flow erS for
e v ery
occASioN
601 8th Ave South Nashville, TN 37203 615-736-5200 ilexforflowersnashville@gmail.com www.ilexforflowers.com
Amaryllis Hippeastrum Photography by Brett Warren shot in the Ilex studio
5 AVENUE OF THE A RTS th
D OWNTOWN N ASHVILLE
Regular 5th Avenue gallery hours: 11-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
the
company
www.theartscompany.com
June 7 - June 28 Liquid Light: A New Series of Paintings by Edie Maney Culinary Drama: New Paintings by Denise Stewart-Sanabria ©Denise Stewart-Sanabria
www.therymergallery.com
June 7 - June 28 QUINTESSENTIAL DELTA New Paintings by Betsy Brackin ©Betsy Brackin
www.tinneycontemporary.com
Continuing through June 21 CONTINUUM New work by Carol Mode ©Carol Mode
FIRST
Saturday
A RT
C R AW L DOWNTOWN
6-9 pm
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 CONTACT INFORMATION
EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING OFFICES 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 615-383-0278 ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Cindy Acuff, Beth Knott, Keith Wright 615-383-0278 DISTRIBUTION Wouter Feldbusch, Brad Reagan SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE 615-383-0278 BUSINESS OFFICE Pam Ferrell, Adrienne Thompson 40 Burton Hills Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37215 EDITORIAL
COLUMNS
PAUL POLYCARPOU Editor and CEO
JENNIFER ANDERSON The Great Unknowns
SARA LEE BURD Executive Editor and Online Editor sara@nashvillearts.com
MARSHALL CHAPMAN Beyond Words
REBECCA PIERCE Education Editor and Staff Writer rebecca@nashvillearts.com MADGE FRANKLIN Copy Editor DESIGN TRACEY STARCK Design Director ADVERTISING CINDY ACUFF cindy@nashvillearts.com
TED CLAYTON Social Editor JENNIFER COLE State of the Arts LINDA DYER Antique and Fine Art Specialist SUSAN EDWARDS As I See It ANNE POPE Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND Theatre Correspondent
BETH KNOTT beth@nashvillearts.com
JUSTIN STOKES Film Review
KEITH WRIGHT keith@nashvillearts.com
BETSY WILLS Field Notes
Nashville Arts Magazine is a monthly publication by St. Claire Media Group, LLC. This publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one magazine from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office for free, or by mail for $5.00 a copy. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first name followed by @nashvillearts. com; to reach contributing writers, email info@nashvillearts.com. Editorial Policy: Nashville Arts Magazine covers art, news, events, entertainment, and culture in Nashville and surrounding areas. The views and opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $45 per year for 12 issues. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, issues could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Call 615.383.0278 to order by phone with your Visa or Mastercard number.
J2O14 une
on the cover:
Ali Cavanaugh, Create in your mind what your eyes cannot distinguish 2, 2010, Modern fresco, 22" x 30" Article on page 88
FEATURES
COLUMNS
13 Spotlights
30 The Bookmark
18 Impressions of Spring
96
28 Crawl Guide 32 As I See It Susan Edwards
Hot Books and Cool Reads
31 Film Review 33 The Great Unknowns by Jennifer Anderson
35 Mary Gauthier The Up Side of Pain
34 Public Art by Caroline Vincent
40 Michael Samis Beyond Baroque
44 Arts & Business Council Art and the Business of Art
42 Steven Tepper Nashville in My Rearview Mirror
45 Unplugged by Tony Youngblood
47 Nashville 6 A.M. John Guider
35 54 Kit Kite Still Searching
Word of Mouth
Jennie Chapman Linthorst
66 Art See
72
70 Maira Kalman At the Frist
72 Beyond the Real A Surrealistic Twist on American Realism
50 NPT 87 Under the Radar by Molly Secours 88 Field Notes Ali Cavanaugh
62 Lily Hansen 64 Poet’s Corner
105
90 Critical i 101 On the Town by Ted Clayton 104 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman 105 Appraise It by Linda Dyer
106 My Favorite Painting
78 Signe and Genna Grushovenko Days Gone By 82 Kaaren Hirschowitz Engel Cultural Constructions in Color 92 Theatre
94
94 The Beacon on the Hill St. Cecilia: Nashville’s First Patron Saint of the Arts 96 ArtSmart
18
78
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 7
Featured Artist
Wanda Choate
PUBLISHER ' S NOTE
Art Creates a City
W
hat could be more exciting than discovering an artist whose work takes your breath away, gets you thinking and smiling all at the same time. There was a collective inquisitive stare when into our offices strolled a petite young lady carrying a large black-and-white photograph of her work. We all stepped a little closer to get a better look and to wrap our heads around what we were looking at. Introducing Kit Kite, a conceptual artist whose work is smart, honest, and thought provoking. You can see her work on page 54.
Kit Kite, Carton convicted morning
On His Way And He Is Going To Make It oil on Panel 24” x 40”
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
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARTIN O’CONNOR
There are always a million things to do on a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon. I chose to go to Father Ryan High School and enjoy the Dance Theatre of Tennessee’s production of Hansel & Gretel. And I’m glad I did. The troupe just keeps getting better. The costuming, the choreography, the sets . . . all first class. And I’m happy to report that a nearly full house felt the same way I did. We were all at the right place at the right time.
DTT, Hansel and Gretel
Trouble & Love, the new album from Mary Gauthier, proves what I and most in the music business have known for a long time—that when it comes to grabbing your heart with a lyric that stays with you long after the music has stopped, no one does it better. With her rhythmic guitar picking and melodies that fall somewhere between Guy Clark, Leonard Cohen, and the Boss himself, Gauthier weaves a hypnotic spell with her words that is impossible to resist. The first track, “When a Woman Goes Cold,” opens with this gem: “She didn’t get mad, she didn’t even cry, she lit a cigarette, and she said goodbye.” That’s as good as it gets, and I love it. Meet Mary on page 35. I am thrilled with our Nashville 6 A.M. photography series. What a wonderful way for us to experience our city through the eyes of our best photographers. This month John Guider went to Radnor Lake and came back with stunning images of the wildlife and the natural beauty of the area. We are fortunate to have this oasis in our backyard. Check out his communion with the critters on page 47. Paul Polycarpou Editor in Chief
Lexus | Nashville would like to welcome our next artist in residence
Ken Vrana showcasing his “ICON” series through November.
2010 Rosa L Parks Blvd Nashville TN 37208
Beat the heat and celebrate the Independence Day holiday as the Nashville Symphony plays all-American classics by Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin and more, along with Tchaikovsky’s explosive 1812 Overture.
July 2 BUY TICKETS AT:
NashvilleSymphony.org 615.687.6400
With Support From
WITH SUPPORT FROM
Harvest Night, where you will sip, savor and smile under the stars.
get down-home with national talent Sean Brock • Tyler Florence Amanda Freitag • Mike Lata Tim Love • Masaharu Morimoto Aarón Sánchez • Frank Stitt Michael Symon • Jonathan Waxman Tandy Wilson • Trisha Yearwood Andrew Zimmern • & Many More
september
20
&
21
9musiccityfW.com0
NashviLLe’s ReaL estate sigN of DistiNctioN
40 Burton hills Blvd., suite 230 • (615) 250-7880 Worthproperties.com
1640 WhisPeRiNg hiLLs DRive • $3,250,000
101 cheRRy BRaNch LaNe • $2,999,900
9556 coNcoRD RD • $2,798,000
1836 oLD Natchez tRace • $2,795,000
355 JoNes PaRkWay • $2,748,800
10 iNveRaRay • $2,380,000
1600 WhisPeRiNg hiLLs DR • $2,199,000
3100 DeL Rio Pike • $1,975,000
Un
S
der
O
Con
tra
LD
Ct
S
O
LD
1704 oLD hiLLsBoRo RD. • $4,999,900
1495 WiLLoWBRooke ciRcLe • $1,749,000
221 aRRoWheaD RoaD • $1,582,000
521 excaLiBuR couRt • $1,538,900
804 PRiNcetoN hiLLs DR • $1,499,000
4513 BaLLoW LaNe • $1,298,000
815 tyNe BLvD • $1,228,000
“It’s worth a call to Laura Baugh. I’m never too busy for you!” gNaR award of excellence Life Member and 8 time Diamond award Recipient
mobile: 615-330-3051 • office: 615-250-7880 • Laurabaugh3@gmail.com
The River Inside I
t has been 11 years since John Guider put his canoe in the creek behind his Franklin home and began a 1,200-mile paddle that would end in New Orleans. In subsequent years he canoed the Mississippi in its entirety, and his efforts resulted in a national touring exhibition, The River Inside, A Photographic Journey by John Guider. Seventy-five large platinum prints document the sites and people Guider encountered. The exhibit also includes his canoe, detailed journal entries, artifacts, and geographic maps detailing the waterways he traveled. “The River Inside was as much a journey of personal exploration and discovery as physical. I wanted it to be a journey that would encompass mind, body, – T. S. ELIOT and spirit. I wanted to better understand who I am and why I am here,” explained Guider.
“THE RIVER IS WITHIN US; THE SEA SURROUNDS US.”
Organized by the Tennessee State Museum and presented in conjunction with the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa, initial support for the exhibition was provided by Ingram Marine. The exhibition has been touring since it opened in 2008 and in April made its ninth stop at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum (LASM) on the banks of the Mississippi. The River Inside: A Photographic Journey by John Guider will be on view through June 29 at Louisiana Art & Science Museum in Baton Rouge. For more information or to see more of Guider’s work, please visit www.lasm.org and www.johnguider.com.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 13
The Fr a nk lin C onnection by Sara Lee Burd
I
n her May “As I See It” column, Susan Edwards reminded us of Diego Velázquez’s legacy painting, Las Meninas. As the royal painter to King Philip IV, Velázquez made numerous portraits of Spain’s elite, but Las Meninas is his magnum opus. It is recognized as one of the most important and puzzling paintings in Western art, and much has been debated regarding this painting’s unique perspective, striking composition, unconventional lighting, broader symbolisms presentation of 17th century fashion, daily life in the royal court, and elevation of the status of artists to elite and philosophical. After reading Edwards’s column, Nan Parrish called our offices and brought this work home. She noted, “It’s a right of passage to paint the ‘infanta’. It’s a goal that master painters strive to achieve. Attempting this painting is a sign of accomplishment.” Artists over the centuries have studied,
appropriated, and referenced the iconic image and made it their own, including Francisco Goya, John Singer Sargent, Pablo Picasso (who created a series of 58 interpretations), Salvadore Dalí, Eve Sussman, Vik Muniz, Lluis Barba, and many more than I could possibly list here. Parrish introduced us to Franklin artist Walter Bunn Gray’s homage. Unlike Velázquez, he was not concerned with making a naturalistic image of the princess. Instead he created work for a 20th century audience that appreciates abstraction.
Walter Bunn Gray, La Infanta #1, Series #2, Oil on canvas, 47” x 39”
The expertly rendered painting presents the infanta and her handmaid as ghostly figures from the past. With sketch-like incisions on the surface of the canvas, he highlights the subtle details of the young princess immortalized by Velázquez. Unknowingly Velázquez set a challenge in 1656, and Gray found his own way to master the Master.
Liquid Light
a new series of paintings by Edie Maney
presented by The Arts Company
Opening June 7 - Through June 28, 2014
KELLY S. WILLIAMS “life science” DLG JUNE 2014 DAVID LUSK GALLERY
516 Hagan St . Nashville . davidluskgallery.com
2
3
1
1 2460 Hidden River $3,700,000 2 Stillhouse Hollow Farms $16,500,000
7 412 Jackson $3,295,000 8 434 Grayson $2,695,000
450 acres (up to 350 additional acres available)
4
Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953
9 1160 Manley $2,690,000 10 110 Lynnwood $2,500,000 11 3619 West End $2,000,000 12 2179 S Berrys Chapel $1,849,000
3 939 Tyne $4,495,000 4 4816 Post Road $3,995,000 5 5004 Hill Place $3,800,000 6 309 Lynnwood $3,390,000
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
13 3814 Hobbs $1,750,000 14 1618 Old Hillsboro $1,750,000 15 2900 Tyne $1,695,000 16 1213 Vintage Place $1,495,000 17 231 Craighead $1,395,000 18 400 Chesterfield $1,349,000
RICK FRENCH 615-604-2323c
615-292-2622o
BROKER
FRENCHKING.COM
16
17
18
Impressions of Spring Stanford Fine Art Through June 30
Robert Hamilton, American, 1877-1956, Hurricane, Oil on panel, 8” x 10”
Dorothea Litzinger, American, 1889-1925, Garden in Bloom, Oil on canvas, 35” x 42” 18 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
S
by Margaret Walker, Art Consultant tanford Fine Art’s current exhibition, Impressions of Spring, celebrates the enthusiasm for the floral genre among artists painting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Gardens are a subject that invites plein-air study and were thus popular among European and American Impressionists. Most of these artists were Americans who painted their summer retreats, friends’ homes, trips abroad, and landmarks like Emily Post’s home. Jacques Bartoli, French, 1920 -1997, Le Palm Beach a Ajaccio, Oil on canvas, 32” x 39”
Dorothea Litzinger’s remind us that we are on the edge of a home, and judging from the vibrancy of both of these works we would imagine they are very welcoming homes indeed. The final two sections show women at leisure and at work in their gardens and the liminal spaces—doors, windows, and archways—that allow for transitions between the inside and outside. Joseph Milner Kite shows sisters at rest in a hammock hanging at the garden wall. Eurilda Loomis France’s watercolor shows us that modern woman of the early twentieth century actively tending to her flowers. It serves a double purpose since France, who lived from 1865–1931, was quite modern herself, making a successful career as an artist. Stanford Fine Art specializes in investment quality art from the nineteenth century to the present and is located at 6608A Highway 100. The current exhibition will be up through June 30. For more information, visit www.stanfordfineart.net.
James Topping, American, 1879-1949, Windswept Landscape, Oil on board, 27” x 30”
The works in the show were painted at a time when American interest in gardening went through a renaissance. The late nineteenth century saw garden clubs, magazines, and floral art abounding. Gardening was even a feminist pursuit, enabling women to engage in a more active lifestyle in what was still a culturally acceptable arena. It is appropriate, therefore, that the exhibition features a number of paintings by female artists, including Eurilda Loomis France, Maud Mason, and Marguerite Pearson. The exhibition “zooms in” gradually from wide landscapes to indoor still-lifes, allowing the viewer to study changes in light and shadow. Beginning with broad, sweeping landscapes artists have emphasized atmospheric effects—wind, in particular. The viewer is caught up in the awesomeness of natural surroundings, but small, tucked-away buildings in Karl Buehr’s and James Topping’s paintings help to establish a sense of place. Next, we see gardens setting the stage for the home; buildings and structural elements have more prominence in these works. The emphasis is now on color, light, and shadow among the flowers. The stone gate in Charles Neal’s painting and the white picket fence in
Maud Mason, American, 1867-1956, Still life with Flowers, Oil on canvas, 25” x 30”
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 19
Americans for the Arts
2014 ANNUAL CONVENTION NASHVILLE, TN JUNE 13–15, 2014
Metro Arts and Americans for the Arts would like to thank these local sponsors for their generous support of the 2014 Annual Convention
Learn more about the convention at www.AmericansForTheArts.org
COURTESY OF WATKINS COLLEGE OF ART, DESIGN & FILM
Americans for the Arts Comes to Town ARTventure: Printmaking
COURTESY OF THE CMHOF MUSEUM
COURTESY OF HATCH SHOW PRINT
Omni Nashville Hotel June 12–15
PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF MOLES
Hatch Show Print Posters
by Wendy Wilson
A
mericans for the Arts is hosting its annual convention here this month, and Casey Summar is among those who see this as another sign that Nashville is making a name for itself in the arts world. “This is an opportunity for us to showcase how far Nashville has come with building a vibrant arts sector,” says Summar, executive director of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville. “I think we’ve gone beyond ‘That’s great for Nashville’ to ‘That’s great on a national level.’” Based in Washington, DC, with a smaller office in New York City, Americans for the Arts is dedicated to building stronger communities through the arts. Nashville first hosted the national group’s convention in 2002.
COURTESY OF THE CMHOF MUSEUM
Graham Dunstan, senior director of marketing and communications for Americans for the Arts, says the group was drawn to Nashville again because of the way the arts here are part of the fabric of day-to-day life. “Since our last convention in Nashville in 2002, the city has faced the economic consequences of the recession, significant transformation of the music industry,
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
ARTventure: Healing and the Arts
Child in CMHOF Rotunda
and a natural disaster, and yet the arts and the city are thriving,” Dunstan says. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend the June 12–15 convention at the new Omni Nashville Hotel. “Americans for the Arts booked the convention when the hotel was just an idea,” says Jennifer Cole, executive director of the Metro Nashville Arts Commission (MNAC). “Their trust in us and the city’s ability to host has been huge.” As the lead local agency, Cole and her team organized a host committee, raised over $170,000, provided full-time staffing, and coordinated all local artist and talent engagements. Through a series of ARTventures, attendees will tour the city to learn about Nashville history and hear from educational, business, and community leaders involved in promoting the arts. They also will have the chance to visit such sites as the Parthenon, Cheekwood, Pinewood Social, and 5th Avenue of the Arts. Cole says, “We get to go past the veneer of country music and have folks from L.A. to Des Moines unwrap our city and understand how artists, cultural organizations, and innovators work together to make us a leading creative force. “Hosting the convention brings the brightest minds in arts policy, arts education, and community arts together. It is a great national canvas to showcase our work and the innovation that makes Nashville special.” For more information about Americans for the Arts, visit www.americansforthearts.org or Metro Arts Commission at www.nashville.gov/arts-commission.aspx.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 21
James Threalkill Grows Abstract Centennial Art Center • June 6 by Cass Teague
J
ames Threalkill’s art presents a passion for the beauty of life and the vibrancy of color and movement. In his newest exhibit at Centennial Art Center, Threalkill stepped away from his signature realistic approach to create a vibrant collection of abstract expressionistic paintings. “My goal for this show was to explore the realms of creative continuity through abstract expression,” says Threalkill. “As a realism painter by nature, the challenge of approaching subject matter with a totally different approach was an intriguing experience in planning and execution. The spontaneity of the process was enhanced by my desire to work in a more uninhibited manner. The outcome represents a measure of growth in my continual evolution as an artist.” Since he began painting at the age of 13, Threalkill’s growth has been phenomenal by any measure. In 1995, he traveled to South Africa to coordinate a mural project with students in Soweto, where he met face to face with President Nelson Mandela. Threalkill’s work is included in numerous corporate and private collections.
Desert Rhapsody, 2014, Acrylic, 48” x 36”
James Threalkill’s exhibit at Centennial Art Center opens with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 6. The exhibit will be on view through July 23. For more information, visit www.bit.ly./1bGcNLK.
Platetone’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition Through August 8 at Harpeth Hall
P
ast, Present and Future, opening at Marnie Sheridan Gallery at Harpeth Hall School on June 8, showcases the work of members of Platetone Printmaking, Paper and Book Arts. Founded in 2004 as a community printmaking studio, Platetone expanded its vision in 2012 to include additional paper media and book arts.
and the fact that it’s Platetone’s 10th anniversary is just one more reason to celebrate the work they do.” Coordinated by Kaaren Hirschowitz Engel and Leslie Patterson-Marx, Past, Present and Future will exhibit work by over 25 artists including B i l l T yler, Jorge Mendoz a , Jennifer Knowles-McQuistion, Mega n K el le y, Mega n L it t le, Carrie Cox, and Bryce Coatney. A portion of the show is dedicated to the late Patricia Jordan, a beloved and vital founding member of Platetone.
