March 2015 Nashville Arts Magazine by Nashville Arts Magazine

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the doctors ’ doctor

d r . M i ng W ang Md, Phd PERFORMED SURGERIES ON OVER 4,000 DOCTORS Dr. Ming Wang, Harvard & MIT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser Physics), is one of the few cataract and LASIK surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. He has performed over 55,000 procedures, including on over 4,000 doctors (hence he has been referred to as “the doctors’ doctor”). Dr. Wang currently is the only surgeon in the state who offers 3D LASIK (age 18+), 3D Forever Young Lens surgery (age 45+) and 3D laser cataract surgery (age 60+). He has published 7 textbooks, over 100 papers including one in the world-renowned journal “Nature”, holds several U.S. patents and performed the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. He has received an achievement award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Chinese Physician Association. Dr. Wang founded a 501c(3) non-profit charity, the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration (www.Wangfoundation.com), which to date has helped patients from over 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries worldwide, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge.

AMNIOTIC MEMBRANE CONTACT LENS Dr. Wang’s invention • U.S. patents: 5,932,205 & 6,143,315

Used by over 1,000 eye doctors to restore sight.

INVENTIONS & PATENTS 1. LASERACT: All-laser cataract surgery U.S. patent filed.

aberrations U.S. Utility Patent Application Serial No. 11/642,226.

2. Phacoplasty U.S. patent filed. 3. Amniotic membrane contact lens for photoablated corneal tissue U.S. Patent Serial No. 5,932,205.

4. Amniotic membrane contact lens for injured corneal tissue U.S. Patent Serial No. 6,143,315.

5. Adaptive infrared retinoscopic device for detecting ocular

6. Digital eye bank for virtual clinical trial U.S. Utility Patent

Application Serial No. 11/585,522.

7. Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy for non-healing corneal ulcer U.S.patent filed. 8. A whole-genome method of assaying in vivo DNAprotein interaction and gene expression regulation

Amniotic membrane Is obtained after the baby’s birth

U.S. patent filed.

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

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EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING OFFICES 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 615-383-0278 ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Cindy Acuff, Keith Wright 615-383-0278 DISTRIBUTION Wouter Feldbusch, Peyton Lester SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE 615-383-0278 BUSINESS OFFICE Pam Ferrell, Adrienne Thompson 40 Burton Hills Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37215 EDITORIAL PAUL POLYCARPOU Editor and CEO SARA LEE BURD Executive Editor and Online Editor sara@nashvillearts.com REBECCA PIERCE Education Editor and Staff Writer rebecca@nashvillearts.com MADGE FRANKLIN Copy Editor EDITORIAL INTERN XIYU DENG, VANDERBILT JESSICA MARTIN, BELMONT DESIGN TRACEY STARCK Design Director ADVERTISING

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

CINDY ACUFF cindy@nashvillearts.com

RUSTY WOLFE Pieces & Parts

KEITH WRIGHT keith@nashvillearts.com

TONY YOUNGBLOOD Art in Formation

Nashville Arts Magazine is a monthly publication by St. Claire Media Group, LLC. This publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one magazine from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office for free, or by mail for $5.00 a copy. Email: All email addresses consist of the employeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.

M2 O15 arch

on the cover:

Pamela Adkins Stein, Untitled, 53” x 89” Acrylic on canvas Also see My Favorite Painting on page 114

COLUMNS

FEATURES

10 Crawl Guide

24 The Bookmark

25 Bunny Burson Hidden in Plain Sight

28 Pieces & Parts by Rusty Wolfe

30 Telling Tales Stories and Legends in 19th-

34 As I See It by Mark W. Scala

Century American Art at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts

41 Fashion Makes a Splash in Nashville

38 Art & the Business of Art Arts & Business Council

51 Shutter to Think Can Photography Influence

36 Public Art by Anne-Leslie Owens

the Painting Process?

62 Poet’s Corner by Jane Knoch

54 Painting for a Song Todd Williamson and Luke

63 Film Review by Justin Stokes

84 Art Around Myanmar Art Crossing

Hillestad at The Rymer Gallery

58 And So It Goes... Rachael McCampbell Takes

87 Art in Formation

a Personal Look at the Life of an Artist

88 Critical i by Joe Nolan

60 American Gamelan Makes Its Nashville Debut at

Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music

64 Jason Saunders The Quiet, Unassuming Master

of Plein-Air Painting

68 Wonders in Light Cumberland University’s

Neon Program

70 Thinking Ahead Nashville Airport’s

by Tony Youngblood

Art Collection

74 Behind the Easel Book Review

92 Theatre by Jim Reyland 96 Art Smart 104 Art See 106 NPT 110 Paint the Town by Emme Nelson Baxter 112 Appraise It by Linda Dyer 113 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman

77 The Porch Writers’ Collective

114 My Favorite Painting

78 Lilly Hiatt Royal Blue & Bold 80 Taking It to the Streets Michael Ray Nott and Patrick Redmond

80 NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 7

Bennett Galleries Now Representing

Art Creates a City

eems like the whole of Nashville is eng aged in the same conversation right now: the explosive growth of our city and what it all means. Endless dialogue about the ever-changing cityscape with hotels and condos going up on every street corner, new restaurants and clubs replacing familiar geographical landmarks—cranes littering the skyline, hanging there like giant robots. Sometimes it doesn’t even look like or feel like Music City. Then there are the population statistics with the staggering number of people moving here, and of course let’s not forget the gridlock traffic that is infuriating all of us. Yep, everybody has an opinion about what’s going on, and everybody seems to be just a little bit apprehensive. But that’s as it should be. We all care about this little slice of heaven we call our town. We like living here, and we care about its future.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL HOBBS

Toni SwarThouT

PUBLISHER ' S NOTE

Crowd waiting to see Tony Youngblood’s Modular Art Pods event

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 JOHN JACKSON

Reaching, 48” x 60”

One of the bright sparks of the arts scene is the Wedgewood/Houston area where the old and the new have found a good balance that respects the past and acknowledges the future. In particular a young artist, Tony Youngblood, has created a momentum that is hard to ignore. Tony, who is a regular contributor to our magazine (see page 87), recently premiered his Modular Art Pods event at Houston Station. I can’t remember the last time I had such thought-provoking fun at an art event, and it seems I wasn’t alone. Check out the line of eager faces waiting to experience the pods. Kudos to Tony and his team of artists and volunteers for bringing a new and challenging vocabulary to our conversation. And further kudos to Jason Lascu on launching CG2 Gallery and to Sherrick & Paul for their wonderful exhibit of Damian Stamer’s work.

The Downtown Art Crawl on 5th Avenue was also packed, and I do mean seriously packed. I have never seen so many people crammed into the galleries on 5th. The Rymer Gallery was literally breathing room only. Tinney Contemporary and The Arts Company resembled Black Friday as art lovers crammed their way into the galleries. The vibe was energetic and electric. And yet I have a feeling this is all just the beginning. Paul Polycarpou Publisher

CARROLL CLOAR DLG MAR 2015 paintings, drawings & lithographs

DAVID LUSK GALLERY

516 Hagan St . Nashville . davidluskgallery.com

MARCH CRAWL GUIDE In the historic Arcade COOP Gallery is opening Borderlands, an exhibition featuring the work of Brooklyn-based artists and Heliopolis Gallery curators Georgia Elrod, Baris Gokturk, and Sarada Rauch. Hannah Lane Gallery is featuring life-size charcoal works on paper by Kyle Baker. WAG is presenting and Living, an exhibition by senior Watkins photography students Rebecca Lindley, Upreyl Mitchell, Joe Nunez, Alanna Styer and Laura Whitfield.

Hatch Show Print’s Haley Gallery is showcasing newly printed Hatch S how Print re-strikes displayed Kyle Baker– alongside the original print blocks. Hannah Lane Gallery The Community Corridor at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is showing iPod Artwork by Jeff Grady. Mike Moyers – Shuff’s Music and Piano Showroom

The Franklin Art Scene happens in historic downtown Franklin on Friday, March 6, f rom 6 to 9 p.m. with over 30 venues participating. Gallery 202 is showcasing folk style paintings on wood by Michael Hooper. Shuff ’s Music and Piano Showroom is exhibiting contemporary impressionistic paintings by Mike Moyers. The team at Franklin Glassblowing Studios is performing glass sculpture demonstrations set to music by Regi Wooten, and one of the completed works will be auctioned off for a charity benefitting education. Franklin Visitor Center is featuring oil paintings by Robbie Lasky. Boutique MMM is hosting abstract artist Philip Terhune. Parks is presenting new work by Ronny Criss. Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church is showing paintings by Coach Jimmy Gentry.

T he F irst Saturday Art Crawl Downtown takes place on Saturday, March 7, f rom 6 until 9 p.m. The Arts Company is presenting two exhibitions: Bicycles: V intage and Contemporary, featuring various artists’ interpretations of this popular icon with a few real bikes thrown in; and Popcorn Sutton and Othe r East Tennessee Documentary Photography by Don Dudenbostel. Tinney Contemporary is unveiling HIDDEN LIGHT, new work by Jaq Belcher. The Rymer Gallery is premiering No Rhyme or Reason, new paintings f rom Todd Denise Stewart-Sanabria – Williamson, and continuing with Luke The Arts Company Hillestad’s Anima series (see page 54). Downtown Presbyterian Church is exhibiting Anna Marchetti’s mixed-media show Red Velvet in the Browsing Room Gallery, and The Disposables photography by The Contributor vendors in the Fellowship Hall (see page 13).

Mandy Jones – Channel to Channel

Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston takes place on Saturday, March 7, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Sherrick & Paul Gallery is exhibiting Ninety Nine and the Nine, portraits by acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Katy Grannan. Channel to Channel is hosting Mandy Jones and K.J. Schumacher. Zeitgeist is featuring Past Life Memories by Patrick DeGuira with collaborator Willie Stewart, and Hidden in Plain Sight by Bunny Burson (see page 25). Fort Houston is showing a series of paintings by Louisiana-based artist Doug Cloninger. Julia Martin Gallery is presenting paperwork, a visceral display of mixed-media works on paper by Megan Kimber, Merrilee Challis, Rachel Briggs, and Julia Martin. 444 Humphreys Pop Up is showcasing oil painting and animation by Lauren Gregory. Ground Floor Gallery is holding a mural painting event with Andee Rudloff (see page 22). David Lusk Gallery is exhibiting Hello Masterpiece: Farewell Tour by Leslie Holt and paintings and drawings by Carroll Cloar. CG2 GALLERY is unveiling a survey show featuring new work by roster artists Margery Amdur, Mary Bucci McCoy, Andrea Heimer, Mark Hosford, Hydeon, Marcus Kenney, Fred Stonehouse, Nathalie Thibault, Jen Uman, and Christina West.

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The Contributor

Vendor Photography Exhibit Downtown Presbyterian Church • March 7 to 31

he Disposables, an exhibition of photographs by The Contributor vendors, gives viewers a chance to see Nashville from the perspective of the people who live and work on its streets. For the last five years, this newspaper has given their vendors disposable cameras to record what they see. After a couple of months the photographers return their cameras, and a small panel selects the best forty to fifty images for exhibit. “Every year since its inception, The Contributor has always looked for ways to show off the talents, particularly the artistic talents, of our vendors. It began by our hosting visual art shows for vendors and then slowly grew into the photography we share with the rest of Nashville at The Disposables exhibit. We’ve seen some amazing art and perspectives in the few years we’ve done this, and I suspect this year will be equally or even more amazing,” explained Brady Banks, the paper’s Executive Director. The Disposables will be on view in the Fellowship Hall at the Downtown Presbyterian Church throughout the month of March. It opens with a catered supper provided by Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant during the First Saturday Art Crawl on March 7 from 6 until 9 p.m. Donations are encouraged but not required. For more information, visit www.thecontributor.org.

Randy Edwards, Under the Bridge

4th Anniversary Celebration York & Friends Fine Art • March 7

ork & Friends Fine Art is marking their fourth anniversary with an open house and exhibition benefitting STARS, Students Taking a Right Stand. STARS serves schools and communities by providing prevention, intervention, and treatment to address bullying, substance abuse, violence, and social and emotional barriers to success. James Eric Richardson, the featured artist of the exhibit, is presenting new oil paintings, while over 50 gallery artists are showcasing their fresh works. Jewelers Ruthie Cherry and Barbara Murnan are offering a trunk show of their newest treasures. A number of the artists will be in attendance to talk about their art. Gallery owner Ron York is overwhelmed by the level of support the event is receiving from local businesses. “I am amazed by the enthusiasm and generosity! Miss Daisy’s Kitchen, Something Special, Noelle, Café Rakka, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and West Meade Wine & Liquor Mart are providing a lovely array of food and beverages, as well as valet parking.”

York & Friends 4th Anniversary Celebration takes place on March 7 from 4 until 7 p.m. at York & Friends Fine Art. For more information, visit www.artgallerynashville.com. To learn more about STARS, please visit www.starsnashville.org.

Vicki Shipley, One Singular Sensation, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 40” x 30”

Musica in the Snow

y the time this issue of Nashville Arts Magazine makes it to the newsstands, winter storm Octavia will be gone. We won’t forget the treacherous ice, snow, and frigid temperatures that made it one of the worst winter storms in decades, but we will also remember the beautiful views. Photographer Bill Hobbs shared this scene, Musica in the Snow. To see more of Bill’s work, visit www.billhobbs.com.

Musica in the Snow by Bill Hobbs 14 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

HIDDEN LIGHT - NEW WORK BY JAQ BELCHER MARCH 7 - APRIL 18, 2015 WWW.TINNEYCONTEMPORARY.COM 237 5TH AVENUE NORTH | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | 615.255.7816 HOURS: TUESDAY - SATURDAY, 11 AM - 5 PM, AND BY APPOINTMENT.

YOU’RE INVITED YORK & Friends

fine art Nashville • Memphis

th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Benefiting STARS

Students Taking A Right Stand www.starsnashville.org SATURDAY, MARCH 7th, 4-7 pm 107 Harding Place *valet parking available

HEARTFELT THANKS TO Cafe’ Rakka • Miss Daisy • Noelle Nothing Bundt Cakes • Something Special • Liberty Party Rental West Meade Wine & Liquor Mart 107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net Follow us on at Ron York Art www.yorkandfriends.com

JAMES ERIC RICHARDSON with gallery owner, Ron York

What brought you to Nashville?

I’ve had family in Nashville for several years and every time my wife and I came to visit, we loved it here. When we had our twin boys we thought it would be a great place to raise our family.

Where did you study art?

I studied at the Florence School of Opera and Visual Arts, and the Santa Reperata International School of Fine Art, both located in Florence, Italy. I received my BFA degree with an emphasis in painting from Missouri State University.

What are your inspirations and influences?

I like a lot of plein air work, but more specifically I think of the landscapes and watercolors John Singer Sargent did in Venice later in his life. He is primarily known as a portraiture artist, however his landscapes are very influential to me.

What is your primary focus? Describe your work.

Do you have any involvement in the community with your artwork?

My work has a very loose impressionistic style but I like to focus on accentuating light and color. I also finish most of my work with a very thick high gloss, so it grabs the viewer’s attention, gives texture and generally makes brighter paintings.

Before moving to Nashville I was involved with teaching in public schools, and I did some private lessons. Since I moved to Nashville, I have done some workshops including one for the Gordon Jewish Community Center. I also do several shows throughout the year that benefit various local causes. James Eric Richardson’s original artwork is available at York & Friends Fine Art, 107 Harding Place. For more, please visit www.yorkandfriends.com.

YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis

JAMES ERIC RICHARDSON

Blue Reflection, 20 x 20, Oil on canvas

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

Art2Wear An Expo of Wearable Art The Factory • March 27–29 by Cassidy Conway

o the fashion conscious, avid arts supporter, and lover of all things finely crafted, there is a three-day event coming to Nashville just for you. Beginning March 27, Art2Wear: An Expo of Wearable Art will transform The Factory at Franklin’s Jamison Hall into a giant “wear” house consisting of 50 juried artists, some from across the US and some from the immediate Middle Tennessee area, all with a passion for creating beautiful things to wear. From handwoven leather jackets to knitted sweaters in natural fibers, from beautiful mosaic buckles to handpainted silk scarves, the range of items goes well beyond the average boutique collection.

A r t 2 We a r i s s t a g e d b y A r t Wo r k s Foundation, a non-profit focused on helping artists to grow their business and their work.

Kathleen Weir

Lisa Mergen

The event provides the unique opportunity for shoppers to not only support the artists, but also to turn their closets into galleries by expanding their art collections into the realm of fashion. “It’s the personal connection that really sets it apart,” says founder Greg Belz, “because it makes you interact with art and then gives you a face to go with each piece.”

Art2Wear opens at Jamison Hall in The Factory with a special ticketed Gala Preview Party on Friday evening, March 27, from 5 to 9:30 p.m. and then to the public on Saturday, March 28, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, March 29, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets to Friday night’s preview are $50 in advance and include hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, musicians, modeling, gift bags, prize drawings, and the first chance to pick from all of the wearable art on display. Admission for Saturday and Sunday is $10 per person at the door. For more information, visit www.2wear.org.

Trunk Show Event • March 25 & 26

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 Becky Blair 18 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Intersection’s Transfiguration The Platform • March 26

i t h i t s d e b u t p e r f o r m a n c e , Tra n s f i g u ra t i o n , Intersection aims to redefine the traditional concert experience and begin classical music’s next chapter. Contemporary music merged with dance and visual art is staged in a new and uncommon space where the divide between performers and audience disappears. Kelly Corcoran, Intersection’s Artistic Director, said, “All but one of the pieces, Arvo Pärt’s Fratres, have never before been performed in Nashville. This music is totally new to our city. That is unique, but the collaboration we have going on with local art organizations New Dialect and Zeitgeist Gallery will make it a night like no other. Intersection breaks apart the traditional music experience, and the performance will literally surround you.” Intersection is Nashville’s first ensemble group devoted to performing contemporary music only. The group, comprised of 19 experts, 15 of whom are from Nashville, aspires to present contemporary music at the highest levels right from the start. Jennifer Curtis, violinist, composer, and member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), is going to become a core member.

Intersection also plans to offer concerts for all ages, as well as family programming. Their next performance POOH, ZOO AND A DINO NAMED SUE will be presented on Sunday, June 7. Transfiguration takes place on Thursday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m. at The Platform, 1500 2nd Avenue South. For more information, visit www.intersectionmusic.org.

An Expo of Wearable Art! Jewelry, Apparel & Accessories, hand-crafted by supremely talented artists from across the US and here in middle Tennessee! unites fine-craft and fashion to create a truly singular shopping experience!

Hand-Crafted by Supremely Talented Artists!

March 27-29

The Factory at Franklin 230 Franklin Road, Franklin, TN 37064

Tickets for our Gala Preview Party, or for general admission throughout the weekend, are available at the door and through Eventbrite.com art2wear is a registered trademark of ArtWorks Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit focused on helping artists grow in their business and their work through programs including exhibitions and education initiatives.

commences with a Gala Preview Party, Friday evening from 5 to 9:30pm. Doors open to the general public Saturday from 10am to 6pm, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Visitors will enjoy live modeling, gift bags, prizes drawings, numerous lagniappes, and the finest selection of artist-made fashion items anywhere! more info at

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The Visible Sacrifice War Wounds: Paintings by Dane Carder Parthenon Museum • through May 31 by DeeGee Lester

n 1863, at the height of the Civil War, physician Oliver Wendell Holmes lamented, “It is not two years since the sight of a person who had lost one of his lower limbs was an infrequent occurrence. Now, alas! There are few of us who have not a cripple among our friends, if not in our own families.” Three fourths of the 60,000 operations during the Civil War were amputations. Now, in the war’s continuing sesquicentennial, an exhibition of paintings by Dane Carder (through May 31) brings Parthenon visitors face to face with nine wounded soldiers. Based upon the well-composed, well-lit photographs of Civil War surgeon Dr. Reed Bontecou, who left a legacy of documented treatment, Carder’s paintings are not about loss but are a celebration of life. “These are the victors, the survivors of the war,” Carder points out. The visible sacrifice, the honorable scars reflect what the artist sees as “the strength of the soldiers’ will to live.” Yet this exhibit is about more than combat war. Carder hopes as museum guests view and contemplate the paintings, they will also recognize that not all wounds are physical. Four paintings of period wallpaper remind us that those who waited at home underwent their own wounds. Additionally, the faces and eyes that stare back from gallery walls can become symbols for viewers of our individual woundedness and can connect with the spiritual warfare, the daily struggle of our own lives, reminding us that we are all survivors; we are all victors.

