OSHi F LOW E R S
NASHVEGASWEDDINGPHOTOGRAPHY.COM KEONI
A CONFECTION OF GRACE
WWW.OSHiFLOWERS.COM Music City Center - 615.254.6744 217-A Sixth Ave. North, Nashville, TN
The Pinnacle at Symphony Place - 615.259.0444 150 Third Ave. South (Main Lobby), Nashville, TN
Direct to Perri (OSHi) 615.972.5425
WHERE EVERY BLOSSOM LEAVES YOU HUNGRY FOR MORE
the doctors ’ doctor
d r . M i ng W ang Md, Phd PERFORMED SURGERIES ON OVER 4,000 DOCTORS Dr. Ming Wang, Harvard & MIT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser Physics), is one of the few cataract and LASIK surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. He has performed over 55,000 procedures, including on over 4,000 doctors (hence he has been referred to as “the doctors’ doctor”). Dr. Wang currently is the only surgeon in the state who offers 3D LASIK (age 18+), 3D Forever Young Lens surgery (age 45+) and 3D laser cataract surgery (age 60+). He has published 7 textbooks, over 100 papers including one in the world-renowned journal “Nature”, holds several U.S. patents and performed the world’s first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation. He has received an achievement award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Chinese Physician Association. Dr. Wang founded a 501c(3) non-profit charity, the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration (www.Wangfoundation.com), which to date has helped patients from over 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries worldwide, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge.
AMNIOTIC MEMBRANE CONTACT LENS Dr. Wang’s invention • U.S. patents: 5,932,205 & 6,143,315
Used by over 1,000 eye doctors to restore sight.
INVENTIONS & PATENTS 1. LASERACT: All-laser cataract surgery U.S. patent filed.
aberrations U.S. Utility Patent Application Serial No. 11/642,226.
2. Phacoplasty U.S. patent filed. 3. Amniotic membrane contact lens for photoablated corneal tissue U.S. Patent Serial No. 5,932,205.
4. Amniotic membrane contact lens for injured corneal tissue U.S. Patent Serial No. 6,143,315.
5. Adaptive infrared retinoscopic device for detecting ocular
6. Digital eye bank for virtual clinical trial U.S. Utility Patent
Application Serial No. 11/585,522.
7. Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy for non-healing corneal ulcer U.S.patent filed. 8. A whole-genome method of assaying in vivo DNAprotein interaction and gene expression regulation
Amniotic membrane Is obtained after the baby’s birth
U.S. patent filed.
Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center 615.321.8881 | WangCataractLASIK.com
5 AVENUE OF THE A RTS th
D OWNTOWN N ASHVILLE
Regular 5th Avenue gallery hours: 11-5:00 pm, Tuesday-Saturday
the
company
www.theartscompany.com
February 7 - February 28 Of Things To Come Annual Gallery Showcase ©Dan Bynum
www.therymergallery.com
February 7 - March 21 Anima: New Paintings by Luke Hillestad ©Luke Hillestad
www.tinneycontemporary.com
January 24 - February 28 New Abstractions Martica Griffin, Jeanie Gooden, Jason Craighead, and Mildred Jarrett ©Martica Griffin
FIRST
Saturday
A RT
C R AW L DOWNTOWN
6-9 pm
TM
PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP Charles N. Martin, Jr., Chairman Paul Polycarpou, President Ed Cassady, Les Wilkinson, Directors
SOCIAL MEDIA
www.facebook.com/NashvilleArts www.twitter.com/NashvilleArts www.pinterest.com/NashvilleArts
www.nashvillearts.com CONTACT INFORMATION
EDITORIAL & ADVERTISING OFFICES 644 West Iris Drive, Nashville, TN 37204 615-383-0278 ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Cindy Acuff, Keith Wright 615-383-0278 DISTRIBUTION Wouter Feldbusch, Peyton Lester SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CUSTOMER SERVICE 615-383-0278 BUSINESS OFFICE Theresa Schlaff, Adrienne Thompson 40 Burton Hills Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37215 EDITORIAL PAUL POLYCARPOU Editor and CEO SARA LEE BURD Executive Editor and Online Editor sara@nashvillearts.com REBECCA PIERCE Education Editor and Staff Writer rebecca@nashvillearts.com MADGE FRANKLIN Copy Editor EDITORIAL INTERN XIYU DENG, VANDERBILT JESSICA MARTIN, BELMONT DESIGN TRACEY STARCK Design Director ADVERTISING
COLUMNS EMME NELSON BAXTER Paint the Town MARSHALL CHAPMAN Beyond Words JENNIFER COLE State of the Arts LINDA DYER Antique and Fine Art Specialist JOE NOLAN Critical i ANNE POPE Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND Theatre Correspondent MARK W. SCALA As I See It JUSTIN STOKES Film Review
CINDY ACUFF cindy@nashvillearts.com
RUSTY WOLFE Pieces & Parts
KEITH WRIGHT keith@nashvillearts.com
TONY YOUNGBLOOD Art in Formation
Nashville Arts Magazine is a monthly publication by St. Claire Media Group, LLC. This publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one magazine from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office for free, or by mail for $5.00 a copy. Email: All email addresses consist of the 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.
F2O15 ebruary
on the cover:
Damian Stamer, Up & Down, 2014, Oil on panel, 30” x 40” Article on page 32
FEATURES
COLUMNS
13 Spotlights
10 Crawl Guide
29
25 Carroll Cloar & Leslie Holt at David Lusk Gallery
36 Arts & the Business of Art Arts & Business Council
29 Sherrick & Paul New Gallery • New Art
38 Film Review by Justin Stokes
32 Damian Stamer Visual Spaces
39 Pieces & Parts by Rusty Wolfe 40 The Bookmark
48 CG2 Cumberland Gallery
Launches Satellite Location
56
56 Attitude Nashville Ballet
44 As I See It by Mark W. Scala
73 Ted Jones Man of Faith
55 Public Art by Van Gill Maravalli
102
58 NPT
86 Poet’s Corner by Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay
Love and Heartbreak
82 Alison Poland Cities in Color
48 25
89 Jaume Plensa Dramatic Sculptures
63 97
by Joe Nolan
Critical i
97
by Jim Reyland
Theatre
100 Art See 102 Art Smart
109 Backstage with Studio Tenn by Cat Acree 110 Paint the Town by Emme Nelson Baxter
90 Steve Earle Terraplane 93 Rory White Nashville 6 A.M.
87
by Tony Youngblood
63 Nashville Gems
87 Charles Brindley Celebration of Trees
Hot Books and Cool Reads
42 Art in Formation
79 Polly Cook Lost & Found: A Story of
84 Anne McCue Q&A
55
98 Ann Cowden A Profile in Portraits
113 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman 114 My Favorite Painting
NashvilleArts.com
79 February 2015 | 7
PUBLISHER ' S NOTE
Bennett Galleries Now Representing
Art Creates a City
F
ebruary is the time for heart and soul, and this issue is oozing with it. Lovers are encouraged to profess their passions . . . and jewelry is one demonstrable way. Our feature Nashville Gems, showcasing jewelry-makers Erin Herb, Brooke Griffith, and Debe Dohrer, might give you some ideas on how to express your feelings (see page 63). Explore the ups and downs of the romantic sphere in the narrative artworks of painter and ceramic artist Polly Cook on page 79. If the whole Valentine’s Day business brings you down, check out our Steve Earle story on page 90. He knows the blues, and he’s bringing them to us on his new album. The heart of Wedgewood/Houston is growing as it adds CG2 (page 48) and Sherrick & Paul Gallery (page 29) to its already fertile creative community. Youth Poet Laureate Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay evokes the spirit of the city in her poem on page 86. Black History Month calls us to connect with history and celebrate our African American community. Ted Jones, one of Nashville’s finest artists, made a career in art and teaching at Fisk University. See his arresting work on page 73. We welcome new columnist Mark W. Scala, who will provide monthly reflections on great art in “As I See It” (page 44). Peace and love from all of us at Nashville Arts Magazine!
I’m Pretty, Acrylic on board, 24” x 24”
Detailed images of work by David Heustess, Audry Deal-McEver, John Toomey, JC Johnson, Kelly Kessler, Jenni Ohnstad
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
Fields of Investigation: A Collaborative Exhibit from Sarratt Art Studios Faculty Exhibit Ends February 27
www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattart
LESLIE HOLT
DLG FEB 2015 hello masterpiece: farewell tour
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
516 Hagan St . Nashville . davidluskgallery.com
FEBRUARY CRAWL GUIDE
Kelly Harwood – Gallery 202
The Franklin Art Scene happens on Friday, February 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. with more than 30 galleries and working studios participating. Gallery 202 is showcasing works f rom over 35 gallery artists. Boutique MMM is featuring drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculpture by Sketch Bourque. The Williamson County Visitor Center is hosting photographer a n d p a i n t e r R a c h e l K a r r. Parks is exhibiting work by Bess Kearns. Shuff ’s Music and Piano Showroom is presenting photography by Cory Plowman.
The First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown takes place on Saturday, February 7, from 6 until 9 p.m. The Arts Company is presenting their annual gallery showcase Of Things to Come. Tinney Contemporary is showing New Abstractions by Martica Griffin, Jeanie Gooden, Jason Craighead, and Mildred Jarrett. The Rymer Galler y is exhibiting Anima: New Paintings by Luke Hillestad. Downtown Presbyterian Church is featuring Anna Marchetti’s mixed-media e x h i b i t i o n R e d Ve l ve t , w h i c h includes photo-based work and a collection of writings and drawings.
Anna Marchetti – Downtown Presbyterian
In the historic Arcade, COOP Gallery is hosting an opening reception for Ordinary People by Pakistani American artist Asma Kazmi. WAG is presenting On Screen, a multimedia installation by Watkins Fine Art senior Kayla Saito, which investigates the representation of individual identity in social media. Corvidae Collective is launching the exhibit Rebel & Riot, a visual commentary on modern politics through the lens of old-school punk-rock artistic perspectives. Hannah Lane Gallery is showing new work by Hannah Lane. Hatch Show Print’s Haley Gallery is featuring historic re-strikes of Hannah Lane – Hannah Lane Gallery original posters from their collection and Master Printer Jim Sherraden’s monoprints. The Community Corridor at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is showing iPod Artwork by Jeff Grady.
