can align any given point on the canvas with that same point on the lattice. Every line on the structure aligns, so you have this overarching pattern that ties everything together, but only a single apex can align at any given time. The lines converge and diverge to reveal both harmony and dissonance. You’re forced to accept that it does line up, but you can’t see it all at once. And even then there’s the added variable of human error, and the fact that, to be honest, it’s not perfect. But there’s this idea that if you can let go of that sense of perfection and take it for what it is, it’s beautiful.” The divisions are closely tied to musical harmony, and the patterns are
Suspension 4:3, Painting: Acrylic on canvas, 21” x 28” Sculpture: Enamelcoated poplar frames with stainless steel and aluminum hardware, 56” x 56” x 5” 74 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
ItzhakPerlman WITH THE NASHVILLE SYMPHONY
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Tuesday, March 18, at 7p.m. The reigning virtuoso of the violin joins the Nashville Symphony to perform Beethoven's breathtaking Violin Concerto. The orchestra will also perform Beethoven's immortal Fifth Symphony.
BUY TICKETS AT:
NashvilleSymphony.org 615.687.6400
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ABSOLUTE ONLINE AUCTION
Closes March 26 Beginning at 10:00 AM CT
Original Art by Paul Penczner from the Penczner Art Gift to Benefit the University of Tennessee Foundation
More than 270 original works by the internationally reknowned artist, Paul Penczner will sell via absolute online auction. Upon his death in 2010, Mr. Penczner donated his entire personal collection of his own work to establish an endowment in the artist's name in the UTHSC Department of Physiology. All proceeds from the Penczner Collection auction will benefit the University of Tennessee Foundation. The works will be available for a special public auction preview at the W.O. Smith Music School in Nashville on March 25.
Hundreds of Works of Art Will Sell to the Highest Bidders Lot 235: Untitled; Memphis Pyramid at Night Oil on Canvas. 36” x 48’. 1992.
AUCTION PREVIEW - OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
www.mclemoreauction.com ABSOLUTE ONLINE AUCTION Pastoral Oil on Canvas by Eugene Joseph Verboeckhoven
Closes March 20 Beginning at 1:00 PM CT
Tuesday, March 25, 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM CT W.O. Smith Music School - 1125 8th Ave S, Nashville 615-517-7675 10% Buyer’s Premium
CALL FOR CONSIGNMENTS Musical Instruments Closes April 17 Beginning at 10:00 AM CT
McLemore Auction Company, LLC is accepting consignments of musical instruments for this unique auction event. The catalog will feature instruments of diverse vintage, origin, and style and all items will sell via absolute online auction. Call today for a consultation with an auction agent.
Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven (Belgian, 1798-1881)
Pastoral Scene showing Cattle, Sheep and Drover Returning Home This impressive work of old world craftsmanship comes from the collection of a Nashville Gentleman who is downsizing his art portfolio. The oil on canvas painting of a pastoral scene measures 26" by 36". It will sell to the highest bidder regardless of price via absolute online auction.
Patti Baldini, Auctioneer
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Gerbera Jamesoni Photography by Brett Warren shot in the Ilex studio
Turpentine, 2012, Oil on canvas, 20” x 16”
R E C ON SI DE R AT ION S Through Painting, Mary Addison Hackett Rediscovers the True Language of Things 80 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
by Megan Kelley
M
ary Addison Hackett’s studio threshold is more than just a doorway: I find myself entering into the mind and work of a treasured collection of items, perspectives, and moments, all reimagined in new ways and captured in the act of letting go. Though the brushstrokes I meet are dynamic, gestural, and fast, it is an intentional experience for both audience and artist. “I spend a lot of time digesting the idea of something before approaching the canvas,” Mary Addison says. Working quickly after being so thoroughly engaged gives her a way to impart the idea of an object without overloading it with the emotional weight of sentiment or the representational burden of overworked paint. “I set rules for myself in painting,” Mary Addison explains. Though her recent series of work draws from familial objects and personal moments,
It’s important to Hackett that she shed her own sentiment from the memory, preferring to return the object into something that belonged to itself. Blind Man's Bluff, 2014, Oil on canvas, 80” x 56”
“It’s not the substantiality of an object,” she explains, describing unpacking her family’s estate and being drawn to using the studio as a way of processing these items and histories, “but just what’s there. I wanted openness. I knew too much and I wanted discovery. There’s art inside of that object that takes up space in our lives.” It’s a perspective that lends her canvases an appreciation for the vignette: the concept of things or moments treasured in everyday ways but often overlooked in the
landscape of the home: the fold of a pillow, the evidence of color left behind on a studio palette, a tangle of leaves over a woodgrain floor. In scenes such as Butterfly Chair and Birdcage and The Layperson’s Guide to Venn Diagram, their imperfect representation lends a human comfort. Furniture pieces lean against each other as if seeking support, and details surface and recede as if glanced over by the viewer’s eye. It’s a form of working from photos and still life that Mary Addison describes as “perceptual NashvilleArts.com
painting” rather than working from simple observation. Instead of capturing exact details and allegorical significance, she’s more interested in “wandering and finding: the place between the object and the canvas, that feeling of knowing a thing through the act of depicting it.” It’s an archaeological process of viewing objects within their found context—most commonly inside the home she grew up in—but digging past the expectations for a thing in order to find its true self. March 2014 | 81
These acts of rediscovery also edge into psychological territories, reconfiguring seemingly unrelated details into mental still lifes composed of these collected moments of notice. With rococo riots of color and curve, paintings such as The Meeting (Attachments) and Blind Man’s Bluff begin to evolve the simple sensation of memory into the complex desire to have events, objects, and experiences make sense within a larger context. “I choose something less due to its history and instead focus on [finding] its connection to other objects and their places and opening that to others.” Small material decisions form moments of visual excitement—letting the artist celebrate a bouquet of flowers through heavy paint or to suggest compliant blindness through a single sweep of white across the eyes—and there’s an obvious delight in the process of deconstruction and reappropriation. Ultimately, these disparate moments are remnants—the ghosts of meaning, detached from their objects and left behind during the act of being processed— whose purpose, through the act of being reconsidered, is woven into something larger and new.
PHOTOGRAPH: TAMARA REYNOLDS
Palette With Blue Linoleum, 2011, Oil on linen, 7” x 5”
The Layperson’s Guide to Venn Diagram, 2013, Oil on canvas, 20” x 16”
Mary Addison Hackett’s work will be on display for a solo exhibition with David Lusk Gallery in October, but if you can’t wait, experience her painting Blind Man’s Bluff as part of David Lusk Gallery’s grand opening group show on March 1, between 6 and 9 p.m., at their new location in Nashville at 516 Hagan Street. For more information, visit www.davidluskgallery.com.
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Friday, April 11, 2014 The Rosewall
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Ticket information at lindenwaldorf.org All proceeds benefit Linden Waldorf School offering a Head, Hands and Heart approach to educating the whole child.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SCARPATI
Tony Youngblood Unplugged
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by Veronica Kavass
ony Youngblood is in the process of creating a literal art crawl. Debuting later this year, Modular Art Pods (M.A.P.s) is going to be a linear tunnel of connected 4x4-foot art pod galleries that attendees must crawl and stoop through to interact with independently curated pods. Furthermore, attendees will
have the option to experience the tunnel from an external path through peepholes, enabling a voyeuristic component into this Being John Malkovich-esque experience. When the day comes you will have to figure out if you are a voyeur or an exhibitionist because you will not have the opportunity to be both. The man behind the curtain of the most interactive exhibitions in Nashville is a master of doing, making, failing, reviving, and remixing the stuff of life with forgotten objects and chameleon spaces. Recently, I met Youngblood at the Frothy Monkey in Howlin’ Books to discuss his trajectory into creating these little worlds in Nashville.
VK: You aren’t from Nashville, right?
TY: No, I grew up in Mayfield, a small town in Western Kentucky. There was nothing to do. There was no Internet. My brother and I found everything through catalogs or obscure television shows. Nashville was the closest big city so we’d drive two hours to go to the Great Escape, Tower Records, 328 Performance Hall . . . VK: So when did you move to Nashville?
TY: In late 2006. When I moved here from trying to be a filmmaker in California, I was really depressed. And being depressed is the only time I can make major life decisions. While depressed I am like, I don’t care! I’m just gonna do it! VK: How did you find your scene in Nashville?
TY: One of the reasons I moved here was to do open mics. I would go to Cafe Coco because it was the least country. I met a lot of people there such as Cody Bottoms who ran the open mic. He and I started
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a radio show at WRVU; that's where Theatre Intangible started. People would call in and we’d put them live on the air mixed in with improvised music. Now I do it as a podcast out of my basement. VK: You have a venue out of your house too?
TY: Yeah, Noa Noa. My roommate plays drums in five bands so we take turns booking stuff. He does more rock shows, and I do more experimental shows. VK: How about Circuit Benders' Ball? How did you start that?
TY: I got into circuit bending in college through my friend Dave Armstrong in 1999. He showed me how you can just grab keyboards, lick your fingers, and touch random parts and make all these weird sounds. When I moved here there wasn’t much of a scene for it. I did my first Circuit Benders' Ball at Open Lot when it was still around.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANGELINA M CASTILLO
VK: Where’s the next location for the Ball?
