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Nashville's own art history in the making. WorkSpaces:
Artists' Studios II,
a continuing photographic series by
Jerry Park
December 7-January 11, 2014 Experience an inside view of Nashville's visual arts community. The photographs detail the intimate, sometimes sprawling spaces used as working studios by Nashville-based acclaimed artists.
Marilyn Murphy's Studio ©Jerry Park
Jane Braddock's Studio ©Jerry Park
Brady Haston's Studio ©Jerry Park
Preview the catalog of images at
www.theartscompany.com 215 5th Avenue of the Arts, North • 11AM-5PM Tuesday-Saturday • 615-254-2040
5th AVENUE OF THE A RTS D OWNTOWN N ASHVILLE
www.theartscompany.com
December 7 - January 11 WorkSpaces: Artists’ Studios II, Continuing the photographic series of Nashville area artists’ studios Plus, Fresh Art for the Holidays (through Dec. 24) Trey Gossett's Studio ©Jerry Park
www.therymergallery.com
December 7, 2013 - January 25 Meticulous Excavations New works by Charles Clary and Jamey Grimes ©Charles Clary
www.tinneycontemporary.com
December 7 - January 11 Scenes Dorothy O'Connor In the rear gallery: Super Scraps New Work by Jodi Hays ©Dorothy O'Connor ©Do
TM
December 2O13
Spotlight...................................................................................................................16 Phillip Nappi Footsteps from Florence.......................................................... 22 Mandy Peitz Moody The Great Unknowns....................................... 34 The Inspiration Is Free... The Clothes You Have to Pay For............... 36 Craig Alan The Future is Not Written.............................................................. 42 NPT Arts Worth Watching........................................................................................... 51 Lee Crum Who Is This Guy?.............................................................................. 56 Casey Pierce Desperado Dialogues...............................................................61 Ben Caldwell Coppersmith, Silversmith, Enamelist and Sculptor......... 65 Caye David Fabric of Life................................................................................. 69 Doug Wunder In Wunder-land.....................................................................74 Dorothy O'Connor Scenes from a Room................................................76 Michael Shane Neal In the Studio.....................................................80 Anthony Novak.............................................................................................. 84 Joey Amato Any Questions............................................................................ 86 Rick Hilles Preparing For Flight.......................................................................... 88 ArtSmart A Monthly Guide to Art Education.................................................... 91 Franรงois Bard Field Notes.............................................................................. 98 Theatre.............................................................102 On the Town....................................................105 Appraise It....................................................... 107 Beyond Words.................................................109 My Favorite Painting....................................... 110 on the cover :
Craig Alan, Queen B, Motivo Collection, 2012, Oil, acrylic, spray paint on canvas, 38" x 32" Article on page 42
PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP Charles N. Martin, Jr. Chairman Paul Polycarpou, President Ed Cassady, Les Wilkinson, Daniel Hightower, Directors 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 Ted Clayton, Social Editor Linda Dyer, Antique and Fine Art Specialist Jim Reyland, Theatre Correspondent CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jennifer Anderson, Emme Nelson Baxter, Beano, Lizza Connor Bowen, Judy Bullington, Nancy Cason, Marshall Chapman, Jennifer Cole, Melissa Cross, Greta Gaines, John Guider, Beth Hall, Beth Inglish, MiChelle Jones, Demetria Kalodimos, Nicole Keiper, Beth Knott, Linda York Leaming, DeeGee Lester, Joe Nolan, Joe Pagetta, Karen Parr-Moody, Robbie Brooks Moore, Currie Powers, Ashleigh Prince, Alyssa Rabun, Sally Schloss, Molly Secours, Daniel Tidwell, Lisa Venegas, Nancy Vienneau, Ron Wynn DESIGN Tracey Starck, Design Director PHOTOGRAPHERS Jerry Atnip, Hollis Bennett, Tiffani Bing, Lawrence Boothby, Sophia Forbes, Donnie Hedden, Peyton Hoge, Stacey Irvin, Rob Lindsay, Jennifer Moran, Anthony Scarlati, Bob Schatz, Meghan Aileen Schirmer, Pierre Vreyen
IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO CHANGE
YOUR WISHLIST NOW THROUGH JAN 2ND
COOL SPRINGS
1636 WESTGATE CIRCLE BRENTWOOD, TN 37027
NASHVILLE
2010 ROSA L. PARKS BLVD NASHVILLE, TN 37208
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MESSIAH a h o l i day t r a d i t i o n !
December 11-13
Schermerhorn Symphony Center BUY TICKETS AT: NashvilleSymphony.org 615.687.6400
Mary C. Ragland Foundation
Give the Gift of Music! Nashville Symphony gift cards can be redeemed for concert tickets, drinks at any of the Schermerhorn’s bars or shopping in the Symphony Store.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
Art Creates a City
I
t would seem that the art world is on fire, not just here at home but around the world. Records are being set every day as the demand
for art skyrockets and unheard of prices are realized at auctions. At $142M Francis Bacon's triptych became the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction, eclipsing Edvard Munch's The Scream at $120M. Jeff Koons's Balloon Dog set a new auction record at $58M for a work by a living artist and Mark Rothko's No.11 (Untitled), which sold for $1.1M in 1992, reached an astoundng $46M. Additional records were set for Willem De Kooning, Donald Judd, and Wayne Thiebaud. I know that these heady prices are way out of the reach of mere mortals, but we can invest locally in what we love and love what we invest in. A great piece of art will make your heart feel rich every single day.
Featured Artist
CRAIG
ALAN
It has all the makings of one of those "Do you remember where you were when you heard" moments. Watching the news last month I was stunned by the report of a treasure trove of art discovered in a rundown apartment in Munich that included previously unknown works by Matisse, Chagall, Dix and many, many more. The collection, which experts say has a value so high it cannot be determined, is thought to have been confiscated by Nazis from galleries, private collectors, and from Jewish families on the grounds that it was degenerate art. The number of paintings discovered totals 121 framed and a staggering 1,285 unframed works by artists such as Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, and Canaletto among others and includes many pieces long feared lost or destroyed. The tragedy is that these masterpieces represent a historically heinous act upon art collectors and lovers that is hard to comprehend. The upside is that hopefully many of the owners will be identified and reunited with what is rightfully theirs. The rest of the world gets to see and experience for the first time works of art by some of the world's premier artists. Although the full scope of the story is still unfolding, this might well prove to be one of the most important art discoveries of all time. Enjoy the holiday season. Buy art. It will make you feel jolly! Paul Polycarpou Editor in Chief EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING OFFICES 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 Tel. 615-383-0278 ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Cindy Acuff, Beth Knott, Keith Wright All sales calls: 615-383-0278
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DISTRIBUTION: Wouter Feldbusch SUBSCRIPTION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE: 615-383-0278 LETTERS: We encourage readers to share their stories and reactions to Nashville Arts Magazine by sending emails to info@nashvillearts.com or letters to the address above. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. BUSINESS OFFICE: Theresa Schlaff, Adrienne Thompson 40 Burton Hills Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37215 Nashville Arts Magazine is a monthly publication by St. Claire Media Group, LLC. This publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one magazine from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office for free, or by mail for $5.00 a copy. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first name followed by @nashvillearts.com; to reach contributing writers, email info@nashvillearts.com. Editorial Policy: Nashville Arts Magazine covers art, news, events, entertainment, and culture in Nashville and surrounding areas. The views and opinions expressed in the magazine do not necessarily represent those of the publisher. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $45 per year for 12 issues. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, issues could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Call 615.383.0278 to order by phone with your Visa or Mastercard number.
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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
TS 178 16x20, oil on canvas with objects, 20”x 22.5”x2”, oil on canvas with corrugated board and stretcher bar
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS
K.J. Schumacher–remarKS November 2–30 Yes we meant to leave this page blank. Please scan the QR code reception Saturday,toNovember 2, 6–9pm below oropening visit us in person see what we left out.
213 Third Avenue North • Nashville, TN 37201 615.352.3006 www.galleryonellc.com 213 Third Avenue North • Nashville, TN 37201 615.352.3006 www.galleryonellc.com
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SPOTLIGHT
N AS H V I L L E’S N U TC R ACK ER DECEMBER 7–22
by Wendy Wilson
usher people back to that time as part of a unique take on a Christmas classic. The show, a performance by Nashville Ballet, is now in its sixth season at TPAC, where it will run December 7–22. “I wanted to create something unique to Nashville while still honoring the tradition of The Nutcracker,” says Paul Vasterling, artistic director and CEO of Nashville Ballet. Clara and the Nutcracker are still central to the story, but local landmarks and historical figures also play a role. Those in the audience will recognize the Parthenon, one of the main buildings at the Exposition, and Andrew Jackson, who appears as a mechanical doll. In Nashville’s Nutcracker, Vasterling uses the Exposition as the jumping-off point for Clara’s adventure. She visits the fair and interacts with the exhibits. The Exposition was a huge event for Nashville and came shortly after the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, whose captivating “White City” raised the bar for other fairs across the country. The Parthenon, built especially for the Nashville fair, was such a hit that it was later rebuilt as a permanent attraction. Theatre-goers may also recognize Clara’s home in Nashville’s Nutcracker. The interior was modeled after the mansion at Belle Meade Plantation. The Nashville Symphony provides the music. Besides dozens of adult dancers, the performance includes nearly 180 young dancers from the School of Nashville Ballet, ranging in age from 8 to 18. Over the years,
the children can change roles and move up the ranks, such as going from a mouse to a soldier. For Vasterling, it’s the children in the audience who make the performance especially meaningful. “They get so excited about it,” he says. “It takes me back to being a kid again.” Adults, meanwhile, can find something new each year they come. There are so many elements in the show, it’s impossible to take it all in at once, Vasterling says. Even people who don’t normally go to ballets will be charmed, says Sharyn Mahoney, director of artistic operations for Nashville Ballet. “This performance is so magical and celebratory of the holiday season it appeals to everyone.” For ticket information, visit www.NashvilleBallet.com.
PHOTO BY TIM BROEKEMA
M
ore than 100 years ago, people flocked to Nashville for the 1897 Centennial Exposition, an event designed to enchant and to educate. This month, Nashville’s Nutcracker will
16 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
The Art of Living Beautifully
22 BANCROFT PLACE
A gated driveway approach and elegant limestone entry stairs welcome you to this grand Romanesque Villa
design of architect Mitchell Barnett. Upon entering, room after room unfolds storybook pages of a residence designed for timeless living. $3,350,000
www.4Warrens.com 615-263-4800 • 615-263-4815
SPOTLIGHT
Lena Saffell’s L Gallery
E
vocative abstract expressionistic art by Lena Carol Saffell completely fills L Gallery in the Arcade. Not only
is Saffell the only African American woman with a gallery in the arts district, she is the only African American female abstract expressionist represented in the district. The vibrancy in her art is based on the colors she uses, and her artwork is intended to appear to be raw and unfinished, because we are, to her, “as people, raw and unfinished, always striving to become a masterpiece.”
PHOTOGRAPH: NAKIA RALEIGH
by Cass Teague
“My inspiration comes from within,” she says. “It is a feeling within me to want to produce and evoke an emotion that moves and inspires people by the flow, texture, and overall movement of colors.” Asked about her technique, she says, “I do not use an easel because it changes my perspective. I like to look down on the canvas and move around it. I do not use traditional techniques such as brushes. I paint spontaneously.” A graduate of Belmont University with a bachelor’s degree in social work, Saffell has been painting for ten years. The self-taught painter says, “I am always pushing myself to produce that greater work which is buried within my spirit.”
Reflection, Pastel on foam board, 48” x 96”
L Gallery is located in Suite 73 of the Arcade. For more information, visit www.carolsaffellart.com.
SPOTLIGHT
ECLECTIC ARTISTRY
Artclectic Brings the Most Inventive Works to Nashville by Stephanie Stewart-Howard
T
he weekend before Halloween, more than 50 artists, some local, some national, spilled across the University School of Nashville’s Sperling Gymnasium for Artclectic, the wonderfully creative fundraiser that supports USN’s Endowment for Innovative Teaching.
Best of Tennessee Craft: Artist Brian Somerville, pictured with Tim and Arnita Ozgener (This award is presented by TACA.)
PHOTOGRAPH: WES DAVIS
Center: Mark Whitley wins Best in Show at Artclectic Right: Tall Walnut Cabinet, 2013, Walnut, various veneers, 64” x 16” x 14”
“It gave me a license to dig deep that I hadn’t had before,” he says. “Before then, I honestly didn’t know that studio furniture existed. I’d thought that pouring hundreds of hours into one piece was a thing of the past. I started work on a small cabinet that still hangs in my house today with that in mind and grew from there.”
Whitley, also a songwriter, says his approach to design compares to his approach to music: a spark of inspiration leads to the hard work of bringing it all together. He speaks of continually returning to particular pieces, like the chair, and finding new ways of expressing it, hunting for “the perfect one.” Currently, he’s working on 10 variations of a strong new design. “I’m in a good place with everything, though I’m paddling upstream sometimes, convincing the world that furniture making is sculpture.” See more of Mark Whitley’s work at www.mwhitley.com. PHOTOGRAPH: GRANNISPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
PHOTOGRAPH: GRANNISPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Nashville audiences may not be familiar with Whitley’s work, but we should be. Whitley says he’s been spending time in the woodshop since he was 5 years old, some 33 years, and in that time he’s developed a style of furniture construction that is at least as much art as function. Always inspired by gifted woodcrafters, in 2004 he came across a book, The Impractical Woodworker by James Krenov, that changed the way he perceived his craft.
Left: Music Cabinet, 2013, Cherry, walnut, maple, ebony organ keys, 60” x 26” x 16”
PHOTOGRAPH: GRANNISPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
This year’s show, chaired by Carrington Fox, Kelly Linton, and Arnita Ozgener, presented the Best in Show award to furniture artist Mark Whitley of Smith’s Grove, Kentucky. The Rising Star award went to Alex Lockwood, and the Best Two- and ThreeDimensional Works went to Daryl Thetford and Alan LeQuire respectively.
PHOTOGRAPH: MICHAEL WARD
Anyone who’s ever attended the show already knows that Artclectic is one of the most diverse art sales in the city, as well as a great party for the community preview on Friday evening. I for one have never left Artclectic without buying, and I know few others whose experience hasn’t been the same.
PHOTOGRAPH: GRANNISPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
BEST IN SHOW
Artclectic Rising Star Award: Artist Alex Lockwood, pictured with jurors Donna Gilliam, Teri Alea and Tim Ozgener
20 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
Artclectic 3-Dimensional Art: Artist Alan LeQuire, pictured with jurors Tim Ozgener, Donna Gilliam, and Teri Alea
TO OLD FRIENDS & NEW FAVORITES buon natale
NEW & CLASSIC STYLES FOR THE HOLIDAYS HANDMADE IN ITALY
PETER NAPPI TI VOGLIO BENE
1308 ADAMS STREET • NASHVILLE, TN 37208 TURN EAST ONTO MONROE FROM ROSA PARKS BLVD; MONROE DEAD-ENDS AT ADAMS 615.248.3310 • PETERNAPPI.COM
FASHION
Footsteps from Florence Peter Nappi embraces quality and character of handmade footwear By MiChelle Jones
P
eter Nappi’s boots and shoes are rugged yet stylish. In many ways they
Nappi’s footwear is handmade in Italy in a variety of leathers and suedes hand-dyed in colors ranging from golden sand to blue and black. Selections are also available in pale-pink-tinged natural. The most popular women’s styles are the Gabrielle (a sleek slipon women’s bootie), the Eleanna (a stylish mid-calf with a sexy tie), and the Laura (a tougher version of the Eleanna with a slightly higher stacked-leather heel, it’s Nappi’s favorite). The Julius boot is the perennially popular style for men. For men and women there are also Oxfords and the fantastic Lucano, reminiscent of a 1950s motorcycle boot. “We’ll be rolling out some different things in the spring and then again in the fall. It’s not going to 22 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
Phillip Nappi
PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN GUIDER
are reinterpretations of the rugged footwear worn by settlers of the West or prairie—or the Italian hills. Nappi’s airy, light-filled space in the Neuhoff complex on the east side of the Cumberland River is a similar blend of rustic elegance, with rich leather sofas set among wood-plank and exposed-brick walls.
PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN GUIDER
be a complete departure from what we do, but it will show the growth, the breadth of the brand,” company founder Phillip Nappi said. He now has a creative team sharing his design duties and will debut new styles in 2014. These include an ankle bootie, an equestrian style, and a high-heeled mid-calf lace-up for women. For men, the Julius will be replaced by an updated version called the Rocco. All this was inspired by a favorite pair of boots Nappi wore out, tried to have mended, and even tried to repair himself. In 2009 he moved with his wife, Dana, and their young daughter to Italy where he learned how to make shoes. That may sound a bit extreme, but it turns out Nappi had a long association with shoes and, unbeknownst to him, a family history in the shoe business.
