Nashville Arts Magazine - August 2015

Page 1


L A

D O L C E

V I TA

FALL COLLECTION 2015

NASHVILLE | MGBWHOME.COM FEATURING: PRESLEY CHAIR, ONYX SIDE TABLE




Cuba: reconstructing memories N EW W O RK BY J O S E´ B E TA NC O URT

AUGUST 1 - AUGUST 29, 2015

T IN N E Y CO N T E M P O RA RY 237 5TH AVENUE NORTH | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | 615.255.7816 | WWW.TINNEYCONTEMPORARY.COM HOURS: TUESDAY - SATURDAY, 11 AM - 5 PM, AND BY APPOINTMENT.

5 t h Av e n u e o f t h e A r t s Downtown nAshville


TM

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

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

www.nashvillearts.com CONTACT INFORMATION

EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING OFFICES 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 615-383-0278 ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Cindy Acuff, Keith Wright 615-383-0278 DISTRIBUTION Peyton Lester, Josh Benis

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE 615-383-0278

BUSINESS OFFICE Pam Ferrell, Adrienne Thompson 40 Burton Hills Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37215 EDITORIAL PAUL POLYCARPOU Editor and CEO paul@nashvillearts.com

SARA LEE BURD Executive Editor and Online Editor sara@nashvillearts.com REBECCA PIERCE Education Editor and Staff Writer rebecca@nashvillearts.com MADGE FRANKLIN Copy Editor

EDITORIAL INTERNS

ADAM WOLNSKI Auburn University

KEELEY HARPER Belmont University DESIGN

TRACEY STARCK Design Director ADVERTISING

CINDY ACUFF cindy@nashvillearts.com

KEITH WRIGHT keith@nashvillearts.com

COLUMNS EMME NELSON BAXTER Paint the Town MARSHALL CHAPMAN Beyond Words JENNIFER COLE State of the Arts LINDA DYER Appraise It RACHAEL McCAMPBELL And So It Goes JOE NOLAN Critical i ANNE POPE Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND Theatre Correspondent MARK W. SCALA As I See It JUSTIN STOKES Film Review TONY YOUNGBLOOD Art in Formation

Nashville Arts Magazine is a monthly publication by St. Claire Media Group, LLC. This publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one magazine from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office for free, or by mail for $5.05 a copy. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first name followed by @nashvillearts. com; to reach contributing writers, email info@nashvillearts.com. Editorial Policy: Nashville Arts Magazine covers art, news, events, entertainment, and culture in Nashville and surrounding areas. The views and opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $45 per year for 12 issues. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, issues could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Call 615.383.0278 to order by phone with your Visa or Mastercard number.


THE RYMER GALLERY

Nature’s Wildest Moments National Geographic Photographer

BARRETT HEDGES

Opening August 1 through August 31 The Rymer Gallery / 233 Fifth Avenue / Nashville 37219 615.752.6030 / www.therymergallery.com

5 T H AV E N U E O F T H E A R T S DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown 9th Anniversary


A2O15 ugust

on the cover:

Jack Spencer, Waders, 2014 Mandeville, Louisiana (Lake Pontchartrain), 44” x 66” Article on page 12

FEATURES

COLUMNS

12 Spotlights

36 Symphony in Depth

16 Crawl Guide

44 5th Avenue Under the Lights

22

22 LaVon Williams at The Arts Company 30 Dymaxion at Lane Motor Museum

46 As I See It by Mark W. Scala 48 And So It Goes . . . by Rachael McCampbell

39 Masaya & Co. From Nicaragua to Nashville

63 Art in Formation

by Tony Youngblood

42 Alic Daniel at The Red Arrow Gallery

83 Art & the Business of Art Arts & Business Council of

51 Polly Chandler Upside Down & Backwards

94 Theatre by Jim Reyland

64 The Hainsworth Collection Susan and John Hainsworth

96 The Bookmark

70 Therely Bare Redux at Zeitgeist

74

74 Andrea Heimer at CG2

104 Art See

80 Andy Anh Ha Andy Anh Ha Gallery

106 Paint the Town by Emme Nelson

84 Gregg Allman Gregg Allman Live:

Back to Macon, GA

86 Rock Your Speech Alison and Tom Petersson

Greater Nashville

90 Film by Justin Stokes

58 Dr. Marek Kacki Brilliant and Inspired

51

101

64

Hot Books and Cool Reads

98 Art Smart by Rebecca Pierce

Baxter

108 NPT 113 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman 114 My Favorite Painting

30

8 | August 2015

70 NashvilleArts.com



Bennett Galleries New Works by Butler Steltemeier THE WOR LD OF BUGS

PUBLISHER ' S NOTE

Art Creates a City

A

while back I was having dinner at a favorite little Italian restaurant in Sylvan Park. I always order the same thing, Seafood Angelina; I love it. As our waiter was taking our order I noticed his notepad was covered with a very familiar image. Wait a minute, I thought. I know that picture, a gorgeous outdoor vista by photographer Byron Jorjorian that we had published several months earlier. I asked the waiter about the image on his notepad, and he said, “That’s my go-to place; that’s where I go to unwind when I’m at work.” And with that he took off towards the kitchen. At the end of our meal I told him I was associated with the magazine, and he told me that he frequently cuts pictures out and takes them to work so that he can have a little art oasis with him at all times. I thanked him for feeding us, and he thanked me for feeding him. Ever driven by people’s houses and wondered what they’re like on the inside? What’s going on, what the furnishings look like, what kind of artwork they own? I do, and every now and then I get invited in. Meet Susan and John Hainsworth, art lovers and collectors who reminded us that collecting art is not a numbers game—it’s about loving every single brush stroke on the canvas. See a part of their historical art collection on page 64. This month I want to introduce you to my new favorite folk artist, LaVon Williams. A former UK basketball player, this giant of a man creates carvings that are colorful, thoughtful, and full of social commentary. His work will be on display at The Arts Company beginning August 1.

Well, the Rolling Stones came and went. They’re all a lot smaller in real life, but then again on most days I think we all are. Paul Polycarpou Publisher

The Queen, mixed media and watercolor

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


Nothing Ordinary

Gondwanaland Gems & Jewelry

Private Jewelry Consultant www.gondwanalandopals.com • 615-308-9349


On the Cover: A Study in Viewing by Sara Lee Burd

J

ack Spencer’s Waders tricks the eye and inspires deeper creative consideration into art, photography, and human nature. At first glance the dim blue image is reminiscent of a 1950s Abstract Expressionist/Color Field painting or even a dramatic Dutch landscape painting featuring a faint low horizon line.

But this is a photograph. The blue line that stretches across the horizontal image is actually a bridge, and Spencer’s variegated blue composition reveals itself as sky and water. This isn’t art about art. It is a photograph that pushes the boundaries and takes advantage of the medium. The dots of color are families and friends enjoying their freedom, splashing around in Lake Pontchartrain. Everyone is together in the water, but each group is separated into individual microcosms.

The cropped image featured on the cover of this issue provides a closer look at one of these groups. A family standing, waiting around, and focusing on the baby arrange

Waders, 2014, Mandeville, Louisiana (Lake Pontchartrain), 44” x 66”

to form an ideal pyramidal shape. The subtle ripples that spread through the water reflecting the family’s colorful clothing are simply part of the photograph, but the color demarcates the group’s presence and space in the lake.

Spencer’s photograph reveals the paradox of the expansive world we live in compared to our deep connections we feel with each other—as long as we maintain our own space.

For more information about Jack Spencer visit www.jackspencer.com.

310 1st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37201 AscendAmphitheater.com

STEELY DAN & ELVIS COSTELLO AUGUST 8

IDINA MENZEL AUGUST 15

PETER FRAMPTON & CHEAP TRICK AUGUST 16

AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD WITH LEDZEPPELIN2 AUGUST 22

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW AUGUST 28

ZZ TOP WITH BLACKBERRY SMOKE SEPTEMBER 1

DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES

JACKSON BROWNE

@AscendAmphitheater

SEPTEMBER 23

/ascendamphitheaternashville

Ascend_amphitheater

Charge By Phone: 800-745-3000. All dates, acts and ticket prices subject to change without notice. Ticket prices subject to applicable fees.

12 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

OCTOBER 11


august 2015 come on down All art under $1000 ! Featuring 50 artists !

516 Hagan . Nashville davidluskgallery.com


NASHVILLE’S REAL ESTATE SIGN OF DISTINCTION

SO LD

40 Burton Hills Blvd., Suite 230 • (615) 250-7880 Worthproperties.com

LI NE ST W IN G

4124 WALLACE LN • $1,399,000

6513 RADCLIFFE DR • $1,299,900

LI NE ST W IN G

PR IC E

3106 DEL RIO PIKE • $1,150,000

NE W

NE W

PR IC E

5613 OTTERSHAW CT • $1,379,000

9276 WARDLEY PARK LN • $1,388,000

PR IC E

NE W

LI NE ST W IN G CO UN NT DE RA R CT

2017 JOHN J CT • $1,698,000

223 BROOK HOLLOW RD • $1,699,000

NE W

101 CHERRY BRANCH LN • $2,499,000

PR IC E

31 GOVERNORS WAY • $2,480,000

4505 BALLOW LANE• $1,149,000

815 TYNE BLVD • $1,198,000

25 GOVERNORS WAY • $2,100,000

105 HAVERING CHASE• $999,000

N PR EW IC E

4509 BALLOW LANE • $1,129,000

221 ARROWHEAD RD • $1,139,000

GNAR Award of Excellence Life Member and 9 time Diamond Award Recipient

mobile: 615-330-3051 • office: 615-250-7880 • Laurabaugh3@gmail.com


Estate Homes

LI NE ST W IN G

55 GOVERNORS WAY • $6,450,000

LI NE ST W IN G

170 CHICKERING MEADOWS • $3,659,000

SO L

D

410 ST EDMUNDS COURT • $3,860,000

4025 NESTLEDOWN DR • $2,599,000

“It’s worth a call to Laura Baugh. I’m never too busy for you!”


AUGUST CRAWL GUIDE José Betancourt – Tinney Contemporary

First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown

Saturday, August 1, from 6 until 9 p.m.

The First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown celebrates its 9th Anniversary on August 1! The Arts Company is introducing Rhythm in Relief: The Art of LaVon Williams (see page 22) along with the 18th Annual Avant-Garage Sale. Visit Tinney Contemporary for the unveiling of CUBA: Reconstructing Memories, new work by José Betancourt. Nature’s Wildest Moments, work by photographer Barrett Hedges, is opening at The Rymer Gallery. The Browsing Room Gallery at Downtown Presbyterian Church is presenting Ideas for Monuments, an exhibition of new work by Lipscomb University Associate Professor of Art, Rocky Horton.

In the historic Arcade, 40AU Gallery is presenting Composite Internet Boyfriend by Jaime Raybin, an autobiographical narrative including personal writing and watercolor illustrations. The Spaces We Leave Empty, an exhibition of photography, video, and mixed media by Watkins photography alumni Sam Angel, Lisa Deal, Jennifer Georgescu, C.A. Greenlee, Jenna Maurice, and Abby Whisenant, is on view at WAG. COOP Gallery is showing What Remains, an exhibit featuring a variety of media by new members Melissa Newman, Jennifer Pepper, Tammy Smithers, and John Warren. In the main gallery at Corvidae Evgeniya Golik – Corvidae Collective Collective see Altar Fires for the Forgotten Gods showcasing artists Terry Montimore, Curt Harbits, Evgeniya Golik, Amanda Seckington, Linsay Blondeau, and Kristin Frenzel. In the smaller gallery, DARKROOM features work by some of Nashville’s most talented film photographers, including Amy Richmond, Amy Rouyer, EJ Holmes, Jennifer Stalvey, Joshua Black Wilkins, JR Goleno, Penny Felts, and Rohan Quinby. Hatch Show Print’s Haley Gallery is hosting a closing reception for the exhibit Jim Sherraden: Personal Woodcuts.

Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston

Saturday, August 1, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Ground Floor Gallery is exhibiting Rotting Piñata by studio artist Desiré Hough. The solo installation shows a birthday party that was eagerly planned but, for unspoken reasons, never occurred, leaving the viewer with underlying notions of death. At the Silo Room at Track One David Anderson and David King are presenting a two-man exhibit entitled Living On Mousemeat, which consists of artwork that explores boundaries between radically external experience

and what is deepl y inter nal. CG2 GALLERY is showcasing paintings by Washington-based artist Andrea Heimer (see page 74). Quoting Nature by Erin Murphy, on view at Fort Houston, features works ranging from prints made in Baltimore, Mar yland, to drawings inspired by Cape Town’s breathtaking environment. Vivian Maier, a specially curated selection of the photographer’s black-and-white images taken between 1950 and 1971, exhibits at Sherrick & Paul. 444 Humphreys Pop Up Gallery is Erin Murphy – Fort Houston hosting its first returning artist, Kevin Guthrie, who is presenting a new assortment of his signature beer-carton drawings. Julia Martin Gallery is featuring Michael McConnell’s exhibit Domesticity.

Michael McConnell – Julia Martin Gallery

David Lusk Gallery is opening Price Is Right: Art Under $1000 (see page 18). Zeitgeist is unveiling Therely Bare (see page 70). In association with Spaghetti Theatre, Channel to Channel is showing the play A Bright New Boise, an earnest comedy about the meager profits of modern faith written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Bethany Langford.

The Franklin Art Scene

Friday, August 7, from 6 until 9 p.m. Gallery 202 is showcasing new work by Betsy Ingalls and Barbara Coon. Susan Goshgarian McGrew is exhibiting works from her new series Wildlife and Waterfalls of the South Cumberland at Jack Yacoubian Fine Jewelry and Art Gallery. See paintings by Vicky Reddish at Heylee B. At Jamba Juice enjoy great family music by the band Graceman, whose style Susan Goshgarian McGrew – Jack Yacoubian Fine Jewelry and Art Gallery incorporates elements

16 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Alic Daniel – Red Arrow Gallery

of folk, soul, and rock. The Williamson County Visitor Center is hosting local photographer and painter Jill Zientek. Parks is featuring pen-and-ink drawings by Lauren C. Hood. Denise Michelle is displaying her art at Boutique MMM. Landmark Booksellers is presenting Fillies Who Are Dillies featuring Candace Wade and Penelope Langley, writers of the book Horse Sluts, along with bold and vivid equestrian paintings by Carol Richardt. Jennifer Star Housley is displaying equestrian-inspired jewelry, and singer/songwriter Andrea Davis is performing.

East Side Art Stumble

Saturday, August 8, from 6 until 9 p.m.

Red Arrow Gallery is opening the exhibit Scribble by Alic Daniel (see page 42). Sawtooth Print Shop is unveiling Paintings and Prints by Casey Payne and Rex Runyeon. KT Wolf Gallery is hosting a closing reception for Time Spent in Los Angeles, a small-works show featuring 7 L.A. artists.

w w w. z e i t g e i s t - a r t . c o m

T H E R E LY BA R E REDUX AN ENSEMBLE PA I N T I N G EXHIBITION

OPENING RECEPTION

SATURDAY, AUGUS T 1 6-9PM

EXHIBITION ON VIEW J U LY 1 8 - A U G U S T 2 9

5 1 6 H AG A N S T R E E T, S U I T E 1 0 0 N A S H V I L L E , T N 3 7 2 0 3 T 6 1 5 2 5 6 . 4 8 0 5

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 17


Price Is Right: Art Under $1000 David Lusk Gallery • August 1 through 24 by Adam Wolnski

P

rice Is Right: Art Under $1000 is a summer tradition for David Lusk Gallery (DLG) in Memphis, and this year the exhibit is returning to DLG in Nashville for the second time. The art world slows down and goes on a vacation of its own during the summer months, so Price Is Right is a way to get new collectors interested and keep art moving in the slow months.

“It’s an excellent way for new clients to start collections,” Memphis DLG Director, Robert Hollingsworth, said. “The price point is such that most people can find something they can afford and that they would like to have.” As the name implies, all the art in the exhibit is under $1,000, but as Hollingsworth is quick to point out, it is not a sale. It’s an art exhibit within the confines of a price point.

Mark Bradley-Shoup, SS Rotterdam (detail), 2014, Oil and gesso on postcard, 4” x 6”

that Hollingsworth is excited to see. And no matter your experience, budget, or taste, you will be able to find something to take home from Price Is Right.

“There’s a wide variety of work going on,” Hollingsworth said. “Paintings, 3D, 2D,

photography, so there’s something here for everyone.” Price Is Right: Art Under $1000 will be at David Lusk Gallery in Nashville August 1–24. For more information, please visit www.davidluskgallery.com/nashville.

YOU’LL HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE.

Adrienne Miller, Every Which Way, 2014, Etching, 30” x 22”

The exhibit will feature more than 15 young and new artists that DLG is interested in representing, as well as established artists that have been in the gallery for years. Their prices won’t be marked down, but DLG established artists have been known to create pieces within the price point to be featured in the exhibit.

Daniel Holland, Amelia Briggs, Gregory Allen Smith, Taylor Loftin, Jill Shoffiett, and Jim Buchman are some of the names

SEPTEMBER 22-27 Reserve tickets NOW for a group of 10 or more friends and save! Call 615-782-4060.

ON SALE NOW! TPAC.ORG/DirtyDancing 615-782-4040 TPAC Box Office

Broadway Series sponsored by

Show presented by TPAC.ORG is the official online source for buying tickets to TPAC events. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

18 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


V isiting Artist Series Event FEATURING THE ART OF ARTHUR KIRKBY & JEWELRY BY DEBE DOHRER DESIGN Enjoy an extraordinary evening filled with live music by Fletcher, Bell, & Ward, refreshing cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres while viewing Arthur Kirkby’s exceptional art and jewelry collections by Debe Dohrer Design. Thursday, August 20th | 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM 2002 Richard Jones Road, Suite C-104 | Nashville, TN 37215 Please find additional event details and pieces of art that will be displayed at: www.thelipmangroup.com/artist SPONSORED BY:

4 Spacious Balconies Give Views From Vanderbilt To Downtown.

Immaculate Executive Home Situated Along The 12th Hole

MIDTOWN | ADELICIA, #615 | $875,000 2BR•2 Full BA • 1 Half BA | 1,586 SF | 2 Parking Spaces Michelle Maldonado, 615.260.4423

NASHVILLE | 789 ELYSIAN FIELDS ROAD | $1,375,000 4BR•4 Full BA•1 Half BA | 4,200 SF | In-ground Pool Chris Mannino, 615.299.7995 - Larry Lipman, 615.364.3333

LEBANON | 413 FIVE OAKS BOULEVARD | $539,000 4BR•4 Full BA | 4,773 SF | Master Bedroom On Main Angela C. Wright, 615.406.3212

SOLD

PenDing JOELTON | 7748 WHITE’S CREEK PIKE | $399,800 Offering Unparalleled Services For Both Buyers & Sellers Annette Winters, 615.668.3215

2002 Richard Jones Road Suite C-104 Nashville, TN 37215 615.463.3333 Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

NASHVILLE | 323 WHITWORTH WAY | $875,000 4BR•3 Full BA•2 Half BA | 5,482 SF | In-ground Pool Larry Lipman, 615.364.3333

agents

NASHVILLE | 3518 RICHLAND AVENUE | $1,125,000 Sold In Less Than 1 Day Thru Social Media Networking Angela C. Wright, 615.406.3212

FEATURED

Angela C. Wright

Chris Michelle Mannino Maldonado

Larry Lipman

Annette Winters


1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Still House Hollow Farms $8,999,000 145 acres (additional acreage available) 2 939 Tyne $4,245,000 3 4816 Post Road $3,995,000 4 5004 Hill Place $2,999,900 5 4931 Franklin $2,790,000 6 5539 Big East Fork $2,690,000 7 110 Lynnwood $2,500,000

8

8 434 Grayson $2,495,000

Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953

9 3823 Whitland $2,397,000 10 1154 Travelers Ridge $2,249,000 11 1160 Manley Lane $1,999,950 12 1504 Cedar $1,850,000 13 3821 West End Unit 202 $1,539,000 14 1213 Vintage Place $1,495,000

9


10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

16 20

21

22

15 206 Leonard $1,295,000 16 4311 Sunnybrook $1,295,000

Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953

17 100 Bellavista $1,250,000 Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953

18 3631 West End $1,249,000 19 4325 Estes $1,150,000 Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953

23

20 710 Valhalla $1,150,000 21 1769 Hillmont $1,099,000 22 4112 Baldwin Arbor $999,000 23 9003 W Cambridge Ct $875,000 24 4374 Chickering Lane $799,500 25 5840 Beauregard $799,000 26 4415 Charleston Place $499,900

RICK FRENCH 615-604-2323c

615-292-2622o

BROKER

FRENCHKING.COM

24

25

26


PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP

LaVon Williams Carving Out History The Arts Company

August 1 through September 10

by Karen Parr-Moody

H

istor y marches so slowly that minute-to-minute changes are virtually imperceptible. Yet it is punctuated with moments that shine, handing observers the task of relaying them. Self-taught sculptor LaVon Van Williams, Jr. is one such observer, carving away wood and leaving behind relief figures that illustrate African-American history in all of its vibrancy. As an African-American born in Florida in 1958, he also brings a Southern flavor to the telling.

