13 minute read
The Guide
HOOVER TREAT NIGHT
OCT. 29 Hoover Met Concourse 5-8 p.m.
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Put on your costumes and join the Hoover community at this free event. Hoover Chamber members will set up tables with individually wrapped treats for kids to pick up trick-or-treat style while keeping safe social distance. Face coverings are required, and hand sanitizer will be available.
OCT. 8
TASTE OF HOOVER 5-8 P.M. through the gardens and sample Aldridge Gardens selections from restaurants and caterers plus international wines and local beers— Dishes of all styles and ethnicities can be all with live music in the background. A found around Hoover, and on this night limited number of tickets will be sold; many of them are all in one place. Stroll purchase them at aldridgegardens.com.
ARTS
COVID CANCEL
The annual Bluff Park Art Show has been cancelled this year due to COVID-19 but plans to return to its usual first Saturday of October date in 2021. Find more updates on bluffparkartassociation. org or the art association’s Facebook page.
NOV. 17
Women’s Suffrage in Alabama
Come out to learn more about the Alabama women involved in the suffrage movement and an exhibit on the topic at Vulcan Park and Museum from Jennifer Watts. This Hoover Historical Society Meeting will meet at the Hoover Library meeting room if in-person meetings are possible, with a Zoom option if necessary.
Share your news! Email submissions to Madoline.Markham@Hooversmagazine.com to be considered for our next issue.
SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS IN OCTOBER The Patch at Helena Hollow helenahollow.com
OCT. 4 BHM 26.2 Marathon, Half Marathon, Marathon Relay, 5K & Fun Run Railroad Park
OCT. 4 8th Annual CahabaQue Benefitting Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama Cahaba Brewing Company
OCT. 10 Running for the Bulls 5K & Fun Run Benefitting Bama Bully Rescue Red Mountain Park
OCT. 10 Jimmie Hale Mission Rescue Run 5K & Fun Run Downtown Homewood
OCT. 14-25 Shop Save & Share Shops Throughout Hoover and Birmingham ShopSaveandShare.net
OCT. 16 Babypalooza Virtual Baby Expo babypalooza.com
OCT. 18 Handmade Art Show + Pickin’ in the Park Homewood Central Park
OCT. 24 Paws for the Cause 5K Benefitting Shelby Humane Society Veterans Park, Hoover
OCT. 24 BOO Run for Down Syndrome 10K, 5K & 1-mile Fun Run Red Mountain Park
NOV. 2 Dia de los Muertos Pepper Place
NOV. 7 Virtual Walk to End Epilepsy walktoendepilepsy.org/ birmingham
NOV. 7-8 Moss Magic: Moss Rock Festival + Magic City Art Connection The Hoover Met, Hoover
NOV. 11 National Veterans Day Parade Downtown Birmingham
NOV. 14 A Southern Christmas Bazaar Pelham Civic Center
NOV. 16-22 Market Noel Virtual Marketplace Benefitting the Junior League of Birmingham marketnoel.net
NOV. 20
Magical Marketplace Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church
NOV. 8
Out of the Darkness Walk Veterans Park
Join hundreds of thousands of people to raise awareness and funds for suicide prevention at this annual walk. All funds raised go toward the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) to invest in new research, create educational programs, advocate for public policy, and support survivors of suicide loss. Register and find more details at afsp.donordrive. com.
NOV. 7
Virtual Walk to End Epilepsy
This annual walk will look at little different this year with a Zoom presentation at 9:30 a.m. After that registrants are encouraged to walk in support of the Epilepsy Foundation in their own neighborhood, on their treadmill, or wherever they choose. The event is expected to raise more than $50,000 to help the more than 54,000 people in Alabama living with epilepsy and seizures. To sign up or for more information, visit walktoendepilepsy.org/ Birmingham.
