ART SCENE
The Secret Life of Objects Ken Herrin’s sculptures de- and reconstructs familiar things Heritage House Arts and Civic Center
Cluster Pot Luck
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WAS A HARD SELL FOR ABSTRACTION,” SCULPtor Ken Herrin admits. As a fine arts major whose work was classically inspired, he spent years sculpting figures in clay.
Ambi Artists Creative Cluster reboots inspiration The book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron is a spiritual path to creativity, one that aids in breaking through a creative block. The book provides steps to the goal of unlocking such a block through activities like “morning pages”, in which artists free-write every morning, and “artist dates”, in which an artist must go somewhere foreign to open their mind to new experiences and get the creative juices flowing. One activity from Cameron’s book has been adopted by the Heritage House in East Brainerd and is now called the Ambi Artists Creative Cluster. The AACC is a cross-discipline group of artists that gathers to reignite their creative spark. The meetings have no teacher, no guru, and no agenda; just creative minds that serve
as a cross-pollinator of ideas. “Creativity is like breathing,” said Julia Cameron about the creative clusters, “pointers may help, but we do the process ourselves.” Chris Holley, Heritage House manager, said the meetings are effective because they give the artists an outside opinion on a piece or idea. Artists are encouraged to bring in works in progress to the meetings for positive feedback and further inspiration. The event is a potluck, so bringing some kind of dish is also encouraged. The group meets the first Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. Heritage House, 1428 Jenkins Rd. (423) 855-9474, chattanooga.gov/ youthandfamily/senior-and-culturalfacilities/heritage-house — Jake Bacon
Arts JANIS HASHE
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The objects are colors on my palette to me. How to edit, how to pare down, how to build up…that’s what interests me.”
But he was also spending a lot of time working in construction and renovation, especially of old houses, and it was while renovating an old home in New York State that he surrendered to the lure of found objects. “Old buildings yield up these incredible secrets,” he says. “Tearing buildings apart, deconstructing and then reconstructing…I made a transition from clay to wood.” Wood, that is, coupled with objects found in attics, basements, and sometimes simply by the side of the road. “I’m the guy at the estate sale who wants to see the funky outbuildings,” he says. “I’ve now been hoarding for a long time.” Herrin’s work is mostly created to hang on walls, encompassing an arrangement of found objects framed by some sort of wood. He approaches his sculpture, he says, “as a painter,” and sees it as occupying a world inbetween two- and three-dimension-
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