That’s exactly what he’s established here. The showroom and studio opened in 2011 and, along with his handmade shoes, also stocks a number of accoutrements and a selection of “finds,” European antiques that began merely as store fixtures then became a second line of sorts as architects, designers, and developers began asking to buy them. Nappi’s not sure how long he’ll continue to sell antiques; in the new year he has big plans for the shoes. “We want to be best-in-class in what we do, focus really heavily on the footwear brand,” Nappi said. That includes moving into retail through boutiques, specialty shops, and major department stores. T he d e v ot ion t o “c h a r a c t e r, authenticity, and timelessness” will continue to drive Peter Nappi because those things—along with the company’s touching backstory—have caught the public’s attention and helped the unique footwear gain a foothold (so to speak) in the marketplace. Peter Nappi is located in Germantown, 1308 Adams Street. For more information visit www.peternappi.com.
PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN GUIDER
In a coincidence straight out of an Ancestry.com commercial, Nappi discovered that his grandfather Pietro, for whom the shoe company is named, was in fact a shoemaker in Italy before immigrating to the U.S. Once here, Pietro and his brother maintained individual shoe shops, though Pietro later went into the restaurant business. Shoemaking, then, was in Peter Nappi’s blood, and shoes had been on his mind for a long time. He’d worked in several retail shoe stores while dreaming of opening one of his own in
New York City. He envisioned a “cool place where people would hang out and listen to music.”
NashvilleArts.com
December 2O13 | 23
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Master Potter at The Clay Lady’s Studio
SPOTLIGHT
by Wendy Wilson
C
ynthia Bringle recently made dinnerware for a young newlywed couple, a project that meant as much to her as it did to them. It’s the fourth generation of the groom’s family
to own a set made by the clay artist. “The impact of her career is immeasurable,” McDaniel says. “She is an amazing woman with a love of clay that has to be experienced, not just read or talked about.”
PHOTO BY EDWINA BRINGLE
“It’s great because I like my work to be used,” she says, adding that store-bought plates and dishes might be attractive, but it’s not the same as buying something handmade, with each piece offering something beautiful and unique. Her website notes this about what she makes: “Work is included in private collections and museums but mostly found in many kitchen cabinets.”
Cynthia Bringle
A Memphis native, Bringle has lived in Penland, North Carolina, since 1970. The 74-year-old full-time artist has been making pottery since 1965, after switching her primary focus from painting. She still paints, but pottery is what consumes most of her time. “There are so many things you can do with clay,” she says. “Every little thing you do with a piece of clay shows up in the end. Everything counts.” On December 14, Bringle will be in Nashville to give a workshop at The Clay Lady’s Studio. Owner Danielle McDaniel says she’s pleased that her studio was able to attract someone of Bringle’s caliber.
Back home in North Carolina, Bringle owns a gallery in Penland, where she shows her pottery and paintings and also the work of her twin sister, Edwina Bringle, a fiber artist. In her spare time, Bringle likes to explore other ways to express her creativity. She makes flamework glass beads and recently has taken classes in woodworking. “Different things are a challenge, but that’s good,” she says. “I never think I can’t do it. I always see how far I can get with it.” A reception for Cynthia Bringle will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, December 13, at The Clay Lady’s Studio, located at 1416 Lebanon Pike. The reception is free and open to the public. For more information about the reception and the workshop on December 14, visit www.theclaylady.com.
First Saturday Art Crawl
Picture This on 5th, #44 Downtown Arcade
Saturday, December 7, 2013 • 6PM to 9PM STEPHEN GRAHAM | CROSSING LINES Contemporary Art for Any Space
4674 Lebanon Pike, Hermitage • 615-889-5640 • www.picturethis-gallery.com
Celebrating Marleen
T
his month Marleen De Waele-De Bock will celebrate the four-year anniversary of her BelArt Studio & Gallery in the Arcade. To mark the event, Marleen will showcase her new 4219 Two Rivers Lane $1,795,000
large-scale paintings of nature and seasonal themes during the First Saturday Art Crawl.
Early Fall, Acrylic on canvas, 60” x 48”
A native of Belgium, Marlene moved to Nashville in 2001 after living in South Africa for over ten years. Her first exhibition here took place in the Parthenon, and since then she has exhibited in many Nashville galleries and beyond. In addition to being a very active artist, she also teaches art at O’More College of Design in Franklin.
3902 Wayland Drive $1,595,000
Celebrate with Marleen at BelArt Studio & Gallery, Suite 56 in the Arcade, on Saturday, December 7, from 6 until 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.marleensartwork.com. 3722 Richland Ave $1,150,000
A Treasure Trove of Small Things
A
dazzling assortment of still lifes, portraits, and landscapes, A Treasure Trove of Small Things, now on display at Haynes Galleries, shows that even the smallest pieces can make a huge impact.
“Jewels come in small packages, and so can great art,” says gallery owner Gary Haynes. “One of my favorite pieces is a small portrait by Carolus-Duran, and it is only 6 x 8 inches but something I Anna Wakitsch, Parameters, Oil treasure. This show will feature on linen panel, 9" x 7" small works from some of the country’s most distinguished contemporary realists.” A celebration of American Realism, the exhibit includes works by such artists as Lisa Gloria, Anna Wakitsch, Michael Theise, Philip Michelson, Stephen Scott Young, Burton Silverman, Vincent Giarrano, Diane Feissel, Zoey Frank, Cindy House, and Bennett Vadnais.
Michael Theise, The Faithful Super Soaker, Oil on board, 177/8" x 14 3/4"
A Treasure Trove of Small Things runs through December 21 at Haynes Galleries, 1600 Division Street, Suite 14 0. For more information visit www.haynesgalleries.com.
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SPOTLIGHT
Kaleidoghost, 2012, Ink on paper, 22” x 30”
Abstraction’s Imaginative Fictions by Alyssa Rabun
D
avid Anderson plays with color. With loose wrist, he moves brush on canvas with an intentional laxity, weaving a wide palette with shape, line, and texture into cohesive abstractions. A sophomore fine art major at Watkins
Legs 2, 2013, Oil and calcium on canvas, 3' x 4'
College of Art, Design & Film, Anderson joined fellow students Michael Hampton and Alexine Rioux to explore modern notions of eccentric abstraction in Abstraction’s Imaginative Fictions at Watkins Arcade Gallery (WAG). “I apply the aesthetic of abstraction and expressionism,” said Anderson. “What begins as a fragmented work evolves into a composition where all things interact aesthetically. I am constantly adding paint and texture then scraping it off until the colors play with each other.” Anderson’s works blend oil paint, varnish, ink, and nails to explore the ebb and flow of process—how the nature of color, placement of shape, and added movement generate relationships within a work. In his painting Manual Labor, which began quilted with color, Anderson was moved to paint over the majority of the piece with white paint and then add one striking blue streak. The blue, snakelike curve waves across white space, cautiously interacting with the chaotic faction below, and the painting takes the stage as the bold centerpiece of the exhibit. “The blue streak makes the piece come to life,” said Anderson. “I respond to the inherent nature of how colors sit on the surface together and add personality to the piece. I love fitting the colors together until they are activated as art instead of just sitting on the surface together.” Anderson successfully interacts multiple elements so viewers can read the abstraction like a scroll—fragmented images are connected with integrated movement and tone. See more of Anderson's work at www.davidonri.tumblr.com.
The Birth, 2013, Oil, calcium, dry wall putty, nail scratches, Galkyd on canvas, 3' x 4'
28 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
Tennessee Art League Our Guest Artist for December
JORGE MENDOZA presenting
METAMORPHISISM
BORBOLETA
VALEDÓN
SHOP AT THE TAL GALLERIES FOR UNIQUE HOLIDAY GIFTS!
The New TAL We are now on The 5th Avenue of the Arts
219 5th Ave N • Nashville, TN • 615-736-5000 • www.tal5.com
TAL_1213HHB.indd 1
Like us on Facebook Facebook.com/tnartleague
11/18/13 4:36 PM
SPOTLIGHT
Metamorphosis XI, 2013, Acrylic on canvas, 40" x 60"
The Colorful World of
JORGE MENDOZA by Cass Teague
T
his month the Tennessee Art League presents the colorful, abstract paintings of Jorge Mendoza in a solo exhibition entitled METAMORPHISISM. According to Mendoza,
“I consider my works a metamorphosis of my inner world—thoughts and dreams—converted into images. I use my painter’s vocabulary and mastery of technique to translate ethereal, imagined images in visual experiences. The colors and values are intuitive as are the forms and shapes that create the composition.” The theme of the show is based on Mendoza’s struggles to make peace with the horror and beauty he has witnessed during his lifetime. A Bolivian native, he has been impacted by his exposure to the violence of war as a youth and the rich history found in PreColumbian material culture. He says, “My organic imagery comes from my study of the Tiwanaku civilization—one of the most important precursors of the Inca empire. The symbols in the woven and dyed textiles, gold work, feathered artworks, and sculptures signify a history of metamorphosis.” Even Mendoza’s technical approach involves transformation. He translates his historical and imagined sources into works in the Western academic medium of acrylic paint on canvas; however, he subverts the medium by applying the traditional techniques of watercolor—diluting the acrylic pigments with water rather than white paint. This approach results in loose, transparent color that he then layers to create density, texture, and form on a primed canvas. Mendoza has lived in the United States since 1989 and currently resides in Nashville. METAMORPHISISM is his first exhibit in the city, but it is just the beginning of what he plans to contribute to the Nashville arts community. METAMORPHISISM opens on December 7 during the First Saturday Art Crawl and runs through December 31. For more information about Jorge Mendoza, visit www.TAL5.com and www.jormen1.com.
Art Connects Us at Chromatics
A
group show at Chromatics Second Floor Gallery, Art Connects Us, showcases the work of 12 artists from the organization Women Artists of Middle Tennessee. The
exhibit presents a dynamic variety of work including sculpture, photography, painting, and drawing. Featured artists are Lindsay Castor, Betsy Copley, Alice Fisher, Pam Jolly Haile, Nancy S. Hilgert, Lisa Jennings, Judy Klich, Wendy Latimer, Samantha Ornellas, Hannah Maxwell Rowell with daughter Aviana Rowell, Pam Tyson, and Winona Weatherby. Nancy S. Hilgert, founder of the group, believes that spending time with other artists is fundamental to one’s creative and career development. Of the monthly luncheon event Hilgert says, “Every single attendee has benefited from these gatherings, learning from each other’s experience and enjoying a greater sense of community and contribution.”
Nancy S. Hilgert, Upon Reflection, Graphite and silver pencil on pastel paper, 24" x 16”
Art Connects Us will be on view through January 31, 2014, at Chromatics Second Floor Gallery. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.chromatics.com.
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Oy Vey – Jewish Comedians in the House
SPOTLIGHT
W
ednesday, December 11, the Gordon Jewish Community Center (GJCC) will host an artists’ reception for Oy Vey – Jewish Comedians in the House, an exhibit featuring photography from Raeanne Rubenstein and paintings from Jason Erwin.
WorkSpaces: Artists’ Studios II
A
new series of photographs by Jerry Park gives an insider’s look at Nashville’s vibrant arts community revealing studios of artists such as Jane Braddock, Trey Gossett, Brady Haston, Marilyn Murphy, Roger Clayton, Brian Tull, and Vesna Pavlovic.
Co-curated by Anne Brown of The Arts Company and Lain York of Zeitgeist Gallery, WorkSpaces: Artists’ Studios II is the second in a series and includes an In Memoriam featuring Park’s studio photographs for artists Jack Hastings, Sylvia Hyman, and Brother Mel. WorkSpaces: Artists’ Studios II opens at The Arts Company during the First Saturday Art Crawl, 6 until 9 p.m. on December 7, and continues through January 11. For a sneak peek and a chance to meet the featured artists, Collectors Art Night is scheduled for Friday, December 6, at 7:15 p.m. Nashville Arts Magazine Editor Paul Polycarpou will moderate. For more information, visit www. theartscompany.com. For reservations to Collectors Art Night,
Renowned celebrity and fashion photographer Raeanne Rubenstein also loves shooting comedians. This exhibit will include many of her never-before-seen images of Jewish comedians, including Rodney Dangerfield, Elayne Boosler, Robert Klein, Gilda Radner, and David Brenner. Jason Erwin, known for his distinctively textured yet relaxed paintings of music greats and sports legends has created 20 images of comedians especially for this show, including Sarah Silverman, Woody Allen, Don Rickles, Fanny Brice, and Phyllis Diller. Oy Vey – Jewish Comedians in the House will be an ongoing exhibit in the House Gallery. The artists’ reception takes place Wednesday, December 11, from 7 until 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.nashvillejcc.org.
email 5thAvenueoftheArts@gmail.com.
19th Annual Holiday Exhibition
Y
ou know the holiday season is here when Cumberland Gallery opens their annual holiday exhibition. Marking
its 19th year, Small & Large Packages features a remarkable collection of work from a diverse group of established and emerging artists. In years past the show has focused exclusively on small works, but this year large-scale pieces will also be displayed.
Jeff Danley, Listening, Oil on canvas, 64" x 36"
Small & Large Packages includes sculptures, paintings, prints, photographs, and drawings. Returning this year are Cumberland staples Marilyn Murphy, Andrew Saftel, Bob Durham, David Kroll, Bob Nugent and more. Among the show's newcomers are Bill Killebrew, Leonard Koscianski, Melodie Provenzano, and Jean Wetta.
The show runs through January 4 with an opening reception for the artists on Thursday, December 5, from 6 until 8 p.m. Cumberland Gallery is located at 4107 Hillsboro Circle. For more information, visit www.cumberlandgallery.com. 32 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
PUBLIC ART
Christian Moeller’s KVB Roundabout Artwork Concept
Christian Moeller Chosen for Roundabout Artwork by Caroline Vincent, Public Art Manager
R
ecently, the Arts Commission approved the selection of artist Christian Moeller for a new public artwork at the Korean Veterans Boulevard Roundabout, adjacent to the Music City Center convention facility. His proposed
work is a composition of native hardwood and natural colors—red orange, light blue, dark blue, light green, and egg white, a homage to the Native Americans who first populated Middle Tennessee— with 35 painted red-cedar poles standing 85 feet tall. They will be spaced in an irregular organic pattern throughout the surface area of the roundabout. Moeller’s proposal calls for the verticality of the poles to vary between zero to 15 degrees from the center axis. Each pole tip will be covered with a custom-made “LED lightcap” to emit a light glow at nighttime. Moeller states, “During this process, I revisited Native American arts and was reminded of the striking distribution of color applied to natural surfaces, very often wood, in these native works. Instead of developing an artwork for the roundabout, my goal became to turn the entire roundabout into an artwork.” Moeller’s work may be found around the globe, in such locations as the Changi Airport in Singapore, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Science Museum in London, Frederieke Taylor Gallery in New York City, Phaeno in Wolfsburg, Germany; Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle, Centro Cultural Candido Mendes in Rio de Janeiro and Santa Monica, California, among others. His 2012 sculpture Verdi, located in Bothell, Washington, received a 2012 Year in Review award from the Public Art Network of Americans for the Arts. Moeller, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, was a professor at the State College of Design in Karlsruhe, Germany, until moving to the United States in 2001. Currently he is a professor in the Department of Design/Media Arts at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and operates his studio in Silver Lake, California. A timeline for the installation of this artwork has not yet been established. For more information, visit www.publicart.nashville.gov.
Name Your Heart, 2011, Acrylic on canvas, 30” x 40”
The Great Unknowns
Mandy Peitz Moody by Jennifer Anderson
M
PHOTOGRAPH: TIFFANI BING
andy grew up her father’s daughter. Drawing was the norm because of his talent, and she drew her art all over the walls at home. During her school years she continued to draw whenever possible, and that, along with her natural skill in math, landed her in college as an architecture major. The need for an elective led to her first experience with painting, which taught her about technique. Mandy Peitz Moody with Pablo An assignment to paint a landscape making everything the wrong color changed everything. She got an A. This use of color was to become a signature for her future work.