By providing accessibility to studio space and equipment, sponsoring events that showcase books, paper arts, and printmaking, Platetone aims to support local artists, inspire new artists, and provide educational opportunities for all ages. See more about Platetone on page 45. “The concept for the show was to bring the gem that is Platetone to the Harpeth Hall campus,” explained Doris Wasserman, Director of Marnie Sheridan Gallery. “It was a natural to approach them with the idea of exhibiting work by all the members,
Platetone Printmaking, Paper and Book Arts celebrates its 10 th Anniversary with the exhibit Past, Present and Future open June 8 through August 8 at Harpeth Hall’s Marnie Sheridan Galler y.
W.R. Tyler, Fiddler’s Wagon (Strawberry Shindig), Linoleum cut on Arches150 gm cover, black litho oil-based ink, 12” x 9”
22 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
The opening reception and artists’ talk is on Sunday, June 8, from 3 to 5 p.m. For more information, visit bit.ly/1jP9zrA.
A SUMMER RETROSPECTIVE OF FAVORITES
E XHIB IT ION R UNS T HR OUGH AUGUS T 9 , 2 0 1 4 The Summer Retrospective will highlight a broad range of gallery artists, both new to the gallery and long-standing favorites. With archival photographs, delicate drawings, and stunning oil paintings, the show will represent the quality and diversity of work offered by the gallery as a whole. But we’ll specifically be revisiting some of the gallery’s favorite pieces, both from up-and-coming artists and established figures, like Martin Arnold, Carl Sublett, and Karen Horn. They are enduring pieces that are not only masterfully crafted but also emotional, alluring and engaging.
HAYNES GALLERIES ON THE MUSIC ROW ROUNDABOUT IN NASHVILLE
Nashville Arts Magazine
BEST IN SHOW
Marilee Hall Takes Nashville Arts Magazine Best in Show Award by Rebecca Pierce
O
n an absolutely spectacular Friday in May, editors from Nashville Arts Magazine spent hours enjoying the fine craftsmanship on display at the 43rd Annual Tennessee Craft Fair (formerly TACA) and searching for this year’s Nashville Arts Magazine Best in Show. In the categories of inventiveness, creativity, and originality, the work of a number of artisans caught our attention, but we kept coming back to ceramic artist Marilee Hall’s wonderfully whimsical sculpture and vessels. “Though the technical aspects of Marilee’s work are something to appreciate and behold—the inventive way she creates sculptures in clay that appear weightless and how she layers glazes to achieve rich colors and textures—it was the enchanting narrative quality of her work that ultimately beckoned us to linger over her work and award her Best in Show,”
Off with the Head!
explained Sara Lee Burd, Executive Editor for Nashville Arts Magazine.
bring her work into the world and watch people interact with it.
Marilee is no novice. She’s been working with clay on a professional level for 36 years, and she started participating in craft shows and fairs when the whole concept was in its infancy some 30 years ago. After all this time she still finds it exhilarating and exciting, in part because she gets to
“Now that I have gained some technical a d e pt ne s s a nd a m b e y ond t he ol d awkwardness, I can say something with my work. I loved all the children that visited me at Centennial Park because they really suspend disbelief. I showed an allegorical piece with two guys in a bird costume and one of the guys turns into a bird. The kids loved it because they see that anything is possible,” Marilee said with a twinkle in her eye. In June, Marilee will be a part of the exhibit Women Ceramic Sculptors – Dynamic Narratives at the National Association of Women Artists in New York, and in August she will exhibit with fellow female ceramic artists at Tennessee Art League. Beginning in July her work will be available at The Copper Fox in Leiper’s Fork. Congratulations to Marilee Hall along with Bill Dale for winning the 2014 Nashville Arts Magazine Best in Show. We will feature Dale’s work in an upcoming issue.
Talking with His Totem
Wedding Cake Topper for Stan and Jerry
24 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
To see more of Marilee’s work, visit www.marileehallceramics.com.
The Vicious Vicar of Verdun Opens at Fort Houston June 7
F
ort Houston features Daniel Holland’s large-scale abstract paintings this month. The layers of colors and crude graffiti-like marks presented on canvases and boards suggest Holland’s process is contemplative and intentional yet paradoxically free and chaotic. The exhibition, entitled The Vicious Vicar of Verdun, comes from Holland’s poetry, which, like his paintings, references his interests in history, maps, and his coming of age during the 1990s. Holland finds inspiration in the biting, humorous “zines” by Aleister Crowley Visits Kinshasa!, 2014, Mark Gonzalez, the provocative Oil and charcoal on canvas, 42” x 42” writing and paintings by Julian Schnabel, the wild markings of chimpanzee turned artist Congo, and the grit and poignancy of Iggy Pop. The work in this show “is about the borderlands,” Holland says. “It’s in between time . . . when glass seems to melt . . . that moment of absence. It’s an attempt to glorify release.” The Vicious Vicar of Verdun opens Saturday, June 7, at TALMagazineAD.pdf 5/15/14 2:50:51 PM 5 p.m. at Fort Houston. For more information, please visit www.forthouston.com and www.danielhollandart.com.
NPT’s 5th Annual
Antiques & Fine Arts Appraisal Day June 14 at The Factory “You’ve heard of people-watching. Well, consider this the perfect event for antique-watching. You’ll be amazed at what folks bring in. Some return every year excited about new treasures they’ve picked up during the year, curious about the value. It’s turned into a truly exciting event,” said Sheila Fischer, corporate and community development manager for Na shv i l le P ubl ic Television (NPT). NPT’s 5 th annual A ntiques & Fine A r ts Appraisa l Day w il l feature some of t he f inest appraisers in the region. Cost for appraisals is $75 for three items or $150 for six items. All proceeds directly support NPT’s educational, cultural, and civic programming. Appraisal Day takes place Saturday, June 14, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Factory in Franklin. Please visit www.wnpt.org/antiques2014 for advance registration and a listing of accepted items.
To Commemorate our 60 Year Anniversary BE ONE OF 1000 ART LOVERS TO DONATE! $60 X 1000 = $60,000
TENNESSEE ART LEAGUE IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION SUPPORTING THE ARTS SINCE 1954.
TENNESSEE ART LEAGUE
219 5TH AVENUE • NASHVILLE, TN • 615-736-5000 • WWW.TAL5.COM
FACEBOOK.COM/TNARTLEAGUE
Little Bitty Pretty One at Cheekwood by Sara Lee Burd | Photography by Jerry Atnip
C
he e k w o o d ’s 2014 M a r t i n S h a l l e n b e r ge r Artist-in-Residence Patrick Dougherty is known internationally for his large-scale stick structures, and now Nashville has one of its own. Little Bitty Pretty One sprang up at Cheekwood over a three-week period in April and will remain in the gardens for two years. The concept for Little Bitty Pretty One comes from Dougherty’s consideration of old English mansions and gardens which used to have faux, nonsensical buildings. The twisting, soaring, conical structures beckon visitors to come down the surrounding hills to enjoy a place of wonder and fun. Like the organic forms of Antoni Gaudi’s famed Sagrada Familia, which Dougherty keeps close for inspiration as his laptop’s screen saver, Little Bitty Pretty One ignites imaginations through seemingly impossible shape, scale, openings, and movement. Dougherty uses sticks like a painter uses paint and brushstrokes to create texture, rhythm, mass, and form. He defines himself as an artist, not a craftsman, because he is not following a tradition. To Dougherty, the essence of craft is learning to use resources properly and employing practices refined by a master. His goal is much different—it is unknown, and he approaches each new project as an infant “ready to fail, unsure, but ready to learn and engage.” While the only real requirement for materials is that the sticks are flexible, Dougherty tries to plan his work around the spring thaw to catch the saplings at their best, before they have green leaves. Some people worry about harvesting all the “baby trees,” but he says, “Using saplings is a way to appreciate and make use of something that would just be cleared with a bulldozer.” Dougherty worked with Leigh Anne Lomax, Botanical Garden & Horticulture Manager at Cheekwood, to find fields of young trees to harvest for the Cheekwood 26 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
installation. Little Bitty Pretty One is made mostly of ash, elm, dogwood, privet, and maple, which are quite common in Nashville’s forests. According to Dougherty, “The best materials came between a ditch and the women’s prison.” HCA’s expansion also provided grounds for trees. Working in public environments helps Dougherty to understand the impact of his work on an audience. Comments from passersby and volunteers fuel his creativity and inspiration for what he is making as he learns to see his work from other people’s perspectives. “I gained a whole new perspective on my sculpture when working with a group of African guys. Looking at the mound of saplings onsite, they exclaimed it was more than an elephant could eat in a day!”
Dougherty notes that the staff and volunteers at Cheekwood became a vital part of his project. “We worked together closely to arrive at the final product, and they often joked, ‘Don’t look if you don’t want to know. Once you start focusing on sticks as sculpting material, you will never stop seeing new ideas.’ ” Visit Cheekwood through March 2015 to see Patrick Dougherty’s Little Bitty Pretty One. The Courtyard Gallery features a selection of Dougher t y’s installations in Stickwork Photography through June 29. Please visit www.cheekwood.org for more information.
es_0614HHB.indd 1
The Vegas Bed
Now in Nashville
73 White Bridge Rd • 615-352-6085 • Mon-Sat 10–6 • Sun 1-5 • 2danes.com
5/14/14 9:10
CRAWL GUIDE June art crawls begin with the Franklin Art Scene on Friday, June 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. in historic downtown Franklin where over 30 galleries and working studios will participate. Gallery 202 will showcase sculpture by Emily Allison and paintings by Kelly Harwood. The Heirloom Shop will display work by Bren Brow n, a self-taught ar tist who creates portraits using oils and charcoal. The Bagbey House will present it s ne w e s t re s id e nt a r t i s t , Shelley Newman-Holmes, with a beach-themed party and live music. O’More College of Design will feature the Tennessee Watercolor Society’s 34th Juried Exhibition. Bob Parks Realty will exhibit The Women of Williamson County, featuring local watercolor artists Heirloom Shop - Bren Brown Susan Harlan, Gail McDaniel, Gale Haddock, and Shelley Snow. Rachael McCampbell will be the featured artist at Regions Bank. The First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown takes place on Saturday, June 7, from 6 until 9 p.m. Tinney Contemporary will feature CONTINUUM, new work by Carol Mode. The Arts Company will present Liquid Light, a new series of paintings by Edie Maney, and Culinary Drama, new paintings by Denise Stewart-Sanabria. The Rymer Gallery will exhibit Tinney Contemporary - Carol Mode QUINTESSENTI A L DELTA, new paintings by Betsy Brackin. Tennessee Art League will celebrate their 60th anniversary with a show dedicated to their long-term members.
In the Arcade, Blend Studio will unveil Passages: Recent Work by Joan Branca, which showcases the transformative power of water in landscape. 40AU and HAUS will present Miranda Herrick’s Reflective, featuring ma nd a l as, qu i lt bloc k s, a nd pat ter ns m ade f rom reclaimed materials. Ultra V iolet Ga l ler y w i l l host Christian Sperka, Resident Wildlife Photographer for Thanda Private Game Reserve in South Africa, who will present ZULULAND – Wildlife Ultra Violet Gallery - Christian Sperka and People in the African South. WAG will exhibit Rather Sketchy: Sketchbooks, brainstorms and process-work by graphic design senior and illustrator Holly Carden. Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston takes place on Saturday, June 7, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. David Lusk Gallery will open the exhibition Life Science by Kelly Williams. Zeitgeist will exhibit Brady Haston’s A Brief History of Nashville and Paul Collins’s Building Forever. Seed Space will present a one-night performance by Mike Stasny, founder of CLUB MSIF, a performance art and music project, and an exhibition of collage works Eventually the Pendulum Swings by Lester Merriweather. Threesquared will exhibit The Seed Space - Lester Merriweather Secret Room, works by Watkins College of Art, Design and Film’s admissons recruiters David Hellams, Jaime Raybin, and Jenna Maurice. Fort Houston will present The Vicious Vicar of Verdun, paintings by Daniel Holland (see page 25). Julia Martin Gallery will present BEVY a group show including new works by Jono Vaughan, Kit Kite (see page 54), Johnny Bruno, Angela Burks, Julia Martin, and more.
threesquared - Raybin
The Arts Company - Denise Stewart-Sanabria
On Thursday, June 20, at 7 p.m. UnBound Arts will host Third Thursdays at The Building featuring works by visual artists David Wariner (see page 33) and Keith Carter. Musical performances by Kevin Gordon and Year of October will start at 8:30.
28 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
TOP PICKS
Summer is ushering in new styles a n d t r e n d s . H e r e a r e a f e w o f Ke i t h ' s favorites & new arrivals, which I'm s u r e will end up in some of Nashville's H O T T E S T H O M E S!
2014
50
1/
2"
Ta l l A n t i q u e G a r d e n U r n s
Late 19th Century, Attributed to J.L. Mott $4,600 Pair
BRAVE NEW ART
PHILIP GLASS AN EVENING OF CHAMBER MUSIC
Hollywood Regency Revival Lamps
FEATURING PHILIP GLASS & TIM FAIN
Silk Shade $390 each
M i d C e n t u r y M o d e r n C r e d e n za Quarter Sawn Veneer Top & Brass Legs $2,900
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
WE C A N RE M O U N T YO U R D I A M O N D IN ONE OF THESE MOUNTINGS
“No musician since Stravinsky has had so great an impact on the sound of music of his own time.” -HIGH PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE
FRIDAY, JUNE 20 | SATURDAY, JUNE 21 8pm (80min, no intermission) TICKETS: $75 OZNASHVILLE.COM 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle, Nashville, TN 37209 | (615) 350-7200
The Bookmark A Monthly Look at Hot Books and Cool Reads
Jalan-Jalan For more information about these books, visit www.parnassusbooks.net.
Rural Studio at Twenty ANDREW FREEAR
A GreAt ChAnGe of SpACe Celebrating 15 years as nashville’s Most Unique Showroom 2503 winford avenue • nashville, Tn 37211 www.jAlAnjAlAnAntiqUeS.CoM
Here’s a book that looks good, reads well, and leaves you with a warm feeling in your soul. The follow-up to the bestselling Rural Studio (2002) checks in on this amazing project as it reaches its 20-year anniversary. Behold how the students of Auburn University’s Rural Studio have created homes and community buildings for some of the poorest families in the nation, the residents of Alabama’s Hale County. It’s truly inspiring to see how salvaged lumber, bricks, tires, concrete, bottles, carpet tiles, and license plates are transformed into inexpensive buildings that are also models of sustainable architecture. Architects, community advocates, professors, and students will love it.
The Vacationers EMMA STRAUB It’s got all the ingredients you want in a fun summer read: beautiful setting, family drama, juicy flings, intriguing strangers, and a healthy dose of comedy amid insightful renderings of the complicated dynamics among friends, lovers, parents, and children. Straub brings her witty storytelling to bear on the Post family and their loved ones, all of whom convene in Mallorca for a two-week getaway intended to provide relief from a variety of stressors back in New York. As you might guess, nothing goes quite as planned. Meet the author at Parnassus on June 26.
Hard Choices HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON “All of us face hard choices in our lives. Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become.” That’s how Hillary Rodham Clinton begins this memoir of her four years as America’s Secretary of State. Plunged into the center of war, fractured international alliances, a global financial crisis, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and growing threats from multiple directions, she assisted the man who had been her rival for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential race, President Barack Obama, in working through some of the toughest dilemmas in US foreign policy.
Fourth of July Creek SMITH HENDERSON Here’s what Philipp Meyer, New York Times bestselling author of The Son, had to say about this novel: “This book left me awestruck; a stunning debut which reads like the work of a writer at the height of his power . . . Fourth of July Creek is a masterful achievement and Smith Henderson is certain to end up a household name.” Here, Henderson tells the story of Pete Snow, a social worker who tries to help Benjamin Pearl, a hungry, feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, only to come face to face with the boy’s paranoid survivalist father whose activities draw the attention of the FBI.
Film Review
THE
E astsiderS With His New Documentary, Filmmaker Ron Coons Makes a Music Movie about East Nashville by Joe Nolan
I
f you were in Nashville back in 2000, that may have been the year you made your first trip across the river to East Nashville. That was the year that Mike Grimes opened his fabled Slow Bar at Five Points and turned the neighborhood into a destination for Westsiders.
Ron Coons’ East Side of the River traces the history of East Nashville from the 1990s to the present, pointing to events like the opening of Slow Bar and the 1998 tornado as milestones that marked the neighborhood’s progress from being a place “where people came to buy drugs” to becoming a community full of world-class musicians, songwriters, and music studios. Local luminaries like Tim Carroll, Mike Grimes, Tom Mason, Audley Freed, Pete Finney, Reeves Gabrels, James Rubin, Kevin Gordon, Chuck Mead, Jack Silverman, Peter Cooper and many more are interviewed here, making Coons’ film an oral history of the place and its music told by the people who live and work and play there.
BR 549 perform in front of Slow Bar
PHOTOGRAPH BY RON COONS
Coons has a nothing-fancy approach here, presenting successions of talking heads intercut with footage and still images of East Nashville’s streets, stores, festivals, and people. It’s all nice enough to look at, but I was wishing for a tighter edit in sections
Lindsay Lawler
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN PARTIPILLO
According to a new documentary about East Nashville, the opening of the music venue created a seismic shift in the neighborhood’s transformation—it gave neighbors a place to congregate and exposed local music fans to a part of town many had never seen. And after a few evenings at Slow Bar many of them didn’t want to leave.
where Coons has musician after musician essentially saying the exact same thing about some aspect of East Nashville and its creative scene. One gets the sense that Coons is too much in love with his subject to streamline his footage, which is no great sin. On the flip side, he clearly knows the neighborhood well. The casting of his interviewees is spot on, and newbies will definitely leave this film with a real feel for the neighborhood’s creative community, which is cast here as an alternative to the commercialism of Music Row. East Nashville guitar Houdini Reeves Gabrels sums it up best saying, “East Nashville is real people creating real music, versus people who are doing it for fame or doing it for stardom. At the end of the day it’s the art you make; it’s not the chart position.” I’d like to see a documentary that tells the story of East Nashville beginning with the neighborhood’s earliest days. It’s not fair to burden Coons’ film with that story, but the irony is palpable when his interviewees begin to grouse about rising rents, Hummers, and baby strollers. After seeing the film, I found myself wondering about the communities that have been displaced from the neighborhood in the last twenty years. What was their music like?
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 31
As I See It UMBERTO BOCCIONI’S
Continuit y in Space
L
ike many of us my first exposure to Italian Futurist art was in a classroom. I was drawn particularly to one of the most renowned examples of Futurism, Umberto Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913. The English translation of the title seemed so apt, and yet only weeks later when I saw an image of the same sculpture taken from another vantage point, I did not recognize it. It was a humbling realization.
As the principal theorist for the movement, Boccioni promoted the Futurists’ themes of movement, dynamism, speed, machine aesthetics, and simultaneity. He was the author of the 1910 Futurist manifesto on sculpture, in which he distanced himself from the towering progenitor of modern sculpture, Auguste Rodin, by renouncing the nude and classicism. Yet, Fergonzi explains that Boccioni was influenced by Rodin’s statements made in 1911 that movement was best represented not by a single moment in a continuum but rather a synthesis of different movements. Also, Boccioni looked explicitly at Rodin’s Walking Man, 1905, which had been put on exhibit at the Palazzo Farnese in Rome in 1911. With feet firmly on the ground, the figure conveys movement not as a moment frozen in time but rather as a “synthetic representation of forces in action.”1 A first-hand experience with art can be enlightening to any of us.
© THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, IMAGE SOURCE: ART RESOURCE, NY
To understand the work, I needed to focus my attention and see it in person, in the round, if possible. Fortunately, there are opportunities to see the sculpture in this country. Until Labor Day, a version of Unique Forms of Continuity in Space is on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, in Italian Futurism 1904–1944, Reconstructing the Universe, an exhibition worthy of repeat visits or at least once, if possible. In the accompanying catalogue, Flavio Fergonzi points out that as a sculptor Umberto Boccioni wanted to avoid representing cinematic stop action or the stasis of Cubism.