Michelle Farro – Julia Martin Gallery
Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston happens on Saturday, February 7, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Seed Space is presenting Talking House, Andrew O’Brien’s installation comprised of a custom-built deck and a series of radio transmitters. Julia Martin Gallery is launching Dedicated to the One I Love: New Works by Michelle Farro, which includes paintings based on personal memories, family photographs, found imagery, and still-life motifs. Zeitgeist is featuring Once Upon a Time in the West by Jeremiah Ariaz and Scissor Bell by Lain York. The new CG2 Gallery is opening with a reception for their artists (see page 48). Channel to Channel is exhibiting Maximum Velocity, a selection of abstract paintings by recent Austin Peay State graduate Alexander Wurts. David Lusk Galler y is showcasing Start to Finish: Paintings & Woodcuts, abstract works by mid-century artist Ted Faiers. Sherrick & Paul Gallery is opening with an exhibit of paintings by Damian Stamer (see page 32). abrasiveMedia is presenting Tony Youngblood’s Modular Art Pods (MAPs) event, an art tunnel in which attendees Emma Schwartz – crawl through a series of over 444 Humphreys St Pop Up Gallery 30 individually curated, four-foot micro art galleries (see page 24). 444 Humphreys St Pop Up Gallery is hosting Nashville native and recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Emma Schwartz, whose paintings are like urban folk art, capturing day-to-day scenes in life. The Packing Plant is presenting Ariel Lavery’s installation Open Drawer, digitally remastered drawings, silk screen prints, and sculpture. Fort Houston is celebrating its third anniversar y with a Birthday Bonanz a inc luding a livel y Ariel Lavery – The Packing Plant combination of Arts & Music! Third Thursdays at Riverwood Mansion takes place on February 19. This month features art by Jim Osborn and a musical performance by Jonell Mosser.
10 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
hand forged in normandy • hand finished in nashville
w w w . I r o n wa r e I n t e r n at I o n a l . c o m Providing Custom Lighting & Furniture for over 25 years | 615/726-2500
Globe handcrafted by Curt Brock artwork by John Folsom (photographic painting) & Olen Bryant (sculpture)
NASHVILLE’S REAL ESTATE SIGN OF DISTINCTION
40 Burton Hills Blvd., Suite 230 • (615) 250-7880 Worthproperties.com
2323 WOODMONT BLVD • $3,499,000
4025 NESTLEDOWN DR • $2,998,800
126 BROOKFIELD AVE • $1,899,000
4124 WALLACE LN • $1,484,000
NE W
PR IC E
6123 HILLSBORO RD • $6,687,000
SO LD
1600 WHISPERING HILLS DR • $1,999,900
4001 WALLACE LN • $1,294,500
PR IC E
3106 DEL RIO PIKE • $1,289,000
NE W
NE W
PR IC E
5613 OTTERSHAW CT • $1,388,800
4509 BALLOW LANE • $1,249,000
815 TYNE BLVD • $1,198,000
1060 NATCHEZ VALLEY LN • $1,018,800
1020 FALLING LEAF CIRCLE • $975,000
172-A WOODMONT BLVD• $539,900
297 SAINT ANDREWS DR • $489,000
“It’s worth a call to Laura Baugh. I’m never too busy for you!” GNAR Award of Excellence Life Member and 8 time Diamond Award Recipient
mobile: 615-330-3051 • office: 615-250-7880 • Laurabaugh3@gmail.com
John L. Butts, Jr., Faces, Acrylic on canvas, 6” x 4”
Phoenix Art Gala to Benefit Healing Arts Project
T
Hilton Garden Inn Vanderbilt • February 5
he Healing Arts Project, Inc. (HAPI) advocates for individuals in mental health and addiction recovery by giving them opportunities to participate in a wide range of artistic endeavors, which often plays a major role in their journeys to recovery. HAPI also aims to raise community awareness and help combat stigma about these disorders. The Phoenix Art Gala, now in its fifth year, benefits HAPI community programs and artistic services. This year’s gala includes a HAPI Art Exhibit, a casual dinner, and honoring of four Friends of the Healing Arts Project, Inc. for their service. These Friends will be presented awards for their significant efforts to further the arts in recovery. Original paintings, drawings, jewelry, ceramics, and weaving from over 50 Middle Tennessee HAPI artists will be offered through the art shop and by silent auction. Also featured in the silent auction will be an Epiphone Guitar signed by Amy Grant and Vince Gill and Demarcation, an oil painting by Kirk Seufert. Nashville guitarist Jonathan Brown is the featured entertainer.
The Healing Arts Project is sponsored in part by the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Metro Nashville Arts Commission. The Phoenix Art Gala takes place on Thursday, February 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Vanderbilt. For tickets and information, visit www.healingartsprojectinc.org.
Pray to Love Anne Goetze’s Photographic Journey Emerges as Mixed Media Solo Exhibition Customs House Museum • February 3 to March 1 by Rebecca Pierce
L
ate last year the Customs House Museum asked Nashville Arts Magazine to curate a year of monthly exhibits for the museum’s Planter’s Bank Peg Harvill Gallery. The call for entry brought in submissions from across Middle Tennessee that were juried into 11 solo shows. Visit our website for a complete listing of who will be showing when. Opening on February 3 is the exhibit Pray to Love by Anne Goetze.
For over 20 years, Anne Goetze made repeated journeys to Annecy, France, to visit her Aunt Helen, Soeur Margarite Marie, at the Monestere de la Visitation, home to the Visitation Order. In this small order, over 400 years old, the nuns live closed cloistered, a simple, contemplative life that does not include interaction with the public. Anne was not permitted inside the monastery, but on every visit she documented her impressions and photographed the grounds and village surrounding the monastery. Over the years, Anne grew to love the small group of women, and they became accustomed to having her there with her camera.
Do You Have the Right Soul, Ashes, oil, archival ink, canvas, 40” x 30”
Anton Weiss became so enamored with the series that he developed the prototype for the frames.
Pray to Love includes a dozen pieces with captions written by nuns from the closed-cloistered Tyringham Monastery in Massachusetts. Anne and her son, Nathan Collie, created a film documenting Anne’s experiences and the creative process, which is projected on one wall of the gallery.
Pray to Love by Anne Goetze will be on view February 3 through March 1 at the Customs House Museum’s Planter’s Bank Peg Harvill Gallery in Clarksville. Anne Goetze will be at the gallery during the Clarksville Downtown Artwalk on February 5 from 5 to 8 p.m. For more information, please visit www.customshousemuseum.org. To see more of Anne Goetze’s art, visit www.annegoetze.com. Cobblestone Rue, Ashes, oil, archival ink, canvas, 30” x 40”
“Each time I was filled with so much emotion by the beauty and spirit of the place. And each time when I returned home from one of the oldest cities in the Alps, I knew that I would never be the same again,” Anne wrote. She saw her Aunt Helen for the last time in November 2013. “She was just shy of her 85th birthday when I returned in January 2014 for her funeral. Once again I roamed about with my camera; this time I was freely allowed within the interior walls of the monastery.”
When Anne returned from the funeral she became completely immersed in painting the imagery she had collected for decades. Now she is ready to exhibit this cohesive body of work that is somewhat documentary in style. Its title, Pray to Love, is a saying the nuns use frequently. Anne says, “While it is a very personal project and definitely not commercial, it also draws community. No matter what your faith, you can relate to the peacefulness and serenity.”
Monastere De La Visitation, Ashes, oil, archival ink, canvas, 20” x 30”
14 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT 202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 www.gallery202art.com • 615-472-1134
A merican A bstract A rtists AAA 75 th A nniversary P rint P ortfolio
D
Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery • through February 27
igital technolog y has allowed for increasing innovation in the approaches artists may take to abstraction. American Abstract Artists: AAA 75th Anniversary Print Portfolio examines the attitude of the American Abstract Artists group, founded in 1936, as they embrace ne w pr intmaking tec hnolog y. While previous portfolios have focused on traditional methods, this exhibition exclusively features archival inkjet prints.
in the exhibition through a display of 48 works of the same size and medium. Organized by the Ewing Gallery of Ar t and Architecture at the Universit y of Tennessee, Knoxville, the American Abstract Artists: AAA 75 th Anniversary Print Portfolio exhibition is the first of a two-part series focusing on abstraction in America. American Abstract Artists: AAA 75 th Anniversary Print Portfolio is on view through February 27 at the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through
Works in the show range f rom digital images of traditional works, as with Thornton Willis’s Untitled, to completely computer-designed Alice Adams, Beaded Circle, 2012, Archival fine art digital inkjet Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, works such as Gilbert Hsiao’s Disco print, 13” x 10” please visit the gallery’s website at www.vanderbilt.edu/gallery. 3000, and everything in between. The varied techniques are unified
16 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
We grow hair The rest is up to you
Trust. Care. Confidence.
376-6010 .w G H .
www
e row air com
affordable • guaranteed results • minor medical procedure • fast recovery
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1 Still House Hollow Farms $19,900,000 (750+ acres) 2 939 Tyne $4,495,000 3 4816 Post Road $3,995,000 4 2460 Hidden River $3,700,000 5 5004 Hill Place $3,499,000 6 1216 Canterbury $2,995,000 7 434 Grayson $2,595,000
8 110 Lynnwood $2,500,000 9 3823 Whitland $2,497,000 10 1154 Travelers Ridge $2,399,000 11 212 Craighead $2,185,000 12 1160 Manley Lane $1,999,950 13 2179 S Berrys Chapel $1,649,000
Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953
8
9
Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953
18 323 29th Ave N $1,250,000
11
12
13
14
15
17
16
14 1213 Vintage Place $1,495,000 15 3814 Hobbs $1,495,000 16 206 Leonard $1,295,000 17 100 Bellavista $1,250,000
10
19 3631 West End $1,249,000 20 423 Ellendale $1,095,000 21 4112 Baldwin Arbor $999,000 22 3811 Whitland $949,000 23 3633 Saratoga $585,000
18
RICK FRENCH 615-604-2323c
615-292-2622o
19
BROKER
Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953
FRENCHKING.COM
Rick French 604-2323, Tim King 482-5953
20
21
22
23
S ix A merican C omposers
O
ALIAS Winter Concert
Vanderbilt Blair School of Music • February 17
nce again, the Grammy-nominated ALIAS Chamber Ensemble is poised to offer its audience an evening of artistic excellence and innovative compositions. The ensemble’s Winter Concert showcases arrangements by six American composers, four of whom are from Nashville.
The program will also feature works by Nashville composer Matt Walker and a trio by Leonard Bernstein. Also included is an unusual, unpublished work by Aaron Copland from 1932, discovered by former Nashville Symphony librarian Wilson Ochoa in the archives of the Boston Symphony. All proceeds f rom the ALIAS Winter Concert will be donated to Open Table Nashville, a non-profit, interfaith organization that provides housing to the homeless while
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN PARTIPILO
Three world premieres are slated for performance: Nashville composer Daniel Elder’s work The Ties Eternal, which is scored for two violins, two celli, percussion, and soprano; a commissioned string quartet by Nashvillian Conni Ellisor; and a string quartet by ALIAS’s Chris Farrell.
disrupting cycles of poverty and educating the public on issues about homelessness.
The ALIAS Winter Concert takes place at 8 p.m. on Februar y 17 at Tur ner Hall, B l a i r S c h o o l o f M u s i c a t Va n d e r b i l t
20 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
University. Tickets are $20 for adults, $5 for students with ID, and free for Blair students. For tickets and information, visit www.aliasmusic.org. For more information on Open Table Nashville, please visit www.opentablenashville.org.