VK: How do you respond to the classic complaint that certain things aren’t music? I find that to be pretty prevalent in Nashville where such a large number of the population believe they know exactly what music is . . .
TY: I think it is because it’s an industry town. With the number of studio musicians, there is a set idea of what counts as music based on a business model. Music is music when it can be marketed.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TYLER BLANKENSHIP
2012 Circuit Benders' Ball
TY: Fort Houston on April 12. There will be all-day workshops like Intro to Circuit Bending, which basically consists of going to Goodwill, finding some toy, and learning how to bend it. There’s really no way to do it wrong. It is about experimenting and failing. It is aleatoric.
BYOB installation at Track One 86 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY LIZ CLAYTON SCOFIELD
Overhead projection by Rhendi Greenwell at BYOB
People ask, “How do you make money on this?” And if there is a way to do that I have no idea what it is. But for me, sometimes it just sounding cool is enough for me. Or that it was fun to do. Like if I have a weekend off I like to take apart a Speak and Spell and make it do weird things, then that’s enough. I guess it’s the “maker movement” opposed to the “music movement.”
artists who are doing a show at 9 p.m. Before that, from 5:30 to 9, an artist named Carl Oliver is doing a long-form modular synthesizer show. When you walk in you will find one lone figure in the center of an enormous room with a single light shining on him while he’s playing synthesizers. All of the sounds will be echoing through the space.
VK: I thought the Bring Your Own Beamer show you recently curated at Track One was amazing. The project was started by Adan de la Garza, and you brought the idea to Nashville. You invited a selection of artists to bring a video and a projector and improvised a screening area. The nature of that Track One space is pretty mysterious . . .
VK: What do you think about the rise of the Wedgewood/ Houston neighborhood?
TY: I am doing something there for the March art crawl. Morgan Higby-Flowers from Watkins is bringing the two Chicago glitch
For more information about Tony Youngblood visit www.theatreintangible.com.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN ZERNE
PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY YOUNGBLOOD
TY: I like it because it seems like there is a separation between art and music worlds in this town, but in Wedgewood/Houston there is less of a barrier. It is a good place to try stuff.
2010 Circuit Benders' Ball
#openaccess with Erica Ciccarone at Ground Floor Gallery NashvilleArts.com
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1932–2012 ®
& The Factory
Historic Downtown Franklin
30” x 40”
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEBBIE SMARTT
Friday, March 7, 6-9 p.m.
mixed media on canvas
Visit our Nashville area location by appointment - (815) 347-9698
Contact Gerard Vanderschoot, exclusive Regional Representative of the work of International artist Matt Lamb for the Nashville, Dallas, and Chicago regions (815) 347-9698 • jerryvanderschoot@gmail.com • www.mattlamb.org
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S imin S oroush
”
My photography serves not just as documentation but as an expression of my fascination with the kindness of the human soul. by Lydia E. Denkler
“Just go!” Photographer Simin Soroush embraces
any opportunity to travel the world: Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, Russia, Uzbekistan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Spain, Morocco, and most recently Vietnam. Motivated to explore the heartland of a dear Vietnamese friend, Soroush set out with little more than a car, driver, and a list of key Vietnamese phrases. She experienced not only the grandeur of the landscape, but also encounters with villagers who had so little but offered her much, including the warmest respect and hospitality. In the images that chronicle her trip, her subjects radiate the exchange of mutual regard and sincerity. “Though my images and methods preserve indigenous culture through the medium of film, my photography serves not just as documentation but as an expression of my fascination with the kindness of the human soul.” In the resulting series of over one hundred black-and-white images and the recently published companion book Gentle Stillness of Being: Perceptions & Memories of Vietnam, Soroush documents her 2009 journey. Soroush captures her subjects with simplicity and directness
while examining the rural lands and the traditional ways of life. Her hallmark is the raw and intimate moment in time. “When photographing, I do not alter the scenes to the advantage of a desired composition; rather, the scenes are represented as they appear, unmediated, to me. I also do not employ filters or artificial light.”
Born in Iran, Simin Soroush was forced to flee during the revolution that swept her home country in 1979. “At first, I found myself lacking a voice, unable to respond adequately to the geographical displacement and religious persecution this revolution has represented for me. During that time, I also had to face turmoil at home, experiencing firsthand the oppression of women that is endemic in certain segments of Iranian society.” After settling in Nashville in 1984, experiencing the feelings of displacement and the need to start over once again, Soroush discovered photography as her natural mode of self-expression. It is “an instrument through which I can digest and transform productively the political and personal tumult I had experienced.” Simin Soroush’s photography is on display at Gallery Simin in Germantown. Copies of her book are available at the gallery and www.gallerysimin.com.
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Two Dancers #1 (Malaga, Spain) When I arrived in Malaga, I heard the music, and I found this mother and daughter, whose faces captured the spirit and passions of the Spanish language.
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Previous page, top left Dyers of Fez (Morocco) I have great empathy for the conditions of these leather tanners, as the harsh chemicals and smells are a sharp contrast to the beauty of the work they produce. Previous page, top right Rainy and Blue (Tetouan, Morocco) A new friend welcomed my heart to Tetouan, showing me hope and teaching me that the most meaningful moments are the ones we did not expect. Clockwise from top left Self-Portrait (Buenos Aires, Argentina) In a country whose social turmoil reflected my personal unrest, the solitude of this space became a reflection of what I was experiencing within. Alley Way (Rabat, Morocco) The thoughtful use of the traditional Moroccan blue made me realize the beauty and art in the everyday moments and places. Tachins (Morocco) The curious exterior of the clay cookware, the Tachin, shelters the secret of a wonderful dish made from lamb, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and spices. The Lord Is My Shepherd (Guatemala) I had the joy of capturing this young girl with her eyes and heart to the sky, as if in conversation with a Supreme Being above.
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Traveler’s Rest, 2013, Oil on canvas, 41" x 32"
The Seeker, 2013, Oil on canvas, 38" x 47"
RAMBLE ON
Terry Rowlett Finds Inspiration in Nomadic Ways
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by Bob Doerschuk
erry Rowlett is a familiar figure among Nashville artists. Then again, he is just as well known and welcome in other places he’s called home. From
New York’s Hudson River Valley to Athens, Georgia, where he earned his master of fine arts at the University of Georgia, the Arkansas-born painter has settled in a number of communities, staying long enough to leave his mark and catch his breath before rambling on to his next stop. It’s the ramble, more than the settling down, that gives insight into Rowlett and his aesthetic. His upbringing was steeped in fundamentalist Christianity; though he has long left his faith
behind him, its olio of drama, moral absolutism, and simple, graphic imagery lingered as he evolved his identity as an artist. His emerging skepticism added a volatility to the mix, as did his embrace, for a while, of both sensual indulgence and respect for traditionalism. Rowlett acknowledges his “life of contradiction” yet also emphasizes the resolution with which he holds onto his convictions. Rowlett doesn’t just quibble with aspects of the avantgarde; instead he takes issue with “an era that embraced images of a urine-soaked crucifix and a dung-covered Madonna as cutting edge. “Up until grad school, I was open to anything,” he admits. “I was
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Most of the figures in his Zeitgeist exhibit fall into two representations: powerful, confident women and men of more obscurity, hidden in heavy, red winter jackets. “I like to paint almost heroic types of people, going out on a limb,” Rowlett explains. “I often choose my models from interesting people I know or am aware of who exemplify those traits. The women don’t have a guy around. It’s not one woman; it’s like a little team of women on the shoreline out for the day or the weekend. The woman hiking in The Seeker is very independent, a New Englander friend of mine. She literally hiked the entire AT (Appalachian Trail) after 9/11.” But these images are self-referential too. “All of those guys and gals camping with their backpacks out on the shoreline, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last four or five years,” Rowlett says. “I’ve been doing a lot of camping and hiking, lots of adventures in the more rugged states. I’m moving away from society and the car and the radio and the computer and getting more out there for peace and reflection.”
Laundry Day (The Cleansing), 2013, Oil on canvas, 42" x 40"
open to the shenanigans of what modern artists do. There was a lot of ‘art for art’s sake’—installational stuff, conceptual art, shock art—and many of the people doing it couldn’t understand or even care what they were looking at. When I was about 30 years old, I decided that I really wanted to communicate to bigger audiences. A good old-fashioned, figurative, narrative oil painting with symbolism is about as direct a way as anything to get your message across. For thousands of years, it seems to have been effective.”
with my lifestyle and traveling,” he said. “The people in these paintings are outside the norm. Their lives are revealed in a more natural state. That’s been an important thing for me lately, to move a little bit away from the modern world to find a little peace out there.”