Umberto Boccioni, 1913, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, Bronze, 48” x 15” x 36”
1. Flavio Fergonzi, “The Question of ‘Unique Forms’: Theory and Works,” in Vivien Greene. Italian Futurism 1909-1944, Reconstructing the University (New York: Guggenheim, 2014), 127-130.
Susan H. Edwards, PhD
Executive Director & CEO, Frist Center for the Visual Arts
32 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
ABSOLUTE ONLINE AUCTION Art from the Collection of Paul Harmon
The Great Unknowns
Paul Harmon is a Tennessee treasure with works on display at the Tennessee State Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, the Museum of A of Monaco, and the Modern Art city of Caen, France. McLemore Auction Company will sell nearly 200 works from his personal collection including 84 of his own original works.
Lot #302: Paul Harmon (American, b. 1939). “Maria Teresa”. Original oil on canvas painted in Harmon’s Paris studio. Size: 46” x 35”. Signed, titled, and dated (1990) by the artist on back of canvas.
Patti Baldini, Auctioneer
n 615-500-4917 n 10% Buyer’s Premium
www.mclemoreauction.com
ABSOLUTE ONLINE AUCTION Original Art by Zoey Brookshire Closes June 18 Beginning at 2:00 PM CT
Zoey Brookshire is a North Carolina based artist whose work has hung in studios and galleries around the world. This unique auction event will include more than 300 works from the artist’s studio.
More than 300 Original Works Will Sell
470 Woodycrest Avenue, Nashville, TN 615-517-7675
10% Buyer’s Premium
www.mclemoreauction.com
David Wariner
B
PHOTOGRAPH BY TIFFANI BING
Closes June 11 n Beginning at 2:00 PM CT
by Jennifer Anderson
orn into a creative family of musicians, David Wariner grew up with natural artistic talent. Throughout his early school years, fellow students and teachers recognized his talent. Influenced early on by an art teacher who encouraged creativity by opening his classroom one night a week to students, David quickly developed a passion for painting. Having brothers who were professional musicians, he began painting drumheads and doing calligraphy to make signs and posters. This evolved into working freelance on album covers and illustration while continuing to paint. He was awarded a four-year scholarship to the Herron School of A r t a nd D e s i g n w it h pl a n s to st udy f i ne a r t , but, encou raged to st udy commerc i a l a r t instead, he concentrated on studio classes and art history. After a lecture by visiting artist Philip Pearlstein, who told students that “real artists don’t go to school,” he quit, opened a business, and “lost [his] art.” Wa r iner bec a me a muc hsought-after scratchboard artist in the early 80s. Inspired by the work of Red Head, 2013, Acrylic on Masonite, Bauhaus artist Joseph Albers 48” x 36” and chafing under the limitations of illustrating in black and white from photos, he decided to put his own ideas and concepts on canvas and paint full time. He is excited to be working consistently in a medium he is passionate about, to be able to translate reality from three dimensions into two, and using a color scale that allows for the movement of light into pigment. He is a painter. He is now following his path. A show featuring the work of David Wariner will open at UnBound Arts Presents: Third Thursdays at The Building on June 20 at 7 p.m. For more information, email unboundartsnashville@gmail.com.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 33
Public Art
NASHVILLE HOSTS THE AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS CONFERENCE P U B L I C A RT P R E - C O N F E R E N C E • J U N E 1 2 – 1 5
by Caroline Vincent, Public Art Manager
COURTESY OF MNAC
to work on my own projects. I am excited to see new galleries and works of public art, but also to visit my old favorites like the Frist and Cheekwood and Bluebird Café.
Greetings from Nashville mural
T
he Metro Arts team is gearing up to play host to more than 1,000 arts administrators, artists, and arts advocates on June 12–15. Last year, we visited the host city Pittsburgh and experienced what an amazing art city it is! I decided to ask Renee Piechocki, Director of Pittsburgh’s Office of Public Art, to tell us what excites her about coming to Nashville: I love Nashville. I was lucky to be working with the Public Art Network in 2002 when we planned our annual conference there. Since then, I have looked for many chances to come back
How do you anticipate things have changed since 2002 when the conference was last here? When we first visited, only a small selection of contemporary public art was located downtown, including several projects in the library. We chose to take everyone on the same public art tour since there were not enough downtown projects to fill up two tours! I know that has changed. I am looking forward to seeing Alice Aycock’s sculpture on the river as well as the new bike racks. What non-arts-related activity are you most looking forward to? This might seem funny to those who have not been there, but I am not going to miss the opportunity to visit the new version of Rebecka Vaughan’s famous store. Every woman needs a “proper foundation.” For more information on the conference and the Metro Nashville Arts Commission Percent for Art program, please visit publicart.nashville.gov. Twitter/Instagram: @ metroarts1
where art me ets the emotion of sound
atelier 13
analog - tri art audio turntable
geneve - nashville
(615) 881 0427
Gre en Hills a s e l e c t i o n of t h e wo r l d ' s fin e s t s o u n d re p ro d u c t i o n co m p o n e n t s
www.atelier13-usa.com
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 35
MARY GAUTHIER THE UPSIDE OF PAIN
WRITTEN BY MICHAEL DUKES • PHOTOGRAPHY AND DESIGN BY BUDDY JACKSON
My first exchange with Mary Gauthier takes place over the phone, but I’m standing on the curb just outside her front door. I ask whether I’ve found the right address. “Is there a little creek running past your place?”
“It was a little awkward at first,” she admits. “We had to adjust organically, not based on what we were hearing in the headphones. So the spaces in the music are there because we were respecting each other’s space in the room. It’s the old way of doing it.
“It’s a little creek now,” drawls the voice on the other end of the line. “But sometimes it turns into a raging river.” Wry laughter erupts through my phone, then crossfades into the real thing as the door opens wide. Suddenly I’m being swept up into another raging river—the hectic world of a top singer-songwriter riding high on a wave of international acclaim.
“It’s really hard to cut like this. It’s one piece, and you either get it or you don’t. I wouldn’t want to do every record this way, but for this one it felt right.”
This happens to be Gauthier’s last morning in Nashville before taking off for London and Glasgow. She’s just come from breakfast with close friend and fellow Americana torchbearer Buddy Miller. Naturally, there’s also a writing session on today’s schedule.
And the results speak for themselves. Laid down in just five days, Trouble & Love is nothing less than a Southern Gothic masterpiece. The all-star cast manages to support each song perfectly, conjuring the perfect minimalist blend of smoke, shadow, and timeless longing. The final layer of emotion comes from an equally impressive collection of guest vocalists: Darrell Scott, Ashley Cleveland, Siobhan Kennedy, Beth Nielsen Chapman, and the McCrary Sisters.
Still, she has carved out this precious hour to give the first interview in support of her new album, Trouble & Love. She fills two cups with thick black coffee—Darrell Scott taught her to roast her own beans—and we settle into a comfortable room lined floor to ceiling with eclectic art and personal artifacts. The conversation turns quickly to the creative process that yielded her latest release. “I wrote forty songs for this one,” Gauthier explains. “There are eight songs on it. So that’s thirty-two songs that are almost, but not quite, what I wanted to say. They didn’t have the deepest truth in them.
“The loving kindness of the people singing around me and playing around me helped hold me together when I was in danger of exploding into a thousand little pieces,” Gauthier confides. “I think that’s part of the process I’m in, which is learning to connect to other people in a sustainable way. It’s not been easy. Long-term relationships have not been my strength. And I’m learning with my “I like to tell a story in a song, then have all the songs on the friends how to do it.” album stack up to tell an even bigger story.”
“I came of age with albums. I like to tell a story in a song, then have all the songs on the album stack up to tell an even bigger story. So it’s a story inside a story.” And this time around, the story is all about love lost. From the stark opening lines of the very first track, Gauthier cuts straight to the grisly heart of her tale:
“After fourteen years, I wake up every day still happy to be in Nashville. It’s exciting for me to tell people I live in Nashville. My heroes all came here. My favorites. John Prine lives in Nashville. Guy Clark lives in Nashville. There’s nowhere else like this, because here the song is king. “We writers do have a competitive streak with each other. But when someone nails it, all you can do is bow down before it and go ‘that’s amazing!’ and get back to your blank piece of paper and pray. There’s a lot of ‘nailing it’ going on around here.”
She didn’t get mad, She didn’t even cry She lit a cigarette, And she said goodbye “I think that’s what Waylon would have done. Trim off the fat and get to the essence of it. We don’t have a lot of time to mess around here,” she laughs. And Gauthier certainly doesn’t mess around. Here is a writer who never flinches from her own truth, no matter how much pain it carries. Each song making up this particular story illuminates another facet of the jagged gem that is her life, held high for all to see. Co-producer and engineer Patrick Granado was instrumental in helping decide which tunes would make the final cut. “Patrick was so kind, so generous and supportive with me. He knew I was going through the tortures of hell and trying to articulate it as an artist. By the time we got to Ricky Skaggs’ studio with the band, I’d played all these songs for Patrick a bunch. We knew these were the ones.” The pair also knew what it was going to take to bring the individual stories to life. Though the writing phase stretched over a period of two years, production happened practically overnight.
The epic personal struggles defining Gauthier’s early years have been richly documented, often by the singer herself. But she seems to be in a much brighter place these days. I ask about life in Music City.
And as for the road ahead? “I’m just now feeling in my skin, centered, in the right place spiritually and emotionally with my calling,” Gauthier says. “The upside of pain is that it humbles me, and it requires me to let other people help, because you can’t do it alone. “What a crazy journey I’m on. It all feels like a divinely inspired rollercoaster. And I don’t get to steer. I just have to lower the bar and ride and hang on for dear life.” Useful advice for navigating carnival rides or Music Row. Not to mention the occasional raging river. Mary Gauthier’s album Trouble & Love on Proper Records UK is available online and in stores on June 10. She will perform at the Franklin Theatre with The Long Players on June 20 at 7 p.m.
“The songs are raw and vulnerable, and I wanted the recording to reflect that,” says Gauthier. “So in order to do that, I had to make the musicians vulnerable. We did it very simply. Straight to tape, everybody sitting in the round, no headphones.” Wait a minute–studio heavies like Guthrie Trapp, Viktor Krauss, Jimmy Wallace, and Lynn Williams letting their headphones be taken away? Seriously? 36 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
For more information visit www.marygauthier.com and www.franklintheatre.com.
where art me ets the emotion of sound
atelier 13
a m p li fi ca t i o n - p a t h o s cl a s s i c o n e mk lll
geneve - nashville
(615) 881 0427
Gre en Hills a s e l e c t i o n of t h e wo r l d ' s fin e s t s o u n d re p ro d u c t i o n co m p o n e n t s
www.atelier13-usa.com
A Tradition Of Excellence For Over 45 Years
WILLIAMSON CO. 615-263-4800 • www.FridrichandClark.com • NASHVILLE 615-327-4800
Two Beautiful Luxurious Custom Homes For Sale Belle Meade
The AdeliCiA Luxurious Urban Living
100 Woodward Hills Place
Where luxury meets quality. This home is outstanding! Smart home with all of the latest technology. Priced at $2,149,900 custom built in 2007. 6 Bedroom/6 Full Baths/2 Half Baths. 9,584 Sq. Ft. with 4 fireplaces, 3 car garage on main level, walkout daylight basement on 2.36 acres in gated community of Woodward Hills. Must see the details to truly appreciate!
GorGeoUs renovation •Stunning hardwoods •Chef ’s dream Kitchen •Custom Cabinetry & lighting •dual Master Suites with Walk-in Cedar Closets •Four Balconies •Spectacular Views •Conveys with 2 Assigned Parking Spaces •1586 Square Feet •Steps away from the Adelicia’s resort-style amenities
an amazinG vaLUe at $949,900
9251 Wardley Park Lane
Custom built former “Parade of Homes” house in Annandale. 5 Bedroom/5 full/2 Half Baths. 7293 Sq. Ft. with 4 fireplaces. New state of the art salt water gunite pool with outdoor kitchen/grill area. Open plan for entertaining with retracting Nana Wall in Family Room for flow from the indoors out. 4 car garage. Entertainer’s dream home! $1,949,900
Mary A. Kocina 615-300-5996 mkocina@comcast.net
Call for your personal showing.
Keri Cannon 615-482-1593
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEAN DIXON
Beyond Baroque Michael Samis makes classical cool, Romanticism real, and music life-affirming by Stephanie Stewart-Howard
I
first met cellist Michael Samis in the midst of a torrential downpour at Roast Coffee Company on 8th Avenue South. “This,” he reflects as we make our introductions, “is one of those days where you just can’t drink enough coffee.”
His music is easily familiar to Nashvillians: Among other noted work, including fourteen years with the Nashville Symphony, he has appeared on WPLN’s Live in Studio C, still makes regular appearances with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra (the Clarksville-based group who accompany him on the new album), and he can be heard on occasion with the Nashville Opera. June marks the release of Samis’s new CD, funded last year by an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign. He’s so full of enthusiasm about the album, coming from Delos Records, that it’s palpable. Centered around the little-known French Romantic Carl Reinecke’s Cello Concerto (written at a time when the
40 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
world was giving more credence to the darker and dissonant tonalities of Richard Wagner), it also includes Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro—the first cello and orchestra recording of that piece; Ernest Bloch’s haunting First Suite for Cello Solo (a 1956 piece modeled on Bach but referencing the miseries of the Holocaust), and two short pieces by living composers, both of which are remembrances of friends lost—Osvaldo Golijov’s “Mariel” and Sir John Tavener’s eerie, angelic “Threnos.” If you already know Samis’s name, it’s likely because of his performances with the Symphony. He’s taken a year’s leave of absence, however, to focus on independent work and has decided to pursue a solo career. “I’ve loved my time with them,” he says. “This was a very emotionally challenging decision for me.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEAN DIXON
The Symphony schedule ultimately precluded his touring in support of the new album and other projects. Currently, he’s also studying for a master’s in social work, in hopes of continuing the powerful volunteer work he’s done through the Park Center, using his music as a therapy technique with young adults battling mental illness.
Samis embodies the notion that the role of music is to “help take down the invisible walls people build between others and themselves.” Much of that positive energy goes into outreach to younger people too, whether via the educational string quartet program he helped create as part of the Nashville Symphony’s Ensembles in the Schools outreach, his previous work with Alive Hospice, or his current work blending cello music with discussion at the Park Center. Perhaps because his own parents—his mother, a violinist, his father a teacher—so nurtured the power of music in him, Samis wholeheartedly embraces the healing and life-enhancing magic of the art. “The study of social work is part of my way of giving back to the community,” he says. He adds that the use of music in therapy “goes directly into the soul, if you will, without having to always use words. I love [both music and social work]. With everything that’s gone on in the past year, I can’t imagine my life without either.” Meeting Samis, it’s impossible not to long for a copy of the CD now. Fortunately, it’s available for download on June 3 and for physical purchase June 24. Knowing the depth with which he cares for the music and its potential, one can only imagine what he’ll do with something he knows is being preserved for posterity. The CD release party for Michael’s album is on June 7 and will take place a t Deavor in Germantown. For more information or tickets, please visit www.facebook.com/deavorco. To find out more about Michael Samis please visit www.michaelsamis.com.
Standard Ice Cream, 2014
Hatch Show Print
H A L E Y G A L L E RY
STEP INSIDE Our Story
224 5th Avenue South • Downtown Nashville 615.577.7711 • HatchShowPrint.com Hatch Show Print is another historic property of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, a section 501(c)(3) non-profit education organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964.
Nashville in My Rearview Mirror As Steven Tepper Prepares to Leave Music City He Takes One Last Look
I
by Steven Tepper, Associate Director, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy and Associate Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University
1. Artists enliven a city. They take risks; they revitalize neighborhoods; they start businesses; and they apply their creative talents to our schools, our nonprofits, our hospitals, and our government. Nashville has more musicians per capita than any other city in the US, by a factor of five, and Nashville ranks in the top ten in terms of total number of artists per capita. The talent and energy from these artists animates this city and inspires me every day.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE GREEN
moved to Nashville in 2004 to join Bill Ivey to help build the Curb Center at Vanderbilt, a national policy center focused on art, enterprise, and public policy. Over the last ten years, I have written and thought quite a bit about the conditions that foster creativity—the types of places that encourage citizens, artists, and entrepreneurs to be restless innovators—seeking new ways to solve problems and enrich public life. Legendary urban scholar Jane Jacobs talks about the importance of a vital street life as well as leadership that encourages rather than “squelches” new ideas. Richard Florida talks about tolerance as a key value for a creative city. Others argue that creative cities must attract and retain artists and creative workers. In many ways Nashville is the poster child for the creative city movement. In this short column, I share my own personal observations about what I will miss about Nashville as I move to Phoenix this coming summer but, more important, what I think makes Nashville a distinctively creative place to live and work.
2. Nashville is a city of creative collaboration, and it starts with the music industry. Unlike New York and Los Angeles, Nashville’s music industry actually works together. Here, talent trumps politics; doors are open; people return phone calls; and artists mentor each other. In fact, Nashville’s legendary number system, used by session musicians to quickly learn how to play new songs together, is designed precisely to encourage open collaboration and improvisation. 3. Mayor Karl Dean. He gets it. He knows a great twenty-first-century city must nurture its artists. I will miss his leadership. 4. Jen Cole is the most dynamic and innovative arts council director in the nation. Jen is a hard-nosed public policy professional and is forging a new pathway at the intersection of art and policy.
5. Food trucks. A creative city is nourished by great food. More important, food trucks represent the spirit of the non-routine—impermanent, pop-up, creative businesses. You can’t beat a spontaneous public gathering of citizens with a passion for great grilled cheese. 6. Centennial Park. Whether the Shakespeare Festival, summer concerts, crafts fairs, or international festivals, Centennial Park is always buzzing with creative activity. We can measure a creative city by the number of public permits issued every year for events on our streets and in our parks, and Nashville is certainly at the top. Our city has a great appetite for gathering together. A city’s creative spirit is alive and well when its citizens leave the comfort of their homes to mix with strangers. 7. Mel Ziegler, chair of the department of art at Vanderbilt University. Mel is an international star and one of the most creative and provocative contemporar y ar tists working in the US Alone, he adds to our creative luster. As a generous collaborator, his influence on this city could be limitless. 8. Musica at the Demonbreun roundabout. It is big, incongruous, naked, and daring. We need more public art, and our city is beginning to deliver on the promise with several projects in the queue. 9. Lightning 100. One of the few independently owned radio stations in America that is dedicated to advancing the careers and music of local artists. Lightning 100 is an incredible asset and does so much to stimulate creativity in our city. 10. We are not New York. Nashville is blessed by being what Sammy Shaw, former Vanderbilt PhD, calls an “off centered” visual art city. That means that we are not bound by the conventions of an established art market, driven by the politics and economics of big galleries, established collectors, and curators. We can invent our own art scene—one that is open, growing, aspirational, interdisciplinary, and entrepreneurial. The recent announcement of Periscope, a six-week entrepreneurship training program for twenty-five local artists, is an example of what is possible in a city that is open to new ways of supporting and nurturing the arts.