’ ER
S BA Z A AR
as d e t c Sele of the & One n Bed Te ts Top eakfas ica Br r e m in A A HARPER’ S B
Moonshine Hill offers romance and relaxation in the beautiful Tennessee countryside of historic Leiper’s Fork. Enjoy 22 private acres of uptown lodging in a down-home setting. Rent by the day, weekend, or week.
ZA
AR
HA
RP
Moonshine Hill
Moonshine Hill
Call us at 615-500-1234 • Email us at stay@moonshinehill.com www.MoonshineHill.com
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 21
The Wonderful World of
WYETHS
T
Haynes Galleries • through February 28
he Wyeths: A Limited Edition Collection, on view at Haynes Galleries, features fine art collotypes and giclées of some of Andrew Wyeth’s most beloved works. Through a large number of limited edition pieces, the various stages of the legendary artist’s career are represented. Included in the exhibition is an edition of the rarely seen 1956 Triton Press Portfolio, color collotypes of ten Wyeth paintings chosen by the artist. Also presented are the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Andrew Wyeth Drawing Portfolio and Painting Portfolio. Produced in conjunction with the 1976 retrospective of Wyeth’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, each portfolio contains ten collotypes with each signed by Wyeth. These portfolios are among a very limited number of portfolios that were signed in their entirety by the artist. The Wyeths: A Limited Edition Collection also includes works by Jamie and Carolyn Wyeth, Andrew’s son and sister respectively. Though both Jamie and Carolyn have their own signature styles, Andrew Wyeth’s influence is evident. Jamie’s unique pictures of animals serve more as portraits or character studies. Carolyn’s ominous yet introspective scenes explore the world with which she was most familiar, her home and the rural land surrounding it. The Wyeths: A Limited Edition Collection is on view through February 28 at Haynes Galleries. For more information, visit www.haynesgalleries.com.
Finn, 1976, Collotype, 29” x 21”
George Washington Birthday Celebration Harpeth Hall • February 11 & 12
E
very February since 1922, the all-girls school Harpeth Hall has held a pageant called the “George Washington Birthday Celebration.” The school’s seventh grade girls are costumed as Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. The greatest honor is reserved for two eighth graders who are elected to appear as George and Martha Washington. Painter Morgan Ogilvie, who describes the pageant as “a strangely beautiful, vaguely Gothic affair,” has depicted the girls in costume through a series of 16 oil paintings, on view at Harpeth Hall February 11 and 12. Ogilvie explains, “I am touched by the girls’ poise and grace as they reenact this singular interpretation of our national identity. The event has given me a chance to further explore the emotional landscape of childhood and early adolescence, one of my chief preoccupations as a painter. As regional experiences become more homogenous in the United States, vestigial events such as this take on even greater significance against the background of an ever-encroaching monoculture.” Washington will be on view February 11 and 12 at the Harpeth Hall Wellness Center. A reception for the show is slated for Thursday, February 12, at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.morgan-ogilvie.squarespace.com. Young Lady Dressed up as George Washington, 2013, Oil on canvas, 48” x 24” 22 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
V isiting Artist Series Event FEATURING THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF STANTON TUBB & JEWELRY BY GLEN & EFFIE Enjoy a spectacular evening filled with live music, refreshing cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres while viewing Stanton Tubb’s extraordinary series Dixieland & Shades of Gray and jewelry collections by Glen & Effie Vintage Design. Tuesday, February 17th | 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM 2002 Richard Jones Road, Suite C-104 | Nashville, TN 37215 Please find additional event details and pieces of art that will be displayed at: www.thelipmangroup.com/artist SPONSORED BY:
Spectacular Views Of The Nashville Skyline
New York Style Living Downtown View
COMING SOON!
MIDTOWN | ADELICIA, #1001 | $1,250,000 2BR•2 Full BA | 1,829 SF | Downtown Facing Corner Unit Michelle Maldonado, 615.260.4423
CHRISTIANA | 8990 MANCHESTER PIKE | $1,900,000 4BR•5 Full BA•2 Half BA | 8,615 SF | 25 Acres Chris Mannino, 615.299.7995
NASHVILLE | WESSEX TOWERS | 24 HR DOORMAN 1BR•1 Full BA | Renovated | HOA Includes Utilities Jackie Roth Karr, 615.330.9779
UNDER CONTRACT
NASHVILLE | 8837 HIGHWAY 100 | $595,000 3BR•2 Full BA•1 Half BA | 2,526 SF | Natchez Trace Chalet Renee Max, 615.975.7043
2002 Richard Jones Road Suite C-104 Nashville, TN 37215 615.463.3333 Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated.
CENTER HILL | 932 SUNNY POINT ROAD | $650,000 | OVERLOOKING BEAUTIFUL CENTER HILL LAKE 6BR•5 Full BA•1 Half BA | 3,064 SF | 2 Cottages | Fabulous Decks With Gorgeous Views Lawrence Lipman, 615.364.3333
agents
FEATURED
Michelle Maldonado
Larry Lipman
Chris Mannino
Jackie Roth Karr
Renee Max
UL
MO D
Specialized furniture
from the forest floor
PO DS
A R T MODULAR ART PODS @ a brasiveMedia
438 Houston Street, Suite 257
FEBRUARY 7TH, 2015 6 - 10 p.m. during Arts & Music @ Wedgewood Houston Nashville, Tennessee
FINISH
START
Inaugural Modular Art Pods Event
to your home.
F
abrasiveMedia • February 7
or one night only, Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston visitors at abrasiveMedia can experience a literal art crawl by participating in Tony Youngblood’s Modular Art Pods (MAPs) event. An open source, multi-disciplinary, collaborative project, MAPs is an art tunnel in which attendees crawl through a series of over 30 individually curated, four-foot micro art galleries.
Youngblood came up with the idea while attending art openings where he often found it difficult to experience art with crowds of socializers surrounding him. “I thought it would be great to create these little pods where people can experience art all by themselves, and then there is the novelty of the changing environments as they travel through the art tunnel.” A behind-the-scenes tour is available for those unable to crawl.
901 2nd Ave. S. | Nashville, TN 37210
615-878-6216 www.littlebranchfarm.com
With over 35 artists enthusiastically participating, Youngblood says this is his most ambitious art endeavor to date. He hopes to organize another MAPs event that will last longer, and he’d be thrilled to see his concept used by artists in other cities.
Youngblood’s inaugural MAPs event takes place at abrasiveMedia during Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston on February 7 from 6 to 10 p.m. For more information, visit www.modularartpods.com.
Carroll Cloar & Leslie Holt
David Lusk Gallery • February 17 through March 21
D
by Joe Pagetta
avid Lusk Gallery pairs two artists born fifty-six years apart in a new exhibit running through March 21 at the Wedgewood/Houston location. Carroll Cloar, born near Earle, Arkansas, in 1913—he died in Memphis in 1993—and Leslie Holt, born in Maryland in 1969, are artists very much of their time. Cloar’s social realist work concerns itself with images of rural America. But it’s his evolution from the stark, crammed, almost cartoonish drawings in the 40s to the defined, colorful, and minimal scenes of his work beginning in the late 50s that is most striking. We see an artist at work, approaching mastery, over the years. The result is folk life, but not folk art, that will certainly appeal to fans of Edward Hopper or Robert Gwathmey. Many will recognize Cloar’s style from his 1966 painting Faculty and Honor Students, Lewis Schoolhouse. The work, depicting children holding a backwards American flag, was reproduced on a poster commemorating Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration. Holt came of age post pop art, and the influence of the modern era and its focus
Leslie Holt, Hello Gauguin (Sun Hat), 2014, Oil on canvas, 20” x 20”
Leslie Holt, Hello Cezanne (Whole Foods), 2014, Oil on canvas, 16” x 20”
on concept and messaging is clear. She’s best known for her Hello Masterpiece series, begun in 2008. In the oil-on-canvas works, Hello Kitty, the popular Japanese icon, is painted into reproductions of famous art masterpieces by Matisse, Warhol, Munch, and Mondrian, to name a few, the size of a postcard. The result is whimsical at first, but touches on the meta when Hello Kitty, a brand so ubiquitous and representative of commercial culture, finds itself inside an image equally as silkscreened on T-shirts and tote bags, like Warhol’s Marilyn or Mondrian’s colorful grid. The David Lusk show, titled Hello Masterpiece: Farewell Tour, sends off the series in grand fashion, with some scenes as large as 36” x 48”. Cloar’s and Holt’s works have shown in Nashville before, most recently in 2012, when Holt’s Hello Masterpiece series hung at the Sarratt Gallery in 2012, and a selection of Cloar’s work appeared at Belmont University. Cloar was first exhibited in NashvilleArts.com
Carroll Cloar, Marked Tree Scene, 1992, Acrylic on masonite, 28” x 40”
Music City in 1983 at the Tennessee State Museum. His pieces are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. Carroll Cloar and Leslie Holt’s art will be on exhibit at David Lusk through March 21. For more about the exhibit please visit www.davidluskgallery.com/nashville. February 2015 | 25
YORK & Friends fine art
SHAWN DOUGHTY The Who, What & Where
Nashville • Memphis
with gallery owner, Ron York
Q
Nashville’s Newest Leading Source for Tennessee Art
ARTHUR KIRKBY
What is your background?
My dream and passion is my art and I work very hard at that. I’ve also always loved science and I work as a chemist in the nuclear division of TVA.
Q
How did you come up with your city/state collage concept?
Q
What is your medium of choice?
Q
How much time goes into the creation of one of these pieces?
Q
Tell us something interesting about your work and particularly this Nashville piece.
My son was born in Kentucky and my wife asked me to create an art piece she could hang in his room depicting all the interesting things that make Kentucky unique. I made it the shape of Kentucky and filled it with a whimsical collage of all things Kentucky. Friends saw it and wanted prints and then inspired me to do other cool places.
I use Prisma colored pencils because they afford me the ability to get really detailed and they just feel more natural than paint brushes.
Howdee, 24 x 24, Mixed media on canvas
Nashville Scene 2014 Best Visual Artist Arts & Flowers 2014 Best of Show 107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net Follow us on at Ron York Art www.yorkandfriends.com
It takes time to do the research SHAWN DOUGHTY for the piece and I also encourage people who follow my work and are native to an area to get involved and give me ideas. I then layout the concept on paper and transfer it with carbon paper and ink it in. The piece actually comes to life once I add the colored pencil pigment and I love giving people updates on the pieces as they progress. From start to finish a single piece can take up to 300 hours of work.
When I started creating my city pieces I added hidden objects. Some of these hidden objects have personal meaning. For example, the Nashville piece has a little dog hiding amongst plants that represents our little dog that was lost in the woods for twenty-five days when our home was destroyed by a tornado in 2012.
Q
What other subjects do you enjoy drawing?
Besides the state and city collages, I get back to my love for science and draw very detailed butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds, and so forth. My wife and I are active in animal rescue and I’ve done a lot of pet portraits as well. Shawn Doughty’s original artwork and prints are available at York & Friends Fine Art, 107 Harding Place. For more, please visit www.yorkandfriends.com.