After obtaining a degree in graphic design, she began work in that profession but found herself missing the tactile feel of painting and finding illustration using a computer to be tedious and unrewarding. One day she inexplicably found herself at Hobby Lobby, buying all the supplies she needed for painting, and realized her soul was telling her what she was supposed to do. Her paintings are emotive and alive with vibrant color that invites the viewer into her unique vision. She describes her process as a channel from which the images flow onto her canvas. Her medium is acrylic because it lends itself to the speed with which she paints. Her strength in visual expression does not extend to naming her work, so she began using lines from her husband Matt Moody's songs for titles. This led to an ongoing collaboration that they call “song paintings.” As Mandy listens to her husband's songs she begins to paint what she sees, her inspiration becoming the viewer’s delight. To learn more about the work of Mandy Peitz Moody, please contact UnBound Arts at unboundartsnashville@gmail.com. 34 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
Narco Cultura
FILM
by Justin Stokes
S
PHOTOGRAPH: SHAUL SCHWARZ, COURTESY OF CINEDIGM
ome of the best documentaries are those that expose the hidden dangers of humanity, pulling back the veil of perceived safety to reveal new risks and truths about the world in which we live. But what happens to a
society when it begins idolizing evil? Enter Narco Cultura, a harrowing inspection of the glorified culture of violence created by the Mexican drug trade. Following a crime scene Los Bukanas de Culiacan investigator and a Mexican-American musician singing the praises of the drug cartels, we’re taken to the heart of violence in Juarez, Mexico (a former “murder capital of the world”), where the drug trade has become a billion-dollar black-market industry, making even the police afraid. There, we see the horrific aftermath of unsolvable crimes and the progeny of these atrocities in the lifestyles and attitudes painting criminals and crime in a positive light. This tour of murder, extortion, and kidnapping—though a relatively new development—is quickly spilling over into American
society, with 60,000 murders since 2006 resulting from the drug war. This film is a testament to the power of the disturbing image, capturing some of the most haunting moments in a fashion that is all too casual. We’re shown the brutal aftermath of a crime one moment, then switch from the grieving family members of the dead to those celebrating an industry with guns, drugs, and blood money.
A search for humanity, this documentary is perhaps one of the most powerful I have ever seen. Sharing that, it’s also one of the darkest and certainly not a film for everyone. Cartels are profiting off the misery of their communities, and every hour is just another festivity in a Día de Muertos commemorated by savagery. Narco Cultura is showing at the Belcourt Theatre. For complete listings and more information on the film, visit www.belcourt.org.
The Bookmark A Monthly Look at Hot Books and Cool Reads
For more information about these books, visit www.parnassusbooks.net.
Verve: The Sound of America RICHARD HAVERS
The Bully Pulpit DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN
The entire story of jazz—from its earliest days in New Orleans to the 1970s and beyond— told through archival material from Verve, the genre’s most important label. Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, and Ella Fitzgerald all released records through Verve. This gorgeously illustrated book presents some of the rarest records and unseen ephemera from the label that helped define the world of jazz.
After presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin wields her magic on another larger-than-life president and another momentous and raucous American time period as she brings Theodore Roosevelt, the muckraking journalists, and the Progressive Era to life. See Goodwin in person at Montgomery Bell on December 12.
Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits VIVIAN MAIER Celebrated by Vanity Fair, The New York Times, American Photo, and countless other publications, the life’s work of recently discovered street photographer Vivian Maier has spawned comparisons to photography’s masters, including Helen Levitt, Walker Evans, and Weegee among others. This book is the most intimate portrait of the artist to date with approximately sixty never-before-seen black-and-white and color self-portraits.
Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age GRAYDON CARTER From its inception in 1913, through the Jazz Age and the Depression, to its reincarnation in the boom-boom Reagan years, to the image-saturated Information Age, Vanity Fair has presented the modern era as it has unfolded, using wit, imagination, peerless literary narrative, and bold, groundbreaking imagery from the greatest photographers, artists, and illustrators of the day. This sumptuous book is the one everyone will want in 2014. NashvilleArts.com
December 2O13 | 35
the
i n spi r at ion
i s f r e e... the clothes you have to pay for
F
or years Nashville Arts Magazine has embraced the mantra “inspiration is free” because we believe this to be true. So with that in mind, we
asked four members of our arts community to recreate an image that has been inspirational to them.
Fashion Evangelist Connie Cathcart-Richardson took our “models” shopping at The Mall at Green Hills, and fashion and art photographer Juan Pont Lezica took them around Nashville to capture their inspirations. The iconic photographs of Picasso drawing with light sparked painter Kristin Llamas’s imagination. Struck by the drama and intensity of creativity, Kristin’s illuminated paintbrush brings her drawing to life. Rockabilly and painter Brian Tull brought us into one of his retro-inspired paintings. The car, the platinum blond adjusting her makeup in the mirror make us wonder . . . Is he setting a scene for a painting, or is this his everyday existence?
Norman Lerner built his career in fashion and street photography beginning in the 1950s, often contrasting the grit of the city with the glamour of the fashion lifestyle. We caught a glimpse of the man behind the camera stopping off at an urban street café. Susan Edwards, CEO and Executive Director of the Frist, found inspiration in her all-time favorite album, The Beatles’ Abbey Road. She makes her way across the pedestrian walkway as a very graceful missing member of the Fab Four. Special thanks to The Mall at Green Hills, COFFEE, LUNCH, Riley Reed and her '57 Cadillac, and Ilex for flowers. Vespa courtesy of Jack Pentzer. Produced by Sara Lee Burd Photographed by Juan Pont Lezica www.cycstudio.com Stylist/Fashion guru: Connie Cathcart-Richardson Hair and Makeup: Renae Morton, Lucy Pop Salon
36 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
KRISTIN LLAMAS
Painter, Minimalistic Realism and Interactive Art www.kllamas.com Aida Sleeveless Gown with Lace Contrast, Amanda Woven Jacket and PavĂŠ Stone Earrings, all from BCBG at The Mall at Green Hills.
NashvilleArts.com
December 2O13 | 37
SUSAN EDWARDS
Executive Director and CEO of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts www.fristcenter.org Pamella Roland Pleated Chiffon Cobalt Gown, GUS MAYER at The Mall at Green Hills. 38 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
NORMAN LERNER
Photographer www.normanlerner.com
1818 Fitzgerald Fit Plaid Deco Sport Coat, 1818 Madison Checked Vest, Supima Cotton Non-iron Forward Point Collar Dress Shirt, Clark 8-Wale Corduroy Pant, Cashmere Scarf and Wool Cap, all from BROOKS BROTHERS at The Mall at Green Hills.
NashvilleArts.com
December 2O13 | 39
BRIAN TULL
Painter, Photorealism www.briantull.com Shipley & Halmos Kilt Green Bomber Jacket, Pendleton Wool Sweater and DSquared Jeans, all from NORDSTROM at The Mall at Green Hills. 40 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
FLOW ERS FOR
E V ERY
OCCASION
601 8th Ave South Nashville, TN 37203 615-736-5200 ilexforflowersnashville@gmail.com www.ilexforflowers.com
Convallaria magalis Photography by Brett Warren shot in the Ilex studio
Jader Swan Dool, Motivo Collection, 2012, Oil, acrylic, spray paint on canvas, 60” x 40” 42 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTO BY HENRICK ABEDIAN
Craig Alan The Future Is Not Written by Daniel Tidwell
C
raig Alan is an artist with a restless eye, pushing the boundaries of visual expression with no regard for stylistic constraints. Alan’s body of work co-opts
numerous styles from pop-surrealism to magic realism to neo expressionist abstraction and representation. His most recent work, which he refers to as the Populus series, steps outside the tropes of those well-worn formal enterprises with strikingly original images created from hundreds of tiny figures on a white ground. At first glance the paintings look like aerial photographs, but a closer inspection reveals that they are painstakingly handpainted. The images had their genesis in some photos Alan was taking of a wedding party from a high-rise balcony. “Later on that evening I noticed, in one shot, the group of people appeared to have formed an eye. That’s all it took to get the gears moving fast. With me it doesn’t take much, but that one photo is what started it all,” according to Alan.
Gardener, Motivo Collection, 2013, Oil, acrylic, spray paint on canvas, 52” x 40”
“Each piece will contain a range of 400 to 1,800 people in it depending on the type of work it is,” says Alan. The creative process is labor intensive: “I can spend anywhere from 50 to 150 working hours on one painting depending on the
NashvilleArts.com
December 2O13 | 43
Rise Up Level II, Populus Collection, 2011, Acrylic, spray paint, air brush on board, 48” x 48”
size... however, I like to work on more than one painting at a time. Normally I have four to six paintings working at one time. I like the challenge, and it sparks new ideas.” These images have a real “wow” factor to them that comes from the realization that the larger picture is composed of so many intricately rendered figures. “It’s rewarding for me as an artist to watch people’s reaction to my work and to see them get such enjoyment out of it,” says Alan. He hopes that viewers of these paintings will realize “that we are all part of something greater than ourselves, and if we work together we could achieve greater balance . . . not in a religious sense but rather a universal sense.”
Alan’s other work is drastically different from the Populus series. His Motivo series includes images that range from colorful abstractions to paintings of figures floating on expressionistic grounds to more traditional abstracted figure paintings, some of which are reminiscent of the work of Basquiat. In the series referred to as Novel Anthology, Alan uses a combination of traditional representational techniques to create literal visual metaphors, portraying children with animal heads lingering in murky woods or dark interiors. In other images the figure has been removed, leaving ghostly dresses floating on atmospheric grounds.
44 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
Untitled, Motivo Collection, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40” x 52”
The images bring to mind the work of painters like Ray Caesar, Mark Ryden, or Todd Schorr, whose pop-surrealist paintings maintain a sense of mystery behind their implied narratives. Alan admits that his images are meant to be literal, and his press materials go so far as to provide a blow-by-blow analysis of the meaning of each element in an image—effectively turning them into illustrations rather than fine art. There’s no relationship between these very different bodies of work according to the artist. Alan prides himself on his eclectic creative process, which is reminiscent of an “old-school” postmodern approach to painting in which many different styles are appropriated to create work that functions as a critique of other art. According to Alan he isn’t really working from this type of conceptual base; rather he’s simply commandeering myriad creative approaches to keep his painting fresh. “I am a student of the arts and will be until I pass,” says Alan. “I love to study and practice technique. These paintings are merely an extension of the abilities bestowed upon me.” Alan is unsure about the future path his work will take: “I have no concrete plans for the future other than to learn as much as I can
The Messenger, Motivo Collection, 2010, Oil, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas, 48”x 48”
NashvilleArts.com
December 2O13 | 45
Antithesis Mode, Motivo Collection, 2010, Oil, Acrylic, and Spray Paint, 48”x48”
In The Style of 10/6, Native Anthology Collection, 2013, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 48" x 60"
“I have no concrete plans for the future other than to learn as much as I can and process that knowledge into visual conception.”
and process that knowledge into visual conception. The universe has cast me here to create visual planes. . . and all I know is I can’t stop creating. The future for me is not written. All I know is I can’t stop creating.”
For more information about Craig Alan and his work visit www.deljouartgroup.com and the Bennett Galleries website www.bennettgalleriesnashville.com.
Achieve Balance, Populus Collection, 2011, Acrylic, spray paint, air brush on board, 48” x 48”
Jill, Native Anthology Collection, 2013, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"
46 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
MICHAEL HOOPER
HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT
202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 • www.gallery202art.com • 615-472-1134 Visit Us During “Franklin Art Scene”December 6, 6-9pm
SPOTLIGHT
CRAWL GUIDE
The Franklin Art Scene takes place Friday, December 6, from 6 until 9 p.m. in historic downtown Franklin, where a $5 ticket gives you unlimited access to trolleys that circulate to over 30 galleries and studios. Gallery 202 will feature self-taught, folk-style artist Michael Hooper, who works with a wide range of mediums. Regions Bank will show landscape watercolors by Dave Woodward and portraiture by Steve Methven. The Leila Platt Heirloom Shop will present a series of interpretations of the mandala by Philip Willis. Savory Spice Shop will exhibit Leila Platt’s colorful oil paintings which are inspired by her many travels. Damico Frame & Art Gallery will feature Philip Willis Steve Methven photography by Jimmy Stratton. On Saturday, December 7, head to downtown Nashville for the Downtown Art Crawl from 6 until 9 p.m. The Arts Company will present Workspaces: Artists’ Studios II, a new series of photographs by Jerry Park (see page 32). Tinney Contemporary will exhibit Scenes, photographs and an installation by Dorothy O’Connor (see page 76) in the front gallery and paintings by Jodi Hays in the rear gallery. The Rymer Gallery will open the exhibit Meticulous Excavations, new work by Charles Clary and Jamey Grimes. Gallery One will feature select small works by gallery artists. Tennessee Art League will show photography by Nathan Crowder and open a new solo exhibit entitled METAMORPHISISM, by Jorge Mendoza (see page 30).
Nathan Crowder
winning work from the annual International Art Contest, a joint effort between Tennessee State University and grades 5–8 of Metro Nashville Public Schools. WAG will present Illustration, too, an exhibition of picturebook art by Watkins students Barbara Ball, Michael Cribbs, Ross Denton, J Greer, Casimira Guarini, Jarryd Harris, Cassie Stephen Graham Isenhower, Don Mann, Brian Poteete, and Jill Thompson.
Charles Clary
Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston will take place from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 7. Zeitgeist Gallery will host a reception for Shade Models by Patrick DeGuira and Reckonings by Gieves Anderson. Seed Space will be transformed by Brad McComb’s installation Oráculo, which pushes the boundaries of art beyond single objects to multi-layered experiences. Ground Floor Gallery + Studios will feature past and present works of Amanda Brown, Heidi Kuster, and Janet Decker Yanez and the futuristic photo booth created by Erica Ciccarone and Tony Youngblood. Cleft Studios will exhibit illustration work by Kelli Shay Hix and Shane Kennedy. Porter Flea will take place from 12 until 5 p.m. in the Letter Logic building, so several Wedgewood/Houston venues will open during that Patrick DeGuira time as well.
At the Arcade Picture This on 5th will host the show Crossing Lines by woodcut artist Stephen Graham. In addition to abstract expressionistic paintings (see page 18), L Gallery will show the
On Saturday, December 14, visit Second Saturday at Five Points in East Nashville from 6 until 9 p.m. for fine art, antiques, and artisan wares.
48 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
Ben Caldwell Copper Serving Pieces, Ornaments, Enamel Wall Sculpture
rumourseast.com Ginkgo Leaf Ornament
M A N Y T H A N KS TO O U R FR I EN DS A N D CUSTO M ERS F O R O U R FI RST G R E AT Y E A R I N FR A N K L I N!
Copper Serving Pieces
Congratulations to Ben Caldwell whose work was selected for Oprah’s Favorite Things 2013!
4304 Charlotte Ave • Nashville, TN 615-298-4611 • www.lequiregallery.com
H AY N E S G A L L E R I E S PRESENTS
A TREASURE TROVE OF SMALL THINGS THROUGH D ECEMBER 21, 2013
.
CINDY PROCIOUS. MONKEY BUSINESS (DETAIL). OIL ON PANEL. 8 X 8 INCHES INQUIRIES: GARYHAYNES@HAYNESGALLERIES.COM OR PHONE 615.430.8147 OR 615.312.7000. HAYNESGALLERIES.COM
Arts Worth Watching Monday, December 30, at 9 p.m. tells the story of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), two groups whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these determined activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry to help identify promising new drugs and move them from experimental trials to patients. With unfettered access to a treasure trove of neverbefore-seen archival footage, the film reveals the controversial actions, heated meetings, heartbreaking failures, and exultant breakthroughs of heroes in the making.
It’s fairly well accepted these days that Nashville is a foodie haven. And foodies know that the preparation and presentation of food is an art form. That makes the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, premiering Monday, December 23, at 9 p.m. on NPT via Independent Lens, such a treat for Nashville Arts readers. The 85-year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef, is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a tenseat restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious three-star Michelin Guide rating. Sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimages, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar. David Gelb’s film is a thoughtful and elegant meditation on work, family, and the art of perfection.
Also coming to Independent Lens this month, Playwright: From Page to Stage and How to Survive a Plague. Playwright: From Page to Stage, directed by Robert Levi and premiering on Monday, December 16, at 9 p.m., follows two outstanding young playwrights through the writing, development, staging, rehearsal, and public performance of their plays. Over the course of three years, the dramatic parallel journeys of Rajiv Joseph and Tarell Alvin McCraney unfold, from the time their work receives development funding until the riveting climax, when one of the productions makes it to Broadway with Robin Williams in a leading role. How to Survive a Plague, directed by David France and premiering on
One of Nashville’s most beloved bands, fronted by Raul Malo, one of music’s most dynamic singers, The Mavericks makes its public television concert special debut on Thursday, December 5, at 8:30 p.m. Taped at Marathon Music Works earlier this year, The Mavericks: In Time finds the band two decades since its inception and eight-years after a hiatus, sounding more genre-defying and infectious than ever. Favorites “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,” “Here Comes the Rain,” and “Dance the Night Away” join the Orbison-esque “Born to Be Blue,” the horn-punctuated retro-noir “Back in Your Arms Again,” and the Tejano-esque “All Over Again,” all from the band’s latest record, In Time, help create a remarkable show that will make you a fan all over again. Like Enrico Caruso before him, the late Luciano Pavarotti extended his presence far beyond the limits of Italian opera, quickly establishing his rich sound as the great male operatic voice of the twentieth century. Audiences adored his larger-than-life personality, childlike charm, generous figure, and happy-go-lucky style. On Friday, December 13, at 8:30 p.m. Great Performances celebrates the 50th anniversary of Pavarotti’s debut with Pavarotti: A Voice for the Ages. The program includes “Nessun dorma” as well as other arias from La Bohème, Rigoletto, and Aida; Neapolitan songs in arrangements by Henry Mancini, including “Mamma” and “O Sole Mio,” and popular duets with Bono, Sting, Vanessa Williams, and Eric Clapton. Happy New Year from everyone at Nashville Public Television!