42 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
2
PHOTO: ANTHONY SCARLATI
PHOTO: STACEY IRVIN
1
1
“Jen Cole. Dynamic and innovative”
PHOTO: BRIAN WATERS
“Lightning 100 is an incredible asset”
5
“Food trucks. . . the spirit of the non-routine”
8
PHOTO: DEAN DIXON
“Mel Ziegler. Provocative artist”
9
5
“Musica. Big, incongruous, naked, and daring”
10
PHOTO: JONATHAN JONES
“Centennial Park – always buzzing with creative activity”
7
PHOTO: TAMARA REYNOLDS
PHOTO: RICK MALKIN
“Mayor Dean. He gets it”
6
4
PHOTO: JERRY ATNIP
PHOTO: METRO PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICES
3
“A city of creative collaboration” PHOTO: ANTHONY SCARLATI
“Artists animate this city and inspire me every day”
“Periscope. We can invent our own art scene” NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 43
Antique African Art for the Discriminating Collector Artworks include statues, masks & ceremonial regalia from all major ethnic groups of Sub-Saharan Africa.
No Starving Artists Allowed by Stephanie Pruitt
W
ith a relatively low cost of living, growing cultural scene, and lots of arts advocacy energy, our city is becoming more and more artist friendly. How can we make it as artists in a boomtown, knowing that selling work does not have to mean selling out?
By Appointment 615.790.3095 williamdarrellmoseley@yahoo.com Gallery 427 Main Street Franklin, TN 37064
TribalArts_0514-June.indd 1
Mail P.O. Box 1523 Franklin, TN 37065
N ew wor k
1. Know that marketing is not sleazy. It’s a form of communication that, when done well, aligns what you have with what someone needs/wants. If in-person networking isn’t your thing, consider a thoughtful use of social media. Tools like Hootsuite can help make it less of an energy draw. 5/15/14 4:34 PM
Marleen De Waele-De Bock & Greg Decker Through July 12
2. Nurture relationships with the arts community and other artists. Nashville Creative Group, Creative Mornings, off-grid arts events like my Poems & Pancakes, and various arts media in our city are valuable connectors to other artists. 3. Continually hone your craft, and mind your creative business. Check out area workshops and helpful books such as Artspire’s The Profitable Artist and Caroll Michels’s How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist. The goal is not to juggle too many creative and business hats but know enough to keep yourself upwardly mobile until you’re able to hire or legitimately barter with the right people. 4. Say yes and no appropriately to donation requests of your art, time, and expertise. The “exposure” promises are often fool’s gold but not always. You might just love the organization, but be creative. Can they give you temporary office or event space, a donation/tax deduction letter reflecting the market value of your time or expertise in PR or accounting in exchange for your donation?
Sunflower Man - Greg Decker 20” x 22”
4304 Charlotte Ave • Nashville, TN 615-298-4611 • www.lequiregallery.com
With an artist’s resourcefulness and resilience, you can do it! Nashville is better with us here. Stephanie Pruitt is a poet who helps leaders and organizations incorporate arts-rich strategies. Follow her @PruittStephanie.
44 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Unplugged
PHOTOGRAPH BY MEGAN KELLEY
We All HAve Our Windmills Art in Formation
Stirrings from the Nashville Underground by Tony Youngblood With printshops springing up all over town and events such as Print Crawl and the Printmakers’ Festival, Nashville finds itself in a printmaking renaissance. Leading the charge is Platetone Printmaking, Paper and Book Arts, a community shop on 4th Avenue South that began ten years ago when then-Watkins professor Lesley Patterson-Marx and her graduating students pooled together money for an off-campus workspace. Patterson-Marx, board member and Education Coordinator, sees Platetone as “a place where book artists, printmakers, and paper artists can have affordable access to the equipment necessary to pursue these arts. When a person joins, they get a supportive, thriving community of artists who are willing to share knowledge and help one another.” Platetone is equipped for printing styles such as screen, relief, intaglio, monoprint, and collagraphy. While Platetone embraces innovations such as polyester plate lithography, they’re also champions of traditional methods. Board member and Secretary Megan Kelley says, “There is something so valuable about the look and feel of printmaking—the visible subtleties of layering color and embossing that are distinctive to traditional print. The visual truth of fine print, when experienced in person, can be referenced but never substituted by digital approximations.” Platetone also strives to make art accessible to everyone. Patterson-Marx says, “Our Third Thursday open studio sessions are all ages and free to the public. Everyone who attends will get to see a demonstration and often will get to create a project! I am in awe of the continued kindness and generosity that our members show to one another and the Nashville community.”
Let Davishire Help You Conquer Them
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SCARPATI
Platetone has an exhibit at the Nashville International Airport through September 1 and a 10 th anniversary show at Harpeth Hall School June 8 through August 8 (see page 22). The next open studio is June 19 at 6 p.m. Learn more at www.platetone.org. 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.
2106 21st Ave S. • Nashville, TN 37212 (615) 298-2670 • www.davishire.com
2 · 0 · 1 · 4
PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION Nashville Arts Magazine announces our fifth annual photography competition. Last year, we saw a stunning array of Nashville’s talent, and we can’t wait to see what 2014 brings! The top 10 winning entries will be featured in the October issue of the Nashville Arts Magazine. This is an open competition for all local and international photographers. Submit a maximum of 3 high resolution photographs to info@nashvillearts.com. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS AUGUST 15, 2014. See www.nashvillearts.com for competition details.
First Place ($500 cash) Second Place ($250 Chromatics gift card) Third Place ($250 Chromatics gift card)
Submissions due: August 15, 2014 · Winners announced: October 2014
See www.nashvillearts.com for details
Nashville,
6 a.m.
Words and photography by John Guider
W
alking along Radnor Lake in the golden light of sunrise, my father’s voice filtered into my consciousness after nearly sixty years in storage. He was teaching me how to walk through the woods silently “like an Indian.” Most of his life lessons I rejected, preferring to learn the hard way. However, this lesson I found practical and fulfilling and practiced often, discovering early on that I much preferred the serenity of the forest to the manic clatter that seemed to be the major feature of contemporary urban living. I was a quiet boy. In my early childhood, noise often meant domestic conflict and discord. Silence meant détente. So I chose to learn more with my eyes and less with my ears. I saw that nature was perfection. Humanity was not.
Radnor Lake
The draw of the wild still remains steadfast within me. Nature rejuvenates my spirit. I find joy among the infinity of its ethereal visual pleasures. Dawn marks a new day full of possibility, and in May the woodland creatures are busy celebrating the abundance of the spring feast. Emboldened by their desires to refuel and procreate, they are more inclined to momentarily overlook the inquisitive eyes of a human intruder. So when in nature, it is important to learn to walk softly, stay on the paths, and try our best to keep our paradise from being lost forever. For more information about John Guider please visit www.johnguider.com.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 47
48 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 49
Arts Worth Watching Also coming this season are the Oscar®-nominated The Act of Killing, The Genius of Marian, Koch, and Getting Back to Abnormal, among others.
The 27th season of the venerable documentary series POV begins on Monday, June 23, 2014, at 9 p.m. on NPT and PBS stations nationwide and continues weekly through September. This season features thirteen new independent, nonfiction films. In When I Walk, which opens the season on June 23, Jason DaSilva, a young, up-and-coming filmmaker, discovers he has multiple sclerosis. To cope, he decides to use filmmaking to look at his new reality. The result is an emotional documentary filled with unexpected moments of humor and joy, driven by a young man’s determination to survive—and to make sense of a devastating disease—through the art of cinema. The film was an official selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
The great documentary films continue this month thanks to American Experience. During the summer of 1964, the nation’s eyes were riveted on Mississippi. Over ten memorable weeks known as Freedom Summer, more than 700 student volunteers joined with organizers and local African Americans in an historic effort to shatter the foundations of white supremacy in the nation’s most segregated state. Working together, they canvassed for voter registration, created Freedom Schools, and established the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, with the goal of challenging the segregationist state Democratic Party at the national convention in Atlantic City. The campaign was marked by sustained and deadly violence, including the notorious murders of three civil rights workers, countless beatings, the burning of 35 churches, and the bombing of 70 homes and Freedom Houses. Director Stanley Nelson (Freedom Riders) captures the tumult and timbre of those ten weeks in Freedom Summer: American Experience on Tuesday, June 24, at 8 p.m. NPT also brings you outstanding classical arts programming this month. On Friday, June 20, at 8 p.m., American Masters presents Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq, a profile of Tanaquil Le Clercq, known as “Tanny,” who was the inspiration and then wife of choreographic genius George Balanchine. She also sparked the creative imagination and adoration of Jerome Robbins before being struck down by polio in 1954. Nancy Buirski’s film features interviews with those who knew her, including Jacques d’Amboise and Arthur Mitchell, and finds a tone to match Tanny’s exquisite dancing and long, lovely physique, well represented in photos, home movies, and kinescopes.
Grace Lee Boggs
The following week, on June 30, it’s American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, a profile of a fiery activist who urges today’s movers and shakers to think in entirely new ways. Lee Boggs, 98, is a Chinese-American philosopher, writer, and activist in Detroit with a thick FBI file and a surprising vision of what an American revolution can be. Rooted for 75 years in the labor, civil rights, and black power movements, she challenges a new generation to throw off old assumptions, think creatively, and redefine revolution for our times. The film by Grace Lee (no relation) picked up the Audience Award at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival.
La Bohème
Mark your calendars and set your DVRs for Friday, June 27, at 8 p.m. for Great Performances at the Met’s presentation of La Bohème. An exciting young cast stars in Franco Zeffirelli’s lavish production of Giacomo Puccini’s popular work, the most-performed opera in Met history. Italian star tenor Vittorio Grigolo is the passionate poet Rodolfo and soprano Kristine Opolais his fragile lover, Mimì. The production features a cast of hundreds, an onstage snow scene, and a detailed reconstruction of the Latin Quarter in Paris.
50 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Weekend Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 5:00 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00 6:30
Saturday
am Electric Company Angelina Ballerina Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Dinosaur Train Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Sewing with Nancy Sew It All Garden Smart P. Allen Smith Simply Ming Cook’s Country noon America’s Test Kitchen Bringing it Home with Laura McIntosh John Besh’s Family Table Martha’s Cooking School Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Woodsmith Shop The Woodwright’s Shop Rough Cut with Tommy Mac This Old House Ask This Old House Hometime PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Tennessee’s Wild Side
ThisMonth
June 2014
Nashville Public Television
Sunday
am Sesame Street Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Word World Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads A Word on Words Nature noon To the Contrary The McLaughlin Group Moyers & Company Washington Week with Gwen Ifill Globe Trekker California’s Gold Chef’s Life America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Charlie Rose: The Week
Freedom Summer American Experience Relive 1964's Freedom Summer and the dramatic struggle for equality in Mississippi. Tuesday, June 24 8:00 PM
Daytime Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00
am Classical Stretch Body Electric Arthur Wild Kratts Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Dinosaur Train Sesame Street Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Sid the Science Kid Thomas and Friends Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood pm Caillou Super Why! Dinosaur Train Martha Speaks Clifford the Big Red Dog Peg + Cat The Cat in the Hat Curious George Arthur WordGirl Wild Kratts pm PBS NewsHour
Nashville Public Television
Masterpiece Mystery! Endeavour, Season 2 Follow young Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) as he uses his deductive powers to solve crimes in Oxford.
Sundays, June 29 to July 20 8:00 PM Secrets of Underground London Descend into subterranean London to uncover 2,000 years of history.
Sunday, June 22 7:00 PM
wnpt.org
9
16
8
15
7:00 Secrets of Scotland Yard 8:00 Masterpiece Mystery! The Escape Artist, Part One. David Tennant (Doctor Who) stars. 9:30 Independent Lens The New Black. How the African American community grapples with the divisive gay rights issue. 10:30 Closer to Truth Can the Divine Be a Person? 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
7:00 Pianoguys: Live at Red Butte Garden The popular guests of The Today Show, The Tonight Show and Katie perform and discuss how they make music. 8:30 Doc Martin: Revealed Behind-the-scenes footage from Season 6 shot on location in Port Isaac, Cornwall, England. 10:00 Lent at Ephesus 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Providence. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Houston. 9:00 American Pharaoh American Bob Bradley coaches the Egyptian national soccer team as it attempts to qualify for the World Cup. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Tragedy and Courage on the Bering Sea
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage San Francisco. 8:00 50s & 60s Party Songs (My Music) Dance and party tunes from rock pioneers including Bill Haley and Little Richard to frat rock bands The Kingsmen and Tommy James and The Shondells, with Motown masters and more. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Inside Foyle’s War
2
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Phoenix. 8:30 Il Volo: We Are Love The three, young Italian tenors who’ve won the hearts of PBS viewers return with a new special from the The Fillmore Theatre in Miami. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust – The Bridge to Russia Concert
Monday
1
7:00 Happy Go on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. 8:30 Inside Foyle’s War Interviews with the stars of the enormously popular Masterpiece Mystery! series and the people behind-the-camera responsible for them. 10:00 Suze Orman’s Financial Solutions for You
Sunday
Primetime Evening Schedule
June 2014 3
17
7:00 Independent Lens Muscle Shoals/Waiting for a Train: The Toshi Hirano Story. In Muscle Shoals, Alabama, FAME Studios founder Rick Hall created music for the generations. A short film accompanies. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Simple Piece of Paper
10
7:00 Nashville: The 20th Century in Photographs Vol. 3 8:00 The Dukes of September Donald Fagen (Steely Dan), Michael McDonald (The Doobie Brothers) and Boz Scaggs join forces to form their own new super group. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Bee Gees: One Night Only
7:00 Straight No Chaser – Songs of the Decades 8:30 Yanni: World Without Borders A compilation of Yanni concerts from all over the world. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Happy
Tuesday
4
18
7:00 Nature Great Zebra Exodus. 8:00 NOVA At the Edge of Space. 9:00 Hawking Hawking has one of the most remarkable minds of the modern age though he can barely move his body. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits The Lumineers/Shovels & Rope.
11
7:00 NPT Favorites 8:30 Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust – The Bridge to Russia Concert This historic 1987 concert event restored in HD from the original 35mm footage and shot from over six concerts in Moscow and Leningrad. 10:00 BBC World News 10:00 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 50s & 60s Party Songs (My Music) Dance and party tunes from rock pioneers.
7:00 The Dave Clark Five – Glad All Over, A Great Performance Special The Dave Clark Five were the first English group to tour America in May of 1964, spearheading the “British Invasion” of rock & roll that went on to change the world. 9:00 Lent at Ephesus 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Straight No Chaser – Songs of the Decades
Wednesday
5
19 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jesse James: American Experience The true story of an outlaw who has captured the imagination of generations of Americans. 9:00 Doc Martin Preserve the Romance. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Independent Lens The New Black.
12
6
20 7:00 NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis Food. 8:00 Over Hawai’i Witness an illuminating, off-the-beaten-path tour of Hawai’i’s six major islands and popular visitor destinations. 9:00 American Masters Tanaquil Leclercq: Afternoon of a Faun. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Moyers & Company
13
7:00 Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation Flying High. In Africa, a radio-controlled drone silently infiltrates masses of pink flamingos, and microlights and helicopters capture white storks’ arrival over Istanbul. 8:30 30 Days to a Younger Heart with Dr. Steven Masley, MD 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 The Dave Clark Five – Glad All Over, A Great Performance Special
Friday
7:00 NPT Favorites 7:00 NPT Favorites 8:30 Celtic Thunder Heritage 10:00 BBC World News A new show focusing en- 10:30 Last of Summer Wine tirely on the group’s 11:00 Moyers & Company Celtic and Irish roots, featuring traditional standards such as “Whiskey in the Jar” and “Black is the Color as well as beautiful love songs such as, “The Dutchman” and “Noreen.” 10:00 BBC World News Celtic Thunder Heritage 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Thursday, June 12 11:00 NPT Favorites 8:30 PM
7:00 Civil War: The Untold Story Bloody Shiloh. In February 1862, Union forces, led by General Grant, establish a foothold in southern Tennessee near a simple log structure known as "Shiloh Church." 8:30 Civil War: The Untold Story A Beacon of Hope. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Lent at Ephesus
Thursday
7
21
14
7:00 Lawrence Welk 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 The Café Reap What You Sow – Part 1. 9:00 Doc Martin Preserve the Romance. 10:00 Globe Trekker Around the World – Panamerica: Conquistadors & Incas. 11:00 Civil War: The Untold Story Bloddy Shiloh.
7:00 NPT Favorites
7:00 50s & 60s Party Songs (My Music) Dance and party tunes from rock pioneers including Bill Haley and Little Richard to frat rock bands The Kingsmen and Tommy James and The Shondells, with Motown masters and more. 9:00 The Dave Clark Five – Glad All Over, A Great Performance Speciall 11:00 30 Days to a Younger Heart with Dr. Steven Masley, MD
Saturday
Nashville Public Television
wnpt.org
30
29
Yanni: World Without Borders Tuesday, June 3 8:30 PM
7:00 Last Tango in Halifax 8:00 Masterpiece Mystery! Endeavour, Season 2; Trove. Shaun Evans returns for a second season as the young rookie, DC Endeavour Morse. 9:30 Vicious Freddie and Stuart host a wake. 10:00 Film School Shorts Sugar and Spice. 10:30 Closer to Truth Does God Make Sense? 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
2
3
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Unsung Heroes: The Story of America’s Female Patriots Part 1. America's female patriots confront the horrors of war as never before and suffer the effects of combat stress. 9:00 Doc Martin Born With a Shotgun. 10:00 BBC World News 10:00 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Prayers of the Ancient Ones
26
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Annie Oakley: American Experience Will Rogers described her as “the greatest woman rifle shot the world has ever produced.” 9:00 Doc Martin Dry Your Tears. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Italy’s Mystery Mountains
Independent Lens Muscle Shoals/Waiting for a Train Tuesday, June 17 7:00 PM
7:00 Nature Salmon: Running the Gauntlet. The collapsing Pacific salmon populations and how biologist’s experiments to shore up their numbers. 8:00 NOVA Ghosts of Murdered Kings. 9:00 Secrets of the Dead Bones of the Buddha. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Wilco.
1
7:00 Time Scanners Egyptian Pyramids. Scan the pyramids to learn how the necropolis evolved from simple structures to impressive buildings. 8:00 History Detectives Special Investigations. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 NPT Reports: Aging Matters Overview. How aging impacts all of us.
JULY
25
7:00 Nature Fabulous Frogs. Sir David Attenborough explores the wonderful world of these animals. 8:00 NOVA Deadliest Earthquakes. 9:00 Surviving the Tsunami: A NOVA Special Presentation 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Raphael Saadig/Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears.
24
7:00 The March 8:00 Freedom Summer: American Experience Over 10 memorable weeks in 1964, more than 700 student volunteers joined with organizers and local African Americans in an historic effort to shatter white supremacy in Mississippi. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis Food.
Visit wnpt.org for complete 24 hour schedules for NPT and NPT2
Masterpiece Escape Artists Sunday, June 15 8:00 PM
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Columbus. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Toronto. 9:00 POV American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. Meet a Chinese-American philosopher waging a revolution for 75 years. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 NPT Reports: Children’s Health Crisis Family Health.
23
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Tampa. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Vintage Atlanta. 9:00 POV When I Walk. A candid chronicle of one young man’s struggle to adapt to the harsh realities of M.S., while holding on to his personal life. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 NPT Reports: Domestic Violence Nashville Responds.
22
7:00 Secrets of Underground London 8:00 Masterpiece Mystery! The Escape Artist, Part Two. Will battles for justice by fair means and foul. 9:30 PBS Previews: The Roosevelts 10:00 Film School Shorts When We Were Young. 10:30 Closer to Truth Can the Divine Be a Person? 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
5
Nashville Public Television
Time Scanners Sunday, July 1 7:00 PM
7:00 Lawrence Welk 8:00 Keeping Appearances 9:00 Doc Martin Born With a Shotgun. Sleepless nights are taking their toll on Martin and Louisa. 10:00 Globe Trekker Around the World – Pacific Journeys: Tonga to New Caledonia. 11:00 Civil War: The Untold Story River of Death.