Featured Artist: Kimberly Paige
2020 SPONSORS: USS Real Estate • Alabama State Council on the Arts & the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency Joe Piper • City of Hoover • Publix Super Markets Charities • Event Rentals Unlimited • Pursell Farms Resort • Coca Cola United Bare Naked Noodles • Royal Cup MEDIA SPONSORS: AL.com • Babypalooza • Bell Media • Beyond the Rock • Bham Now Birmingham Mountain Radio 107.3fm • B-Metro • EXCURSIONSgo.com • Hoover’s Magazine • Over the Mountain Journal Starnes Media • This is Alabama • WBHM 90.3fm
Moss Rock Festival Magic City Art Connection Hoover Metropolitan Stadium
Live: November 7-8, 2020 Virtual: November 9-15, 2020 Beer Garden Trail: Oct. 15-Nov. 30, 2020
www.mossrockfestival.com
ARTS & CULTURE
ANGULAR ART Christi Bunn captures homes, pets, landmarks and more with watercolors, graphite and oil.
BY LAUREN DOWDLE PHOTOS BY MORGAN HUNT
IIt’s all about perspective. Or in Christi Bunn’s case, it’s all about capturing that perspective in the architectural structures around her.
Christi, who’s lived in Hoover for the past 16 years, has loved drawing since she was a child. One of her earliest memories related to art was when she drew a picture of a giraffe for her grandfather. “He remarked how good it was,” she recalls. While her hometown of Thomasville, Alabama, didn’t offer art classes in school, she found other creative outlets—like as a high school cheerleader creating the breakthrough banners they used for the football team. So, it shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise when she wanted to major in art in college. Her father pushed back though, telling her she wouldn’t make money in that field. Following his advice, she decided to 16 October/November 2020
major in advertising at the University of Alabama, with a minor in studio art and graphic design.
It was during her time at the university that she had her “lightbulb moment,” as she calls it. One of her art professors, Richard Brough, took her class to the Quad in front of Denny Chimes to look look at the architectural structures around them to teach them about perspective.
“We looked at all of the buildings from where we sat and saw the closer we were, the steeper the angles were,” she says. “It was a lightbulb moment for capturing perspective in realism. That gave me a fuel to figure out my niche.”
She’d have to hold off on that niche for a while though. After college, she worked as a graphic designer for an energy company and later started her own web-design company,
Bunn Media. That freelance work allowed her to stay home with her three small children. As they grew up, though, Christi found more time for one of her other loves, art.
She decided to jump back into it by creating graphite drawings of her mother’s and mother-inlaw’s houses to give to them as Christmas presents. They were so impressed with her work that they shared them with their friends, and the rest, they say, is history.
Soon, Christi was being commissioned from others in the area and eventually from people across the country for drawings of cherished homes, churches and even pets.
Today, she has completed more than 250 commissioned pieces using watercolors, graphite and oil. She draws everything by hand or using a straight edge, primarily working from photographs for her inspiration.
If she’s working on a piece for someone local, Christi offers to drive by and take photos of their home or other building. She says it’s also important for her to see the landscape around a structure because that shows her how the structure relates to its surroundings.
Besides drawing homes, some of her most
Christi Bunn joined the Hoover Arts Alliance three years ago and now helps with the group’s online presence, from the website to social media pages. “It’s a group who has a passion for seeing the arts in Hoover flourish,” Christi says. “We want to see the arts become more prominent in the Hoover area.” Here’s a list of some of their projects:
• Giving more than $3,000 in scholarships each year to high school seniors who plan to major in an art discipline in college • Supporting schools with financial grants for equipment and projects • Providing an art teacher and supplies for the Combat Veterans Center for art therapy classes • Managing the art gallery in Hoover City Hall and bring in local artists to display their works for the public at no charge to the artist • Providing awards for juried art shows in Hoover, including the Bluff Park Art Show, Central Alabama Artists Guild Show, League of American Pen Women Show and other local art events • Giving grants to the Hoover Public Library’s fine arts department and Aldridge Gardens
For more information on the Hoover Arts Alliance, visit hooverarts.com.
requested pieces come from her “Bama Art” collection, which features images like the President’s Mansion, Denny Chimes and Bryant Denny Stadium on game day—harkening back to her lightbulb moment that day on the Quad.