Rowlett’s recent Nomads and Outsiders show at Zeitgeist Gallery makes this point eloquently. With their clear lines, nuanced but solid color fields, and subjects that emanate strength and solitude in pastoral yet invigorating outdoor settings, they reflect the artist’s ongoing drive to search for meaning in a post-religious life, as well as his sense that its secrets are most likely to be found in nature. “I like the title I came up with for that show, being an outsider as an artist and a person
Pilgrim’s Progress, 2013, Oil on canvas, 38" x 54"
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That said, it’s logical to assume that The Traveler’s Rest is especially autobiographical, with its depiction of a hirsute wanderer on a forest trail, stopping to savor a cigarette and bask in stillness and silence. “It’s autobiographical for me,” Rowlett admits. “But oddly enough, that particular friend of mine doesn’t camp. He’s a musician in a metal band in Athens. But he has the look. He’s almost like a prophet/saint/hobo/ derelict. I don’t believe in faiths anymore, but
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The Shoreline, 2013, Oil on canvas, 40" x 37"
I like the idea of those old tortured saints, waving their fists at the inhabitants of the city. To me, that’s what this guy looks like.” Even as he heeds the call of the wild, Rowlett harbors warm thoughts about many of the stations on his road, including Nashville. “I liked it a whole lot, to tell the truth,” he says. “I liked that Nashville has a real working relationship with artists. No one is out there on the periphery, like, I wish people gave a darn about art! Everyone cares about art now in Nashville, and I love that.” And so we can look forward to Rowlett’s passing our way now and then. His real home, though, is between whatever his points of departure and arrival are. “I’ll probably be poor for the rest of my life, wandering around and questioning,” he says.
“This seeker lifestyle of always zipping around to so many different places is tiring. But it’s the only thing that really turns me on. That’s why I do it. It stimulates more answers, more questions, and more art.”
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BLAIR CONCERT SERIES 2013-2014
PLEASE JOIN US
THE BLAIR SCHOOL OF MUSIC 50TH ANNIVERSARY KICKOFF CELEBRATION SUNDAY, MARCH 16 | 3:00 P.M. | INGRAM HALL
The Blair School of Music celebrates 50 years of educating musicians with a program that celebrates the school’s musical spectrum, from precollegiate performers to our signature faculty ensembles. A reception will follow the program. Presented with gratitude to two anonymous friends of the Blair School of Music for their generous support Details about the spring 2014 concert series may be found at blair.vanderbilt.edu All concerts at the Blair School of Music are free and open to the public unless specifically stated otherwise. For complete details about all the upcoming events at Blair, visit our website at blair.vanderbilt.edu
Terry Rowlett’s work is on exhibit at Zeitgeist Gallery. For more artist information, visit www.terryrowlett.com and www.zeitgeist-art.com/terryrowlett.
2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212
The Beginning of War
My Life Before: A Story of War and Refuge Lost Boy James Makuac Finds Peace, Comfort, and Art in Nashville by Joe Pagetta
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here is always movement in James Makuac’s paintings. Even in his Nashville skylines, which are often inspired by the view he has from his downtown loft, he can’t help putting a plane above the buildings. The 38-year-old knows plenty about moving. As one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Makuac was one of 36,000 young boys driven from their families and villages in South Sudan in 1987 as a result of civil war. He traveled thousands of miles over the next years, from one refugee camp to another, often going months with very little to eat, before settling in Kakuma in Kenya and eventually being approved for emigration to the United States and Nashville in 2001.
“I have a story to tell about people like me,” says Makuac in his apartment studio, which includes a copy of the new South Sudan flag taped proudly to the wall. “[I draw the planes because] I want to tell people that it was scary the first time I flew, from the camp to Kenya to Europe and to here, and then when I went back the 98 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
second time to see my mother, but that this is my hometown where I live now.” The fear of those first flights pales in comparison to what Makuac had been through in the more than a dozen years before. It’s that experience that makes up the bulk of the subject matter in a new collection of archival prints of his vibrant acrylic paintings, painted between 2006–2009, that hang this month at the Tibbott Center Gallery at USN. While his art has been celebrated in Nashville before—he was part of a joint exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in 2006 and has two paintings hanging in the new Music City Center collection—it is his first major solo show in Nashville and acts as a companion for a book, My Life Before: A Story of War and Refuge, put together last year by his friend and mentor the artist Lanie Gannon, that includes prints along with Makuac’s story.
Life Before
“He was meeting his mother, whom he had not seen in twenty years, and he wanted to show her what his life had been like as a child growing up and as an adult,” says Gannon. “So we put the book together so she could understand his story. Of course, his paintings have always depicted the larger narrative, which is why the exhibit is so important for everyone else to understand.” By definition, because he is self-taught and tells stories of his culture and life, Makuac’s canvases may qualify as folk art. But his mastery of proportion and perspective belies his education. Roads weave and stretch deep into the background, revealing miles to go for the endless parade of refugees that must travel them in Escape for Narus, or Red Cross vehicles that traverse them in From Lokichoggio to Kakuma. Look past the forlorn woman in the foreground in Kakuma Clinic and you find a despondent child, hands thrown in the air at not being able to get in to see the doctor. In Leaving Kakuma, a faceless throng waits in the middle ground behind a fence as a lucky few line up in the foreground to board a plane. Some have their hands raised in the air in elation. “We are happy to leave the life behind,” says Makuac of the painting. “We had
Night Journey
White Nile NashvilleArts.com
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Night Herding
Nashville Skyline
been suffering a lot. When the United Nations interviewed us in 1998 and said most of you will come to the United States, that’s what I dreamed would happen. Some of the boys didn’t believe, but I believed.”
“Of course, God is the one who led you to come to this world,” he adds. “There is nobody who is not suffering in this world. Everyone is born to suffering. But one day, you’re going to get something good.”
It is not hard, Makuac says, to recall the stories, many of them horrific, that the paintings tell. Sometimes “they come like dreams” to him, and he wakes up to sketch them. Other times, after seeing his paintings, fellow Lost Boys tell him their own stories. With each canvas, as he says in his artist’s statement, “It is as important to paint the horrors of war as it is a beautiful flower.
Curated by Delia Seigenthaler, My Life Before: A Story of War and Refuge, the Paintings of James Makuac runs at the Tibbott Center Gallery at the University School of Nashville March 1–31. Makuac will speak at an opening reception at University School of Nashville, 2000 Edgehill Avenue, March 6 at 5 p.m.
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Portraiture by Alan LeQuire Miniature to Monumental
Antique African Art for the Discriminating Collector Artworks include statues, masks & ceremonial regalia from all major ethnic groups of Sub-Saharan Africa. By Appointment 615.790.3095 williamdarrellmoseley@yahoo.com Kelley, Bronze, Life-size 4304 Charlotte Ave • Nashville, TN 615-298-4611 • www.lequiregallery.com
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PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIAM CAMPBELL
The Last Adios for Two Amigos
A Personal Recollection by Molly Secours
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he first time I heard Ben Bullington’s music, I froze.
His haunting vocals inspired a strange and inexplicable longing for home and kinfolk I’d never known. The small-town doctor was gritty and soulful, reflective and funny. In addition to being chief of staff of a twenty-five-bed Montana Hospital and a family physician for twenty years, the lanky, six-foot-five Virginia native (and former Vanderbilt student) was a scientist, geologist, and prolific singer-songwriter, poet, and guitar enthusiast obsessed with Nashville. I’d learned about Ben from his best friend, manager, and soul sister, Joanne Gardner, who shared news of his “pesky” cancer diagnosis on the day of his first treatment in December 2012. Since cancer bonding is common, being a stage IV cancer survivor myself expedited a Tennessee-Montana email friendship. In September 2013, just weeks before his death, we finally visited at his White Sulphur Springs cabin and spoke of family,
divorce, his three sons, his music, and friendship. Ben shared how a stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis turned his reality inside out and reset his “internal compass.” We talked about the decision to quit practicing medicine his last year and mused on the random events that nudged him closer to his artistic self. As a scientist and poet, Ben was intrigued by cell regeneration—when every seven to ten years old cells are replaced. We debated about the theory, and I asked him if the regeneration phenomenon was reflected externally, through random events in our lives. Ben recalled driving home from the county hospital in 2003 and spotting some guy and his family on the side of the road chopping
at something. Intrigued, he shouted out his truck window, “What the hell are you doing?” The guy turned out to be Sean Devine, a Montana musician working a day job on a riverbank stabilization project. “I told him we were propagating willows— which Ben thought was cool. And I don’t know why, but I shouted back that I was actually a musician and songwriter,” said Devine. Ben smiled and said, “Yeah, me too.” Unbeknownst to Ben, this encounter reset his compass away from an unraveling marriage (and ultimately medicine) in the direction of music. Devine remembers Ben being “full of songs,” and by the next week they were in Devine’s living room recording the tracks that would eventually comprise his first record.
after receiving the late-stage pancreatic cancer diagnosis he quit practicing medicine and decided to finish out his time as a songwriter.
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In 2006, another random introduction to Devine’s friends Bill and MaryAnne resulted in a dinner invitation where Ben met Joanne Gardner. Joanne was a former (award-winning) video production VP for Sony in Nashville and a force of nature. “Being a pushy broad, I started in almost immediately. What do you mean, you have part of a CD recorded and you don’t have a photo, cover art, etc.,” recalls Joanne. Immediately she helped Ben get his songs out of the machine and onto a disc.