The African-American experience, as carved out by Williams, will be on view in an exhibit that runs from August 1 to September 10 at The Arts Company. The show, Rhythm in Relief, will include approximately fifty pieces he produced from the late 1980s to the present. African-American heritage is punctuated by suffering and triumph, and it begins with loss. Williams’s piece The Middle Passage chronicles that opening chapter: it is a slave ship that captures the sense of confinement felt by a people trapped and taken against their will.


I like the history of the African-American community, the history of Southern music . . . African-American music.

Fancy Ray Ray McCoy, 2005, Painted, carved wood, 37” x 9” x 6”

But a history that began in the holds of slave ships also includes chapters filled with exuberance—juke joints, rent parties, church gatherings, joy rides, jamming musicians—and these are lavished upon Williams’s body of work. “I really like the joy of life and what it holds,” Williams says. When Williams carves joy out of wood, he does so through a frenzy of figures that are dancing or otherwise moving, their limbs overly arched and their hair splayed out in wild trajectories. Their physiological proportions—too-big hands and feet—are also tweaked by the sculptor’s imagination. Williams cites as inspiration artist Ernie Barnes (1938–2009), the painter of the famous Sugar Shack, in which sweaty dancers flail their arms in a crowded juke joint. “I wanted my work not to look like his work, but to have that energy that kept the eye moving.” Swirling with energy, Williams’s figures are also the descendants of American artist Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975), with that painter’s nod to Surrealism. In Kentucky, where Williams currently resides, people know him as a member of the University of Kentucky basketball team that captured the NCAA championship in 1978. But from childhood, art was his true calling. After all, he was born into a family of woodcarvers; some cousins, a brother, and a great-uncle, Luke Wright, also had the gift. Wright worked on a ranch and carved objects, such as horses, in his spare time. Williams says, “When he retired, he would sit in front of the barber shop or the grocery store and carve,” noting that if a passerby liked a piece, Wright would simply give it away.

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 23


Williams’s earliest memories, among those that provide rich fodder for his work, are of growing up in an African-American community “segregated, not by law, but in a sense” in Lakeland, Florida. “I like the history of the African-American community,” he says. “I also like the history of Southern culture—the history of Southern music, African-American music.” With the divorce of his parents, Williams and his mother moved to Denver. He was 10 years old and landed there as an influx of newcomers also arrived from other places, particularly Texas. Williams was suddenly exposed to a variety of races and cultures, and his eye was tempered by the Spanish influence that the Texans imported by way of Mexico. That, as well as the colors of Colorado’s wide-open spaces, informed his art. It was also during this time that Williams witnessed much of what gives his work a retro sensibility in portraying African-American life. It was 1968 and rent parties—a cultural phenomenon first reported during the Harlem Renaissance—were the big thing. These house parties in which revelers participated, for a small fee, helped raise the host’s rent during lean months.

Piano Lesson #3, Painted, carved wood, 37” x 26” x 10” 24 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Pee Pie and the Stay High Boys, 2012, Painted, carved wood, 47” x 19” x 11”

One can draw a direct line between the dancing W illiams witnessed at rent parties, as well as at the “ little club” around the corner, and his sculptures. His works celebrate a community of intimacy and playfulness, with titles such as The Gambling House and Raisin’ Rent. He say s, “ That ’s the way I saw my neighborhood when I was younger, with a lot of energy.” Those places are now gone, and Williams says his sculptures have become vehicles to inform new generations of their once-lively existence. Williams explains: “You’ll see people going someplace, doing something—that’s what I try to portray—and having great respect for each other and enjoying life. Because you only get one.” R h y t h m i n R e l i e f : T h e A r t o f L a Vo n Williams will be on exhibit at The Arts Company August 1 through September 10. For more information, please visit www.theartscompany.com.

Clara and Papa, 2015, Painted, carved wood, 49” x 29” x 9”


Peep-Eye and the Stay High Boys, Painted, carved wood, 46” x 32”

Blue Moon of KY, Painted, carved wood, 38” x 16”

The Decision, 2015, Painted, carved wood, 49” x 38” NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 25


Explorations by Mildred Jarrett Nashville International Airport • Through August 30

N

ative Nashvillian Mildred Jarrett has been compelled to paint for 67 years. To afford supplies she started selling World Book Encyclopedias door to door, which she loved. She was so good at it that she won the world record for sales and was promoted to International Sales Manager. She stayed with World Book for 37 years and spent 12 of those years traveling the world. During her career with World Book, Jarrett continued to advance a second career as an abstract painter. When she wasn’t on the road, she painted as much as she could and felt fortunate that her work with World Book afforded her the opportunity to paint.

Jarrett says that many experiences in the corporate world gave her the confidence to make powerful artistic statements. “The way I see it, if I can travel over the jungles of Africa in an old DC-3, board a British submarine in Nova Scotia, be questioned by police in China, slide around a mountain in New

Explorations, Triptych, 2015, Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 48” each panel

Zealand, drive in New York City without directions . . . I can attack this canvas!”

Jarrett points out that the communication similarities of her parallel careers have been “astounding! The success of each is hinged on an ardent desire to reach others.” For Explorations, Jarrett relied on the use of strong, bold color to capture the attention of her traveling audience in the airport. In

GRETCHEN’S WHEEL

creating the triptych she brought her past experience as a frequent flyer into the present. Explorations, part of Arts at the Airport’s Flying Solo Exhibition Series, is on view through August 30 in the ticketing lobby on the south side of Nashville International Airport. For more information, please visit w w w. f l y n a s h v i l l e . c o m . To s e e m o r e o f M i l d r e d Ja r r e t t ’s a r t , p l e a s e v i s i t www.mildredjarrett.com.

Debut Album Fragile State

“Alternative rock that’s lushly atmospheric, yet closely intimate” PAPERCUT MAGAZINE

“Wistfully effortless slices of pop... the entire album is worth getting lost in, time and time again”

THE BIG TAKEOVER MAGAZINE

“Gretchen’s Wheel embodies casual cool...smooth, early 90’s dream-pop... slight tinge of shoegaze”

MARK STULTZ PHOTO

SKOPE MAGAZINE

“A welcome reminder that Nashville produces more than pop country idols” MUSIC EMISSIONS

Available on iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp at http://gretchenswheel.bandcamp.com and in local record stores Grimey’s, The Groove and Mellow Matt’s.

© Susan W. N. Rauch

For the Perfect Accent Piece

Download a free 5-song album sampler at www.noisetrade.com/gretchenswheel @gretchenswheel

facebook.com/gretchenswheel

GASLAMP ANTIQUES &

GASLAMP TOO

100 Powell Pl Suite 200 & 128 Powell Pl, 37204 Open M-Sat 10-6 & Sun 12-6: 615-297-2224 / 615-292-2250 : GasLampAntiques.com

26 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


When creative worlds collide, a studio is born. C615 and Make It Pop Creations have teamed up to create Nashville’s most sophisticated photo and video facility: Studio 615. Featuring 2,000 SF of white infinity space and another 1,900 SF of photographer’s playground, Studio 615 rivals the finest facilities in New York and Los Angeles. State of the art LED lighting, elegant green rooms and outdoor lounge areas are just a few of the features that make Studio 615 breathtaking.

www.studio615.co | create@studio615.co 615.678.1038 | 272 Broadmoor Drive, Nashville

@studio_615


COURTESY OF TOMATO ART FEST

COURTESY OF TOMATO ART FEST

John Cannon, Gallatin Road

12th Annual Tomato Art Fest East Nashville’s Historic Five Points • August 7 & 8 by Rebecca Pierce

I

t began as an art show celebrating the tomato. Now in its 12th year, this annual homage to the beloved fruit/vegetable has turned into a wacky and wonderful event-filled weekend for some 40,000-plus locals and out-of-towners.

Founded by Meg and Bret MacFadyen, owners of East Nashville’s Art & Invention Gallery, Tomato Art Fest is still anchored by an exhibition of tomato-themed art, but there is also continuous live music, a New Orleans-style second line parade, tomato-related contests, a 5k run, and creative activities for kids.

Among the over 200 artists exhibiting at Art and Invention Gallery are Andy Detwiler, Andee Rudloff, Beth Seiters, Bill Brimm, Bret MacFadyen, Danielle Duer, Donna Rizzo, Duy Huynh, Elizabeth Foster, Hannah Maxwell Rowell, Janet Lee, Jemal Beggs, Jim Osborn, Kelly Ash, Luba Sharapan, Maribeth Wright, Sarah Kaufman, Seth Conley, Tim Hooper, and Vicki Sawyer.

COURTESY OF TOMATO ART FEST

Activities for children begin on Wednesday, August 5, with Tomato Story Time at the Inglewood Library. The Kids Tomato Art Show Opening Reception, sponsored by YMCA ArtEmbrace, starts on Friday. Youngsters 2 to 10 years of age are invited

James Butler, Nashville Tomato Town

to help build the largest ice cream sundae in East Nashville at Pied Piper Creamery on Saturday. KidFest, hosted by East End United Methodist Church, takes place on Saturday and includes a water slide, bounce houses, “tomato-head” hair painting, and crafts.

Live music kicks off on Friday with Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes and Neulore playing on the Xfiniti Main Stage. On Saturday, enjoy Halfbrass, Boy Named Banjo, Magnolia Sons, Floralorix, Kylie Morgan, Kink Ador, Myzica, Carolina Story, Nathan Belt & The Buckles, Don Gallardo, and more.

28 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

If you think you have what it takes to reign over Tomato Art Fest, then don your tomato ensemble and enter the King & Queen Competition at The Crying Wolf on Thursday, August 6. The two Top Tomatoes will take away $200 in cash and have the honor of leading the Tomato Second Line Parade on Saturday morning!

The 12th Annual Tomato Art Fest takes place on Friday, August 7, from 6 until 11 p.m. and Saturday, August 8, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Historic East Nashville’s Five Points. The event is free and open to the public. For a comprehensive listing of events, locations, and times, please visit www.tomatoartfest.com.


The Sweet Spot of Seating

colorful, contemporary, high performance, all commercial grade

73 White Bridge Rd • 615-352-6085 • Mon-Sat 10–6 • Sun 1-5 • 2danes.com

Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen Release New Album 5 Spot • August 15 by Bob Doerschuk

W

hen Ted Drozdowski and his wife and musical/business partner, Laurie Huffma, relocated from Boston to Nashville eight years ago, he arrived with a reputation as both a dynamic slide guitarist and a music journalist, whose writing credits prompted the Blues Foundation to present him with its Keeping the Blues Alive Award. “I’d been playing a lot more in the South,” he says. “Plus it was getting increasingly expensive and crowded in Boston. A lot of people we knew from there had moved to Nashville. And we also just liked it here.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL STEBER

Drozdowski continues to write; his most recent book, Obsessions of a Music Geek, Volume I: Blues Guitar Giants, is a collection of his interviews with and articles about John Lee Hooker, Johnny Winter, and other virtuoso performers. But he has shifted his focus more toward playing than writing. His band, Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, draws from the North Mississippi blues style and infuses it with a unique spin. It’s deeper, more elusive and mysterious, than what you get from Texas shuffles and other more familiar subgenres.

As documented on its new Love & Life album, the band conjures a sound that’s primitive and sophisticated, raw yet steeped in scholarship. “Sometimes, hardcore blues fans listen to my records and say, ‘You’re not playing traditional blues!’” he notes. “The fact of the matter is that I am playing traditional blues; what I’m not playing is conventional blues. Blues used to be a music of imagination, growth, and evolution. And that’s what I’d like it to be again.”

Catch Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen at The Bluebird on August 9 at 6 p.m., Grimey’s on August 13 at 6 p.m., and at 6 p.m. at the 5 Spot for the August 15 album release show. For more, visit www.scissormen.com. NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 29


THE UGLY DUCKLING

DYMAXION Words and photography by Tony Youngblood

W

e’re driving down Murfreesboro Pike in the Lane Motor Museum’s replica of Buckminster Fuller’s D y maxion c ar, a pil l-shaped, three-wheeled, aluminum-coated behemoth, and I’m beginning to wonder if saying yes to the drive was a bad idea. Previous reports called it a death-mobile and terrifying to drive. The original prototype crashed at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair when another car ran into it. The driver of the Dymaxion, who was wearing a seatbelt, was killed when the car rolled over and the canvas-draped roof framing collapsed. What exactly did I sign up for? After calming down, I realize, hey, this is much smoother than I expected. That’s probably due to Jeff Lane’s expert driving. He’s logged 950 of the 1,000 miles on the Dymaxion replica, making him the most experienced Dymaxion One driver in the world. The car’s problems stem from the single rear wheel steering. Lane explains, “We’ve let some people drive it, and the first thing they do—it’s like they’re drunk—they kind of over correct, and the back end moves around.”

In 1933, years before he popularized the geodesic dome, Buckminster Fuller teamed with yacht designer Starling Burgess to create a vehicle that would eventually be able to fly, land, and drive. Fuller knew that before he could worry about the flying part, he had to perfect the driving, so the focus of the first prototypes was ground-taxiing. He opted for rear steering and forward propulsion because, as he said in a 1975 video interview, “That’s the way a bird—that’s the way nature—does the trick.” The first prototype was completed in less than four months, and over the course of two years, two more prototypes were made before the money ran dry and the venture folded. None could fly. Prototype Two, the only surviving original, is on display at the National Auto Museum in Reno, Nevada. Jeff Lane is the creative director of the Lane Motor Museum, a 132,000-square-foot facility housing over 400 vehicles. There are plenty of strange cars at the museum—the world’s smallest, the Peel P-50; a 20’ tall, 62’ long U.S. military amphibious craft called the LARC-LX; and the Helicron, a French propeller-powered car—but Fuller’s vehicle is by far the strangest.

Lane always liked the Dymaxion and decided to build a replica to test all the unverified claims, such as Fuller’s boast that it could achieve 128 mph. (It can’t.) He chose Prototype One because it was the cleanest and purest example of what Fuller was tr ying to accomplish. The chassis and motor were built in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by Bob Griffith and Chuck Savitske and then shipped to the Czech Republic where Mirko Hrazdira made the wood body framework and Vítězslav Hinner put

30 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Jeff Lane behind the wheel of the Dymaxion replica he constructed

on the aluminum skin and finished the car. On March 19, 2015, eight years after project launch, the Dymaxion One replica went on display at the Lane Motor Museum.

The Dymaxion is widely viewed as one of the worst-designed vehicles in history, but Lane maintains that we shouldn’t consider it a failure because Fuller never intended it to be released commercially. “What he was doing was trying to show all these concepts and have a General Motors or Ford, a big car maker, say Ok, I think that’s a good concept; I’m gonna adopt that. He was a visionary.” In a 1975 interview, Fuller himself said the vehicle was “extremely successful. I learned an incredible amount. And it did affect the whole automobile world. They learned many many things from that car, I assure you.” After twenty minutes of very non-harrowing driving, Jeff and I pull back into the museum parking lot. As I tour the museum and see steam-, coal-, and pedal-powered cars, a bike with a single wheel that wraps around the driver, and a moped that folds up into a trunk-sized rectangle, I realize that there are no failures in car designing, only blind alleys closed off. The Lane Motor Museum is not about cars. It’s a museum about human ingenuity and the stubborn obsession to go a little bit farther, a little bit faster. Lane says, “And so really it’s about people, because every car is a work and a passion of somebody. Cars are the product of the needs of the people.” For more information about Jeff Lane and the Lane Motor Museum, visit www.lanemotormuseum.org.

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 31


DIANE DAVICH CRAIG

Paintings & Ponderings

Customs House Museum • August 4 through 30 by Keeley Harper

D

iane Davich Craig had taken a few painting lessons and a small art class. After futile beginnings in landscape art where her attempts to “paint every leaf and every blade of grass” left her feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, she stopped pursuing this creative endeavor. Craig found herself returning to art for comfort in the face of her father’s terminal illness. Roughly seven short years into that journey, Craig is now an awarded artist whose realistic paintings transform the mundane into moving works of art—each with a story.

Elliston Place Soda Shop, 2011, Oil on panel, 24” x 30”

speech. Craig explains, “I loved the rustic character, and the two latches gave me a feeling of unification. The painting speaks to the common bond between humans.” As Musical Director for the Nashville Chamber Players and as a painter, Davich knows a great deal about the essential nature of creativity and the connections fostered through art. “I just am so thankful to have found art to add into my life, and I really do hope that when people see or buy a painting it brings them some of the pleasure that I get out of art.” Diane Davich Craig is represented by Gallery 202 in Franklin, Tennessee, and J. A. Willy Gallery in Naples, Florida. Paintings and Ponderings will exhibit at the Customs House Museum from August 4 through 30. Meet the artist during Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Crawl on August 6 from 5 until 8 p.m. To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.customshousemuseum.org. To see more of Craig’s work, visit www.dianedavichcraig.com.

Together We Are Strong, 2013, Oil on gesso board, 12” x 24”

Her paintings and their stories will be on display at the Planter’s Bank Peg Harvill Gallery at the Customs House Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee, as one in a yearlong series of month-long exhibits curated by Nashville Arts Magazine. As a member of the International Guild of Realism, a recipient of multiple awards, and with paintings featured in multiple galleries, Craig admits surprise at her success. “I never in my wildest dreams expected to do anything with art. I just needed something that could distract me from my father’s illness, and I loved it—the hours just melted away. It was a surreal experience.” Some might say the same about viewing her art. Leaning toward the colorful and nostalgic, and with content ranging from neon signs to rusty trucks, each painting offers a unique insight into its subject. One such piece, Together We Are Strong, was inspired by the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”

Break Out!, 2015, Oil on panel, 16” x 20”

32 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT

BARBARA COON

Sweet, Sweet Music, Mixed Media, Acrylic & Wood, 24” x 72”

BETSY INGALLS

Collaboration of Barbara Coon and Betsy Ingalls, Bicycle Built for 202, 49” x 43”

Earth and Sky VII, Watercolor on Yupo paper, 23” x 41”

Artist Reception • August 7, 6-9 pm 202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 • www.gallery202art.com • 615-472-1134


La Strega—The Witch Space 204, Vanderbilt University • Through September 10 by Keeley Harper

D

La Strega (detail)

La Strega

PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY PHILLIPS

Inspired by tumultuous historical events, such as the Salem witch trials and the Inquisition, events that appeared with the “ferocity and randomness of storms,” Paxson’s seventh major series reflects on the ways in which civilized societies commit horrendous acts. Relying on funnel shapes and hooks found throughout the structures, the works symbolize how these events can “grab ahold of you so you cannot get free.” Despite its grim yet insightful origin, the twisting beauty of each piece displays art’s ability to extract beauty from raw ideas.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY PHILLIPS

uane Paxson’s La Strega—Italian for “the witch”—immerses the viewer in an eerie story with a setting reminiscent of a dark woodland. The exhibit ’s twisting trees and their shadows prompt the viewer to question what exactly may be residing in this grim yet beautiful forest.

An art instructor at Troy University, Paxson incorporates fiberglass, steel, and wood materials from the area near his studio in Comer, Georgia, to bring this inspiring work to life. Michael Aurbach, curator of the exhibit and professor of art at Vanderbilt University, speaks of Paxson’s high standards. “I have been familiar with Duane’s work for two decades. We try to present a variety of work with Space 204 throughout the year and knew that his work offered something special.” La Strega will be exhibiting at E. Bronson Ingram Studio Art Center in Space 204 at the Vanderbilt University Department of Art through September 10 with a closing reception from 4 to 6 p.m. and gallery talk at 5 p.m. To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/arts. To see more of Duane Paxson’s work, please visit www.duanepaxson.com.

A L L

T H E

B E S T

I N

F I N E

J E W E L RY

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

34 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


The

Pryor Art Gallery C o l u m bi a S tat e C o m m u n i t y C o l l e g e

PRESENTS

INFINITE CREATION

Exhibition and program of the Chandra Space Project, visual and musical artists’ interpretation and a schedule of night sky watches.

SEPTEMBER 7 OCTOBER 19, 2015

Speaker: October 1 at 5 p.m. Reception: 5:30 – 8 p.m.