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Weekend Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30
Saturday
am Electric Company Angelina Ballerina Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Dinosaur Train Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Sewing with Nancy Martha’s Sewing Room Garden Smart P. Allen Smith Cooking with Nick Stellino Cook’s Country noon America’s Test Kitchen Bringing it Home with Laura McIntosh Martha Stewart’s Cooking School Martha Bakes Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Woodsmith Shop The Woodwright’s Shop Rough Cut with Tommy Mac This Old House Ask This Old House Hometime PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Tennessee’s Wild Side
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Nashville Public Television
Sunday
5:00 am Sesame Street 6:00 Curious George 6:30 The Cat in the Hat 7:00 Peg + Cat 7:30 Dinosaur Train 8:00 Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood 8:30 Super Why! 9:00 Tennessee’s Wild Side 9:30 Volunteer Gardener 10:00 Tennessee Crossroads 10:30 A Word on Words 11:00 Nature 12:00 noon To the Contrary 12:30 The McLaughlin Group 1:00 Moyers & Company 2:00 Washington Week with Gwen Ifill 2:30 Expeditions with Patrick McMillan 3:00 California’s Gold 3:30 Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope 4:00 America’s Heartland 4:30 Family Travel with Colleen Kelly 5:00 Antiques Roadshow 6:00 PBS NewsHour Weekend 6:30 pm Charlie Rose: The Week
Christmas at Belmont Acclaimed American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves hosts this annual production of traditional carols, classical masterworks, world music and lighthearted seasonal favorites taped at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Nashville Premiere
Thursday, Dec 19 at 8:00 PM National PBS Premiere
Friday, Dec 20 at 9:00 PM
(Encore Tuesday, Dec 24 at 7:00 PM )
Daytime Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00
am Classical Stretch Body Electric Arthur Wild Kratts Curious George The Cat in the Hat Peg + Cat Dinosaur Train Sesame Street Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Super Why! Sid the Science Kid Thomas and Friends Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood pm Caillou Super Why! Dinosaur Train Martha Speaks Clifford the Big Red Dog Peg + Cat The Cat in the Hat Curious George Arthur WordGirl Wild Kratts pm PBS NewsHour
Nashville Public Television
How Sherlock Changed the World With a mix of interviews, dramatic reconstruction and archives, discover the impact and legacy of the most famous crime fighter in history.
Celtic Woman: Home for Christmas
Tuesday, Dec 17 8:00 PM
Complemented by a 36-piece orchestra and the 40-member Philharmonic Choir, this large-scale production by the internationally renowned group promises to be a moving and festive celebration of cherished holiday music.
Monday, Dec 2 at 7:00 PM Saturday, Dec 7 at 8:30 PM
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7:00 Masterpiece Classic Downton Abbey, Season 3 - Part 3. See the effects on Downton Abbey of the Irish civil war and the fight for women’s suffrage. 8:00 Masterpiece Classic Downton Abbey, Season 3 - Part 4. The Crawley family faces adversity. 9:00 Masterpiece Classic Downton Abbey, Season 3 - Part 5. 10:00 NPT Favorites
7:00 Masterpiece Classic Downton Abbey, Season 3 - Part 1. The Great War is over and the longawaited engagement of Lady Mary And Matthew is on, but all is not tranquil at Downton. 9:00 Masterpiece Classic Downton Abbey, Season 3 - Part 2. The fate of Downton Abbey hinges on a letter from a dead man. Edith and Sir Anthony face their own fateful moment.
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Junk in the. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Trash to Treasure. 9:00 Independent Lens Playwright: From Page to Stage. The lives of two young playwrights — an African American from Miami’s inner city and an Indian American from Cleveland — are brought together. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Primary Concern
7:00 Return to Downton Abbey Savor fond memories from the past three seasons and get a tantalizing taste of the upcoming fourth season. 8:30 Inside Foyle’s War Take a look at how this enormously popular, award-winning series has captured loyal fans for over 10 years. Hosted by Len Cariou. 10:00 BBC World News
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7:00 Celtic Woman: Home For Christmas Vocalists Lisa Lambe, Susan Mcfadden, Meav Ni Mhaolchatha and Celtic Violinist Mairead Nesbitt perform timeless holiday favorites. 8:30 Tommy Emmanuel and Friends: Live From the Balboa Theatre 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Best Of The 60s (My Music Archives) The British Beat, Motown and 60s Rock & Soul.
Monday
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7:00 Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Ghosts Of Christmas Past Ossie Davis narrates. Jewel, Michael Crawford and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra perform. 8:00 Return To Downton Abbey Memories from past seasons and a taste of the upcoming fourth season. 9:30 Inside Foyle’s War 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Best Of The 60s (My Music Archives)
Sunday
Primetime Evening Schedule
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7:00 Red Metal: The Copper Country Strike An epic labor strike that devastated Michigan’s Copper Country. 8:00 How Sherlock Changed the World The astonishing impact Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation had on the development of real-life criminal investigation and forensic techniques. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Out on a Limb
Wednesday
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7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 NPT Favorites
7:00 Nature Cold Warriors: Wolves and Buffalo. For thousands of years, wolves hunted buffalo across the vast North American plains until the westward settlement of the continent saw the virtual extinction of these vast herds and the wolves. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes.
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7:00 Elton John In Concert Elton performs many of his hits including “Your Song” and “Candle In The Wind” as well as his new single “Home Again.” 8:30 Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre – Live From New York The renowned guitar superstar is joined by Paul Rodgers and John Hiatt. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Return To Downton Abbey
Return to Downton Abbey Sunday, December 1, 8:00 PM Monday, December 9, 7:00 PM
7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 NPT Favorites
7:00 Elvis, Aloha From Hawaii Seen in about 40 countries by 1.5 billion people, Elvis Presley made television and entertainment history with his 1973 concert from Honolulu. 8:30 Brit Floyd Live At Red Rocks 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Celtic Woman: Home For Christmas Musical enchantment for the entire family.
Tuesday
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19 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Christmas at Belmont Local Premiere. Hosted by renowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and taped at the Schermerhorn Symphony, nearly 700 student musicians join the Belmont School of Music faculty and the Nashville Children’s Choir to present this annual production. 9:00 Doc Martin Do Not Disturb.
Elton John in Concert Wednesday, December 4 7:00 PM
7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 NPT Favorites
7:00 Il Volo Buon Natale The young Italian trio celebrates the holidays with its new special, performed before adoring fans. 8:30 The Mavericks: In Time One of America’s favorite genre-defying bands returns after an eight-year hiatus with favorites and new tracks. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre – Live From New York
Thursday
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20 7:00 Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Café Performances by Rock Hall of Famer Leon Russell, IIIrd Tyme Out, Star & Micey, Josh Farrow and The Thorpe Mckenzie Mand. 8:00 Craft In America Holiday. 9:00 Christmas at Belmont National premiere. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
13 7:00 Libera: Angels Sing Christmas in Ireland The iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, Ireland, is the setting for a performance of Christmas songs by one of the world’s most accomplished and acclaimed boy choirs, Libera. 8:30 Great Performances Pavarotti: A Voice for the Ages. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
7:00 Gospel’s Jubilee Showcase For more than two decades, the long - defunct TV program featured, and therefore preserved on tape, virtually everyone who mattered in gospel. 8:00 John Sebastian Presents: Folk Rewind The lead singer of the Lovin’ Spoonful hosts. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
Friday
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21 7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Christmas. 8:00 Keeping Appearances Christmas Special 1991. 8:30 Keeping Appearances Christmas Special 1995. 9:00 Keeping Appearances Christmas Special 1993. 10:00 Globe Trekker Caribbean Islands: St. Lucia, Martinique and Montserrat. 11:00 Doc Martin Do Not Disturb.
14 7:00 The Statler Brothers Farewell Concert On October 26, 2002, at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia, just 85 miles from the hometown, Harold, Phil, Jimmy and Don gathered for the last time. 8:30 NPT Favorites
7:00 John Tesh Big Band Live Emmy® winner and Grammy® nominee John Tesh and his 12-piece ensemble perform bigband music from the 1920s through the ‘50s. 8:30 Celtic Woman: Home For Christmas The unique all-female ensemble and cultural phenomenon celebrates Christmas. 10:00 Dr. Wayne Dyer Wishes Fulfilled
Saturday
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Gospel’s Jubilee Showcase Friday, December 6 7:00 PM
7:00 Masterpiece Classic Downton Abbey, Season 3 - Part 7. The Crawleys head to a Scottish hunting lodge, while the downstairs staff stays behind at Downton Abbey. 9:00 Call The Midwife Holiday Special 10:30 Closer To Truth Did the universe have a beginning? 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
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7:00 Live From Lincoln Center New York Philharmonic Gala With Yo-Yo Ma. Ma joins the New York Philharmonic for a festive celebration of dance-inspired orchestral music. 8:30 Return To Downton Abbey 9:00 Frontline From Jesus To Christ: The First Christians. 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Katmai: Alaska’s Wild Peninsula
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7:00 Christmas At Belmont Student musicians join Denyce Graves, the Belmont School of Music faculty and the Nashville Children’s Choir. 8:00 Christmas With The Mormon Tabernacl 9:00 Frontline Fom Jesus To Christ: The First Christians. 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 POV Listening Is An Act Of Love: A Storycorps Special.
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Visit wnpt.org for complete 24 hour schedules for NPT and NPT2
Mr. Stink Sunday, December 22 7:00 PM
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 A Chef’s Life A Peanut Pastime. Vivian visits a neighbors peanut farm just before and during harvest. 8:30 Mind Of A Chef London. 9:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Forgotten War: The Struggle For Nor Three powers clashed for North America.
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7:00 Great Performances From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration. Ring in the New Year with the Vienna Philharmonic at the opulent Musikverein, under the baton of guest conductor Daniel Barenboim. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Rodrigo Y Gabriela.
JANUARY
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 A Chef’s Life A Road Trip For Rice. Carolina heirloom rice. 8:30 Mind of a Chef Senegal. West Africa’s influence on Southern cuisine. 9:00 Doc Martin The Wrong Goodbye. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 NPT Reports: Aging Matters End of Life.
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7:00 Nature Christmas In Yellowstone. The great winter world of Yellowstone. 8:00 NOVA Building the Great Cathedrals. Soaring effortlessly atop a spiderweb of masonry, gothic cathedrals are marvels of human achievement and artistry. 9:00 Mr. Stink 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Tom Waits.
Libera: Angels Sing Christmas in Ireland Friday, December 13 7:00 PM
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Phoenix, AZ - Hour 2. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Phoenix, AZ - Hour 3. 9:00 Independent Lens How to Survive a Plague. The story of two grassroots coalitions who fought to turn AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Shakespeare’s American Home Center in Virginia.
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Finders Keepers. 8:00 Genealogy Roadshow Nashville. 9:00 Independent Lens Jiro Dreams of Sushi. 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered the world’s greatest sushi chef, is the proprietor of a 10seat restaurant in a Tokyo subway station. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Farm Holiday Special With Ian Knaue
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7:00 Mr. Stink Hugh Bonneville stars as Mr. Stink, a tramp who is more than meets the eye. 8:00 Masterpiece Classic Downton Abbey, Season 3 - Part 6. 10:00 Bluegrass Underground North Missisippi Allstars. 10:30 Closer to Truth Confronting Consciousness. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Inside Washington
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Nashville Public Television
American Masters Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love Friday, December 27 8:00 PM
A Chef’s Life Thursday, January 2 8:00 PM
7:00 Lawrence Welk Show 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Café There Were Three In The Bed. 9:00 Miranda Let's Do it. Things are looking up for Miranda's love life when as she finds herself with two dates and two men vying for her affections. 9:30 Outnumbered 10:00 Globe Trekker Alps & Lapland. Holly travels by dogsled.
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7:00 NPT Favorites 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show New Year’s. 8:00 Keeping Appearances Christmas Special 1994. 9:00 Miranda The Perfect Christmas. 9:30 Outnumbered 10:00 Globe Trekker Mozambique. 11:00 Doc Martin The Wrong Goodbye.
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7:00 Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Café Performances by Aoife O’Donovan, Pokey Lafarge, Peter Rowan, Norah Jane Struthers and Luella & The Sun. 8:00 American Masters Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love. 9:00 Return To Downton Abbey 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Moyers & Company
YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis
Nashville’s Newest Leading Source for Tennessee Art
JENNIFER PADGETT
BITSY HUGHES
Today's Specials, 16x20 oil on wood panel
Memories of the Marne, 24x30 oil on canvas
C. GAY PETACH
LASSIE MCDONALD CROWDER
Bend in the River, 30x40 oil on canvas
Autumn on Spring Creek, 30x40 oil on linen
107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net • www.yorkandfriends.com Follow us on at Ron York Art
PHOTOGRAPHY
WHO IS THIS GUY? by Carol Caldwell
L
ee Crum is a big man with a booming enthusiastic delivery, a generous complicitous laugh. I’d guessed
from our phone talk he was a raconteur and jack-of-all-trades in his younger days. I also consider myself a fairly perspicacious nailer of folks’ Southern accents from their state of nativity to pinning down a hometown or range of terrain, but I was having trouble with where Lee Crum was coming from. I knew it had to be west of us, but not by much, certainly not to the south of us— but I totally missed out on the town those of us in Music City sometimes jokingly refer to as Little or No Rock. On getting together, I kicked off with where Lee Crum got his learnin’, and the photographer took it from there. “Remember in the Sunday papers they used to have coupons you could clip or envelopes to mail in with your film for processing? Most of it went to a plant in Little Rock—Color Pix. I had a job there driving a van at night so I could go to school by day. I was majoring in journalism at Arkansas. My first four freshman years were my favorite! I started taking pictures with an old Mamiya, had one 35 lens, and a friend who worked at
the paper said one day, ‘You should come by the Democrat and show them your portfolio.’ Portfolio! I had ten little photos glued on a cheap piece of fiberboard. I’d been taking pictures for six months. This kindly old fellow at the Arkansas Democrat met with me and said they needed somebody to shoot Friday night football. “When they offered me that job it hit me like a lightning bolt. It was the most clarity I’d ever had in my life about what I didn’t know I wanted to do! I said to myself: this thing is doable. That man, by fate and by chance, opened the door for me. I was staying in college just to keep ahead of going into the factory. From that start at the paper, I went into advertising down in New Orleans—if you’ve driven it, eaten it, or worn it, I’ve probably shot it, celebrity endorsements. Now, this got me interested in making portraits. I got into doing celebrity photos for magazines: Jack Nicholson, Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Kevin Klein, like that. Shot for magazines like Esquire all over the place . . . all along being paid handsomely to learn how to do what I was doing. On-the-job training.”
Oaxacan Skull Makers
He’s walking me through his office, which appears to be the den to the back of the house with pictures higgledy-piggledy all over the place. He has a whole series of heartbreaking portraits of Mexican paisanos. One real tight close-up of an ancient Mayan woman he calls his Greta Garbo. “Look at this face. The depth of her face in that moment. Something so special in her, you don’t get many chances to make a portrait better . . . and here’s the beekeepers. They’re coming out of the fields at dusk, all day collecting honey, carrying smoke. I asked this one in the middle why she wasn’t wearing gloves. She said she’d been doing it since she was little, didn’t need any gloves. I traveled all over Mexico, shot nudes in those haciendas, those old temples—you don’t find places like that up here. Look here, the old man and his wife in front of their fences made of cactus. This one, the little girl popping out of her circus caravan, works in a traveling circus, like La Strada.