YORK & Friends fine art Nashville • Memphis
Nashville’s Newest Leading Source for Tennessee Art
SHAWN DOUGHTY
The Who, What & Where of Nashville, 22 x 30, Prismacolor Pencil/Ink on Paper *Limited edition prints on paper & canvas also available
107 Harding Place • Tues-Sat 10-5 615.352.3316 • yorkandfriends@att.net • www.yorkandfriends.com Follow us on at Ron York Art
ILEX
FOR YOU R VA LE N T I N E
Rose Rosa
Photography by Brett Warren shot in the Ilex studio
601 8th Ave South Nashville, TN 37203 615-736-5200 ilexforflowersnashville@gmail.com www.ilexforflowers.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA BEHRENDS
SHERRICK & PAUL
NEW GALLERY • NEW ART by Kim Greene
Susan Sherrick Brings an International Roster of Artists to Houston Station
T
he first fine art piece Susan Sherrick ever bought was a black-and-white photograph of a New Orleans jazz parade. She was working at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco and had fallen for the gritty 1950s cityscapes of one of the gallery’s artists, Lee Friedlander. Paging through his MoMA catalogue, her eye fell upon that NOLA image, and her mind rushed back to a New Orleans night when she was 20 years old. Sherrick’s brother, Stephen, 17, had died
a few months before; she and her parents couldn’t bear Thanksgiving at home in Hershey, Pennsylvania, without him, so they got on a southbound plane and hoped they could forget. They could not. After Thanksgiving dinner, the three stepped out of Commander’s Palace just as a brass band marched into the gorgeous decay of Lafayette Cemetery #1. For them, the funeral procession was a resplendent farewell to Stephen. “I will never forget that music as long as I live,” Sherrick says. “Then I saw the photo that Lee took, and I could hear that music again.” The photograph hangs next to her front door, where it conjures in her, every day, the exquisite ache of loving and losing her baby
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 29
William Eggleston, Untitled, 1968, Photograph, 44” x 64”
As co-owner of the new Sherrick & Paul contemporary art gallery, Sherrick is poised to infuse a whole lot more of that kind of top-tier, cutting-edge art into the booming Wedgewood-Houston arts community. At the gallery’s inaugural opening night in November of 2014, the house was packed with decked-out locals ogling Barry McGee’s vivid surfboard installation and Vivian Maier’s urban streetscapes. “[Sherrick’s] bringing in museum-caliber artists. And she’s doing it in this neighborhood, which is fantastic,” says Lain York, Nashville artist and director of Zeitgeist Gallery. “I think it’s a huge game changer. This is work that Nashvillians who are collectors are going to art fairs and to New York to buy.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY S EMI SONG
brother. For Sherrick—art dealer and curator, and new Nashville gallery owner—that’s what great art should do: It should provoke and agitate; it should stir up a tangled inner turmoil, and reflect a complicated push-pull between wrenching and lovely, hideous and mesmerizing.
Barry McGee, Untitled, 2014, Mixed media, various dimensions
B
efore launching the gallery, Sherrick did a few test runs to see what Nashville collectors might do if more world-class art came to them. She partnered with Nashvillian Libby Callaway in a series of pop-up events called “Joint,” which paired well-known artists like William Eggleston with talented locals such as Heidi Ross and Yve Assad. The result? “We sold work,” says Sherrick, at all different price points—including an Eggleston photograph for $60,000. “And then, I was like, OK, maybe this can happen,” Sherrick recalls. Nashville Scene arts editor Laura Hutson thinks maybe it can, too—especially as Nashville’s demography shifts. “The middle of nowhere is the new center,” she says, pointing out that “flyover” cities like Nashville and Denver are attracting more twenty-something college grads than ever before. And those educated young people are going to want big-city amenities like great restaurants and a thriving arts scene. Hutson draws parallels, in fact, between culinary and visual arts cultures—and how a city’s tastes evolve, as tastemakers introduce better and edgier art forms and seed people’s cravings for more. But even as Nashville’s arts scene grows, can a small city compete for serious art collectors’ dollars? Former Nashville curator Veronica Kavass suggests that Nashville shouldn’t try to outdo New York on its own terms. The big-city art scenes “can feel so stuffy and intimidating, so cutthroat,” she says. “The Southern market for art collecting could be a respite.”
Marcel Dzama, Miss Disco, 2014, Spray paint, ink, and collage, 18” x 16”
Kavass believes that Sherrick’s big-market connections and tastes, combined with her low-key, personal approach to the business of art, might be just the right recipe for Nashville collectors. Maybe that’s
30 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY S EMI SONG
Interior of Sherrick & Paul Gallery at Fort Houston
why so many big-name artists Susan has worked with, through such storied galleries as David Zwirner, Marian Goodman, and Howard Greenberg, are willing to take a chance on Nashville. “I don’t think it would happen if it weren’t for Susan. She was a breath of fresh air for those artists,” Kavass says. “She’s personally interested in them. She wants to take good care of them.”
Sherrick believes those present and future fine-art aficionados won’t be hard to find in Nashville. “They’re totally here,” she says. She recalls watching an MTSU student at one of the Joint pop-ups gazing at an Eggleston photograph. He turned to Sherrick. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “I never thought this kind of art would be in Nashville.” For more infor mation about Susan Sherrick please visit www.sherrickandpaul.com.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREA BEHRENDS
“For me, it was a no-brainer,” says New York artist Wendy White, whose solo exhibition comes to Sherrick & Paul in April. “I think I said, ‘I’d follow you anywhere’ when she asked me. She has an impeccable resume and amazing taste. Also, Nashville is a really interesting city. It offers the opportunity to work outside the well-worn art world avenues.”
There are two types of people Susan Sherrick and her partner—healthcare executive and art collector Paul Gilbert—are hoping to lure to the gallery: art-curious types, soon to be converted, and swooning art lovers who spent childhoods roaming the Whitney and the MoMA.
Nick Goss, Voices Under the Lindens, 2013, Oil on linen, 75” x 69”
Susan Sherrick NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 31
32 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY MA X YAWNEY
(above) Damian Stamer standing in front of Patrick Rd. 8, 2013, Oil on panel, 72” x 95” (left) St. Marys, 2014, Oil on panel, 72” x 48”
Da m ia n S ta m er
visual spaces Sherrick & Paul Gallery Through February 28
D
by Daniel Tidwell
amian Stamer’s paintings are multilayered meditations on memory, loss, nostalgia, and sentimentality. Heavily worked, rich surfaces yield clues to the history contained in images of abandoned buildings and rural landscapes. In his most recent work, the structures and fields of his native North Carolina are often engulfed in a whirl of broad, gestural strokes—obscuring the images while evoking the effect of time’s passage on a rapidly fading memory.
As a child in North Carolina, Stamer often explored the deserted structures and fields near his home. “These are the same old barns, relatively unchanged, that my bus passed every day to and from school over twenty years ago,” says the artist. Maintaining a connect to the landscape of his youth is important to Stamer, and so he splits his time between studios in Brooklyn and Hillsborough, North Carolina, where he photographs the structural elements that become the basis for his paintings.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 33
Conceptually, Stamer’s work strikes a balance between the intuitive and the theoretical, relying heavily on the evolution of the image through his mark-making process. One concept that figures heavily into his work is the German idea of Heimat, or homeland, and the notion of how one is deeply connected to the land in which one was born and raised. Growing out of that concept are issues of regional taste and sophistication and how less urbane aesthetics are perceived by “a predominantly urban-centric art world.” For Stamer, “The simple act of making my work, alone in the studio, through a relationship with humble materials, displays a decided politics of creation—one that contrasts sharply with other modes of artistic production found today.” While Stamer engages with concepts such as these that connect his work to a broader critical and theoretical conversation, he states that he is “mostly a formalist at heart.” The images lurking beneath his paint surfaces are his painting’s skeletons and the springboard for his process. “There comes a time when these biographical and identity-laden concerns fall away, like the rockets of a space shuttle after launch. Chance and intuition take over. Painting becomes a dance outside the realm of language and concept.
Dusk 5.0, 2014, Oil on panel, 72” x 48”
Stamer’s photographic library from the region now contains thousands of images from which he paints. “The only exception to date,” according to the artist, “is my use of Dorothea Lange’s photographs housed at the Library of Congress. In 1939, Lange visited Person County—a stone’s throw from the places I paint—to document the tobacco workers on behalf of the Farm Security Administration. Although time separates me from her images, I feel a kinship to both the artist and these sites by furthering their stories in paint.”
Toler 3, 2014, Oil on panel, 48” x 60”
“My most exciting times in the studio come when I discover how to make a new mark or surface effect,” says the artist. “I’m like a scientist, always tinkering and experimenting with unique ways to push my medium. When I find a new way to use paint that I’ve never seen before, I feel like I am adding to a conversation that began thousands of years ago.”
A good example of the balance Stamer strikes between formal and conceptual approaches can be seen in the evolution of a predominately monochrome color palette used in much of his work from the past two years. According to Stamer, the monochromes developed partly out of his desire to better highlight newly developed marks and surface treatments. Conceptually the use of monochrome also lent itself to his central themes of memory and loss—referencing “the difficulty of accessing information and emotions of years past, translated visually through faded colors and erasure.” Stamer says that “these works also hinted at black-and-white photography, perhaps our most common window to the past, with white borders and dappled aging.” New Sharon Church Rd. 11, 2014, Oil on panel, 24” x 36”
Anselm Kiefer’s monumental depictions of historically loaded landscapes and interiors have been an important influence on
34 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
“
When I find a new way to use paint that I’ve never seen before I feel like I am adding to a conversation that began thousands of years ago.
”
Stamer’s work, as has the work of Matthias Weischer, Neo Rauch, and Gerhard Richter. Other older influences that Stamer cites include Robert Rauschenberg, Willem de Kooning, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andrew Wyeth, and Édouard Manet. Stamer says that showing his work in New York has not necessarily affected its development; however he does feel that living there has had an overall positive impact on the path of his painting. “New York has a unique energy and hustle. Combining this vitality with the number of galleries, museums, artists, and overall brilliant thinkers New York has to offer provides an ideal atmosphere to push my work.” Sherrick and Paul Gallery in Nashville will be exhibiting Stamer’s recent work from January 15 to February 28, 2015—an ideal opportunity to experience the surface intensity of his work. “The surface nuances of these works are incredibly important,” says Stamer, “and operate best when seen with the naked eye. I still believe in the magical power of painting. It hooked me years ago, and I’d like to share that same excitement and energy with others.” For more infor mation about Damian Stamer, please visit www.sherrickandpaul.com.
(above) New Sharon Church Rd. 9, 2014, Oil on panel, 48” x 36” (below) After Lange 5, 2014, Oil on panel, 24” x 36”
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 35
TOP PICKS
2015
T h e N e w Ye a r i s u s h e r i n g i n n e w s t y l e s a n d t r e n d s. H e r e ar e a f e w o f Ke it h ' s f a v o r i t e s & n e w a r r i v a l s , w h i c h I'm s u r e w i l l e n d u p i n s o m e o f N a s h v i l l e ' s H O T T E S T H O M E S!