F.C. Foss, 2014, Acrylic on panel, 79” x 48”

War Wounds: Paintings by Dane Carder will be on view at the Parthenon Museum through May 31. For more information, visit www.parthenon.org. To see more of Dane Carder’s work, please visit www.danecarder.com.

Mural Painting Event with Andee Rudloff Ground Floor Gallery • March 7

ere’s your chance to paint a mural with Andee Rudloff! D uring Arts & Music at Wedgewood/Houston on March 7, Ground Floor Gallery is hosting a mural painting event and everyone is invited to participate. Painting takes place between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Andee will add the final touches from 8 until 8:30. The completed mural will be available for purchase. For more information, visit www.groundflrgaller y.com.

22 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

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The Bookmark A Monthly Look at Hot Books and Cool Reads

TOP PICKS

2015

S p r i n g i s u s h e r i n g i n n ew 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! Antique Wrought Iron Panel Tu r n o f t h e C e n t u r y Alexandria, Egypt $875

For more information about these books, visit www.parnassusbooks.net.

Root to Leaf: A Southern Chef’s Approach to Cooking with the Seasons STEVEN SATTERFIELD

Remember when the movement began among butchers and chefs to use the whole animal, every part “from nose to tail”? This is that, but with plants. James Beard-nominated chef of the awardwinning restaurant Miller Union in Atlanta, Steven Satterfield has been called “the vegetable shaman” by The New York Times. A proponent of a plantbased diet (in fact, he attributes his recovery from cancer to it), Satterfield applies his culinary genius to vegetable dishes in this beautiful book. Whether you’re in it for health reasons, for recipe ideas, or purely because you can’t resist pretty food photos, add this one to your kitchen.

The Buried Giant KAZUO ISHIGURO

This is Ishiguro’s first novel in a decade, and it arrives to great anticipation. The stories in his two previous masterpieces, Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prizewinning The Remains of the Day, differed greatly from one another; we can expect that this one will also be a bit of a departure from its predecessors. We can also count on the superb artistry of Ishiguro’s prose. This time, the plot is set in Britain, post King Arthur, with characters taking a journey on foot. It wouldn’t be fair to tell you much more; instead we hope you’ll discover it yourself. This is the March pick for our Signed First Editions Club.

Dead Wake ERIK LARSON

Vintage Industrial Wo o d e n Stool Hand Made Chicago $235

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$2,750 Contemporar y coffee table incorporating vintage wooden gym flooring from the Nashville Municipal A uditorium.

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We seem to be in a golden age of narrative nonfiction. Here comes another one, and it’s sure to please readers who love a true tale that feels like a thriller. Dead Wake is being published this year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Lusitania disaster, when a luxury ocean liner full of men, women, and children sailed out of New York for Great Britain and headed into seas Germany had declared a war zone. Larson excels at this genre, and as he weaves the facts into a story, he reveals the many forces at work behind an event that changed the course of US history.

Soil: A Novel JAMIE KORNEGAY

T h i s i s t h e d e b u t n o v e l f ro m K o r n e g a y, a n independent bookseller from Mississippi, who will join us on March 17 at Parnassus. His is a unique voice, perfectly suited to the dark comedic material here. From the publisher: “It all began with a simple dream. An ambitious young environmental scientist hoped to establish a sustainable farm on a small patch of river-bottom land nestled among the Mississippi hills . . . He did not know that within a year he’d be ruined, that flood and pestilence would invade his fledgling farm or that his wife and son would leave him to pick up the pieces by himself.” (Oops.) Sounds grim—and it is—but Kornegay plays the situation for laughs as well, introducing a cast of dysfunctional and memorable Southern characters.

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Hidden in Plain Sight

Letters from Bunny Burson’s Grandmother Inspire New Series Zeitgeist • March 7–April 25 by Sally Schloss | Photography by Jerry Atnip

t is not uncommon for people who have lived through horrific tragedy and loss to distance themselves from the past and be unwilling to talk about it. This is as true for war veterans, or victims of abuse, as it is for people fleeing their homelands to find refuge. This was particularly true for the Holocaust generation. Some of these survivors—mothers, fathers, and children—kept their harrowing stories secret. Their wish for their families was inhabit the present, live for the future. These spoken and unspoken messages about not looking back were fierce—“Better you shouldn’t know.”

Bunny Burson’s show Hidden in Plain Sight, opening March 7 at Zeitgeist gallery, resonates with this personal and collective experience. For the past five years Burson’s work has been defined by the emotional topography of hidden letters found in her mother’s attic, one hundred of them, written in German between 1939 and 1941. These letters, from her maternal grandparents to their son and daughter in Memphis, Tennessee, document the life and hopes of people desperate to escape the encroachment of the Nazis. Until Burson discovered them, in 2009, she didn’t know they existed, nor anything about the story they told.

NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 25

Their Words, 2014, Mixed media, size variable

“I still don’t feel I have full permission to tell my mother’s story,” Burson said. “I am uncovering and covering it up again with the print-making media that I use. Like a palimpsest where two or more successive texts have been written, each one erased to make room for the next, I print, then scratch over it, or print again and overlay, creating a kind of visual hide and seek.” There is a quote, from the Irish writer Colm Tóibin, which Burson has on her studio wall and has excerpted in her work. “It seems that the essential impulse in working at all is to rehaunt your own house, or to allow what haunts you to have a voice, to chart what is deeply private and etched on the soul and find form and structure for it.”

And that takes courage: “The courage to get in there and express what is fully human. I believe that is the artist’s responsibility, but I struggle with this. My mother said, when she attended a show of mine, ‘I wish this wasn’t my history.’ ” And yet, Burson has received letters and emails from people who’ve been to her shows—Native American Indians, immigrants, people whose family histories have nothing to do with this particular story—who feel a kinship. Don’t we all seek release from the power of untold stories? This ghosting on the page of images behind images, of letters dripping before being entirely washed away, of letters falling through space, of fragmented language and lost narratives, and maps like arteries with cities named like organs in an anatomy lesson of the planet—all these graphic signifiers, elegant and chilling, have a pulse that carries us back to the heart. “Perhaps the most important discovery,” writes Burson in her artist statement, “was the life and beauty in the writing itself. In repeatedly drawing and printing the lines of script, my hand became one with theirs. Their handwriting became my art.” Burson has understood the connection between art and healing for a very long time. While she was living in Memphis, her best friend was diagnosed with cancer. When Burson visited they drew and sang together, and she saw how much it helped them both. In the back of her mind she wanted to explore this relationship in her working life.

The Pages Bore Traces II, 2014, Monoprint on paper, 29” x 37”

“The best job I ever had was when I was hired at Vanderbilt back in the late 1980s to find artwork for new building renovation and the medical center. Something came across my desk about the Society for the Arts in Healthcare, and a whole new world of possibilities opened up to me. I discovered that all over the country, people

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were using the arts as part of the healing process. At the Vanderbilt Medical Center we brought in visual and performing artists to transform treating the ill into a less clinical experience. “There was a patient at Vanderbilt who was really anxious, and it was making his recovery harder. I said, why don’t you try journaling? ‘No I couldn’t,’ he said. If your doctor prescribed it would you? ‘Well if Dr. Frist prescribes it,’ he said, ‘I guess I’ll do it.’ ” Burson secured the “prescription,” and after two or three sessions working with the art therapist he couldn’t stop drawing and journaling. It transformed his recovery. Suddenly, instead of thinking about his fear, he was focused on depicting everything around him. He continued this practice for years up until his death.”

“

The courage to get in there and express what is fully human. I believe that is the artist’s responsibility, but I struggle with this.

”

Hidden in Plain Sight is another manifestation of healing through art. Certainly Burson’s own healing, by reclaiming and integrating the legacy of her family into her work, but also for viewers, who are asked to face what is hidden, because what is hidden has always been there to see—if we don’t look away. See Bunny Burson’s art at her exhibit Hidden in Plain Sight at Zeitgeist. The exhibit opens with an artist’s reception on March 7, 6-9 p.m. and will be on view through April 25. For more information visit www.zeitgeist-art.com.

Lost/Found III, 2015, Lithograph, 30” x 22”

Untitled 50, 2013, Ink on vellum, Diptych: 35” x 26” each

NashvilleArts.com

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Pieces & Parts

by Rusty Wolfe

have always had a fascination with drawers. They are a place to store things as well as a place to hide things. From jewelry to clothes to documents, they provide a way to organize and secure almost anything. I seize every opportunity to purchase a piece of furniture that is made up of drawers. Apothecaries, seed cabinets, vintage hardware storage units, toolboxes, etc. I am also quick to buy random drawers that are no longer married to their original mate. I enjoy putting these lost objects, in a state of limbo, to a new use.

Drawers exist in all shapes and sizes. Often a drawerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s handle, or pull, will help identify the drawerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s age, style, and origin. A drawer pull can be the spark that lights a fire

inside you, helping you decide whether you can live without a piece or not. Pulls vary in style from primitive to Modern, Victorian to Art Deco, and can be made of wood, brass, copper, cast iron, glass, or of ceramic to name a few possibilities.

I store all of my antique pulls and hardware in several vintage hardware cabinets. Each cabinet has forty drawers or more. Each drawer has at least a dozen objects inside. All told, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more than two thousand pieces and parts. I love the character these old cabinets bring to my studio, and every time I open the drawers of my storage cabinets, it is a real treat. The utility of the storage they provide is a necessity, but the nostalgia that the cabinets provide just makes me feel good. When I need to find something for a project, I may open every single drawer. I never get tired of the visual experience of seeing my ever-changing collection of treasures.

Drawer fronts, absent their drawer box, can also be useful objects. Fronts may be carved or have pressed details. They may be made of wood and be painted or stained. Or, they can be metal, ceramic, or enamel.

Consider this article part one of a two-part project. My goal is to evoke some of the romance that I find in these treasured old parts. Part two will show a finished piece of contemporary furniture using some of the objects pictured here.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LAWRENCE BOOTHBY

F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t R u s t y Wo l f e p l e a s e v i s i t www.finer thingsgaller ynashville.com.

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Rusty Wolfe is a painter, sculptor, furniture designer, and entrepreneur. His works are available at fine art galleries around the country and locally at Finer Things.

visit our outdoor sculpture gallery

1898 Nolensville Rd | 615.726.1207 | www.finerthingsgallerynashville.com Thursday - saTurday 10a.m - 5 p.m.

Asher B. Durand, Sunday Morning, 1839, Oil on canvas, 25” x 36”

T elling Tales Stories and Legends in 19 -Century American Art th

Frist Center for the Visual Arts • through June 7

by Robert Hicks

t the heart of the establishment of so many art museums throughout the nineteenth century in America was the belief that museums would play a pivotal role in setting higher standards and raising up men and women who would lead a nation onward and upward in the march of civilization. James M. Cowan’s gift of paintings in 1897, housed in the Parthenon, is the perfect example of such a vision. Yet while immensely generous on Mr. Cowan’s part, especially given the fact that he had neither lived in Tennessee since he was a young man nor made his living here, the collection is small in number and does not hold the power that might be found in multi-donor collections that were established in so many other cities at that time in our nation’s history.

(detail) Francis W. Edmonds, Bargaining (later known as The Christmas Turkey), ca. 1858, Oil on canvas, 16” x 24”

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Don’t get me wrong; there are some really wonderful paintings in the Cowan Collection, and Nashville is very lucky, indeed, to have it. If you haven’t ever seen the collection or it has been a while, it is worthy of your time. Nashville is equally fortunate to have, among others, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ never-ending efforts to bring first-rate art of older, thicker collections from far and near to us. And while the role of museums may no longer be simply to raise the common man to new heights, it is of real value to see the fruit of that vision. Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19th-Century American Art, which will run from through June 7 in the Frist Center’s upper-level galleries, is the cream of such a collection. The source of the exhibit is the New York Historical Society’s nineteenthcentury American collection. Included are works by the leading American narrative, landscape, and genre painters and sculptors of the time, all of them knit in their goal

William Sidney Mount, Farmers Bargaining (later known as Bargaining for a Horse), 1835, Oil on canvas, 24” x 30”

Eastman Johnson, Negro Life at the South, 1859, Oil on linen, 37” x 49”

NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 31

(above) Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, The Latest News, 1862, Oil on canvas, 22” x 34” (below) Rembrandt Peale, George Washington, 1853, Oil on canvas, 36” x 29”

of telling our story, the story of how they believed or wanted us to be as a people and as a nation. They seem to speak to all that mattered in the minds of their creators and their patrons, whether it be religious, historical, literary, or day-to-day life as the nation wished it to be, but we must remember that the entire nation stood on the cusp of a world that was about to change forever.

that reflect Americans’ sense of who they were or wanted to be. Yet if we assume that the works’ meanings lie solely in their overt subject matter, we miss the backstory of a culture in which idealism was often at odds with reality, particularly with regard to tensions relating to race, money, class, and religion. These stories hit home for us, both as windows onto the past and harbingers of what was to come.”

While the political and racial issues of the day, which would soon engulf America in a war that would wipe out around 700,000 of its citizens, seem missing from these works, that very world was ever present in the lives of both artists and their patrons. The coming war and its aftermath would be left to a new crop of artists like the young Winslow Homer and his contemporaries. But for now, we are given scenes of the mightiness of nature and of the harmonious village life of rural America. Mark Scala may well have summed it up best when he said, “This exhibition reveals that the nineteenth century was not, as we sometimes imagine it to have been, a simple time. Artworks in Telling Tales convey individual stories

Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19th-Century American Art may not seem like the kind of blockbuster exhibit that packs the house. So entwined in our nation’s history, the exhibit has much to teach us about where we have come from and how we got here. Maybe that original hope that viewing paintings and sculpture had the ability to raise us up as a people didn’t prove true. Yet they may serve an even more important role as they help us to understand who we are and where we came from. Telling Tales: Stories and Legends in 19 th -Century American Art is on exhibit at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts through June 7. For more information about the exhibit and related programming, visit www.fristcenter.org.

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ADVERTISMENT

ARTIST — The Worlds Oldest Profession Don't Wait She found the perfect gift Something that would show Show him how much she loved him As if he didn't know She didn't want to wait Until that special day But tradition is tradition Sure to have it's way So she wrapped it in fine paper Tied the ribbon in a bow And hid it in a place That he would never go Then came that special day A knock on their front door A man in uniform said He won't be coming home anymore If you've got love to give Don't hide it away Don't leave it to fate If you've got love to give Every day is a special day Don't wait The gift is all but forgotten now Shrouded in misery The joy that it once held Just a fading memory The sun will shine tomorrow Tomorrow the birds will sing She'll look out from her window But she won't feel a thing There's a hole in her heart Nothing she can do There's a hole in her heart You could drive a freight train through If you’ve got love to give Don’t hide it away Don’t leave it to fate If you’ve got love to give Every day is a special day Don’t wait If you’ve got love to give Today is a special day Don’t wait J. Schrantz

Photography by

Tiger maple, plastic

Base is 3 1/2" x 11 1/8'' x 12 5/8" Sculpture is 2 13/16" x 4 1/2" x 40 3/4"

John Schrantz

standingbear6@netzero.net

As I See It

The Black Box COPYRIGHT GREGOR SCHNEIDER, VG BILD - KUNST, BONN

Part I

Gregor Schneider, Cube Hamburg, 2007, Mixed media, 14 x 14 x 14 m., Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany 3/23/2007–6/10/2007

by Mark W. Scala

Gregor Schneider, Cube Venice, 2005, Graphic elaboration

The mystical symbolism of the black box continues in modern art, as seen in the works of Russian Suprematist Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935). Influenced by philosophical speculations from Plato to Hinduism, Malevich made paintings of white-on-white and black-on-white squares. In envisioning the area of a plane intersected by a cube, these works suggest dissolution of the

boundaries between emptiness and fullness, and ultimately evoke the infinite capacities of both mind and spirit.

Inspired by Malevich’s mysticism and the symbolic power of the Ka’aba, the German artist Gregor Schneider created Cube. This 46-foot cubic structure was scheduled for installation in Saint Mark’s Square during the 2005 Venice Biennale but was rejected with the explanation that it might offend the Islamic community (although it is permitted under Islamic law to replicate the Ka’aba). The artist disputes the official rationale, seeing the exclusion as an act of censorship based on fear of Islam and an unwillingness to place something suggestive of Islam’s revered structure near an important Catholic cathedral. 1 Schneider says that the cube is not the Ka’aba, but “an independent form…open for all association,”2 which would “remind us of the cultural elements that we have in common.”3 The sculpture was eventually shown in the exhibition The Black Square. Homage to Malevich at the Kunsthalle Hamburg in Germany. In this instance, the black box is not just an object but an idea about the contingency of meaning: what to one person may seem spiritual, to another may be foreboding. In either case, when we think of it as a mental construction, our mind’s eye can as easily picture Cube placed in Saint Mark’s Square, where it was not permitted, as in Hamburg where it was (the digital rendering shown here helps form that picture). As the black box inspires debate about whether it is an expression of cultural cohesion or divisiveness, we realize that—physical or ideational—Schneider’s work has been etched into the social imaginary. Endnotes

1. E-mail from Gregor Schneider to Mark Scala, February 5, 2015. 2. Email to author 3. R. Jay Magill Jr. “For Gregor Schneider’s cube, a long pilgrimage.” New York Times, April 16, 2007. nytimes.com.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP

“

The black box” is a term often used to describe an object that holds mystery or infinite possibility. One of the most renowned black boxes in the world is the Ka’aba in Mecca, a large architectural cube covered in black cloth. In Islamic belief, the original Ka’aba was built by Adam, rebuilt by Abraham, and rededicated by the prophet Mohammed. Like its equivalent structure described in the Qur’an as existing in heaven, the building faces all directions equally, so that Muslims around the world will kneel toward one of its walls when they say their daily prayers. Muslims who are able are required to make a pilgrimage to the Ka’aba once in their lives, while non-Muslims are not permitted to see it, increasing its aura of exclusivity and secrecy.

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

PHOTOGRAPH BY STACEY IRVIN

Public Art

Specialized furniture Beverly Stucker Precious, Great Beginnings

BELLEVUE PUBLIC ART Local Sources of Inspiration by Anne-Leslie Owens, Public Art Project Coordinator, Metro Arts

to your home.

ever in her wildest dreams did local woodturner Brenda Stein imagine that her work would become a permanent part of her neighborhood library. But that’s just what happened at the new Bellevue Branch Library dedicated on January 29. Metro Arts approached Stein in early 2014 with the challenge to incorporate wood from the site’s hackberry trees into a public artwork for the building’s interior. The stand of trees, once a familiar neighborhood landmark, have taken on a new community meaning in Stein’s design. Rise Above includes eighty-three wood birds gracefully soaring together through the center of the building. In another area, a mobile of wood hackberry-shaped leaves provides a playful canopy over the children’s play area. Stein designed Rise Above as a Brenda Stein, Rise Above reflection of the Bellevue community’s resiliency and the limitless possibilities of books and learning.

PHOTOGRAPH BY STACEY IRVIN

from the forest floor

This transition from a studio/gallery artist to public artist was a natural next step for Stein. She had attended training hosted by Metro Arts in 2011. To execute her design for this large-scale artwork, Stein contracted with MadeFirst, a design and fabrication company based in Inglewood.

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The local community also played a significant role in the design of the exterior public artwork. Great Beginnings by Beverly Stucker Precious is a “learning tree” made of steel and dichroic glass. The Indianapolis artist, selected in a regional call, invited the Bellevue community to suggest first lines from favorite books and poems. She received forty-seven suggestions and was able to include twenty-four of them in the branches and leaves. Stop by and check out these community-inspired artworks at the new Bellevue Branch Library at 720 Baugh Road. Please visit publicart.nashville.gov for more information on the public art collection or explore the mobile website explorenashvilleart.com.

HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT

MICHAE L HOOPE R 202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 www.gallery202art.com • 615-472-1134

Visit Us During “Franklin Art Scene” March 6, 6-9 pm

ADVOCACY IN THE ARTS: Hmmm, What’s That Mean?

by Bo Spessard, Chief Operating Officer at Emma and Arts & Business Council Board Chair

don’t have the answer, but I’ll take this opportunity to give my thoughts. What makes me qualified to talk about arts advocacy in Nashville and Tennessee? Through an interest in the arts and dumb luck, over the past nine years I’ve stumbled onto the boards of three great and different arts organizations. Currently, I am the new Chairman of the Board for the Arts and Business Council (ABC). I’m also on the board of Tennesseans for the Arts (TFTA) and the Belcourt Theatre. So, I have some experience in advocating for our regional arts community. Why am I so involved, with four kids, a full-time job, and hobbies? Arts advocacy is a commitment I’ve made because I believe art has expanded and always will expand across all facets of our society to bring together people of different backgrounds and beliefs. Generally speaking, advocacy can be defined in four buckets: Building awareness. How does an individual build awareness

around their interest in the arts? Initially it’s a matter of getting involved with arts organizations, artists, or art that interests you. You’ll be surprised how easy getting involved is.

Connecting with the audience. Next you connect with the audience by meeting the people in those organizations, or individual artists, and hearing their stories. Demonstrating value. You demonstrate the value by creating

a personal experience with art, an artist, or an arts organization that energizes a community or changes people’s lives.

Telling your story. Next, you tell your story. You can tell that to your friends, colleagues, neighbors, and elected representatives. That story can be shared in many ways, but two upcoming opportunities include the mayoral election cycle and TFTA’s annual Arts Advocacy Day in Nashville coming up on March 4.

(615) 646-2422 www.natchezstone.com

Good luck, and keep telling your story. For more about the Arts & Business Council please visit www.abcnashville.org.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY DJENEBA ADUAYOM

PHOTOGRAPHY • DESIGN • COUTURE

fashion makes a splash in nashville

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the

geometry of fashion Photographer Djeneba Aduayom is no stranger to Music City, thanks to her frequent collaborations with local photographer Shawn Worlow. We were thrilled to receive her latest fashion series just as Nashville prepares for fashion week April 7-11. by Catherine Randall

hen it comes to Djeneba Aduayom’s work the term “still photography” is a misnomer. This self-taught photographer has gained notoriety for her ability to catch not only stunning images, but also the essence of geometric shape, pattern, and movement dictated by the subject itself. Aduayom’s recent collaboration with wardrobe stylist and designer Tiffany Rae is a beautiful study of the Geometry of Fashion. Rae exploits the notion of fabric and constructs garments out of cardboard, paper, coffee stirrers, toothpicks, plastic spoons, and other everyday items. Aduayom was drawn in by Rae’s architectural style. “I caught a glimpse of one of her outfits made out of cardboard boxes and contacted her immediately,” Aduayom says. The two arranged to meet in Rae’s hometown of St. Louis to combine talents.

“My first concept was to shoot the models against the backdrop of buildings.” Budget constraints prevented this. “We found this park, instead, with all kinds of installations,” Aduayom says.

The result is a collection of photographs where each image has layers of color and architectural elements; where refracted sunlight pours in like a spotlight while slivers of brightness cast shadows and silhouettes. In addition, for extra interest and contrasting framed edges, Aduayom creates lens shapes from tools found in the setting. Old tires echo the radius of the archway, grass cuts across the model to form another intersecting line or acute angle, glass bends and diffuses the perimeter. For some shots, Aduayom directs the model to make certain shapes with her body to complement the composition. The model wearing the midriff top of plastic ware creates additional triangles with her arms. Aduayom overlays a spider web to echo the ridged design of

Djeneba Aduayom

the garment and the suppleness of the female form. Aduayom is patient and waits for the exact time when the model tires of striking controlled postures. “At some point she’ll relax and forget that I am there, and that’s when I snap the shot.”

Even the tempo of the shutter releasing is unique, she says—slower, deliberate, not the rush of a clicking paparazzi. She circles her subject waiting for that breath, line, softness, and symmetry. The result is a phantasmagoric effect, giving the photo a cinematic look.

Among her accolades, Aduayom was awarded first place in the PX3 Prix de la Photography contest. Whether fashion, commercial advertising, or her personal art, there is nothing still about Aduayom’s photography. Her work is passionate, liquid, provocative, and truly a visceral encounter. Vi si t w w w. d j e n e b a - a d ua yo m .co m a nd www.facebook.com/TiffanyRaeDesigns for more information.

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NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 45

Andra Eggleston and Otis James

The James Gang

Otis James Teams Up with Artists Andra Eggleston and Julia Martin to Create Artful Bow Ties by Karen Parr-Moody | Photography by Joshua Black Wilkins

s the petit four is to a meal, the bow tie is a small, sweet confection that punctuates an otherwise serious suit with a whimsical flourish. It helps when designers—such as Nashville’s inimitable Otis James—understand this. Because a staid bow tie is simply a missed opportunity.

To underscore this idea, James is adding even more flair to that small yet critical piece of fabric by collaborating with local artists on customized fabrics. Not that he needed much help in raising the bow tie to an art form. Widely lauded by fans of craftsmanship, James hand finishes every detail, right down to painting on the labels. On a recent day in his studio in Marathon Village, surrounded by bolts of fabric and spools of jewel-toned thread, James met with two artists and collaborators—Julia Martin and Andra Eggleston—to discuss fabric blends and patterns. Martin is a painter and the owner of Julia Martin Gallery in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston Arts District. She creates portraits of ethereal women

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Fabric design by Julia Martin

with Cupid’s-bow lips and places them against pastel backgrounds that echo Fragonard paintings. Her first collaboration with James was in December 2014. It was truly a capsule collection: Six silk-linen bow ties and six cotton-silk scarves. The bow ties were covered in checks, and the scarves were awash in a painterly dreamscape, all elements from her paintings. Now, Martin says, she looks forward to doing more collections. “It was too much fun,” she says. “It has made me look at my paintings in a whole new way. Because when you paint, there’s always a tiny little texture in a corner that’s a magical, happy accident to you. Now I know I can crop it and make it into a fabric.” Eggleston, who studied textile design, has created a fabric and wallpaper line based on drawings by her father, the famous Memphis photographer William Eggleston. Called Electra Eggleston, the line includes the reworked drawings, some in their original colorways and others in variations of her choice. Eggleston is interested in reproducing a print called “Kentucky” as a

tie. “It feels to me very Southern,” she says. Then there’s a print called “Berlin” that looks like graffiti; Eggleston thinks that, when scaled down, it will be bow-tie perfection.

Whatever fabrics she and James choose, Eggleston plans to gift a bow tie to her father, for whom the accessory is a trademark. “He’s going to love it,” she says. “He’s going to wear it every day.” James knows a thing or two about art himself. Before rocking the menswear scene in 2010 with his bespoke tie business, he studied film at the prestigious Chapman University in California. The collaboration with artists has been waiting in the wings for years.

“Since I started making ties, I’ve wanted to do an artists’ series of hand-painted neckties,” he says. Initially James thought these ties would be for putting on exhibit, not to sell. But when Martin approached him—followed by Eggleston—he was struck by the notion that ties could be wearable art. “I just enjoy working with other creative people,” he says.

For more about Otis James visit www.otisjames.com.

Otis James and Julia Martin

Fabric design by Andra Eggleston NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 47

Cat-Land Digs D eep for Couture

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBBIE QUINN

Cat Freeze, creator of Cat-Land Forever Couture

P by Cat Acree

erhaps what’s most interesting about Catland Freeze, the fashion designer behind Cat-Land Forever Couture, is not that she’s 17 years old and has been designing since she was 11, but that her handmade creations aren’t actually designed with people in mind. She doesn’t think about women wearing her clothing—not even herself—and she has never considered what type of girl would want to be a “Cat-Land” girl. These fantasy costumes belong in a hyper-romantic, otherworldly play, like a new A Midsummer Night’s Dream that hasn’t been written yet. “I don’t have a category,” Freeze says over afternoon tea. “I just call it fantasy wear.” Because she is 17, we’re joined by her mother.

Freeze’s designs are defined by whimsy and exuberance, with an effect similar to what viewers might experience when seeing a Betsy Johnson runway show for the first time. We’re aware that playtime will never be over, and dress-up is an all-ages activity. But there’s also an edge to the romance, as with one of her favorite pieces, a full skirt covered in roses, which was inspired by Bon Jovi’s hangover ballad “Bed of Roses.” As you might expect, Betsy Johnson is one of her biggest influences, as well as Coco Chanel for her humble beginnings. “I also love Alexander McQueen,” Freeze says. “He makes me feel like it’s OK if I want to put dowel rods in my clothes, because it’s my art. It’s my world. If I want to wrap the model in Saran wrap and send her down the runway, I can.”

48 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL ZHEN

Freeze’s sparkly, glittery, dreamlike garments pile on the embellishments and fabrics: chiffon, faux fur, tulle, taffeta, organza, feathers, sequins, and even Christmas lights. “I love the way that water moves. I always say that if I could get a dress to move like that, that would be so awesome.”

“It’s kind of like Loretta Lynn, a little bit,” Freeze says. “I’m actually really glad I came

from that, because it makes me feel like I appreciate this more. I never want to forget where I came from. Even when I go to New York or Paris, I always want to be that girl on the farm.” Freeze experiments with denim for the first time in her newest collection, which is inspired by a lyric from Taylor Swift’s song “Last Kiss”: I Ran off the Plane. This new rhinestone-encrusted collection is “what I would wear if I ran off a plane to meet someone.” She makes custom gowns by

request and will soon be releasing her first line of designer t-shirts, “for girls who can stand on their own and be independent.” See Catland’s designs at two upcoming charity events: “Scene and Heard Fashion Show” benefiting ClotheMyChildren on M a rc h 15 a t 7 p.m . in the Va nd erb ilt Student Life Center and “Goddesses Against Cancer Fashion Runway Show” benefiting the Women Survivor Alliance on March 28 at the Nashville Zoo. For more about Catland Freeze please visit www.catlandforever.com.

“

Nashville Fashion Week is literally the best show I’ve ever been a part of. . . . It wasn’t like a competition, nothing like that. It was so Nashville, so friendly.

”

NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY DIANE GAYDEN

Freeze and her mother are full of stories (including a particularly hilarious moment involving 9-year-old Freeze announcing to an agent that she was “one in a million”), and they share them eagerly and almost in awe of how far she has come. But Chanel’s “ humble beginnings” c lear l y remain inspiring, with good reason. Freeze and her mother quietly describe scraping by to buy fabric, paying for materials in installments, even bathing in a creek on their farm during one particularly tight year when they had no hot water. Freeze even taught herself how to sew, though she was born with optic nerve hypoplasia and is blind in one eye.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL ZHEN

All this began with a modeling contract at age 9. By age 13, Freeze had opened Atlanta International Fashion Week, and since then she has shown at PLITZS Fashion Week in New York, designed gowns for thirteen Miss United States contestants, and was featured in Nashville Fashion Week’s Emerging Designers show last year. “Nashville Fashion Week is literally the best show I’ve ever been a part of. . . . It wasn’t like a competition, nothing like that. It was so Nashville, so friendly.”

March 2015 | 49

BLAIR CONCERT SERIES 2014-2015

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

BUNNY BURSON HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT ARTIST RECEPTION MARCH 7 TH 6-9 PM

SPECIAL EVENT

PAT R I C K D E G U I R A

PA S T L I F E M E M O R I E S

2015 COLLEGE BAND DIRECTORS NATIONAL ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

ARTIST RECEPTION APRIL 4 TH 6-9 PM

SHOW RUNS

MARCH 7- A P R I L 25

MARCH 24-28 The Blair School is honored to host the biennial meeting of the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA). All concert events are free and open to the public, although priority seating will be reserved for conference attendees.

Béla Fleck

5 1 6 H AG A N S T R E E T, S U I T E 1 0 0 N A S H V I L L E , T N 3 7 2 0 3 T 6 1 5 256.4805 F 615 256.4839

Tuesday, March 24 & Wednesday, March 25 8 p.m., Ingram Hall Conference Opening Concerts Vanderbilt Wind Symphony Thomas Verrier, conductor with special guests Béla Fleck, banjo, John Harbison, composer, and Urban Souls Dance Company (Harrison Guy, choreographer) The Vanderbilt Wind Symphony performs a new work by Carlos Guzmán-Muñoz. Vanderbilt Director of University Bands Dwayne Sagen leads the ensemble in Michael Kurek’s Monument. Béla Fleck is featured soloist for the world premiere of the wind ensemble arrangement of The Imposter, the concerto Fleck composed for and performed with the Nashville Symphony. Plus the premiere of the modern dance interpretation of BMI composer-in-residence John Harbison’s Three City Blocks, with Urban Souls Dance Company. John Harbison’s residency is sponsored by BMI

Thursday, March 26

Friday, March 27

Saturday, March 28

1:30 p.m., Schermerhorn Symphony Center

1:30 p.m., Ingram Hall

Columbus State University Wind Ensemble, Jaime Nix, conductor

James Madison Wind Symphony, Stephen Bolstad, conductor

3:00 p.m., Schermerhorn Symphony Center

The Ohio State University Wind Symphony, Russel Mikkelson, conductor

Temple University Wind Symphony, Emily Threinen, conductor

7:30 p.m., Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Indiana University Wind Ensemble, Steven Pratt, conductor

Florida State University Wind Orchestra, Richard Clary, conductor

Small College Intercollegiate Band, Ray Cramer, conductor 8:00 p.m., Schermerhorn Symphony Center University of Illinois Wind Symphony, Linda Moorhouse, conductor

Appalachian

Center for Craft

Celebration of Craft April 18, 2015 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. FREE Admission

u Artist Demonstrations u FREE Hands-On Crafts for Kids u Live Music u 25% Discount on Gift Items in Goldenrod Gallery

Details about the Spring 2015 concert series may be found at blair.vanderbilt.edu All concerts at the Blair School of Music are free and open to the public unless specifically stated otherwise. For complete details about all the upcoming events at Blair, visit our website at blair.vanderbilt.edu

2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212

www.tntech.edu/craftcenter 1560 Craft Center Dr, Smithville, TN

Bill LaFevor, 2011, Baroque Church in Seville, Spain

Shutter to Think

Can Photography Influence the Painting Process? by Greg Decker

ot long ago, thumbing through a catalogue of paintings, I was struck by two things. One, that most of our knowledge of most paintings, whether contemporary or not, is through reproductions (this is an old observation, but still worth reflection), and, two, how often one can tell if a painting is made by the artist copying a photograph or not. What is it that gives one a direct impression that the painting is not from "life" but from a photograph? How does an understanding of drawing (or lack thereof), of its traditions and possibilities, inform the composing of paintings? "Composing" seems more apt to me than "composition" and closer to the active spirit of drawing: "rules of composition" are often random and hearsay, sifted down from one drab workshop through another. "Never use black. Never put something in the center." Is there such a thing as an over-reliance on photography? As a professional painter, I choose not to use photography in my work. I work from observation or draw from imagination, though I understand how many artists (particularly portraitists) f ind

it useful . . . especially with that animated three-year-old. I love photography. It can be powerful, engaging, vital. And I think that any representational painter today deals, however consciously, with the influence of photography on his or her work. I have pondered much how it has influenced mine. Is there such a thing as an over-reliance on photography, particularly when memory and craft in art education have been (over the past fifty years)â&#x20AC;Śerâ&#x20AC;Śdigitally displaced? Perhaps, if one is not conscious of certain habits. A perusal of the last ten years of contemporary figure painting yields images which, to me, are like huge snapshots: haphazard in gesture, big on facial distortion, confrontational in

If the painting seems to lack a memory, is this because it is transposed as a snapshot and not conceived as an image?

NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 51

pose, the figures chopped and edited like fashion photography or CD covers and always smooth in finish. Ambitious in scale, but rarely seem found from within the image itself, or struggled over. Sensational, maybe in the best sense, but not often memorable. If the painting seems to lack a memory, is this because it is transposed as a snapshot and not conceived as an image? I recently saw an Argentinian movie, Found Memories, an achingly slow perusal of memory and a love letter to photography in its simplest and most poignant forms. And I began to think about four artists whose work is familiar to me: two painters, one photographer, one illustrator, and how they use photography. A matter of practice, craft, and temperament. Bill LaFevor, a long-time Nashville photographer specializing in architecture, has a special fondness for photographing interiors in Spain and Latin America and approaches the framing of his world very much like a painter. To capture the essence of what he is seeing, an interior or exterior, he arranges in a hierarchy of light and solidity, framing the image to capture the ultimate pictorial nuance, at the exact right time. The same when he shoots a portrait: exacting light at an exact time and the essence of a face. Or in a black-and-white nude: light, form, sculpture. Julyan Davis, a realist painter from Asheville, uses photography as a constant reference during the process of painting, often shooting interiors of abandoned houses where he cannot spend much time or sites he is traveling through. Davis, who often paints purely from life, told me that a range of casual snapshots can augment a painting's progress because he is slightly nearsighted. In the snapshots the details fade, and the more dramatic aspects of the subject re-emerge. From the original image of the work, he tends to paint in the light and time similar to the original site. Interiors, the back of a Southern motel, a crowd at the state fair: it is a process of re-creation, elaboration, observation, and memory.

Bill LaFevor, 2004, Figure Study

Brennan's poignant drawings of children dancing. She sometimes takes photographs for reference, but these images have a first-hand immediacy. A different type of photograph? These children are truly seen, each gesture specific in a flow of spatial rhythm, that sense of space and place and wonder. A human snapshot, made with the simplest of means. Four artists, three cities, a few thoughts about photography, painting, memory . . . Can there be an over-reliance on photography in painting? Perhaps, if one isn't aware of those conventions in our digital/magazine/television world. I think those conventions leech through in much contemporary representation. In the artists above, those tendencies are modified through an understanding of framing and form, of composing the image from without and within.

Roy Scott, a professional designer/illustrator in Philadelphia, has a much different approach to photography. A trained draughtsman, he still maintains a sketchbook and draws from life but composes his designs through collage. Collecting imagery from a variety of sources, he collates and blends photography, layers of painted and repainted surfaces, textures, and colors into forceful images drenched in color. These are digital works but with a visceral sense of texture, electric color, and movement. From image to image (year by year) these images morph and reinvent themselves organically with a deceptive simplicity. Deceptive simplicity. What about pure observation: a pencil, charcoal, and paper? I recently saw Nashville painter Ginny

G reg Decker i s a profes s ional painter currently living in southern New Mexico. He has taught at MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC) and is completing an art instructional DVD on oil painting. He is represented in Nashville by LeQuire Gallery. Visit www.gregdeckerstudio.com and www.lequiregallery.com.

52 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL LAFEVOR

Julyan Davis, Where the Sun Refuses to Shine (Dark Holler), Oil on canvas, 40" x 60"

Sunlight slanting onto a wall . . . a black-and-white photograph of a rose on the back of a magazine on the couch. I cut a stencil, a simple silhouette of a flower through which to paint some bright fabric dye on raw linen . . . Is this a primitive photograph in itself? The dye, a deep red, seeps into the weft, like the petals in a Nolde watercolor, still seeming wet. Flowers seen, smelled, painted in his own way.

Laurie Anderson The Language of the Future OZ Arts Nashville • March 12 & 13

by Jessica Martin

Anderson’s show The Language of the Future showcases the details of contemporary culture. It involves singing, some violin, and witty stories of her adventures. Her new material focuses on

PHOTOGRAPH BY KEVIN KENNEFICK

aurie Anderson is no stranger to eccentric and experimental music. According to The Boston Globe, she is “the reigning performance artist of her time,” and she is bringing these talents to OZ Arts Nashville.