A free exhibit welcoming everyone. Monday – Thursday, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. • Friday, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.

FREE 30-MINUTE PRESENTATION OF

GREAT SCIENCE WITH A GREAT OBSERVATORY

Featuring special guest lecturer Dr. Martin Weisskopf, Chandra Project Scientist

Thursday, October 1 at 5 p.m.

DR. MARTIN WEISSKOPF

Pryor Art Gallery • Waymon L. Hickman Building • Columbia Campus Limited seating, call 931-540-2883 for info and head count.

Visit www.ColumbiaState.edu/PryorGallery for more information and schedules of activities.


Symphony in Depth

COURTESY OF NSO

NSO Readies for the 2015/16 Classical Season

M

aestro Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony kick off the 2015/16 Aegis Sciences Classical Series in early September, a slate of fourteen performances that promises to deliver even more of what Nashville has come to love about its GRAMMY® Award-winning orchestra.

“With such a variety of classical works, there is a lot to be excited about next season,” says Guerrero. “It is an ambitious and challenging program, but one that will showcase the Nashville Symphony at its very best.”

Opportunities to hear some of the finest works from the classical repertoire abound during the 2015/16 season. Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concertos gives audiences a rare opportunity to hear this complete Baroque masterpiece on October 22–24, while the first concert of 2016 will be Mozart’s Requiem, the last piece ever written by Amadeus. The season closes on May 26–28, 2016, with Mahler’s choral Third Symphony, completing the orchestra’s cycle of all nine Mahler

Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero

“Collaborating with our amazing orchestra members is something I’m particularly excited about,” he says. “It will give audiences the opportunity to discover what many of us here already know—that the Nashville Symphony has some of the finest musicians anywhere in the world.” Principal oboist James Button is one of those musicians. He’ll be the soloist on Knoxville native Jennifer Higdon’s Oboe Concerto, one of three works by the composer to be performed and recorded during 2015/16.

“I met Jennifer in 2007, when I was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami, and she gave me a CD with the premiere performance of her Oboe Concerto,” says Button. “After hearing just the opening few lines, I knew that I wanted to play it someday. Jennifer writes so beautifully for the oboe, and I’m thrilled to be performing and recording this piece with the Nashville Symphony.”

Oboist James Button

COURTESY OF NSO

The Nashville Symphony will set the tone for the new season at its opening weekend concerts on September 10–13 by mixing one of the most beloved pieces ever written, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with a contemporary masterpiece, John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls. Written by America’s most-performed living composer, the latter work is a stirring tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks that incorporates actual sound clips from New York City on that fateful day.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN POIZNER

For audiences who’ve come to know and love their Nashville Symphony musicians, next season promises a real treat, as Guerrero will feature several of them as soloists.

symphonies—a project that Guerrero launched in 2008. Works by Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Bernstein, Brahms, and others round out the season, along with six contemporary American pieces that will be recorded for future release.

36 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

The Classical Series lineup is just one part of an incredible 2015/16 season, with names like Frankie Valli, Alabama, Kristin Chenoweth, Paul Anka, and Smokey Robinson among the more than 100 guest artists performing at the Schermerhorn throughout the year. Single tickets and subscription packages for all 2015/16 Nashville Symphony concerts are on sale at www.NashvilleSymphony.org and at the Schermerhorn Box Office.


Coming Soon L I V E AT T H E

SCHERMERHORN

1964 August 14

Studio Tenn’s Musical Tribute August 7

August 14

& T H E W I L D C AT S GOLDEN OLDIES SPECTACULAR CHARLIE THOMAS’ DRIFTERS THE DUPREES

featuring

NICOLAS REYES & TONINO BALIARDO

August 27

August 16

JONNY LANG

KEB’ MO’

September 4

August 28

BEETHOVEN’S NINTH

& JOHN ADAMS’ HOMAGE TO 9/11 with the Nashville Symphony

WITH THE NASHVILLE SYMPHONY

September 24 to 26

September 10 to 13 Mary C. Ragland Foundation

615.687.6400

NashvilleSymphony.org


“I have followed James Andrew Hearn as a fellow artist. He is a prolific painter with a diversified style and an eye for color, lights, darks and composition. His works are uniquely different, and I find that the more I study them, the more I draw from them. One should not merely glance at his paintings but should reap the pleasure of studying them well. I am pleased to recommend his art.” William H. RaVell III Member of the International Society of Marine Painters and a Designated Coast Guard Artist

James Andrew Hearn View More Work At: Facebook.com/JamesAndrewHearnsArt • Contact Patrick: (615) 579-0330

38 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP

Aram Terry and Abril Zepeda

Masaya & Co. From the Forests of Nicaragua to Nashville with Love

M

by Stephanie Stewart Howard asaya & Co. on 16th Avenue South joins a small but growing number of original, independent furniture producers that aim to change for the better the way we decorate. Not just because their products are extraordinarily beautiful and functional,

but because owners and creators Aram Terry and Abril Zepeda not only design the pieces, but fabricate them as part of a larger effort to preserve beneficial forest lands in Nicaragua.

In 2002, Nashville native Aram Terry entered the Peace Corps and found himself assigned to Nicaragua. Focusing on helping small


If we wanted to preserve the forests, we needed to have a value added product—and that turned out to be furniture.

business development and creating micro credit programs, he soon found himself heavily committed to preser ving local forests and, after his Peace Corps stint ended, stayed on in the country in an effort to build a business. Aram was living in a beach town, and his French-born associate in real estate development had a serious interest in reforestation and working with wood. Soon, Aram shared those interests. The forests in Nicaragua have been disappearing, says Aram, because of a change in agricultural land usage. Of the 60 to 70 species of trees in the native forests, only about 15 have recognized commercial value. Likewise, the residents l ooking to make mone y c lear-cut the forests and burn the wood, turning it into cattle grazing space. 40 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

On Nicaragua’s Pacific coast, he says, sugar cane has been the major crop for more than a century, but on the Atlantic, though there is some small oil palm, coffee, and cocoa bean production, the major product is cattle—and most people just don’t understand how much land it takes to produce a small return on a herd of cattle. “In this economy, there’s not much value to the forestry business. Land on the Atlantic coast that’s forested sells for about $150 an acre and cleared cattle land for $400. So for us, if we wanted to preserve the forests, with all the advantages that go along with it, we needed to have a value-added product—and that turned out to be furniture.”


From 2004 to 2007, as he drove to the beach, Aram watched an ever-expanding line of cattle farms encroaching on the lands his partner was devoted to reforesting. They researched tree farms and plantation forestation with the idea of creating a long-term tree plantation. Then in 2007, Hurricane Felix knocked down standing forests, and Aram found himself making a swift decision. “I jumped head first into getting newly felled timber out of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. That timber in turn evolved quickly into value-added products, like decking and flooring and furniture for Managua. From that came my idea to create an integrated company in the process, one that would move from seeds in nurseries to planting, forest maintenance, cutting, and construction. And it would have huge local impact, especially since sustainable forestry is one of the most important aspects in dealing with long-term climate change in Nicaragua.” Among the goals of the company are returning spent cattle farms back into forest, helping to retain soil and prevent erosion, protecting water sources, and offering the region a better source of revenue than cattle. Aram and his wife, Abril Zepeda, born and raised in the city of Masaya, work together to create a whole product, and the extraordinary hardwood furniture they’re now exporting to the U.S. and selling in cities like Nashville very much appeals to American markets, even as it stands out from the crowd. The store on 16th Avenue South opened just three months ago, but it’s already drawing customers looking for something original. Aram’s own design sensibilities are inspired by mid-twentieth-century Modernist architecture and style with elements of Japanese joinery. He says, “I like clean, simple, not too heavy joinery,” referencing dovetail joints and visible tenons, among other construction elements. Meanwhile, Abril Zepeda brings the aesthetics of her own home to the vision, incorporating local design typical to Masaya like the vividly colorful woven elements that make things like seats and chair backs. The results are pieces that draw the eye with a combination of rich color, resulting from a combination of woods and textiles, and subtle yet marvelous architectural design and construction. The local shop is a family affair: Aram’s dad owns the building, while his brother is handling online sales.

“I think the designs we offer are very different than most of what’s available commercially here. They’re colorful, intricate, distinctive,” says Aram with pride. “I also think customers truly appreciate our level of sustainability. We plant 100 trees for every single piece we sell. We’re at about 130,000 this year already. Our oldest trees are eight years old now; we’ll do some small thinning next year, and those trees will go into our furniture—maintaining a forest creates a positive cycle that keeps growing. “Most of the furniture you buy right now is manufactured in places like China, and the components are shipped from all over the globe. When you buy from us, you know where it all comes from. That’s the benefit of an integrated company like ours.” F o r m o re i n fo r m a t i o n a b o u t M a sa ya & C o . lo ca ted o n 1 2 0 0 16 t h Ave n u e S . v i si t www.masayacompany.com.

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 41


Scribble By Design The Red Arrow Gallery • August 8 through September 13

Alic Daniel’s Abstract Paintings Hit a Bull’s-eye at Red Arrow

by Joe Nolan

A

lic Daniel’s Scribble opens at Red Arrow this month—a big step for a young artist who just graduated from Belmont this spring. Daniel’s abstract canvases feature Keith Haring-esque lines that convey the ebullience of the graffiti pioneer’s work without copying that artist’s icon figures. “ You can tell that he crafted his line work and his approach so he didn’t second guess himself at all,” says Daniel. “His work is very direct.”

Relationship Study, 2015, Latex on canvas, 48” x 48”

Daniel’s abstract, repetitive paintings float between fine art and design. This is evidenced in Daniel’s show at Red Arrow and most of his mural work at The Treehouse restaurant in East Nashville. It’s also easy to imagine this stuff screen-printed on a tee shirt or featured in fabric designs. The Treehouse space includes Daniel’s maze-like designs but also includes figurative work, which you won’t see at the artist’s Red Arrow exhibition. “ W hen I do something figurative it ’s a whole other way of thinking,” he explains. “I have this traditional background that includes figure studies, but for this show the only figures will be implied or accidents between the lines.” Whether he’s filling a canvas with abstract designs or painting a wall with figures or a portrait, Daniel always attempts to get lost in the details, striving to realize a quality of attention that leaves him immersed in the immediate application of the next line. “When I go into these times of work I try to forget about everything else, and I only focus on the rules that inform a particular design,” he says. “I try to be present with exactly what I’m doing aesthetically and to forget about the overall project in that moment.” The best work at Red Arrow has the same focusing effect on gallerygoers.

Painting With Yeti, 2014, Mixed media on canvas, 30” x 24”

Joe Nolan will host a gallery talk with Daniel at Red Arrow’s Art on Target event on Saturday, August 22, at 6:30 p.m. Scribble runs August 8 through September 13.

42 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Middle Tennessee's world-class chamber orchestra is pleased to announce its debut season at the Franklin Theatre!

City

2015 -16 Season Sept. 21 Oct. 19 Feb. 8 Apr. 11

All concerts at 7:30 pm

Tickets available at the Franklin Theatre box office, online at franklintheatre.com and by phone at 615-538-2076. Gregory Wolynec, Music Director

Get to know the GCO at gatewaychamberorchestra.com.

Subscriptions on sale now!


PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN JACKSON

PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY PARK

5th Avenue Under the Lights Tinney Contemporary

by Jeff Rymer, Owner, The Rymer Gallery

T

he First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown in August marks the 9th year since the galleries on 5th Avenue of the Arts launched what is now a wildly popular monthly downtown Nashville cultural experience.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN JACKSON

As the downtown arts scene has become more visibly vibrant, part of its growth must be attributed to this highly anticipated Saturday night that attracts approximately 2,000 crawlers, Nashvillians and tourists alike. Seen as a visual arts opportunity and as a social engagement, this special evening offers new exhibitions, opportunities to meet artists, outdoor dining and music, and a host of other unexpected pop-up options.

unique culture. For very diverse entities to come together in this way is a rare undertaking and a major accomplishment. Since 1996, The Arts Company had been a landmark location for the downtown arts, and in 2006 Tinney Contemporary opened, followed by The Rymer Gallery, along with Art at the Arcade and many small arts businesses—ultimately resulting in the concept of presenting a free monthly art crawl in the downtown neighborhood. Today, the galleries are joined by participating iconic venues such as the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Country Music Hall of Fame, Music City Center, Art at Music City Marketplace at the Bridgestone Arena, and Printer’s Alley, among many others. In addition, the Nashville Downtown Partnership sponsors musical and performing arts platforms during the crawl; an array of culinary arts is represented, and Gray Line is about to launch the free Art Crawl Downtown Trolley Shuttles—all of us working together in a true Nashville collaborative, arts-inspired spirit. And Special Thanks must be given to the Mayor’s Office, Metro Public Works, the Convention and Visitors Corporation, and of course, the Nashville Downtown Partnership. I am proud of the journey we have traveled so far and look forward to the exciting artistic road ahead. www.FirstSaturdayArtCrawlDowntown.com PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN JACKSON

First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown Celebrates 9th Anniversary!

The Rymer Gallery

In Music City, how and why the visual arts have become part of Nashville’s significant cultural landscape is a compelling story. Two words immediately come to mind: collaborative community. For almost a decade, the galleries located on 5th Avenue of the Arts have met weekly with local community arts partners and arts-savvy businesses in the downtown area to share, support, and engage each other in order to continue to elevate the visual arts and Nashville’s

The Arts Company

44 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


YOuR suPPORT HElPs us dO mORE THaN TREaT dIsEasE, IT HElPs us CuRE IT.

Thank you, Nashville, for 25 loyal years supporting the Celebrity Softball Game. Your generosity makes our mission possible. City of Hope is a comprehensive cancer center and independent biomedical research institution, near Los Angeles, committed to curing cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Here our scientists, doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers work together to save lives today — and tomorrow. Together, we are transforming the ©2015 City of Hope future of health. Find out why there’s no place like Hope: CITYOFHOPE.ORG

aNd a vERY sPECIal THaNks TO OuR PaRTNERs


As I See It Preliminary 3D sketch of the Salt Island Bridge, 164’ x 91’ x 13’

Sigalit Landau and the Israel Paradox by Mark W. Scala

I

n many of her sculptures, videos, and performances, Israeli artist Sigalit Landau shows the body as a graceful bridge between the buoyant and liberating expansiveness of the sea and the heavy weight of the land, the conflicts over the latter fueled by nationalism, patterns of injustice, and competing assertions of ancestral rights. Her performances are frequently choreographed on the beach, the only open border in a country demarcated by bristling fortifications on all other sides. They challenge the artist’s physical and psychological capacities to endure, conveying the vulnerability of the body and empathy for those on both sides of this existential drama. The first and still most affecting work of Landau’s I have seen is her video Barbed Hula (2000), which shows the nude artist with her head cropped out of the frame to suggest anonymity or everywomanness. She stands on a Tel Aviv beach with a hula-hoop made of barbed wire spinning around her waist. Wincing at each pain-inflicting twirl of the hoop and its growing orbit of red welts, the viewer may see this graceful, even sensual dance as an aberration of child’s play—an irrational conjunction of pleasure and pain. Indeed, it may be a symbolic echo of life in Tel Aviv, which an Israeli friend tells me is famous for its hedonism; the extreme life of the senses is embraced as a way of blotting out the panic of knowing that there may be no tomorrow. Landau reinforces this reading by saying of the performance, “The pain here is escaped by the speed of the act and the fact that the spikes of the barbed wire are mostly turned outwards.”1 The faster you live, the less chance of being hurt. But the outward-turned spikes expand the metaphor into something of greater magnitude. One may read the hoop as a reference to the barbed-wire fencing along the borders with Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria. But it also evokes the memory of the concentration camps that has always given moral justification to the creation of Israel. In each

The bridge will be located in the middle of the sea, in close proximity to the border shared by Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority. The bridge can be reached by scheduled flotillas from three banks.

case the sole purpose of the spikes is to tear the flesh of the unwanted other, but this is double-edged; they can wound the person they are meant to protect, just as maintaining a battle-ready nation may cause psychological injury to its inhabitants. Landau’s headlessness is particularly intriguing. Art historian Linda Nochlin writes of a painting of a woman’s torso by van Gogh: “On the unconscious level, we may read the mutilation of the headless body as a potent metaphor of sacrifice.” As if to underscore the futility of Landau’s own gesture of self-sacrifice, Nochlin then cites the Surrealist writer Georges Bataille’s comment that “art is born of a wound that does not heal.”2 If you wound yourself (or your homeland) in a way that is cyclical and thus can never heal, the only solace would come, if one believes Bataille, through the creativity released by the perpetually aggravated wound.

46 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


To heal the Middle East, a goal that seems so improbable, indeed will involve creativity and, as David Ben-Gurion once encouraged, a belief in miracles. Landau is currently working on her own potential miracle, a visionary project that focuses on the Dead Sea, which is situated between Israel and Jordan and is a big tourist draw because of its Biblical importance and therapeutic immersions in salt water and mud. In 2011, she envisioned the creation of a salt-encrusted bridge linking Israel to Jordan, which would symbolize peace between the two countries (it has now been over twenty years since a peace accord was signed by both nations), focus attention on the lowering of the sea’s waterline (due to the need for drinking water, as well as overuse by industries on both sides), and serve as a major tourist attraction.

COMMUNITY

EDUCATION

Endnotes 1. For this quote, and to see the video Barbed Hula, go to Landau’s website, www.sigalitlandau.com/page/video/Barbed%20Hula.php. 2. Linda Nochlin, The Body in Pieces: The Fragment as a Metaphor of Modernity (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1994), 49. Georges Bataille, “Sacrificial Mutilation and the Severed Ear of Vincent van Gogh,” in Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927–1939, edited by Allan Stoekl (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993), 61–72.

Mark W. Scala Chief Curator Frist Center for the Visual Arts

REGISTER BY AUGUST 31

FA L L 2 0 1 5

WATKINS

If Landau succeeds in realizing the Salt Bridge Island, she hopes that it will open hearts to other avenues of peace and cooperation. This is critical for the protection of the environmental and historic treasure that is the sea, but it may also inspire people of differing ideologies to find other points of common interest.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP

COURTESY OF SIGALIT LANDAU

Sigalit Landau, Barbed Hula, 2000, Video still

The designs for the project are spectacular, and engineering skill will be required to bring it into existence. Yet the more crucial obstacle may be political, as Landau is experiencing difficulty in gaining approvals from all three of the entities that maintain jurisdiction over the unique lake—Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority. Today, what started as a walkway connecting shores is now envisioned as the “Salt Bridge Island Project,” which would involve the creation of a gracefully arced structure in Israeli waters, reachable only by boat. As the sea level shrinks, more of the heavily salted structure would be revealed extending toward both shores, transforming it into an increasingly visible memorial for the endangered Dead Sea.

NashvilleArts.com

Offering classes in book arts, clay, creative writing, film, painting, photography, printmaking, and more!

watkins.edu/community-education 615.383.4848 community@watkins.edu

August 2015 | 47


And So It Goes...

Is it Art or Craft? by Rachael McCampbell

B

efore the Italian Renaissance, all forms of art were under one umbrella until the architects, painters, and sculptors were plucked from the artisan pool and made into superstars. This left the potters, glass blowers, tapestry weavers, goldsmiths, etcetera, in the arena of craft or decorative arts for centuries to come. Then, in the twentieth century, fine artists began to incorporate crafts into their work, and the once clearly defined boundar y between the two worlds blurred beyond recognition. Now I ask, is there a difference between art and craft?

I think historically, the main difference between art and craft was the artist ’s intention, what materials were used, and if the product was useable or wearable. Was the artist’s intention to express important personal ideas or feelings or to create an aesthetically pleasing object for a paying patron? As the middle class rose and art became more accessible to the masses, its purpose began to change. Utilitarian objects that had once been defined as decorative arts began to merge with fine arts.

One example is Yarnbombing, (or guerilla knitting), which is basically crocheted or knitted yarn placed in unexpected public places. The material is still a craft item, (remember your Aunt Betty’s afghan throws?), but the usage has gone from usable art to an artist’s personal statement, therefore a fine art form. At first, the idea was about warming sterile public places, like knitting leg

warmers for statues, then it morphed into a worldwide phenomenon of covering all sorts of things with yarn, from cars and bridges to trees, to make greater, often sociopolitical statements—a softer form of street art, if you will.

Papercutting, which has been a craft art form for centuries beginning in China (think black, silhouetted landscapes and later Victorian profile pieces), is now a powerful fine art form. Tremendous wall sculptures and installations are constructed from reams of cut paper.