Ever the doctor, Ben managed his pain and minimized his time with anyone who didn’t appreciate gallows humor. Joanne remembers the dinner when Ben announced, “In medical school, pancreatic cancer was a death sentence—but only 98 percent of people die.” If you didn’t laugh, you weren’t in the club.
talked about what else there was to do. But we’d finished it all.”
For the next eleven months, between treatments, Ben and Joanne crisscrossed the country playing festivals, visiting family and friends, and making to-do lists
Perhaps the day Ben Bullington shouted to a complete stranger on the side of the road, his internal compass was pointing him homeward. Poetry in motion.
Ben told me Joanne was like having a fairy god-sister. He wished it, and she made it come true. It’s not surprising that her cell phone email signature reads “Sent by magic.”
Embedded in Bullington’s music are heart-wrenching narratives of those who are often invisible. A former co-worker remembers Ben appearing unannounced on the doorstep of a schizophrenic patient who had missed several appointments and successfully coaxing him to the clinic. “He was a great country doctor who loved the underdog, but his burning passion was music,” she said. In November 2012, after receiving the late-stage pancreatic cancer diagnosis, he quit practicing medicine and decided to finish out his time as a songwriter. Concerned about neuropathic side effects, he delayed drug treatment so he could record in Nashville with guitarist songwriter Will Kimbrough. Consistent with other eerily prophetic accounts of Ben’s last couple of years, one of the ballads recorded was “I’ve Got to Leave You Now,” a tribute to Ben’s three sons, written several years before his diagnosis.
of things that must be done. Treasured guitars were to be gifted to musical friends like recent Grammy winner Rodney Crowell, and Darrell Scott and his beloved sons. Plans were made for a future CD featuring a long list of songwriting legends who came to know and respect Ben’s music, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, JD Souther, Darrell Scott, Guy Clark, and Bill Payne. Rodney Crowell observed, “The thing I eventually recognized about Ben is that he was a poet. Until the last year of his life he was a country doctor who wanted to be part of the creative conversation.” In the final months, Ben played several goodbye concerts in Montana, attended his eldest son’s October wedding, and, down to the last detail, planned his own funeral. He was fully engaged until the end. The last night of Ben’s life there was laughter and guitar playing, and the family huddled together for his last movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIAM CAMPBELL
Among them was rock pianist and Little Feat co-founder Bill Payne, who rarely co-wrote with anyone. “About six months before Ben’s diagnosis I was writing about my friend rock guitarist Stephen Bruton, who died of throat cancer. Ben didn’t know him, and for some reason, I asked him to write it with me.” The last decade of Ben’s life was sprinkled with serendipitous accounts like those of Devine and Payne, who both claim they didn’t know why they said what they did to Ben.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WILLIAM CAMPBELL
Although not romantic, Joanne and Ben became fast friends who hung out, made each other belly laugh, and traveled easily together. Convinced Ben was an “original,” Joanne eventually managed him, booked festivals, plotted future CD projects, sang backup vocals with him, and introduced him to her many musical-legend friends.
Late that night Ben and Joanne sat quietly. “He thanked me for everything, and we NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 103
Art Dance Music Theatre
2225 ART GALLERY Classic to Contemporary
Watauga Arts Academy a summer arts camp for high school students
June 8 - 21, 2014
at AUSTIN PEAY STATE UNIVERSITY / Clarksville, Tenn.
> > >apsu.edu/watauga For more information about our camp, please contact us:
931.221.7876 or watauga@apsu.edu APSU does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. For inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies, contact nondiscrimination@apsu.edu.
Joseph S. Sulkowski The Hunt Oil on Canvas 20 x 24 inches
CONTACT US FOR ADDITIONAL WORKS AVAILABLE
jcbuntin@comcast.net 615-604-4132 2225 Bandywood, Nashville, TN 37215
Appraise It
Helen Hyde
(American, 1868–1919)
A
It was in Paris, while studying under Félix Régamey, a painter who was an early advocate and collector of Japanese art, that Hyde first became influenced by Japanese perspective, pattern, and content. In 1899 she would travel to Japan to study etching and brush painting but quickly became immersed in color woodblock printing. She learned how to produce prints in a workshop system with Japanese artisans who prepared the blocks and printed them. Hyde also learned to do each step herself and would later hire artisans to come to her studio where she would supervise their work. In her later years Hyde prided herself on the financial independence and comfortable, middle-class existence that her artwork enabled her to achieve, but it came only with constant work. She marketed her works through dealers in San Francisco and New York. Hyde produced sixty-seven woodcuts, in limited
An Interlude, the Bradman’s Donkey, Color woodcut, circa 1912
editions that never exceeded more than 200 copies, and marketed them for $2 to $15 each. By 1914 she had signed an estimated 16,000 prints. She confined her work to Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican subjects, with particular emphasis on women and children. Not confining herself to printmaking, she also worked in oils, watercolors, and pastels. For most American artists of the turn of the twentieth century, painting and printmaking were commonly considered unequal and separate endeavors. Although graphic arts were considered a practical way for the artistically inclined to make a living, the art form was not afforded the serious attention shown painting and sculpture. For Helen Hyde and others of her period engaged in the art, printmaking was a direct product of a creative impulse rather than an extension of another art form. In this impression, impulsively purchased for $75 by the current owner more than fifteen years ago, Hyde demonstrates the combined influence of Japonisme and the PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP
s an American printmaker of the early twentieth century, Helen Hyde, with her fine handling of colors reminiscent of earlier Japanese brush and print masters, obviously found her identity in Japan where she lived between 1899 and 1914. Hyde was born in New York but raised in the Bay Area, and it was there in San Francisco, as a child of wealth and privilege, that she began to study art at the age of 12. When Helen’s father, an engineer, died when she was 13 years old, his sister Augusta Hyde Bixler (“Aunt Gussie”) helped to keep the Hyde family together and financed Helen’s interest in art. Mrs. Bixler accompanied Helen to New York, where she began her first formal study at the Art Students League. Hyde’s art education continued with studies in Berlin, Paris, and Japan.
formal design concept of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The current value of this print in a retail setting would be in the $1,000 to $1,200 range. Nearly complete sets of Hyde’s work can be found in the California State Library, the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Library of Congress. In the United States during the print revival of the late nineteenth century, trained assistants were often employed for the mass production of prints in order to meet the demand for the affordable art form. In response to this mass production of prints, members of the Arts and Crafts Movement, founded by William Morris in England in the mid nineteenth century, advocated artists being their own artisans, performing the entire process of printmaking so that they could vary each print slightly and thus make each print unique. Despite this appeal, artists influenced by the Japanese artisan tradition, especially Pacific Coast-based printmakers, maintained the workshop system.
Linda Dyer serves as an appraiser, broker, and consultant in the field of antiques and fine art. She has appeared on the PBS production Antiques Roadshow since season one, which aired in 1997, as an appraiser of Tribal Arts. If you would like Linda to appraise one of your antiques, please send a clear, detailed image to info@nashvillearts.com. Or send photo to Antiques, Nashville Arts Magazine, 644 West Iris Dr., Nashville, TN 37204.
NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 105
Theatre
Conway Preston and Chuck Long in NEXT FALL
Award-Winning, Contemporary Drama NEXT FALL Makes Its Nashville Premiere at Actors Bridge Ensemble by Jim Reyland | Photography by John Jackson
G
ood theatre is about taking risks. It starts with opening the doors, risking your reputation and treasure in the hope that people will fill your seats and pay the bills. But theatre
is also about taking the risks required to tell the stories that must be told, stories that may be uncomfortable for some but bridge the gap of perception and bring unlike minds together through a better understanding of one another. Nobody in Nashville is better at taking that risk and building that bridge than Actors Bridge Ensemble. Co-founded by Bill Feehely and Vali Forrister, ABE has produced over 75 plays, including 14 world premieres and 45 Nashville premieres. Taking risks is what they do.
Conway Preston and Chuck Long in NEXT FALL
106 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
“Our mission is to tell the
– Vali Forrister, Actors Bridge Ensemble ABE’s latest construction project is NEXT FALL by Geoffrey Nauffts. Hailed as a smart and witty drama, NEXT FALL makes its Nashville premiere March 21 and runs through April 6, 2014, as part of the inaugural season at ABE’s intimate new studio space on Charlotte Avenue in the LeQuire Gallery building.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GERRY GOODSTEIN
stories that impact our community by producing provocative and socially relevant theatre.”
Tom Beckett, Christa Scott-Reed, and Joel Rainwater in The Great Divorce
C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce at TPAC in March
NEXT FALL speaks to the fact that every relationship requires a leap of faith. Luke and Adam are the contemporary “odd couple” in a witty, poignant love story. Adam is a responsible but neurotic atheist while Luke is an impulsive, underemployed actor and a devout Christian. When the unforeseen happens, family and friends’ deeply held beliefs collide. Through pain and laughter, intolerance and honesty, they discover how to live at the intersection of faith, love, and acceptance.
