PUBLISHER’S LETTER

ART FOR ALL OF OUR SAKES

Creative efforts reflect diversity while they unite us

Events, no matter how traumatic they may be, cannot cancel the desire and the inclination on the part of people to express themselves artistically.

Art is a means by which we interpret the world and process steps in the evolution of history. Art both documents today and inspires us to look forward to tomorrow. And, importantly, it reflects the great diversity of perspectives among us.

Art — both performing arts and art on display — affects us in ways that words alone cannot. Cave walls served as canvases for the earliest of artists. Editorial pages are home to political cartoons in addition to the output of opinion writers. The magazine that you are now reading would be dramatically less impactful without the contributions made by our talented team of in-house designers and freelance photographers.

Art has the capacity to inspire wonder and bridge divides. Sometimes, it can even serve as an antidote to anger.

In this edition of Tallahassee Magazine, we check in with the leaders of the Council on Culture & Arts here in Tallahassee and the Center for the Arts in nearby Thomasville, Georgia. All are committed to encouraging efforts by creatives and to bringing them to the attention of all of us. They are dedicated to enriching public spaces with the infusion of art.

We are indebted to them and the artists they promote for adding beautiful texture to our communities and deepening the cultural experiences that they offer. Elsewhere in our region, small towns, including Havana and Quincy, are employing art as a way to attract visitors and bring economic benefit.

It seems that the pandemic, by limiting our activities in other ways, has brought about a surge in creative efforts. Craft supplies long buried in closets have made their way to dining room tables. And artists around the country have turned out works inspired by the pandemic and its impact on the world.

The Washington Post collected a sample of such works in a recent article.

Til Kolare, a digital artist in Germany, has doctored the “Creation of Adam” section of the Sistine Chapel by separating God and the first man. He retooled the cafe in Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks,” eliminating the diners. In Iowa, political cartoonist Noah Regan recreated “American Gothic” by socially distancing the pitchfork-toting farmer from his wife, seen in a mask.

The artist Jennifer Markowitz of North Carolina hand-embroidered a silk facemask with a replication of a stimulus check. And, in Washington, furniture maker Kimberly Kelzer, with fir wood dyed black, cinder blocks and a six-foot rule from a tape measure, assembled a “Distancing Bench.”

I have no doubt that artists in our town are creating their own takes on the pandemic and the political discord that ushered in the new year.

I remain grateful and happy to be living in an outstanding city in an outstanding state in an outstanding nation that remains a beacon of freedom.

I suppose that if I were an artist, I might paint a shaft of light exiting clouds and shining on a bald eagle. And, as a nod to my passion for dogs, I’d include a couple of Labrador retrievers looking upward, their attention distracted by the shadow cast by the big bird above.

Peace be with you,

BRIAN ROWLAND

browland@rowlandpublishing.com