Christi also works with Bluff Park’s Pat Campbell and her wedding invitation and stationery business, Fine Paperwork. So far, she’s drawn a church where the couple was getting married, created a stainedglass watercolor on wedding stationery and created other commissioned designs to make a couple’s big day even more special.
Overall, one of her favorite pieces to create was a huge watercolor of Christ Community Church in Columbus, Georgia. The painting brings the
building’s angular design, stainedglass windows and towering cross to life, and surrounding the colorful image of the church were six other locations where the congregation previously met: a car dealership, home, hotel, movie theater, school and daycare building. “It was a challenge but also a privilege,” she says about creating the piece.
When she isn’t working on commissioned pieces, Christi says she enjoys painting flowers. “I do so many angular, black-and-white pieces, so what I do for fun are colorful flowers.”
She also participates in the local art community through art shows, including one at Aldridge Gardens and on the board (and as president) of the Mountain Brook Art Association. Three years ago, she joined the Hoover Arts Alliance (see sidebar for more information), and she is also involved with Emmanuel Church, where her husband, Andy, is the pastor.
Whether she’s drawing someone’s childhood home or painting a colorful flower in her free time, the goal for all of her projects is the same. “I just try to capture the beauty of the piece.”
To see more of Christi’s artwork, visit christibunn. com.
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Your Financial Emergency Kit
Planning for your financial future is best done before a crisis hits. Life, however, does not always guarantee us this luxury. In today’s world, we are even more concerned with creating and maintaining our income and finding new ways to make them last. Looking at our current financial picture, we all too often find ourselves on the wrong end of the ancient proverb, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.” The good news, however, is, “The second best time is now.” The question we then ask is, “How?”
Well, the Hoover Library is here to help. We have partnered with three financial experts to help you not only answer the question of “how” but also “when,” “where” and “what.” Bryce
Dr. Dale Callahan, UAB professor, Thornton author and personal leadership Business Librarian coach, will present our first program, “Make Money Online: Business Ideas You Can Start from Home,” on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 6:30 p.m. Learn how to match your passion to serve others by starting an online business you can operate part time or full time with no technical skills. He illustrates what is possible when he says, “Not everyone lives day-to-day working in the system, having their income controlled by arbitrary pay scales. What I have found is that there is true freedom still waiting at your fingertips. It is not magic, nor overnight success, but it is simple and repeatable.”
This pandemic, like many crises, caught us off guard and created financial insecurity for many of us. How do you navigate these unsettling times in a financially sound way? What can you do now to prepare yourself for the future and for the next unforeseen event?
To answer these questions, join us for our second program, “Financial Planning in the Midst of a Crisis.” This virtual conversation will be on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 6:30 p.m. Our presenters will be financial educator and the host of “Our Money Matters” Damian J. Carson, and Certified Financial Planner Scott Cole. Together they will share four things you can do now to turn this crisis into an opportunity for a new start to your financial life.
Both events will stream live on the Hoover Library’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. You can also find more information at hooverlibrary.org.
If you have any questions or want additional resources to assist you in your financial planning, please call us at 205-444-7840. IS PROUD TO WELCOME TO OUR EXPERT TEAM OF PHYSICIANS
Beau Grantier, M.D.
SPORTS MEDICINE
Michael F. Blum, M.D. | Ekkehard Bonatz, M.D. | George Robert Booker, M.D. William S. Craig, M.D. | Michael T. Ellerbusch, M.D. | Christopher Heck, M.D. Dewey H. Jones, M.D. | John S. Kirchner, M.D. | William D. Krauss, D.O. Michael D. Smith, M.D. | William D. Sudduth, M.D. | C.J. Talbert, M.D. Call 205-605-8180 today to schedule your appointment.
Grandview Physicians Plaza 3686 Grandview Parkway Suite 430 Birmingham, Alabama 35243
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