I
n The Great Divorce, several of Lewis’s most fascinating characters are invited to take a bus ride from Hell or Purgatory to the edge of Paradise. But the provocative question the play asks is: Will they like it? Will they choose to go back? Are the doors of Hell really locked from the inside? The Great Divorce remains one of Lewis’s most influential works and rightly earns its place among classics such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.
NEXT FALL is part of Actors Bridge’s 2014 The Secret Is Out season. Presenting stories that are often kept secret, this season explores cultural taboos in the service of creating community dialogue, inviting their audiences to consider their preconceptions and connect with their neighbors despite their differences.
C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce will play on Saturday, March 29, at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 30, at 3 p.m. in the Polk Theater at TPAC. To purchase tickets, visit www.greatdivorceonstage.com or call 615-782-4040.
Called an “artful, thoughtful, and very moving story” by the New York Times, NEXT FALL was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. Directed by Ricardo Puerta, NEXT FALL stars Chuck Long, Conway Preston, Kara McLeland, Joe Blankenship, Phil Perry, and Denice Hicks.
Visti www.abe-next-fall.eventbrite.com for Advance General Admission tickets ($20) to NEXT FALL. General Admission at the door is $25. Visit www.actors-bridge-season.eventbrite.com to order Season Tickets. Seating is limited; get there early. The film version of Jim Reyland’s new play, STAND, performed across Middle Tennessee in 2012 as part of The Stand Project, is now available to stream at www. writersstage.com. Watch The STAND Film starring Barry Scott and Chip Arnold and directed by David Compton. And please consider a donation to support Room In The Inn. jreyland@audioproductions.com
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GERRY GOODSTEIN
Congratulations, Actors Bridge. With NEXT FALL you’ve built another bridge we can all stand on.
Joel Rainwater stars in the world premiere of The Great Divorce NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 107
Business Is Business, 2011, Watercolor on paper, 30" x 40"
Field Notes
A Local Look at Global Art
David Rathman by Betsy Wills
I
was surprised last week, in a fit of energy, that I discovered some real antiques. You see, back in the early 80s my mother drove a baby-blue Cadillac Seville that featured an eighttrack tape deck. Now, because the cassettes were the size of a shoebox you could haul around only a few selections. Believe me, you got to know what music you had very well. My sisters and I could mimic the entire score of the Broadway musical Cats, and to this day can tell you the order of songs on the Electric Horseman soundtrack. ”Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys . . .” The work of David Rathman puts me in mind of those halcyon days. His masterful and dusty watercolors are as inviting as a trail ride and as exciting as a roundup. Get along lil’ doggies. Yippee!
Back from Luck, 2011, Watercolor on paper, 30" x 40" 108 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Betsy Wills admits that she is blissfully ignorant when it comes to art curation and selection. She is, however, an avid art lover and collector and maintains the popular art blog artstormer.com. Wills is proud of the fact that her art does not match her sofa.
No Poems Tonight, 2011, Watercolor on paper, 30" x 40"
Secrets, 2011, Watercolor on paper, 30" x 40"
ARTIST BIO — DAVID RATHMAN the Walker Art Center, Minnesota, the Whitney Museum
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Most of his works are paintings,
of American Art, New York, and The Getty Museum,
but he does work in multiple media. He has made original
California. He is represented by Morgan Lehman Gallery.
films and published limited-edition books. His work has
For more information visit www.davidrathman.com or
been exhibited and collected around the world, including
www.morganlehmangallery.com.
IMAGES COURTESY THE ARTIST AND MORGAN LEHMAN GALLERY
Originally from Montana, David Rathman lives and works
This Town, 2011, Watercolor on paper, 30" x 40"
NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 109
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FIND US!
ART SMART STATE OF THE ARTS by Jennifer Cole, Executive Director, Metro Nashville Arts Commission
PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP
It is that time of year again. The thermometer is stuck at seventeen degrees. The daily forecast calls for the infamous wintry mix, and Snow Bird is on constant watch. The flat gray sky reminds me that it must be time to brew some tea, grab the laptop, and register for summer camp. Yes, summer camp.
My recollections of summer camp go something like this. I put on my fantastic terry-cloth short shorts with burgundy piping circa 1980, grabbed the YMCA card, and my mother dropped my brother and me off for the day. The day was a hodgepodge of swimming, racquetball, Ping-Pong, a snack involving high-fructose corn syrup, and then some sort of craft with macaroni and glitter. My, how times have changed. In December, I put appointments in my Outlook calendar for the date and time registration opens. As soon as I throw out the wrapping paper and fruitcake, the race begins to curate the perfect eight weeks of higher learning and personal selfexploration for my five year old. The summer camp brouhaha has turned into an Olympic sport for moms. Quite frankly, it’s exhausting and expensive. I have a full confession to make: I’m of the mindset that summer is about dirt and sunburn and exploring mud-packed swimming holes that
PHOTOGRAPH BY JACKIE JONES, METRO PARKS
a monthly guide to art education
Centennial Youth Ballet
your parents don’t know about. I’m not involved in SAT prep or competitive swimming with my kids in June and July—but that is me. I’m sure Harvard just took us off the early admission list. The great news is that Nashville and the surrounding areas have a bazillion camps that are wonderful for kids (and moms) bent on bolstering the right side of young minds. The Frist, Cheekwood, Watkins, Nashville Ballet, and Nashville Children’s Theatre have for years run amazing and high-quality art camps. In fact, my young Dakota Fanning is signed up for several sessions already. In the last several years, I’ve uncovered a variety of smaller art and cultural camps that are less known but delightful. For the budding thespian, check out Act Like a GRRRL, an intimate program for young female writers and actors led each summer by Vali Forrister of Actors Bridge Ensemble. The Theater Bug and Street Theatre Company offer a wide range of practical camps and internships for kids ages 5 to 18. This year, MNPS’ Music Makes Us program has added band, orchestra, and arts camps, while DancEast, the Global Education Center, and the Chinese Arts Alliance offer a series of sessions for campers, including hip-hop, capoeira, and Chinese drumming. Metro Parks and Recreation offers a variety of dance and theatre offerings at community centers at the Centennial Park complex.
PHOTOGRAPH BY EYERIS PHOTOGRAPHY
For the visual artist, Sarratt Studios at Vanderbilt offers amazing camps for a wide range of talents, including everything from blackand-white photography to fused glass. The Clay Lady’s Studio offers wonderful small classes for students interested in working on the wheel, and Alan LeQuire’s Open Studio offers multiple sessions taught by some of Nashville’s most amazing artists.
DancEast Summer Camp
Summer camp has lost its innocence, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t amazing and affordable options for families in our community. Go just a bit off the beaten path and your kids just might uncover a part of themselves or a part of the community they’ve never experienced. That after all is the real magic of camp—discovering who you can be when Mom and Dad aren’t around. Better get back to my laptop; there is a week in July calling my credit card. Visit www.nashvillearts.com for a listing of websites for these summer camps. NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 111
TENNESSEE ROUNDUP Fund Arts Education with the New Arts License Plate
On March 5, Tennesseans for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission will officially launch a new Arts license plate, the first in over ten years. With its vibrant colors and look reminiscent of the traditional printing style of the letterpress, it will definitely stand out on the highway. But more important, it will allow Tennesseans to show their support for the arts while also investing in their communities and schools.
PHOTOGRAPH: RACHEL HAMILTON
So why is this important to arts education? Every time a Tennessean makes that personal choice to purchase certain Specialty License Plates, a percentage of the plate’s cost goes to fund the arts through grant programs distributed by the Tennessee Arts Commission. The Arts Commission offers substantial arts education funding that positively affects the education of thousands of our children. For example, since 2011, the Art Commission’s Student Ticket Subsidy (STS) program has given more than 300,000 students the chance to experience the arts by visiting a museum,
Nashville Children’s Theatre NAZA after-school drama workshop at Gra-Mar Middle School
PHOTOGRAPH: RACHEL HAMILTON
by Anne B. Pope, Executive Director, Tennessee Arts Commission
Gra-Mar Middle School girls work on observation skills
seeing a play, or attending a concert. National and state research has shown that children who receive quality arts education do better overall in school. Students gain cognitive, social, and emotional skills when they participate in a curriculum rich in the arts. The new Arts plate will help the Arts Commission continue to fund important grant programs like STS and others such as Arts Education Artist-in-Residence grants. This school year, thirteen Middle Tennessee public schools received the Artist-in-Residence grant, including Smyrna West Alternative School, whose student body is economically disadvantaged. Many of the students’ academic challenges can be traced back to the issues they face at home. Working with Southern Word poet mentors who offer spoken word, poetry, and creative-writing sessions, Smyrna West students discover their talents and express themselves in a structured environment. The activity cumulates as a poetry slam resulting in an expression of the students’ deepest emotions that nurtures respect for themselves and others. This program offers the students an opportunity to shape their story of how to overcome obstacles in order to be successful in school and life. Another great example is the Nashville Children’s Theatre’s Arts After School program. Funded through the Arts Commission’s At-Risk Youth grant program in partnership with the mayor’s Nashville After Zone Alliance program, Arts After School provides drama classes for at-risk youth in Nashville public schools. Led by professional teaching artists, students experience theatre arts that emphasize process and exploration while guiding them to create a performance piece to share with others. The program helps students build confidence and social skills. The content is also aligned with theatre education standards, and students are assessed on such content. The students, seeing their semester’s work presented on stage through voice, thoughts, ideas, and opinions, receive a sense of accomplishment, validation, and self-worth. I hope you will consider choosing for your vehicle the new Arts plate, available at your County Clerk’s office. You can purchase a Specialty License Plate anytime—not just when your tags expire, and your purchase really can make a difference. Together, we can help more children get arts education—one plate at a time. For information or to purchase a Specialty License Plate, visit www.nashvilleclerk.com. For more information on the Tennessee Arts Commission, visit www.tn.gov/arts/.