4 7:00 Capitol Fourth Tom Bergeron hosts our country’s national Independence Day celebration, live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, with the National Symphony Orchestra and more. 8:30 Capitol Fourth 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company 11:30 3,2,1 Fireworks
28
7:00 Lawrence Welk 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 The Café Reap What You Sow – Part 2. 9:00 Doc Martin Dry Your Tears. 10:00 Globe Trekker Around the World – Pacific Journeys: Santiago to Pitcairn. 11:00 Civil War: The Untold Story A Beacon of Hope.
27
7:00 NPT Reports: Aging Matters Overview. How aging impacts all of us. 8:00 Great Performances at the Met: La Boheme An exciting young cast stars in Franco Zeffirelli’s lavish production of Giacomo Puccini’s popular work, the most-performed opera in Met history. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Moyers & Company
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSHUA BLACK WILKINS
Kit Kite
STILL SEA RCHING
“The self-portrait relays the obsession of organization, compulsive consumerism, and our cultural appetites that never seem satisfied.”
Forked over consumption, 2014, Installation: Kitchen cabinet and plastic utensils; Print: Silver gelatin, 48” x 32”
by Veronica Kavass
T
here was a time when Kit Kite had a great disdain for vinyl blinds and excess Tupperware. In the past several years, that disdain has become inspiration for sculptural installations that appear to be consuming her as revealed in the crisp black-and-white photographs. I met with Kit on her turf in downtown Franklin to be sure that she is not actually creating a real-life Katamari Damacy. VK: The titles of your photographs such as Closet dialog and Mopping fiber of weeping sweep seem to explain a lot about where you are coming from with this work. Tell me about that.
longed for. Which one does this represent, since the work is evidently autobiographical?
KK: It comes from the last twelve years of my life—and jumping from my role of mother and wife to being divorced. All of a sudden things stopped. A lot of it had to do with preparing meals and no one showing up to eat them. But I had this expectation that if I prepared a table and put food on it, then people I loved would show up at the table and eat. Ultimately I was left alone with all these objects, and I started relating to them in a new way. They suddenly seemed displaced. Or I seemed displaced. They functioned the same way, but I felt totally dysfunctional.
KK: They allude to the relationships that existed in my familiar atmosphere—the house—and the longing to connect to others living in there. There was an expectation on my end that if provided the home, or the appearance of one, then it would result in something substantial: The Family.
VK: When you were alone in your familiar setting with these objects all around you, what would you do? Would you just start to put them away? I guess I am wondering how they started to become sculptural installations.
VK: Right now I’m trying to picture the specific period of domestic existence you are speaking about. It could be your childhood home and relationship with your own mother, or it could be your own home now or a role you
KK: I started to appreciate their shapes. They were boring, but they were also fascinating. I was seeing the unfamiliar in the familiar and wanted to play with that. I started doing that by making arrangements and putting them in different groupings.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 55
Mopping fiber of the weeping sweep, 2014, Installation: Mops and brooms; Print: Silver gelatin, 48” x 32”
“The household fight against dirt and dust, the familiar marketing ploy for the tools and cleaning agents of the home, was interpreted here like primitive battle weaponry for the tireless attempt for perfect balance in a war-like stance . . . sitting down.”
“The endless press and steam of maintenance for the ever-recurring crease. Jobs with no end. The interconnection between the constant striving of personal conservation, the cultural image and impact of advertising, and the relational economics of the home. ”
Hand held creased electric irony, 2014, Installation: Electric irons; Print: Silver gelatin, 48” x 32” 56 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
“I wanted to literally demonstrate the piled weight from metal cooking/baking tools while emphasizing isolation and the longing to connect . . . joining the two concepts: the weighted duty of expectation and the disappointment of anticipation.”
Backed and racked, 2014, Installation: Metal pots and pans; Print: Silver gelatin, 48” x 32”
“A depiction of ‘when a closet’s been cleaned out’ or ‘the moving on or disappearance of another.’ The metal hanger ‘speech bubble’ install represents the silence heard or harsh words spoken through the series of relationships that remained behind closed doors. ”
Closet dialogue, 2014, Installation: Metal and plastic hangers; Print: Silver gelatin, 48” x 32”
“This self-portrait along with the phrase ‘taking out the trash’ accounts for both the literal daily chore as well as the idea of intentional waste and discarded time found in the sprawling residential ‘state of mind’ while searching for value, intimacy, and undying relationships.” The heaving trash of domestic lug, 2014, Installation: Trash bags; Print: Silver gelatin, 48” x 32”
VK: When was the first time you did an arrangement and documented it?
KK: At first, they were shot with my iPhone in my bathroom. I started arranging ladles and spatulas around my face. When I started posting them on Instagram, people kept asking me questions, asking what they meant. It put me in a position where I felt I needed to define what I was doing, and, as a consequence, I would keep making these pieces. Monica LaPlante became my creative partner to coordinate this series and we worked with photographer David Braud to document the installations I built. VK: These sculptural installations almost seem like costumes you would wear. Did you always pull from things you had in your own home?
KK: I would start by sketching out various sculptural models, and then I’d thread them with wire and attach it to me like it was cascading. Or I’d build suits and attach the objects to that. VK: Do you see your work as a cultural critique?
KK: I’ve had a hard time figuring out where I fit in that. Promoting feminism was never my aim with this work. I just happen to be an individual, a woman—but don’t see it as gender specific. VK: Your work definitely has the 1950s housewife aesthetic. How was the specific stereotype inspirational to you?
KK: Stylistic reasons. The aesthetics of advertising that promotes false notions of the perfect household were especially strong during that time. They were geared to women and used a certain emotional vocabulary. I related to that. VK: Do you think you will stay in the same thematic vein with this type of work?
KK: My interest as an artist comes down to home vs. house. Structure vs. function. I will keep playing off that for a while. VK: How has doing this changed your everyday relationship with this everyday environment?
KK: No, I never intended this to be viewed as a critique on society or certain norms.
KK: I don’t look at these objects with disdain or hopelessness anymore. It has been really therapeutic. It helped me find humor in the process of pain.
VK: Clearly this work positions you within a larger conversation regarding feminism . . .
Fo r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t K i t K i te a n d h e r a r t, please visit www.thekitkite.com.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 59
Coming Soon! Take a peek at what’s coming to a neighborhood near you: publicart.nashville.gov
Carter Vintage Guitars A friendly comfortable place for fine guitars and the people who appreciate them. • Vintage guitars, mandolins, banjos, ukes, basses and amps • New instruments from Gibson Custom, Gilchrist, Duff, Red Mountain and more boutique builders • Repairs • Appraisals • Lessons • Guitar Art • Musical Events
Top: Artist Thornton Dial, Edmondson Park; Left Center: Erik Carlson’s Circulate, Lentz Public Health Center; Right Center: Duncan McDaniel’s Are We There Yet? bike rack, Lentz Public Health Center; Bottom Left: Artist Lonnie Holley, Edmondson Park; Bottom Right: Paul Vexler’s From the Four Corners, Southeast Regional Library and Community Center
Judy Nebhut photographer
CARTER VINTAGE GUITARS 625 8th Ave. S. Nashville, TN 37203 10:30-6:30 Mon-Sat 1:00-5:00 Sun (615) 915-1851 www.cartervintage.com “The Dish Ran away wiTh The spoon”
GUITARS
60 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
JudyNebhut.com JNebhut@gmail.com 615-665-2081
Marnie Sheridan Gallery • The Harpeth Hall School • Opening Reception: Sunday, June 8, 3-5 pm • Artists’ Discussion at 3 pm
Past, Present, and Future 10th ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION
Exhibition: June 8 – August 8, 2014 • Gallery Open Monday – Friday 8:00 am to 4:30 pm • 3801 Hobbs Road, Nashville, TN 37215 • www.harpethhall.org
Eclectic Home Furnishings and Gifts 2205 bandywood drive in green hills nashville, tn 37215 www.margischair.com 615.463.3322
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRETT WARREN
Word of Mouth
Lily Hansen’s latest literary offering shines a light on those who shine by Sally Schloss
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRETT WARREN
PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIELLE ATKINS
Paul Harmon: Painter
Derek Hoke: Musician & Weekly Curator/Host of The Five Spot’s $2 Tuesday
L
ily Hansen is an intense, slender, green-eyed woman with a gamine haircut who comes up to you at a party and says, “I find you very interesting. I want to know more about you,” and before long you are telling her stories and chatting away, laughing, and sharing your secrets and ambitions. Why? Because she genuinely listens, with a lively, non-judgmental curiosity that encourages you to trust and open up to her. “I’m fascinated by people’s lives,” says Lily, “whether they work at Mapco or they’ve sold thirty million records. We all spend so much time working, and I like to talk about it. Especially with dreamers who are also doers because they offer insight and inspiration—a psychological road map that we can adapt for ourselves.” And that is the premise of Lily Hansen’s book Word of Mouth. She wants to introduce us to fifty of Nashville’s little-known, emerging, and accomplished artists and entrepreneurs, whose collective stories create a multifaceted portrait of the intellectual and creative capital of this city—an insider’s look at our burgeoning community, humming with energy.
Tasha French Lemley: Founder of The Contributor
Lily chose to self-publish with her editor and friend Jennifer Chesak’s Wandering in the Words Press because she wanted to curate the entire creative process. In keeping with her vision, she hired three much-admired photographer friends—Andrea Behrends, Danielle Atkins, and Joshua Black Wilkins—to shoot the character-rich, black-and-white photos that emotionally texture the narratives. Lily’s own hopes for her book are true to the spirit of these conversations. “I would like Word of Mouth to inspire people. I think we don’t push ourselves enough because it’s scary.” To quote from her book’s Introduction: Life is subjective, and we must tune out the naysayers, especially when the loudest voice is our own.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA BEHRENDS
Word of Mouth may be purchased online at Lily Hansen’s website www.lilychansen.net.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRETT WARREN
PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIELLE ATKINS
Her book’s title, Word of Mouth, not only reflects her process of finding and connecting with people, but it is also the touchstone phrase for how artists or businesses become known—through people discovering something unique and creating buzz. It’s fundamental to how we succeed.
This book is elegant, egalitarian, eclectic, and entirely subjective, as Lily will readily admit. The categories she chose to write about are music, food, and art, with a wild card thrown into the mix. We encounter a tattoo artist, a hairstylist, a lamp maker, a TV star, a hip-hop artist, and a chef—to name but a few. All are “fire in the belly” entrepreneurs with a love for what they do. They are committed to inventing and re-inventing themselves, to community, and to their fans and friends. They all have success stories to tell, and they do tell them in inspired conversations with Lily, who is herself very much a participant.
Lily Hansen pounding out Word of Mouth NashvilleArts.com
Deb Paquette: Chef at Etch June 2014 | 63
Poet’s Corner
SILVER GIRL Unable to speak about her dying, or leaving me motherless, she created a moment – sat me down on a shag rug to hear lyrics of a song. She wanted those words to become our secret anthem. She wanted a safe place for me to close my eyes, and remember her,
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE GAFFNEY
remember her nudging me onto sturdy legs onward, Godspeed, towards my dreams: Sail on Silver Girl, Sail on by. Your time has come to shine. All your dreams are on their way. – Simon & Garfunkel
by Jennie Chapman Linthorst Jennie Chapman Linthorst will read a selection of her poetry at the Poet’s Corner on June 26 at 7 p.m at Scarritt-Bennett. The event is free and open to the public. For more information please visit www.scarrittbennett.org.
HISTORY EMBR ACING ART
Kelly Harwood 202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 www.gallery202art.com • 615-472-1134 Visit Us During “Franklin Art Scene” June 6, 6-9pm
Emily Allison
Leonard Piha at The Arts Company
The Rymer Gallery draws a crowd
SEE ART SEE ART SEE
Christine Craft, Kelsey Greer at Tinney Contemporary
Cynthia Tollefsrud, Don Dudenbostel at The Arts Company
Silent J, Melanie Shelley at Tinney Contemporary
66 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Alejandra Valadez-Rodriguez, Marissa Webb, Savannah Pennington, Jessica Vinas, Jianna Mirabelli, Alex at The Rymer Gallery
Steve Mitchell, Julie Kornman at The Arts Company
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN JACKSON
Mitchell Swope, Joshua Trawick at The Arts Company
Dori Pechianu and S. T. Davis at BelArt Gallery
Nicolette Davis at Hannah Lane Gallery
Lynn Goldsmith and Jerry Atnip at Two Old Hippies
SEE ART SEE ART SEE Hannah Lane, Tom Luten at Hannah Lane Gallery
Annabelle Arnold at Coop Gallery
Lynn and Robert Blake at Tinney Contemporary
Courtney Locke, Herb Williams, Kimberly Townsend at The Rymer Gallery
Sophia Alana and Marlo E’van outside The Rymer Gallery
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 67
MAN UP. No one needs to tie your ties, mix your drinks, or close your deals. You know how to handle yourself.
And everything about you speaks to that. Show the world what you’ve got . . . and wear it well.
2160 Bandywood Drive • Nashville, TN 37215 | 615.298.1404 • www.ward-potts.com
June 6—September 1
PL ATIN U M SPO N SOR
HOS PITALITY S PONS OR
ORGANIZED BY THE BARBICAN CENTRE, LONDON
THE FRIST CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY
DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE 919 BROADWAY FRISTCENTER.ORG
M a x Fle is che r. Bett y Bo o p ( f ilm s t i ll), 19 3 2 –3 9 . 3 5 mm b lack-an d -w h ite film, so u n d , 6 min u te s, 2 8 se co n d s. B F I N atio n al A rch i ve Ang Lee. Hulk (film still), 2003. 35mm color film, sound, 138 minutes. Courtesy of Universal City Studios LLC
Hot day. Book found. Aha! Words cannot express. If only I could. Without a doubt. Goodness. Good. Good. Good. Maira Kalman., 2004, Gouache on paper
At the Frist: Maira Kalman by Sara Estes
B
June 6 to September 4
eginning June 6, paintings by celebrated author and illustrator Maira Kalman will be on display for the first time in Nashville at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The exhibition features fifty-six gouache-on-paper paintings Kalman created to illustrate the 2005 re-publication of William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s classic guide to good writing, The Elements of Style.
Charmed and inspired by the witty examples the authors used to demonstrate proper grammar, Kalman decided to illustrate her favorites for the new edition. Sentences like “Somebody else’s umbrella.” and “Every window, picture, and mirror was smashed.” are the departure points for illustrations that imagine an entire world of eccentric characters and colorful spaces.
70 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
“
Kalman’s work is marked by an unparalleled sense of wonder—the kind of wonder that most of us, with our demanding jobs and busy lives, can all too easily lose sight of.
”
herself in the world of art and books. Her aesthetic style and tongue-in-cheek tone are definitively her own.
Kalman’s work is marked by an unparalleled sense of wonder—the kind of wonder that most of us, with our demanding jobs and busy lives, can all too easily lose sight of. She has a knack for reminding readers how to approach the grim aspects of life with lightness, acceptance, and compassion. “Kalman embraces all that she observes and experiences. Her joie de vivre is infectious,” says Dr. Susan H. Edwards, Executive Director of the Frist Center.
Her story is strange., 2004, Gouache on paper
Kalman, who gained notoriety for her illustrations for The New Yorker, is a luminary in the world of contemporary design. Now in her sixties, she has garnered a devout fan base over the course of her career. Not only has her illustration and design work been highly influential, but she has also become a role model for artists struggling to navigate the rocky terrain of a creative life. Equal parts artist and writer, she has carved a one-of-a-kind niche for
He noticed a large stain right in the center of the rug., 2004, Gouache on paper
The Elements of Style exhibition is a perfect introduction to Kalman’s illustrated world. Additionally, the Frist has brought in contemporary composer Nico Muhly to create an accompanying song cycle for viewers to listen to while viewing the paintings. Frist Chief Curator Mark Scala says, “Just as the artwork grew out of a literary text, the songs exemplify ways that inspiration can cross disciplines to delightful effect.”
Somebody else’s umbrella., 2004, Gouache on paper
Maira Kalman: The Elements of Style will be on exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts June 6 to September 4. For more information visit www.fristcenter.org. NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 71
George Tooker (1920–2011), The Subway, 1950, Egg tempera on composition board, 18” x 36”
BEYOND THE REAL:
A Surrealistic Twist on American Realism Frist Center for the Visual Arts • June 27 to October 13 by Catt Dunlop
W
hen Surrealism began as an artistic movement in the 1920s, its aim was to unleash the repressed desires of the mind through a range of methods and practices—automatic writing, drawing exercises, and visual innovations in theatre and film. However for artists attempting to probe into layers of the mind that were beyond reason, the challenge of consciously representing the subconscious a lways proved problematic. Real/Surreal: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art overcomes this discrepancy by presenting a selection of works that blend Realism’s reflection of the waking world with Surrealism’s anxieties of the dreamer. Drawn from the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum in New York City, this important exhibition presents over sixty paintings, photographs and prints that seek to explore Surrealism’s transatlantic influences on nearly forty-five American artists—Edward Hopper, Man Ray, Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Hart Benton, and Mabel Dwight, among many others—as well as tensions in representing real-world concerns as disquieting dreamscapes. The first half of the twentieth century radically altered the western world’s sense of reality, reducing past lives to distant memories and making what was once
Jared French (1905–1988), State Park, 1946, Egg tempera on composition board, 23” x 23”
72 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
commonplace seem utterly unrecognizable. Surrealism offered an escape from warfare and economic realities and provided artists with an alternative way to express inner turmoil. For American artists trained in Realism, representing everyday objects and settings through the strange gauze of the dream became an apt metaphor for the feeling of estrangement within one’s own homeland. Highlighting this theme, many of the works featured in the show challenge the genre of landscape by allowing one’s isolated state of mind to inform representation. Works such as Charles Burchfield’s Winter Twilight (1930) evoke such detachment through faceless figures and a vague familiarity of a small-town scene. Rendered in blues and grays that give little sense of the hour, the snow-covered streets appear as soft as low-lying clouds, making the atmosphere of the painting even more dreamlike and allowing imagination to interrupt the sense of reality. Meanwhile paintings like Kay Sage’s No Passing (1954) promote a more abstract take on emotionally cold surroundings with a muted amalgamation of jagged forms, constructing a serene industrial landscape that at once evokes past ruins and a futuristic environment.
Andreas Feininger (1906–1999), Solarization III, 1941, Gelatin silver print, Sheet: 10” x 8”, Image: 9” x 7”
As the exhibition notes, one of the most prevalent motifs in Surrealism was the use of “uncanny” juxtapositions to simulate the stitching together of random objects in dreams. Derived from the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, the uncanny is an unsettling experience in which the familiar is rendered strange, striking fear in the individual and eliciting feelings of anxiety. Many of the works in the show call upon this notion of the uncanny through the presence of repetition, objects becoming
Federico Castellón (1914–1971), The Dark Figure, 1938, Oil on canvas, 17” x 26”
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 73
animate, or depictions of surroundings caught between the real and the imaginary. One particularly captivating work, Federico Castellón’s The Dark Figure (1938), is emblematic of this technique, featuring a veiled figure positioned directly across from the viewer as a collection of amor phous objects seem to f loat, de-form, re-form on a barren landscape. The uncanny also arises in instances when an alternate form of the body such as a reflection or a shadow intervenes upon reality. This kind of “doubling” effect is exemplified by one of the most famous pieces in the show, George Tooker’s The Subway (1950). Featuring a repetition of same-faced, affectless passengers in a sterile, closed-in, underground platform, the work conjures up a disturbing mise en abyme phenomenon of looking into a mirror within a mirror and provokes feelings of uncertainty. In the foreground of the painting, a cloaked woman stands with a panic-stricken look on her face, isolated within a crowd and representing darker connotations to the unconscious self trapped in an alternate world.
Kay Sage (1898–1963), No Passing, 1954, Oil on linen, 51” x 38”
“
Surrealism offered an escape from warfare and economic realities and provided artists with an alternative way to express inner turmoil.