“I feel like, finally, I’ve put my big-boy pants on. I stopped shooting ads about four years ago. That’s allowed me to kick the door down. Staying in one place and thinking about the work, not just taking assignments. And now, I just want to make my own photographs.” I asked him, “When did now start?” He said, “About four years ago when I ended my commercial career in New Orleans and moved up here. It’s been a slow thing. Maybe I’m just a slow learner.” I said, “But everybody has to earn a living. Aren’t we lucky we tried to combine earning a living with something we wanted to do?” He said, “This is the bottom of my self-taught education: I’m trying to make a living as an artist. “You’re trying to get by and get to the next level for yourself. You try to figure out that thing that’s driving you. Often what I have a hard time
Zapotecan Woman
Circo Girl
“I feel like, finally, I’ve put my big-
boy pants on. And now, I just want to make my own photographs.” with is trying to comprise all these things and all these influences. Take all these things in my vision for putting things together and apply it to imagery. Man, that’s a hard thing to do. It’s easy to talk about.” I said, “Or is it? To find the freedom to see what it is you want to say.” He says, “Thirty years as a gun for hire, making okay photos for somebody else. The challenge though is making something that has a different meaning—you’re not re-inventing the wheel, just changing the way it looks. One of the rewards is when you look at a piece and realize you haven’t seen it quite that way before. Didn’t come out of somebody else’s playbook. “The challenging thing is the thing that has a different meaning. Anything in a creative pursuit is like the universe. Continually offers more space. The more time you have to concern yourself with finding your own voice, the better your work is. I’m in a free-for-all, where I am doing a lot of experimental stuff and look at some of it and think, this is shit. And then look at some of it and say, wow. If I could just tweak this thing, it could be enough to keep me going!” Women Beekeepers
For information about Lee Crum, visit www.leecrum.com.
Argentinian Shepherdess
American Chronicles: The Ar t of Norman Rockwell has been organized by the Norman Roc kwell Museum, Stoc kbridge, Massac husetts.
This exhibition is made possible with the generous suppor t from National Endowment for the Ar ts, American Masterpieces Program; the Henr y Luce Foundation; Cur tis Publishing Co.; Norman Roc kwell Family Agency; and the Stoc kman Family Foundation. This exhibition is suppor ted by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the ar ts and Humanities. PRESENTING SPONSORS:
Anne & Joe Russell SUPPORTING SPONSOR:
HOSPITALIT Y SPONSOR:
The Frist Center for the Visual Ar ts gratefully ac knowledges our Picasso Circle Members as Exhibition Patrons. THE FRIST CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY:
Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission
This exhibition is suppor ted by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Ar ts and the Humanities.
DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE 919 BROADWAY FRISTCENTER.ORG Norman Rockwell. The Problem We All Live With (detail). Story illustration for Look, January 14, 1964. Š Norman Rockwell Family Agency. All rights reserved. Norman Rockwell Museum Collections
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PHOTOGRAPH: MELISSA FULLER
esperado ialogues
Casey Pierce’s Newest Paintings Mosey through the Old West and Beyond by Joe Nolan
N
ashville painter Casey Pierce’s new series of large narrative paintings depicts scenes from the Old West. However, while the canvases are
loaded with badmen, bullets, and buttes, they are also brimming with references to the history of Western civilization in general. New West originally previewed at Threesquared in January. The paintings reveal America’s cowboy mythologizing while simultaneously recalling the cinematic sources that have celebrated and perpetuated these legends. The artist paints in his living room, and we talked through the series, unrolling each unstretched canvas across the floor, one on top of the next—like turning the pages on a new kind of penny dreadful a hundred years removed from its source. “The paintings relate to the Wild West, of
What Ever Happened To Mars, Oil, acrylic, carbon on canvas, 54" x 48" NashvilleArts.com
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Collision, Oil and silver leaf on canvas, 50" x 44"
and the Dead? Is the girl in the painting caught in a dissolve between a close-up of her face and a wide, epic shot of the face of a landscape that we have defined through the lens of mythic understanding in our art and our popular culture?
The Girl In The Velvet Chair, Oil, acrylic, carbon on canvas, 36" x 48"
course, but they also reference Western philosophy,” explains Pierce. One of his most obvious references is Plato’s Cave. The painting depicts a monumental, sun-blasted landscape straight out of a John Ford film. The striking scene is framed by an opening in a cave. The opening is shaped like a profile of a human brain, and it separates the dramatically illuminated background from the formidable foreground, which is engulfed in a deep, black, figureless shadow. “This is a reference to Plato’s allegory of the cave,” says Pierce. “I wanted to put the viewer inside the cave looking out with the directive ESCAPE superimposed on their vision. The inside of the cave represents obscurity, and the outside represents clarity. Escape from the cave is found in the inner understanding of the outside world.
With Collision the painter offers West’s biggest surprise. Collision finds two bullets crashing nose to nose in a comic-book-style pop-art explosion. The projectiles crack in half in the midst of a multicolored blast that’s highlighted by some gorgeous flashes of silver leaf. It’s unique in the series, and it’s the closest Pierce has ever come to Lichtenstein. “It’s really cartoony,” says Pierce. “Every now and then I like to do something that’s a little more flip or uncertain—not so measured.” Very “certain” and carefully “measured” is the sort of perspective one might bring to a gunfight, and it’s exactly what Pierce brings to bear in Showdown. “This is one of my more poetic pieces,” says Pierce. “The concept is solid; it says what it is.” The painting pictures a dappled desert stretching to the horizon. A gunfighter in the center of the painting is rendered to look like he’s made of pure blue
“The piece is loaded already because of the title, but there needed to be more surface information,” says Pierce. “Plus it gave me a chance to get my Wayne White out.” The girl in Pony wears a cowboy hat and a black mask that recalls the recently rebooted Lone Ranger. In Hollywood, the Western heroine is a rare breed, and Pony calls to mind celluloid tough gals like Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar. Pierce renders abstract flowers in static swatches of color that cover the prairie behind the girl and even break past the lines that define her figure, making her appear semitransparent. Is she a spirit? Is she a legend so tied to a particular place that they’ve become one and the same? Is she the star of a film like that other unlikely female gunslinger Sharon Stone in The Quick
Pony, Oil on canvas, 68" x 50"
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Magic Carpet Ride, Oil, acrylic, carbon on canvas, 54" x 60"
sky—he’s transparent, and a white blast of sunshine notes the firing of his revolver. The viewer sees the scene through the transparent body of his victim, who is painted like a see-through scrim of starry night sky. He’s dropping his pistol, and the moon above a peak on the horizon looks like a bullet hole in his chest. Casting his gunslingers in a showdown of complementary opposites, Pierce tells a story that stretches back past dusty tales of rustlers and regulators, sheriffs and shootists. The artist trades Duel in the Sun for a duel with the sun, recounting timeless conflicts like the one the ancient Egyptians personified in the feud between the sun god Horus and Set, the god of the desert. An extremely complicated myth, the story of Horus and Set is ultimately a revenge tale just like the kind you find in a brooding United Artists film from 1952. And Pierce’s painting reminds us that at every point of conflict throughout human history the clock has always been striking high noon. For more information about the work of Casey Pierce, visit www.caseypierce.com.
Plato's Cave, Oil on canvas, 56" x 50"
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Ben Caldwell PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP
PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP
PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP
C op p e r s m i t h , S i lv e r s m i t h , E n a m e l i s t & S c u l p tor
Oprah discovered what Nashville knew all along. When it comes to copper and Caldwell, it doesn’t get better than this. by Robert Hicks
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have known Ben Caldwell, III, since he was a kid. I have watched Ben, the son of Gertrude and Benjamin Caldwell, Jr., grow up into the man, husband, father, and artist he is today. Living long enough to watch folks come of age and create lives of worth and meaning is one of the single best gifts to us as we age.
After school, Ben married, settled down, and started working in Gibson’s custom-made instrument division. I remember talking to him about his passion for the creative. It seemed like he had found a good fit, and I figured Ben would be making instruments for the rest of his life. About that time, Ben’s dad had a conversation with a master metalsmith from Bradyville, Tennessee. Terry Talley had served as a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War before coming
NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP
There was little doubt from his late teen years onward that Ben would be an artist. Whether building a balsa-wood model of Notre Dame Cathedral or traditional West African drums, he seemed driven to create.
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Oprah named two objects – the copper tomato server with an antler handle and a small ginkgo leaf flat server with an antler handle among her “favorite things.”
home to perfect his work as a sculptor and metalsmith. Dr. Ben had been collecting both Terry’s larger sculptural work and his utilitarian copper work for years. In years past, Terry had agreed to take on young artisans to apprentice under him. Problem was, no sooner would they arrive than he would be pushing them aside. But things were now different. Terry was dying of cancer, and, with his children too young to carry on for him, he had come to realize that all he had learned, refined, and perfected was to be forever lost. Instead of the student approaching the master, this time the proposal was coming from the master to the student. Ben left Gibson in 1998 and, to feed his family while he apprenticed under Terry during daylight hours, got a job
delivering pizzas at night. Complicating the apprenticeship was the reality of Terry’s cancer and impending death. Ben likes to say that during that next eighteen months, Terry taught him not only how to be an artisan metalsmith but took the time to teach him the equally valuable lessons of how to make a living doing it. For Terry understood not only the art of hammering, bending, and folding metal and polishing antlers—he knew his market. “Always make extra ladles!”
seem to leave little time to hone his art, let alone tend to the needs of a family. Yet Ben has not only continued to produce the objects he learned from Terry but has grown as an artist must grow to stay viable and fresh.
By 2000, Terry Talley was dead at fifty, and Ben Caldwell was pushed out into the world of gallery shows and artisan craft fairs. Doing as many as twenty-four shows a year would
Beyond his mainstay of copper utilitarian objects, Ben added silversmithing to his repertoire. It was a natural for him, having grown up surrounded by his dad’s
scholarship on Tennessee coin silver and Terry’s own passion for silversmithing. Just as Terry had before him, Ben began to experiment with larger pieces of copper, twisting and turning them into sculptural objects. Reaching back into his own training as a painter, he learned how to use powdered glass to enamel his sculpture with color. Ben’s series of flags, seemingly caught waving in the wind, are far closer related to Terry’s larger sculpture than all those extra ladles.
Even now, as Ben pushes metalsmithing into new arenas, he has never strayed far from all he has learned. There is still much he wants to do as he expands his vision to create. Yet, wherever he takes it, the foundation of it all will remain rooted in a couple of thousand years of metalsmithing and all Terry Talley taught him. He won’t be straying too far from all those ladles anytime soon. Oprah named two objects—his copper tomato server with an antler handle and a small ginkgo-leaf flat
server with an antler handle—among her “favorite things.” No doubt, Terry Talley would be very proud. Time has proven that he chose the right person to carry on his work. And, in so doing, Ben Caldwell continues to hammer out a future for himself and his family. Meet the artist at LeQuire Gallery on Saturday, December 14, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, visit www.lequiregallery.com and www.bencaldwellcopper.com.
The FACTORY S H O P,
D I N E
AT FR ANKLIN &
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Abide Studio • Act Too Players • Advantage Model & Talent • Always In Bloom • Amish Excellence • Annette Charles Fashion Boutique Antiques at the Factory • Art Row at The Factory • Artisan Guitars • Boiler Room Theater • Constant Craving Caterers Essy’s Rug Gallery • Fancy Vents • Franklin Brentwood Arts Academy • Franklin Farmers’ Market The Glass Touch • Gro-Nails • Gulf Pride Seafood • Happy Tales Humane • ISI Defensive Driving • J. Chastain Photo Jeremy Cowart Photography • Journey Church • Little Cottage Toys • Little Cottage Children’s Shop Mark Casserly Architectural Woodworking • Music City Dog House • Nature’s Art • O’More College • Saffire • Second Impressions Clothing South Branch Nursery • Southgate Studio & Fine Art • Springtree Media Group • Stoveworks • Stonebridge Gallery • The Sweet Shoppe Tala Jewelry • Third Coast Clay • Timberwolf Designs • Times Past & Present • Tuscan Iron Entries • Wedding 101
www.factoryatfranklin.com
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230 FR AN KLIN ROAD
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615.791.1777
COLLECTION
FA B R IC O F L I F E Caye David's Historic Collection of Indonesian Textiles by Nancy Cason | Photography by Jerry Atnip
C
rossing the threshold of Jalan-Jalan may convince first-time visitors they’ve entered the inviting sanctuary of a Balinese villa. Large sculptural bowls, tightly woven baskets,
Indonesia. But for the first time since opening her showroom in 1997, textiles from her museum-quality collection, possibly the largest of its kind in North America, take center stage.
and lamps created from native architectural elements share the zen-like environment with carved canopy beds and teak benches and tables. These antiques and artifacts are part of the changing displays of “agrarian art” through which owner Caye David has offered Nashvillians a rare glimpse into the material culture of
“I’ve been drawn to these beautiful hand-dyed and woven fabrics since my first trip to Bali in 1992,” Caye explains. “On each subsequent visit, my business partner Amir would put out the word, and people would travel by boat and motorbike from their small islands with stacks of textiles for me to see. For the past
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“These textiles are a language
of symbols. For centuries they have served as a way to differentiate ethnic identities of neighboring island groups, and to indicate social standing within a community.” afterlife. “This is often called a skull tree and serves as a visual record of the owner’s victory over enemies, but it may also allude to their practice of ancestor worship and could be seen as a family tree,” Caye explains. Several textiles in the collection were part of the bride price paid by a groom prior to marriage. A noblewoman’s skirt decorated with a deer motif indicates that the owner was a member of royalty, “the only class allowed to hunt deer in Indonesia,” Caye adds. The collection also includes many fine examples of songket—ornate brocaded textiles intricately patterned with shimmering gold or silver threads.
twenty years, I’ve been immersed in collecting and learning about what I’ve bought.” She is just as intent on sharing her extensive knowledge with others. On one wall Caye has arranged a grouping of textiles from nine Indonesian islands that attest to diverse cultural influences within traditional production methods: batiks with stylized floral, animal, and bird designs that were first hand-drawn in wax, then resist-dyed with natural plant substances; abstract and brightly colored plangi or “rainbow” cloths produced through a tie-anddye process; and ikat, textiles made from threads that are tied off in predetermined sections and dyed, so that when woven they produce complex patterns. Caye insists that for her, the allure of textiles is not only their striking beauty but the centuries-old cultural narratives expressed through traditional motifs, colors, and patterns. “These textiles are a language of symbols,” Caye explains. “For centuries they have served as a way to differentiate ethnic identities of neighboring island groups and to indicate social standing within a community.” She points to a Sumbanese hinggi, or ceremonial garment for male aristocrats, with elaborate patterns on a background of turkey red and deep indigo. “The hinggi is woven in identical pairs, so that one piece can be worn as a mantle around the shoulders, the other as a waistcloth,” Caye explains and then interprets the special symbols of power arranged in horizontal bands: “The horses indicate wealth and the roosters above them, fertility.” Below is a large stylized tree adorned with skulls and circled by birds, a symbol for the
Recently, Caye was invited to participate in the Southeast Asian Textile Symposium in Washington, DC, where pieces from her collection received high acclaim from curators for their historical and aesthetic value and technical excellence. “I have been fortunate to accumulate many traditional textiles produced before 1940, when textiles were dyed with only natural materials and the weaving patterns used were those memorized and passed down from generation to generation. These works are fast becoming a lost art.” The collection is on display at Jalan-Jalan on Winford Avenue through the end of the year. For more information, see www.jalanjalanantiques.com. CAPTIONS 1. left. Hikung (sash or banner), Sumba, 1990, Cotton with supplementary warp weave and aniline dyes, 27” x 50” 2. right. Hinggi, Sumba, early-mid 20 th c., Handspun cotton warp ikat with natural dyes, 44” x 120”
A contemporary textile (on left) produced for the burgeoning tourist market in Indonesia can be distinguished from an older work (on right) by the use of enlarged patterns and commercial aniline dyes.
3. (textile beneath) Ceremonial headdress, Sumatra, early 20 th c., Silk ikat center with gold songket border, 34” x 34”
(textile above) Songket, Bali, 1990, Metal-thread songket on silk, 28” x 85”
4. Tapis Tua Prada (golden ceremonial sarong), Sumatra, late 19 th c., Handspun cotton with wrapped gold thread, 22” x 38” 5. Noblewoman’s Skirt (Lau Pahudu), Sumba, early 20 th c., Handspun cotton with natural dyes, 28” x 48” 6. Selendang (Man's Shoulder Cloth), Savu Island, Cotton Ikat, 23" x 60"
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More than 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, but a $5 wristband provides unlimited transportation on trolleys circulating during the event.