Laurie Anderson

PERFORMANCE ARTIST OF HER TIME.

“

“ LAURIE ANDERSON IS THE REIGNING — Boston Globe

THE

LANGUAGE OF THE

For over thirty years, Laurie Anderson has performed in f ront of audiences w i t h h e r c h a r a c t e r i s t i c mu l t i m e d i a presentations and unique use of technology. She has dipped into many channels of art as a writer, director, visual artist, and vocalist. Her live shows can range from a spoken-word performance to an intricate multimedia e vent. S he has also published seven books, and her work can be found in museums worldwide.

FUTURE LAURIE ANDERSON In The Language of the Future, Laurie Anderson explores contemporary culture through song, violin, and offbeat adventure stories with wit and poignancy.

MARCH 12 & 13 8 PM For tickets & information: ozartsnashville.org

nash_arts_laurie_anderson_2.9.indd 1

the fine line between dreams and reality as well as an exploration of the world of information. Anderson also explores the inter working of the American narrative and the ways we tell stories. The Language of the Future gets its name from Anderson’s 1983 show United States, and this current production pays homage to that show among many other past music and texts from throughout her career.

The Language of the Future will be perfor med at OZ Arts Nashville on March 12 and 13 at 8 p.m. Please v i s i t w w w. o z n a s h v i l l e . c o m f o r m o r e information. 2/12/15 12:04 PM NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 53

Painting for a Song Todd Williamson and Luke Hillestad The Rymer Gallery • March 7–31

by Logan Halsey

t’s impossible not to feel a visceral shock when turning from Todd Williamson’s highly abstract depictions of ethereal emotions and sounds arising out of rigid, mathematical, underlying order to Luke Hillestad’s obsessively and unapologetically traditional figurative, narrative paintings in the manner of Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Titian, and Apelles of Cos. From March 7 to 31, The Rymer Gallery premieres Williamson’s No Rhyme or Reason series concurrently with their continuing exhibition of Hillestad’s Anima series. For curator Herb Williams, this dichotomy is part of a concerted effort to deliver the most engaging

aesthetic experience possible: “Looking at these two artists, they’re completely different. It really is like night and day. . . . I try to think of things that would make me want to get off the couch. You’ve got to create something that has power, something that’s different.” Williams thought back to his adolescence to explain his creative process. “I grew up in the cassette-tape world, and one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to make mix tapes for my friends,” he reflected as an eclectic mix of contemporary hits played over the speakers. He went on to identify his approach to curating visual arts as “a variation of that.” As Williams could tell you, to make a great mix you need a memorable track list, so

54 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

he’s featuring two of the most captivating, if utterly dichotomous, artists of their respective scenes. Despite the apparent clash, Williams has found in these artists a commonality in their intense dedication to depicting the steady pulse of breath and life and the universally human emotions that unite us.

illiamson, a Cullman, Alabama, native born in 1964, has exhibited works worldwide and currently serves as the Arts and Cultural Affairs Commissioner of West Hollywood. His works are visions of the ephemeral human spirit that reverberates in thoughts and dreams. The colors and forms on the canvas vibrate in time with the emotional energies that emerge from below the depths of the ego, traced along the same waves that carry light and sound. The canvas itself is an extraordinary, unifying element in Williamson’s body of work as the artist chooses to paint his intangible forms on strictly partitioned surfaces. The immaterial seems to give way to the material, or vice versa. These grids are part of his synesthetic artistic vision. “The music staff is the perfect metaphor for my work,” he explains. “I believe that color, music, and numbers are all connected and must be addressed.” He goes on to say that “[the music staff ] is the constraint that holds the idea and controls the chaos of the color and movement. . . The grids are what controls these emotions.” Hillestad is a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, born in 1982, but his work is wildly different than those details might lead one to believe. Hillestad found the “demand for originality” in contemporary art oppressive, so he elected to choose freely from his preferences, “no matter how passé, nostalgic, and kitsch they are.” Discussing his commitment to following directly in the footsteps of those who most influenced him, he says, “I am quite serious when I say that if my work is distinct from Nerdrum, Rembrandt, or Titian, it is accidental.” Hillestad has devoted himself to realizing timeless narratives in his art, “the stories that repeat regardless of geopolitics.” The title of his new series, Anima, comes from the ancient Latin word for breath and life. “I want to paint characters that breathe and narratives that are living,” he explains. He brings his characters to life through “deliberate” and “earnest” figurative painting, recognizing that the process of creating and viewing art painted in the classical tradition “gives us practice in compassion.”

(above, detail) Infidel, 2014, Oil on linen, 36” x 28” (previous page) Artemis, 2015, Oil on linen, 60” x 48”

The artist uses his empathy and mastery of the human form to evoke a powerful sense of drama and character. Grotto, a depiction of “returning home after a catastrophe—the ritual of forgiveness,” carries extraordinary emotional weight. The artist’s skillful use of chiaroscuro pairs with the subject’s posture and wide eyes to suggest “willingness,” while a wild bobcat by her side symbolically portrays her “primal urge to fight or flee.” These elements converge to create a narrative told with tremendous pathos as she emerges from a troubled past. “With Anima,” Hillestad says, “I can pick the traits I admire from among the breathers—be they characteristically human or animal.” Todd Williamson’s No Rhyme or Reason series and Luke Hillestad’s Anima series will be on exhibit at The Rymer Gallery March 7 to 31. For more information visit www.therymergallery.com.

Nashville Airport #1–The Thought, Nashville Airport #2–The Place, and Nashville Airport #3–The Idea, 2014, Oil on canvas, 72” x 60”

NashvilleArts.com

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Across the Milky Way Vanderbilt Blair School of Music • March 7 & 8

Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville (CAAN) is a nonprofit performing arts organization devoted to elevating awareness and appreciation for Chinese performing arts. Though all Nashvillians, CAAN dancers represent a variety of nationalities—Chinese, Taiwanese, Burmese, Filipino, Azerbaijani, Italian, Egyptian, and African American.

Performances of Across the Milky Way are slated for Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 8, at 2 p.m. at Ingram Hall, Vanderbilt Blair School of Music. For information and tickets, please visit www.ChineseArtsAlliance.org.

56 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARTIN O’CONNOR

cross the Milky Way blends traditional Chinese and Western modern dance styles with innovative theatrical elements to tell a two-thousand-year-old love story. Presented by the Chinese Arts Alliance with artistic direction and choreography by Jen-Jen Lin, this Chinese Valentine story was inspired by the stars Vega and Altair. The stars (lovers) meet the 7th day of the 7th month on a magpie bridge across the Milky Way. The performance also includes three other original dances, Space, Beyond the Horizon, and Mood, which involve masks, theatre, and live music.

Voices of the Stars Rowena Whaling’s New Novel

Five years in the making, Vo i c e s o f t h e S t a r s h a s been called the best ever Arthurian novel by critics and fans alike. King Arthur and his star-crossed lover are woven into a rich Dark Age tapestry of ancient rites, goddesses, seers, enchantresses, Druids, and dragons. The epic story is filled with historical and legendary characters spanning five generations and focuses on the five distinct cultures living in the land of post-Roman Britons. Whaling’s historical accuracy is second to none, and, as characters tell their own stories, readers come to know them intimately.

Art Dance Music Theatre

orn into the magical world of stage lights, sceneries, orchestras, and chorus lines, Rowena spent her childhood on the road with her theatr ical parents. By the time she was ten years old, she was writing short stories, expanding on classical Greek tragedies by creatively adding characters and extending story lines. Now this accomplished singer, composer, and poet adds successful novelist to her resume.

Art Dance Music Theatre

a summer arts camp for high school students

June 14 - 27, 2015 Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tenn.

apsu.edu/watauga

For more information about our camp, please contact us: 931.221.7876 or watauga@apsu.edu APSU is an AA/EEO employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic or national origin, sex, religion, age, disability status, and/or veteran status in its programs, and activities.www.apsu.edu/affirmative-action.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL A REY L ANKFORD

Watauga Arts Academy

“Rowena W haling has the most complete and accurate grasp of history, myth, and magic that I have seen in any Arthurian novel,” said Oberon Zell, Headmaster of the Grey School of Wizardry. “The reaction has been far beyond my expectations. I have been a songwriter and poet all my life, and I have learned that when something creative hits you, it just happens, and you have to let it happen,” Whaling reveals.

Published by Permuted Press, Voices of the Stars is available a t Parnassus Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. Please visit www.permutedpress.com/books/voices-of-the-stars-book-1 for more information.

NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 57

Considering, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 30” x 30”

And So It Goes...

Rachael McCampbell Takes a Personal Look at the Life of an Artist

A NEW MONTHLY SERIES

magine that you attend a job interview and they say, “ You will work for six months on a project, pay for all the supplies, but not earn any money until the exhibit—that is, if you sell any of the products you make. And the place where you show your products will take fifty to sixty percent of all the proceeds. You will also be required to work sixty-hour weeks and almost every weekend. You will be the creative talent, marketing director, graphic designer, Webmaster, secretary/assistant, sales force, public speaker, framer, bookkeeper, maid, landscaper/gardener, cook, and housekeeper. You will not get an IRA, nor any healthcare—no benefits at all, actually. Well, yes, one benefit. You will get to do what you really love to do—that is, make the product.” 58 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Needless to say, most people with any sense would run away. But the courageous/crazy artist signs on: Sure, sounds like the career for me! We are simply compelled. I wake up each morning hopeful that the canvas that I paint, love to paint, need to paint, will resonate with someone, so much that they actually buy it. Oops, did I just say the buy word? Sorry, that’s a naughty word in this field. There is an old, romantic fantasy that artists are so driven to be creative they don’t ever think about money. Just the satisfaction we receive is reward enough. I hate to pop anyone’s bubble, but we have bills to pay, too. Yet, when you paint, if you make it all about money, your creativity suffers. It’s a double-edged sword. A lot of artists get to make art because they have a spouse who supports them, or they work full time and do art on weekends. And some artists, like some writers, athletes, or actors, make it to the top one percent in the field and can sell one painting a year and live lavishly. But, for the ones who are regular, full-time artists, like myself, we have to wear all the hats and work long hours for sporadic pay. There are times where it feels hopeless to continue in this way. And I think about what my MBA friend, the CEO of a company, says: “This is not a good business model.”

PHOTOGRAPH BY RON MANVILLE

So, I read all the books on How to Make It Big in the Art World. Yet as soon as one book is published, the paradigm shifts and the rules change again. And with the advent of the Internet, many of the traditional brick-and-mortar galleries have

Evening Lights, Acrylic on canvas, 5’ x 5’

disappeared—replaced by online galleries. Artists must be adaptive to survive. No matter what the trends are around me, I hold onto my truth that keeps me going. I’m simply an old-fashioned artist who believes in the power of original work—art painted one painting at a time, with MY hands, putting MY energy, heart, and soul into each canvas I create. I think when collectors buy good art, they want to purchase that artist’s vision and point of view—one that won’t be found anywhere else in the world. It’s like a fingerprint—entirely unique. This is magical to me. And this magic is what keeps me going.

One day, I’d like to get an assistant to help with some of the hats I wear so that I can focus more time on my art. That would improve the business model. In the meantime, I paint alone each day and cheer myself on. And when things seem hopeless and the art isn’t selling, I practice my speech: Would you like fries with that burger? Just as I’m about to fill out the McDonald’s application and pack it all in, the phone rings, and I get another commission or show. And so it goes. Rachael McCampbell is an artist, teacher, curator, and writer who resides in the small hamlet of Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. Go to www.rachaelmccampbell.com.

“

There is an old, romantic fantasy that artists are so driven to be creative they don’t ever think about money. I hate to pop anyone’s bubble, but we have bills to pay, too. NashvilleArts.com

”

March 2015 | 59

AMERICAN GAMELAN M akes I ts N ashville D ebut Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music • March 15

60 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

by Michael Dukes | Photography by Michael Weintrob

f you’ve never heard the complex, shimmering waves of sound produced by a gamelan—or maybe you’ve never heard of the gamelan—you’re not alone. Tr aditional l y, these multifaceted percussion instruments are found only on the far-flung islands of Bali and Java, where they’re woven deeply into the colorful fabric of Indonesian history.

centuries past: automobile brake drums, aluminum cans, even heavy oxygen tanks. “It’s made largely from found materials. This is key to Lou Harrison’s philosophy, which was to be kind to the earth,” Howell explains. “If you read Lou Harrison, it comes across in everything. You see it in his straw-bale house. Lou was never concerned with what was popular. He simply followed his own mind. He left a very fast-paced life in New York and moved to a cabin in the woods. And he began to write this music that was heavil y influenced by non-Western culture.

Rarer still is the American gamelan, brainchild of renegade twentieth-century composer Lou Harrison. In fact, there are exactly four of them in existence. One is displayed in a museum. Another of the remaining three is currently capturing the imaginations of students and faculty at Vanderbilt ’s Blair S chool of Music. “It’s an extraordinarily rare instr ument, ” say s Mic hael Hol land, S enior L ecturer in Percussion and the man responsible for bringing the gamelan to Music City. “The gamelan is actually one instrument with many people playing. It is the ultimate in ensemble performance. It ’s bigger than any one of us.”

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see and hear this instrument and to hear this music and to consider how much we can do when drawing on the strengths of so many cultures. We’re living in a very divisive time. Music has the ability to bring people of diverse cultures together. Lou passionately believed in this.”

“

To have this instrument that was built under Lou Harrison’s direct supervision – it’s a bit like getting to play Beethoven’s piano.

O n M a r c h 1 5 , H o l l a n d ’s VORTEX Percussion Ensemble will present a concert featuring pieces written specifically for the American gamelan. Composers include Lou Harrison and Dr. John Pennington, who has loaned his personal gamelan to VORTEX in order to make this event possible. This is the first time the instrument will be showcased in the Southeastern US.

The profound tones of the ancient gamelan have been an important part of Indonesian ceremonial life for well over a thousand years. In creating his modern adaptation, Harrison recycled objects that would have never been available in

This is also a once-in-alifetime experience for the percussion students who m a k e u p VO R T E X . “ To have this experience has been really special for them. And to have this instrument that was built under Lou Harrison’s direct supervision—it’s a bit like getting to play Beethoven’s piano.

“Although Lou has passed on, so much has been documented on film that we can see him playing it and talking about it. I can’t help but be excited. This is living history.”

”

Related events scheduled for March 15 include the screening of a documentar y on Harrison’s life a n d mu si c , a s we l l a s a t a l k by Penning to n a nd a n i n t e r a c t i ve M u si c i rc u s . F o r d eta ils , plea s e vis it www.blair.vanderbilt.edu/ensembles/vortex-gamelan.php.

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Poet’s Corner

Prisoner of Retail by Jane Knoch

False limbs, too thin to be forgotten— The plastic skin’s arching Stretches high above the clouds. White and blue mix on the rack of clothes, too expensive to touch, There’s a brand new brand with a dove on the lapels. Pale, thin fingers, reach over the cloth sky. I adjust myself to get a better view, Crouch low to see under the shirt’s tails, The feet on the floor placed a foot apart. Measured by a tired teen paid too much; The mannequin is dancing, posing, selling. I straighten my spine; my discs align And I see a touch of the truth. Silver gray stabs my eyes and brings me inside, Carrying me behind the door. It is glass; the whole building is glass. They think that will protect them Against urges to break and steal. I walk inside, my steps heavy In the cruel store, My eyes scan across the picturesque Dresses like drawings Painted in old movies. The women were beautiful… The men were courteous… That’s what they say. My fingers dance slowly to the tag on a dress. My feet dance away swiftly from the price. A shopkeeper says hello; She’s pretending that she sees me. I pretend that I don’t see her, duck Behind a magazine shelf, Looking for the mannequin. There’s a flash of flesh and gown. There she is. They’ve given her hair, Painted her eyes and her nails, Dressed her up in green, Positioned her just right for their purposes. They’ve attached a chain to her neck, It droops to the floor and clasps a ring growing from tile. She looks human standing still… And I run BACKGROUND PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL RAY NOT T 62 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Jane Knoch is a sixteen year old sophomore at Hume Fogg Academic Magnet High School. She has enjoyed writing for as long as she can remember and was a finalist in this year’s inaugural STEM poetry slam. Learn more at www.southernword.org.

Film Review

The Great Flood Belcourt Theatre • March 30

by Justin Stokes

Nothing brings people together quite like a disaster.

Taking advantage of archived footage and cobbling it together into vignettes, experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison created The Great Flood, reviving the pulse of life during one of America’s worst floods—the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. That single weather event submerged 27,000 square miles of land surrounding the tumefied tributaries of the Mississippi River and changed the lives of a million people already plagued by poverty.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ICARUS FILM S

“Man plans, God laughs” is the theme found under the stream of video content that shows the toil of everyday life. Labors go from fertile to futile as the water flushes civilization away.

But there’s hope beyond the water. The cruel imagery of the flood gives in to the mellow calm of the music. Master musician Bill Frisell supplies a jazz-fusion optimism that keeps things calm and floating along with the muddy water and debris. Frisell’s homage to the sounds of the Mississippi fits well.

The length of the film offers a challenge to the viewer. It is seventy-five minutes long, and there is a chapter within the film featuring the Sears-Roebuck catalog that attempts to show humanity through the consumerism of the day, putting forth a slice of life that’s already on the table. That’s a problem only if audience members are looking for a real narrative instead of the free-flowing experience of music and history.

The Great Flood comes across as a memory. At times, the footage wears an accoutrement of skipping char marks and creates the illusion of the camera trying to forget. But the documentary also has crisp moments preserved in wow-worthy frames that belong in a contemporary art gallery and tells enough of the story to be reliable.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTY SIMMONS

The Great Flood will be showing at the Belcourt Theatre on March 30 for a one-night event with live music composed and performed by Bill Frisell. For tickets and information visit www.belcourt.org. Justin Stokes is the founder of the MTSU Film Guild, a student organization which functions as a production company for student filmmakers. He is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and social media manager.

Jason Saunders The Quiet, Unassuming Master of Plein-Air Painting

here’s hay all over the floor of Jason Saunders’ studio, a giant gallery-type space he built in his backyard using old barn materials and decorated with beaver-stripped sticks found on creek walks. “Sorry about that,” he says about the hay. “I had a baby cow in here the other day.”

It’s a cold, sodden morning in Leiper’s Fork, the kind of cold that takes hours to recover from. It’s certainly not the kind of day that recalls Saunders’ breathtaking plein-air paintings of glowing autumn forests and lush Tennessee fields. But Saunders estimates that he produces two hundred fifty paintings a year, and has been this prolific for nearly twenty years, so a little rain wouldn’t stop him. “I’ll pop the hatch up on the truck and stand under there and paint in the rain,” he says. “I like the moodiness and the distant hills and the foggy days. I like every day. I like to capture that mood out there.”

64 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY SCARL ATI

by Cat Acree

This is the passion that drives Saunders to paint sometimes five or six scenes a day. And though he loves to travel and paints wherever he goes, his connection to Tennessee’s vistas is as strong as family. “To me it’s got more character,” he says. “It’s just beautiful out here. I’ve traveled all over this country, and I’ve seen beautiful places. But I always come back here. It’s got so much diversity. I like these old farms and run-down shacks. Some people would want to pull those down, but I want to save them and paint them, capture them at least before they fall down.” Saunders’ work contains an important paradox: Painting en plein air requires fast work. The light changes every thirty minutes, and if it’s cloudy, Saunders says, “It’s like someone’s turning the light on and off.” But his pastoral subjects are classically peaceful and quintessentially “slow.”

“It’s part of my childhood,” he says. “I was fortunate to [visit] East Tennessee where my father’s side of the family is from. Everyone there was and still is a farmer. It’s that Appalachian lifestyle, where if it’s going to get done, you’re going to do it. There’s a lot of pride in doing it yourself and taking care of things yourself.” To Saunders, there is a pureness to this lifestyle, and he maintains his own cattle farm down the road from his house. There is honesty in good work, and this is reflected in his paintings and in his simple, modified, three-color palette and handmade equipment.

“I just like the simplicity, the pureness around that whole process. . . I’m a very nostalgic and very traditional person. It fits me. Most everything that I do has meaning behind it.”