”
Charles Sheeler (1883–1965), River Rouge Plant, 1932, Oil and pencil on canvas, 20” x 24”
Charles Burchfield (1893–1967), Winter Twilight, 1930, Oil on composition board and canvas, 27” x 30”
But this show is not all about the medium painting. Real/Surreal also showcases how photography provided an ideal medium for the artists to capture the uncanny in the everyday. In doing so, photographic works question and contort the truth of imagery using the flexibility of vision. In portraiture, the body (as well as the genre) is rendered unfamiliar and nearly illegible through technical means of lighting, cropping, and angle. For example, Feininger’s Solarization III (1941) relies on the process of solarization to reverse tones and offer an unconventional view of the body, thus upsetting normal expectations of physical representation. Most important for this exhibition, Surrealist photographers reexamine the familiar and expose unsettling otherness under the veracity of image making, transforming the real into the surreal. Indeed, the use of photography as a medium to capture the uncanny is emblematic of the spirit of the show: Real/Surreal examines how a range of artists throughout the twentieth century drew from their reality to re-present the world as familiar yet strange. Real/Surreal: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art will be on view at The Frist Center for the Visual Arts June 27 to October 13. Visit www.fristcenter.org for information.
74 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Do something really creative. Get a bank that thinks like you.
Call 615.252.BANK (2265) to learn how our more creative approach to banking can change your experience and your expectations. Locations in Cool Springs, Cummins Station, West End, and Green Hills Mobile App/Mobile Deposit • Online Banking • Any ATM Free • Concierge Banking Service
avenuenashville.com EQUAL HOUSING LENDER
MEMBER FDIC
©2014 AVENUE BANK
14avenue12272-1 M1rb Nashville Arts 1/2pg 1
4/11/14 3:34 PM
Subscribe today and get the most beautiful magazine in Nashville delivered to your doorstep.
w w w . nashv illeart s.com
under contract 105 holly Forest Coronada $215,000
1107 ChiCkering park dr. Forest hills $795,000
1765 tyne Blvd. $595,000
under contract 4225 harding pike #104
851 Curtiswood
1608 ChiCkering road
wellington arms $275,000
6+aCres in oak hill Call For priCe
30 aCres in Forest hills $10,900,000
under contract
under contract
under contract
8399 greenvale dr.
1004 Caldwell lane
5890 east ashland drive
$445,000
green hills/lipsComB $265,000
Call Hal for details on tHis unique opportunity
Forest hills $750,000
hal rosson
Representing Real Estate Buyers and Sellers Since 1971 615-271-2705 | halrosson@freemanwebb.com | www.halrosson.com
ViNceNT PeAch
1932–2012 ®
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
classic Meets Bohemian South Sea Pearls & Diamonds 300 12th Ave. S., Nashville,TN (615) 242-3001 vincentpeach.com
Find inspiration and ideas for any occasion Father’s day • Weddings • Graduation Custom frame a special memento or stop in to select the perfect gift
introducing White Wing travel, sport and Business products.
73 W hite B ridge r oad , S uite 114 N aShville , tN 37205 615.356.7784 WWW . theBevel . com
WWW . faceBook . com / theBevelededge
The Usual Suspects, 2014, Oil on linen, 36” x 36”
Signe and Genna Grushovenko revisit
Days Gone By by Karen Parr-Moody
W
hen our minds swim into that briny womb of memory we are lost in a dreamer’s domain. The landscape looks familiar yet distorted. It challenges us to decipher the metaphysical certitude of our very history. So we remind ourselves that perhaps there is no absolute truth in the past, only a flurry of fuzzy snapshots tempered by emotion. Concerning the history of strangers, however, the view gets blurrier still. We look at their old photos, bereft of any intimate recollection to speak of. Yet a familiarity exists. Artists Signe and Genna Grushovenko, a married duo who paint as one, revisit strangers’ pasts as they flip through old photos at flea markets. There they seek the images that will inspire expressionistic artworks they create together.
The Way Back, 2014, Oil on linen, 48” x 48”
78 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
“That’s the poetic part of the work,” Genna says. “I’ve learned to enjoy this process of looking at photographs and wondering who these people are. Because, more often than not, they’re anonymous to us . . . so we fantasize a little bit about who these people were and what they were doing on that particular day. And we like to think that our viewer would have a similar experience when looking at our paintings.” The couple’s current works depict scenes from the sixties and seventies, capturing the fleeting moments of what many remember as an innocent time. In them a woman in a modest bathing suit sassily juts out a hip; a dancing girl’s skirt whirls out exuberantly; a man’s face is warmed by dappled sunlight. The paintings receive their foundations through Genna, who first brushes watery washes of acrylic and oil onto each canvas (lately they are cheery colors that Signe compares to those of Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin). Such washes might be abstract or in faint patterns, as with the broad, soft plaid in the painting The Furies. Genna’s original trade, that of a ceramicist, is seen in this layer. They retain the playfulness of a potter’s glaze, which, when tempered by fire, offers up surprises.
Descending Couple, 2013, Oil on linen, 48” x 36”
“
I have learned that it’s all the same. The experience that was happening fifty years ago or seventy-five years ago, those moments are all those same everyday moments of human connection. – Signe Grushovenko
”
The Send Off, 2014, Oil on linen, 54” x 54”
“I’m more of a visually loose person,” Genna says. “So I really enjoy just working with color, playing with it. My studio is more of a mad scientist laboratory than a precise art studio where one uses a lot of precise planning. It’s kind of child’s play for me.” Then Signe takes her turn, instilling order to the piece with a crispness similar to that of painter Alex Katz. But while critics—fairly or not—have complained that Katz’s work is flat and static, Signe escapes this potential minefield. Like Katz, she creates human figures using broad, sweeping strokes of opaque paint that possess scant evidence of chiaroscuro. Yet they become sculptural due to their placement, collage-like, across Genna’s washes. They create shadow and light while simultaneously allowing the ethereal color below to glow in patches.
Making Plans, 2014, Oil on linen, 36” x 48”
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 79
“I’m harnessing all that color that’s underneath,” Signe says. “It’s just part of my tool kit.” The result is that memories are made modern. Life is injected into the images while allowing them to retain a palpable nostalgia. One observer got it right, with one word, after viewing the painting The Way Back—a car stacked with suitcases, a chair, a rug, a bicycle, the detritus of a family’s life—describing it as “saudade.” Don’t know what that means? Neither did Signe. So she looked it up. Like many words, saudade, a Portuguese and Galician term, has no direct translation into English. The Oxford Dictionary calls it “a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament.” Portuguese writer Manuel de Melo defines it as “a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy.”
Move Them Hippies North, 2013, Oil on linen, 48” x 48”
Genna calls the recognition of old photos—and, consequentially, the couple’s paintings—the “universal human unifying memory.” This connection is particularly intriguing to him, as he grew up in Ukraine, a world away from where he and Signe find old photos. “Being raised in a completely different culture, it’s very interesting to me,” he says. “With a lot of these photographs, I can relate to them as much as to my own families’ and ancestors’ photos, because human experience definitely has more in common than not across the globe.” Signe says, “I have learned that it’s all the same. The experience that was happening fifty years ago or seventy-five years ago, those moments are all those same everyday moments of human connection.” With a loosely represented figure—a swimmer, a dancer, a lover—the work of Signe and Genna reflects the abstract qualities of a magical place we all love and remember . . . even if we’ve never been there.
Signe put this definition on the couple’s blog: “Saudade was once described as ‘the love that remains’ after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again.” Signe says, “When I read the definition of it I thought, that is exactly what we’re striving for in our work.” Tellingly, saudade can also be interpreted as nostalgia felt for something someone hasn’t even experienced firsthand. “It is funny, because I was born in the seventies,” Signe says. “So it’s not like I can really be nostalgic for a time I never lived in. But that whole mid-century time, I think, was such an optimistic time. And I think that’s what people respond to, that optimism.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANASTASIIA GRUSHOVENKO
Five Figured Conversation II, 2013, Oil on linen, 48” x 36”
Signe and Genna are represented by Leiper’s Creek Gallery and Bennett Galleries, Knoxville. Please visit www.grushovenko.com, www.leiperscreekgallery.com and www.bennettgalleries.com for more information.
Artists Genna and Signe Grushovenko
80 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
NeLLie Jo english & company
•
Home Consignment Stocked Wallpaper
•
118 Powell Place • Nashville, TN 37204 Mon. - Sat. • 10:00 - 5:00 • (615) 315-5589 englishandcompanytn@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook
NashvilleArts.com
Time To Grow
Oil by Nellie Jo Rainer
411 Bridge Street • Franklin, TN 37064 615-519-0258
June 2014 | 81
Prayer for Abundance, 2013, Acrylic and ink on paper, 10� x 10�
KAAREN HIRSCHOWITZ ENGEL by MiChelle Jones
A
Cultural Constructions in Color
long with small, delicate Hebrew prayer paintings, Kaaren Hirschowitz Engel is known for sculptures made from paintings that have been cut into strips. Engel might be best known, however, for her installations of colorful, oversized scroll paintings. In fact, people still tell her they remember her 2005 Arts in the Airport installation. She also created a forest of scrolls at Centennial Art Center last summer.
Several of those four- to six-foot-long scrolls are mounted on walls, are suspended as sculptural window treatments, or lean in corners of her East Nashville townhome. Some of the scrolls are tightly rolled and tied in a manner reminiscent of parchments or documents; others are partially open and with their lustrous color and texture resemble rolls of exquisite fabric.
82 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
hand, she was horrified to think someone might actually read what she had written, so she began cutting up the paintings and weaving them back together into new forms. One of the earliest of those is the shimmery blue Nest, which looks like a nest being burst open. As the paintings grew larger, Engel began rolling them to clear the floor where she worked. Then someone suggested mounting the rolled tubes. For these double-sided paintings, Engel uses a line of acrylics blended to create colors that seem to change when viewed from different angles and in different light. Gold, copper, and bronze are also frequently on her palette.
Transforestation, 2005 to 2013, Acrylic on paper, size varies for individual pieces 4’–12’ high, 12”–15” diameter
“
I paint because I love color. For me that’s it; I’m a colorist.
”
That much is obvious, not only from her work but also from her home. Though the space is not drenched in color, there are lots of colorful elements—a terra cotta wall separating her kitchen and studio is one of them. There is also a lot of work by local artists throughout the house: book pieces by Lesley Patterson-Marx and Daniel Lai, paintings by Duy Huynh and Melita Osheowitz, and a small Kem Alexander sculpture. A suitcase table by Bill Brimm is in the living room, and a large desk by Brett MacFadyen is in Engel’s studio.
Helix, 2005, Acrylic on paper, 30” x 22”
Untitled (Red), 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”
In addition to brushes and paints, an easel, and a drop cloth, the studio is filled with examples of Engel’s work, including hand-knit,
“Scrolls,” by the way, is how Engel refers to the paintings at the moment, though her name for them changes depending on how she’s presenting them. The scrolls themselves have “a relatively interesting history,” Engel said. That history began when Engel left her position as a partner at a local law firm in favor of creative pursuits. Around that time her mother, who is also an artist, sent her paints and paper, and Engel started making paintings in her kitchen. She gave herself two years for something to happen before moving on; that was in 2000.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GUIDER
Engel was also going through a divorce, and when paintings didn’t work, she’d use them as journals. “It gave me this big format to write out all of my emotions,” she said. On the other
Time Loops, 2012, Acrylic on paper, 12” diameter
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 83
felted bowls and a Hanukkah bush with items made from copper spirals and mesh. Several copies of Herman’s Journey, the 2008 children’s book she created with Jamina Carder, are half buried on a table. “It’s not that I get bored, but so many things excite me,” Engel said of the eclectic array. By her own account she also rarely throws anything away (one of the scrolls in her living room was painted on paper damaged in the 2010 flood), and she’ll often use leftovers to make smaller pieces.
presents
Engel’s penchant for reuse is an integral element of the mixed-media pieces on view at Turnip Green this month, and many of the works are collaborations with other artists. She has plenty of other projects planned: a selection of her Hebrew prayer paintings was recently exhibited at a conference of American rabbis in Chicago, and she’ll show prints along with her Platetone Printmaking colleagues (she’s currently president of the group) at the airport and Harpeth Hall this spring and summer (see page 22). In the fall, Engel will have a show at Sewanee that she hopes will include works by her mother, Birmingham-based painter Barbara Hirschowitz, pottery by her youngest daughter, and her own sculpture.
John Woolsey Master MetalsMith
Her busy calendar doesn’t faze her. “One of the things I’ve always been good at was having things ready at the last minute,” Engel said. “Part of that was, I decided when I was making the transition mid career from law to art, I just didn’t have time to [mess] around. I had to get busy and do stuff.” For more information about Kaaren Hirschowitz Engel, please visit www.kaarenengel.com. See Engel’s work at Turnip Green through June 10.
New Series of Work June 13 – July 13 OpeNiNg receptiON & DiScuSSiON
Friday June 13 5:30- 7:30
Prayer Painting - Blessing Said When Seeing Lightning or Other Natural Wonder, 2009, Acrylic on handmade French paper, 12” x 10”
3900 Hillsboro Pike | Nashville, TN 37215 615-739-6573 | paullequireandcompany.com
84 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Looking for the Best in High End Home Theater & 2-Channel Audio? 615-799-8002
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
Martindale Artworks
Premier Acoustic Lifestyles 1696 Fairview Blvd • Fairview, TN. 37062 www.nashvillehifi.com
POLK PLACE ANTIQUES
The Finest in American Period Furniture
Specializing in pastel paintings of pets and/or their people Prints and other musings available Commissions welcome!
Christmas Morning-Smith Farm, pastel, 16” x 20” private collection
info@dennymartindale.com • www.dennymartindale.com • 615-924-7941
BELLE MEADE JEWELRY & REPAIR
Rings Sized While You Wait!
S TAT E O F T H E A R T L A S E R W E L D E R Platinum • 14K & 18K • Antique Restoration • Sterling Silver • Eyeglass Repair Appraisals • Engraving • Prong Rebuilding • Watch Repair & Watch Batteries
Same Day Jewelry Repair!
Belle Meade Plaza 4548 Harding Road (Next to Newk’s)
269-3288
BelleMeadeJewelry.com
follow us on
5701 Old Harding Pike
(Behind Global Motorsports, in the Heart of Belle Meade)
NashvilleArts.com
(615) 353-1324
10:30am - 5:00pm Wed. - Sat. Tuesday by chance or appointment
June 2014 | 85
Michael Griffin
Along the Harbor
Oil on linen Available at
Nashville’s Favorite for Home Décor and More!
30” x 37 1/2”
GASLAMP ANTIQUES &
202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 www.gallery202art.com • 615-472-1134
GASLAMP TOO
100 Powell Place, Suite 200 & 128 Powell Place, 37204 Open M-Sat 10-6 & Sun 12-6, 615-297-2224 / 615-292-2250 Join Us for Freedom Fest on June 28th for Summer Sales! GasLampAntiques.com
86 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN JACKSON
Under the Radar
Still Sculpting After All These Years by Molly Secours
T
erry Lapidus Freudenthal was 9 years old when she and her family boarded the SS Theodore Roosevelt to flee Nazi Germany in 1938. Months before leaving, her father avoided capture by escaping to Berlin where he worked and saved enough money to board the New York City-bound ship with his family. Meanwhile Terry’s mother packed up their belongings and endured interrogation by the SS, who arrived unannounced—day and night—searching for valuables. Hitler’s rigid policies forbade Jews from taking any assets that might generate revenue in America, and only old or used possessions were allowed. Terry explains: “We were very fortunate because we were on one of the last ships that allowed Jews to take personal belongings out of Germany. After that people could only take what they had on their backs.” Beginning again in New York City was difficult. Her father worked as a janitor, courier, and window dresser. Fortunately, a year after their arrival, Terry received a full scholarship from a Russian ballerina who needed students for a new school, and, at the age of 10, she began the life of an artist.
By the time Terry arrived in Nashville with her new husband, Curt, at age 20, she was a highly skilled papier-mâché artist. She set up a freelance shop in her basement working with Castner Knott and Harveys—while raising three daughters. After becoming a widow twenty-nine years ago, Terry began art classes at Centennial Arts Center, first with clay, then painting. Over the years her paintings, sculpture, and pottery have been featured in local exhibitions—and even a national one—and are frequently auctioned off to benefit her favorite charities. When I inquired about a sculpture of a young dancer on her coffee table, she smiled shyly and said, “Perhaps it’s after class and she’s relaxed—but still posing in a way.” The dancer appears reflective, and Terry reveals that for those coming from another country, artistic expression is essential in finding one’s home. And for years Terry has found a home at Nashville Opera Company where she serves as a board member.
“Art and music have always been part of me, starting with the ballet. I couldn’t imagine a life without art.”
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 87
Found, 2010, Modern fresco, 12” x 12”
Endure, 2012, Modern fresco, 12” x 12”
Just be yourself, you are wonderful, 2011, Modern fresco, 16” x 20” 88 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Field Notes
A Local Look at Global Art
Ali Cavanaugh
Simple Truth by Betsy Wills
Create in your mind what your eyes cannot distinguish 3, 2010, Modern fresco, 22” x 30”
Ali Cavanaugh’s art exemplifies the seemingly magical way artists communicate complex ideas and emotions. Her paintings have the aesthetic of classical figure studies without the nostalgic overtones. These female figures are contemporary, everyday, ordinary, and they have something to say about being human. Cavanaugh’s figures beg viewers to have compassion. While each image seems simple enough, there is complexity in a cropped view of a woman obscuring her face or other body part with colors, patterns, textures from ordinary apparel. While the beauty of the presentation is striking, the desire to see what is hidden pulls the viewer into a paradox. The tension between what we are able to observe and what we will never know becomes an opportunity to consider the figure’s motivations: what is she doing, why is she is hiding, why is she laughing? Cavanaugh invites the viewer to consider the figure’s emotions and motivations to become empathetic.
Artist Bio – Ali Cavanaugh Ali Cavanaugh was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1973 and has worked as a professional artist for 19 years. Her compositions are strong and intuitive, thanks not only to being a wife and mother but also to the variations in her experience—such as hearing loss—that made her adapt to and recreate the world around her. She studied painting at Kendall College of Art and Design and the New York Studio Residency Program in New York City, earning a BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design in 1995. In 1996, she co-founded the New School Academy of Fine Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2000. It was during her seven years in Santa Fe that she developed her modern fresco process on kaolin clay.
Intended imperfection, 2009, Modern fresco, 12” x 12”
Al i C a va n a ug h i s re pres e nted by T i n ney Contemporary. For more information about the artist, visit www.tinneycontemporary.com and www.alicavanaugh.com.
Dimly obscured by an ongoing revelation, 2010, Modern fresco, 22” x 30”
NashvilleArts.com
Betsy Wills admits that she is blissfully ignorant when it comes to art curation and selection. She is, however, an avid art lover and collector and maintains the popular art blog artstormer.com. Wills is proud of the fact that her art does not match her sofa. June 2014 | 89
Critical I
YEOMAN’S IN THE FORK
A Rare Book & Document Gallery Located in Historic Leiper’s Fork, TN
Something Within by Joe Nolan
T
he best reason to go see Casey Promise’s new exhibit at Red Arrow is because looking at digital images online just doesn’t do justice to the artist’s work. When gallery curator Katie Shaw sent me the press release for the show, the images looked like 2D illustrations from a graphic novel aimed at young adult surrealists. In person, the work is goofy, angsty, and trippy but also sculptural. Most of the pieces are assembled in collages of separate elements, bringing handmade charm to the cartoon-colored creations. Nowadays, many artists interested in collage use Photoshop—digital images in 2D. Promise reminds us of the felt pleasure that collage and assemblage might evoke, and the pieces are much more interesting as objects than as 2D images.