112 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
CASA AZAFRAN: THE LEGACY OF LOS BRACEROS with oral history accounts and photographs, truly shows the complications of the pursuit of security and profit.”
By DeeGee Lester
Casa Azafrán Community Art Gallery offers an opportunity to explore a little-known chapter of U.S. history with the exhibit Bittersweet Harvest: The Braceros Program, which continues through March 14. This traveling, bilingual exhibit from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is co-sponsored by Humanities of Tennessee.
The exhibit, which opened in December, has already engaged community discussion through “Life on the Fence: A Long View of Guest Worker Programs.” The gallery encourages active conversation around this powerful exhibit. “A number of MNPS teachers for Spanish language and culture have brought students to Casa Azafrán to view the exhibit as part of their study of MexicanU.S. relations. We invite more teachers and students to visit and use the art to further the conversation about immigration reform and Nashville’s growing international communities.”
Oral histories, archival panels, objects, and a documentary tell the story of the largest guest worker program between the United States and Mexico from 1942–1964. During this period, the U.S. actively recruited Mexican workers for shortterm jobs in agriculture, mining, and railroads across twenty-eight states, including Tennessee. “The Bittersweet Harvest exhibit shows the history of the burdens endured in the name of economic progress. But it also speaks of the universal experience of sur vival, determination, and grit,” says Tasneem Tewogbola, Conexión Américas Communications Strategist and Casa Azafrán Cultural Engagement and Events Coordinator. “The story, depicted
At the conclusion of the exhibit, a book fair, scheduled for March 22 and sponsored by Scholastic Books, will share Braceros-themed stories and stories from multi-cultural authors, as well as a puppet show and exciting global fare. The Braceros exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.casaazafran.org.
ART CLASSES AT GORDON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER If you weren’t able to take an art class at the Gordon Jewish Community Center in February, there are still two events left. Advance reservations are required, so you’ll want to go ahead and sign up now.
Art Gallery Tour at York & Friends Fine Art Gallery Friday, March 21, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Enjoy a tour and visit with painter and gallery owner Ron York, who will discuss the artists represented in his gallery.
Right Brain Drawing
Friday, April 4, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Bring out your inner talent with specific exercises developed to help you see and draw in a different way. Supplies provided. No experience necessary. Instructor: Meryl Kraft, Art Teacher For more information on these art classes and to make reservations, visit www.nashvillejcc.org.
NashvilleArts.com
(detail) Ron York, Feeling Grand, Acrylic on panel, 8" x 8" March 2014 | 113
ON THE HORIZON: THE WATKINS WAY by Stephanie Stewart-Howard | Photography by Tamara Reynolds
W
atkins College of Art, Design & Film provides an outstanding secondary education outlet for some of the city’s most talented students. Founded more than a century ago with the intent of educating the community, it has grown to provide the kind of fine arts education Nashville can take pride in.
MICHAEL ROLLI Michael Rolli has a whole career as a military doctor behind him, but a few years ago, when he was leaving the Army, he dared to do what few with his level of training do: move to a completely different career path and pursue filmmaking. Rolli has always loved the arts. In high school, theatre got all his time, though he enjoyed film. His mom took him to Broadway shows that sank into his consciousness. He did make films with a neighbor using Star Wars figures and a video camera, he says. Later, as a student at West Point, he found himself going to three or four films a week to escape the stress of school. He also had the advantage of regular European travel, seeing films while visiting family in Italy and in Paris. “I’d spend half the day in a museum, half of it at the movies, then go out at night,” he says. When he left the Army, a friend asked him what he really wanted. The answer surprised him—he wanted to make movies. “It seemed impractical, but it was something I really wanted to do. I’d spent my life working on things that weren’t for me.” Asking himself what the best way to learn the craft was, having moved to Nashville, he enrolled at Watkins and got to work.
Michael Rolli
“I love what I’m doing,” he says. “It’s just as hard as anything I did when I was a physician. Even the things that aren’t my own projects are fun. I enjoy the entire creative process.” Rolli’s student film project Born Again has created some buzz. No, it’s not a religious theme but rather is inspired by his work in neuroscience: a new perspective on the science fiction trope that asks what happens if you could erase someone’s past entirely
Born Again still 114 | March 2014 NashvilleArts.com
from his mind and reprogram him to start over as someone else. This film might well be seen as a potential pilot for a TV show, tracing the experience of one person within the memory-altering program while wide open for new episodes with other perspectives. “Right now I’m looking to submit it to film festivals and get some feedback,” he says. “I’d originally intended it as a full-length film, and I have some fantastic actors. I’ve got the ideas behind it worked out, and I’m working on the longer script now.” He’s got an interested producer in New York, and he hopes to explore the concept much further. Meanwhile, he’s about to start filming a situation-comedy pilot concept, in collaboration with a local writer who created it and staged it as a live theatre production at the Sideshow Fringe Festival. One way or another, whether through mainstream film channels or by working online or with TV networks or subscription companies like Netflix, he hopes to find the best creative outlet to produce more smart, thoughtful material for a large audience.
A Report For An Academy: Part I, 2012, Pencil, 6.25” x 18”
HOLLY CARDEN Holly Carden grew up, to age 10, in North Wales, UK, where her mother encouraged her to do lots of reading and to play imaginative games. From earliest days, she adored illustrated children’s books, the higher the level of detail the better. Especial favorites were the Brambly Hedge series, telling the story of field-mouse heroes. “We went caravanning [camping] a lot when I was young; I spent a lot of time in the woods,” says Holly by way of explanation. Even then, she knew she wanted to draw. Her father’s job in aerospace technologies moved them to Wichita, Kansas, for several years, then to Nashville when she was a sophomore in high school. She met her partner in high school, and both of them knew they wanted to attend Watkins—film for him, illustration for her. The couple made a deal, and Holly worked in sales to put her husband through school (he’s now an editor at WSMV), and now it’s her turn.
“I like to draw highly detailed images, with little clues and hints in them as rewards for the people who spend more time looking at them—like the concept behind Where’s Waldo. That sort of thing was fun, magical for me as a kid.” The goal, she says, is to use images to tell a full story. “I want to translate as much as possible through a single picture, so the characters are thinking and feeling, and readers can glean some sort of mood from it.” Carden’s work can be seen in June with her show at WAG, which will feature sketchbooks from her career so far, allowing the viewer to see the images behind and before the finished images. Her ultimate goal: a freelance illustration business, doing everything from children’s books to campus or theme-park maps. “I’ll keep my options as flexible as possible,” she says.
While she was in the workforce, she did little in the way of drawing—“it’s hard to be creative sitting in your cubicle”—and her application to Watkins in 2010 was the first serious work she had done in years. She remains dedicated to the traditional methods of illustration, pen and ink, pencil, and watercolor, but says Watkins has allowed her to explore digital technology, which some projects simply call for, and also to work with things like typography and web design. Holly says her work by nature is grounded in a realistic environment with elements of imagination. “I usually have a weird creature stuck into a familiar landscape,” she says with a grin. Friends say her work “tends to be curvy; I have a rounded quality to it.” Generally, her style is broad and adaptive to a specific project.
Holly Carden
NashvilleArts.com
March 2014 | 115
KAYLA SAITO
Untitled, 2013, Polyester lithography print on Dura-lar, 16.5” x 30”
Kayla Saito, in her second year at Watkins, transferred from Memphis College of Art. Specializing in sculpture and printmaking, she plans on working in the arts for life. “I’m realistic about it,” she says. “I may not always be a gallery artist; I can easily see myself teaching or in an art therapy program. Right now that’s my goal. It helps that I’m also interning at Seed Space.” Kayla’s family, originally from Hawaii, first moved to the mainland when she was 3 years old, living in Phoenix for a while before moving to Nashville. She attended Nashville School of the Arts prior to college and says NSA focused her. “There are no other career artists in my family,” she adds. “For me it’s a very exciting field and a little bit terrifying at the same time.”