(previous page) The Judds’ Farm, 2005, Oil on mounted canvas, 12” x 14” (above) The Old Cattle Farm, 2014, Oil on gesso board, 11” x 14”

This fast-slow paradox is a reflection of Saunders’ day-to-day life. Seventeen years ago, when he first started painting plein-air landscapes, was starting a family, and was trying to figure out how to support his “habit,” he picked up a day job as the captain of the Nashville fire department. “At the worst moments in people’s lives, that’s when I show up,” he says. Painting gives his mind “a place to rest” from the high adrenaline of burning houses and the twisted metal of car accidents.

The Autumn Farmhouse, 2013, Oil on mounted canvas, 10” x 20”

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Abandoned Education, 2014, Oil on canvas, 30” x 36”

Cattle farmer, fireman, family man (he has three teenagers), prolific painter—it seems Saunders never takes a moment to breathe. Rather, he understands better than most of us how to use the brief amount of time we’re allotted and that time should be used for great passion and intense beauty.

“You can drop me in the middle of Wyoming and I’m in heaven, because everywhere I look there are paintings,” he says. “I can drive down a country road out here, and there’s something new around every corner. The light’s different; the time of year’s different. And you get to meet the greatest people.” Saunders was previously showing in eight galleries, but if there’s one thing he doesn’t enjoy, it’s the business side of art. Couple that with a desire to spend more time with his family, and he has simplified in true Saunders form: He hosts a giant, two-day show every year in November, here in his backyard studio. It’s open to the public and showcases all the nostalgia and beauty of the previous year. Early Morning Snow, 2014, Oil on canvas, 30” x 60” 66 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

For more about Jason Saunder s please visit www.saundersfineart.com.

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LIGHT Cumberland Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Neon Program

Gets All Lit Up

by Jesse Mathison | Photography by Peg Fredi

he Neon program at Cumberland University is a relatively new, intriguing source of art in Tennessee. Started in 2011, the program has already received accolades and is quickly establishing itself as a destination for aspiring artists who wish to learn a rare skill set. The program was begun largely due to the work of instructor Damon MacNaught, who, along with chairman of the Art Department Ted Rose, physically built the facilities that are required for the processing of neon. MacNaught also acquired donations and grants to fund the necessary equipment and supplies for the program, which is the only one of its kind found in Tennessee and one of very few in the South.

Joseph Bates, Untitled 68 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Within most any field of art, a high degree of technical ability is essential. The Neon program, of course, hones the technical skills of the students, but perhaps equally as important, it focuses on the conceptual side of art. Students learn to develop ideas that are suitable for the medium, which most often means working in sculpture or reliefs. In addition to gaining a better understanding of the basic elements of working with neon, students also learn to incorporate other components into their work, such as metal, stone, wood, and photographs.

One of the best examples of this is Joseph Bates’s piece Impossible Saw, which combines neon, textiles, and organic elements to form a smart end product. The piece won first place in the three-dimensional category at the Artists of the 21st Century competition, a juried exhibition of work that featured forty works of art by students in over ten states. Overall, the work demonstrates the artist’s proficiency in both conceptual and technical ability.

With the technical side of the program in mind, the curriculum is also aimed at covering the basics of safe handling of neon as an artistic medium. At the end of the course, each student should come away with a comprehensive understanding of the neon process from start to finish. There is a heavy focus on consistency, and as the students learn how best to handle and manipulate glass, they also learn how to problem solve and troubleshoot their projects and finally realize their visions in neon.

Joseph Bates, Untitled

Mr. MacNaught said that one of his original goals in starting the program was “to bring an artistic medium to Cumberland that was missing in Middle Tennessee.” Manipulating neon tubing is a unique experience, one that Cumberland Neon has recently been sharing on social media such as Facebook (CU Neon), Pinterest (Cumberland Neon) and Tumblr (cu-neon).

One would expect Mr. MacNaught, being the program’s creator, to inject a great degree of energy and purpose into Neon, and that certainly seems to be the case. Said the instructor: “I bring my love of design, problem solving, and glass in general to the classroom. The students feed off of my

Joseph Bates, Impossible Saw

Joseph Bates using a torch to bend a glass rod

passion for the material. I love the exchange that happens in school. The students learn, I learn, everyone moves forward. It’s an opportunity for students to learn about an amazing material, glass, to learn to work through the problems associated with glass to realize their ideas. As a result, the students end up with neon signs they’ve designed and executed. There really is nothing like the light from a neon sign.” Cumberland University is looking to increase enrollment in the program and continue to educate students about the potential of neon art. Facilities and class offerings will be expanding, and undergrad and graduate classes and workshops are offered throughout the year. For more information about the Neon program at Cumberland University visit www.cumberland.edu.

Peg Fredi, James Dean

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thinking ahead

by Susan W. Knowles, founding Curator, Arts at the Airport

ntil fifty-six pieces were shown at Nashville’s downtown public library in First Flight Out: Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority Shares Its Corporate Art Collection, few Nashvillians were aware that the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority owned a permanent collection of contemporary Tennessee art. Over two hundred fifty paintings, sculptures, photographs, works on paper, fine craft, folk-art pieces, and stained-glass works reside in the conference rooms, lobbies, hallways, and offices of the Authority. While a few take up the theme of air travel or flight in some form, all are characteristic of the artist’s best work, thus ensuring the collection’s l ong-ter m value as a representative history of recent Tennessee art.

Nashville Airport’s Art Collection

Even with the presence of a major art collection upstairs, the airport’s main level public exhibition spaces are always filled with the works of local and regional artists. This is by design. Robert Lamb Hart, a thoughtful and philosophical architect, imagined the terminal as a creative space, like a stage set 70 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Sylvia Hyman/Arthur Orr, Untitled, Porcelain and enamel wall sculpture

waiting to be populated by the variety of talents that make Nashville unique. Not only does the rotating Flying Solo exhibition series give emerging and established artists the opportunity for one-person installations before a huge public audience, it also offers welcome variety for the frequent traveler. While many airports have art programs, few feature the panoply of temporary shows and musical acts, from solo singer-songwriters to jazz ensembles, found at Nashville International. Nashville’s Arts at the Airport program turned 25 in 2013. Its success can be attributed in part to progressive city leaders who knew that the 1987 addition of a state-of-the-art airport terminal designed by Hart would be a highly visible statement of the city’s aspirations. Officials from the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority and arts leaders visited leading U.S. airports. (left) Olen Bryant, Untitled (detail), wood

Yet the airport art collection is a symbol of more than inspired customer service. The same progressive leaders who opted for an ongoing program of visual and musical art were hip to the 1980s corporate art-collecting trend. Many notable corporations, following the lead of David Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank in the 1960s, were amassing collections by the 1980s. With PepsiCo and IBM making a splash in New York, HCA and Northern Telecom decided to buy art for their Nashville headquarters. The acquisition of Tennessee art for the Airport Authority offices came with the opportunity to use the remainder of the furnishings budget. The Authority’s collecting was distinctive, however, in that it demanded a visible public process. In retrospect, the use of public funds to purchase art for a public place was echoing the national 1% for Public Art program yet to be enacted in Nashville. Further proof of the progressive will of Authority

John Guider, Young Mother and Baby in River, Harpeth Narrows, Cheatham County, Tenn., Platinum print photograph

They founded an airport art program administered by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission to position visual art and musical performance so that the experience of visiting the airport—even just passing through on the way to connect with a flight—would impress travelers with Nashville as a creative place. Dale Eldred’s Airport Sun Project (1989) was installed as the first Arts at the Airport project, a six-month temporary art exhibition. Mounted in the rafters to reflect and project the movement of sunlight throughout the day on walls and ceiling, the piece is a lesson in physics. As Eldred explained, it’s the building that is moving, not the sun. The “tracking station” is panels of diffraction glass that break sunbeams into the colors of the light spectrum and mirrored glass panels that distort reflections. At the Airport Sun Project’s preview, visitors rode escalators, looking up to see rainbows bouncing off surfaces as their ears filled with the ethereal tones of percussionist Kirby Shelstad live on vibraphone. When architect Hart endorsed the installation as a lively addition to his terminal design, the Authority appropriated funds to make it permanent.

Andrew Saftel, Nomad’s Castle, Acrylic and found objects on panel

officials and business leaders can be seen in the twofold purpose of the collection. It was a welcome economic boost for local galleries and artists, and it offered the pleasure of living with art to employees and clients of the Authority. A budgeted acquisition some ten years later updated and further diversified the collection. It was prompted both by staff and visitor appreciation of the existing collection and by the public success of Arts at the Airport’s changing exhibitions. When the Authority decided to loan selected works from the collection to Nashville Public Library for several months during its 25th anniversary celebration, many staff members felt the loss acutely.

Frieda Hamm, Mr. Sweet’s House, Oil on paper

Rebecca Ramsey, Assistant Director of Properties for the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, recalls: “For close to twenty years, Fred Burton’s White Bird (a mixed-media-on-paper painting) has been looking over my shoulder as I conduct my duties. Not until it

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March 2015 | 71

“flew the coop,” when it was included along with other selections from the Authority’s collection for a special installation at the downtown library, did I realize the value of its inspiration on my thought process. Walking into my office every day and seeing a dismal blank wall, where it had hung for so long, kind of sucked the wind out of my sails. Not until it returned did my thoughts begin to soar once again! I hope White Bird gave as much pleasure to others, who had the opportunity to experience it while it was nesting downtown, as it has offered me all these years.” The Authority’s visionary leaders, who ensured that our airport would be enlivened by art and music and who encouraged Tennessee artists by purchasing their works, should be rightly proud. Not only has the airport’s permanent art collection steadily risen in value, their aspirations have taken flight with Nashville’s ascendance as an “It” place of creative culture. Tom Rice, Sleeping Bird, African wonderstone on cherry

Jack Spencer, Girl with Sunflowers, Selenium-toned photograph 72 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

For information about the Flying Solo Exhibition Series visit www.flynashville.com.

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Book Review

Behind the Easel 20 Painters Talk Art by Erica Ciccarone

e’re often told to look at a work of art through a particular lens. Sometimes, we’re following a parade of -isms created by critics and historians. Other times, our only context is the description on the museum wall. Then there’s the influence of our friends and mentors, the glossy ads of the most upscale galleries, and what’s trending on social media. In Robert C. Jackson’s new book Behind the Easel: The Unique Voices of 20 Contemporary Representational Painters, the interviews and accompanying images allow the reader to view the work through the artist’s lens. Whether it’s for better or for worse depends on the reader/viewer.

First things first: Behind the Easel is a beautifully made hardcover that measures 12” x 12” and includes approximately 200 prints of paintings from 20 realist artists. Jackson wanted to compile interviews that would face the creative process head-on. In his introduction he says that he chose painters who have inspired him over the course of his career and who have “an (above) Scott Fraser, Reign, 2012, Oil on canvas, 82” x 76” 74 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

elusive quality, a unique voice.” His choices were stylistically diverse, though not racially—every last one is white. He asked each painter to respond in writing to a set of ten questions. These comprise the brass tacks of any artist interview: routine, influence, process, inspiration, and audience, and they’re necessary questions. But the decision to interview the artists in writing barred the potential for spontaneity and intimacy permitted by the verbal interview, which by nature allows topics to emerge organically out of the work itself as well as the personalities, experiences, and expertise of the artist and writer as they converse. Because of this, some of the interviews seem overwrought and others too spare. This might have been part of Jackson’s vision—to let each artist be unapologetically his or herself, but I often found myself either wanting to push them further or curtail their robust replies.

Nonetheless, Jackson’s questions give us access to the worldviews of the artists, and there is something to be said for the uniformity of questioning that draws out their differences. Some talk about the influence of their faith; others describe how they carve out studio time while raising children; many of them go for long walks to break up their work day. While there are common threads through their practice (everyone seems to wake up early and be inspired by Rembrandt), there are many distinctions. Sandra Mendelsohn Rubin describes the important discovery that her sensitivity could be an asset and a tool as a painter. Jerome Witkin views his position as an archivist of human experience, sending messages to the future about our time. Debra Bermingham, my favorite artist of the bunch, said, “I paint for those who might discover a shared solitude in my work.” She borrows from China the artist’s ritual of “inviting the

Stone Roberts, Grand Central Terminal: An Early December Noon in the Main Concourse, 2009–2012, Oil on linen, 74” x 76”

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YEOMAN’S IN THE FORK

A RARE BOOK & DOCUMENT GALLERY

LOCATED IN HISTORIC LEIPER’S FORK, TN

Laurie Hogin, American Habitat Diorama (Florida Swamp – Reedy Creek), 2007, Oil on canvas, 76” x 76”

honored guest” into the workspace, allowing instinct to take over within the alphabet of the artist’s process. In her cool palette of blues and grays, Bermingham finds the sweet spot between representational realism and the atmosphere of a dream. It was something Scott Fraser said that made me realize the main challenge in compiling such a book: “I recognize that a lot of self-expression is egocentric,” Fraser said, “which certainly applies to me, but I am not in this for myself. I like to share.” Fraser is negotiating with the reader, trying to find the language for what his paintings do wordlessly. Behind the Easel reminds me that language is oftentimes inadequate and inaccurate, and visual art can be a much better communicator. By giving the artists space to speak, we see them in another dimension; and what’s even better? They’re right alongside their work, which speaks for itself. Behind the Easel: The Unique Voices of 20 Contemporary Representational Painter s , by Rober t C. Jackson with Pamela Sienna, is published by Schiffer Publishing. For more information, please visit www.schifferbooks.com.

BATTLE FOR THE BOOK Join us in protecting and collecting the printed page R ARE BOOKS & DOCUMENTS BOUGHT AND SOLD Wednesday thru Saturday 10-5 | Sunday 1-5 4216 Old Hillsboro Road | Franklin, TN ph: 615.983.6460 | fx: 615.515.9060 www.YeomansInTheFork.com

be sure to check out our collecting blog

Scott Prior, Summer Cabin Kitchen, 2009, Oil on panel, 32” x 42”

The Porch Writers’ Collective

Nashville’s First Independent Writing Center Hosts Writing Workshops and Its First Annual Event with Two Tim O’Briens by Sara Estes

The story of The Porch begins with Felts. After an MFA, teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and publishing her first novel, Felts relocated to Nashville in 2009. Inspired by the rapid growth and creative energy, she decided to take her intimate writing workshops to the next level. “I knew of numerous existing literary centers in other cities and loved the concept. I kept thinking, so why not Nashville?”

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GUIDER

ny city with a great cultural scene needs a great literary center: The Loft in Minneapolis, GrubStreet in Boston, The Attic in Portland, and now we have The Porch in Nashville. In less than a year, writers Susannah Felts and Katie McDougall took an ambitious idea for a non-profit literary center and turned it into a reality. Located at The Skillery in Germantown, The Porch Writers’ Collective is Nashville’s first independent writing center that offers regular writing workshops, retreats, write-ins, and a host of other exciting literary programs for writers of all levels. Susannah Felts and Katie McDougall

continuing instruction. There is tremendous value in continuing to study and continuing to seek feedback from other writers.”

“With writing, there’s this thing in us that makes us want to put words on a page,” says McDougall. “That instinct is really beautiful and deeply human. We want to do whatever we can to foster that in people and encourage it.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD

“Stories are a part of what makes us human. Even when you’re thinking about characters who don’t exist, you’re thinking about the human experience and universal truths.” As for 2015, The Porch plans to aim high and create many more opportunities within the center. “I hope we continue to be able to fill workshops and add more of them,” says Felts. “I’d really like to be able to offer more specialized seminars.”

“We really want to build our outreach program more,” McDougall adds. “There is a lot of room to grow.” For more information about The Porch Writers’ Collective please visit www.porchtn.org.

Both co-founders believe a sense of camaraderie is essential to building a healthy literary community in Nashville. “There’s a solitary element to writing,” says Felts, “but I’m not sure that it’s as solitary as people often presume. All artists need community and

Minton Sparks, author and storyteller

Katie McDougall leads the adult literacy workshop

Tim O’Brien and Tim O’Brien discuss the art of writing

NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN GUIDER

The Porch launched its website and began teaching workshops in early 2014. Now almost one year old, it has expanded to include an impressive bill of fiction and nonfiction writing classes, outreach programs, and public literary events. In January the Collective held its first event, “The Two Tims,” at Green Door Gourmet featuring musician Tim O’Brien and Tim O’Brien author of The Things They Carried.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD

In late 2013, Felts and McDougall joined forces. “I had a sort of mid-life revision session,” says McDougall, a former high school English teacher. “I wanted my life to involve all things writing in a way that truly fed me. When Susannah and I had the conversation about starting The Porch, I said to myself, this is the thing!”

PHOTOGRAPH BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD

Tim O’Brien the musician and Tim O’Brien author and magician

March 2015 | 77

Royal Blue & Bold LILLY HIATT HAS RETURNED TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

78 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

by Holly Gleason | Photograph by Gina Binkley

ose on Murphy Road, an aesthetically minimal coffee house that stresses the quality of brews, is where the raven-haired young woman with the nose piercing sat with producer Adam Landry. They talked about making what would become Royal Blue, a dozen songs that smear the Pixies, Liz Phair, and Joy Division with hints of Jason Isbell, Ryan Adams, or Sturgill Simpson’s postmodern rock/country. “He likes raw garage rock and wasn’t afraid to take me there,” Hiatt says, settling her cup on the ledge. “When I listen to his Deer Tick stuff or the Diamond Rugs, you hear T. Rex and the Rolling Stones without overpowering. It’s recorded on tape, 8 tracks and no frills. But it’s amazing how full it sounds . . .

to do it. It’s a haven for vulnerability in the world . . . I’d like to think this record’s teetering between all hope is lost and there’s gonna be a revolution.” A psychology major from the University of Denver, Hiatt is studied in the art of studying emotional grounding. Laughing she admits, “I wish I could be more cryptic: some of the characters are amalgamations. But I’m watching—and I’m a pretty observant person. So, if you mess with me, you could end up in a song.” She doesn’t name names or seem interested in evening the score. Like “Girls”’ Lena Dunham, it’s more about telling the messy, inconvenient truth as it exists. To hear her sing “Somebody’s Daughter,” a cockeyed bit of Laurel Canyon country that sways and saunters, it’s a declaration of independence designed to own her roots and her own perseverance.

“

I’d like to think this record’s teetering between all hope is lost and there’s gonna be a revolution.

”

The somebody she’s daughter to is iconic songwriter John Hiatt (“Memphis in the Meantime,” “Thing Called Love,” “Riding With The King,” “She Loves The Jerk”), a soul man who applies swampy funk and off-kilter details to ground his songs. Beyond raising his daughter on the road and giving her a worldly perspective, he’s a good sounding board. “He’s a smart businessman,” she concedes, “but he’s always said, ‘Put the music first, and the other stuff falls into place.’ The thing about Dad: he’s very true to himself; he always stayed true, leading him to a noble, truer place in his career.” “As a producer, Adam has a sense of smaller things. I’m a little rough around the edges, but he didn’t step on that. He was into that raw stuff. ” Royal Blue converges 80s synth and old school steel guitar, vowels that stretch and stall, and beats that are crisp but spare to offer an unflinching look at a woman who won’t buckle, who’d “rather throw a punch than bat my eyes” as she caws in “Your Choice.” Hiatt is a candid writer, whether the throaty recrimination of the broken up “Far Away,” the perky power-pop “Get This Right” or the slithering come clean of “I Don’t Do Those Things Anymore.” “People are too afraid to be vulnerable,” Hiatt muses. “To me, that’s the whole point of making music. It’s the place I feel safe

Realistic about today’s music business, Hiatt’s planning her own tour, doing much of her own promo and emotionally investing in making it happen with West Coast indie New West partnering with Normaltown Records. “People don’t see the emotional energy that goes into it. It’s not for the faint of heart. People are like, ‘Why didn’t I make it?’ Simple: ‘You didn’t work that hard.’ “At the end of the day, we’re just scraping by . . . But these guys [in her band] love the music. They haven’t lost that, and that’s what lets us come together the way we have [on Royal Blue].” Lilly Hiatt’s album Royal Blue is available on March 3. See her live at the Stone Fox on March 4 at 9 p.m. For more about her visit www.lillyhiatt.com.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL RAY NOT T

Taking

it to the

Streets

Two Nashville Street Photographers Capture the Bustling Busker Scene

80 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK REDMOND

by Catherine B. Randall

Each photographs street performers on Lower Broadway; however, Michael Nott strives for more than simple portraiture. “My shots are not just a cold reading of them playing,” he says. “There’s more interplay of something else going on—something with depth.” Nott achieves that depth with reflections and refractions off of glass windows, light that bends and distorts off of car hoods, and the blur of glowing neon that highlights the face of the performer.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK REDMOND

ichael Ray Nott and Patrick Redmond take the concept of street photography to new dimensions. These two photographers share the same inspiration but have very different approaches. Nott play s to ar tistic gr aphic details, and Redmond plans to record both the sights and sounds of local musicians to create a field documentary.

this effect, and the crispness is evident even to the untrained eye.