Context seems to be a big differential between the two as well. It’s not so much what an artist makes but where the art is put. For example, if you make a porcelain vase with shiny, gold paint, it may be a well-crafted, decorative piece, but not fine art. Yet, if you take that same vase and suspend it from barbed wire over an open, taxidermied shark’s mouth and place it in a museum, it’s now fine art. The artist is using a crafted object to make a conceptual statement. J e f f K o o n s ’s f a m o u s s t a i n l e s s steel Rabbit comes to mind. He appropriated normal, blowup toys you might find in a dollar store and recontextualized them by casting them in shiny metals—an intriguing neo-pop art commentary on what constitutes fine art. But does this concept work in reverse, I wonder? Can you turn fine art into craft by switching its function? If you take a classical Greek sculpture of Hercules from the Getty museum, for example, and place it in your foyer at home to use as a hat rack, is it now a decorative piece, a craftwork, or fine art?

(top of page) Beth White, Papercutting (above) Cotxe Cobert, Yarnbombing, Plaça Nova, Alacant, Spain

PHOTOGRAPH BY RON MANVILLE

Perhaps it’s simply a nomenclature issue. If we just combine f ine Metropolitan youthful Hercules arts with crafts and rename it all Roman 1 AD Visual Arts, then there can be no exclusions or hurt feelings and everyone is happy.

48 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Rachael McCampbell is an artist, teacher, curator, and writer who resides in the small hamlet of Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. For more about her, please visit www.rachaelmccampbell.com.


YORK & Friends fine art

GINA COCHRAN

Nashville • Memphis

BRADLEY TYLER WILSON

Little House 2, Encaustic on wood, 10” x 10”

Little House 1, Encaustic on wood, 10” x 10”

King, Acrylic on panel, 24” x 14”

107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 • 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net www.yorkandfriends.com • Follow us on at York & Friends Fine Art



Polly Chandler

Upside Down & Backwards A Photographic Narrative

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 51


From a series of work inspired by the lyrics of Tom Waits. His song “Make It Rain� was the impetus for this photograph and is the inspiration for its metaphor. Made in Austin, Texas.

52 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


This image is probably one of my most personal and, again, comes from a series of work inspired by Tom Waits’ lyrics; particularly the line “Lay your head where my heart used to be.” NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 53


This is literally a self-portrait, also inspired by the lyrics of Tom Waits in which he sings about a house where nobody lives. As I turned 40 and have never married, I realized that my body made the choice of whether I would have a family or not.

54 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


After an experience with someone who was ultimately duplicitous, this image was conceived. I was inspired by the sentiments of Tom Waits and call this image What He Done, You Can’t Give It A Name. NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 55


Ascending From Beneath 1st St. Bridge. I had just moved to Texas from a small town. It was my first year in Austin. I was lonely but also hopeful.

56 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE GOMEZ

by Sally Schloss

P

olly Chandler’s disturbing and luminous black-and-white photos are like composed stills from dreams. She is the dreamer, the characters, and storyteller, photographing what she imagines. Her narr ative Polly Chandler metaphors express the deeply personal. By sharing what is vulnerable in herself she invites the viewers to connect to their own responses.

“A quote that comes the closest to defining art for me,” says Chandler, is “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” [from the British street artist Banksy].

Chandler’s latest photo series, You Build It Up, You Wreck It Down, certainly embodies this artistic statement of purpose. The title is taken from a lyric by Tom Waits, whose songs and voice resonate for Chandler. His words expose emotional nerves and describe relationships through a glass darkly.

Another lyric, “You’re the Key That Got Lost,” is paired with a shot of a dark interior staircase in an apartment building. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling glow softly. The top stairs disappear into the gloom above. At the bottom of the stairs there’s an open doorway leading into muted daylight. Our eyes are deliberately focused on an illuminated key ring with its set of keys that have fallen and been left. One skeleton key, separated from

the others, dangles onto its own step. The chilling image invites interpretation: Is there someone trapped and those keys will never open that door again? Is this a story about imprisonment and abandonment? Someone else might have a different interpretation. The fact is you must participate when looking, which is one of the pleasures of experiencing this work.

Chandler got her MFA in 2004. She has exhibited her work nationally, and her photographs have been published in magazines such as Photo District News, American Photo, and B&W Magazine. She moved here from Austin, Texas, six months ago. “I cart around this huge large-format view camera and mass of equipment. Every one of my shots is completely constructed. To prepare, I take snaps on my iPhone and will even draw stick figures. When I look through the lens everything is upside down and backwards.

“So many people think I do manipulation of the image in Photoshop when, in reality, it’s all done in the camera. A shoot can take four hours. It’s very hard, but if it weren’t difficult it wouldn’t be exciting. “My photography is about making connections with people and how I can tell my story. Words for me are inadequate.” Chandler is right. The photos speak for themselves.

For more information about Polly Chandler, please visit www.pollychandler.com.

My mother is in many of my images. Almost all of my large-format-film photography is essentially a visual diary, and the people in the images are “stand-­‐ins” for me. This is no exception, and we all want to know the same thing in the end. NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 57


58 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


The Brilliant and inspired

Dr. KĄcki Visage MedArt Surgeon and Artist by Katie Veltri | Photography by Rory White

“F

or me, art has this incredible ability to transform things into sensations,” says Dr. Marek Kacki. Kacki has been painting since he was a teenager and is not only brilliant at what he does as a physician, but he is also the sort of creative that is timeless. Kacki has been running his own practice, where he fuses art with medicine at Visage MedArt, where his motto is “less is more” in the aesthetic medicine world. Kacki has had huge success as a nephrologist and in invasive procedures, which earned him the international patent for an intravascular prosthesis. But it doesn’t stop there. He has transitioned his career into the opposite end of the spectrum and created a sense of depth in his work as an aesthetic doctor, renewing and remolding patients into living works of art. Although Kacki has been accomplished as a physician and artist for over thirty years now, he remains down to earth and stays current with his perspective on medicine and art. Kacki is an experimental artist, working mostly with acrylic, and has dabbled in many other media. He has been most influenced by Picasso, his community of artist friends growing up in Poland, and by Gestalt principles, using form as a base of all his works. He takes apart and examines the pieces in depth and creates a new form that expresses both a philosophical and honest emotion. “It is nostalgic, and I know there is a semi-tragic component to it,” he says. Much of Kacki’s acrylic painting shows a painful element, but to Kacki, this is true to the human experience and is merely transient and important to recognize as maintaining the balance in all of us. We are all the observers and characters in a play with multi-faceted sides, and with time as its only constant mediator. (left) Me and My Friends (detail), Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”

Marek “Bohemus” Kacki, MD: Artist and Physician NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 59


Kacki takes time to focus on the forms and structure he is painting in both an expressionistic and quiet manner. The acrylic painting Depression eloquently expresses the caustic feelings of despair in an homage-to-cubist style. The palette is composed of warm ochres and yellows contrasting with cool greys and blues to create visceral tension that defines the folded figure occupying the center of the canvas.

Kacki had stories to tell of his travels to France where he lived after his residency, Germany where he has frequently visited, and stories of people he has sketched while waiting in lines and just observing. Kacki’s acrylic paintings use colorful depictions of people, often in melancholic contemplation. There is also the photography that Kacki has skillfully created by altering the photos he takes, representing animals such as horses and inanimate objects with patterns. Again, form seems to be a common element in his works across the media that are selected. The background is often black in his photography and demonstrates the stark contrast between the grace and the movement of the focal point against the uncertainty that is before or after it. One thing is certain, though: Kacki is always thinking of his next move in terms of being a doctor, artist, and family man. He is reinventing how the mainstream views aesthetic medicine. He takes time with his patients to fully understand them and provide the most comprehensive level of service.

Studio Aubais (detail), Acrylic on paper, 20” x 16”

He explained that going from something so invasive in the bulk of his career to now has been rewarding because he can see a future of possibilities in his work as a doctor and artist. There are quite some artists out there now who are very meditative in their art where, as with Kacki, balance is an element that is being represented as a theme. But Kacki is not meditative. He is forever thoughtful, and that contemplation is what makes him timeless in what he creates in work and art.

For more information about Dr. Marek Kacki and Visage MedArt, visit www.visagemedart.com.

TOE (Theory of Everything), Acrylic on canvas, 28” x 36”

Memory, Acrylic on canvas, 28” x 36”

The Joker, Acrylic on canvas, 26” x 26”

60 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Depression 2 (detail), Acrylic on paper, 20” x 16”

Together Alone, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 48”

Illusion of Chance, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 56”

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 61


2 · 0 · 1 · 5 photography competition Nashville Arts Magazine announces our sixth annual photography competition. Last year, we saw a stunning array of talent from

local and international photographers both amateur and professional. We can’t wait to see what 2015 brings!

First Place: $500 cash Second Place: $300 Chromatics gift card Third Place: $200 Chromatics gift card Top entries will be featured in the November issue of Nashville Arts Magazine and entrants may be given the opportunity to shoot an assignment

Submissions due: September 30, 2015 · Winners announced: November 2015 $5 per submission: a maximum of 3 high resolution photographs. Send to info@nashvillearts.com.

See www.nashvillearts.com for details. 62 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Art in Formation

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN HOWARD DILLON

Stirrings from the Nashville Underground

by Tony Youngblood

L

ast summer, Jessica Harold conducted an experiment. She sought out concerts and events in genres completely alien to her. She pushed past her comfort zone and looked for environments where she knew no one. The goals were to broaden her horizons, make new connections, and study a problem that had been vexing her: why was it so hard to get people to venture beyond their circle of friends?

Those experiences led her to develop a biannual gathering that would unite the disparate creative groups. She discovered that people could be nudged out of their comfort zones if the larger event incorporated a part of their particular scene. “I figured that it’s easier just to immerse people in a situation where their crowd is still there but they also have the opportunity to mingle with others,” she says.

On November 15, 2014, Harold put her theories to the test with the inaugural Eclipse, a free show that brought together visual artists, fashion designers, musicians, dancers, and poets. The event was a huge success, and on August 28, Harold and crew will stage Eclipse #2 at the Exit/In. This one is themed “Futuristic Minimalist” and will feature, among other things, the bands Girls and Money and Chalaxy, live canvas and body painting, contortionists, fire breathers, aerial silk performers, burlesque and belly dancers, and interactive installations. The key features are a safe, welcoming atmosphere and the potential for connections. “We as a generation have developed our own little countercultures, and we need to be less exclusive about letting people be a part of it,” Harold explains. “At Eclipse you could meet the new bass player for your band, your new business partner for your vegan skincare line, your future best friend/spouse, who knows!”

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SCARPATI

Jessica Harold performs electronic music as Lust and the Black Cat. Learn more about Eclipse at facebook.com/fantasynashville. Tony Youngblood is the founder of the Circuit Benders’ Ball, a biennial celebration of free culture, art, music, and the creative spirit. He created the open-source, multi-artist, scalable “art tunnel” concept called M.A.P.s (ModularArtPods.com) and runs the experimental improv music blog and podcast www.TheatreIntangible.com.


Everett Shinn, Dancers on Stage, c. 1910, Oil on canvas, 18” x 14” 64 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


The Hainsworth Collection How a Nashville couple found more than they were expecting when they began their journey into the visual arts by Sara Lee Burd | Photography by Jerry Atnip

C

ollectors’ homes reveal volumes about the people who live there. Susan and John Hainsworth are avid collectors who pr ior itiz e surrounding themselves with the finer side of life. Walls covered with original works of art, a library and sitting areas filled with thoughtfully placed books, along with an impressive wine cellar nod to the Hainsworths’ respect for skilled, creative, intelligent accomplishment.

weighty names like quintessential American artists Robert Henri and Everett Shinn, seminal painters from the Ashcan School and The Eight known for documenting both the impoverished and cosmopolitan lifest yles of 1900s New York City. Henri’s Isadora Duncan features the famed Modern dancer dramatically poised, semi-nude, and rendered with loose brushstrokes in watercolor, evoking the ephemeral beaut y expressed by her body movement. Shinn’s Dancers on Stage recalls the delight of spectacle at the theatre both on and off the stage by featuring a glimpse of the elegantly dressed audience gazing at the animated performers and also around the room.

Building an art collection has been a journey the couple values. Together they’ve learned to work with dealers, galleries, and auction houses to acquire works that spark their interest. Locally they consult W il liams Gal ler y where the y find that Jim Williams’s extensive knowledge and collection of early American art feeds their need for Susan and John Hainsworth learning, browsing, and buying. To stay informed and help guide his decisions, John reads about the history of art and the goings-on in the art market while Susan finds that she follows her taste and gut feeling. Ultimately however, what takes them from liking a work to taking it home with them is a mutual decision. As John says, “Either one of us has veto power,” which means they both love everything in their home and can share a story about why they decided to acquire it.

Displaying a bit less social commentary, the brightly colored abstract landscape by the post-impressionistic artist Theodore Earl Butler Catskill Clove reveals a flare for the exotic, fauvist style that spread through New York galleries in 1910. In a truly American depiction of mundane yet jubilant spirituality, Lord Heal the Child by Regionalist artist Thomas Hart Benton presents a group of primitively rendered churchgoers set in a dynamic circular composition anchored by a single lantern—perhaps the light of God—shining down on them from the center of the room.

Now, the majority of the works in their collection are mid nineteenth- through mid twentieth-century American Art, primarily from the Hudson River School through the Regionalists. The art on their walls tends toward figures and landscapes, partially because these are the predominant subjects of the period of art they collect, but the collection is hardly monotonous. They enjoy the hunt for

The Hainsworths value the whole experience of art collecting—the rush of finding something and then getting it, bringing it home, and reminiscing about the unique story behind each image. Sure, they’d love to own a Sargent, Whistler, or Cassatt, but while they aren’t ready to make that investment yet, John posits, “I’d like to have a work of art rather than buy a Mercedes.” Susan concludes, “Art’s spiritual . . . it transcends . . . that’s why I buy art and have it around my house.” With those attitudes, they will no doubt continue to grow their collection in tandem with their connection to each other.

Their common interest in art has brought a great amount of fun to their marriage. Even as newlyweds, they enjoyed traveling and going to museums in new cities, but they have developed a great appreciation for the act of buying art. Susan says about the beginnings of their journey, “When we got married we would have bought a painting rather than a piece of furniture . . . or just about anything else.” The first big splurge the couple made was moving from purchasing prints to oil paintings. They made that leap with two small Sherrie McGraw oil-on-canvas works they purchased in Santa Fe, followed by Ed Mell’s Monument Storm. The appeal of meeting contemporary artists and discussing the art-making process fascinated them, but after buying a few more contemporary works, they switched to buying historical art.

The couple celebrates all the art that comes into their home and takes pleasure in welcoming additions to the collection. Selecting where each artwork is going to reside is a carefully considered process, and once installed, the work rarely moves. They enjoy seeing their art in particular places; always there to greet and perhaps ground them as they pass. As Susan reflects, “We loaned our collection to a traveling exhibition, and when the movers took the art away, there was no soul left, no heart. All that was left was all just stuff. The art is part of the personality of the home, and they are good company.”

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 65


Carl Gordon Cutler, La Mansarde (The Attic), Oil on canvas, 51” x 38”

Joseph Vorst, Weighing Cotton, Oil on board, 48” x 46”

Leo Blake, Autumn Harvest, Oil on canvas, 28” x 32” 66 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Ed Mell, Monument Storm, 2010, Oil on linen, 30” x 40”

Robert Henri, Isadora Duncan, 1915, Watercolor, 12” x 8”

Thomas Hart Benton, Lord Heal the Child, Oil on canvas, 12” x 17”

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 67


TOP PICKS

2015

Summer is ushering in new trends. Here are a few favorites & new arrivals, sure will end up in some of HOTTEST HOMES!

styles and of Keith's which I'm Nashville's

Stunning Antique Hand Forged Panel 33.5" Sq. $755

Vintage Industrial Foundr y Patter n 54" h, St Louis, MO $875

A n t i q u e Te r r a Cotta Blocks St Louis, MO 9.25" x 10" $75 Ea.

. N A S H V I L L E 6 1 5 . 3 5 0 . 6 6 5 5 W W W . G A R D E N P A R K . C O M

presenting sponsor

september

18-20, 2015

tpac’s jackson hall

$5 OFF

*

tickets

THROUGH AUGUST use promo code TINKERBELL

TtIiCcKkEeTtSs A aTtWwWwWw. N . nAaS sHhVvI Li lLlEeBbAaLlLlEeTt. C. cOoMm OoRr AaTt ( (661 1 5 )5 )778822- -44004400 * *RRees st tr ri icct ti ioonnss

mmaayy aappppl lyy

purchase season SsAaVvEe EeVvEeNn MmOoRrEe WwHhEeNn Y yOoUuP U RCHASE SEASON

( 6( 1651)5 2) 9279- 72 -926966 X6 7x 1701 0

tickets by calling

TICK ETS BY CA LLING

presenting sponsors:


NEW CONSTRUCTION

SOLD

SOLD

4220 WALLACE LANE GREEN HILLS $1,595,000

4105 A LONE OAK RD. GREEN HILLS $644,900

30 acres in forest hills

NEW CONSTRUCTION

NEW PRICE

1608 CHICKERING ROAD $10,900,000 1608 ChiCkering road CALL HAL FOR DETAILS $10,900,000 ON THIS UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

s 00

Com

4105 B LONE OAK RD. GREEN HILLS $628,900

Call Hal for details on tHis unique opportunity

30 acres in forest hill

SOLD OUT

BELLEVUE LOTS Just listed $119,900 $129,900 act Coronada sold bellevue lots NATCHEZPOINTEINFO.COM $119,900 - $129,900 $215,000 5890 east ashland drive

od

105 holly forest

hill e

forest hills $750,000

natCHezpointeinfo.Com

1608 ChiCkering roa $10,900,000

Call Hal for details on tHis unique opportuni

HAL ROSSON

615-271-2705 Representing Real Estate Buyers and Sellers Since 1971 halrosson@freemanwebb.com • www.halrosson.com


Lemke van Dijk, Untitled, 2015, Graphite​, Dimensions variable

Therely Bare Redux

Traveling exhibit of local and international artists Zeitgeist • Through August 29 by Cat Acree

T

he laws of physics, small acts of kindness, great music—these are the universal languages. In the same way, there is a unique f reedom that comes with viewing non-objective art, works that exist just to be looked at, separate from any metaphor. What you see is what you get. That’s the unique power behind Therely Bare Redux, the traveling show of non-objective paintings, which comes to Zeitgeist this August.

In what began as an online conversation via blogs and websites, eighteen accomplished artists from seven countries translate their digital dialogue into non-objective, geometric art for the physical world. Simply enough, the name Therely Bare Redux, reveals everything a viewer needs to know before seeing the show. “It’s a playful hint to the reductivist nature of the work we’re showing,” explains artist John Tallman, one of the curators of the show along with

Christoph Dahlhausen, Ich mag Linsengerichte XVII (I Like Lentils XVII), 2015, Photography lenses, 10” x 8” x 4”

70 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Guido Winkler and Lemke van Dijk. “Many people look at it, and see it’s more about what the artists choose not to put.”

There’s no excess chatter here. It’s barely there. “It’s about the playful and subversive nature of the show, looking at different aspects of painting and turning those on their ear.”

Another way to put it is that the “work is hiding in plain sight.” It’s more concrete and present physically than conceptually. The motivations are obscured, while the paint, the shape, the wall it’s hanging on—these are the focus for the viewer.

Guido Winkler, Untitled, 2015, Latex wall paint, Dimensions variable

abstract, white-on-white paintings demonstrated a fundamental quest for pictorial expression, focusing on brushwork, surfaces, and materials. As with the artists in Therely Bare Redux, Ryman’s art meant only as much as the eye could perceive.

Says Tallman, “Throughout history, a lot of these contemporary artists have Southern roots . . . whether it’s Jasper Johns or Robert Rauschenberg. I think Nashville’s a really great place to share the work and get it out there.”

Therely Bare Redux will be on exhibit at Zeitgeist through August 29. An opening reception will be held on August 1 from 6 to 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.zeitgeist-art.com.

Mel Prest, Sitka Diamond, 2015, Acrylic on panel, 28” x 22” x 2”

Fresh from its showings in Amsterdam and Athens, Greece, the Nashville leg of Therely Bare Redux will not only feature updates from artists who toured in the first Therely Bare show in 2011, but will introduce ten more artists. Displaying a vast range of styles, participating artists include Americans John Tallman, Kate Beck, Kevin Finklea, Jeffrey Corland Jones, Lorri Ott, Mel Prest, Ken Weathersby, Douglas Witmer, and Lain York; Kwangyup Cheon from Korea; Christoph Dahlhausen from Denmark; Australians Billy Gruner and Richard Van Der Aa; Clary Stolte, Guido Winkler, and Lemke van Dijk from Laiden, Netherlands, and more.