Thanks to her internship and the opportunity to work with a variety of organizations, she’s learning more about curating exhibits; the insider’s view is very exciting for her. As both a sculptor and a printmaker, she uses her interest in art therapy for her own benefit, as she continues long-term recovery from a car accident at 18 that left her bound to a wheelchair for months (she’s just had surgery on her ankle again), followed by a bout of meningitis. “I’m looking into my own mind. With sculpture, my work is based on the materials I was exposed to in that time, car parts, equipment, technology, and making the connection with my own mind and my body.” One can’t help making the parallels to Frida Kahlo. Her printmaking work also explores the aftereffects of her accident, although she says in both cases she’s begun to move past the personal as she works within a theme. She’s working with the notion of memory—in part because, though conscious at the time, she can’t recall all of the accident. In this case, Kayla is making use of disposable cameras, scanning and layering the photos on a translucent surface while deleting some of the image to create a partial void. At the moment, she’s working in collaboration with an Irish art student, working almost entirely online via Facebook chats. The photos they each take answer a question (“Why does he move so much?”) or provide a representative word image (“green” or “doubt”). Next, they will build on the conversation via Skype, face to face.
Kayla Saito
You can see Kayla’s work at the April 1 show at Watkins Arcade Gallery (WAG) and at a summer show at the Seed Space Gallery.
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Poet's Corner
ARRANGEMENT A buck atop the hill on Hobson Creek Pike. His nostrils like fathers. Once, you chased Good morning from your father’s lips and found the dying German shepherd, all limbs and unruly shadows of winter, sprawled on the kitchen floor. Now, this buck crosses Church Road and stumbles into the retention pond where your father buried the dog—and three hamsters, countless goldfish. A water burial, he said, almost. You feel a thought shape: he was a good man. You feel something like relief but over what you’re not sure. A red wagon. That’s how you pulled the shepherd—Gipsy, that was her name—to the pond. You understand. The buck looks injured, his hips not right, something about his gait. He struggles up the embankment as you pull over. You disagree with yourself. Gary McDowell will read selections of his poetry at the Poet's Corner at Scarritt-Bennett on March 27 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more information visit www.scarrittbennett.org.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN JACKSON
Beyond Words
You Have the Power presents the 2014 Powerhouse Award to
by Marshall Chapman
JOHN SEIGENTHALER Humanitarian and Victim Advocate
CMA Theatre, Country Music Hall of Fame Tuesday, April 29th Doors Open at 5pm Reception immediately following program Tickets: $150
SPONSORS WELCOME! FOR MORE INFORMATION: 615-292-7027 or www.yhtp.org
PHOTO: ANTHONY SCARLATI
Another Mama-ism . . . Once while on a book tour, I was driving through my hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina. I had an event in Atlanta that evening,
so I knew I didn’t have time for any extended visits. Still, I needed to eat, so I called my sister, Dorothy, who agreed to meet me at The Skillet. The Skillet is an institution in Spartanburg. Since 1946, it’s been serving breakfast and lunch at its location on the corner of Pine Street and Main, which are Spartanburg’s two main drags. Lunch at The Skillet isn’t complete unless you run into Chip Smith. As a boy, Chip was friends with my late brother. The two of them frequently got into trouble. Like that time the railroad detectives showed up at our house wanting to talk to Mama. But that’s a whole 'nother story. Since then, Chip has pretty much established himself as Spartanburg’s perpetual mayor of the underground. So when Dorothy and I walked into The Skillet, imagine our surprise when the first person we ran into was . . . Chip Smith. After a lively lunch that included a sneak preview of Chip’s latest project—T-shirts proclaiming IF GREENVILLE’S A LITTLE ATLANTA, THEN SPARTANBURG’S A BIG GAFFNEY—I said my goodbyes and hastened out to the parking lot. Once in my car, I called Mama just to check in. “Where are you?” she said.
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“I’m in the parking lot at The Skillet.” “I’m a block away. I’ll meet you there.” I explained our visit would have to be short, as I had to be in Atlanta in a few hours. “Oh, it’ll be quick,” Mama said. “I just want to see you.” As soon as Mama pulled in the parking lot, I got out of my car and got into hers. “Hey Mama,” I said. The next thing either of us knew, I had stretched out across the front seat, resting my head in her lap. Mama didn’t say a word. She just sat there like having my head in her lap in a public parking lot in Spartanburg was an everyday occurrence. After a while, I said, “Mama, the world’s so scary. Sometimes I wish I could just crawl back up inside your womb.” There was a momentary pause. Now showing at Lexus of Nashville New Metro Center location
21 BLUE GULF DR. • SANTA ROSA BEACH, FL 850-267-2022 • 615-400-0621 WWW.JUSTINGAFFREY.COM
“You can’t,” she said. “You’re too big. You wouldn’t fit.” www.tallgirl.com
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On the Town with Ted Clayton Being that we are experiencing one of the coldest, wettest, and darkest winter seasons, do you have symptoms including lethargy, sluggishness, and lifelessness? If you have one or more of these symptoms then you most likely have torpor, a state of physical and mental inactivity. These symptoms are also seen in our friend Punxsutawney Phil, who by seeing his shadow tells us we will be suffering with this bug for six more long weeks. Here is your prescription from Dr. Ted for how to recover from your case of the winter blahs: take an evening with the Nashville Opera, La Bella Notte; Ignite Lucie Carroll, Carla Nelson, your night with a healthy Heart Dancey Sanders – La Bella Notte Gala; take one big dose of the Antiques and Garden Show. Take after each meal thrilling news of the 2014 Swan Ball, two cocktails, and an extra dose of Winter Lights followed by a tablespoon of the Go Red For Women Men’s Event. If you are still feeling lifeless, try some I Love Lucy Vitameatavegamin at TPAC. Chairs Morel and Howard Harvey – La Bella Notte
Photos with Flamencos on the red carpet, the romance of a Spanish guitarist, Rositas with roses, a Spanish market, and a splendid silent auction, Sevillian Sangria Bar, Figaro’s Fantasy photographs, and breathtaking arias! Sounds too good to be true? Well, it was all that and Jack and Barbara Bovender – more at this year’s La Bella La Bella Notte Notte, the Splendor of Seville, complete with Tom Rogers performing as the Barber of Seville! I have watched this gala become so popular over the years as it
Rob and Nikki Peal, Bob Dudley and Jeanne Smith – La Bella Notte
has become a sought-after invitation party! Dressed in black tie with Spanish flair were Chairs Morel and Howard Harvey greeting Sally Levine and George Barrett, Tish and Jackson Brown with Stephanie Moore, Betty and Ed Stephanie Moore, Jackson Brown and Thackston, Jeanne and Bob Tish – La Bella Notte Dudley Smith, the lovely Sandi Irvine on the arm of Raymond Pirtle, Debbye and Hunt Oliver, Barbara and Jack Bovender, Joanne and Max Horkins, Lucie Carroll and Carla Nelson, Steve Hyman and Mark Lee Taylor. A fine evening of song, dining, and dancing amongst two thousand red roses (an Amos event, of course), all benefiting the Nashville Opera’s education and outreach programs. Perched high on a hill, one of Nashville’s premier homes was the setting for the 2013 Top Tails Donor Society. Jennifer and Billy Frist hosted a lovely evening of Top Tails and fundraising Betty and Ed Thackston, Judy Williams – benefiting the Nashville La Bella Notte Humane Association. OK, yes, I love animals; I love Robin Patton and the Nashville Humane Association, but believe me, folks, this was a sellout evening. Not often do we get to be entertained in a major home that is not only of Architectural Digest quality but was on the front cover last year. Colleen Welch and I were oh so fortunate to be given the private tour by my bud Carole Rose, Jennifer’s mom that looks to be Jennifer’s sister. The art, OMG—there is so much fabulous art one feels that this must be a fine gallery, not a private home. In fact, Billy, being the collector, rotates art on a regular basis and has a wing of the lower section of the home devoted to framed and unframed art waiting to be hung. Seen enjoying the cold January evening high upon the hill were Tim King and Randy Rhodes, Lisa and Terry Ward, Sherry and Andy Walker, Liz Himes,
Laurie Eskind, Peanut, Sherry and Andy Walker – Top Dog Society NashvilleArts.com
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Liz Himes, Jennifer and Dave Rawlings – Top Dog Society
Colleen Welch and Carol Rose – Top Dog Society
Laurie Eskind, Jennifer and Dave Rawlings, Ann and Kirby Davis, Richard Patton, Edie and David Johnson, and Peanut, the featured four-legged guest of the evening. You know the phrase: if you are going to act like the big dog, then you must raise your checkbook and donate like the big dogs do. That’s why all these folks are Top Tail donors!
Chairs Dick and Sharalena Miller, Sheila and Nelson Shields – Heart Gala
R ed- sequ i ned c lot h s, t a l l gold vessels filled to the brim with long-stem red roses, gold Chiavari chairs, golden flatware, a laser show, the Laura Turner Hall in a wash of red . . . Marion Couch and Judy Simmons an outstanding Amos Event, – Heart Gala oh my! If this does not say Happy Valentine’s to you then you need to crawl back into your hole next to Punxsutawney Phil. “Ignite” was this year’s Heart Gala theme, and ignite the night it did, seeing chairs Sharalena and Dick Miller along with Sheila and Nelson Shields greeting each and every one of their 650 guests Dana Perdue and Tim Pagliara, Adela and Lee Ferrell – Heart Gala at the annual American Heart Association fundraiser. After a lovely seated dinner, an energetic laser show crisscrossed the hall bringing patrons to the dance floor to the hot beats of the Jimmy Church Band.