Nott hails from Austin, Texas, where he had a successful career as a graphic artist. As an undergraduate, he studied under the legendary photographer Garry Winogrand.

“I really love shooting on the street—every turn you make, every decision affects the work,” he says. “I’m in a different time zone. They are in a hurry, and I’m static.”

He shoots with a Ricoh GR camera. “At the core I’m a graphic designer. I’m a big fan of the old-school, Tri-X, black-and-white film. Those prints have a special, high-contrast grain.” The Ricoh mimics

A prime example is the piece titled Fine Dining, found in his photo archive. Nott was crossing the street towards a local restaurant and found the familiar faces of two guitarists looking at him out the

NashvilleArts.com

window. Just as Nott approached, “They flipped me off, and so I took a picture.” As the shutter released, the horse carriage drove by, and the reflection of the photographer was superimposed. The effect is watermarked layers of soft and hard images. The impression is so complicated it could be mistaken for a Photoshop trick, but it isn’t. “It is straight out of the camera. It goes back to the graphic method of style, tone, and composition,” Nott says. March 2015 | 81

Whether he is shooting streetscapes or female impersonators, all of Nott’s subjects convey as much story as the troubadours of Lower Broad.

“

Downtown Nashville Has Never Sounded So Good.

”

Sometimes he waits for hours to capture the shot. “I don’t want it to be staged,” he says. “I even keep the camera concealed and bring it out at the last second.” The children in the featured photo are regular performers, Redmond explains. “Kids and puppies make a lot of money. Their guitar case is always full of $1 bills.”

Redmond’s focus is to create a photographic documentary of this distinct collection of performance artists. He is applying for a grant, which he plans to use to fund his project and purchase recording equipment. He wants to build a database and travel around the South, photographing the faces and recording the sounds of bluegrass, rockabilly, Southern gospel, and the blues indigenous to the Southern landscape. Redmond’s natural talent coupled with his fieldwork project will surely be a lasting musical legacy. For more information about Michael Ray Nott visit www.michaelnott.tumblr.com and www.youtube.com/watch?v=buB3w1Pcd-Q. Find more about Patrick Redmond at www.patrickjredmond.com.

82 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL RAY NOT T

He experienced what he calls “an avalanche of a learning curve” and has become somewhat of a street historian, expert in the types of iconic troubadours and novelty acts that frequent Lower Broadway. “There are the homeless, those traveling through who set up to make a quick buck, and the weekend warriors,” Redmond says.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK REDMOND

Redmond received a Canon DSLR camera as a gift from his sister. “For a while I went out every day. I didn’t know what my subject matter should be.” After a few frustrating excursions, he literally walked into it. “One afternoon while walking downtown I decided to take some shots of the street performers,” Redmond says.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL RAY NOT T

In contrast to Nott, Patrick Redmond is a new talent in street photography. Despite the fact that Redmond began photographing in August just last year, his raw talent is far from novice.

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Myint San Myint, Go to School, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 48”

rt Around

A Local Look at Global Art

Myanmar Art Crossing by Sara Lee Burd

W U Htay Aung (BagyiFela), Market, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”

ith the oppressive forty-year regime out of power since 2012, the people of Myanmar are building new lives. Artists there are struggling to report what they find relevant during this transitional period. Unlike any time in their lives they are free to assemble exhibitions and express a unique creative identity. As you look at this collection of paintings, which are part of an international traveling exhibit called Myanmar Art Crossing, the vibrant art community in Myanmar begins to unfold. Each artist has a singular voice and contributes to defining what it means to be a Myanmar artist. Consider what each work

84 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Eikaza Cho, A Woman, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”

communicates about the artist’s relationship to community using styles and techniques from both Eastern and Western traditions. I see themes of freedom, remembrance, tradition, love, fear . . . universal human virtues and pitfalls. Myanmar Art Crossing debuted at Art Basel Miami and will tour around the country, including Freeman’s of Philadelphia March 9 to 14. For more information visit www.pallmallartadvisors.com.

Eikaza Cho, Family, Acrylic on canvas, 42” x 36”

Soe Naing, Group of Little Humans 2, Acrylic on canvas, 42” x 72”

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March 2015 | 85

1932–2012 ®

36” x 48” Above artists, left to right: Roland DelColape, Lauren Kussro, Francois Deschamps, Ana Serrano, Virginia Derryberry, Richard Painter, Simon Levy, Clive King, Teenie Harris

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86 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Entire month of March

Art in Formation Stirrings from the Nashville Underground

The author performing as Adventure Bomb at Betty’s Grill in 2011

by Tony Youngblood

very experimental musician has received some variation of the following feedback: “That wasn’t music. That was just noise.”

Let’s face it. There’s something about arrhythmic, experimental music that gets under people’s skin. Some say, “Eh, not for me.” But others go further and conclude, “Not for anyone.” If you like it, you’re fooling yourself or pretending. They frame their reaction in perceived objectivity, as if you just violated the Rules of Music etched on a golden scroll in the heavens. I have to admit, when watching musicians scrape guitar strings with a Dremel or perform forty minutes of radio static, even I am tempted to question their motives. But why?

In his book The Music Instinct, Phillip Ball argues that modern classical music (and by extension, experimental music) avoids patterns and therefore confounds the brain, which evolved to find order in chaos. According to Ball, that doesn’t make patternless music noise; it just requires more effort to appreciate.

Follow the Crowd, 26” x 40”

Hatch Show Print

Our brains construct models for how things should be, and when the boundaries are crossed, we experience cognitive dissonance. Experimental music attacks our identity. Rather than revise our models, we lash out at the art and question motives. Ironically, experts, who have the most heavily vested models, are often most incapable of appreciating cutting-edge art. This doesn’t mean that we should cheerfully accept every new work of art. Rather, we should remember that our opinions are inextricably tied to our experiences, frames, and genetic dispositions. So next time we’re presented with art that confounds us, instead of concluding that the artists are phonies, we should just take a step back and say, “Eh, not for me” (or even better, ponder why the work elicited such strong negative reactions), and then move on to something that does give us pleasure.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SCARPATI

For further reading on cognitive dissonance and musical theory, try Dan Simon and Christopher Chabris’ The Invisible Gorilla, Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, and The Music Instinct by Phillip Ball all available at the Nashville Public Library, local retailers, and online. 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.

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Critical i

David Kroll, Koi and Blue and White Vase, 2015, Oil on panel, 24” x 24”

RECENT PAINTINGS Robert Durham & David Kroll

by Joe Nolan

Cumberland Gallery • through April 4

t’s impossible to write about art you haven’t actually seen. You must stand in front of a work of art to understand it on its own terms—to even discern what those terms might be. Digital, online galleries or even press prints of pictures from a photography show can’t capture the texture, vibrancy, movement, mood, and overall gravitas of a present work of art, and the argument for viewing art in galleries is similar to the one you’ve heard for watching movies in a theater on a big screen. In other words, looking at an artist’s images on Facebook doesn’t mean you know a thing about their work.

88 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

That said, the shareable, high-definition images can catch the eye and whip up interest in a show through a well-timed press release, and that’s the case with a new exhibition of Bob Durham’s work at Cumberland Gallery—one that had yet to be installed when I wrote this month’s column. Durham’s show is paired with an exhibition of paintings by David Kroll, and the latter’s studied visuals are a nice foil for the former’s screwball narratives. Luckily, I’ve written about both of these artists before. What makes this pairing work is that both Kroll and Durham are meticulous painters. But where I get the sense that Kroll’s still-life subjects floating in black voids are chosen to highlight his technical ability as a painter, Durham seems to be winging it with the people, toys, costumes, settings, and perspectives he brings to his canvases. This freewheeling approach brings a surreal sensibility to the painter’s work as the viewer is never sure if they are looking at something romantic or satirical, heartbreaking or cruel—is this a dreamscape or nightmaresville?

David Kroll, Rabbit on Vase, 2015, Oil on linen, 32” x 28”

Kroll’s paintings present balanced compositions, fluid lines, and subtle, shimmering colors. He paints fish, birds, oriental ceramic bowls and vases, buds on branches, and spotlit spaces rescued from shadow. Kroll’s subjects are chosen for their decorative potential. The designs on the book spines in Books and Egg allow for gorgeous detailing, and the design on the titular vessel in Koi and Blue Bowl is rendered in the perfect shade of blue. It’s clear that Kroll gets obsessive about these details with the idea that viewers will be just as ardent in their examinations of these minute flourishes. David Kroll and Robert Durham is on view at Cumberland Gallery through April 4. For more about the exhibition and artists please visit www.cumberlandgallery.com.

Robert Durham, Appointment with Godot, 2014, Oil on linen, 50” x 40”

In the painter’s An Appointment with Godot, Durham paints his self-portrait sitting on a chair in f ront of a fireplace; an old-fashioned glass milk bottle sits on the mantel, and open cans of paint are stacked nearby. Durham turns his head to the viewer’s right as if reacting to his name being called. The fireplace setting sends up the idea of the portrait we hang over the mantle, and the subject’s “Who, me?” gesturing turns a tête-à-tête with the almighty into a child’s visit to the principal’s office—a pile of Durham’s canvases files into the fireplace as if the painter is anticipating a pyrrhic penance for his life’s work.

Robert Durham, Bad Egg (after school), 2015, Oil on linen, 24” x 32”

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March 2015 | 89

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TINA BARNE Y | THE EUROPEANS

Januar y 19 – May 10 Explore the visual richness of aristocratic living in this collection of photographs by Tina Barney which take us through her journey to the elite inner circles of Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Tina Barney: The Europeans was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

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F RIS T CE NT E R.ORG Tina Barney. The Brocade Walls, 2003. Chromogenic color print. Courtesy of the artist. © Tina Barney

Theatre “He’s smart, funny, brave, and generous, and working with him always means I have to up my game, because no one dedicates themselves to a role like Chip Arnold does.” — René Copeland

by Jim Reyland

otal transparenc y : I’ve never seen a production of Death of a Salesman. I know that sounds strange for a theatre guy, but the opportunity has never presented itself. That is until now. This month I will happily present myself at TPAC as the Nashville Rep stages the Arthur Miller classic, winner of the Pulitzer and the Tony for Best Play in 1949. And when the lights come up on this long-overdue theatrical experience, standing there among some of the finest actors Nashville has to offer will be Chip Arnold as Willy Loman.

If you asked Chip, he’d tell you he’s spent his whole life preparing to play Willy. A professional actor since 1970 and a graduate of Pepperdine with his BA in acting and MFA from U.N.C., Chip has studied and worked and earned every imaginable role in front of every conceivable audience.

Nashville’s Chip Arnold Set to Perform the Iconic Role of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman TPAC • March 14–28

92 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY SHANE BURKEEN

Chips with Everything!

Wes Brustad is the former producing Artistic Director of the Advent Theater, the first Equity professional theatre in Nashville, which Chip helped found. “I had the privilege of seeing Chip perform in a 10,000-seat venue midway in a pop concert as an adjunct to the music. I was scared to death for him . . . walking into that audience who wanted to rock, suddenly using only the spoken word to get their attention. He grabbed them by the throats. Every eye was fixed on him. For the next thirty minutes, there was no sound in that massive hall other than Chip’s voice. The ovation when he finished was enormous.” Chip went on to take a turn as artistic director of the Nightingale Theatre and wrote original plays and musicals for the company. On stage Chip has played Scrooge, Shakespeare, Huxley, Capulet, Finch, Keller, and Rothko, among others. (left) As Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman

PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRY BUTLER

As Mark Rothko in Red

At home, he takes out the garbage each and every time his wonderful wife, Kay, asks him to, but draws the line at making the bed.

As Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY MUTUL A

Chip is also award winning: a Best Actor by The Tennessean in 2011 and by the Scene in 2012, along with a few ADDYs, Tellys, and Asters. He’s worked with Sissy Spacek, Rip Torn, Jeff Bridges, Michael W. Smith, and Steven Curtis Chapman and is a terrible namedropper. He’s done voice-over work, audio books, has an original one-man show The Light of the World (the life of Jesus), recorded trailers, commercials, and narrations. He’s written screenplays and

As Scrooge in A Christmas Carol

PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRY BUTLER

Throughout his long career, Chip has developed a legion of artistic friends. René Copeland, producing artistic director at the Nashville Rep, has been collaborating with Chip for many seasons, helping him bang away at his personal bucket list of coveted roles. “One of the great joys of my line of work is that every once in a while you get to work with someone who becomes a true artistic partner. That’s what working with Chip Arnold has been like for me—a partnership that I thoroughly enjoy and which also makes me a better director.”

As Joe Keller in All My Sons

two novels, Hometown Favorite and his nonfiction book KABUL24.

So, as you can see, Chip Arnold has put in his ten thousand hours, and he stands ready for each and every opportunity that comes his way. Soon that will include the granddaddy of them all, Willy Loman. “While we all may dream of great personal achievements, we underestimate the significant accomplishment of getting up each day and putting one foot in front of the other as we search for those ‘diamonds’ in the dark jungle that provide us with a level of emotional and spiritual understanding,” says Chip Arnold. “That is a universal story with Willy Loman as ‘Everyman’ struggling to get though life on ‘a smile and a shoeshine.’ It is an honor for me to team up again with René Copeland and be a part of a cast and crew that will bring this great classic story to the stage.” NashvilleArts.com

More total transparency: Chip Arnold is a friend, and the same wonderful qualities that make him a great friend also make him a true and transformative actor. Beginning March 12 he will illuminate our lives as one of theatre’s greatest protagonists in a way as fresh as Miller would have dreamed, and you’ll all want to come see it with me. Death of a Salesman runs March 14–28 (previews March 12–13) at Johnson Theater at TPAC, 505 Deaderick. Tickets are available at www.NashvilleRep.org. Preview tickets are $25; regular run tickets start at $45. Jim Reyland’s STAND, starring Barr y Scott and Chip Ar nold and voted Best New Play by the Scene in 2013, returns to TPAC September 24–27, 2015, to kick off a national tour sponsored by HCA. www.writersstage.com March 2015 | 93

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The world’s greatest baritone premieres new music by Richard Danielpour, plus Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony.

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Plays Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 14 with the Nashville Symphony

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ART

SMART A MONTHLY GUIDE TO ART EDUCATION

STATE OF THE ARTS

by Jennifer Cole, Executive Director, Metro Nashville Arts Commission

PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP

hink back to the first time you went to the theater with your parents. I can remember the feel of the red velvet seats and the first sound of the orchestra warming up for the overture in Oklahoma. My childhood was peppered with dinner theater, and our annual summer car trip was a string of historic homes and museums. With my family, I learned that the flicker of lights in a theater means hush, the show is about to start and that red stanchions mean stand back at a museum. My parents were decidedly blue collar, but when we had money they made the time for us to discover things like the Denver Museum of Natural History, Gettysburg National Battlefield, and the touring production of Annie. My own children spend hours at the Frist Center and Fort Negley. They love the Ballet and Puppet Truck. They take music lessons and are frequent flyers at art camps. This cycle of parents coding children with a love and value for the arts is something many of us take for granted because it is so deeply engrained. But imagine wanting to attend the Symphony with your children but not having a car to get there or money to park. Imagine wanting to take your family to Cheekwood but not being able to read an English botanical marker or a museum guidebook. Imagine wanting to see La Bohème but not being able to afford childcare for your younger children. Eighty-seven percent of families in Metro Schools alone are eligible for free and reduced lunch. Twenty percent of our population lives below the poverty line. Many participate in community cultural happenings in their congregations or ethnic

Students from IT Creswell at the Nashville Ballet Nutcracker

communities, but many families simply lack the resources to connect with our vibrant arts ecosystem. Enter the ECON Club of Nashville. ECON was founded more than eighty years ago as a civic and business club and for decades has significantly supported Cheekwood and the Exchange Club Family Center with annual income from the Antiques & Garden Show. Last year, ECON embarked on a pilot to help connect low-income families with community cultural treasures. The Cultural Access Project (CAP) links community groups working with at-risk families and provides block grants to cover tickets, transportation, and child-care costs to attend our city’s nine largest cultural providers. Since November more than two hundred families from the Nashville AfterZone Alliance, St. Luke’s Community House, IT Creswell Arts Middle School, and the Oasis Center have attended half a dozen performances and exhibits. Anecdotally, it is working. One parent raves, “I love this program. It’s good for family time and to get my son interested in other things besides sports.” Another cheers, “Wonderful performance. Would love to attend more! Plus, looking for places for her to take lessons.” Cultural partners are learning new lessons about engaging at-risk families, and partner agencies are learning the tricks of convening busy families for cultural experiences. To stay the vibrant cultural community Nashville has become, we must do EVERYTHING we can to make sure that everyone has access to the same arts experiences. It is the right thing to do for families and the right thing to do for our community. But the work is hard and takes constant revision. Kudos to the ECON Club for leading this bold adventure and shaping a Nashville where all families can develop their own wonderful cultural language!

Litton Middle’s NAZA students attending The Outsiders as part of the CAP

For more information about CAP, please contact Molly Craig, molly@econclubnashville.org.

96 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES KEIGER by Cassie Stephens, Art Teacher, Johnson Elementary

PHOTOGRAPH BY JUAN PONT LEZICA

ou would think that looking at surrealistic art with children would make perfect sense as most of them live in the land of surrealism. “Look, Mrs. Stephens, I drew a self-portrait,” said one kindergartener, handing me a drawing of a purple poodle. “Wow! Look at you! A striking resemblance.” However, children are also very literal and their world is often black and white, hold the gray. Independently creating a landscape, children will often begin with a blue stripe at the top, green stripe at the bottom, and a bright-yellow corner sun. Because, well, that’s what a landscape looks like to the under-ten set. So showing children the surrealistic and imaginative world of Charles Keiger both piqued their playful minds and annoyed their analytical ones—which was wonderful because it got them asking questions. Here’s our third-grade interview with Charles Keiger. Johnson Elementary Students: Why are the background and floor the same? It looks like the people are on a stage. Is your painting like a play? Charles Keiger: I don’t see the paintings as illustrations for a play, but they are definitely theatrical. The stage-like setting, with the curtains, floors, and backdrops, helps to open up my imagination. A friend said recently, “Your paintings are like poetry and theatre on canvas.” I like that.

The Dreaming Cat, 2014, Oil on wood, 22” x 24”

CK: This is the question I am most often

asked and the one that can be difficult to explain. The short answer is, everywhere and everything. The long answer can get complicated and mysterious, but let’s see . . . I keep a journal where I sketch out ideas as they come to me; these are quick, small, thumbnail drawings. As I go about my day I might hear a phrase or see an object that will spark my

JES: Your paintings look very 3-D and realistic. But then you mixed everything up and got us confused. Why?

multiple paintings in the works, but for me it’s best to focus on one till it is complete. Each of my pictures has a specific mood or spirit, and if I stay immersed in that world for the duration, it makes for a better painting.

temperament and skills. If I am enjoying myself while painting and engaged as I create these scenes, then hopefully the viewer will also be intrigued. As an artist you want people to look, and this is my way of trying to hold your attention and thus, my own.