“The nature of the work is international,” says Tallman. “It’s kind of anti-local. … At the same time some of the artists definitely pull [from] local influences, but it really doesn’t define the work. It’s really exciting to be part of something that is this international language, that [is made] possible through things like Facebook and social media. It would’ve been possible ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, but not on this scale.” Therely Bare Redux’s presence in Nashville has special significance, specifically in its connection to Robert Ryman, the auditorium’s namesake. Ryman was an American painter whose minimalist,

Simon Ingram, 2015, Untitled, Mixed media on canvas, 22” x 22”

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 71


EV NIEWOEHNER “Musical iMages”

An exhibition to benefit the

NASHVILLE JAZZ WORKSHOP 1319 Adams St., Nashville

Artist Reception: Sunday, August 23, 2–4 p.m.

EvNiewoehner_0815.indd 1

7/14/15 2:57 PM

Our Rugs Can Transform Your Home RUG TENT SALE

Cool Springs Galleria (The BIG WHITE TENT near Macy’s) 1800 Galleria Blvd, Franklin, TN 37067

17 July - 30 August

Opens Daily at 10 am

Rugs To Go!

(800) 505-7795 www.rugartsale.com facebook.com/rugstogo

72 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


SATURD

FRIDAY,

AUGUSTAY, 8

AUGUST 7

TOMATO ART FESTIVAL

TOMATO ART FEST CONCERT 2015

PRESENTED BY:

presented by

nashville, tenn.

SEPTEMBER

15-20

East NASHVILLE

Family Medicine

2015

www.americanamusic.org

MEDIA PARTNER:


In 1994 A Car Chase Happened That Had The Effect Of An Immobility Spell On Our Neighborhood And Also The Whole Country. We Were Mesmerized And It Was Terrifying., 2015, Acrylic and pencil on wood, 18” x 24”

Andrea Heimer Brings Suburban Montana to Nashville CG2 • August 1 through 28

by Erica Ciccarone

A

ndrea Joyce Heimer’s paintings hum with commotion, mixing mundane occurrences of suburban life with occult imagery and magical messages. She paints a world of séances and block parties, orgies and barbeques, healing waterfalls and slumber parties, all of them creating a personal mythology based on her childhood in a suburban Montana neighborhood. The Washington-based artist is as much a storyteller as she is a painter. She was adopted as a baby and says she felt like an outsider growing up in her home. She became observant, always looking out into her immediate world for kinship and understanding. “I paint about connections with other people and the magic in that,” she says. Her work reflects a childlike perspective that is as knowing as it is naive. Like all children, she filled in gaps of understanding with her own limited knowledge and a bit of imagination. She gives her paintings long narrative titles that also reflect both the familiarity and the magical realism of her work. Some viewers will instantly identify with a title like As Young Girls So Much Of Our Adolescent

You Gave Me Away When I Was Born. This Is True Whether I Am Lost In The Forrest, Wading In The Ocean, or Walking Through The Zoo. I Still Look For You, Do You Look For Me?, 2015, Acrylic and pencil on wood, 16” x 20”

74 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


As Young Girls So Much Of Our Adolescent Power Was Spent Willing The Phone To Ring, And When It Did It Seemed The Whole Universe Had Sweetly Tuned Itself To Our Wants, And When It Didn’t It Seemed The Blackness of Space Would Forever Conspire Against Us., 2015, Acrylic and pencil on wood, 12” x 12”

We Were Not Rich But We Were Not Poor. In Junior High I Met Children Who Lived Eight To A Small House. When I Imagined Them Living On Top Of Each Other In Such Close Quarters I Could Never Decide If That Kind Of Closeness Was A Comfort Or A Snare, And I Suppose I had No Business Imagining Either One., 2015, Acrylic and pencil on wood, 12” x 12”

Power Was Spent Willing The Phone To Ring, And When It Did It Seemed The Whole Universe Had Sweetly Tuned Itself To Our Wants, And When It Didn’t It Seemed The Blackness of Space Would Forever Conspire Against Us. Other paintings read more like science fiction or occult literature: The Spaceman Would Not Let Her Come With Him, Nor Would He Stay.

us of how our memories wrap around events and contort them, exaggerating some details while jettisoning others. The results are rich with color and detail. Wallpaper and bed sheets have detailed patterns like tiny dancing couples, little teddy bears holding two balloons, or swirling tornadoes. These often suggest the theme of the painting. It’s these details that make Heimer’s work such a treat. There is something obsessive and lonel y in them; the visual clutter produces an anxiety in already absurdist scenes.

And herein lies a huge draw f o r h e r w o r k . H e i m e r ’s sense of isolation permeates her paintings. The narrator is almost always on the periphery, removed from the The lack of lineal perspective commotion. This distance draws attention to a theme in sometimes drops away in her critique of suburban life: startling ways as she plainly what’s on the surface may not expresses something deep and be what’s really going on. For difficult about her experiences. example, Heimer doesn’t shy Again, you find it in the titles: away from issues of race in You Gave Me Away When I Was her work. She depicts Black Born. This Is True Whether I families and American Indian Am Lost In The Forrest, Wading peoples regularly. “I grew up in In The Ocean, Or Walking In Montana, and there wasn’t a lot The Zoo. I Still Look For You, Do You Look For Me? In this The Bad Boys Of The Neighborhood Held Court At Maple Park And In The Spring of racial diversity. We didn’t have a lot of Black people, but there painting, men and women When The Flowers Bloomed We Made Them Magnolia Crowns To Wear As They were tons of Native Americans stand on a hillside at sunset, Ignored Us. We Loved Them Fiercely., 2015, Acrylic/pencil on wood, 18” x 24” and many of them lived on reservations. They live over there, and we occupied with their own small affairs. The narrator is not present, but live over here. I was always uncomfortable with that,” she says. This is the feeling of deep grief and isolation is palpable. just one example of social mores that are played out in her paintings, Heimer abandons photorealism for a form that is much more bringing depth and intentionality to otherwise innocuous scenes. true to the way memory works. She made the choice early on to eschew perspective: the figures in her paintings don’t cast shadows, very little is drawn to scale, and there’s an overall lack of physical depth. This doesn’t render as a pictorial naiveté but rather reminds

See Andrea Heimer’s work at CG2 August 1 through 28. A reception for Recent Works will be held August 1 from 6 to 9 p.m. For more information visit www.cg2gallery.com.

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 75


DRAWING CLOSER INK & WOOD DENISE SANABRIA ELLEN WIENER LB THOMPSON September 1–October 2, 2015

LOCATED ON THE MAIN FLOOR OF SARRATT STUDENT CENTER AT 2301 VANDERBILT PLACE, NASHVILLE TN 37235 Visit us 7 days a week from 9 a.m–9 p.m. during the academic year. Summer and holiday schedule hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattart

Absolute Auction

Sarratt_0815.indd 1

7/8/15 10:18 AM

Complete framing inventory of Lyzon Art Gallery of Nashville moulding/framing equipment/tools & more!

Saturday, auguSt 8, 2015 10 am cSt (Selling onSite) preview at 9 am cSt day of Sale

411 W. Thompson Lane • Nashville, TN 37211

Special friday night viewing auguSt 7, 2015, 5 pm–7 pm cSt

Join Music City Auction as we sell at ABSOLUTE AUCTION the complete inventory of Lyzon Art Gallery of Nashville, TN. Since 1948, this iconic business has provided framing and art services to the Southeast and beyond. We are selling 1000s of feet of picture moulding and frames, along with framing equipment, tools, office furniture & more! All items will be sold with NO RESERVE! This is a “must attend” event for any person or business who values the art of framing.

For complete details and information, visit our website www.musiccityauction.net or call 615.335.6261 10% Net Buyer’s Premium • David Allen, Auctioneer, #5600 • Music City Auction, #4976 All announcements made Day of Sale take precedent over any previous written, oral, or electronic announcements. 76 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


114 Sunset Ridge, WaterColor Offered at $1,049,000

214 Spartina Circle, WaterColor Offered at $1,249,000

372 Red Cedar Way, WaterColor Offered at $1,395,000

Your Nashville Connection to 30A and the Emerald Coast Chip Peay and Linda Campbell 615-804-8071 • 850-660-1830 ChipPeay@gmail.com Linda@lindasales30a.com www.ChipPeay.com

under contract

29 Royal Fern, WaterColor Offered at $1,574,990

286 Pine Needle Way, WaterColor Offered at $1,699,000

335 Needlerush Lane, WaterColor Offered at $2,595,000

198 E. Okeechobee, Forest Lakes Offered at $649,990

85 Pine Needle Way WaterColor SOLD

57 Dunmore Town Lane, Rosemary Beach, Offered at $2,150,000


Artist Cano Ozgener Releases New Book PHOTOGRAPH BY HOLLIS BENNETT

“Fighting for your existence can drive you deep down to the bottom of your soul, where the truth of “to be or not to be” will find you. There you will also find art—all kinds of art! And you can also find the truth that art will invigorate your soul and help your physical and mental fight. I know. I was there!” Cano Ozgener writes in his introduction, entitled “Life Made Me An Artist . . . At Age Seventy,” to his newly released book Cano Ozgener.

The high-end 144-page coffee table book features first-class reproductions of his work in eight categorical chapters. Each begins with narrative by Ozgener, which is at times alternately serious, nostalgic, profound, grateful, and lighthearted. While the book is not an autobiography, it visits phases of his life in both text and art. “Pi Synesthesia” features Cano’s work based on the artistic expression of the mathematical

constant Pi, a concept he created based on number synesthesia. Illustrating the convergence of his engineering background and his artistic passions, the series includes paintings, installations, wood sculpture, mosaic, silkscreen, and je welr y. The chapter “Nostalgia” begins with the artist’s description of his experience of the “golden

NeLLie Jo

The Old Church Closed

Photography by Nellie Jo Rainer

2187 Hillsboro Road, Suite 401 Franklin, TN 37069 • 615-519-0258

78 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

period” of Istanbul after World Wars I and II and shows paintings of the scenery and peoples of a place that was once home.

Cano Ozgener is available at OZ Arts Nashville and at www.OZArtsNashville.org and www.CanoOzgener.com. Ozgener will sign books purchased at OZ Arts Nashville. To read Nashville Arts Magazine’s feature on Cano Ozgener, visit www.nashvillearts.com.

MICHAEL MCCONNELL DOMESTICITY

AUGUST 1-29

444 Humphreys St. Nashville, TN 37203 615-336-7773 • www.JuliaMartinGallery.com


PRES EN T I N G S PON S OR

P L ATIN UM SP O N SO R

GO L D SP O NSO RS

SILVE R SP O NSO R

HO SP ITA LITY SP O NSO R

ANNE & J O E R USSE LL DOW N TOW N N ASH VI LLE

EX HIB ITION ORGANIZED B Y THE VICTORIA A ND ALB ERT MUSEUM, LOND ON.

T HE F R I S T CENT ER F O R T HE VI S UAL ART S I S S UPPO RT ED I N PART B Y

9 19 B ROA DWAY | F R I ST C EN T ER . O R G Photograph by Gian Paolo Barbieri for Gianfranco Ferré Advertisement, Fall/Winter 1991. Model: Aly Dunne. © GIANPAOLOBARBIERI


A N D Y

Purple Line series, Mixed media, 4’ x 2’

Line series, Mixed media, 4’ x 3’

The Celebrated Painter Calls Both Nashville and L.A. Home

U

by Brittany Greenquist

Arrangement series (detail), Mixed media, 3’ x 2’

pon entering Andy Anh Ha’s 5th Avenue gallery, you’re immediately submerged in the subtle yet colorful displays adorning each wall. The originality that radiates from Ha’s pieces is something no camera shutter could accurately capture. The young artist from Nashville, Tennessee, has a unique aesthetic that he has adapted through years of experimentation, and it must be surveyed face to face.

80 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


ANH HA

Up close, Ha’s work is overflowing with detail—from an unknown fusion of acrylics and oils to thick layers of high gloss that give the illusion that each piece is encased in glass. What’s perhaps most intriguing is Andy’s use of hand-built wooden boxes instead of canvas. He explains what sparked the unusual concept: “My first commission painting was a 4 x 6-foot city scene of Nashville. I didn’t have the funds to buy or stretch my own canvas at that size . . . I thought about my high school years and my summer job framing houses and went to my local lumber yard. It’s all about being resourceful. And that was the beginning of my overall look with the wood boxes.”

driving force. He says the artist wants those who appreciate his work to afford it, saying, “He is very humble, and I respect that.” Along with Ha’s humility comes a strong appreciation for his childhood and culture. His parents are Vietnam refugees who came to Tennessee in 1980 with the help of a man named Harold Whetstone. Ha was raised in Music City and later graduated with a bachelor’s in fine arts from the University of Tennessee.

The artistic encouragement he received while growing up inspired him to keep going, and he eventually moved to California, where he currently resides. However, Nashville will remain the city that made him who he his.

Andy Anh Ha’s showroom in the Arcade, downtown Nashville

Ha’s effortless combination of “modern but traditional” style is captivating, and it’s easy to see why members of Hollywood and the international community are just as enthralled. His work has been purchased by the likes of Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, and Amr Abdullah Al-Dabbagh, and has caught the attention of judges. In the last few years, he’s won at least a dozen awards at prestigious events, including the Gil Gorbos Award for Most Original at the Beverly Hills Affaire in the Gardens. However, speaking with Andy one would remain unaware of such accolades—the artist is pure humility. Jack Bloom, Gallery of Andy Anh Ha Art Rep, explains that Andy’s passion has always been the

“I believe in Nashville. I think we have more hidden creativity than any other city I have visited. Nashville is heading in the right direction. I just want to be a part of it.”

Andy continues to display his work in the Nashville gallery, as well as others throughout California. His work can also be seen at the festivals and shows he attends nationwide, where he hopes patrons glean the creative simplicity of his art. “Enjoy my work; take it as it is, and see it again tomorrow.” To se e m o re o f An d y ’s wo r k , pl ea s e vis it his web s ite www.andyanhha.com or call to set a gallery appointment.

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 81


Susan DeMay, Gold Art Deco vase

(above) Chery Cratty, Golden Raintrees, Pulp painting (below) C. Michael Robison, Carved clay vessel

Exhibition Celebrates 50 Years of Craft in Tennessee Centennial Art Center August 7 through September 25 by Rebecca Pierce

T

his year Centennial Art Center’s exhibit of work by Tennessee Craft members honors the 50th anniversary of the organization with an extensive and diverse showing of art and craft from across the state. A prelude to the Tennessee Craft Fall Festival, which begins September 25, the exhibition includes a wide range of media such as contemporary fiber art,

Anne Freels, Frida Kahlo, Cornhusk and mixed media

Sarah Brobst, Clockwork 2, Mixed media

tapestry, clay, sculpture, mixed media, and oil painting. The indoor venue gives members who might not be able to participate in the outdoor craft fair, because of the fragility of their work or exposure to the elements, a chance to showcase their art. The exhibit features work by 12 artists from four of the state’s chapters of Tennessee Craft. Each chapter juried in three of their members. Susan DeMay, Deb Tuggle, and Chery Cratty will represent the Plateau Chapter. Tennessee Craft Southwest voted in Brandy Boyd, Pat Moody, and Marilyn League. Artists from the Midstate Chapter are Pam Simmons, Jonathan Griffith, and Susi Graves. Tennessee Craft East selected Anne Freels, C. Michael Robison, and Sarah Brobst. “Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Tennessee Craft at Metro Parks’ Centennial Art Center with a statewide exhibit of artists and artisans brings the relationship between these two organizations full circle. In 1972, the first annual Tennessee Crafts Fair was hosted in Centennial Park around the courtyard of the then-new Centennial Art Center. Tennessee Craft’s spring and fall fairs have grown so large and successful they now take place on the great lawn towards the front of the park. Hosting this exhibit in the Art Center’s gallery brings Tennessee Craft back to its roots,” Joshua Wagner, Gallery Manager of Centennial Art Center, explained. The Tennessee Craft Annual Juried Exhibit opens with a reception on Friday, August 7, from 5 until 7 p.m. at Metro Parks’ Centennial Art Center on the northwest corner of Centennial Park, 301 25th Avenue North. The show closes with a gathering on the first evening of the Tennessee Craft Fall Fair on September 25 from 6 until 9 p.m. For more information visit www.nashville.gov and www.tennesseecraft.org.

82 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Advice from an Arts Patron by Sandra Lipman, board member of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville and long-time community volunteer

A

rt encompasses an enormous part of our lives. It is like peering through a kaleidoscope with ever-changing prisms of shapes and delicious colors. It permeates through everything we do, everything we see, our food, the clothes we wear, our jobs, sports, commerce, entertainment, our schools, our city, our culture, our existence. Without artists weaving the tapestry comprising our everyday lives, I question . . . what would life look like? As a lifelong arts supporter, I often discover new artists and the vibrancy they bring through their partnerships.

One way our Nashville artists can enlarge their scope and customer base is by partnering with a local company, bank, corporation, or foundation. For instance, The Lipman Group Sotheby’s International Realty has been hosting “Visiting Artist Series” twice a year since 2012. A local artist is chosen by the management team to display his or her work throughout the office space for an evening of art, hors d’oeuvres, music, and libations. These events are publicized and open to clients as well as the public. They give the artists a chance not only to display their craft but to sell their work and become known to a wider audience. Additionally, a portion of the proceeds from the sales is donated to a local charity by the company. Another opportunity is to partner with a non-profit that aligns itself with the artist’s values and desire to exhibit his/her work to a larger population. A great example is Nashville Ballet, no stranger to masterful, dramatic, and amazing collaborations. With the grand opening of a new building in May, the Facilities Committee wants to ensure the large spaces within and outside the building are appointed with diverse and meaningful artistic installations on the walls, ceilings, and floors to reflect the talent of local Nashville artists. The Ballet in collaboration with the Arts & Business Council is coming up with a proposed design plan to engage artists to participate in “decorating” the space for all arts enthusiasts to enjoy and experience. These are two inspiring examples of collaboration between artists, company, and non-profit that equals a win-win for all!

For more information about the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville, visit www.abcnashville.org.

Hands, Hills, Houses, 12” x 16”

Jim Sherraden

JIM SHERRADEN: PERSONAL WOODCUTS JULY 3 – AUGUST 8 CLOSING RECEPTION SATURDAY, AUGUST 1 • 6:00 – 9:00 pm

HALEY GALLERY

#SherradenWoodcuts @hatchshowprint Downtown Nashville

615.577.7711

Visit HatchShowPrint.com for more information.


Gregg Allman

Allman Brothers co-founder plays on, set to release new live album on August 7 by Adam Wolnski | Photograph by Patricia O’Driscoll

L

aid back. It’s the name of Gregg Allman’s debut solo album, the name of the music festival he helped produce, and an overall summary of his personality. He helped create the genre of Southern Rock with his brother, Duane, in the Allman Brothers, and if you haven’t kept up with him since then, you may have thought he joined the ranks of washed-up old rock stars whittling away time in their mansions. Not Gregg. Ever since recovering from multiple surgeries and from the repercussions of his rock star lifestyle, he’s back on tour, juicing every day and singing just as beautifully as ever. Gregg Allman Live: Back to Macon, GA is set to release on August 7 and is packed with hits, new material, and the iconic Allman feel. Besides the occasional adoring yells from the audience and extended solos, it’s hard to tell sometimes that the album was recorded live. The Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East is widely regarded as the greatest live album of all time, and Gregg Allman proudly survives his brother as a continuation of that legacy. Nashville Arts Magazine (NAM): What does Nashville mean to you? GA: The Music City; wonderful place, man. Me and my brother were both born there, and even after our mother moved us down to Daytona Beach when I was in fifth grade, we would still spend the summers up there as kids, visiting our grandmother and uncles. I will always hold Nashville near and dear to my heart. NAM: So what are some good times you had here when you were young? GA: Oh man, I have several, and they were life changing. When I

was 12 years old, my brother and I went to the Nashville Municipal Auditorium to see what they called a revue, which was a bunch of different acts doing about five songs each. We sat way, way up in the cheap seats, and we were just blown away by what we saw. Jackie Wilson was the headliner, but I’ll never forget Otis Redding. He was a huge man, and he just owned the stage. That music hit us like a ton of bricks, man; we were mesmerized. I remember my brother turning to me and saying, “We’ve gotta be part of this, little brother,” and that’s when it all started. NAM: Music seems to have always been in your life. Is playing music all you ever wanted to do?