A n t i q u e Wo o d e n S i g n 24 in w x 41 in h $525
Industrial Wa l l S c o n c e Powell Foundr y Cincinnati, Ohio $980
Antique Railing Console Philadelphia, PA - Circa 1926 $1,680
The Business of Art by Amy Atkinson
O
ne of the ways the ABC supports artists is to help them become successful as business people. While each artist has his/her own market and therefore appropriate marketing channels, here are a few general tips to help promote your work: B e a u t h e n t i c : S uccessful br ands are or iginal and authentic. The best artists have a distinct voice that connects authentically with their audiences. Maximize this advantage; accentuate and own your differences and originality.
V i n t a g e S t e a m e r Tr u n k Circa 1900, American $375
. N A S H V I L L E 6 1 5 . 3 5 0 . 6 6 5 5 W W W . G A R D E N P A R K . C O M
Have a USP: Be able to describe your unique type of creative
work and/or style in one easy-to-repeat (and understand) sentence. I can’t understate the importance of a USP (unique selling proposition) to selling your work and having clients easily recommend you to others. Think about it, write it down, practice it.
Maximize your online presence: Google yourself. Yes,
you can do this without shame—it’s for your business. That’s what your potential customers will do. Also make sure your various social media avatars, bios, contacts, images, and portfolios are up to date and show you in your best light. How can you make what comes up look better? Digitize your work for easy sharing with customers, media, and opinion leaders. Be accessible to the market you’re trying to reach. Also, be thoughtful about what you post on social media, as you are your brand.
Wallpaper
Amy Atkinson is partner/founder of Amy Atkinson Communications (AAC), a consulting firm specializing in strategic marketing, public relations, social media planning, and integrated campaign development. Amy serves on the Arts & Business Council Board of Directors. www.abcnashville.org
Consignments
Wallpaper & Designer Home Consignments Inglewood/East Nashville
Have a plan: It doesn’t have to be complicated, but you
increase your chances for success if you have a plan. Outline your business goals. Identify your target audience and how you might best communicate with them. You can then begin to fill in the key steps to get to your goal.
Trapp Candles
3701 Gallatin Pike S. 37216 (615) 292-7590 or (615) 679-0204
˜ 5,000 sq. ft. of high-end/designer consignments and wallpaper ˜ ˜ The only in-stock wallpaper store in Middle Tennessee ˜ Largest special order wallpaper book library in Middle Tennessee ˜ ˜ ˜ Delightful shopping in a unique and exciting atmosphere ˜ ˜ Professional service & quality products ˜ ˜ Open to the public and interior designers ˜
36 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
www . wallpaperanddecor . com
WINTER SALE
King Bed & Two Nightstands
$3928
Double Dresser & Mirror Available
73 White Bridge Rd • 615-352-6085 • Mon-Sat 10–6 • Sun 1-5 • 2danes.com
2Danes_0215.indd 1
Portrait Paintings & Works on Tulle Visit www.meghanvaziri.com or call (901) 246-4250 for portrait commissions or other inquiries. Untitled II, 2014, Wool, cotton and silk thread on tulle fabric, 32” x 31”
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 37
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DAVID THAYER
Film
2013 Knoxville 54 Film Fest Horned Matador Productions, Best Sound Design and Runner Up Best Film
The 54 Film Fest Offers a Creative Challenge for Aspiring Filmmakers
M
any local filmmakers see the appeal of the “shootout” competition: You’re given a set time and narrative parameters under which your teams must make a great film. Partnering with Nashville Arts Magazine, Middle Tennessee’s 54 Film Fest holds the same style of competition with a few “tweaks” that may make all the difference for prospective entrants. The 54 Film Fest started as a side project of Seek First Productions. Established in 2007, Seek First started with wedding videos and the occasional short film. The desire to submit those first short films into the festival circuit got the upstart company twenty-seven awards that include an Emmy from the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Now a full-fledged player in production, Seek First’s expansion into commercials and narrative work includes Road to Nashville that sees them teaming up with DreamWorks off-shoot Awesomeness TV to capture the struggle of teenage musicians pursuing their dreams. It was the submission period as fresh filmmakers that helped the members of Seek First Productions value the importance of a film festival, and in 2011 they started the 54 in Knoxville with twenty-three short films that sold out its inaugural screening. Now, the 54 Film Fest has kept its Tennessee focus while expanding to cities all over the U.S. The Middle Tennessee competition anticipates over 500 filmmakers representing the top talent in the area. “We want there to be an emphasis on making a fun competition that still helps you put out great work,” says Chris Keyes, Director of Digital Content for Seek First Productions. “We view the 54 Film Fest as more liberating, since this is a light-hearted atmosphere, as opposed to the objective standards of a competitive job. The quirky direction, the ease of registration, and the fact that we’re an entity that started in Tennessee will—we hope—make this worthwhile.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTY SIMMONS
The 2015 Middle TN 54 Film Fest competition will run in Nashville, Franklin, and Murfreesboro February 27 through March 1. The films will be shown at Regal Hollywood Theatre, 719 Thompson Lane, on March 21. For times, registration and other information, visit www.54filmfest.com. Justin Stokes is the founder of the MTSU Film Guild, a student organization which functions as a production company for student filmmakers. He is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and social media manager.
Pieces & Parts T by Rusty Wolfe
he cultural landscape of the United States has changed dramatically in the sixty-plus years that I have lived in it. Modern cities now showcase a diverse range of designs and architectural styles. Today’s homes often display an eclectic mix of furniture and artwork from across many design periods.
I needed an interesting piece of furniture to house my television and stereo equipment, so I started with some simple oak slabs. I stained the oak black and accentuated it with natural mahogany for a clean, contemporary cabinet. I required both form
and function from this piece, and I achieved that by treating the left and right sides of the cabinet in different ways. On the right side, I used 200-year-old English pine to make a simple bank of drawers for DVD storage. Wanting to mix in some antique details, on the left side I incorporated antique drawer fronts and other antique parts used as drawer fronts for a potpourri effect. The first four drawers are made from the corner blocks of Victorian door frames. The rectangular drawer with the cutouts came off an Eastlake music cabinet. The drawer pulls span more than a hundred years and represent a wide variety of hardware periods. The overall effect is a contemporary piece of furniture with an eclectic mix of antique pieces and parts. For more about Rusty Wolfe, please visit www.finerthingsgallerynashville.com.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LAWRENCE BOOTHBY
The design movement of mixing the old with the new has developed over the years, and I first started contributing to it in the 1970s. In 1972 I purchased a condemned house in the Richland-West End neighborhood from notorious local landlord Carrie Sissom. The dilapidated, single-story house had 1,300 square feet. I more than doubled that square footage by raising the roof and adding a second and a third story. I approached the project with the goal of repurposing old pieces
and parts as design elements into my new, contemporary home. I outfitted the house with twelve stained-glass windows in addition to many modern, clear-glass windows. I decoupaged the floor of my sons’ bathroom with antique sheet music, used barn wood to fabricate contemporary lighted soffits, and incorporated antique tiles into a modern fireplace. One of my favorite elements was a wall of mismatched antique drawers built into the wasted space beneath the staircase. This detail proves to be the inspiration for the piece of furniture that is featured in this month’s column.
NashvilleArts.com
Rusty Wolfe is a painter, sculptor, furniture designer, and entrepreneur. His works are available at fine art galleries around the country and locally at Finer Things. February 2015 | 39
The Bookmark A Monthly Look at Hot Books and Cool Reads
For more information about these books, visit www.parnassusbooks.net.
A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS WILL GO TO BENEFIT HISTORICAL AMQUI STATION AND VISITOR'S CENTER
Mr. Mac and Me ESTHER FREUD
Ann Patchett says, “A compelling tale beautifully told, Mr. Mac and Me is as close to a perfect novel as anything I’ve read in a long time. I loved every page of it.” What more do you need to know? Perhaps a bit about the plot, a fictional story about an actual person: In 1914, legendary Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh moved to a small village on the Suffolk coast of England, where he and his wife met its inhabitants. Freud uses that as a starting point for a fascinating book about unlikely friendship and suspicion in the time of the First World War.
HOSTED BY THE MAD SCIENTISTS’ CLUB
Soul Food Love ALICE RANDALL AND CAROLINE RANDALL WILLIAMS
Here’s a new spin on tradition with a regional flavor. In 2012, bestselling novelist, songwriter, and Nashville resident Alice Randall wrote an op-ed for the New York Times called “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family. Together with her daughter, the poet Caroline Randall Williams, she has updated centuries-old recipes and created healthful, affordable, delicious versions.
We Are Pirates: A Novel DANIEL HANDLER
Neil Gaiman calls this one “the strangest, most brilliant offering yet from the mind behind Lemony Snicket.” We’d have to agree. Somehow Handler manages a mash-up of genres and characters that don’t normally go together. At the center of this story about pirates wreaking havoc on the San Francisco Bay, you have teenagers who wish they were swashbuckling adventurers and a middle-aged dad who wishes he were a brave rebel. If it sounds bizarre, that’s because it is—but trust us, it’s amazing. Meet Handler on February 14 as part of the Salon@615 author series.
A Spool of Blue Thread ANNE TYLER
This may be Anne Tyler’s 20th novel, but she’s at the top of her game. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author excels at writing about families and how their histories, triumphs, and secrets affect the individuals therein. This time, the people at the center of her story are Abby and Red Whitshank, one of those couples who appear at first glance to have mastered modern marriage and parenthood. Of course, nothing is exactly as it seems for these four generations of characters. A great read for fiction lovers.
FOR TICKETS & MORE INFO VISIT WWW.THEMADSCIENTISTSCLUB.COM
new from
Alex Hall D
uality marks the beginning of Alex Hall’s new series of paintings Semiotics. In preparation, Hall has been researching images and words from other cultures and religions, which take on particular symbolic meaning within a context. In the new works, he combines various visual metaphors to create art that engages the viewer to explore his own connection with the imagery. In Duality he wanted to contrast two opposing ideas represented by the light and dark gloved hands. The blindfold symbolizes the conscious and unconscious, suggesting that things can be understood from the heart and not necessarily the eyes. The gold of the blindfold is associated with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of self.
Alex Hall is represented by The Rymer Gallery, and his paintings will soon be on view at The Unit Gallery in London. To see more of Alex Hall’s wor k , please visit www. alex hallar t . com an d www.therymergallery.com. Duality, 2015, Oil on panel, 36” x 34”
Art in Formation
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALLEN WELT Y- GREEN
Stirrings from the Nashville Underground
Lilly Fish, Richard Denson, Marci Murphree in Silhouettes
by Tony Youngblood
A
llen Welty-Green was always drawn to the synergy between music and image. In 1986, inspired by the Twyla Tharp and David Byrne ballet The Catherine Wheel and the works of Laurie Anderson, he teamed up with mime/magician/dancer Jason Litchford for a multimedia show at the John Galt Theater. Two packed houses and standing ovations marked the beginning of Mind’s Eye, a groundbreaking performance group that fused movement, music, and media.