11/14/13 9:14 PM
jalan-jalan indonesian Antiques • Ancient modern design
Teakwood Betel Boxes - java, early 20th century
O’More College of Design
holiday open house saturday, december 7th, 10 until 4 p.m. 2503 Winford Avenue • nAshville, Tn 37211 WWW.jAlAnjAlAnAnTiques.com
72 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
www.FranklinArtScene.com Facebook.com/FranklinArtScene Sponsored By:
In Wunder- l and
Ring of Fire, 2011, Titanium, sterling silver, 24k gold; hand swan, soldered, constructed, cold connected with rivets, 10” x 7” x ¼”
Doug Wunder’s exceptional jewelry wins Nashville Arts Best of Show at TACA By Stephanie Stewart-Howard Photography by Lawrence Sanders
T PHOTOGRAPH: AURA HOGAN
his year’s Nashville Arts Magazine’s Best of Show at the fall Tennessee Arts and Crafts fair, metalwork artist and jewelry designer E. Douglas (“Doug”) Wunder, lives in Pennsylvania, but he’s left Tennessee with a taste for his remarkable pieces. Created
with an aesthetic that is at once architectural, sculptural, and mechanical, Wunder blends nontraditional materials to create exquisite jewelry with appeal to both men and women.
Growing up in Iowa City (where he’d later attend the University of Iowa in the late ‘80s), Wunder’s fulltime hobby was making models. He developed an extraordinary knack for fine detail with small objects – eventually creating them entirely from scratch. “I taught myself a craft, I learned to use tools and honed my craftsmanship during that time,” he says. In college, he took metalsmithing as an elective– further mastering the use of tools and learning to create exquisite, clean pieces. After graduation, he continued designing, selling his jewelry at the local Iowa Artisan’s Gallery, Katherine’s boutique, and the Thieves’ Market art fairs, while working odd jobs. He perfected his craft during this time, refining his technique and producing
Touch of Blue #3, 2008, Titanium, sterling silver; hand swan, anodized, constructed, cold connected with rivets, 4½” x 4¾” x 1¼”
Object #6, 2006, Titanium, 18k gold bi-metal; hand swan, constructed, cold connected with rivets, 2¼” x 2¼” x ¼”
volumes of work that he eventually sold via boutiques, galleries, and shops nationally, plus at art exhibitions like TACA here in town. Wunder says he is inspired by a combination of the natural and manmade worlds. Asked if he takes inspiration from the Art Deco or Art Nouveau movement, or contemporary Steampunk design, he says no. “I was never an art or design history person, I don’t have a lot of those influences – I was lucky to find my own little world.” Wunder’s work defies “trend” – cufflinks might be out of fashion, but he sells a lot of them because people want them, he says. He uses more titanium than gold or silver, and the engineering elements are part of the structure of his delicate work. “I don’t really think about jewelry, I think about structure and structural integrity; it’s part of the aesthetic, working the elements together,” he says. There’s no denying, the astonishingly inventive nature of the final results. For more information visit www.edouglaswunder.com.
BSG Segmented Bracelet #6, 2010, Titanium, sterling silver; hand swan, constructed, cold connected with rivets, 3½” x 3½” x 2”
PHOTOGRAPHY: DUSTIN CHAMBERS
Dorothy O'Connor
SCENES FROM A ROOM by Beverly Keel
A
tlanta artist Dorothy O’Connor turns her dreams into reality by creating life-size installations that also allow the audience to step inside her mind to develop their own interpretations of her imagination. She has an ongoing series
called Scenes that centers around transforming spaces, often a room, into magical landscapes that utilize everyday objects, especially books, and nature to create a conceptual autobiography. Her impressive installation called Ceiling of Black Birds will be on display, along with her photographs of past installations, at Tinney Contemporary Gallery, opening December 7. “Scenes started out as a photography project,” says O’Connor, 43, who had a residency at the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum of Art earlier this year. “I have a studio in the back of my house where I build fantastical sets that I can walk into as if it was a different world. “A lot of them start as dreams,” she says, noting that Ceiling of Black Birds was originally titled Don’t Forget Your Funeral. “I remember at the end of a dream that somebody turned around and said, ‘Don’t forget your funeral,’ and I woke up like a slap in the face. That day I had the idea to build this scene.” The ceiling is aflutter with handmade paper blackbirds, and the installation features two live models—one making birds out of pages and another painting the birds black and ostensibly placing them on the ceiling. The models sit on beds that were her grandparents’.
The wallpapered walls are covered in thorny vines. “A friend had a bunch of crazy trees in his pasture,” she explains. “They had really long thorns and he hated them, so I said I’d take them. He took them down, shucked them, and stained them.” Books play a prominent role in her art. “I was an English major in college and books still mean a great deal to me. I like having them in scenes,” she says. Like books, her work takes on a different meaning to each viewer.
“When I open my studio door, it is a whole different world . . . an entirely different thing than a photograph.” I wanted people to experience that the same way I do. There’s a lot of stuff to look at in each one and to talk about and experience. I like that people can have their own ideas about what things mean and what each scene means to them. It’s a shared experience with the audience. “When I used to build them before, I would think about the end result being a photograph. Now that I open them as live
Ceiling of Black Birds, 2012, Photograph and installation
installations, I try to think about more aspects—more of a 3-D thing instead of 2-D. I like to add sound and snow if I can, and I love movement. I think about how I can incorporate that to make it more of a scene from a play. The next one I build, I want to have movement in it so people can actually interact with it. I would love to have cranks so that people can turn them and see movement.” Dorothy O’Connor is represented by Tinney Contemporar y Gallery. Her exhibit, Scenes, opens on December 7 and will remain on view through January 11. For more information, visit www.tinneycontemporary.com and www.dorothyoconnor.com.
Room, 2009, Photograph and installation
Holiday Trunk Show December 7th 11-6
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Blair concert series 2013-2014
PleaSe Join uS
at the
Blair School of MuSic in 2014
ThEaTrE A Christmas Carol: The Musical December 6th-15th
as we celeBrate 50 years oF educating nashville’s young musicians.
Lunch and Dinner options also available
Details about the spring 2014 concert series may be found at blair.vanderbilt.edu All concerts at the Blair School of Music are free and open to the public unless specifically stated otherwise. For complete details about all the upcoming events at Blair, visit our website at blair.vanderbilt.edu
2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212
The Charles Dickens’ classic gets the full Broadway treatment! This spectacular musical extravaganza is filled with beautiful melodies, emotional lyrics, exuberant dances and exciting special effects
Family EVENT Twas The Night Before Christmas
December 14th 11am / $4 The wild adventures of a mouse, an elf and a spunky little girl who just won’t take no for an answer.
11:51 AM
Holiday Lunch Buffet 12noon / $7 Children’s Art Workshop 1pm-4pm / $20
Visits from Santa Claus
throughout the day!
Full Day Ticket for $27
workshops Corks and Canvas with Elizabeth Jackson Dec 6th 6-9pm Pet Portrait workshop with Susan Jones Dec 13th 9-4pm
arT EXhiBiTs Dickson County Photowalk Exhibit
This spring we are offering spots in our production classes: Once Upon a Mattress, Princess and the Pea, and the Brothers Grimm! We also offer the area’s best technique classes for acting, improv, and dance for the actor at the best prices.
Cannon King, 7th Grade, MBA
Middle Tennessee Regional Student Art Exhibit Reception Sat, Dec 7, 4-6pm Exhibits on view through Jan 11, 2014
www.rcenter.org • 615-740-5572
Michael Shane Neal in the Studio by Emme Nelson Baxter
T
ucked away in Music City USA lies a little slice of Old England. Think fine oak library, an inglenook, iron finishes, and French and Scottish antiques. Indeed, England
should be proud. And so should internationally acclaimed portrait artist Michael Shane Neal, who commissioned this architectural jewel to serve as his working studio. The design and décor of the space are worthy of the heads of state, university leaders, and captains of business who have sat for him there. Neal and his family purchased the impressive stone home in Green Hills on Lone Oak near Overhill late last year. Resembling an English country manor, it was dubbed “Lone Oak” by the family. When they acquired the home, it featured guest quarters off the rear wing. With the help of architect Terry Bates, interior designer Mark Simmons, and contractor Hilton Wickham, Neal renovated
that space, then seamlessly added the magnificent artist's studio. While Simmons had never designed an artist’s studio, he brought unique insight: He had actually lived in the home at one point. “It is one of the few great properties left in Green Hills,” he says. “Fortunately it did not fall into the hands of a developer, and they are restoring the property.”
The vaulted ceiling and stained beams in the studio are most appropriate, flowing beautifully with the English country architecture of the home.
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PHOTOGRAPH: JERRY ATNIP
The foreground of the studio provides an ideal writing area with an antique desk grounded by hardwood floors and an oriental rug. The studio itself could pass for a gentleman’s refined office, but the presence of a massive easel, a bank of north-facing windows, and canvases in progress reveal its true purpose. The main section of the room serves as the working studio with space for the artist, his model, and a seating area for breaks and conversation. To the left of the easel are books by Neal’s painting mentor, Everett Raymond Kinstler. A large palette is perched on the right, and a slight aromatic cocktail emanates from containers of Liquin, damar varnish, and thinner. In the background lies an inviting inglenook with bluestone floors, bookcases, and a pair of heavy, pew-like seats flanking the limestone fireplace. Curios atop the mantel include a framed obituary for painter
John Singer Sargent. Above the hearth hangs the portrait that fetched Neal the Grand Prize at the 2001 Portrait Society of America’s International Portrait Competition. Propped against a bookcase are works in progress: a portrait of the first lady of Puerto Rico beside a depiction of corporate leader and philanthropist Martha Ingram, alongside the visage of the president of Rutgers University. The artist—with his pitch-perfect posture and signature attire evocative of the Edwardian era—is completely in harmony with his studio’s environs. Above: Michael Shane Neal in his studio with portrait of Martha Ingram. For more information about Michael Shane Neal visit www.michaelshaneneal.com.
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3Three-Part Harmony Through December 29, 2013
DAVID’S DULCIMERS
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Anthony Novak New Novak Sculptures Adorn the Facade of Belmont’s Troutt Theater by Lydia E. Denkler
T
he work of Nashville artist Anthony Novak is on display in the architectural niches adjacent to the lower level entrance of Belmont’s Troutt Theater.
Two new statues, Peril and Folly, join other allegorical statues scattered throughout the Belmont University campus. These new pieces, commissioned by Belmont president Dr. Robert Fisher and his wife, Judy Fisher, are inspired works representing the culmination of Novak’s twenty-five-year artistic career. Novak has quite a wide range of artistic talent. After receiving a degree in Commercial Art from Middle Tennessee State University, he worked as a graphic designer and freelance illustrator. He is a painter in addition to being an expert fabricator and restorer of a wide range of architectural and ornamental elements, including pre-Civil War and Tang Dynasty sculptures. By 1997, Anthony had begun sculpting original work, and he is now one of the few area sculptors proficient in cast stone.
Novak is a self-proclaimed “part dreamer and part pragmatist,” and his work also represents a devotion to meticulous and painstaking processes. The life he brings to his work comes from the virtuosity of his hands. Unlike conceptual artists like Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, who stay in the plane of ideas but organize the manufacture of their works, Novak’s work represents both idea and his exacting process. He intentionally turns away from working with digitally created images, yet his work shows no strain of laboriousness. Instead it captures a fleeting and dynamic moment in time.
He intentionally turns away from working with digitally created images, yet his work shows no strain of laboriousness.
The artist considers his latest commission to create the two new sculptures, Peril and Folly, an opportunity of a lifetime. He has been able to use both the technical skill and the expertise he gained on his previous Belmont Folly, 2013, Forton cast stone, 52" x 26" x 16" 84 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH: TIFFANI BING
PHOTOGRAPH: TIFFANI BING
projects, while having the freedom to unfold his own vision and imagination. In conceiving the look of these figures Novak relied on his knowledge of folklore, mythology, allegorical figures and symbols, and his love for classical sculpture. After hearing about a banjo player who played with a chicken on his head, Novak, who is also a musician, conceived a design for Folly. It’s a happy-go-lucky depiction of a musician with a puckish twinkle in his eye. With a rooster on his head and a baying dog at his side, Folly exudes a devil-maycare spirit. Peril is the opposing force. She is caught in a moment of focused distress and determination as a fearsome serpent coils menacingly up her leg. Folly holds a lute, while Peril grasps a sword. While his gaze entices the world to join him, her focus is locked on the serpent. He is playful. She is formidable. Together they bracket the door to the Troutt Theater, beckoning the audience to the range of entertainment inside.
PHOTOGRAPH: TIFFANI BING
PHOTOGRAPH: JACKSON DEPARIS
The Troutt Theater is located on Belmont University Campus, 2100 Belmont Blvd. For showtimes and ticketing information visit www.belmont.edu. For more about Anthony Novak visit www.tonynovakstudio.com.
Peril, 2013, Forton cast stone, 52" x 26" x 16" NashvilleArts.com
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PHOTO: ANTHONY SCARLATI
ANY QUESTIONS
Joey Amato • Publisher • Unite Magazine A fter discovering Nashville four years ago Amato settled here, fully embracing the creative energy of our city.
Who has most inspired you?
Unite magazine was launched by Amato in 2012 to highlight and promote the LGBT community in Nashville.
Two people. Norm Kent, the publisher of South Florida’s LGBT newspaper, and Michael Burcham, CEO at the Entrepreneur Center.
What characteristics do you most like about yourself?
Who do you listen to?
I’m spontaneous. I’ll go anywhere, anytime. Love to travel.
Fleetwood Mac night and day. Springsteen, AC/DC, Zeppelin, Lady Gaga. I’m all over the place.
And what do you like least?
I can never turn off. I’m always on at functions, events, the meetand-grins.
A favorite artist.
A favorite destination?
I love Peter Max. The color, the creativity. I can’t afford a Warhol. Max is more my speed.
Stockholm, Sweden. A picturesque, postcard place. London second.
What are you most proud of?
Who would you most like to meet?
Watching the magazine grow and that the community has embraced it.
Sir Richard Branson. He’s been my idol since college days. I admire him a lot. What about you would most surprise people?
That I’m very reserved and that I hate attention. I’m a bit of a homebody, believe it or not.
Why Nashville?
I needed a complete change from where I was. I’m from a New York, Italian, Jewish family—what could be further away from that than Nashville. I fell in love with the place.
86 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
What do you like most about the city?
The music, the art scene. It’s not what a lot of New Yorkers think of Nashville. This place is happening on a lot of levels. Are you happy with where you’re heading?
For the most part. On a personal level, I’d like to settle down, have more of a family unit. How is the LGBT community in Nashville?
It’s about 100,000 people strong. Very philanthropic, very active. What’s your mantra?
Relax. Breathe. Take a trip. Do it! If you could change one thing about yourself . . .
I would like to be taller, just a little bit. What’s it like being you these days?
I do so many different things. It looks glamorous, but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. What talent would you most like to have?
To be a musician, of course! I’d love to sing but I can’t. That’s what people tell me. What is your most treasured possession?
The painting that Peter Max did of me. What is your greatest regret?
I definitely got involved in some things I shouldn’t have. Business things that went south. Oh well! Describe your perfect evening?
A great concert. What do you wish for yourself?
Financial security would be nice. I don’t need to be filthy rich but . . . Do you have a hero?
I adore Stevie Nicks. Sounds weird, but her songs resonate with me and have helped me along the way. What is your greatest extravagance?
I love Rolex watches. I have two. My father, who’s very conservative, loves to buy jewelry. He turned me on to them. What’s your wish for Nashville?
More affordable housing in the Downtown-West End corridor and a greater tolerance for the LGBT community. Where do you shop for clothes?
Target, H&M, Macy’s. It’s how you put it together that matters. Who would you like to interview for Unite?
Springsteen because he has always been supportive of the LGBT community. And Bill Clinton. You have five minutes left to live; what are you going to do?
Make sure Unite is ready for the printer. For more information about Joey Amato and Unite Magazine visit www.unitemag.com.
POETRY
PR E PA R ING FOR FLIGHT All I need is this phonebook, this tasty freeze, this … – Steve Martin, The Jerk All I need is this square of sunlight falling through me, the runway out there, bending out of sight. All I need is the scar above my lip to speak. The antechamber To flight is filled with cell phones and neon highlighters, pink, green, violet and every color in between. People play with their thumbs and bottom lips and double-chins. The man across from me talks inventories and bottom feeders, and signing off, and moving forward, and what’s up? And that’s just tossing $23,000 into the garbage! that’s just a heads-up, he says. I want that language to find itself lost and returned to splendor. I want it to pull down its pants and stick out its shiny ink-black tongue. I want it to be afraid. I want that man to listen to the woman with the lump in her throat, she’s talking suicide at cheetah speed. It seems her would-be husband got cold feet. I want him to find a way inside, to go to her, like the friend who holds her now, and let her know that she is better off. Just so we are on the same page, the suit beside him says. Just so we understand each other, love. I was just checking the numbers. I just put out a voice mail. I’m trying to crunch the figures, love, to fax them to you via ESP. But now it seems the light’s flipped on its side, angling like a salmon. Or a prism. I want to resist all talk of bottom-lines. Maybe I’ll fax this to you, maybe I won’t, but sure as starlight and this man’s fierce business-sense, the dream-life of everything we love and lay our hands upon, we’re on the edge of something luminous. I know we are. So often now, dear one, I thought my back would break before it,
– Rick Hilles Rick Hilles will present his poetry at the Poet's Corner at Scarritt-Bennett on December 19 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more information on the poet visit as.vanderbilt.edu/english/bio/rick-hilles and for more about the reading visit www.scarrittbennett.org.