GA: From the very beginning when my brother and I first started playing music up until the first few years of the Allman Brothers, I was the Doubting Thomas of the organization. I was always threatening to quit and go back to school to become a dental surgeon. Dental

surgery was something that had interested me in school, but my brother wouldn’t hear of it. He always believed that we were going to be successful; he never wavered for one second, so there was no way in hell that Duane would have let me quit. Because of him I never got the chance to find out if I could have been a good dental surgeon, and I’m very happy about that! NAM: You still have such a great voice after years of touring and living life as a rock star. How have you taken care of your pipes?

GA: The best thing I ever did was quit smoking; I abused my throat for years with cigarettes. I tell anyone who wants to be a singer to never smoke, and if you do, quit right now. We don’t do three shows in a row any more, which helps save my voice, and I gargle with hot water in the shower every day. But let me tell you, there’s one thing that works wonders for your throat, and that’s a good night’s sleep. When I get a long, deep sleep the night before a show, I can really bust it out, man. NAM: The live recording sounds so tight. Have you been playing with the same guys for a while?

GA: I’ve got a kick-ass band, boy; it’s one of the best line-ups I’ve ever played with. The veterans of the group are Scott Sharrard on guitar, Jay Collins on sax, and Steve Potts on drums; they’ve been with me for a while now. The “newer” guys are Peter Levin, who has played keyboards for Levon Helm, while Ron Johnson has played bass with Warren Haynes. People will recognize percussionist Marc Quinones from the Allman Brothers, and about a year or so ago Art Edmaiston and Marc Franklin joined Jay to give us a killer horn trio. Man, we hit that stage and just smoke it for two hours. NAM: Why did you choose Macon, Georgia for the live album?

GA: Macon is a very, very special place for me. The Brothers were formed there, and I have many great memories of our time there. The Opera House is a beautiful venue, and one of the best-sounding halls I’ve ever played in, so for a lot of reasons it just felt right recording that show in Macon. What a night it was, too. I’m very proud of Back to Macon, and I think people will really enjoy listening to it. NAM: Between shows and interviews and rubber on the road, what do you eat on tour?

GA: My diet has changed quite a bit over the last few years—and for the better, I might add. I’m gluten free, and I’m a big believer in juicing; I juice every day now. Kale, carrots, beets, celery—and the most important ingredients, two Granny Smith apples. Kale juice is pretty nasty stuff, boy, so those Granny Smith apples are the key to swallowing the whole concoction. After a week of juicing, you feel like a whole new person.

84 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


NAM: You have the Laid Back Festival coming up. Who came up with the idea?

NAM: You’ve done so much, but you don’t seem to be slowing down. What does the future look like?

GA: Michael Lehman, my manager, came to me with the idea, and I loved it, man. I’ve had direct, hands-on involvement with it, and we’ve put together one hell of a lineup. We’ve got my band, the Doobie Brothers, Bruce Hornsby, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, and some other acts as well. We’re holding it at Jones Beach out on Long Island, which is a beautiful setting. I love how the back of the stage is right over the water. There’ll be plenty of wonderful food and drinks from local restaurants, and the music will be outta sight. It will be a great place to spend the day, and I’m very, very excited about the Laid Back Festival.

GA: Couldn’t look better, man. I’m feeling great, and I’m very, very happy right now doing what I’m doing. I’m hoping to go into the studio at the end of the year and work with Don Was on a new solo album. Don is a major talent, and I’m looking forward to recording with him. If I have it my way, I’ll play music right up to the day I die. That would be the best way for me to go out.

Preorder Gregg Allman Live: Back To Macon, GA CD/DVD on Amazon or at your local record store August 7.

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 85


Rock on Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson and his wife, Alison, create a music program, Rock Your Speech, to help children with autism — including their own son, Liam. 86 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


I

by Michael Dukes | Photography by Rory White

t all started at 30,000 feet, when Alison Petersson casually turned the page of an in-flight magazine. Her eyes landed on a short piece about an autistic child. As she read on, the details sounded strikingly familiar.

“Our son Liam was 18 months old,” Alison recalls. “Something clicked when I saw that article. It described this kid, and it sounded an awful lot like Liam. Suddenly I had tears streaming down my face. Because I just knew. Immediately I became obsessed with learning everything about autism. I’d stay up all night on the computer researching.”

As time went by, Liam continued to develop. But even at 18 months, the language connection still wasn’t happening. That’s where Elton John enters the story.

“Then we had our aha moment. We were sitting down to watch Liam’s favorite show, Dancing with the Stars. The music started, and the singers would do this thing that was syllables but not words. And Liam did it right along with them. I said to Tom, ‘I know why he did that. Because it’s so simple and he doesn’t have to process words.’ ”

“We always have music playing around the house. We’re a music family,” says Tom. “Well, one day, out of the blue, this song comes on—‘Blue Eyes’ by Elton John—and Liam just latches onto it. He played it all the time, to the point that it became a family joke. And he’d pick up on the words. He’d say ‘eye’ and he’d point to his eye. Soon he was doing the same thing with songs like ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.’ ” The Peterssons began focusing on intensive speech therapy at home. “A therapist would come in, and I’d sit there and watch,” says Alison. “It was fascinating, the way they would break a word down to its individual sounds. They’d play little games. But there were years of this before it started to work. He was five before we really started to get language out of him.

Liam Petersson and his sister, Lilah

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 87


Tom knew what to do next. “I really love recording. I love writing songs. That’s been the whole thing with Cheap Trick. We do stuff for our own enjoyment, and if people like it, then great. But we don’t follow trends; we just do what we think sounds good. I’ve always got tons of song ideas. It just made sense to do something for Liam.” “We thought maybe we could go beyond speech sounds to simple words,” Alison continues. “So I started keeping a journal of words that were practical for me as a mom. Words he’d use in real life.”

Tom: “I asked Alison to show me the journal. And it’s funny; a lot of the words were already Beatles songs, which makes sense. Their stuff tends to be so simple and accessible. So the idea became to make something we like to listen to, but that has this simple thing happening within it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be for kids.

“Then I’m in the studio, and I had this cool riff, and that became “What’s Your Name?” Liam was in ecstasy when he heard it. Singing along, responding. And the next thing you know, we’re out in a grocery store, and he actually starts asking people, what’s your name? It was unbelievable.”

Since then, Rock Your Speech has ballooned into fourteen finished tracks and a video, with a growing collection of high-profile musician friends coming on board. “We’ve poured our heart and soul into doing this for a couple of years now,” Alison explains. “We could have put a record out a year ago. But instead we’re asking, how can we do something beyond just an album?

“The dream is to make a package of downloadable content available to parents and music therapists. Ben Folds put us in touch with Maegan Morrow, who’s a music therapy rock star. Maegan has become a good friend. She’s been talking to people in her world about the work we’re doing, and it looks like we’ll be presenting at the American Music Therapy conference in November.” In the meantime, Rock Your Speech is launching a PledgeMusic campaign aimed at building momentum. “It’s great to feel like you’re doing something with meaning behind it. And the timing is really good on all of this,” Tom adds. “The idea of using music for healing is not new, but insurance companies paying for it, that’s new. There’s a lot of research happening. It’s a new frontier.”

Learn more about Rock Your Speech and get involved at www.rockyourspeech.com and www.pledgemusic.com/rockyourspeech.

88 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


“I love writing songs. That’s been the whole thing with Cheap Trick. I’ve always got tons of song ideas. It just made sense to do something for Liam.” —Tom Petersson

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 89


Film Review Robin Williams in Boulevard

Robin Williams’s Final Film, Boulevard, Comes to Belcourt Belcourt Theater • August 7–13 by Justin Stokes

T

rapped in a loveless life, Nolan (Robin Williams) takes the long way home while leaving his bank job one night. Meeting a male prostitute (Roberto Aguire), Nolan strikes up a friendship with the young man. Is Nolan looking for another friend? Or something much more, not offered in the grind of his daily life?

Nashville Japanese Film Festival 2015 August 28-30, 2015 Friday, August 28

6:00 PM • Reception (Ticketed Reservations Only) 7:30 PM • The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness* $10

Saturday, August 29

11:00 AM • Ramen Samurai* - Free 1:30 PM • Mourning Recipe - Free 4:00 PM • Tale of Samurai Cooking* - Free 6:30 PM • Uzumasa Limelight $10

Sunday, August 30

Screenings at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film

For information and tickets: NashvilleJapaneseFilmFestival.org With the support of:

1:00 PM • The God of Ramen - Free 3:00 PM • Kasamayaki $10 5:00 PM • Shady $10

*Family friendly film

The last film from the legendary Robin Williams, Boulevard is the locally sourced production that comes to us from Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Fighting), who brings a few things to the table for viewers. The rest of the film’s cast includes Bob Odenkirk and Kathy Baker, who have no problem matching talent with Williams, who is questioning the paths of his existence throughout the entire film.

1932–2012 ®

The implications of Boulevard being set in Nashville (instead of being made in Nashville) cue the invisible character of the Bible Belt and an unseen force judging every moral infraction, as if the guilt were building for the players involved. This plays nicely into the theme, making this film a mile marker for the LGBT community. Montiel’s story takes issues that are “gay,” branches them out to a wider audience pool, and tells a story neither gay nor straight but about people. The label of being Williams’s last film warps the reality of the film with what it “should be,” like a funhouse mirror. This is a movie about the dangers of living passively. It would be out of line for the story to have a protagonist who is larger than life, as those characters don’t dwell within the gray. It’s a reliable introduction to social issues without chaining itself to clichés, and an encouraging protest to pursue life without the blockade of worrying about anyone else.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTY SIMMONS

Boulevard will screen at the Belcourt Theatre August 7–13. For tickets and other information, be sure to visit www.belcourt.org. Justin Stokes is the founder of the MTSU Film Guild, a student organization which functions as a production company for student filmmakers. He is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and social media manager.

48” x 48”

mixed media

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

90 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


S U M M I T Proper ty Management

FOR LEASE

600 12th Avenue South, #836 MLS# 1652170 $3,498/month

600 12th Avenue South, #820 MLS# 1645398 $3,095/month

2041 Overhill Drive, #201 MLS# 1637731 $2,950/month

2600 Hillsboro Pike, #105 MLS# 1639512 $2,750/month

700 12th Avenue South, #1110 MLS# 1652146 $2,495/month

415 Church Street, #1803 MLS# 1652107 $1,995/month

309 Church Street, #106 MLS# 1651064 $1,495/month

2115 Yeaman Place, #414 MLS# 1651178 $1,295/month

Cory Willms, Principal Broker 209 10th Ave. S., Ste. 235 • Nashville, TN 37203 O: 615-457-2643 • E: Cory@SummitNashville.com • www.summitnashville.com


Japanese Film Festival Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film August 28–30

by Logan Halsey

C

reative values in Japan have long been defined by intense and lifelong spiritual devotion to craft, an unwavering intensity and permanence of intent, which stands in stark contrast to their aesthetic value of representing wabi-sabi, the beauty of impermanence and imperfection. It is an unwavering devotion to that which wavers. The selection for the 2015 Nashville Japanese Film Festival features eight films that explore and celebrate this aesthetic through drama, comedy, documentary, and martial-arts action alike. The films are united by their representation of the transience of life, such as in Uzumasa Limelight, which tells the story of a martial-arts film actor renowned for his masterful ability to capture the sorrow and dignity of dying in battle as he approaches his own demise, as well as Shady,

Mourning Recipe, film still

Ramen Samurai, film still

Leaping Carp gaLLery

The Tale of Samurai Cooking, film still

a dark teen drama which captures the bizarre turning point of a beautiful girlhood friendship. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness gives the viewer an intimate view of the world-renowned Studio Ghibli animation studio as Hayao Miyazaki, mastermind director of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro approaches his retirement. The feature highlights the intense, samurai-like devotion to professions typically thought to be more quaint, a correlation also drawn by The Tale of Samurai Cooking and Ramen Samurai.

From August 28–30, the Nashville Japanese Film Festival in Metro Center at Watkins College will allow viewers to see that the filmmakers of Japan share this same samurai-like devotion to craft as they strive to capture the wistful poetry of wabi-sabi. For a schedule and more information, please visit www.nashvillejapanesefilmfestival.org.

Glenn Merchant

www.LeapingCarpgaLLery.Com Order 18th & 19th century Japanese ukiyo-e print replicas for display & inspiration

92 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

info@glennmerchantstudio.com www.glennmerchantstudio.com



Theatre

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF FRAZIER

Shakespeare F estival P resents

Henry V

New Production Brings Shakespeare to Civil War Battlefield Centennial Park • August 13 to September 13

O

ne of the coolest things about Shakespeare, besides the fact that he is the coolest, is that he’s always totally comfortable with his surroundings. You can perform Shakespeare anywhere, in almost any setting, and he always delivers.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RICK MALKIN

by Jim Reyland

This year, the Nashville Shakespeare Festival is wrapping the historical drama Henry V within a Tennessee Civil War story for its 28th annual Shakespeare in the Park production, August 13 through September 13, at Centennial Park. “Toward the end of the Civil War, on the eve of battle, enemies come together on a Tennessee battlefield to enact Shakespeare’s play about the young king of England who leads his nation into a war against France,” said Denice Hicks, executive artistic director for the festival. “We are excited to juxtapose these two important historical periods in this unique production.”

Shakespeare in the Park Audience

94 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Nat McIntyre, who played major roles in three previous Nashville Shakespeare Festival productions, including Iago in Othello last year, will direct Henry V. He noted that Shakespeare was performed and read all over the United States during the time of the Civil War.

“Politicians quoted Shakespeare in their speeches, generals in their orders, and soldiers in their letters mailed home. In addition, slaves and former slaves turned to Shakespeare to educate and inspire,” he said. “We plan to use the language of Henry V to reflect on the American Civil War and the challenges of reconciliation long past the last battle.”

COURTESY OF J. ALBERT BROWN, SR. / THE PRINCELY PLAYERS

When the Nashville Shakespeare Festival mounts a new production, they leave nothing to chance in researching and staffing its outcome. This year, author and historical preservationist Robert Hicks, who wrote the New York Times bestsellers The Widow of the South and A Separate Country, is serving as an adviser and consultant to the production. In addition, The Princely Players, an African American a cappella group that was founded in 1967, will be an integral part of the production. The set will be designed by Morgan Matens to look like a Civil War battlefield. Costume design is by June Kingsbury, and lighting design is by Anne Willingham.

Specialized furniture

from the forest floor

The Princely Players

So it’s all set then. The Nashville Shakespeare Festival will present Henry V at Centennial Park with performances August 13 through September 13 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday evenings, with pre-show entertainment starting at 6:30 p.m. There will also be a special Labor Day performance September 7. Food and drink can be purchased at the park. The show is free and open to the public with a $10 suggested donation. A limited number of reserved ringside seats and gourmet picnic dinners are available through the Royal and Noble Packages. Tickets purchased for Royal and Noble seating benefit Nashville Shakespeare Festival education programs.

to your home.

The words remain the same, but the vision left to us by Shakespeare continues to evolve. So grab your blanket and your friends and join us at Centennial Park in August and September for Nashville’s annual love affair with art and nature, Shakespeare in the Park. For more information about The Nashville Shakespeare Festival visit www.nashvilleshakes.org. Jim Reyland’s STAND, starring Barry Scott and Chip Arnold, voted Best New Play by the Scene, returns to TPAC September 24–27, 2015, to kick off its national HCA Cultural Inclusion Tour. Tickets at the TPAC Box Office or at www.TPAC.org. www.writersstage.com has more information.

901 2nd Ave. S. | Nashville, TN 37210

615-878-6216 www.littlebranchfarm.com


The Bookmark A Monthly Look at Hot Books and Cool Reads

Queen Limited Edition Turntable by Rega

Something this good deserves special attention. That’s why Queen gave the job to Rega. Meticulous detail went into making this turntable the best. So not only do you get stellar detail, you get top-notch quality from Rega. Only 200 in the USA! For more information about these books, visit www.parnassusbooks.net.

The Marriage of Opposites ALICE HOFFMAN New York Times best-selling author Alice Hoffman is one of those authors whose prolific publishing record and reliably excellent novels have fans waiting with great excitement every time she announces a new book. If that’s you, you’ll absolutely want to pick up her latest. This time, she gives us a historical novel in a tropical setting: a forbidden love story set on the island of St. Thomas, centering around the extraordinary woman who became the mother of painter Camille Pissarro—the Father of Impressionism. Rachel is headstrong and defiant, and the ways in which she struggles to take control of her own life will leave this story in your mind long after you’ve closed the cover.

Fortune Smiles: Stories ADAM JOHNSON Adam Johnson won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Orphan Master’s Son. Now he’s back with a collection of short stories that promises to change the way you look at the world. Although some have compared Johnson’s writing to that of Kurt Vonnegut, David Mitchell, and George Saunders—because of his mastery of dark, surreal territory where comedy and heartbreak overlap, presumably—he truly is an original. These six stories (a couple of which have appeared in anthologies and won prizes already) explore personal relationships, political pasts, and how both nature and technology affect our lives.

Rising Strong BRENÉ BROWN “When we deny our stories, they define us. When we own our stories, we get to write the ending.” Solid advice from Brené Brown—writer, speaker, social scientist, and the life coach you wish you had on speed dial, whose candid, accessible style made Daring Greatly, a #1 New York Times bestseller. Brown writes about the inherent risk that comes with living authentically: Yes, you may fail. You may fall. It’s what you do after you fall, Brown says here, that determines the course of your life. She explains her reasoning with stories about real people ranging from business and military leaders to artists, couples, teachers, and parents.

The Nature of the Beast: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel LOUISE PENNY Here’s one you can really have fun with: The Chief Inspector Gamache novels are a series of mysterious tales set in Three Pines, a Canadian village where recurring character Armand Gamache delves beneath the placid surface of small-town life. Not surprisingly, secrets abound. This New York Times bestselling series has won oodles of awards, and for good reason. The Nature of the Beast tells the story of a frantic search through a dark forest for a boy and the truth about his disappearance. Prepare to stay up late turning pages.

Everything Hi-Fi Audio & Home Theater including CD/DVD/Blu-ray ripping to digital files! Visit www.palhifi.com for more info.

615-799-8002


SARRATT ART STUDIOS

Non Credit Studio Art Classes begin September 14, 2015

Drawing, Clay, Metal, Jewelry, Fused Glass, Photography and more!

REGISTER ONLINE

www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattart

Sarratt_0815.indd 1

7/15/15 11:17 AM

(615) 646-2422 • WWW.NATCHEZSTONE.COM


ART

SMART A MONTHLY GUIDE TO ART EDUCATION

by Ann Brown, Director of Arts Education, Tennessee Arts Commission

A

COURTESY OF TAC

As we embark on the new school year, I’d like to share ways the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC) aims to bolster the arts in education through grants, programs, and tools to help educators as they plan for the year.

A young student working with teaching artist Geri Forkner

The Student Ticket Subsidy grant provides funds for artist fees, ticket costs, and transportation for students to experience a broad variety of cultural opportunities, arts disciplines, and artists.

COURTESY OF TN STATE PHOTOGRAPHY

Professional performances and exhibits as well as in-school artist residencies are listed on the Teaching Artist Roster. The artists and organizations on this roster are skilled at teaching their craft in an instructional setting and in offering high-quality arts experiences that connect with curriculum. Strengthen the role and contribution of the arts in supporting educators by collaborating with these roster artists to co-teach a unit or facilitate professional development for faculty.

The 2015 State Poetry Out Loud Winners, L to R: Marissa Corleone, Grace Whitten, Brittany Thompson and Stephanie Bennett

Students in Beech High School’s Comprehensive Development Class participating in a songwriting workshop with songwriters Les Kerr and Tammy Vice

Arts Education Teacher Training and Mini Grants are available for organizations and schools to provide such opportunities. Arts Education Teacher Incentive grants are also available for full-time educators and teaching artists to attend arts education conferences and workshops. As c lassroom teachers and arts specialists prepare their curriculum units, consider incorporating lessons in arts integration that are shown to raise student achievement and transform the teaching and lear ning environment. The Tennessee Arts Commission hosts the Lesson Plan Database, which includes arts-integrated lessons created by Tennessee A student participating in a summer Arts Corps class hosted by teachers. All lesson plans include the Johnson City Area Arts Council, arts and non-arts curriculum funded by a TN Arts Commission standards, assessment strategies, Funds for At Risk Youth Grant and step-by-step lesson outlines. This database continues to grow each year as teachers submit their ideas. COURTESY OF JOHNSON CITY AREA ARTS COUNCIL

ugust means back to school for many. The smell of freshly sharpened pencils, a new box of crayons, and pink erasers are synonymous with a new academic year. For teachers, lesson planning, in-ser vices, and organizing classrooms mark the beginning of school. As a former music teacher, all it takes is a slight shift in the seasons to remind me of marching band rehearsals, ordering recorders for elementary classes, and the excitement that comes with meeting new students for the first time.