Margie and Tim Arnold – Heart Gala
Valentine love was in the air as this Cupid was amongst the hundreds dancing late into the evening along with Karen
Tim King and Randy Rhodes – Top Dog Society
Lisa and Terry Ward – Top Dog Society
Matkosky and Robert Sharp, Mary Katherine and Earl Simmons, Kelly Sutton and Paul Benton, Adela and Lee Ferrell, Dana Perdue and Tim Pagliara. (Tim was so proud of his lovely Valentine date as he said to me, “Is she not beautiful?” Yes indeed, Dana was stunning in a long, red-satin gown—and not too shabby an engagement ring either. Good boy, Tim!) The Inaugural Martin E. Simmons Award was given by Judy Simmons, in her husband’s honor, to long-time Heart Volunteer Marion Pickering Couch. Yes, for sure Cupid was flying high and shooting love arrows at this year’s wonderful red Heart Gala at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center! “Be Inspired!” was the theme of this year’s most impressive Antiques and Garden Show, the 24th annual event benefiting Cheekwood and the local charities supported by the Economic Club of Nashville. Be inspired . . . how could anyone not be inspired, with lectures given by some of the world’s top design personalities, including Alexa Hampton, my friend Mario Buatta, Elizabeth Akers, Larry and Sandra Lipman Nina Campbell, – Antiques and Garden Preview Party Jennifer Boles, and Honorary Chairman Charlotte Moss? Top antique and horticultural dealers, gardens to die for, spectacular design settings, and yes, dinner in a pond created by Amos Gott and Cheekwood. Amos shared with me that his and Cheekwood’s design for the front center garden (a show stopper!) was based on the thought of the Cheek family enjoying an outdoor living space and dining while overlooking the beautiful gardens in the day. I am not sure that Huldah Cheek Sharp would have been dining in a pond, but what a great design setting this was, with water flowing from the top of a custom Lucite dining table adorned with crystal candelabras, fine porcelain, china, and silver surrounded
Co-Chairs Vee Vee Scott and Mindy Jacoway, the Countess of Carnarvon, Andrew and Marianne Byrd – Antiques and Garden Preview Party
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by cascading water flowing into the pond beneath. Not only was this magnificent garden display fitting for the grounds of Cheekwood but also Went and Barry Caldwell, Nicky and Jim for the grounds of Cheek, Margaret Ann Robinson – Antiques the British Highclere and Garden Preview Party Castle, home of this year’s keynote speaker the Right Honorable Countess of Carnarvon (and the home in Downton Abbey). Lady Carnarvon, the eighth and current Countess of Highclere Castle, was most taken by our Nashville, her first stop in North America while on a book-signing tour. Antiques and Garden Chairs Mindy Jacoway and VeeVee Scott with some two hundred volunteers made this year’s show, held for the first time in the new Music City Center, Ann and Tom Curtis, Karyn Frist, Jean Ann Banker – Antiques and Garden Preview Party a most educational and enjoyable four-day event, starting out with the Benefactor/Preview Party on the Thursday evening before opening to the public the next day. Party Hosts included Elizabeth and Clark Akers, Beth and Dave Alexander, Julie and Sam Alfrey, Mary and Tom Gambill (Mary was so excited that she found an antique fish platter for the Sea Island home), Laurie and Steven Hooper, Shay and Randy Howard, Mary and Kevin Lavender, Ashley and Joe Levi, Sandra and Larry Lipman, Mary Catherine and David McClellan, Birgitta and David Williamson. What an inspirational show orchestrated by volunteers and Cheekwood. Yes, I was totally inspired, and as a result my bank account is a bit, oh well a lot, minus many dollars. Oh and by the way, Lady Jackie and John Hicks, Casey McAlister, Mary Carnarvon extended Lewis – Antiques and Garden Preview Party a gracious invitation to all of us to tea! Oh what a night! Winter Lights, seated dinner by Dani Kates, cocktails courtesy of Robert Lipman, dance your backend off to Nashville’s finest professional musicians, The Big Greasy, and raise funds for Family and Children’s Services! OZ was the new unique and majestic venue for this just plain ole good-time event. Mayor Karl Dean and First Lady Anne Davis were honored with the Jane Eskind Leadership Award. This award honors Jane Eskind’s dedication to living a purpose-filled life through her strong community leadership and legacy of service at Family and Children’s Services. Jennifer and John Steel, Mary Leyden and Torry Johnson, Amy and Owen Joyner, Gail Greil, William Liles, Marlene and Bob Moses, Donna and Jeff Eskind, Judy Simmons, Mary Carol and Charles Friddell, Carolyn Yates and Lex Rambo, and Jackie and John Hicks were all seen making this year’s Winter Lights the best ever!
Men with big hearts gathered recently for the Go Red For Women Men’s Event. Never have I seen so many red ties in one room before. Yes, red ties enhancing the generous Karl Dean and Anne Davis men that attended this Mayor – Winter Lights evening to send love notes and valentines to the women in their lives. The main mission of this group is to increase the awareness of heart disease, the leading cause of death in women. Joining Co-Chair Chase Cole were Andre Churchwell, Keith Pitts, Tom Ozburn, Keith Churchwell, Larry Lipman, Jack Wallace, Bob Weigel and Steffon Hamulak (both men looking quite dapper in their Clayton Collection attire), Al Ganier, and Bernard Reynolds. You Torry and Mary Leyden Johnson, Mary know, the social rat Carol and Charles Friddell – Winter Lights pack! Heart disease has been called the silent killer, but believe me these men are anything but silent when it comes to the good health of their ladies! Deby Pitts, Co-Chair of the Heart Association Campaign, was present only to tease the guys. Just love that Deby! As one can see, the socials have not in any way been like Punxsutawney Phil, for we did not climb Brent Blane, Stephen Graw, Paul Dent, back into our hole but William Liles – Winter Lights supported and partied as never before in this cold and wet winter season. For note during the arctic freeze weekend, I decided to head out to the local movie theatre to see The Wolf of Wall Street. I was expecting to see no one, but to my surprise the socials were tired of home also. Enjoying the Saturday afternoon were Clare Armistead and Peggy Joyce, Anita and Don Baltimore, Donna Tucker, and Lyn Doramus. Just goes to show, one cannot go anywhere in Nashville incommunicado!
Keith Churchwell, Kevin Carter, Keith Pitts, Andre Churchwell – Go Red Men’s Event
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PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN GUIDER
My Favorite Painting
Mona Lisa, 2006, Oil on canvas, 30" x 24"
M ona L isa W arren
I
Special Events Coordinator
find it difficult to pick one work of art that is my favorite because I find joy in all of the pieces we have in our home. However, there is one painting that always calls my name. The painting is by Paul Harmon and was commissioned by my husband as a Christmas
gift for me in 2008. I love the colors, the composition, Paul’s artistic style, but what I love most about the painting is the sentiment behind the gift. The painting is based on a photograph my husband took of me in 2003. He tried multiple times to print the image in his darkroom but was never satisfied with the results. He was getting close to giving up on producing the image when he had the idea to ask his friend Paul to paint it. Paul kindly accepted the request, and I now enjoy my own personalized portrait of a Mona Lisa.
ARTIST BIO – PAUL HARMON Painter Harmon currently lives and a 1793inNational PainterPaul Paul Harmon currently livesworks and in works a 1793 Register of Historic Places farmhouse and studio in Brentwood, National Register of Historic Places farmhouse and studio Tennessee. He isTennessee. an internationally artist who for 11 in Brentwood, He is anexhibited internationally exhibited years, to earlyyears, 1998, divided his time between permanent artistfrom who1986 for eleven from 1986 to early 1998, divided studio/residences in Paris, France and Brentwood, Tennessee. his time between permanent studio/residences in Paris, France, and Brentwood, Tennessee. He is well represented in numerous galleries, museums, major He is welland represented in numerous galleries, museums, major corporate private collections in Europe, Asia, and the USA. corporate and private collections in Europe, Asia, and the USA. Collections include the Tennessee State Museum, the Tampa Collections Tennessee Museum, the Tampa Museum of include Art, thethe George Bush State Presidential Library and Museum of Art, the George Bush Presidential Library and
Museum, Museum, the the Museum Museum of of the the Principality Principalityof of Monaco, Monaco, and and the the city of Caen, France. Paul Harmon is the recipient of many city of Caen, France. major international painting awards including the Prix de la Ville Paul Harmon recipient of many major international de Monaco and isthethe Prix de la Société E.J.A. at the XXIV Prix painting awards including the Prix de la Ville de Monaco and International D’Art Contemporain de Monte-Carlo. The Harmon the Prix de la Société E.J.A. at the XXIV Prix International painting Walking Man, from this exhibition/competition was D’Art Contemporain de Monte-Carlo. The Harmon painting chosen by Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline of Monaco for Walking Man from this exhibition/competition was chosen her private collection. by Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline of Monaco for her private collection. www.paulharmon.com www.paulharmon.com
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Your Intentions, 2014 Photograph 24 x 36 inches
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