JES: I like to make a lot of things at once. Do you ever make a bunch of paintings all at the same time? CK: I know many artists that prefer to have

CK: “Mixing everything up” suits my

JES: You have so many ideas. Is it hard to think of these ideas? Where do your ideas come from?

imagination, and this gives me a starting point to build a picture. Then there are times when the painting I am working on will inspire ideas for the next one. I must admit, however, that some paintings I look at when completed and wonder, Where did that come from?

Roam, 2014, Oil on wood, 18” x 20” NashvilleArts.com

For a full transcript of my students’ interview with Charles Keiger, please visit my blog at cassiestephens.blogspot.com or nashvillearts.com. Charles Keiger will unveil an exhibit of his work at The Arts Company on May 2. To see more of his work, visit www.theartscompany.com. March 2015 | 97

ROBERT CHURCHWELL MUSEUM MAGNET Listen, Write, Create! by DeeGee Lester Phototography by Lauren Blake

estled in Nor th Nashville, Robert Churchwell Elementary Museum Magnet offers students and their parents a world beyond their neighborhood. Through partnerships with museums and non-profits, through active learning expeditions that go far beyond the traditional concept of “field trip,” through family expeditions offering the entire family an opportunity to explore together the rich heritage of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, the school challenges young students to expand their vision and to take the first early steps from student to scholar.

Reflecting the school’s unique concept, Museum Magnet Instructional Designer, Becky Verner, points with pride to the school’s new exhibit space. “The first of our three fall exhibits, Robert Churchwell, the Jackie Robinson of Journalism, offered students an opportunity to learn about and take pride in the legacy of the man for whom their school is named,” says Verner. Launching the 2015 exhibit series is the program Listen, Write, Create: The Artistic Process of Omari Booker. For the fifteen third-grade boys in the school’s only pilot single-gender classroom, the appearance in class of the 6’9” Omari Booker no doubt sparked visions of future careers in professional sports. But Booker, a former Belmont University basketball player and a graduate of Tennessee State University, invited them to

“dream bigger,” to “have a backup plan” if their dreams of athletic stardom don’t pan out, and to start the process of creating ME.

Booker’s program worked hand-in-hand with classroom teacher Jesse Neugebauer’s efforts for these third-grade boys. “Many of them have no male role model in the home,” Neugebauer says. “For many of these boys, they are the ‘man of the house.’ They feel the pressure of proving themselves. It’s natural for kids to want to prove themselves the fastest, the strongest, but it’s more so for these kids. “We are invested in giving them an opportunity to see themselves differently. Throughout the year, we have talked about being gentlemen and what it means to be kind and reflective,” Neugebauer says.

That notion of seeing themselves in new ways fits perfectly with Booker’s intentional method of taking the students through the process of creating a work of art. The result was four interpretive panels created by the boys that accompany Booker’s art exhibit in the school’s gallery space. The first step in the process involved listening to music—Mar vin Gaye ’s “What’s Goin’ On” and the song “Four Women”—the 90s version by hip-hop artist Talib Kweli and the 60s version by Nina Simone. The art of listening to and being inspired by a piece of music and the art of expressing, verbally and in writing, their own thoughts and personal stories slowly emerged as part of the process for creating something tangible and authentic. Third-grade boys did not suddenly break out of childhood or emerge as creative geniuses. “It’s too soon to tell [the long-term effects on the boys],” Neugebauer says. “But it was fun for them. [Booker] engaged them, and they looked forward to being with him. Some of them are good artists but don’t see themselves yet as artists.” Moving beyond the creation of a work of art, Booker and Neugebauer want to give the boys a strong sense of self. “You’re less likely to act out if you believe you’re worth something,” Booker points out. Please visit www.nashvillearts.com to read DeeGee Lester’s full story on Omari Booker’s program with Robert Churchwell Elementary Museum Magnet.

98 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

RING OF FIRE

WALKING THE TIGHTROPE

Ensworth High School Theater • March 5, 6 & 7

TPAC • March 5 • Free Performance

The show features several elaborate sets, including one depicting the Grand Ole Opry, and screen projections show images of everything f ro m a f l o o d o n C a s h’s boyhood Arkansas farm to the trains he wrote about. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s images appear on a screen as their songs are performed. The original Broadway show was conceived by William Meade and created by Richard Maltby, Jr. Donnie Bryan, Department Chair for Visual and Performing Arts at Ensworth, worked very closely with Theatrical Rights Worldwide in New York to create this first-ever high school version of the show. Performances of Ring of Fire – The Music of Johnny Cash are set for March 5, 6, and 7 at 7 p.m. at the Ensworth Theater on the High School Campus. For more information, visit www.ensworth.com.

Micaela Martinez and Shelly Kurtz find their footing in Walking the Tightrope

PHOTOGRAPH BY COOPER BATES

ing of Fire – The Music of Johnny Cash, a review-style musical, tells the story of the legendary musician through the lyrics of his songs. Eight gifted Ensworth vocalists lead a cast of over 30 student actors, dancers, and musicians in a variety of large production numbers to tunes such as “Get Rhythm,” “Hey Porter,” and some of the artist’s prison songs. Johnny Cash’s granddaughter, AnnaBelle Cash, an eighth-grade student at Ensworth, performs in a couple of scenes.

he critically acclaimed play Walking the Tightrope by Mike Kenny tells the story of a grandfather who struggles to explain the absence of “Nanna” to his visiting granddaughter. With humor and help from a clown, they discover the meaning of family—celebrating life and learning to accept death. Scenic video and live music transport the audience from the quaint English seaside to the spectacular big-top of the circus. Presented in partnership with Vanderbilt University, the free performance is both an extension of TPAC’s education programming and its popular lunchbox series for adults.

“This particular production is just as relevant—if not more so—to adults, who will experience it from a totally different perspective than young people. It’s powerful for any age—poignant, meaningful, and relevant to our lives,” said Kristin Dare-Horsley, TPAC’s director of education outreach. Walking the Tightrope takes place on Thursday, March 5, at 6 p.m. in TPAC’s James K. Polk Theater. Light refreshments will be served in the lobby prior to the one-hour show, which will be followed by a discussion between the audience and artists. Advance reservations are required for the free tickets. For more information, visit www.tpac.org.

THE ADVENTURES OF YOUNG AMADEUS Schermerhorn Symphony Center • March 21

olfgang Amadeus Mozart is a shining example of the amazing things young people can do. The boy genius wrote his first composition at age 5, played for kings and queens as a youngster, and ultimately became one of the most prodigious and popular composers of all time. The Nashville Symphony, led by Conductor Vinay Parameswaran, is partnering with the Street Theatre Company to bring the amazing young composer’s musical adventures to life. With selections such as “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” and “The Marriage of Figaro,” The Adventures of Young Amadeus is sure to delight youngsters and parents alike.

Part of the Pied Piper Children’s Series, The Adventures of Young Amadeus is slated for 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 21. Starting at 10 a.m., attendees can enjoy free, family-friendly, pre-concert activities, including crafts, a story nook, and the symphony’s interactive Instrument Petting Zoo. Group discounts are available. For more information, visit www.nashvillesymphony.org.

NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 99

ON THE HORIZON HENDERSONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL STUDIO ARTISTS by Rebecca Pierce | Photography by Tamara Reynolds

“I believe every child can be taught to love art. My philosophy has always been to teach and treat my students the way you would want your own children to be taught and treated. I teach basically from the right-brain concept students can learn to draw, once they learn to see,” Hendersonville High School art teacher Sandy Kandros told us when explaining her approach after 44 years of teaching. This month, Nashville Arts Magazine presents four of Ms. Kandros’s star seniors. “I chose these girls because each one of them has been very committed to doing their best when they start a piece of work. They all intend to go into some art field when they graduate, and all have been award winners for the past several years in different competitions held around Middle Tennessee.”

CHASMIN FOSTER

Looks Good Enough to Eat, 2014, Acrylic on poster board, 16” x 20”

From realistic renderings of the human form to character studies and cartoons, Chasmin has developed an impressive range, which she hopes to translate into animation. Though her talent appears natural, she works diligently and with determination. “I draw on a daily basis. I draw during class. I draw when I get home. I draw in the mornings. I don’t paint as much, but I draw all the time. I’m trying to learn all the muscles in the body to get the figure right, so I am really enjoying that and seeing the movement of the body.”

Initially, comic books sparked her interest in drawing. When she was in middle school, she made weekly trips to The Great Escape to load up. Then she would try to draw like the artists in the comic books. “I really wanted to be a comic book artist. That was my dream at first. I took it seriously. I would wake up and get a comic book, and say, I’m going to draw that.”

In time she grew bored with comics and began to look for other subject matter. She started taking art classes, experimenting with other mediums, digital media, and animation. Her efforts have garnered a pair of gold awards in the Scholastic Competition, among others. Chasmin serves as president of the school’s chapter of the National Art Honor Society, coordinating field trips to art exhibitions and facilitating competitions and conversations with other chapters throughout the country.

Chasmin hasn’t decided on a college yet, but she will attend a summer program in animation at The Art Institute.

CARRIGAN ROBICHAUD

Carrigan plans to attend Lipscomb University this fall where she intends to major in art therapy and education. Her decision to study art therapy was born from personal experience during some difficult times in sophomore year. “It was just a mess, and so going into art class was literally therapy for me. It made me focus because I didn’t want to talk to other people. I just wanted to concentrate on making art,” she explained. Carrigan is also interested in teaching children in high-poverty areas, which is why she has chosen the double major. Winning two third-place awards in the school art show that year validated her efforts and prompted her to consider art more seriously. She won two first-place awards in junior year, and a gold and an honorable mention in the most recent competition, which has further strengthened her resolve to pursue art as a career path. Carrigan’s concentration in Advanced Placement Art is titled Innocence, which started with the painting of the same title shown here. “I can make creative things come from the word innocence, from this girl to the innocent victims in the Boston bombings. There are so many subjects that I can cover with that theme, and I want to touch on as many aspects as I can.” Carrigan is passionate not only about her art, pursuing art therapy, and giving to those less fortunate. S he is invol ved in student government, yearbook, the outdoor c l u b, a n d a t l e a s t a half-dozen other clubs.

100 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Innocence, 2014, Oil on canvas, 24” x 24”

RACHEL MCCABE Rachel McCabe is a very high-energy person. “I have to keep myself busy. Life’s too short,” she says. In addition to studio art, she writes songs, plays piano and guitar, and writes and produces short films with friends after school. She loves going to museums and galleries. Her plans for the future are equally high octane. “I have plans to go to college, but I am not quite sure where. I was recently accepted at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), but I don’t know if it is the school for me. I don’t want to major in just art; I want to major in film as well, because I want to be a director in Hollywood. I hope to eventually get my PhD in Psychology . . . because I like being able to help solve problems and figure out why there are problems in the first place. Rachel has been making art for as long as she can remember, drawing on her mother’s walls as a child, selling her drawings in middle school, and basically just having fun with it. “Originally I was just taking classes because it was something I loved, but it became part of who I am, and it just stayed with me.”

Hidden Behind the Veil, 2014, mixed media (newspaper, acrylic on cardboard) 18” x 22”

Like her classmates, Rachel has won a number of awards for her artwork. As a junior she entered the Scholastic Competition for the first time and won an award for all four pieces she entered, including a gold. This year she won a gold, a silver, and two honorable mentions.

MADISON TROTMAN Growing up, Madison drew and painted for fun, but she had plans to go into medicine. She took Art I to fulfill her art requirement. She took Art II because she needed additional course credits and enjoyed it so much that she attended Governor’s School. By the end of Governor’s School, medicine had taken a back seat to art. Madison’s focus in Advance P lacement Ar t is self-empowerment. She elaborates: “I am tr ying to depict different aspects of finding yourself and becoming stronger in who you are. I plan to show what it looks like when you are not self-empowered, before you actually find yourself, and how you develop when you’ve become empowered and confident in yourself.” Madison would like to find her voice in her work so she can use it to help people. She attended a pre-college program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) last summer. For one assignment she

Neverland, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 36”

and her classmates took photographs around Baltimore where she saw a wall of graffiti art illustrating the number of homeless people in the city. “I was amazed. It makes you think. It makes people think about the people around them, and what they are going through.” Madison has won a number of awards in school, countywide, and Scholastic Art competitions. Neverland, shown here, won a gold this year. Madison hasn’t committed to a college yet, but she’s been accepted to several art schools. She plans to double major in arts and humanities. NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 101

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In the Garden Join Us for Our

Celebrating Women’s History Month at the Customs House Museum

March 11—May 10, 2015

AND

Women Writers’ Hour Tuesday, March 31st 6:00—7:30 pm

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Modular Art Pods event

SEE ART SEE ART SEE

Kat Jovey – Sherrick & Paul

Seed Space

Jana Harper, Asma Kazmi – CG2

Elizabeth Ross, Michael Ross, Dan Daley – David Lusk Gallery

Daniel Carr, Trey Miller – David Lusk Gallery

Michael Grine – The Arts Company

104 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

The Arts Company

Parthenia Fayne – The Arts Company

Modular Art Pods event

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Mark Hosford, Alex Blau – CG2

Martica Griffin, Tom and LaVoe Mulgrew – Tinney Contemporary

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March 2015 | 105

Arts Worth Watching March is a month of music programming on NPT, from Broadway classics to classic rock to classical. We’ll also bring you a concert recorded here in Music City and transport you to Europe for music and sightseeing.

ON STAGE

EUROPEAN EXPLORATIONS

“Right here on our stage” was Ed Sullivan’s catchphrase as he introduced legions of famous singers, dancers, and other entertainers on his weekly variety show. Great Broadway Musical Moments G reat Broadway Musical From The Ed Sullivan Show (My Moments from the Ed Music) includes Richard Burton and Sullivan Show, airing Julie Andrews performing a duet 7 p.m., Saturday, March 14, from the stage classic Camelot highlights performances of songs from beloved musicals. Hosted by Broadway legend S hir le y Jones, this My Music program includes Julie Andrews performing “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” from My Fair Lady and “What Do the Simple Folk Do” f rom Camelot with Richard Burton. Reminiscences by musical powerhouses Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, John Raitt (Oklahoma) and others round out the show.

Combining music and scenery, Zoltan Maga: From Budapest With Love premieres Sunday, March 8, at 7 p.m. Violin virtuoso Maga will be joined by the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble, tenor Saimir Pirgu, and sopranos Valentina Nafornita and Natalia Ushakova. The program also includes views of Budapest’s historic landmarks and a nighttime cruise down the Danube.

On Friday, March 27, at 8 p.m., Great Performances features Mark Morris Dance Group: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, hosted by dance legend Mikhail Baryshnikov. The award-winning modern dance piece premiered in 1988 and is set to music by George Frideric Handel and words by John Milton; the sets were inspired by William Blake’s watercolors. This revival staging was filmed in Spain last summer.

Rick Steves’ Dynamic Europe, premiering Sunday, March 1, at 4 p.m.—with an encore Friday, March 13, at 8 p.m.—is a new special focusing on three European capitals. Steves shares his insights on art, culture, and history, along with practical travel advice while exploring Prague, Amsterdam, and Berlin.

MUSIC CITY TIES

This month’s musical offerings include two programs with local ties. On Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m., the “rock stars of bluegrass” are joined by their ten-piece band and a full orchestra for a mix of original material, Statler Brothers covers, and patriotic songs in Dailey & Vincent-Alive! Nashville dobro master Jerr y Douglas and fiddle virtuoso Aly Bain perform with f riends from both sides of the Aoife O’Donovan, Julie Fowlis, Karen Atlantic in Transatlantic Matheson and Mary Chapin Carpenter, Sessions. Airing at 9 p.m. guest artists on Transatlantic Sessions Thursday, March 5, the show features Alison Krauss, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Béla Fleck, and James Taylor.

MORE MUSIC

On Wednesday, March 4, at 7 p.m., Elvis: Return to Tupelo, a film narrated by Kris Kristofferson, takes viewers to the place where Elvis spent his early childhood years. The film uses Depression-era footage, rare photographs, audio recordings, and interviews to tell the story of Tupelo, Mississippi, and its famous son. Celebrate ten years of performances with Celtic Woman Fan Favorites, airing on NPT Wednesday, March 11, at 8:30 p.m. The next night, Thursday, March 12, at 8 p.m., catch Great Performances: Bryan Adams in Concert, filmed during the Canadian rocker’s current world tour. On Wednesday, March 18, at 7 p.m., the music continues with Justin Hayward: Spirits…Live featuring the Moody Blues’ lead singer and guitarist. The intimate concert was recorded at Atlanta’s Buckhead Theatre and includes Moody Blues classics “Tuesday Afternoon” and “Nights in White Satin” along with Hayward’s solo work. Mark Morris Dance Group performing L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato on Great Performances

We hope you’ll spring into action and support quality public television this March. Go to wnpt.org and click on the “donate” button—or call and make a pledge during our on-air pledge specials.

106 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Weekend Schedule Saturday 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

am Martha Speaks Angelina Ballerina Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Sesame Street Dinosaur Train Sewing with Nancy Sew It All Garden Smart Growing a Greener World Simply Ming Cook’s Country noon America’s Test Kitchen pm Victory Garden Edible Feast Mind of a Chef Martha Bakes Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Woodsmith Shop American Woodshop Woodwright’s Shop This Old House Ask This Old House Hometime PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Tennessee’s Wild Side

THIS MONTH

March 2015

Nashville Public Television

Sunday 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 2:00 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00 6:30

am Sid the Science Kid Peg + Cat Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Word World Sesame Street Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads Nature Washington Week with Gwen Ifill noon To the Contrary pm The McLaughlin Group My Wild Affair Globe Trekker California’s Gold Wild Photo Adventures America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Charlie Rose: The Week

Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies This six-hour series combines a sweeping historical narrative with the stories of contemporary patients. Series Premieres Monday, March 30 8:00 pm

#cancerfilm

Daytime Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00

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

Nashville Public Television

Midsomer Murders John Nettles is DCI Tom Barnaby in this popular mystery series set in quirky Midsomer County. Thursdays beginning March 26 9:00 pm

Call the Midwife The nurses of Nonnatus House face more personal and professional challenges as the fourth season gets underway. #callthemidwife Sunday nights beginning March 29 7:00 pm

wnpt.org

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Des Moines, Hour 2. 8:00 Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop (My Music) 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine A Double for Howard. 11:00 Pasquale Esposito Celebrates Enrico Caruso Esposito’s stunning concert tribute to Caruso, the first classical crossover artist, augmented by travel footage of Caruso’s Naples, Sorrento and the U.S.

7:00 Zoltan Maga: From Budapest with Love The Hungarian violin virtuoso and guests perform waltzes, arias and light classical pieces. 8:30 Mr. Selfridge: A Celebration Behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, a look back at the first two season and a preview of Season 3. 10:00 This Is Your Do-Over with Dr. Michael Roizen 11:30 This Is Your Do-Over with Dr. Michael Roizen

7:00 My Yearbook 1960-1963 Pop crooner Bobby Vinson hosts this My Music special. 9:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonder-White Combating the physical signs and consequences of aging. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Dr. Christiane Northrup Seven steps every woman should take in her journey to getting older.

6:30 Great British Baking Show Final. 8:00 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5, Episode 9. The Crawleys go to a shooting party at a castle, then return to Downton for Christmas. 10:00 Healing ADD with Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen, R.N. Husband-and-wife psychiatrist and nurse treat ADD patients.

Tuesday

7:00 The Manners of Downton Abbey A Masterpiece special hosted by Alistair Bruce. 8:30 Brit Floyd: Live at Red Rocks Pink Floyd tribute band in concert. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine How to Create a Monster. 11:00 The Bala Brothers Three South African brothers perform with a chamber orchestra, five-piece band and choir.