COURTESY OF TAC

COURTESY OF TN STATE PHOTOGRAPHY

TENNESSEE ROUNDUP: BACK TO SCHOOL WITH THE ARTS

Poetry Out Loud is a national recitation contest presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation fostering the next generation of literary readers. Through memorization and competitive performance, students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. All necessary materials, including a standardsbased teacher’s guide, are provided for incorporating a Poetry Out Loud contest into English, theatre, and forensics classes. As we gear up for another year, let’s make the arts synonymous with education. For more information, visit www.tnartseducation.org.

98 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


PHOTOGRAPH BY JUAN PONT LEZICA

DOCTOR’S ORDERS by Cassie Stephens, Art Teacher, Johnson Elementary

T

he summer after my first year teaching art, I went to see a doctor. I’d been having headaches, sleepless nights, and just an overall sense of unease. In the waiting room, I pulled out my notebook and the small collection of art education books I’d been poring over. I ignored the strange looks as I spread my stuff out and settled into my studies only to be called back to see the doctor just as I uncapped my highlighter and felt-tipped pen. After some small talk, the doc asked what was up. I told her about my feelings of anxiety and stress. With a furrowed brow, she did the usual: pulse, blood pressure, and a flashlight in my ears. “Tell me,” she said, “what is it you do?” “I’m an elementary art teacher.” The doc practically fell on the floor laughing. “What has you so stressed? Finger painting all day?”

I love creating clothing but what truly inspires me are my students. When lesson planning, I often become sidetracked and sketch out ideas for dresses, hats and bags that I’ll wear while teaching. I enjoy bringing art to life for my students in this way.

Suddenly, I could feel my blood pressure start to climb. My bite-your-tongue-and-smile upbringing told me not to bother arguing with the doc’s advice of “Don’t worry about it! It’s only art!” Meanwhile, my mind was shaking its fist and screaming. I have so much to teach these little artists in such little time. The entire history of art! The artistic movements! The wide array of art media and techniques! Not to mention creativity and the use of imagination. Don’t you dare tell me, “It’s only art.” It’s my job, and my wee artists depend on me! Flash forward a couple of decades later and I promise you won’t find me stressed out at any doc’s office. Because I discovered something—that doctor was almost right. In those early stress-filled art-teaching years, I didn’t enjoy myself as much as I do now. I was so concerned with the pouring in of

NashvilleArts.com

information that I forgot about the recipient. I didn’t stop to think, what do they want to learn? What sparks their artistic curiosity? How can I include what I need to teach and still captivate their attention? How can I make the art of creating fun?

It turns out, that kind of information cannot be found in any book that’s been meticulously highlighted. It comes from the teacher who listens to her students. These days, I spend my summers creating for myself, for my students, and for my classroom. I think of what will spark joy, imagination, and creativity in my students. I am relaxed, happy, and at ease knowing that despite my tranquil air, I am working my tail off doing what is best. Even if, I have to say, what I teach is more than “only art.” It’s an outlet of creativity and an exploration of imagination for my young artists. August 2015 | 99


PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN BREWER

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN BREWER

NASHVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE

Marin Miller, Jamie Farmer, Cori Anne Laemmel, Peter Vann, Eric D. Pasto-Crosby in La Belle et la Bête

Surpassing Expectations

by DeeGee Lester

What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly? —Erin Hansen

T

his year, give your children magical and funny and inspiring examples of those who go beyond all expectations with Nashville Children’s Theatre’s exciting 2015–2016 productions.

Amanda Card, Shawn Knight, Jamie Farmer in Charlotte’s Web

Finally, the power of friendship moves lovable characters to explore and exceed their expectations for each other in A Year with Frog and Toad (April 14–May 15). “The season is a snapshot of the journeys of these characters’ lives and how they go above and beyond what’s expected to achieve their goals,” says Colegrove. Memberships are now on sale for this incomparable season. Purchases made by August 15 provide memberships at reduced rates: Season Membership Lite ($140 for ten tickets) and Season Membership ($280 for 20 tickets), as compared to the usual rates of $150 and $300. The flexibility of these ticket packets allows families opportunities to disperse their allotted number as they wish over the course of the season. Audiences can enjoy a free open house and sneak preview of the upcoming season on August 15 by booking tickets on the website at www.nashvillechildrenstheatre.org. PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN BREWER

A fun-filled musical comedy kicks off the season with a story that reminds children that even a weird and forgetful twelve-year-old can surpass everyone’s expectations to become a world-renowned genius in Einstein Is a Dummy (September 17–October 4). The masterful touches of Scot Copeland (NCT’s Artistic Director for over thirty years) can be seen in two delightful children’s classics: Charlotte’s Web (October 29–December 6) and Cinderella ( January 14–February 7). These familiar stories provide the joy of seeing characters achieve beyond their wildest imaginations. “Scot has taken these classic stories and adapted them to make beautiful experiences,” says Kathr yn Colegrove, Managing Director. “The addition of the flying choreography for Charlotte to this piece is truly magical.” Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (February 25–March 13) inspires audiences when the bold refusal of one woman to give in to society’s expectations catapulted the Civil Rights movement to a new level.

Aleta Myles, Nikkita Staggs, Patrick James, Shawn Whitsell, Tony Morton, Jacqueline Springfield, and Jessica Kuende in The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963

100 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


HUMANITIES OUTREACH OF TENNESSEE

TPAC’s HOT Season for Young People Brings Drama, Dance, Music, and Excitement to the Stage Opening September 22 by DeeGee Lester

T

his fall, TPAC’s Humanities Outreach of Tennessee (HOT) series offers a balance of grade levels, fun and drama, movement and music. While each offering is different in feel and style, unintentional threads seem to run through the season, including discovery of a sense of place and the impact of story. The joy of words, power of words, rhythm of words—even wordless expression—combine to connect the things we have in common.

Refuge in a park provides a “sense of place” for an exiled woman in I on the Sky (October 28–30) for grades 7–12. With no dialogue, this wordless play uses movement and dance to tell a powerful story. “It’s really lovely,” says Leathers. Perhaps because there are no words, she adds, “When we saw it and talked about it, we saw different things.”

Chip Arnold and Barry Scott in Stand

David Epley in The Science of Santa

PHOTOGRAPH BY LATTIE BROWN

I on the Sky

PHOTOGRAPH BY WARREN WESTCOTT

Nashville’s Jim Reyland’s Stand opens the season (September 22–24) for grades 10–12 with gritty performances by Barry Scott and Chip Arnold that are certain to spark classroom conversations on the tragedy of addiction and the complexities of homelessness and “loss of place.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT ETCHEVERRY

“Our goal each year remains the same—to offer the best quality art on stage in every genre for every age group,” says Sherri Leathers, TPAC Education’s director of programming. “We build a season filled with opportunities for teachers to meet their own classroom learning goals, while children see and explore unique, innovative works of art with international reputations.”

With their own powerful place in American musical history secured 144 years ago, today’s Fisk Jubilee Singers®, led by Dr. Paul T. Kwami, introduce the beauty of Negro Spirituals to a new generation (grades 5–12) on November 4.

Me and My Shadow

COURTESY OF TPAC

In Me and My Shadow (November 10–13), Patch Theatre from Adelaide, Australia, uses a magical, unique way of creating art (grades PreK–2), taking something as simple as shadow and crafting it into engaging storytelling. The fall schedule closes out with The Science of Santa (December 1–4). Dr. Kaboom (David Epley) adds new dimension to the Santa story for grades 1–3 demonstrating why Santa’s combination of physics and magic makes him the world’s greatest scientist. For more information, visit www.tpac.org/education.

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 101


ON THE HORIZON

FRANKLIN ROAD ACADEMY’S SHINING STARS by Rebecca Pierce

Wyatt Maxwell’s favorite artist is Pablo Picasso. “I find that the art he made was amazing, but not as good as some of his quotes, with my all-time favorite quote being, ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ This quote really speaks to me always wanting to keep art in my life and always being able to hop on a wheel and make something.”

While taking Ceramics 1 and 2, Wyatt realized that with work, he could be pretty good at making ceramic art. “During the summer before my senior year, I worked like an absolute madman and was able to get my skill level to a point that taking AP 3D Design was a possibility. Since then, I have still been working like crazy, but I have also been able to try out foam sculpture, woodwork, and metal/blacksmith work, which are very different and fun.” One of Wyatt’s favorite projects was a self-portrait bust in a baseball uniform. “It was daunting. You make the head, then you shape the eye sockets and then you have to make all the facial structures. It took a really long time to make the ears and eyes look right, and I had to keep looking in the mirror to make it look like me.”

SPENCER MEEKS “I plan to continue performing my whole life and actually hope to pursue musical theatre professionally! When I was younger, I was scared to want to be a performer because I thought that success was unrealistic. However, one thing that the Arts Department at FRA has taught me is that personal success and commercial success are hardly related. Seeing my teachers so passionate every day has helped me realize that success is defined solely by how happy you are on a day-to-day basis, which has given me the courage to pursue what I love.” PHOTOGRAPH BY TAMARA REYNOLDS

PHOTOGRAPH BY TAMARA REYNOLDS

WYATT MAXWELL

Since he could remember, Spencer has loved music and singing. He has played Suzuki violin since he was 5. He auditioned for every solo in grade school and started participating in school musicals in the 5th grade. “My love for performing has only grown as I’ve tried my hand at all the different mediums of performance that FRA has to offer. The administration worked with my academic schedule to allow me to participate in band and choir. I’ve always been happiest onstage, no matter the reason.”

Wyatt has been recruited to play baseball at Rhodes College this fall. He was also awarded a partial art scholarship, so he hopes to minor in art. “I’m going to have to balance academics, baseball, and then I also get to do art, which is great.”

Spencer considers one of his greatest strengths to be the more technical side of singing. Because of his background as a violinist, he has an easier time with Spencer Meeks, singing “The Christmas Waltz” in Cocoa and Carols pitch, tone, rhythm, and sight-reading than a singer who has never played an instrument. Employing this technical knowledge with his diligence at practice and enthusiasm for the art makes him a better vocalist.

Wyatt Maxwell, Self-portrait bust, clay

“Life can completely change direction at any moment, but no matter what I end up doing, I will always at least belt my heart out in the shower.”

102 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


PHOTOGRAPH BY TAMARA REYNOLDS

HANNAH BLANKENSHIP “Musical theatre is my absolute passion,” Hannah Blankenship exclaims. She was three when she made her stage debut dancing in Swan Lake, but it wasn’t until she did her first musical, Seussical, in sixth grade, that she completely fell in love with performing and knew that there was no going back. Since then she’s had major roles in every school per f or mance, relentlessl y throwing herself into her parts and giving it her all no matter how tired she may be.

While her dance experience and 3.5-octave range give her an edge, her success comes from being a devoted student of the art. She listens to her directors and studies the performances of upperclassmen. “I like to consider myself very well rounded. I sing, act, and dance, but I also do a lot of costuming, set, and prop work, which improves my overall understanding of the theatre and everything that goes into creating a show. I really want to learn about lighting and sound

in addition to improving my on-stage performance.” Hannah has taken all the drama classes available at FRA, so during her senior year she plans to audition for every performance and hopes to be able to take an independent study, while continuing with choir. After high school, she says, “I definitely plan on pursuing theatre after high school. I hope to double major in musical theatre and creative writing up north, then continue acting wherever I can while also working as a freelance editor or a children’s book author. I’m also very interested in running my own theatre company at some point down the road.”

Hannah Blankenship in 42nd Street

JOSEPH CHANDLER “I have always aimed to be like Freddie Hubbard, Bill Chase and all the other great trumpet players,” Joseph explained. “I consider my strengths, musically, to be my diversity in styles, having played in many jazz bands, Vanderbilt’s Curb Youth Symphony, as well as in my church orchestra.”

Joseph Chandler playing trumpet in An Evening with the Arts

Joseph started in band in 5th grade and stayed with it throughout high school. He has also taken private trumpet lessons once a week, as well as guitar lessons. In his sophomore year he joined choir, which he explains was very helpful with pitch, timing, and overall music theory and ultimately made him a better musician.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TAMARA REYNOLDS

Joseph Chandler learned to play saxophone for his 4th grade talent show. Saxophone is his father’s instrument, so he picked it up because it was convenient. In 5th grade he saw some upperclassmen playing trumpet and was so impressed he switched.

This fall, Joseph enters Belmont University where he plans to major in music business with a focus in management. “I want to work in artist management, and hopefully long term, I’d like to have my own artist management agency.” Joseph would like to work with R&B and Pop artists but says that it is entirely conceivable that he’ll work with country artists since he plans to stay in Nashville. As far as pursuing his own musical talent, Joseph says, “I enjoy playing music, but I wanted an opportunity to have more steady income—realistically. I have a lot of musician friends, and I do see myself playing a lot in the future. I don’t see that ending anytime soon.”

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 103


Anna Lines, John Fentress, Corrina Joyner at Fort Houston

Emily Hildebrand and Keith Wright at David Lusk Gallery

Yanira Vissepo at The Packing Plant

SEE ART SEE ART SEE J. Wes Yoder at Sherrick & Paul

Gary Camaro in The Arcade

At Coop Gallery

Christina Wiggins and Paulin Nduwimana at The Arts Company

Andreana Grant and Taneisha Crockett at Coop Gallery

Eastside Art Stumble, KT Wolf Gallery

PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL PAPENFUSS

Christian Fecht and friend at Sherrick & Paul

At David Lusk Gallery

104 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Christopher Crouch, Neal Halper at Fort Houston

PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN JACKSON

Rachele Lynae and Hannah Bethel at Tinney Contemporary


At Ground Floor Gallery

Vanessa Paz at Seed Space

Alice Sheppard and Lauren J. at Seed Space/Track One

Ron York Album Release Party

At Sherrick & Paul

Revell Michael, Marcy Eskind at Sherrick & Paul

SEE ART SEE ART SEE Stephen Watkins and Dee Gross at The Rymer Gallery

Make Music Day at Sevier Park PHOTOGRAPH BY BEV MOSER

Steve Hager at Sherrick & Paul

Rose Marie Pink at Julia Martin Gallery

Hank DeVito and Lois Riggins-Ezzell at Tennessee State Museum opening

Trish Knight at Julia Martin Gallery

Susan Laine Maley at Tinney Contemporary

NashvilleArts.com

Arleen Tuchman and David Zolensky at Coop Gallery August 2015 | 105


WI TH EMME

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

swan ball

E

ach spring, Cheekwood serves up a heady cocktail of art and glamour in the name of fundraising.

The Swan Ball and its meta-events—all of which of course benefit Cheekwood—provide a perfect melding of the Old Nashville “Social Register crowd” with new players who have moved to town and immersed themselves philanthropically into our cit y ’s most c her ished ar ts organizations. Mixed into the great taxonomy of folks making this annual affair into one of the Southeast’s premier white-tie galas is a phalanx of media, servers, volunteers, designers, florists, caterers, entertainers, and the spit-shined and polished guests themselves.

Alec and Kathleen Estes with Barby and Govan White

Carolyn Nash

On May 14 some 250 gathered at Belle Meade Country Club for the Swan Ball Auction Party. Ace volunteers Cathy East and Jennifer Hudson Carolyn Taylor took on the intimidating job of assembling choice lots featuring priceless access. Think Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue—a veritable wish book where a trip isn’t a trip unless it includes cocktails with the ambassador of a far-flung land followed by dinner at the most chichi of private clubs. The week of the ball brought the black-tie Patrons Party to Dudley W hite’s grand estate, Deerfield, on Evel yn Avenue. Graciousl y co-hosting the June 3 seated dinner party were Jeanne and Bill Cammack, LaRawn Scaife Rhea Ann and Bob Coleman, Alice and Henry Hooker, Frances and Buddy Jackson, and Betty and Jim Stadler. Dinner, which featured Australian lamb, was prepared by dKates Catering. The Tulip Tree handled the lavish florals. Kathryn and David Brown hosted the June 4 Jewelry Party at their exquisitely renovated home in Belle Meade. Dressed in summer-chic attire, Swan Ball patrons, f riends, and jewelry lovers oohed and ahhed over Paolo Costagli’s designs. This was New York-based Costagli’s first collaboration with the Swan Ball.

Elizabeth McDonald, Felice Oldacre and Marie Masterson

David and Kathryn Brown with Jeweler Paulo Costagli

These days, the benefit raises more than $1 million annually for Cheekwood. Plain and simple, it’s big doings.

Cathy East and Carolyn Taylor

L e t ’s p e e k a t t h e 53 rd Swan Ball, held June 6 on the estate grounds and chaired by Kathleen Estes and Barby White.

Pamela and Bob Jackson

106 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Tony Rose and Tina Hoffstead

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY CATHERINE GLASSFORD

by Emme Nelson Baxter | Photography by Tiffani Bing

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARY CATHERINE GLASSFORD

PHOTOGRAPH BY TIFFANI BING

Paint the Town


Under the tent at the Patrons Party

David and Edie Johnson with Bill and Jeanne Cammack

Some 650 attended the Ball itself. Manhattan-based event designer David Stark interpreted Estes and White’s vision of “Timeless” using black, white, and deciduous green. Suspended from the ceiling were a magnificent white clock face with moving black hands, white cogs and gears depicting the inner workings of a timepiece, Wilson Hardcastle and Fran Hardcastle and fabulous oversized lighting with drum shades dressed in foliage-printed fabric.

night was $18,500 for the Bahamas yacht trip for eight. Caterer Kr isten W inston provided a top-notch dinner highlighted by filet mignon with roasted jumbo shrimp.

The pièce de résistance, however: G r a m m y Aw a rd - w i n n i n g vocalist Jennifer Hudson. Jack and Jane Jacques with Amy and Frank Garrison The pint-sized, pixie-headed bundle of blast provided an hour’s worth of entertainment, much to the delight of the appreciative, smartphone-wielding crowd on the dance floor. Following her set, the Atlanta Allstars took the stage and kept folks moving until 3 a.m. As the main party unfolded, the younger set enjoyed a Dani Kates dinner under a tent near Botanic Hall.

Joe and Anne Russell with John and Peggy Warner

During the evening, Cheekwood Board President Tooty Bradford and Cheekwood President/CEO Jane MacLeod presented the Swan Award to the daughters of Ann and Monroe Carell Jr. Accepting on behalf of their late parents were Julie Stadler, Edie Johnson, and Kathryn Brown. Shortly thereafter, Kevin Doyle of Sotheby’s NY auctioned off four prized lots. The high bid of the

John Eddie Cain, Barry Caldwell, Tooty Bradford and Wentworth Caldwell

Barby, Govan and Molly White

Jimmy Granbery, Anne Parsons and Jamie Granbery

NashvilleArts.com

Patricia and Rodes Hart

Event chairs Heidi Rose and Grace Clayton had assists f rom designer H3 Events and Branches. Thirty minutes before midnight, the 300 or so Late Party guests were able to join the rocking Swan Ball up the hill at the Mansion.

Alec and Kathleen Estes August 2015 | 107


Arts Worth Watching

National Gallery

F

rederick Wiseman’s National Gallery is an inside look at England’s National Gallery of Art, its staff of curators and conservators, and its impressive collection spanning the Middle Ages to the 19th century. Wiseman spent 12 weeks filming in the Trafalgar Square museum in early 2012, acquiring more than 150 hours of footage. Wiseman’s resulting documentary airs Friday, August 21, at 8 p.m. In it, he addresses themes of power and hierarchy within the museum and experiments with ways of making the artwork more dynamic through the juxtaposition of camera angles and positions.

We remain in Europe for Great Performances: The Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2015 on Friday, August 28, at 8 p.m. The latest edition of this annual open-air concert is led by guest conductor Zubin Mehta on the grounds of Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace. Scandinavia is this year’s theme, with a program of music by Jean Sibelius (Finlandia Op. 26), Edvard Grieg (PeerGynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46) and Hans Christian Lumbye (Copenhagener Eisenbahn Dampf Galopp). The program includes waltzes by members of the Strauss family, and guest pianist Rudolf Buchbinder performs Alfred Grünfeldt’s beautiful transcription of waltzes. Schönbrunn was the summer palace of the Hapsburg rulers and is particularly associated with Empress Maria Theresa whose 16 children included Marie Antoinette. This Great Performances presentation includes aerial views of the residence’s elaborate gardens, large conservatory, and dramatically lit statues and other garden features. There are also fireworks and scenes of Vienna by night. COURTESY OF SONY MUSIC ARCHIVES/BOB CATO

© 2014 GALLERY FILM LLC & IDEALE AUDIENCE PROVIDED COURTESY OF ZIPPORAH FILMS WWW.ZIPPORAH.COM

August on NPT is packed with nature and science programs, a sneak peek at the upcoming fall season, music specials, and other arts programming in awe-inspiring settings.