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ART SMART a monthly guide to art education
TENNESSEE ROUNDUP Looking at the Common Core through an Arts Lens by Ann Brown, Arts Education Director, Tennessee Arts Commission
The Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC) has created the new Targeted Arts Development Initiative (TADI), a grant designed to reach underserved counties across Tennessee. Giles County is one of ten counties where the Commission has worked extensively to develop a program that best fits their needs. In late October, Giles County began the Common Core and the Arts pilot project. The project’s purpose is to explore how the arts can be used to address Common Core and contribute to overall student achievement. Music and visual arts teachers in Giles County Schools attended training on the connections between the Common Core in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math, which are designed to prepare students for college and career. The Common Core standards are aligned with those of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which are slated to replace the current method of state assessment for Tennessee. This pilot project aims to study whether the arts may contribute to student success on PARCC by administering pre-, midway-formative, and summative assessments to 300 Giles County students in fourth and eighth grades.
PHOTOGRAPH: MARY CLAIRE CROW
Cindy Young, Chief Academic Officer for Giles County Schools, collaborated with Bruce Taylor, the former Director of Education for the Washington National Opera and current consultant with Arts for Anyone. “Bruce shared information that will be very beneficial to my teachers and ultimately the students. His research is extensive on the rigor of PARCC and the type of instruction
Bruce Taylor works with educators
students will need to be successful,” Young stated. Taylor has a common-sense approach to addressing the needs of educators by highlighting the connections between subjects and recognizing the value of arts specialists in schools. “Cindy plopped a 1300-page textbook on her desk in front of me that tenth graders and their teachers have to plow through on ELA Common Core. It is no wonder they get discouraged. Cindy and I are going to put our heads together on how to lessen the burden while still achieving the expectations set by Common Core as we collectively develop this project,” Taylor said. Young plans to bring Taylor back to Giles County halfway through the school year to provide additional training for the music and visual arts teachers. This project is one of the few specialized training and research studies in Tennessee and throughout the country for Common Core through an arts lens. Giles County Schools should be applauded for their efforts in bringing the arts to the forefront of education. TAC will look to Giles County as a potential model for recognizing community assets, in this case arts educators, as we seek to customize this project for other Tennessee school districts. For more information, visit www.tn.gov/arts/.
TAL ART What Are You Waiting For? by DeeGee Lester
Admit it. You’ve been promising yourself for years that you would indulge your creative side and take an art class or find ways to increase your children’s access to art. The Tennessee Art League’s new 5th Avenue location makes it easy with an exciting series of classes and workshops. Downtown lunchtime (Wednesdays through Fridays, 11:30 to 1:30) offers Drop-In Drawing classes. These $15 sessions give beginner to advanced artists an opportunity to bring their lunches and spend a creative hour or two. You can use the basic materials provided or bring your own special drawing supplies. If the notion of printmaking—collages and stenciling to monoprints—stimulates your creativity, TAL offers The Art of Printmaking for adults on Friday evenings. The $30 fee covers materials and use of a small intaglio press. Children can get in on the printmaking action with Saturday Children’s Art Classes from 2 until 4 p.m. The $30 fee covers their supplies, and they learn techniques similar to those learned by the adults on Friday evenings as well as drawing, painting, mask-making and other skills. TAL makes it easy to indulge artistic yearnings at any skill level. For more information visit w w w.tal5.com.
NashvilleArts.com
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UMBRELLAS FOR PEACE
VSA TENNESSEE Art from our Hearts
by Rebecca Pierce
by DeeGee Lester
Lamb Umbrellas for Peace Foundation is a global art initiative involving the painting and decorating of umbrellas by children and adults with the ultimate goal of promoting peace throughout the world. It began after the September 11, 2001 attacks, when the Secretary of the Veterans of Foreign Affairs office asked Matt Lamb to develop an art therapy program to help the individuals whose lives had been affected by the tragedy. In May of 2002, thirty-eight participants gathered with Matt to outwardly express their negative emotions of pain and grief and subsequently work through them to find their hopes and dreams. They accomplished this by painting umbrellas! Since that time, over 2,000,000 people in twenty-nine countries have participated in Umbrellas for Peace.
This year when President Obama steps out onto the Ellipse to continue the ninety-year tradition of the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, a group of Tennesseans will watch with special excitement and anticipation. One of the 56 trees that surround the enormous national tree and represent U.S. states and territories will display the handmade ornaments crafted as a gift to the state and the nation by talented artists from VSA Tennessee.
For more information on Umbrellas for Peace, visit www.umbrellasforpeace.org.
A statewide non-profit, VSA Tennessee works, through the arts, with people with disabilities. Executive Director Lori Kissinger received the invitation for participation from the National Parks Foundation in September. “This opportunity is truly a wonderful chance for our young artists to demonstrate their talents on a national stage. It also gives recognition to young people with disabilities, as it is through their efforts that our state will be represented.” PHOTOGRAPH: LORI KISSINGER
Last month, the organization donated 1,000 umbrellas and paint kits to Rutland Elementary in celebration of their new school building. The children painted umbrellas and learned about Matt Lamb’s passion for expression through art. During Peace Assemblies they heard from special guest speaker Shelia Lamb Gabler, Lamb’s daughter. A glorious school-wide parade celebrating Lamb’s legacy followed.
PHOTOGRAPH: ANDY HEIDT
Art Can Change the World
Under the direction of VSA resident artist Pam Weston, an invitation was extended to all young artists who have participated in its programming over the past two years. The twenty-four coveted spots for creation of the ornaments went to those who responded first. Each state was provided with 24 “Globe” ornaments that could be decorated on the outside or from the inside. On October 21, Weston and student assistants from MTSU directed a special workshop on the MTSU campus, guiding participants through the ornament-making process. Each young artist created two ornaments—one for the national tree and one to keep as a reminder of their accomplishment and their gift of art from the heart. For information on VSA Tennessee, visit www.vsatn.org. 92 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
NEW HORIZONS: FISK UNIVERSITY ART STUDENTS by Rebecca Pierce | Photography by Tamara Reynolds
We are thrilled to present these four Fisk University art majors. Not only are they passionate about art, enthusiastic, and grounded, they love their school, their art department, and their professors. Discipline Coordinator and Professor Alecia Henry explained, “We really try to deal with students as individuals, because they all come from very different places. They all have their own strengths and interests and ideas of where they want to go. We want students to see all their options and the importance of art history and contemporary art.” She went on to explain that having such a vast and historic collection of art on campus, as well as so many venues to view art in Nashville, gives students the chance to have an intimate relationship with great art and art of historical significance. Ode to FIsk, 2013, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 12" x 8"
RHEA BECKETTE A former Fisk Jubilee Singer, a classically trained vocalist who sings opera in French, German, and Italian and is an artist, Rhea Beckette has always loved the visual and performing arts. And from a very young age, she has thought about the world and what is going on around her.
Last semester Rhea studied abstract expressionism and was intrigued by artists Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. “You read about their ideas behind the art and how it wasn’t seen as art. Their entire perception of what they were doing changed me and changes the viewer. It was about what they were feeling about the time and what was going on around them.” Rhea employed abstract expressionistic layering techniques in her piece Ode to Fisk, explaining, “There I utilized the university colors, which are blue and gold. I’m very proud of my university. Fisk always kept me grounded, and it also helped me figure out who I am becoming. The white light comes through, and in different mediums I abstractly spelled out Fisk. It gives the feeling that the light is always on Fisk. Fisk is always moving. Fisk is always changing, and it is always at the cutting edge of the times, whether it be the Harlem Renaissance or the civil rights movement. Fisk is always at the forefront of art, humanity, and everything around us.”
Untitled, Acrylic and spray paint on board, 24" x 18"
After graduation this month, she hopes to become a museum curator or exhibit designer. Not only does she have experience, she has her first solo curatorship. She’s been practically living at the Van Vechten this year, assisting and shadowing Dr. Simmons, the curator. Last year she curated the 83rd Annual Spring Arts Festival Student Show with two fellow students. This year, at the request of Professor Henry, she will curate the student show on her own. NashvilleArts.com
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TRACY EGBAS
Nigerian native Tracy Egbas came to Fisk University because she wanted a degree from an American university. She talks about how she ended up an art major with a computer science minor. “Coming from a place like Africa, everyone expects you to be in the sciences or engineering, so when I came here I was going to be in the sciences, and then art just sort of got me.” She can’t tell you when or why she decided to take an art class, but she found it so engaging she had to continue. At first she shied away from color, and her work was mostly realistic and representational, but all that has changed. “I use a wide variety of media because now I am into film. That’s why it’s been such a self-discovering journey for me. Such a huge journey from computer science to traditional arts, visual arts, performing arts, and now I am into film. It’s been such a short time, and so much has happened within that time. I just feel so fulfilled.” She plans to return to Nigeria eventually, but first she wants to attend film school and work in the States. After that, she hopes to use what she has learned to shine a light on her culture. “To be honest, and I’m speaking from my background, I don’t think
A Father's Love, 2011, Graphite, 12" x 8"
that culturally Africa has had enough representation in the art world, and I’m definitely more than eager to be that person or be [one] of the people who would be instrumental in doing something about that. I really would love to expose my culture, because I have such a wonderful culture and tradition. I know that I’ve not done too much of that yet, because really I am still discovering who I am and my niche, but I really would love to shine some more light on that.”
GEORGETTA BUNDLEY Georgetta Bundley spent her first two years at Fisk majoring in biology. As a youngster she loved art but explains, “My dad pretty much said art wouldn’t put food on the table, and my mom said go for what you love to do.” So even though she enjoyed art classes in high school, she focused on science. When she got to Fisk she repeatedly found herself helping fellow students with art and design projects, and she kept thinking about art. After much soul-searching, she changed her major. Georgetta started with drawing and says, “Since I am new to the major I’ve been able to experiment with different mediums, so Father and Daughter was my first time with charcoal. I didn’t know how to work with it, but after experimentation and playing with it for a while I was able to manipulate it to my advantage.” She describes her style as realistic, but she doesn’t want the details to take away from the emotion in her work. “I like to make sure the piece is balanced with detail and emotion. 94 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
“[Professors] Alecia Henry and LiFran Fort have had an immediate impact on me this year as an art student. Professor Henry, for example, will have us go to the gallery and actually try to replicate artwork there, and you wonder, how am I supposed to replicate this? This is so beautiful! But in the end, you put in the work and realize you do have the ability to create art. They challenge you as students.” Graduating in May of 2014, Georgetta is seriously debating postgraduate art programs versus medical school. “I am still going to go to medical school eventually, but if I go the med school route, I still want to teach art so my students can find their passion like I did.”
variety of mediums. Recently he ventured into woodworking, creating his lounge chair as an assignment in Professor Henry’s Women in the Arts course. It began as a pallet shaped in a female form, but then he decided to turn it into a lounge chair so it could be site-specific to the grounds outside the art department. He imagined someone sitting in the lounge chair doing art so, he explained, “I made the fingers functional so you can close them up and grasp something or open it up flat and use it to hold a cup or materials.” Impressed with his work in wood, Professor Jones and several of William’s professors encouraged him to take a woodworking class at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. The experience inspired William to set up a workshop and continue working with wood. “I love the art department and the professors here. They bring all of this imagination and creativity out of me. They are always finding opportunities and opening doors for me.” After Fisk, William intends to pursue his art at the graduate level. He’s looking into programs at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Rochester Institute of Technology and residencies at Penland School of Crafts.
Father and Daughter, 2013, Charcoal on paper, 26" x 32"
WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK William has been around art most of his life and started drawing simply because he enjoyed it. He attended Nashville School of the Arts High School and was both motivated and tested by Miss Laurie Poole, head of the art department. “I wasn’t fond of some of the assignments Miss Poole had me do, but she brought it out of me. That’s where I got my passion for doing paper cuts. It was an assignment I dreaded doing, but the next thing you know I’m staying late after school working on this assignment.” Malvin Gray Johnson, 2011, Paper cut and adhesive, 12" x 18"
In addition to paper cuts, William enjoys working in a
Lounge Chair, 2013, Wood and metal, approximately 6' x 2½'
For more information on Fisk University, visit www.fisk.edu. Nashville Arts Magazine honors the life and teaching legacy of Miss Laurie Poole, head of the art department at Nashville School of the Arts. She had a profound influence and inspired countless young people. She will never be forgotten.
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Le discours d’un chien, 2012, Oil on canvas, 59” x 77”
Not Guilty, 2012, Oil on canvas, 63” x 63”
Field Notes
A Local Look at Global Art
François Bard Packing Heat by Betsy Wills
The Chinese are credited with inventing the first firearms in the fourteenth century. It didn’t take long to become the weapon of choice if you had a bone to pick.
Becky & Fudge, 2011, Oil on canvas, 77” x 59”
Today, countries have varying attitudes with regards to personal gun ownership. Thankfully, as Americans we can argue about it in an open forum. I personally don’t own a firearm, but I’m well aware that many people I know are, in fact, “packing heat.” This is just another reason to mind my manners and avoid walking into someone’s residence unannounced. I’m sure my choice to go weaponless stems from growing up in a household of three girls. I’m in the middle. We wore a lot of eyelet. We had little bags with button-on covers. We had hot rollers. We did NOT have BB guns. I’m not saying we were sissies . . . we just thought pointing was impolite so we tried to avoid it on all levels. Artist François Bard’s characters appear to be comfortable with their aim. Many of his subjects appear ready to fire, and his work is right on target.
Cadillac, 2013, Oil on canvas, 59” x 76¾” 98 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
Betsy Wills admits that she is blissfully ignorant when it comes to art curation and selection. She is, however, an avid art lover and collector and maintains the popular art blog artstormer.com. Wills is proud of the fact that her art does not match her sofa.
Trop Tard, 2012, Oil on canvas, 51” x 51”
ARTIST BIO – FRANÇOIS BARD For François Bard the simplest of all subjects, be it a shoe, a leg, a torso, a dog, or a face, takes a dark and edgy turn. He manages to translate all his intimate emotion into a two-dimensional oil painting, each work an endless exercise of composition, rhythm, and struggle. The use of multiple layers of oil accentuates the feel and dynamic mood of all his paintings. Bard gives a part of himself in every canvas. The horizon—the vast limiting of human experience—is fascinating to Bard. The horizon draws a line between here and not-here, day and night,
good and evil, us and them. The scale and cinematic quality of his work only makes this more dramatic and stuns viewers over and over again. Bard’s work has been featured in major international art fairs, including Art Miami, the London Art Fair, Art Paris, FORM London, Art London, and Art Karlsruhe Germany, and hangs in prestigious public and private collections around the world. Bard is represented by Bertrand Delacroix Gallery in New York City. For more information about the artist visit www.bdgny.com and www.francoisbard.fr.
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Happy Holidays!
The Perfect Gift: Yes, you’ll find it here! GASLAMP ANTIQUES
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Antique African Art for the Discriminating Collector Artworks include statues, masks & ceremonial regalia from all major ethnic groups of SubSaharan Africa. By Appointment 615.790.3095 williamdarrellmoseley@yahoo.com Gallery 427 Main Street Franklin, TN 37064 100 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
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THEATRE
SHINE A LIGHT The Twelve Shows of Christmas by Jim Reyland
I
JOHN TESH BIG BAND CHRISTMAS War Memorial Auditorium, Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. Tickets at the TPAC Box Office. www.TPAC.org
t happens every year, family and friends coming together to celebrate the holidays. And after the turkey,
football, and catching up on Aunt Sue, the question inevitably turns to, how shall we entertain ourselves? There are hundreds of choices, special exhibits, concerts, and a host of amazing theatrical events. This year consider The Twelve Shows of Christmas, a dozen major performances, including John Tesh Big Band Christmas, A John Waters Christmas, and Nashville’s Nutcracker, as well as hometown productions of Christmas favorites from great theatre companies: Encore, Boiler Room, the Rep, Chaffin’s Dinner Barn, the Renaissance Center, Studio Tenn, Towne Centre, Imaginary Theatre, and Larry Keeton Theatre.
A JOHN WATERS CHRISTMAS War Memorial Auditorium, Dec. 11 at 8 p.m. Tickets at the TPAC Box Office. www.TPAC.org
No matter your taste, you’ll be sure to find a Christmas theatrical event right for you. Make the holidays brighter with theatre.