7:00 Dailey & Vincent – Alive! Multi-Grammy-nominated Dailey & Vincent backed by their 10-piece band and a full orchestra. 8:30 John Denver: Country Boy An intimate portrait marking the 70th birthday of “America’s Everyman.” 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 My Yearbook 1960-1963

James Baker: The Man Who Made Washington Work Tuesday, March 24 7:30 pm

Monday

The Jewish Journey – America Sunday, March 15 8:30 pm

Sunday

Primetime Evening Schedule

March 2015

11 7:00 Alone in the Wilderness A day-to-day account of living alone in the Alaskan Wilderness. 8:30 Celtic Woman Fan Favorites A celebration of 10 years of Celtic Woman with performance clips from concerts around the world. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Soundstage: Blues Summit in Chicago - 1974

7:00 Elvis: Return to Tupelo From Elvis’ difficult childhood to his triumphant 1956 homecoming concert. 8:30 Joe Bonamassa: Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks The guitarist performs a tribute to bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 John Denver: Country Boy

Wednesday

Friday

12 7:00 Memories of Sulphur Dell A look at Nashville’s former ballpark. 8:00 Great Performances: Bryan Adams in Concert Filmed during the Canadian rocker’s current world tour. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine According to the Prophet Bickerdyke. 11:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonder-White

7:00 Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop (My Music) Hosts are Pat Boone, Phyllis McGuire and Nick Clooney. 9:00 Transatlantic Sessions Jerry Douglas and fiddle virtuoso Aly Bain w/guests Alison Krauss, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bela Fleck and James Taylor. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5, Episode 9.

13 7:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonder-White 8:00 Rick Steves’ Dynamic Europe The travel guru visits European capitals Amsterdam, Prague and Berlin in this new special. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Next Kiss Please. 11:00 Dr. Christiane Northrup

7:00 Motown 25 (My Music Presents) Hosted by legendary comedian Richard Pryor with reunions of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Four Tops and more. 8:30 Elvis: Return to Tupelo 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop (My Music) Hits from the era of poodle skirts and penny loafers.

Twice Born – Stories from the Special Delivery Unit Tuesday, March 31 7:00 pm

Thursday

7:00 Great Broadway Musical Moments from the Ed Sullivan Show (My Music) Broadway legend Shirley Jones hosts this collection of performance clips of Julie Andrews, John Raitt, Dick Van Dyke, Ethyl Merman and others. 8:30 Celtic Woman Fan Favorites 10:00 Great Performances: Bryan Adams in Concert

7:00 Lawrence Welk’s TV Treasures A documentary featuring interviews and rarely seen footage of Welk’s Musical Family. 9:00 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5, Episode 9. 11:00 Joe Bonamassa: Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks A tribute to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.

Great Performances Bryan Adams in Concert Thursday, March 12 8:00 pm

Saturday

Nashville Public Television

wnpt.org

7:00 Call the Midwife A new nurse arrives and Sister Evangelina finally agrees to undergo tests for her abdominal pain. 8:00 Mr. Selfridge on Masterpiece Season 3 begins in 1919 with Harry and his family trying to move on after Rose’s death; Henri returns from the Great War. 10:00 Aging Matters: Economics of Aging 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show

7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 Aging Matters: End of Life A look at the complicated experience of dying through personal stories of families, along with interviews with scholars, doctors and medical ethicists. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show

7:00 Foyle’s War Revisited John Mahoney (Frasier) hosts this behind-thescenes look at the popular series. 8:30 The Jewish Journey – America The three-part story of Jewish life in the old country, the reasons for leaving and the establishment of successful communities in the U.S. 10:00 Great Performances: Bryan Adams in Concert

30 7:00 Twice Born – Stories from the Special Delivery Unit Innovative fetal surgeries for tumor and spinal issues. 8:00 Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies The Blind Men and the Elephant. President Nixon’s 1971 “war on cancer”; the discovery of the genetic basis for cancer. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 The Charles W. Morgan

2 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jewel in the Crown The Day of the Scorpion. 9:00 Midsomer Murders Garden of Death, Part 2. The murders pile up in Midsomer Deverell pending the demolition of a memorial garden. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Pony Set. 11:00 Southern Belle The 1861 Athenaeum Girls’ School in Columbia, Tennessee.

1 APRIL

7:00 NOVA Alien Planets Revealed. How NASA’s Kepler telescope looks for planets. 8:00 Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies Finding the Achilles Heel. The complexity of the cancer cell; a NASCAR mechanic and a 6-year-old receive pioneering immunotherapy treatments. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits

7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jewel in the Crown Daughters of the Regiment. 9:00 Midsomer Murders Garden of Death, Part 1. Razing a memorial garden for a tea shop has dire consequences for the Inkpen family. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Perfection the Name Is Ridley. 11:00 What’s Cookin’ in China?

7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Beware of the Oglethorpe. 11:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonder-White Combating the physical signs and consequences of aging.

7:00 Nature Ireland’s Wild River. 8:00 NOVA The Bible’s Buried Secrets. Literary detective work and archaeological excavations reveal new details about the ancient Israelites, the evolution of their monotheistic beliefs, and the creation of the Bible. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Tim McGraw.

7:00 NPT Favorites 8:30 Justin Hayward: Spirits…Live! A solo performance by the Moody Blues vocalist and guitarist filmed at Atlanta’s Buckhead Theater. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Love Mobile. 11:00 Austin City Limits The Civil Wars/Punch Brothers.

7:00 Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Café Blues veteran Bobby Rush and the North Mississippi All-Stars; John Fullbright and Sarah Jarosz 8:00 Live from Lincoln Center Kinky Boots. 9:00 Great Performances Annie Lennox: Nostalgia Live in Concert. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center The Fray.

7:00 Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Café The Jonathan Scales Fourchestra, Leftover Salmon, Daniel Romano, singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson. 8:00 Great Performances L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato. Mikhail Baryshnikov hosts the Mark Morris Dance Company. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center

7:00 NPT Favorites 8:00 180 Days: Hartsville The challenges and triumphs of a rural South Carolina town trying to educate its youth. 9:00 180 Days: Hartsville 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Tarzan of the Tow Path. 11:00 Transatlantic Sessions Jerry Douglas, Aly Bain and friends.

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

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Birmingham, Hour 1. 8:00 Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies Magic Bullets. The centuries-old search for a cancer cure told through the work of chemotherapy pioneer Sidney Farber, and a modern-day toddler cancer patient. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Truly and the Hole Truth. 11:00 Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go to War

7:00 PBS Drama Preview A look at what’s coming up this spring. 7:30 James Baker: The Man Who Made Washington Work A profile of James A. Baker III, whose career includes posts as secretary of state, secretary of the treasury and White House chief of staff. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Bismarck, Hour 3. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Billings, Hour 2. 9:00 Independent Lens Little White Lie. Lacey Schwartz learns the man she thought was her father was not her biological parent. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Oh Howard We Should Get One of Those. 11:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonder-White

7:00 Transatlantic Sessions 8:00 American Masters Harper Lee: Hey Boo A portrait of the author, who this summer will release a novel 55 years after her iconic To Kill a Mockingbird. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine This Side Car Names Desire. 11:00 Effortless Healing with Dr. Joseph Mercola Tips from a leading natural-health proponent.

7:00 Antiques Roadshow Des Moines, Hour 3. 8:30 Great Broadway Musical Moments from the Ed Sullivan Show (My Music) 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Destiny and Six Bananas. 11:00 The Music of Northern Ireland with Eamonn McCrystal From Belfast’s historic Grand Opera House and featuring pop tenor McCrystal and guests.

Nashville Public Television

7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Salute to Sinatra. 8:00 Keeping Appearances The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket. 8:30 NPT Favorites 11:00 Globetrekker Around the World – Pacific Journeys: Tonga to New Caledonia. Jay makes stops in the independent Kingdom of Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia.

7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Music, Music, Music. 8:00 Keeping Appearances The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket. 8:30 NPT Favorites 11:00 Globetrekker Around the World – Pacific Journeys: Santiago to Pitcairn. Jay starts in Santiago de Chile and visits Easter Island and Tahiti en route to Pitcairn Island.

7:00 Lawrence Welk Show 200 Years of American Music, Part 2. 8:00 Keeping Appearances The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket. 8:30 Foyle’s War Revisited 10:00 NPT Favorites 11:00 Globetrekker Around the World – Panamericana: Conquistadors & Incas. Brianna’s visit to Peru takes her to Cajamarca, Lima and the El Misti volcano.

Town

the

WITH EMME by Emme Nelson Baxter

Emme is a seventh-generation Nashvillian and an owner of Boulevard Communications, LLC

la bella notte

ama Mia! January can be tough in Nashville.

Martin McNamara, Anne Marie McNamara, Betsy Wills, Ridley Wills

PHOTOGRAPH BY REED HUMMELL

PHOTOGRAPH BY TIFFANI BING

Paint

Thankfully, two bright social events helped stave off the seasonal doldrums that give our faces the cold and weary looks of unmade beds. Nashville Opera’s La Bella Notte and the 2015 Antiques & Garden Show brought back the joy, buzz, and lilt to voices of those who attended.

The main party—which benefits Nashville Opera’s education programs—took place the following Saturday at the Downtown Hilton and included a silent auction and four-course dinner with appropriate South American wine pairings. Between courses, guests

Vocalists Andrew Gangestad, bass; Elizabeth Caballero, soprano; and Keith Miller, bass–baritone

Cameron and Dave Simmons

PHOTOGRAPH BY REED HUMMELL

Corrick Jones and Carol Hoomes

Sherry Hooten with La Bella Notte Chairman Kathleen Evers

Honorary Chairmen Anne Marie and Martin McNamara

enjoyed songs by artists Zulimar López-Hernández, Kirstin C havez, Javier Abreu, and Michael Corvino—accompanied by Amy Tate Williams. One highlight: Delibes’ “Sous le Dome” aka “Flower Duet,” which you’ll surely recognize f rom a British Air ways commercial. People gush over this event. Many have attended for years. And ever yone knows that—like Bluebird Gary and Eleanor Parks Café—if you chat during a performance, you’ll be summarily shushed. Opera chief John Hoomes emceed. Appropriately, Helen Brown received the Francis Robinson Award.

Scott and Lee Ann Merrick

Francis Robinson Award Winner Helen Brown

110 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

Event Chairman Kathleen Evers’ whimsical Carnaval theme brought a color explosion. Her hard-working volunteer decorations team fashioned towering paper flower centerpieces for each of the thirty-two tables. A fab look for a zesty party.

Principal photography by Tiffani Bing

Betsy and Ridley Wills hosted La Bella Notte patrons at their exquisite home on January 10. It was a family affair as Betsy’s John Bridges and Emily Frith parents, Anne Marie and Martin McNamara, were La Bella Notte’s honorary chairmen. The night featured vittles, vocal performances, and saucy Latin dancing—a nod to the event’s Carnaval theme.

A & G 2015

&G 2015 brought Diane Keaton to Nashville for the first time. And she wanted to take home Union Station as a souvenir. “I want to buy your train station!” she averred numerous times to an adoring 1,892 fans attending her Friday keynote speech at the Music City Center. The actress and architecture buff also raved about the treasures offered by vendors at the 25 th annual Antiques & Garden Show of Nashville. She had toured the show prior to its opening on Thursday afternoon and had wanted to purchase an enormous black clock, but alas, her designer scooped it up for himself. Those Californians!

Elizabeth Brodnax, Bob Deal, Theresa Menefee and Jason Bradshaw

A & G Chairmen Kae Gallagher and Julie Fleming

In her characteristic hat and tweed suit, DK charmed the group, sharing insight on the thirty homes she has rented or owned in her lifetime. Post lecture, she signed books for more than two hours.

Nick Maynard and Phillipe Chadwick

Later that evening, a hundred folks gathered at McKesson, Elizabeth Foss Peter Nappi for a private Kip and Farrar Looney reception and photo op with DK. Dana and Phillip Nappi were charming hosts. Mixing

Veranda Interiors Editor Carolyn Englefield signs books

Brad Wensel and Jane Sloan

Helli Luck and Jackie Hicks

Allen DeCuyper and Steve Sirls

Kelley Estes with Martin and Cathy Brown

it up with avid A&G benefactors and executors—Connie and Tom Cigarran, Debbie and Buddy Best, Dana Miller, Kate and Steven Ezell, Libby and Ben Page, Tori Wimberly, Nancy Deaton, Stephen Wells, Janette and Andy Smith—were a few celebs, including Jessie Baylin and Nathan Followill, Connie Britton, designer Alexa Hampton, and magazine maven Margot Shaw. The evening prior, some 1,200 guests congregated at benefactors and patrons preview parties at the MCC where they got dibs on the goods from the 200 or so vendors. Chairmen Julie Fleming and Kae Gallagher were all smiles all weekend, savoring the results of their fourteen-month-long volunteer engagement where they planned, executed, and managed a committee of more than 200 diehard volunteers. The result: record-setting Cathy Shell, Kate Ezell, Betty attendance of almost Hadley and Connie Cigarran 16,000 for the show, its parties, and lectures. The show benefits Cheekwood and ECON Club charities.

Ashley Sullivan, Elaine Sullivan and Flower magazine Editor Margot Shaw NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 111

Appraise It

Shell Cameos “Sentimental” Favorites

Shell cameos are sentimental favorites; however, the cameo’s significant history and importance in the world as an adornment and collectible revolve around the centuries-old skillful use of stone, not shell.

The art form, popular since antiquity, has historically favored the use of a wide range of gemstones and other hardstones. Shell, while easier to carve, offered the carver only two calcified layers to explore and never achieved the same prestige as hardstones.

The faces of cameos have been present for hundreds of years, dimensional adornments pinned to necklines, lapels, and waistcoats. In 334 BC, the Hellenistic Greeks were the first to excel at carving small hard stones in relief. The favored images were those of deities or other talismanic signifiers. Typically mounted in gold and often set in rings, the adornments attained a cultic significance in classical antiquity. Roman wearers used cameos to advertise their taste and wealth and to profess their devotion to gods or political forces. Each succeeding age followed suit. Medieval cameos venerated religious subjects; sixteenth-century gem carvers devoted themselves to classical subject matter found in the natural world, and later baroque cameos favored vigorous muscular forms, and so on.

The trend for (sea) shell cameos began in the mid-nineteenth century. Mass produced, they were sought after as an inexpensive souvenir from a European “Grand Tour” and later by servicemen stationed in Italy during WWII. For about a hundred years, 1840–1940, the shell cameo was the must-have piece of jewelry.

The motifs of this period, in addition to the classical subjects, depicted Victorian-styled goddesses and well-known personages of the time. These cameos were often sold unmounted, left to the purchaser to have them set in gold or gold-filled mounts upon their return home.

On today’s market, with so many shell cameos in circulation, the factors that would set one apart from the rest would be: crisp detail, a wonderfully imaginative motif, historic significance, or a fancy gem-set, precious-metal setting. A fabulous example of the extraordinary is the circa 1835 helmet-conch-shell cameo of Andrew Jackson by American carver George Jamison. It is held in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Images of this exquisite cameo can be found at www.metmuseum.org. Back in the league of “sentimental” value, each of the shell cameo adornments pictured here would have a retail replacement value of less than $100.

Two pins and a bracelet (beige and white cameo shell)

PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP

ach summer more than sixty Antiques Roadshow appraisers, in two dozen areas of expertise, get the opportunity to examine more than 60,000 antiques and collectibles. Among the dozen or more types of objects most frequently seen are kitchen clocks, vintage sewing machines, bibles, rocking chairs, open-face pocket watches, arrowheads, and shell cameos.

112 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

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.

Beyond Words

Historic Downtown Franklin

First car, first love . . .

Friday, March 6, 6-9 p.m.

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

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

emember your first car? The first one you ever bought with your own money? In 1973, I forked out two hundred dollars for a 1960 Ford Galaxie. It was white with red interior. I bought it from a Church of Christ lady who had only driven it to church. After a while, it became known as Whitetrash. I drove Whitetrash uninsured for ten years, and, other than an occasional oil change, it required no maintenance during that time. PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY SCARLATI

& The Factory

by Marshall Chapman

Whitetrash and I never made it to church, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have our share of religious experiences. Like the time Willie Nelson took a nap in the front seat while I was driving us back from a recording session in Goodlettsville. Or the time Cowboy Jack Clement tried to dismantle the interior while I was driving us to Hendersonville for fried catfish. Then there was the time Ian Tyson and I got pulled over by the cops. We were driving a carload of revelers down Belmont Boulevard after a party at Chuck and Beth Flood’s house. I say “we,” as Tyson was driving and I was sitting in his lap. A paddy wagon was summoned. As it turned out, no one was arrested because no one could figure out who was actually driving. My, how times have changed. I now drive a Prius. It’s insured and has a warranty. It gets great gas mileage. It belonged to my mother. After she died last October, my sisters thought I should have it. So I drove my old gas-guzzling Land Rover to Spartanburg to trade out. I’d driven that Land Rover for nearly twenty years. Great car. Selling it was tough. I cried like a baby after signing over the title. But once I realized how much the Prius was saving me in gas—over two hundred dollars a month—my grief subsided. What is it about cars? They’re intimate. People will talk about things in a car they’d never discuss while sitting at home. They’re also sexy. Remember the first time you put your foot to an accelerator and felt that power? I have loved all my cars with a passion. But there’s nothing like that first love. www.tallgirl.com

NashvilleArts.com

March 2015 | 113

My Favorite Painting

Pamella Khazideh Hair Stylist, Makeup Artist, Salon Owner

moved to Nashville from Iran in 1995. You can imagine the culture shock, but this is home now for me and my daughter. We love living here and enjoy the friendly, creative spirit of the city. When I opened my salon in the Berry Hill area I wanted a large painting for the waiting area. I chose this painting because it depicted a beautiful woman with a great hairstyle and who also looks strong and powerful. I admire people who create their future and their own success, and this painting reminds me of that every day. My clients seem to like it too. No one has asked me to copy the hairstyle in the painting yet, but I’m sure someone will.

For more about Pamella Khazideh and her salon Specchio, please visit www.specchiosaloninc.com.

Pamela Adkins Stein, Untitled, Oil on canvas, 90” x 53”

Nashville artist Pamela Adkins Stein studied art education at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She taught at Overbrook School and Harding Academy before she pursued a full-time position working for Vanderbilt Alumni Relations. She was an active member of the arts community in Nashville, including volunteer board positions at Metro Arts Commission, Nashville Symphony Guild, and Tennessee Dance Theatre. As a teacher she was proficient in numerous media; however, in her professional art, she often used oil paint in large scale. Her choice of style and subject matter reveals her attention to the history of art. 114 | March 2015 NashvilleArts.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP

ARTIST BIO | PAMELA ADKINS STEIN

FLOW ERS FOR EV ERY OCCASION

Iris Iridaceae

Photography by Brett Warren shot in the Ilex studio

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

Cheekwood is honored to present Trees of Myth and Legend, an exhibition of works by noted landscape artist Charles Brindley, who is renowned for exquisite renderings of his best loved subject: trees. With approximately 70 drawings and paintings spanning three decades, Trees of Myth and Legend will include new works of Cheekwood’s historic Swan Lawn oak tree. Trees of Myth and Legend is the artistic feature of Cheekwood’s “A Celebration of Trees,” tying together Tennessee’s Arbor Day, National Arbor Day, and the Jewish Arbor Day, Tu B’Shevat. The Celebration will honor Cheekwood’s status as a Level IV Arboretum and will be accompanied by many educational and public programs.

Charles Brindley: Trees of Myth and Legend February 4 – April 19 Special Tours led by Charles Brindley March 21 and April 18 at 1:30 pm

ALSO Guided Exhibition Tour Saturdays & Sundays, 1:30 pm Guided Arboretum Tours Saturdays, March 21 – April 25, 11:30 am Tuesdays for Tots TREEmendous Art Tuesday, March 3, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Lunch & Lecture* Dogwoods: Great Plants for Southern Gardens Thursday, March 19, 12:00 pm Drawing Workshop with Charles Brindley* Wednesday, April 8th 10:00 am – 4:30 pm Cheekwood in Bloom Arbor Day Celebration Saturday, April 25, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm *Pre-registration required

A Celebration of Trees Presented by:

Exhibition Presented by:

Exhibition Supported by:

c h e e k wo o d . o r g Charles Brindley, Ancient Red Oak on Edge of an Agricultural Landscape, oil on canvas, 30x40 inches, 2008, collection of Nazanin and Jamshid Khnoshnoodi.