MUSIC AL FRESCO

Great Performances: The Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2015

COURTESY OF 2015 RICHARD SCHUSTER

Concerts under the stars are a rite of summer, and we’ve got a few for you this month. First, it’s off to Italy for Il Volo: Live From Pompeii, premiering Tuesday, August 11, at 8:30 p.m. In their fourth TV concert special, the three young tenors perform Italian classics and new songs before a live audience in the ancient amphitheater of Pompeii. The amphitheater was among the buildings buried in the infamous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and was last used as a concert venue for a Pink Floyd show in 1972. For their performance, Il Volo—Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto, and Gianluca Ginoble—is joined by an orchestra and rhythm section.

Iconic duo Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a concert performance in Central Park in 1981

Back in the U.S.A., Simon & Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park is the duo’s 1981 benefit for New York’s iconic park. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunited to perform hits such as “Mrs. Robinson” and “Sounds of Silence” before an audience of 500,000 for this legendary concert. The concert film airs Wednesday, August 12, at 8:30 p.m.

TASTY TRAVEL There’s still time for a summer road trip—in fact, we’ve got two for you this month, and they involve plenty of stops for food! Tuesday, August 25, at 7 p.m., Rick Sebak is back with a new gastronomic travelogue, A Few Good Pie Places, a sampler of dessert shops across the country. Next, at 8 p.m., Sebak is off to explore savories and sweets around the U.S. in A Few Great Bakeries. Mmm.

Please support NPT’s August Membership Campaign when you tune in to watch some great specials this month. Or go to our website, www.wnpt.org, and click the donate button to support all the programs you love throughout the year. Remember to check out NPT2, our secondary channel, where you’ll find an assortment of special-interest shows and encore presentations of your favorite programs. 108 | August 2015 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 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:30 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 Martha Speaks Angelina Ballerina Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Sesame Street Dinosaur Train Sewing with Nancy Sew It All Garden Smart BBQ with Franklin Simply Ming Cook’s Country noon America’s Test Kitchen pm Joanne Weir Gets Fresh Movable Feast with Fine Cooking Martha Stewart’s Cooking School Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Painting the Town with Eric Dowdle American Woodshop Woodwright’s Shop This Old House Ask This Old House Hometime PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Tennessee’s Wild Side

August 2015

THIS MONTH Nashville Public Television

THE GIANTS OF THE DEEP RETURN TO MONTEREY BAY

Sunday

am Sid the Science Kid Peg + Cat Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Word World Sesame Street Dinosaur Train Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads TBA Washington Week with Gwen Ifill noon To the Contrary pm The McLaughlin Group Music Voyager Family Travel Globe Trekker California’s Gold In the Americas with David Yetman America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Charlie Rose: The Week

3- NIGHT LIVE EVENT Monday, Aug 31 – Wednesday, Sept 2 Live @ 7:00 & 10:00 pm #BigBlueLive

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 Odd Squad Wild Kratts Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Sesame Street Dinosaur Train Super Why! Peg + Cat Sid the Science Kid noon Caillou pm Thomas & Friends Sesame Street Shorts The Cat in the Hat Clifford the Big Red Dog Curious George Arthur Arthur Wild Kratts Odd Squad Martha Speaks WordGirl pm PBS NewsHour

Nashville Public Television

The Mystery of Matter A three-part series about the discovery of the elements that make up our world. Wednesday, August 19 7:00 – 10:00 pm

Il Volo: Live From Pompeii The young tenor trio performs amid the ruins of Pompeii. Tuesday, August 11 8:30 pm

wnpt.org


Monday

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Salt Lake City. 8:00 Straight No Chaser – Songs of the Decades In a 2011 concert, the all-male a capella group performs pop songs from the 1950s on. 9:30 Deepak Chopra: The Future of God Chopra shows how science and religion complement each other. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Rick Steves’ Europe Travel Skills

10

7:00 Mannheim Steamroller 40/30 Live Thirty years of holiday magic and 40 years of the “Fresh Aire” compositions. 8:30 Downton Abbey Rediscovered A look back at the first five seasons and a peek at the final season. 10:00 Disease Proof with Dr. David Katz How to fight disease. 11:00 Suze Orman’s Financial Solutions for You

9

3

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Toronto. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Baltimore. 9:00 POV Beats of the Antonov. The people of the Blue Nile in Sudan respond to constant bombing with music, singing and dancing. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Must Be Good Dancer. 11:00 This Is Your Do-Over with Dr. Michael Roizen

7:00 Last Tango in Halifax Season 3, Episode 6. Conclusion: Gillian is reluctant to remarry; Alan tries to forgive. 8:00 Poldark on Masterpiece Part 7. Conclusion: An epidemic leads to tragedy; a shipwreck is a blessing and a curse. 10:00 50 Years with Peter, Paul and Mary This documentary celebrates the legendary folk trio with performance clips.

2

JFK & LBJ: A Time for Greatness Tuesday, August 4 9:00 pm

Sunday

Primetime Evening Schedule

August 2015

4

11

7:00 Elvis, Aloha from Hawaii Elvis’ January 1973 concert special. 8:30 Il Volo: Live From Pompeii The young tenors perform original songs and Italian classics in the ruins of Pompeii. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Is Jeremy Safe? 11:00 Mannheim Steamroller 40/30 Live A double anniversary celebration.

7:00 John Sebastian Presents: Folk Rewind The former Lovin’ Spoonful lead singer presents performances and historical footage of 1950s and ’60s folk acts. 9:00 JFK & LBJ: A Time for Greatness LBJ’s role in crafting the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 50 Years with Peter, Paul and Mary

60s Girl Grooves Friday, August 7 7:00 pm

Tuesday

5

12 7:00 Ken Burns: The Civil War An in-depth overview of the iconic series on its 25th anniversary. 8:30 Simon & Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park The duo’s famous 1981 concert features their greatest hits. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine All That Glitters Is Not Elvis. 11:00 Downton Abbey Rediscovered

7:00 Life on the Reef Episode 3. The reef’s human and animal residents prepare for a Category 5 cyclone. 8:00 Australian Pink Floyd: Eclipsed by the Moon The tribute band’s 2013 German tour. 9:30 Ed Slott’s Retirement Roadmap! 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Wormley Witches. 11:00 Austin City Limits Kacey Musgraves/Dale Watson.

Starlight Ballroom Saturday, August 8 7:00 pm

Wednesday

13 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Starlight Ballroom Performance footage from swing’s golden age with Perry Como, Doris Day, Benny Goodman, Tex Beneke, Peggy Lee, etc. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Eva’s Back in Town. 11:00 Disease Proof with Dr. David Katz

6

7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Joe Bonamassa: Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks The guitarist performs a tribute to bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. 9:30 Rick Steves’ Delicious Europe 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Enter the Finger. 11:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonde-White

A Few Good Pie Places Tuesday, August 25 7:00 pm

Thursday

7

14 7:00 Downton Abbey Rediscovered A look at Seasons 1-5 and a peek at the final season. 8:30 The Pain Prescription with Dr. Mitchell Yass The Yass Method for managing chronic pain. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Deepak Chopra: The Future of God Chopra shows how science and religion complement each other.

7:00 60s Girl Grooves A new My Music special spotlights 1960s girl groups and female singers. 9:00 Great Performances Pavarotti: A Voice for the Ages A portrait of the legendary tenor with performances of sacred songs, arias and pop duets. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Dr. Wayne Dyer: I Can See Clearly Now

Friday

1

15

7:00 Country Pop Legends Roy Clark hosts this My Music special celebrating country hits from the 1950s through ’70s. 9:00 Downton Abbey Rediscovered 10:30 Simon & Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park The duo’s famous 1981 concert includes “Mrs. Robinson” and “Sounds of Silence.”

8

7:00 Starlight Ballroom A new My Music special dedicated to the golden age of swing. 9:00 60s Girl Grooves The Supremes’ Mary Wilson hosts this new show about 1960s girl groups and female singers. 11:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonde-White The “Classical Stretch” host offers tips for better aging.

7:00 Lawrence Welk’s TV Treasures Interviews and archival performances. 9:00 Carole King – James Taylor Live at the Troubadour The legendary singersongwriters are joined by their original backing band in a 2007 concert. 10:30 Suze Orman’s Financial Solutions for You

Saturday

Nashville Public Television

wnpt.org


16

7:00 Secrets of Her Majesty’s Secret Service 8:00 Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock Series II: The Reichenbach Fall. A break-in at the Tower of London leads Sherlock into Moriarty’s “final problem.” 9:30 Vicious Gym. Freddie and Stuart join Ash’s gym; Violet and Penelope enjoy the peace. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show

30

7:00 NPT Favorites 8:00 Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock Series II: The Hounds of Baskerville. Sherlock and Watson are on the moors tracking topsecret government research. 9:30 Vicious Sister. Season 2 starts with Violet bracing for a visit from her wealthy sister. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show

23

7:00 NPT Favorites 8:00 Masterpiece Mystery! Sherlock Series II: A Scandal in Belgravia. Sherlock and Watson tangle with crafty dominatrix Irene Adler in a blackmail case. 9:30 Vicious Holiday Special. Freddie and Stuart host a holiday soiree in their London flat. 11:30 Scully/The World Show

1

2

7:00 Big Blue Live The final night of live broadcasts. 8:00 NOVA Bigger Than T. rex. A NOVA/National Geographic special about Spinosaurus, a 53-footlong dinosaur. 9:00 Earth A New Wild Oceans. 10:00 Big Blue Live The final live segment. 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Austin City Limits The Avett Brothers/Nickel Creek.

26

7:00 Nature Siberian Tiger Quest. Sooyong Park, the first individual to film Siberian tigers in the wild. 8:00 NOVA Vaccines – Calling The Shots. The science behind vaccinations and the costs of opting out. 9:00 Nazi Mega Weapons V2 Rocket. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

19

7:00 The Mystery of Matter: Search for Elements Out of Thin Air (17541806). The discovery of oxygen and the search for new elements. 8:00 The Mystery of Matter: Search for Elements Unruly Elements (18591902). 9:00 The Mystery of Matter: Search for Elements Into the Atom (19101960). 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Spoon/White Denim.

3

7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Doctor Blake Mysteries Bedlam. Did a patient murder a nurse in a psychiatric hospital? 9:00 Midsomer Murders Market for Murder, Part 1. The murder of the head of a local book club reveals financial secrets. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Mother of All Mistakes or Is It?

27

7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Doctor Blake Mysteries If the Shoe Fits. An industrial accident or murder? 9:00 Midsomer Murders Murder on St. Malley’s Day, Part 2. Town-vs.gown conflicts come to a head. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Nobody Messes with Tony the Throat. 11:00 Aging Matters: Aging in Place

20

7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Doctor Blake Mysteries Hearts & Flowers. Feuding contestants are suspected when the Begonia Festival’s head judge is found dead. 9:00 Midsomer Murders Murder on St. Malley’s Day, Part 1. A race at a prestigious school ends in tragedy. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Disease Proof with Dr. David Katz

4

7:00 Nature’s Miracle Babies 8:00 American Masters Althea. A profile of twotime Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Althea Gibson, the first African American to play in those tournaments. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Variations on a Theme of Father’s Day. 11:00 Front and Center Warren Haynes.

28

7:00 1964: The Fight for a Right Historical footage and interviews with Freedom Summer activists. 8:00 Great Performances Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2015. From the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace. 9:30 PBS Previews Best of the Fall. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center For King & Country.

21

7:00 Visions of the American West An NPT co-production about Buffalo Bill Cody and the Wild West. 7:30 Light: Bruce Munro at Cheekwood Light artist Bruce Munro’s 2013 installation at Cheekwood. 8:00 National Gallery Frederick Wiseman’s portrait of Britain’s National Gallery, its collection and staff. 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Front and Center Trey Anastasio Band.

Visit wnpt.org for complete 24-hour schedules for NPT and NPT2

7:00 Big Blue Live A co-production with the BBC, this live program includes interviews with scientists and views of marine life. 8:00 In Their Own Words Queen Elizabeth II. A biography inspired by the monarch’s own words. 9:00 Frontline 10:00 Big Blue Live The live look at migrating marine life continues. 11:00 BBC World News

SEPTEMBER

31

7:00 Big Blue Live A co-production with the BBC, this live event documents the Monterey Bay, Calif., ecosystem. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Myrtle Beach, Hour Two. 9:00 POV The Storm Makers. Cambodia’s human trafficking underworld. 10:00 Big Blue Live A live look at migrating marine life around Monterey Bay, Calif. 11:00 BBC World News

25

7:00 A Few Good Pie Places A tour of fruity and creamy pie shops from Maine to Minnesota. 8:00 A Few Great Bakeries Warm, toasty, small bakeries from Massachusetts to California. 9:00 Frontline The Trouble with Chicken. Dangerous pathogens in meat. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Goodnight Sweet Ferret.

POV: Neuland Monday, August 17 9:00 pm

18

7:00 NPT Favorites 8:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Of Passion & Pizza. 11:00 Ken Burns: The Civil War An in-depth overview of the iconic series on its 25th anniversary.

24

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Cincinnati, Hour Three. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Myrtle Beach, Hour One. 9:00 POV Point and Shoot. Matt VanDyke films his selftransformation from a timid 26-year-old to a motorcycle-driving rebel fighting in the Libyan revolution. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Cross the Atlantic Single Handed. 11:00 BBC World News

17

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Cincinnati, Hour One. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Cincinnati, Hour Two. 9:00 POV Neuland. Young migrants in Switzerland reveal their innermost hopes and dreams as they struggle to learn a new language and prepare for employment. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Mischievous Twinkle in Howard’s Eyes. 11:00 BBC World News

Nashville Public Television

Vicious Season 2 begins Sunday, August 23 9:30 pm

29

7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Summer Sounds. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Great British Baking Show Patisserie. Baklava, Schichttorte and entremets. 9:30 Great British Baking Show Final. Sponge, caramel, choux pastry and petit fours. 11:00 Globe Trekker Building England I.

22

7:00 Lawrence Welk Show My Blue Heaven. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Great British Baking Show Pastries. Savories and éclairs. 9:30 Great British Baking Show Advanced Dough. Showstopping doughnuts. 10:30 Film School Shorts Playing with Power. 11:00 Globe Trekker The Netherlands.


Drink N’ Draw A BYOB Figure Model Social

Wednesday & Thursday 6-8

427 Chestnut St. Suite 302B Nashville, TN 37203

www.channeltochannel.com

Channel-to-Channel.indd 1

5/14/15 2:29 PM

ENGLISH & COMPANY

• Home Consignment • 118 Powell Place • Nashville, TN 37204 Mon. - Sat. • 10:00 - 5:00 • (615) 315-5589 englishandcompanytn@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook

Merrick offers ultra-sharp stochastic printing, to ensure your images are hitting all the right notes!

Merrick Makes It Happen. Merrick Printing Company Richard Barnett, Sr. VP – Sales Cell (502) 296-8650 • Office (502) 584-6258 richard.barnett@merrickprinting.com 112 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com


Friday, August 7, 6-9 p.m.

by Marshall Chapman

Spa chez moi . . . PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY SCARLATI

& The Factory

Historic Downtown Franklin, TN

Beyond Words

A woman in my yoga class recently told me she was on “staycation.” At first I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. Then it hit me. “Oh, you mean, like, a vacation where you stay at home?” I asked. “Exactly,” she replied.

Having spent much of my life on the road, I’ve never really understood the whole vacation-concept-thing. The idea of forking out money to fly or drive somewhere seems ludicrous to me. I mean, why pay to travel and stay in a hotel, when you can get paid to do the same thing? Plus do what you love, which is perform live music for people who love your music. Sometimes in exotic places like México, New Zealand, Australia, or . . . Santa Cruz. Dion (“Runaround Sue”) once told me that every show he ever played was for free. “Mah-shul,” he said in his thick Bronx accent, “Every show I ever played, I played for free. It’s all this other horseshit they have to pay me for.” His words resonated. Let’s face it. Travel isn’t what it used to be. Unless you’re cruising along in your own Learjet, the glamour is gone.

A variety of venues and working studios throughout a 15-block area—join us for original art, live music, refreshments and more! There’s no cost to attend.

Learn where to start your evening and check out the map:

www.FranklinArtScene.com Facebook.com/FranklinArtScene Sponsored By:

So when my yoga friend mentioned staycation, I nodded in affirmation. The pleasure of sleeping in your own bed while taking time off from work? What’s not to love about that? But then she began talking about all these activities and day trips she was planning. And that’s when she lost me. I’m thinking, why leave the house? The best staycation I ever had was on my sixtieth birthday. My sisters flew in the day before, and we spent every minute of their stay being pampered. I’d pushed all the furniture in the kitchen-den area aside to make way for yoga with an instructor-friend. This was followed by deep-tissue massages for each of us. A masseuse-friend had set up her table next to the fireplace, where a nice fire kept things warm and cozy. In between the yoga and the massages, my husband served us delicious meals that he’d prepared. Needless to say, for three days my sisters and I never left the house. It was Spa Chez Moi. www.tallgirl.com

NashvilleArts.com

August 2015 | 113


My Favorite Painting

T errance H urd

Founder and Director, The Hurd Modeling & Talent Agency

W

hen your art collection is as personal as mine, it is really hard to pick a favorite. Is it the Ridley? Greg Ridley was a dear friend! As my art professor at Fisk University, he is largely responsible for my art aesthetic. Jamaal Sheats is more of a family member than a friend. I have known him since he was a child and have watched him grow into a phenomenal artist. The piece commissioned by his mother for my birthday present was inspired by my profession as a modeling and talent agent and incorporates Jamaal’s signature umbrellas. It is definitely a favorite. While I was in graduate school, my boss was a personal friend of Polly Cook and collected her works extensively. At a company Christmas party at his home, I told myself I wanted something by her. So my Polly Cook vase is another favorite. As are the works by James Threalkill, Danny Broadway, Edith Costanza, Charles McGruder, and my portrait by Cecil Withrow. But if I must name a favorite, I must pick the centerpiece of my art wall. It is a piece by the late Marvin Posey. Marvin was a dear friend and talented artist who passed away at an early age. Our birthdays were three days apart. In 1998, I held an art show at my home for Posey. The first piece he hung was already red-dotted as sold. By the end of the evening I asked who had pre-purchased that piece before anyone arrived. He said that it was a gift to me. He had asked weeks earlier about my favorite instrument, and I had told him it was the saxophone. When I asked what was it titled, he said Terrance’s. It is bold in vibrant jewel tones and has a sense of movement that I seem to appreciate in a lot of my collection. I guess that would have to be my favorite piece of art. It brings me joy daily as I remember my friend. It also makes me very emotional as it reminds me of a gifted life that ended way too soon!

Marvin Posey, Jr., Terrance’s, 1998, Acrylic on canvas

ARTIST BIO

PHOTOGRAPH BY SHERI ONEAL

Marvin Posey, Jr.

114 | August 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Marvin Posey, Jr. was a working artist who painted in a variety of styles. Born in North Carolina, Posey made Middle Tennessee his home. At Clarksville High School he excelled in art, winning an award and exhibiting his work at the Knoxville Museum of Art. He received scholarships to Austin Peay University for both art and football. After graduation, Posey tried numerous job options outside of the arts, but he struggled to make painting the focus of his life. He found his way and became a performance painter, creating—while on stage in front of a large audience—expressive works that reflected the spirit of the live music playing. He died at the age of 38 of a heart attack after a public performance in Atlanta. His vibrant paintings of musicians carry on his legacy as a passionate artist.


FLOW ERS FOR EV ERY OCCASION

Name: Wax Flower Botanical Name: Chamelaucium Photography by Brett Warren, shot in the Ilex studio

601 8th Ave South Nashville, TN 37203 615-736-5200 ilexforflowersnashville@gmail.com www.ilexforflowers.com


H AY N E S G A L L E R I E S PRESENTS

ART NASHVILLE EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

JODY THOMPSON, PLAYED OUT (DETAIL). OIL ON LINEN BOARD. 12 X12 INCHES INQUIRIES: GARYHAYNES@HAYNESGALLERIES.COM OR PHONE 615.430.8147 OR 615.312.7000. HAYNESGALLERIES.COM GALLERIES: ON THE MUSIC ROW ROUNDABOUT IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE AND SEASONALLY IN THOMASTON, MAINE


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.