WHITE CHRISTMAS Larry Keeton Theatre, 108 Donelson Pike, Dec. 5–22. For tickets call 615-883-8375. www.thelarrykeetontheatre.org
NASHVILLE’S NUTCRACKER Nashville Ballet at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Dec. 7–22. Tickets at the TPAC Box office or 615-782-4040. www.TPAC.org
A CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE MUSICAL The Renaissance Center proudly continues this holiday tradition, back by popular demand with a cast of 60. Dec. 6–15. Tickets at 888-700-2300. www.rcenter.org
SCROOGE THE MUSICAL Boiler Room Theatre, Dec. 6–22. Tickets at 615-794-7744. www.boilerroomtheatre.com
A CHRISTMAS STORY At Tennessee Rep, 7:30 p.m., through Dec. 22. Tickets at the TPAC Box Office, 505 Deaderick Street, by calling 615-782-4040. www.TPAC.org
A CHRISTMAS CAROL Studio Tenn takes the stage in the James K. Polk Theatre, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Dec. 12–22 . For more information or for tickets, visit www.StudioTenn.com or call the TPAC box office at (615) 782-4040.
COMFORT & JOY Encore Theatre Company, 6978 Lebanon Rd., Mt. Juliet, through Dec. 15. Tickets at 615598-8950. www.encore-theatre-company.org
SANDERS FAMILY CHRISTMAS Chaffin’s Barn Dinner Theatre, through Dec. 31. For tickets call 615-646-9977. www.dinnertheatre.com It’s a Wonderful Life
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Towne Centre Theatre, Dec. 6–21. www.townecentretheatre.com
EVERY CHRISTMAS STORY EVER TOLD (AND THEN SOME!) Imaginary Theatre Company, Z. Alexander Looby Theatre, Dec. 6, 7, 12, 13, 14 at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 8 and 15 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. www.imaginarytheatrecompany.com NashvilleArts.com
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ON THE TOWN WITH TED CLAYTON “This is the people’s park, their urban green space,” exclaimed Brooks Mathews, who along
with hubby, Bert, chaired this year’s annual Conservancy Gala. The master plan is in six stages for Centennial Park—phase one, the core focus, is the ecological restoration of Cockrill Spring, which will improve the water quality in Lake Watauga. In addition to benefiting Lake Watauga, opening up Cockrill Spring, which has been running beneath the park since the days of the early settlers, will enable new gardens, groves, and meadows. With the focus on the lake, Brooks and Bert, along with Brain Hull, master puppeteer, created the illusion of the spirit of Lady Watauga rising high into the dark sky showing her approval of the new restoration of her lake. Cocktails and dinner were held on the shore of the lake on Howard and Hope Stringer – a chilly early-November evening. Conservancy Gala Enjoying the festivities were Honorary Chair Clare Armistead escorted by son Hunter, Betty Jo Wemyss with Cookie Lackey, Robinson and Doug Regen, Board Chair Hope Stringer with hubby, Howard, my dinner partner the lovely Caye David, Kate Grayken, Emme and Spirit of Lake Watauga – Conservancy Gala Butch Baxter, Demetria Kalodimos, Ellen Martin and Gerry Nadeau, Nancy and Billy Ray Hearn (Nancy, who is always good for a quote, says, “Well, Teddy, being that this party is themed Designs in Verde, the only thing I have green is emeralds.” Yes, draped head to toe, Nancy and Billy Ray Hearn – Conservancy Gala that’s my Nancy!), Lee Ann and George Anderson, Joy and Landy Gardner, Libby and Ben Page, Nancy and John Cheadle, and Pam and Jeff Kuhn. (Pam and Jeff were seated with me at dinner, and what a hoot these two are!) This event is always an evening of surprise and Doug and Robinson Regen, Emmy and Steve magic and always a Rick – Conservancy Gala sellout, enabling everyone to enjoy arts, culture,
Libby and Ben Page, Josephine and John Darwin, Brooks Mathews – Conservancy Gala
history, music, education, the environment, health and wellness—all here at our beloved Centennial Park. From Centennial Park I take you to the Warner Parks for the ever-solovely Sunday in the Park. This was the twentyfourth year for this grand tented picnic. Chairs Sylvia Emme Nelson Baxter and Demetria Kalodimos – Conservancy Gala Bradbury and Ann Dobson were the gracious hosts for this most enjoyable Sunday afternoon, in the park of course. This year’s event was somewhat bittersweet with the retirement of the parks’ loyal executive director Eleanor Willis. For twenty years of passionate commitment to Friends of Warner Betty Jo Wemyss, Edie Bass, Martin Parks, she administered Brown – Conservancy Gala the growth of the parks with the rapid growth of our city. Standing in line to say kind words to Eleanor were Jennie and Rob McCabe, Colleen and Ted Welch, Kristen and Don Taylor, Honorary Chair Clare Armistead, Eddie Bass, Madge and Warner Bass, Laurie Chairs Brooks and Bert Mathews – and Annette Eskind, Conservancy Gala Joyce Vise, Katie and Tom Steele, Holly Armistead with Hugh Hunter Byrd, Beth and Dave Alexander, Sandra Lipman, Murray Clayton, and Bert Parrish. From the lovely invocation given by the Reverend Becca Stevens to my last bite of the stacked apple pie dessert, this was a great event to kick off the fall social season!
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December 2O13 | 105
The unsinkable Patsy Weigel and her trusty co-chairs of the herd Dancey Sanders, Deby Pitts, and Carla Nelson trumpeted The Night of The Elephant benefiting the Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee. From Sally and Randall Henderson with Clare Armistead – Sunday In The Park the cocktails at the Watering Hole to the VIP Reception for Clare Bowen, to the OhSo-Amos decor, this was a night not to be forgotten by patrons or elephants. Amos Gott with his tribe of talented designers transformed the Symphony Ballroom at Loews Vanderbilt Plaza into a classic tropical jungle. Huge palm branches artfully adorned the chandeliers, giving a most impressive tropical evening effect. The ballroom was illuminated with large pots of fire and flaming torches leading the patrons to dinner. Joyce Hitt and Jay Joyner – Yes, this was the night of the elephant! Sunday In The Park My good friend Dawn Wells (Maryann of Gilligan’s Island fame) along with Connie Bradley received the Trumpeting Award for their longtime support of the Sanctuary. Dawn whispered to me, “You know, Ted, the elephants were here before all mankind.” I must say after the marathon of a social week leading up to this Ann Davis and Karl Dean with Tish – gala, I did feel that I had Sunday In The Park been cruising with the original elephants. Just call me Tarzan, Weight Watchers style—and I shall need to watch those gala points if I want to swing tree to tree! Seen on this photo-op safari were Chair Sylvia Bradbury, Eleanor Willis, Chair Roberta Lochte-Jones, Ann Dobson – Sunday In The Park Sandra and Bill Earthman, Kate Grayken, Joni Werthan, Joyce and David Hitt, Ashley and Douglas Henry, Rachel and Gary Odom, Mike King, Nancy Russell,
Lin and Bill Andrews – Sunday In The Park
Albert and Frannie Ambrose, Doug and Terre Cahill – The Night of the Elephant
Chairs Patsy Weigel, Deby Pitts, Dancey Sanders, Carla Nelson – The Night of the Elephant
Lucy and Lucius Carroll, Steffon Hamulak, and of course the husbands of the Tribal Leaders, Bob Weigel, John Sanders, Keith Pitts, and Kevin Nelson. The only folks missing at this oncein-a-lifetime event were the real Tarzan, Jane, Boy, and Cheeta, but if Patsy reads this there will be a Tarzan Vine Party in the future. (Think of that attire!)
Rusty Terry and Dawn Wells – The Night of the Elephant
A lovely and inviting patrons party was held prior to the gala at the fabulous home of Deby and Keith Pitts with Cynthia and Elliot Himmelfarb as cohosts. Oh by the way, the Pitts’ magnificent home is on the market. If anyone is interested, I know some great realtors. What a great year, thanks to my readers and the Nashville Socials. Have a wonderful Christmas and Artful Holiday Season!
Deby and Keith Pitts – The Night of the Elephant
Anne Cain, Nancy Russell, Clare Bowen, Patsy Weigel, Austin Pennington, Jillian Cardarelli – The Night of the Elephant
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APPRAISE IT
Salesman Samples Serve Up Collecting Value on a Platter
T
he fine art and collectibles featured in “Appraise It” are typically submitted for consideration.
This month’s items are the result of a visit to the home of a collector of restaurant ware. Upon seeing the vast assemblage of restaurant ware, from the plates and platters that adorned the walls to the mugs, creamers, and pots that lined the shelves, I was struck with a sentimental longing for the diners and restaurants that lined the highways of my youth and for that distinctive sound that this type of china would make, the clatter and clang of dishes being bused. It is little wonder that these simple utilitarian objects are collectible. These logo-branded commercial china pieces serve as visual reminders of parts of American culture that no longer exist in today’s paper and Styrofoam-to-go world.
the companies’ salesmen to show the quality, detail, and variety of choices available to potential customers. The “logo” plate backstamps identify it as the work of Syracuse China, formerly known as Onondaga Pottery Company, established in 1871. The “sample plate” with approximately thirty logos dates to 1897 and has a fair market value of $250.
Before 1900, restaurant china was originally imported from European sources. This changed in the early twentieth century as American hotels began to add meals to their services and the number of restaurants and cafés increased. As the demand increased, so did American production. About fifty companies made china for commercial use, including Syracuse, Buffalo, Seneca, and Hall China.
The illustrated pieces are considered “salesman samples” and are highly prized finds. They were used by
Since the 1800s, more than 200 manufacturers have produced thousands of commercial patterns. As in all areas of collecting, the market for restaurant china changes as old collectors drop out and new collectors enter the marketplace. So what is “in” now is restaurant china from the 1950s and ’60s. Knowledge is the key if you are interested in starting a collection. There are reproductions and fakes in this market, and a little research can enhance your enjoyment of ownership and the hunt. Learn about backstamps, glazes, and date codes. Consider investing first in Barbara Conroy’s Restaurant China Identification & Value Guide for Restaurants, Airline, Ship & Railroad Dinnerware, Vol. I & II.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JERRY ATNIP
Restaurant china, also referred to as hotel ware and commercial china, is not limited to restaurants. This category of collectible is very broad and would include dishware used by hotels, corporations, institutions, government agencies, and hospitals, as well as forms of transportation such as airlines, railways, and ocean liners. There are even categories built around themes such as Western and nautical. The potentials are endless, but regardless of its origins, this china is typically dense and was designed to withstand heavy daily use.
Wallace China of Huntington Park, California, is the maker of the circa 1950 color palette sample plate. Used to assist clients in choosing their color schemes, this rare find would have a fair market value of $200.
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. December 2O13 | 107
Wine Sp t YO U R
FOR
H O L I DAY
ABSOLUTE ONLINE AUCTION Mahal, Nepali, Kord, Mashad, Balutch, Gabeh, Kazak, Khal Mohamodi, Kilim, & Balochi Hand Tied Rugs Closes December 19 Beginning at 1:00 PM CT 32 rugs will sell to the highest bidders on behalf of Premium Products, an importer and dealer of fine rugs and furniture based in New York.
Balochi Rug (2'9" x 4'3")
PA RT I E S
Mashad Rug Made in Iran (9'7" x 12'11") 3433 Murphy Road, West End at I-440 615-627-3900 • www.grandcruwineandspirits.com F R E E TA S T I NG S E V E RY F R I DAY AT 5 A N D SAT U R DAY AT 3
Balochi Rug (3'10" x 6'7")
470 Woodycrest Avenue, Nashville, TN 615-517-7675
10% Buyer’s Premium
www.mclemoreauction.com 1 932–2012
24 in x 24 in
mixed media on canvas
Nashville December holiday hours by appointment
Contact Gerard Vanderschoot, exclusive Regional Representative of the work of International artist Matt Lamb for the Nashville, Dallas, and Chicago regions (815) 347-9698 • jerryvanderschoot@gmail.com • www.mattlamb.org 108 | December 2O13 NashvilleArts.com
BEYOND WORDS BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN
Happy Holidays from ibiza fine Gifts
Christmas Update . . . PHOTO: ANTHONY SCARLATI
I’ve never been one to make a big fuss over Christmas. I imagine this trait started when I was little.
One Christmas Eve, when I was about three or four, my parents left some cookies on a tray for Santa Claus. “In case he’s hungry when he comes down the chimney,” Mother said. Next to the cookies was a bottle of Coca-Cola fresh from the refrigerator. In case he’s thirsty, I imagined, and needs something to wash down the cookies. That Christmas morning as we were unwrapping our presents, my older sister Mary suddenly exclaimed, “Look, Mama! Santa Claus ate the cookies! Santa Claus ate the cookies!” And it appeared to be true. Because there on the tray were scattered a few cookie crumbs next to the now-half-empty bottle of Coke. Then somebody, I can’t remember who—probably Mary—noticed red lipstick on the mouth of the Coke bottle. “Mama, look!” she said, pointing to the lipstick, a confused look on her face. Mother was quick. “Oh, Santa Claus must’ve brought Mrs. Claus with him!” she said, winking at my father as they exchanged knowing glances. I was too young to verbalize it at the time, but I smelled a rat.
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Christmas was a big deal in my hometown. And as I approached adolescence, I enjoyed the cheer and pageantry of the season—the parties, eggnog . . . the solemnly beautiful Christmas Eve service at our Presbyterian Church, Christmas dinner at Nannie and Papoo’s, where I’d romp with my cousins, and so on. Once I reached adulthood, the commercial aspects of Christmas began getting on my nerves, and for years I was a non-participant. Ironically, the first Christmas that ever meant anything was one I spent at age thirty-nine in a treatment center in Arizona. That Christmas Eve, as I stood alone under the stars out in the middle of that Arizona desert, I experienced something profoundly spiritual that has stayed with me through the years. I no longer deck the halls with boughs of holly, but I can appreciate those who do. So whether your Christmas or Hanukkah is grand or simple, I wish you peace and joy this holiday season. www.tallgirl.com
PRESENTS
J. CRAIGHEAD & COMPANY
“Truly, a beautiful shop.” (615) 604-4132 www.jcraigheadantiques.com
2225 Bandywood Dr.
Nashville, TN
Sunday, Dec. 8 6pm at the Jazz Cave Nashville Jazz Workshop Tickets $20/ $15 TJBS members all seats reserved
THE JAZZ CAVE IS LOCATED AT 1319 ADAMS ST. IN THE NEUHOFF COMPLEX : BYOB information: www.jazzblues.org
NashvilleArts.com
THE JODY NARDONE TRIO
w/ Jerry Navarro & Derrek Phillips
advance ticket sales beginning Nov. 22 www.nardone.brownpapertickets.com 800.838.3006 December 2O13 | 109
MY FAVORITE PAINTING
David Crockett, Morning Horses, Oil on canvas, 24" x 36"
Ted Crockett Executive Director of the Nashville Film Festival
I
grew up on a ranch in Southern Idaho, forty years ago, about a mile or two away from the place where my great-great grandpa ran his general merchandise store near the Oregon Trail. Early every morning
When I purchase art now, I not only admire the strokes, color choices, and images, but I think about the hundreds of hours of someone else’s emotion they poured into each piece. I find it comforting to have a home with so much love on the walls.
For entertainment, we were on our own. We had no television, radio, or newspaper. I had heard about famous people, like the Beatles, the Osmonds, and Johnny Cash, but I never heard any of their music. I was, however, very familiar with names like Frederic Remington, Charles Russell, and other Western artists. We went to a restaurant only twice, growing up: the Chuck Wagon. And that’s the damn truth. I can’t, however, count the art galleries we visited— there were so many. When Dad wasn’t working in the mountains, riding horses and moving cattle, my parents were often painting in the basement. I saw the countless hours of love and attention they put into painting after painting.
PHOTOGRAPH: HOLLIS BENNETT
I got up to grind wheat before scripture study, breakfast, and cow milking. Most everything was made with whole wheat and honey, absolutely no white flour or sugar.
My favorite painting, Morning Horses, by my dad, David Crockett, hangs in my bedroom where I can see it when the sun comes up. It is an early-morning scene in the Sawtooth Hills of Idaho where we met with other ranchers at the “cow camp.” The horses are being rounded up to be saddled for a day’s work. When I look at it, I can almost smell the sagebrush, dust, mountain pine, and wild sunflowers. I can hear my dad yelling at the young cowboys telling them to show their horses “who’s boss.” I recognize three horses in the front: Lucky, Star, and Sterling.
My dad has painted hundreds of works but sold most of them before I could get my hands on them. He knew I loved this particular painting, and after my home flooded in 2010, my parents gave it to me as a house-warming gift. This painting is one of the most important members of my art family hanging in every possible nook and cranny of my new East Nashville home.
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