There It Is, 2014, Mixed media, 10” x 12”
R ARE BOOKS & DOCUMENTS BOUGHT AND SOLD
Two characters that recur in Promise’s narrative scenes are an angel and a demon who seem to be having a rough go at their trans-dimensional romance. In one piece the two are about to kiss as the angel draws a heart shape over the demon’s heart with a red magic marker—a serpent’s hissing face appears in the lower right corner. In another, both of them look dejected as they slump against each other back to back. It’s like they’ve just had a spat. The latter work is a 2D, colored-pencil drawing, but the former finds the angel’s wings made of pointy, cut-paper feathers that flutter up off the background. The whole drawing has been cut out and mounted onto a piece of what looks like cardboard.
4216 Old Hillsboro Road | Franklin, TN
There is roughness and imprecision here, but it’s clearly on purpose. The work feels impulsive in a good way, and one gets the sense that the street-art sensibility of some of these pieces wouldn’t have the same pop in a more pristine presentation. On the other hand, Promise can draw. Her lines bring these characters to life, and the most technically accomplished pieces in the show are her 2D pencil-on-paper affairs. One is a portrait of a person with a squirrel on their head. You need to see it in person.
www.YeomansInTheFork.com
Something Within: Casey Promise is open through June 14 at the Red Arrow Gallery, 1311 McGavock Pike. For more information visit www.theredarrowgallery.com.
Wednesday thru Saturday 10-5 | Sunday 1-5 ph: 615.983.6460 | fx: 615.515.9060
A
t Loring & Co. bespoke, we believe it takes an artist’s eye to ensure a proper fit. Each piece must be sculpted to fit each individual by experienced craftsmen.
This fAThers dAy give your dAd A speciAl gifT mAde especiAlly for him. loring & co. bespoke, Where fit and design are a work of art visit our website at stitchitandco.com and our blog at theartofthefit.com custom designed gift certificates available
4101 Hillsboro Cir | Nashville, TN 37215 | (615) 292-3008
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 91
Theatre
Nashville, Musical City! The 2014–15 HCA/TriStar Broadway at TPAC Series and “Musical City” Have Both Arrived by Jim Reyland
N
ashville is exploding, not only as a great place to live but as a fine arts Mecca and a City of Light. There’s no better example of this than the HCA/TriStar Broadway at TPAC Series. For the next twelve months the visionaries at TPAC have arranged an impressive lineup of singing, dancing, and dramatic merriment. Let’s start with . . .
Kinky Boots, February 3–8, 2015. Winner of six Tony Awards including Best Musical and featuring a joyous score by Cyndi Lauper, this inspirational story follows a struggling shoe-factory owner who works to turn his business around with help from Lola, a fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos. Kinky Boots—sometimes the best way to fit in is to stand out!
Chicago with John O’Hurley, October 21–26, 2014. Whether you’re looking for your first Broadway musical, whether you’ve seen the Academy Award-winning film and want to experience the show live on stage, or whether you’ve seen it before and want to recapture the magic, Chicago always delivers.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MATTHEW MURPHY
Once, September 16–21, 2014. Winner of eight 2012 Tony Awards® including Best Musical, Once tells the enchanting tale of a Dublin street musician who’s about to give up on his dream when a beautiful young woman takes a sudden interest in his love songs. It’s emotionally captivating and theatrically breathtaking.
Kinky Boots
Chicago
Evita, November 4–9, 2014. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s award-winning musical returns! Evita tells Eva’s Perón’s passionate and unforgettable true story and features some of theatre’s most beautiful songs, including “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” “Another Suitcase in Another Hall,” and “High Flying, Adored.”
“
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
PHOTOGRAPH BY DANIEL BRODIE
PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL KOLNIK
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, February 17–22, 2015. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s irresistible family musical about the trials and triumphs of Joseph, Israel’s favorite son. This magical musical is full of unforgettable songs including “Those Canaan Days,” “Any Dream Will Do,” and “Close Every Door.”
Pippin, March 10–15, 2015. With a beloved score by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Wicked), Pippin tells the story of a young prince on a death-defying journey to find meaning in his existence. Pippin features sizzling choreography in the style of Bob Fosse and breathtaking acrobatics by Les 7 doigts de la main, the creative force behind Traces.
The fact that three out of the seven Broadway shows we are offering next season are award-winning productions going out on their first national tours speaks volumes about Nashville. – Kathleen O’Brien, TPAC President and CEO
92 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
”
Blue Man Group, January 6–11, 2015. Blue Man Group is best known for their wildly popular theatrical shows and concerts, which combine comedy, music, and technology to produce a totally unique form of entertainment. With no spoken language, Blue Man Group is perfect for people of all ages, languages, and cultures!
PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL KOLNIK
Newsies
and his friends Clarice, Hermey the Elf, and Yukon Cornelius as their adventures teach us that what makes you different can be what makes you special.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEEN VAN MEER
Newsies, May 26–31, 2015. Winner of the 2012 Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Choreography, Newsies has audiences and critics alike calling it “A Musical Worth Singing About!” (The New York Times). Filled with one heart-pounding number after another, it’s a high-energy explosion of song and dance.
And if that wasn’t enough to whet your musical appetite, TPAC will present the following Special Event performances: Th e B o o k O f M o r m o n , N ove m b e r 18 –2 3 , 2 014 . Entertainment Weekly says, “Grade A: the funniest musical of all time.” Jon Stewart of The Daily Show calls it “a crowning achievement. So good it makes me angry.” It’s The Book of Mormon, the nine-time Tony Award-winning Best Musical from the creators of South Park.
Blue Man Group
For information on tickets for the 2014–2015 HCA/TriStar Broadway Series, visit www.tpac.org/broadway.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical, December 16–21, 2014. Based on the beloved stop-motion c l a ssic Rudolph the R ed-Nosed R eindeer. From f leeing t he Abominable Snow Monster to saving Christmas, join Rudolph
The film version of Jim Reyland’s play, STAND, performed across Middle Tennessee in 2012 as part of The Stand Project, is now available to stream at www.writersstage.com. Watch The STAND Film starring Barry Scott and Chip Arnold and directed by David Compton. And please consider a donation to support Room In The Inn. jreyland@audioproductions.com
Blackbird Theater Produces World Premiere of Roger’s Version
T
o close out their 2013–14 Season, Blackbird Theater will present the world premiere of Roger’s Version, a new play adapted from the critically acclaimed novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike.
At Lipscomb University’s Shamblin Theatre, May 30–June 1 and June 5–8 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. General admission $20. Senior/student $15. Tickets at www.blackbirdnashville.com.
PHOTOGRAPH BY WES DRIVER
Blackbird Artistic Director Wes Driver has written and will direct this original adaptation. The story follows Roger Lambert, a bad-tempered divinity professor who finds his staid academic life and complacent faith challenged by the zealous ideas of Dale Kohler, a grad student who seeks to prove God’s existence through computer technology.
Amanda Card and David Compton in Roger’s Version NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 93
The Beacon on the Hill St. Cecilia: Nashville's First Patron Saint of the Arts
I
by Ronnie Brooks
was driving away from downtown Nashville toward MetroCenter when I was distracted by a huge, shining structure in the distance. Crowning a hilltop, this majestic, mystery place was bathed in a ray of sunshine bursting through the clouds. The aura was so perfect I kept expecting to hear the Heavenly choir. As it turns out, an angel chorus might not have been too far-fetched. The radiant building is the St. Cecilia Motherhouse, home of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia and the original campus of St. Cecilia Academy. Named in honor of the Catholic Church’s patron saint of music (there’s that celestial choir connection), the campus dates back to before the Civil War and features architectural and artistic elements seen by few Nashvillians. Thanks to the gracious assistance of Sister Anne Catherine, O.P. and Sister Marian, O.P., we were able to tour the Motherhouse to learn about its interesting history and art. The academy for “higher education of girls and young ladies” was founded in 1860, in a home atop a nineteen-acre property then known as Mt. Vernon Gardens. Sister Marian, O.P. explains, “While the bishop certainly wanted the sisters to teach the Catholic faith, he also wanted it to be a school where young women were formed in the arts and music.” He sent a request to St. Mary’s in Ohio, and four Dominican sisters soon arrived to open the academy. “The sisters, when they came, chose the name of St. Cecilia,” says Sister Anne Catherine, O.P., “because she was known as the patroness of music and the arts—and because it’s part of the integral formation of the person.” Apparently even then, Nashville was ordained to become Music City. Several major additions have taken place over the past 150 years, including chapels, dormitories, a library, and an infirmary, plus dining, living, and classroom spaces. When the school grew to include both Overbrook Elementary and Aquinas College, it moved in 1957 to the current Dominican Campus on Harding Road. But the
94 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
COURTESY OF ST.CECILIA ACADEMY
PHOTOGRAPH BY SISTER MARY JUSTIN, O.P.
Sisters at prayer in the main chapel
The original St. Cecilia Academy in 1860
convent itself, which is home to more than 170 sisters full time plus another 125 teaching in other states and countries, remains on the original site near the Maxwell House Hotel.
had recommended that people contact us because we had their windows.” Once again, someone was watching over the sisters of St. Cecilia.
Art and artifacts dot the buildings and grounds, much of it created by sisters who were accomplished artists prior to entering the convent. Several paintings and statues offer homage to St. Dominic, the thirteenth-century preacher who founded the order, and St. Cecilia, who was known for her devotion to Christian virtue and prayer through song.
“
While the bishop certainly wanted the sisters to teach the Catholic faith, he also wanted it to be a school where young women were formed in the arts and music.
”
As special as the art and architecture are, the thing that stands out most about the campus is its peace and sweet spirit. When I set out to write about the convent, I had hoped to shed light on it. Instead, I realized the light was already there—and I had finally noticed it.
“When we went over there, they still had our records in their archives and some publications from the early 1900s where they
For more information about the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, visit www.nashvilledominican.org.
St. Dominic on the grounds at St. Cecilia Motherhouse
COURTESY OF ST.CECILIA ACADEMY
PHOTOGRAPH BY SISTER MARY JUSTIN, O.P.
“We knew when we were getting ready to build the new chapel in 2004 that we wanted windows of this same quality,” says Sister Marian, O.P., “We tried to find places in this country that could do similar work, and we really weren’t satisfied. We had contact information for the Franz Mayer studios in Munich. They had a representative in New York, and in contacting him, we found out that the Munich and New York companies had merged.
St. Cecilia Academy and Motherhouse built in 1862 NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 95
ART SMART a monthly guide to art education
ON THE HORIZON
Regarding her style Emma said, “I don’t think it’s been defined yet what my style is. I think I am still experimenting, but hopefully next year in AP Art when I have to find a concentration, I’ll find it. But I do really enjoy encaustic.” Emma plays varsity tennis and basketball, and next year she will serve as a St. Cecilia class officer. Second to art, her favorite subject is US History. She particularly likes studying our country’s presidents and finds it fascinating to learn about their lives.
STEFANIE RAYMOND
St. Cecilia Academy Students Continue the Tradition by Rebecca Pierce | Photography by Tamara Reynolds
T
he peace and sweet spirit that envelope the campus of the St. Cecilia Motherhouse are also present on the pastoral Dominican Campus on Harding Road. The tradition of forming young women in the arts and music is still vital, and at St. Cecilia Academy, creative energy fills the hallways and classrooms. We experienced this first hand when Sister Anne Catherine, O.P., Principal of St. Cecilia Academy, and Sister Helen Marie, O.P., Director of Institutional Development, took us through the campus and introduced us to art teacher Barbara Gronefeld and four of her students.
EMMA FORREST Emma Forrest always looked forward to her twice-weekly art classes at Overbrook, the grade school on the Dominican Campus. In fifth grade, she met Mrs. Gronefeld while attending summer camp at St. Cecilia. From then on she participated in art and clay camps and knew early on that she liked creating. This year, she won a Regional Gold Key, a National Silver Key, and first place in the congressional art competition for eleventh graders for her encaustic piece Family Tree. “Family Tree was inspired by my family because my last name is Forrest, so I thought that tied in nicely. My grandparents live in the Adirondack Mou nt a i ns, a nd I go there twice a year. Their place is surrounded by pine trees, so I thought the pine tree in my piece was symbolic of my family. They inspired me to choose the tree,” Emma explained.
A Day at Sea, 2013, Watercolor and ink, 11” x 15”
Inspired by the film The Red Balloon, Stefanie (Stefi) Raymond’s AP concentration features black-and-white illustrations colored by red and blue balloons. “I chose balloons because I like to doodle them all along the side of paper. It feels like childhood when balloons fascinate you. I make them really big. In my beginning piece the little girl is receiving two balloons, and in the last piece she’s grown up and the balloons are being released. The idea is to represent both youthful enthusiasm and growing up. Some people say my work is narrative, which I guess is true because I like trying to tell stories,” Stefi said about her work. She doesn’t remember a particular moment in time when she started making art, because it is something she has always done. “My mom is artistic, and my siblings are really creative. I guess I picked it up from her.” Stefi is also inspired by her friends. “They are all so talented in art, and they make me want to do better.” Out of the work of all the art students in her class, Stefi’s watercolor depicting the Madonna and Child was chosen to be the 2013 St. Cecilia Christmas card.
Family Tree, 2013, Encaustic, 11” x 9”
Stefi enjoys going to art exhibits and particularly liked the Frist exhibit of the work of Norman Rockwell, one of her favorite artists. She will attend College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts next year and plans to major in history, her first love, and perhaps minor in art.
96 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
MELISSA JOHNSON Melissa Johnson has been taking art lessons from St. Cecilia Academy alumna and local artist Cindy Wunsch since she was in fourth grade and described the impact the experience has had on her creatively. “She has taught me so much, and I was able to help her out in her studio as well. Just working with her and being in that environment kept me interested in art. Also, my family is really artistic, and since I’ve been doing it for so long now, it’s just a part of me.” Though she has had a lot of instruction, encouragement, and strong support along the way, Melissa says her mom has been her greatest inspiration. “She’s always been open to me and willing to help me with my art. She’s just always been so supportive.” Melissa has a natural talent for layering and adding texture to create dimension, so she enjoys working with mixed media. She prefers to work with bright colors and is not afraid to be bold with them. Melissa will attend Miami of Ohio University next fall and has been accepted into their elite Interior Design program. Out of four hundred applicants only twenty were accepted. She talked about how she sees her experience with art influencing her future career. “I’ve always had an eye for color, and I hope to carry that into my interior design work. When looking at an interior space I gravitate towards a layout that is less cluttered but stylized without being overdone.”
Water Tower Town, 2013, Printmaking, 12” x 9”
BLAIR ELY
Blair Ely never planned on pursuing art, nor did she think she had any artistic talent. She explained how attending St. Cecilia changed that. “I said to myself, I’m coming to St. Cecilia, and I love it here, and I want to make the most of it. If St. Cecilia is patroness of the arts and music, then that needs to be something that I make a priority for me.” Blair readily admits that she didn’t really take her art classes very seriously until this year when she started the AP art class. Drawing from photographs she took during her mission trips to Haiti, Blair discovered a depth of talent that seems to have surprised her. “It’s really the photographs; it’s not what I dream up. It’s the beauty that I’ve actually seen and gotten to capture with photography that’s inspired all of my artwork and not a passion for art that’s been there since birth. That’s why I love St. Cecilia, because it brings about all these new talents and beautiful things, because there’s so much tradition here.”
Turn Around, 2014, Dry pastels on salvaged cardboard, 21” x 14”
Blair will attend Emory University in Atlanta next year, and since she has always planned to continue on to medical school, she is not sure where or how art will fit in. She does plan to sell her chalk renderings of Haiti and its people to help fund her mission work, “Be Happy Haiti.” She also intends to continue her mission work and hopes to make it a permanent St. Cecilia service project. NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 97
ART SMART
PHOTOGRAPH BY TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
a monthly guide to art education
STATE OF THE ARTS
Remember the world of school assemblies in the 70s and 80s? On a good day, it was a grainy, clicking filmstrip covering fascinating topics like the circulatory system or personal hygiene. On a bad day, you got a D.A.R.E. officer who had watched too much “21 Jump Street” and was very intent on getting across the problems of “your brain on drugs.”
I think once in my entire school career we had a classroom speaker of any real interest.
PHOTOGRAPH BY METRO NASHVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Connecting students to real-life experiences is the new mantra of public education. Part of that is a more dynamic connection to the business and nonprofit sectors as a way to ground classroom instruction.
Jeff Coffin, saxophonist, conducting a workshop with MNPS students
We know that the arts can’t be taught unless they are first felt. Music, visual art, dance, and theatre are interactive, dynamic, and visceral. In order to spark the love of children and engage them in a lifetime of creating art or enjoying it, kids must first experience the spark. Metro Nashville Public Schools, the Music Makes Us program, and Metro Arts are hoping to reimagine how students connect with arts field trips, teaching artists, and in-class programs by launching “The Hub.” Funded in part through a grant from the Bonnaroo Works Fund, the Music Makes Us Online Hub is a database of professional musicians and organizations, vetted by a selection panel, which will enhance teaching and learning opportunities for students and teachers in Metro Nashville schools. The Hub is designed to promote awareness of quality programs available in the community and help facilitate communication and scheduling.
San Jose Taiko artists work with young audience members after TPAC’s Family Field Trip
It is a database built with teachers in mind. Teachers or school leaders can search by music genre, grade level, cultural origin, and program type. Think Match.com for teachers in search of teaching artists or field trips. The hope is that music professionals will have a cleaner, easier way to connect directly with students in a way that is specific to classroom needs, and teachers will have a clearer way of cataloging their opportunities. MNPS/Music Makes Us will open the portal in June and facilitate the first round of online applications for artists and organizations this summer. After the pilot year, MNPS and Metro Arts hope to add additional artistic mediums such as visual arts, dance, theatre, and design to the search functionality. Our goal is simple: to reimagine the way students experience music and connect to the many working artists in our community. If you are a music professional or music organization interested in educational outreach programs with Metro Schools, save the date for an informational community meeting hosted by Music Makes Us and Metro Arts at the launch of a new online artist roster: June 25, 9 to 11 a.m., at the Noah Liff Opera Center. To RSVP for the information session, contact Leigh Patton at Metro Arts, leigh.patton@nashville.gov. For more information about Music Makes Us, go to www.musicmakesus.org.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GLOBAL EDUCATION CENTER
PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP
by Jennifer Cole, Metro Nashville Arts Commission
Student drummers from the Global Education Center
98 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
IN THE SHADOW OF THE ANCIENTS The Parthenon Artist-in-Residence Program “Experience can be a way of our coming to possess aesthetic concepts.” – Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good Throughout the centuries, the great museums of the world have served as vibrant schools of art, offering students the rare opportunity to learn from the works of masters, to examine and sketch within the grandeur of the museum and amid the bustle of museum guests. Within this active studio, visitors pause to watch artists at work and to admire and discuss art. The Parthenon offers Nashville students access to an unmatched, inspiring learning environment for the exploration of classical art. And this year, the museum expanded that access to four advanced art Brianna McKissack-Martin, Pen and ink students from Hillwood’s Academy of Art, Design and Communication through the multi-layered Parthenon Artist-in-Residence experience.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DONA BEROTTI
Sophomores Chandler Bomar, Kiaya McKissack, Brianna McKissack-Martin, and Destiny Phillips had the rare opportunity to spend time with the classical sculpture casts of the Elgin Marbles housed in the Parthenon, exploring the topics of beauty, truth, and excellence in art while strengthening their drawing skills. Through close attention and regular and repeated access to the sculptures over several months, the residents increased aesthetic knowledge and broadened their own aesthetic conceptual repertoire. Confronting the classical sculptures also served as the tool for strengthening the students’ visual relationship with the three-dimensional form and their ability to translate three-dimensional forms to two-dimensional drawings.