(615) 646-2422
www.natchezstone.com
NatchezStone_0215.indd 1
1/15/15
CALL TO MAKE AN OFFER
According to Welty-Green, “Those three components—movement, in the form of dance or pantomime; music, in the form of my own 4:05 PM original compositions; and media, in the form of film, slides, video, stage effects, lighting, etc.—were equally and inextricably melded into a common aesthetic.”
$1 FOR ,95 SA 0,0 LE 00
To create music using movement, Mind’s Eye attached triggers to Litchford’s body and engineered invisible grids of infrared sensors, years before microcontrollers standardized such methods. They also innovated black-light techniques like pumping fluorescent paint through a costume to change its color and painting the entire backdrop fluorescent “so it would ‘capture’ a dancer’s shadows in a flash of light.”
After Mind’s Eye disbanded in 1992, Welty-Green moved to Atlanta where he co-founded the performance art group Gnosis, served on the board of the experimental arts venue Eyedrum, and performed in various ensembles. He still draws lessons and inspiration from his Mind’s Eye experience, but he can’t go back. “If I’d known then what I know now, Minds Eye likely would not have happened. When Jason and I started doing our work, we had no rules, no expectations, and the only limits were our available resources. Today, there would be too many inner voices saying, you can’t do that, or, that will never work. I’ve learned a lot, and experienced a lot, which is a good thing—but there is something to be said for inexperience and naivety, especially in art.”
1.3 ac Downtown Murfreesboro 450 Historic East Main
Call Larry Sims for Showing & Information
10-A Public Square N. Murfreesboro, TN 37130
615-893-5252
Firm 3875
www.LarrySims.com
Learn more at www.gnosisarts.org/Minds_Eye. PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN SCARPATI
615.300.8321
42 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Tony Youngblood is the founder of the Circuit Benders’ Ball, a biennial celebration of free culture, art, music, and the creative spirit. He created the open-source, multi-artist, scalable “art tunnel” concept called MAPs (ModularArtPods.com) and runs the experimental improv music blog and podcast www.TheatreIntangible.com.
SMALL TREASURES R e m br a n dt, Ver m eer , H als a n d Th ei r C on t e m p or a r i e s Birmingham Museum of Art • through April 26 by Sara Lee Burd
W
ith this exhibition of 17th Century Dutch and Flemish art, the Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) sheds light on rare works that are not often on view. While many of the artists’ names are recognizable as “the greats,” these small-scale paintings have received less attention from researchers, scholars, and curators because these petites tend to remain in private collections rather than in public exhibitions, and scholarship consistently develops with museum presentations. BMA’s Curator of European Art, Robert Schindler, commends organizers, the North Carolina Museum of Art, who coordinated this traveling exhibit, saying, “It’s a courageous undertaking to have a show of all small art.” Many paintings on display are portraits made as hand-held heirlooms, such as van Dyck’s Portrait of Nicholas Rockox. Unlike larger works made to go on walls, these works were created as
Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, circa 1670–72, Oil on canvas, 10” x 8” (below) Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of Nicholas Rockox, 1636, Oil on panel, 7”
portable likenesses—to carry around or send to relatives far away. Practical and personal, works like these remind us that sharing family pictures was very different before photography. Another theme presented in the show is that of tronie or a character study, as in Rembrandt’s Bearded Old Man and Vermeer’s Young Woman Seated at a Virginal. These works were used to represent moods through rich colors and dramatic expressions and were popular at the time of of their creation. Paintings of this size and detail demonstrate the artists’ techniques and were often used for marketing commissions. In his Self-Portrait, Dou depicts himself lavishly dressed in furs and leather with an easel to indicate his profession. The work positions the artists as stylish, successful, and skilled; however, these business-c ard-esque paintings are scarce because they were not highly collected or exhibited.
With time though, these intimate works have become significant and are appreciated because of their unique beauty. This exhibition opens the door for people to connect with the small treasures that served as the foundation on which these artists built their reputations. Gerrit Dou, Self-Portrait, circa 1638–42, Oil on panel, 5” x 4”
S m a l l Tr e a s u r e s : R e m b r a n d t , Ve r m e e r, H a l s a n d T h e i r Contemporaries is on display at the Birmingham Museum of Art through April 26. For more information visit www.artsbma.org.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 43
As I See It Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s
The
Killing Machine
by Mark W. Scala
T
In The Killing Machine, tall robotic figures holding retractable needles move in a mesmerizing dance over an empty dental seat covered in pink fur—disturbingly evocative of flesh—toward which they poke and jab like taunting cobras. A megaphone
Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, The Killing Machine, 2007, Mixed media, audio installation, pneumatics, robotics, Duration: 5 minutes, 10’ x 13’x 8’
circles the tableaux, mechanically intoning instructions to the presumptive prisoner, who would be strapped to the chair. The sense of portent is intensified by a discordant sound track, Heartstrings, composed by Freida Abtan. As the sculpture’s cycle unfolds, spots of light are projected onto the gallery walls. They move with ever increasing agitation until the climax, when the machine stops, the lights go out, and, we imagine, the spirit of the invisible prisoner has at last escaped the body and the machine. Kafka’s parable is concerned with elevating machinery (including the invisible systems that shape society) at the expense of human rights. The Killing Machine raises similar questions about how we value life in the face of rationalizations about cultural necessity. There have been many films and books about such subjects, but where Cardiff and Miller’s meditation differs is that we do not simply
44 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
read or watch; our senses are immersed in a spectacle of sound, objects, and light. The work enables us to empathize through our senses, “to learn on our bodies.” We might even imagine ourselves as the condemned one, taking the place of the nameless and faceless who, guilty or innocent, have been in such seats over the course of history. Endnotes 1 www.cardiffmiller.com 2 Franz Kafka, “In the Penal Colony,” in Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, The Penal Colony, and Other Stories (New York: Schocken Books, orig. pub. 1946, 1988 ed.), 197 3 Kafka, 198 PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP
The imagery of The Killing Machine was derived from Franz Kafka’s story “In the Penal Colony,” in which an explorer is invited to observe the execution of a condemned man by a horrific machine. As the story unfolds, we learn that the prisoner has had no trial, does not know the charges against him, and is unaware of his sentence. An officer says, “There would be no point in telling him. He’ll learn it on his body.2” In any case, a fair trial is irrelevant; “guilt is never to be doubted.3” The machine holds needles, which penetrate deeper and deeper into the condemned man’s skin, spelling out the charges in unreadable text. Over twelve excruciating hours, the script becomes increasingly clear. At the point of death, the prisoner can finally read it, to learn with horror that he is being executed for sleeping on the job.
©COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND LUHRING AUGUSTINE, NEW YORK.
he Canadian collaborators Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller employ video, robotics, and sound in constructions that raise questions about the individual in fraught negotiation with the invisible mechanisms of culture. Perhaps their most powerful sculpture is The Killing Machine (2007), an installation which was inspired by the artists’ opposition to the death penalty as well as to the war in Iraq and abuses at Abu Ghraib prison camp. The work has added relevance today, with newly invigorated debates about the legitimacy, efficacy, and even the definition of torture, and nationwide demonstrations focusing attention on the use of deadly force by police departments across America. The artists have observed that “In our culture right now there is a strange, deliberate, and indifferent approach to killing.”1 Their work is a call to introspection and conscience.
Mark W. Scala Chief Curator Frist Center for the Visual Arts
BLAIR CONCERT SERIES 2014-2015
Michael Michael Hersch’s Hersch’s Zwischen Zwischen Leben Leben Und Und Tod Tod Carolyn Carolyn Huebl, Huebl, violin, violin, and and Mark Mark Wait, Wait, piano piano
WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE Thursday, February 26, 8:00 p.m.
•
Steve & Judy Turner Recital Hall Barnyard Collies, 29¼” x 23¾”
Carolyn Huebl and Mark Wait present the world premiere of a new work commissioned for them from groundbreaking American composer Michael Hersch, a program-length work for violin and piano based on the paintings and drawings of Peter Weiss (1916-1982).
Missing from Hatch Show Print’s collection for over 30
Presented with gratitude to Judy and Steve Turner for their generous support of the Blair School
Details about the Spring 2015 concert series may be found at blair.vanderbilt.edu All concerts at the Blair School of Music are free and open to the public unless specifically stated otherwise. For complete details about all the upcoming events at Blair, visit our website at blair.vanderbilt.edu
years, this wood block was cut in 2014 to recreate the
FRIDAY, NOV 14 AT 7:30 • SUNDAY, NOV 16 AT 2:00 vintage print, Barnyard print is BLAIR SCHOOL OF MUSIC,Collies. INGRAMThis HALL
now available
for the first time in three decades.
admission is free
2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212
BlairSchool_0215.indd 1
Hatch Show Print
1/20/15 11:46 AM
HALEY GALLERY
@hatchshowprint
#HSPHaleyGallery
Downtown Nashville • 615.577.7711
Visit HatchShowPrint.com for more information.
04
30 acres in forest hills
Just listed 117 ALTON RD. bellevue lots BELLE MEADE HIGHLANDS $525,000 $119,900 - $129,900 natCHezpointeinfo.Com
UNDER CONTRACT 1608 ChiCkering road $10,900,000
Call Hal for details on tHis unique opportunity
3821 WEST END AVE. #201 SOUTHGATE CONDOMINIUM $1,595,000
30 ac
under contract NEW CONSTRUCTION
sold
Coronada CHICKERING PARK forest hills $215,000 $650,000 $750,000
Just listed BELLEVUE LOTS bellevue lots $119,900 - $129,900 $119,900 - $129,900 NATCHEZPOINTEINFO.COM
sold
sold
1004 Caldwell lane
1765 tyne blvd.
under contract
109Curtiswood RANSOM AVE. 851
BYRON 6+aCres inCLOSE oak hill $739,000 Call for priCe
105 holly forest 1107east CHICKERING PARK DR. 5890 ashland drive
natCHezpointeinfo.Com
4225 harding pike #104 851 Curtiswood green hills/lipsComb $595,000 JUST LISTED JUST LISTED wellington arms 6+aCres in oak hill $265,000 UNDER CONTRACT IN 5 DAYS UNDER CONTRACT IN 2 DAYS $275,000 Call for priCe 1815-A SHACKLEFORD RD 1815-B SHACKLEFORD RD. GREEN HILLS GREEN HILLS $519,000 $519,000
hal rosson
1608 C
C on tH
5890 eas
HAL ROSSON
Representing Real Estate Buyers and Sellers Since 1971 705 | halrosson@freemanwebb.com | www.halrosson.com Representing Real Estate Buyers and Sellers Since 1971
615-271-2705 sold halrosson@freemanwebb.com 8399 greenvale dr. www.halrosson.com 1004 Caldwell lane
sold
$445,000
green hills/lipsComb $265,000
6/19/14 12:14 PM
1
NeLLie Jo
acres in forest hills
Ah Cortadito, 11 x 14, Nellie Jo Rainer
2187 Hillsboro Road, Suite 401 Franklin, TN 37069 • 615-519-0258
ChiCkering road $10,900,000 NellieJo_0215.indd 1
POLK PLACE ANTIQUES
Call Hal for details His unique opportunity
1/16/15 9:09 AM
The Finest in American Period Furniture
sold
east ashland drive forest hills $750,000
sold
5701 Old Harding Pike
Global Motorsports, 1765 tyne(Behind blvd. in the Heart of Belle Meade)
$595,000
(615) 353-1324
10:30am - 5:00pm Wed. - Sat. Tuesday by chance or appointment
Cumberland gallery Launches satellite in Wedgewood/Houston
by Jesse Mathison
CG2 Track One • February 7
I
n February, Cumberland Gallery will be opening a new location, identified as CG2 Gallery. With Lydia Denkler now managing the original Cumberland Gallery, director Carol Stein and preparator Jason Lascu set about planning a new gallery with a focus on young, emerging artists. CG2’s inaugural exhibition will be on February 7. Jason Lascu will be the director of this exciting endeavor.