Artists-in-residence sketch statues in the Parthenon
PHOTOGRAPH BY DONA BEROTTI
by DeeGee Lester
Skype session with Robert Bodem, Director of Sculpting at The Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy
Through the residency, students had the chance to work with MBA art teacher/Parthenon docent Jim Womack, who has developed his own sketches of the Elgin casts over the years. In addition, they spent time in a professional studio with Athena sculptor Alan LeQuire. Another highlight was the opportunity to Skype with Robert Bodem, Director of Sculpture at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, and with fellow Academy instructor Richard Greathouse, a Nashville native and MBA graduate. This opportunity to talk with and get advice from a leading sculptor/teacher reminded students how very connected they are with the world and the importance of seeing beyond their hometown. “We forget how small the world really is and that, within the art community, there is a very strong connection, no matter how young or old we are or where we live,” says Hillwood art teacher Dona Berotti. The excitement of meeting up via technology was appreciated at both ends. “I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to the kids,” says Bodem. “Perhaps I could inspire the possibilities available. It’s very easy to eliminate paths [where] our lives may lead.” The prolonged and regular sketching also inspired the students. Brianna talked about the impact on her own art with access to “the jaw-dropping culture on display” and the opportunity for “drawing and learning from the ancient Greek statues and architecture.” As they worked, students discovered the joy of interacting with an interested public. “People will stop, stare, and talk,” Kaiya says. “But that’s the best part of working at the Parthenon.” Their residencies will conclude with an exhibit of their work later this summer at the Parthenon. But whether talking about the Parthenon’s “exquisite beauty,” the historical connections to the past, or the “delight” in this experience, students will walk away from their spring residency with a renewed awareness for what is possible in their lives and careers. The program would not have been possible without an amazing selection of supplies donated to each student through the generous support of Plaza Artist Materials and Picture Framing (www.plazaart.com), proving again the strong connections of the art community that can be traced back through the centuries. Visit www.parthenon.org for more information.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 99
JOAN BRANCA
4674 Lebanon Pk. Hermitage, tn 37076 ph:615-889-5640 fx:615-889-5735
www.picturethisgallery.com
P A S S A G E S: R E C E N T W O R K
BLEND STUDIO Opening June 7th, 6-9 pm June 7 - June 28, 2014 Friday 11 am - 4 pm, Saturday 11 am - 3 pm 79 Arcade, Downtown Nashville, TN www.joanbranca.com
We are noW an art broker Let us be your alternative to Ebay & Craigslist for selling artwork. Both direct from artist and on the secondary market.
For more info, contact Matt@picturethis-gallery.com
Stochastic (stō kas' tik) The pseudo-random or variable arrangement of printing dots to recreate full color images of nearly photographic quality, clarity and detail.
So . . . where can you see stochastic printing? 5-2013_MPC_LOGO.pdf
1
3/1/13
6:49 AM
YOU'RE HOLDING IT!
MERRICK PRINTING Merrick Makes It Happen.
The Merrick Printing Co., Inc. • Contact: Richard Barnett, Sr. VP – Sales Cell (502) 296-8650 • Office (502) 584-6258 x.131 • richardb@merrickind.com
100 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
On the Town with Ted Clayton Upon entering the Cheekwood Mansion the other evening my thoughts were on Bryant Fleming, the original landscape architect for Cheekwood as well as many of Nashville’s finest homes and gardens. In fact, he was the architect of my childhood home built in 1930 on the bluffs of Richland Creek. The reason for my visit that evening was what has become the most sought after garden party invite to date, Howe Wild. The Howe Garden at Cheekwood is one of many; this garden was moved and renovated at Cheekwood by the Garden Club of Nashville a few years back.
Alice Hooker, Agneta Currey, Frannie Jackson, Carole Nelson – Howe Wild Garden Party
OK, this was not your free-hotdog-and-Coke kind of plant auction, but one of pearls and diamonds and well-dressed gents agreeing with their social wives that yes, that Acer palmatum (coral bark maple) would look great at the end of the boxwood garden. There was not a garden tool, gardening Co-chair Elizabeth and Jack Wallace, Co-chair glove, or wheelbarrow Anne Nesbitt – Howe Wild Garden Party in sight as event chairs Anne Nesbitt and sister-in-law Elizabeth Wallace along with Garden Club of Nashville President Cayce McAlister greeted Nashville’s finest gardeners, Dudley White, Anne Parsons, Alice Hooker, Hilda and Jim McGregor, Peggy and John Warner, Agneta and Brownlee Currey, Margaret Ann Robinson, Betty and Jim Stadler, Lisa and John Campbell, Frannie and Buddy Jackson, Kitty Murphree, Tooty Bradford with John Eddie Cain, Lin and Bill Andrews, Carole Nelson, Archie Oman, Clare and Tara Armistead, Lise Bohannon . . . you know, the A Plus Plus Plus garden set. No, I went home empty handed, for they did not have any sweet Dudley White (Queen Mother), Cayce McAlister, Lise Bohannon – Howe Wild Garden Party potato vines, LOL.
Speaking of homes and gardens, I had the privilege of visiting a masterpiece of a home high up in the hills of Williamson County. Patti and Brian Smallwood hosted the Patrons Party Cocktail Supper for the Symphony Spring Fashion Show. Now, this stately manor is unbelievable with two swimming pools, one a lap pool inside off the master suite. Joining the Smallwoods in greeting the patrons were this year’s Symphony Fashion Patricia Hart, Gil Merritt and Martha Ingram Show Chairs Vicki Horne – Symphony Fashion Show Patrons Party and Dara Russell. Patrons, most all fashion icons themselves, included Patricia and Rodes Hart, Nancy and Billy Ray Hearn (Nancy was busy telling me about her keeping closet, where she stores her formal gowns from season to season), Judy and Tom Foster, Gayle and Bob Patterson, Alberta and Bob Doochin, Sandra and Larry Lipman, Mary and Alex Wade with daughter DeeDee, Johnna Ford, and Anne and Joe Russell. As I mentioned, this home is high on a mighty high hill. As I drove for what seemed like miles on the one-way, black-asphalt driveway I came upon yet another set of gates, where the black asphalt turned to white concrete. Well, I just knew I had arrived at the pearly gates by car, but then one had to drive a few more miles to reach the heavenly residence. I arrived at the same Judy and Tom Foster – Symphony Fashion time as our Symphony Show Patrons Party Godmother, Martha Ingram, and Gil Merritt arrived. As we entered the home, Patti exclaimed, “Aunt Martha, Aunt Martha it is so good to have you here!” A few moments went by, and I just could not stop myself as I embraced Patti and said, “Cousin Teddy is here also!” If one is to pick a family to be related to, I think this is a fine family to claim!
Co-chair Vicki Horne, Patti and Brian Smallwood, Co-chair Dara Russell – Symphony Fashion Show Patrons Party
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 101
in town this year!) were congratulating the evening honorees Dr. Michael J. Christie, Mr. and Mrs. James Clayton III, Dr. Cornelia R. Graves, and Mr. Doyle R. Rippee. Dancing the night away to the City Lights Orchestra were Rose and Doug Grandstaff, Carol and Bob McCorkle, Sally and Geoff Smallwood, Jody Mattison and Jordan Asher, and Monica and Daniel Scokin. Thankfully there was no need to ask the question, “Is there a doctor in the house?”
Gala Co-chairs Grant and Suzanne Smothers, Governor and Mrs. Bill Haslam, Co-chairs Linda and Jere Ervin – Tennessee Waltz Gala
Suzanne and Grant Smothers, sometimes thought to be Barbie and Ken, were dancin’ with their darlin’s at this year’s Tennessee Waltz. Co-chairing this event were Linda and Jere Ervin. Having cocktails followed by a seated, candlelit dinner is always a special evening at our State Capitol, but this year’s event had a feel of elegance and sophistication. Suzanne and Linda, being the gracious hostesses they are, added lovely flower arrangements everywhere one could see featuring irises, the State Flower. The impressive limestone staircase was lined with eight-foot gilded candelabras, making this the most beautiful of evenings at our Tennessee State Capitol. Governor and Mrs. Haslam along with the Honoree of the evening Senator Douglas Henry welcomed Bishop David Choby, Father Dillon Barker, Sylvia and Al Ganier, former governors and first ladies Betty and Winfield Dunn and Martha and Don Sundquist. This event was a benefit for the Tennessee State Museum, and once again I thank Linda and Jere and Suzanne and Grant for this most stately evening. Gala Honoree Senator and Mrs. Douglas Oh, by the way, if you Henry – Tennessee Waltz Gala put former Mayor Bill Purcell next to Governor Bill Haslam they look as if they could be brothers. (I realize you always thought that.) A few Saturday nights back, if one was in need of a physician one would have needed to be at the Omni Hotel at the 2014 Seton Celebration. This event honored the medical professionals and community leaders who have demonstrated excellence and a heartfelt commitment to the missions of Saint Thomas Hospitals. Co-chairs Burkley and Newton Allen and Mary Jo and Steve Shankle (I think Mary Jo has chaired every event
Co-chairs Newton and Burkley Allen, Co-chairs Mary Jo and Steve Shankle – Seton Celebration
Susan and Luke Simons, Gary and Joanne Haynes, Kay and Steve Horrell – Haynes Dinner
Lobster Thermidor was the first course of a most delightful dinner hosted by Joanne and Gary Haynes a few weeks ago at the Cheekwood Mansion. After the guests were seated in the elegant Georgian drawing room, Gary welcomed them all and remarked that having two galleries, one here i n Na shv i l le a nd the other in Maine, Lobster Thermidor would be most appropriate. Prior to dinner, cocktails Sandra McDonald, Landy Gardner, Renee and w e r e s e r v e d o n Walker Mathews, Joy Gardner – Haynes Dinner the Loggia where works of art from Haynes Galleries were displayed and selling! A wonderful dinner by d.Kates Catering was accompanied by the musical notes of Pat Patrick. It was the artsy A Plus crowd—Joy and Landy Gardner, Sissy and Mark Simmons, Jennie and Rob McCabe, Lannie Neal, Renee and Walker Mathews, Sarah and Bob Buchanan, Judy and Pete Nebhut, Ellen Pryor and Paul Polycarpou, Susan and Luke Simons, and Betsy and Ridley Wills. Champagne was passed with dessert, which was my favorite, crème brûlée, chocolate decadence fresh
Amber Chapman, Skippy, Bill Knestrick, Vicki Horne – Steeplechase
102 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Earl Jimmy Brecknock, Louise McKenzie, Lord Briggs, Shawn Ljunggren, Clint Bunn, Ed Nash, Donald McKenzie (in back) – Steeplechase
cream, almond tuiles crowned with the Haynes Galleries eatable symbol. Now this is the way to entertain folks. I quote Gary once again: “Joanne loves to entertain here at Cheekwood. The only problem is that she wants a home of the same beauty and quality.” And they are off! The 73rd running of the Iroquois Steeplechase, in association with the Volunteer State Horsemen’s Foundation, was held a few weeks ago on a cloudy, humid afternoon. This is a major event benefiting Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Va nderbi lt. Steeplec ha se Executive Director Libby Cheek stated that this is a Nashville Lori and Tom Ozburn – Steeplechase tradition that ties so many people from our community together. Yes, Libby was so correct—about 25,000 folks, to be exact, came together for yet another equestrian Saturday in May. The first recorded steeplechase occurred in 1752 in County Cork, Ireland, where Cornelius O’Callaghan and Edmund Blake engaged in a flat match race about four and a half miles from Tom and Mary Ellen Rodgers Saint John Church to Saint Mary’s – Steeplechase Church in Doneraile. The church steeples, being the tallest structures in the village, were the
Andrew and Sara Burd, Paul and Olivia Burd, Joy Fauntleroy, Heather White – Steeplechase
Layton Meng, Mary and Alex Wade, DeeDee Wade, Molly Shasteen, Dara Wynn – Steeplechase
riders’ point to point, and this is where the term steeplechasing comes from. At our Steeplechase, race fans enjoyed one another, from tent party to box parties to the most exciting infield.
Happy Infielders – Steeplechase
A question in this year’s race-day program asked: Is the steeplechase horse of a distinct breed? The answer is no; however, all horses must be registered by the Jockey Club. My question: Are the crowds of folks of a distinct breed? The answer is yes; all are totally thoroughbreds, at least on this second Saturday in May! The quote of the day came from Mary Perkins, my lunch partner in the Iroquois Society Tent. When I asked Mary where her hubby, Jay, was her response was, “Jay has been at his farm alone for three days and loving it. I cannot do what his tractor can do for him!” And that, folks, is a wrap on Steeplechase 73. As Bryant Fleming may have said: See you in a couple of weeks back here at Cheekwood for The Ball!
Jay and Christi Turner, Reed Campbell, Crosslin Archdeacon – Steeplechase NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 103
Beyond Words
& The Factory
by Marshall Chapman
Historic Downtown Franklin
Hink Pink? PHOTO: ANTHONY SCARLATI
Friday, June 6, 6-9 p.m.
Probably with Winkie Crigler. Winkie and I were friends growing up in South Carolina. Her family lived in Greenville and mine in nearby Spartanburg. Our parents were close friends. Even our grandparents were close friends. So Winkie and I sort of inherited one another. PHOTOGRAPH BY DEBBIE SMARTT
Nearly 30 galleries and working studios in a 15-block area, featuring artists at work, live music, wine and more! There’s no cost to attend
I’m not entirely sure when it all began.
Our friendship has withstood the years and today remains strong. Whenever I play music in the D.C. area, I always stay at Wink’s. And when she brought her daughter to Nashville to look at Vanderbilt, they stayed with me. In between, we keep in touch. When I left South Carolina over forty years ago to attend Vanderbilt, Winkie followed me. Few girls from South Carolina attended Vanderbilt in those days, so we were pioneers of sorts. Most of the girls back home went to Hollins, Sweetbriar, Converse, or Agnes Scott. (Lady factories, I call them.) Also, our parents weren’t too keen on Vanderbilt because most people in South Carolina think anything west of the Blue Ridge Mountains is uncivilized. During our Vanderbilt years, Winkie and I often took road trips together. On one such trip, she taught me a word game called “Hink Pink.” It goes like this: one person gives the definition of two rhyming words. But first, you must indicate the number of syllables. One syllable and it’s a Hink Pink. Two, and it’s a Hinky Pinky. Three, a Hinkity Pinkity, and so on. “Okay, this is a Hinky Pinky,” Winkie announced. “Hmmm . . . two syllables. Okay. Let’s hear it,” I replied. “A seafood monastery.” There was a momentary pause. Then . . . “Oyster cloister!”
www.FranklinArtScene.com Facebook.com/FranklinArtScene Sponsored By:
For years, I forgot about this game. Then a few months ago, another Vanderbilt classmate, Woody Paul Chrisman, began texting me Hink Pinks. I had taught him the game while driving to a fiddler’s convention a couple of years after we’d graduated from Vanderbilt. Here’s one that just came in: “H1 (text speak for one syllable): an inebriated celibate.” Sometimes with the easier ones, I can’t see the forest for the trees. This one took a while. You’ve probably already figured it out. www.tallgirl.com
104 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Appraise It
Historical Blue Transfer-decorated Staffordshire Pottery Plate
I
t is said that looks can be deceiving, and that is true of this simple-enough-looking commemorative plate. The irony of this English dinner plate is in its production history, which began only a few years after a war between the country of the plate’s origin and the land that it commemorates. The conflict was the War of 1812, Americans fighting against the British, Canadian colonists, and the Native American nations. Among the causes of the war were Britain’s attempts to restrict the U.S. from international t r a d e , t h e R o y a l N a v y ’s impressment, recruitment by force, of American seamen, and the lack of shared interest in American expansionist visions. During the course of the War of 1812, the U.S. suffered many costly defeats, including the 1814 British march into Washington, D.C., resulting in the burning of the capitol building and the White House. Following the conflict, the English potters of the Staffordshire district, having suffered great business losses during the many years of being under embargoes, needed to get back into the good graces of their best customers, the Americans. In an attempt to capitalize on the Americans’ nationalistic spirit, they began production of ironstone ceramics decorated with transfer prints featuring American victories and national heroes, such as Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin. The potters of Staffordshire were successful with the innovation of this now-termed “Historic Staffordshire.” It was produced in all forms of dinner services, tea sets, and tableware and was durable, mass-produced, and reasonably priced. It remained popular with the American consumer from approximately 1819 to
PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP
Linda Dyer serves as an appraiser, broker, and consultant in the field of antiques and fine art. She has appeared on the PBS production Antiques Roadshow since season one, which aired in 1997, as an appraiser of Tribal Arts. If you would like Linda to appraise one of your antiques, please send a clear, detailed image to info@nashvillearts. com. Or send photo to Antiques, Nashville Arts Magazine, 644 West Iris Dr., Nashville, TN 37204.
English, depicting the Boston State House, (with chaise), dia. 10”
1860 with its stirring patriotic images covering the entire surface of the ironstone form that it decorated. The dishware proved to be so popular that later more patterns were developed, patterns of famous American landmarks, scenic vistas, and themes. This brings me back to the object of this appraisal, one ten-inch dinner plate depicting the Boston State House from the late nineteenth century. At least six pottery firms used this structure as a view, which represents the State House in 1804. The building was constructed in 1795. Similar plates have achieved $250 to $300 at auction, and should you wish to collect this form of patriotic Americana, I would suggest that you follow auction houses that feature American furniture and decorative arts sales.
NashvilleArts.com
June 2014 | 105
My Favorite Painting
A gata B ond
Lela Shields, 2004, The Heart Song, Pen and ink, 24” x 30”
Interior Designer and Art Consultant
I
When our mind pauses for a moment, stopped by the powerful effect of art, our lives are altered, our awareness heightened. I continuously look for these moments and patiently await their promise.
A gata Bond is an inter ior desig ner and art consultant living in Nashville, Te n n e s s e e . A g a t a B o n d I n t e r i o r s h a s offices in both Nashville and Warsaw. www.agatabondinteriors.com.
Artist Bio
LELA SHIELDS PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN JACKSON
was immediately drawn to the works of American artist Lela Shields and the delicate lines of her dreamlike drawings. In my favorite of her paintings, The Heart Song, allegory is blended with reality to compose a disturbing yet irresistible narrative. The surreal image of an animal form morphing into a chimerical creature made an everlasting impression upon me. The contrast of the three-headed bird encrusted in flowers, its body stained in red ink, and the monochromatic, somber figure of a man holding a heart creates a dark mystery of symbolism. Only the delicately drawn flowers remind us of lost beauty and harmony.
106 | June 2014 NashvilleArts.com
Lela was born and raised in London and attended several fine art institutions before graduating from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2006, Lela was included in a group exhibition at The Louvre Museum in Paris, France. In 2009, Lela’s work was short-listed for the Jerwood Drawing Prize – the most competitive drawing contest in the UK. www.lelashields.com.
YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis
Nashville’s Newest Leading Source for Tennessee Art
ROBERT WILLIAMS Untitled Ink & Oil on Paper 24x18 each
107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net • www.yorkandfriends.com Follow us on at Ron York Art
silkscreen paintings of flowers, a subject that would preoccupy him for the rest of his life. This exhibition at Cheekwood is a rare occasion when Warhol’s artificial flower images meet the floral abundance of an actual garden.
presented by:
OPEN TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY 9 AM – 5 PM EXTENDED HOURS! OPEN UNTIL 10 PM ON FRIDAY NIGHTS!
© Shephen Shore, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York and The Andy Warhol Museum
Fifty years ago, during the summer of 1964, Andy Warhol began working on
ANDY WARHOL’S FLOWERS
Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987), Flowers, 1970, screen print on paper, 36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm.). The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. © 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
JUNE 14 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2014