Marcus Kenney, I Ain’t Tryin’ To Be A Hater, Mixed media on canvas, 36” x 36”
I met with Jason on a cold morning in January to discuss his vision for the new location. To a certain degree, it will serve as an extension of the original gallery, which is perhaps made evident with the name CG2. The focus of the new project, however, is quite different. The original Cumberland, established in 1980 by Carol Stein, is now a recognized entity in Nashville and as such has found its market and established a healthy roster of artists, most of them well into a career. The goal of CG2 will be to create a new vision while encouraging more interaction between artists and the community, especially those artists who are only now emerging onto the Nashville arts scene. “CG2 is an extension, but it’s going to be its own space,” Jason informed me. “It will have its own identity. It is different, in that the focus will be on emerging, mid-career artists. For us, I think it is important to have a smaller roster of artists, and right now we have ten. We want to work with artists and build a relationship, and we feel like we want to grow with the artists.” Positioned in the Track One building on the corner of 4th Avenue and Chestnut Street, the new location will seek to establish a presence in the burgeoning Wedgewood-Houston district, populated by Fort Houston, The Packing Plant, and Track One galleries, to name but a few. In this particular area of Nashville, to focus on growing a
roster of local, regional, and national artists, building a sense of community seems an intelligent decision, one which reflects the changing arts scene in our city. There are also plans to hold events featuring the artists on site to talk about their work or their process and to further engage with the community. These events will vary according to the artist: “We want to make it as comfortable for the artist as possible,” said Mr. Lascu. These interactions won’t be Christina West, Unmet (#3), a requirement but an occasion to Pigmented Hydrocal, 13” x 7” x 6” generate buzz and facilitate dialogue, something this community needs more of. There is a desire to instill a new approach to the arts scene in Nashville and create a space removed from the expectations of the past. “In this new setting the artists can take more risks, and the work will hopefully be more challenging. We are excited about a new direction and doing something different. We want to push things and create a new dialogue.” Shortly before departing I was invited to browse a collection of images from the ten artists currently represented by the gallery. Mr. Lascu told me the name of each artist and gave me information about their work and where they were from. This was perhaps a minor episode, but the fact that he so effortlessly provided such information, and that he is already so invested in these artists, certainly bodes well for the future of CG2. The opening show on February 7 will feature a variety of artists from the CG2 roster, including Jen Uman, Andrea Heimer, Christina West, Fred Stonehouse, and Marcus Kenney. For more information visit www.cg2gallery.com.
Fred Stonehouse, The Lost Remember, Acrylic on wood, 36” x 48”
48 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
TINA BARNE Y | THE EUROPEANS
Januar y 19 – May 10 Explore the visual richness of aristocratic living in this collection of photographs by Tina Barney which take us through her journey to the elite inner circles of Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Tina Barney: The Europeans was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.
Presenting Sponsors
ROBIN AND RICHARD PATTON DOWNTOWN NAS HV IL L E The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is supported in part by
919 B ROADWAY
FRISTCE NT E R.ORG Tina Barney. The Brocade Walls, 2003. Chromogenic color print. Courtesy of the artist. © Tina Barney
DREAM OF SUMMER CAMP WIDJIWAGAN DAY CAMP AGES 5-17
FREE LUNCH AND SNACK SPECIALTY DAY CAMPS SURF SCHOOL WAKE SPORTS NEW TEEN PROGRAMS WIDJI EXPLORERS PATHFINDERS: FIRST TASTE OF ADVENTURE
RANCH DAY CAMP BOOTS AND BITS DAY RANCH CAMP DAY FARM CAMP
WWW.CAMPWIDJI.ORG
615-360-2267 RESIDENT CAMP AGES 7-16
TRADITIONAL RESIDENT CAMP EXCITING NEW FACILITIES SURVIVOR AND MINECRAFT CAMPS FULLY THEMED CAMPS LEADERSHIP TEEN PROGRAMS SURF SCHOOL WIDJI TRIPS
RANCH RESIDENT CAMP JUNIOR RANCH AND TEEN RANCH CAMPS WIDJI RANCH CAMP FARM CAMP Our Mission: A worldwide charitable fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of helping people grow in spirit, mind and body.
Students age 13-19: Study jazz this summer with top professional jazz educators INSTRUMENTAL CAMP June 15-19 (Evan Cobb, Director)
VOCAL CAMP: June 22-26
(Liz Johnson & Connye Florance, Directors)
Information at jazzcamp.nashvillejazz.org
615-242-5299
NashvilleJazz_0215.indd 1
1/13/15 9:40 AM
Frist Center for the visual arts Frist Center for the visual arts
2015 imagine! Create! discover!
imagine! Create! discover!
Discover a world of creativity at Frist Center Summer Art Camp! Sculpture, drawing, painting, fashion, and so much more. Our weeklong, age-appropriate classes are designed to be fun and educational for kids ages 5 to 18. No art-making experience is necessary. Registration begins January 26 for Frist Center members and February 9 for non-members. Camps begin the week of June 8 and end the week of July 20.
Learn more at fristcenter.org/summerartcamp 919 BROadway
52 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
•
NaShville, teNNeSSee
Art Dance Music Theatre
Art Dance Musi Theatre
Art cheekwood summer Dance camp Music 2015 Theatre
Art Dance Music Theatre Watauga Arts Academy
a summer arts camp for high school students
June 14 - 27, 2015 Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tenn.
apsu.edu/watauga
For more information about our camp, please contact us: 931.221.7876 or watauga@apsu.edu APSU is an AA/EEO employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic or national origin, sex, religion, age, disability status, and/or veteran status in its programs, and activities.www.apsu.edu/affirmative-action.
B lair S chool of M uSic PRE-COLLEGE MUSIC PROGRAMS FOR SUMMER 2015
l a u r e n r o lw i n g
Nashville Summer Orchestral Institute (grades 7-12, college students, adults). Intensive orchestral experience, Concerto Competition, master classes, celebration concert. May 29June 2, $105. Contact: carol.nies@vanderbilt.edu
Ages 1 – 18 yrs June 1 – July 31
Kindermusik Explore the world of music! For children (newborn to age 5) and their parent/ caregiver. 5 weekly classes, June and July, $155
memb er reg i s trati on: Feb 2 g en eral reg i s trati on: Feb 16
Private & Group Lessons in many instruments for children as young as age 3 (and as old as the hills.)
c h e e k wo o d . o r g
blair.pca.academicservices@vanderbilt.edu Blair.vanderbilt.edu/precollege-adult
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 53
HOW TO ENSURE YOUR CHILD HAS AN EXCITING AND ENRICHING SUMMER: Visit ensworth.com/summer Explore the variety of opportunities for ages 4-18
University School of Nashville
Summer Camps
2015
Sign up, then tell your friends Pat yourself on the back for being such a smart parent
ACA D E M I C S • A R T S • C R E AT I V I T Y E N R I C H M E N T • E X P LO R AT I O N • S P O R T S
ensworth .com/summer
usn.org/summer
HARPETH HALL
2015 sUMMer CaMps
HarpetH Hall Has It all – For GIrls! academics, arts, and athletics
register online at www. harpethhall.org 54 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Public Art
PHOTOGRAPH BY STACEY IRVIN
multi-use complex. The design for the public artwork titled From the Four Corners was heavily influenced by the communities surrounding the new library and community center.
From The Four Corners by Van Gill Maravalli Public Art Project Coordinator, Metro Nashville Arts Commission
I
n September of 2013, a panel of community members, artists, and leaders in business from the Antioch area selected artist Paul Vexler to create a site-specific public artwork for the new Southeast Davidson County Public Library, Regional Community Center, and park, which, in addition to the Ford Ice Center next door, makes up the new Commons at the Crossings
The large sculpture, suspended from the ceiling in the central lobby area, was hand crafted by the artist in his home studio in Snohomish, Washington. Vexler used four different types of wood laminate, which he shaped into curling, spiraling strips and intertwined into a loose knot in the center of the sculpture. Each of the four wood pieces stretches from the center knot to a different corner of the lobby space. Vexler describes From the Four Corners as “a sculptural metaphor celebrating a rich, diverse community.” Vexler often pushes the limits of his medium and works in unconventional ways, which also means that he creates new tools and methods. For example, he made his own plywood for From the Four Corners, so it had just the right strength and flexibility to create the ribbon-like shapes. Regardless of where his sculptures are displayed, Vexler says one thing rings true for all his work: “I want people to approach my work and feel compelled to walk around it and view it from different angles. I want them to walk around it two or three times because the work is helping them to learn to see things that they missed the first time.” From the Four Corners was installed in July 2014 and dedicated in October 2014. For more information about the artwork and the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, please visit publicart.nashville.gov.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 55
ATTITUDE TPAC’s Polk Theater • Feb. 13, 14 & 15
N
by Martin Brady
ashville Ballet’s Attitude, the third major program in its 2014–15 season—following Swan Lake and The Nutcracker—finds the company taking advantage of a welcome opportunity to extend the range of its gifted dancers. Here, the vision of established, wor ld-c lass c horeogr aphers merges with cutting-edge and classic musicians and composers, with the ensemble’s movement enhanced in part by a uniquely complementary contribution from the world of visual art. The latest Attitude, February 13–15 at TPAC’s Polk Theater, presents three distinctive pieces to the Nashville dance audience, two of them local premieres and the third a revival of a work previously performed in Music City.
The program opener, Fanfare, features six dancers performing the choreography of Graham Lustig, an internationally recognized choreographer and teacher—and also artistic director of his own company in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Fanfare pays homage to Lustig’s longtime friend and fellow artist Singapore’s Choo San Goh, capturing the essence of Choo’s elegant, linear style. “Fanfare challenges the performers with its super-virtuosity,” says Sharyn Mahoney, the ballet’s director of artistic operations. “It’s difficult work, similar to dancing Stravinsky, with his wild time signatures.” This is the second time Nashville Ballet has performed one of Lustig’s works.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY MATUL A
Attitude 56 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
IT’S ALL ABOUT
The intricate rhythms and engaging themes of the music come courtesy of British composer and pianist Graham Fitkin, whose oeuvre falls broadly into the minimalist and post-minimalist categories. Fitkin is particularly known for his works for solo and multiple pianos, and here his percussively charged Flak will be rendered by four onstage pianists seated at two pianos—Bruce Dudley (a jazz pianist and professor at Belmont University), Chris Smallwood (pianist for Beatles imitation group RAIN), Elena Bennett (who has performed with Nashville Ballet multiple times), and Robert Marler (musician with the Nashville Symphony and professor at Belmont University).
The second dance piece is called Moonshine, featuring four dancers, choreography by Christopher Bruce, and the music of Bob Dylan, drawn from bootleg recordings of the great songwriter’s early folkie period (c. 1961–63). British choreographer Bruce originally created Moonshine for Nederlands Dans Theater. He is no stranger to choreography with popular song, having created a number of pieces inspired by the music of the Rolling Stones (“Paint It Black,” “Ruby Tuesday,” “Play with Fire,” etc.).
This piece marks Bruce’s debut with Nashville Ballet. Also, in a special concession to the company, no royalties were charged by Dylan’s publishers.
After the intermission, the ballet program’s major piece commences—choreographer Gina Patterson’s 45-minute interpretation of the music of Nashville-based singer-songwriter Matthew Perryman Jones, who performs selections from his CD Land of the Living live onstage. The performance also offers an extra-visual component as painter Emily Leonard works on a large (7’ x 22’) canvas in full audience view.
“I’ve always loved all kinds of music,” Patterson says. “I gravitate toward experimentation, and I love collaborating with singer-songwriters. When I heard Matthew’s music I immediately felt a connection. So I familiarized myself with his work, and we started having conversations about music and process and inspiration.”
Nashville Ballet’s ...but the flowers have yet to come, 2013
“I think the success of the piece,” continues Patterson, “is that it is unfiltered. From Matthew to Emily to the dancers—everyone allows themselves to be vulnerable, and the audience will see and feel truth, and that’s what makes it a powerful work. As for the style of the dance, I would say my language has become a mix of classical and contemporary. The lines are blurred, but it’s geared more toward the modern.”
With Jones singing live, along with his band and a second vocalist, and with artist Leonard painting over the course of three days, this program might certainly be considered epic. “It reflects an emotional journey,” concludes Patterson, “in which we may not have all the answers but know we are moving in the right direction.”
Attitude will be presented at TPAC’s Polk Theater February 13 (7:30 p.m.), February 14 (7:30 p.m.), and February 15 (2 p.m.). For tickets and more information visit www.tpac.org.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIANNE LEACH
Entitled ...but the flowers have yet to come, Patterson’s work was first presented in Nashville in 2013. It features the efforts of the ballet’s main company plus apprentices, a twenty-two-strong ensemble led by gifted, homegrown, Nashville Ballet-trained talents Jon Upleger, Christopher Stuart, Mollie Sansone, and Sadie Bo Sommer.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIANNE LEACH
“Moonshine explores the emotional, sometimes dark stories of four traveling performers,” says Mahoney. “The four travelers, or troubadours—two women, two men—interact like a family or a group of friends, and Bruce’s contemporary movement creates abstractions that allow the audience to draw their own conclusions about the action.”
Nashville Ballet’s ...but the flowers have yet to come, 2013
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 57
Arts Worth Watching NPT is known for bringing you lots of quality entertainment, concerts, and musical events from around the world. This month, we’re also showing off our hometown: February is filled with a variety of events featuring Nashville singers, songwriters, and venues.
NASHVILLE CONNECTIONS Now in its fourth season, Front and Center presents live performances by an eclectic mix of Grammy winners and chart-toppers. This month is no exception, and many of this season’s shows were taped locally at Marathon Music Works. First up is the CMA Songwriters Series with Dierks Bentley on February 6 with some of Nashville’s best songwriters. On February 13, Joe Satriani honors the pioneer of the electric guitar, Les Paul. Trio Lady Antebellum sing their biggest hits on February 20, and superstar Keith Urban performs nearly all sixteen of his No. 1 songs on February 27. Front and Center airs Friday nights at 11 p.m. Few shows highlight Nashville’s talented musicians better than Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Café, airing Friday nights at 7 p.m. The series’ second season kicks off February 13 with the Steep Canyon Rangers, one of America’s most accomplished bluegrass bands. A.J. Croce opens the February 21 show with sophisticated songwriting worthy of his late father, Jim Croce.
Morgan Freeman and Tracey Ullman discuss The Taming of the Shrew, one of Shakespeare’s first works, on Shakespeare Uncovered.
Bard’s first works. David Harewood was the first black actor to play Othello on stage. On February 6 at 9 p.m., he unravels the complex issues of prejudice and jealousy threaded throughout the play. Kim Cattrall has played the title role in Antony & Cleopatra twice; on February 13 at 8 p.m. she meets others who have played Cleopatra. On February 13 at 9 p.m., Joseph Fiennes, star of Shakespeare in Love, examines Romeo & Juliet to understand why the love story remains the most performed of all of Shakespeare’s works. It’s the greatest literary mystery of all time: Who wrote the works of William Shakespeare? On Friday, February 6, at 7 p.m., actor Vanessa Redgrave and others explore the true authorship of the ever-popular plays and poems in Last Will & Testament.
Dierks Bentley (left) and some of Nashville’s best-known songwriters— Jon Randall, Brett James, Jim Beavers, and Ross Copperman— perform and discuss their biggest hits on Front and Center.
There’s “always a Nashville connection” on Austin City Limits, seen Wednesday nights at 11 p.m. Tune in on February 4 to watch the Black Keys play hits from their No. 1 album Turn Blue. On February 11, enjoy highlights from the ACL Hall of Fame Special with performances by Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, and more.
The five-part series Speakeasy offers some of the world’s most iconic musicians the opportunity to discuss their illustrious careers. The series continues on Thursday, February 5, when the “King of Calypso” Harry Belafonte interviews Grammy Award-winning guitarist Carlos Santana. Rush bandleader Geddy Lee talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon on February 12. Both episodes air at 11 p.m.
LAST LAUGH
On Thursday, February 5, at 9 p.m., American Masters takes a hilarious year-long ride with Joan Rivers in her 76th year of life. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work peels away the mask of an iconic comedian, laying bare the struggle and thrill of life as a groundbreaking female performer. February is for sweethearts, and we hope you’ll show us some love by supporting quality public television programming. Go to www.wnpt.org and click on the “donate” button.
NPT LOVES SHAKESPEARE Four more episodes of Shakespeare Uncovered run on Friday nights in February. Nearly twenty-five years ago, Morgan Freeman famously starred in a Wild West version of The Taming of the Shrew. On February 6 at 8 p.m., he sets out to better understand one of the
American Masters takes a hilarious year-long ride with iconic comedian Joan Rivers in her 76th year of life.
58 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Weekend Schedule Saturday 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30
am Martha Speaks Angelina Ballerina Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Sesame Street Dinosaur Train Sewing with Nancy Sew It All Garden Smart Growing a Greener World Simply Ming Cook’s Country noon America’s Test Kitchen pm Victory Garden Edible Feast Food Forward Martha Bakes Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Woodsmith Shop American Woodshop Rough Cut with Tommy Mac This Old House Ask This Old House Hometime PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Tennessee’s Wild Side
THIS MONTH
February 2015
Nashville Public Television
Sunday 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00 6:30
am Sid the Science Kid Peg + Cat Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Word World Sesame Street Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads Nature Washington Week with Gwen Ifill noon To the Contrary pm The McLaughlin Group A Chef’s Life Mineral Explorers Globe Trekker California’s Gold Wild Photo Adventures America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend pm Charlie Rose: The Week
Conservation scientist Dr. M. Sanjayan takes viewers on a stunning visual journey in this five-part series. Series Premieres Wednesday, February 4 8:00 pm
#earthanewwild
Daytime Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00
am Classical Stretch Body Electric Odd Squad Wild Kratts Curious George Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Sesame Street Dinosaur Train Super Why! Peg + Cat Sid the Science Kid noon Caillou pm Thomas & Friends Sesame Street Shorts The Cat in the Hat Clifford the Big Red Dog Curious George Arthur Arthur Wild Kratts Odd Squad Martha Speaks WordGirl pm PBS NewsHour
Nashville Public Television
Independent Lens Through A Lens Darkly This film by Thomas Allen Harris tells the story of pioneering African-American photographers working from slavery to the present. #indielens Monday, February 16 9:00 pm
Music City Roots The second season of shows recorded at the Loveless Cafe kicks off this month with performances by The Steep Canyon Rangers, A.J. Croce and others. Friday nights beginning February 13 7:00 pm
wnpt.org
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Austin, Hour 3. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Celebrating Black Americana. 9:00 Independent Lens: A Path Appears Fighting for women’s rights in Kenya. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Most Powerful Eyes. 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Aging Matters: Economics of Aging
9
2
8
7:00 Great British Baking Show Pastries. 8:00 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5, Episode 6. An ancient spark flares in Violet’s heart. 9:00 Masterpiece Mystery! Grantchester, Part 4. 10:30 Start Up Tap The Falls: Above The Falls/Mob Craft. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
Tuesday
3
10
7:00 Genealogy Roadshow St. Louis - Union Station. 8:00 The Forgotten Plague: American Experience Tuberculosis is the deadliest killer in human history. 9:00 Frontline Being Mortal. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Dewhirsts of Ogleby Hall. 11:00 Aging Matters: End of Life
7:00 Genealogy Roadshow New Orleans – Cabildo. A gruesome murder in an ancestor’s past. 8:00 Big Burn: American Experience A massive wildfire in the Northern Rockies in 1910 defines U.S. wildlife service. 9:00 Frontline 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Adopted by a Stray. 11:00 The Abominable Crime
Independent Lens: A Path Appears Mondays, February 2 & 9 9:00 pm
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Austin, Hour 2. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow San Diego, Hour 1. 9:00 Independent Lens: A Path Appears Activists fight for women’s rights in West Virginia, Colombia and Haiti. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Glory Hole. 11:00 BBC World News
Monday
7:00 Great British Baking Show Continental Cakes. 8:00 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5, Episode 5. Rose makes a handsome new acquaintance. Bricker and Robert lose control. 9:00 Masterpiece Mystery! Grantchester, Part 3. 10:30 Start Up A Hole In One: Strange Donuts/Silverleaf. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
1
Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Sundays at 8:00 pm Repeated Saturdays at 8:30 pm
Sunday
Primetime Evening Schedule
February 2015 Thursday
11 7:00 Nature Animal Odd Couples. 8:00 NOVA Building Wonders: Colosseum – Roman Death Trap. 9:00 Earth A New Wild Forests. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Sweet Smell of Excess. 11:00 Austin City Limits Foo Fighters.
4
7:00 Nature Legendary White Stallions. The world-famous Lipizzaner stallions. 8:00 Earth A New Wild Home/Plains. This fivepart series looks at humankind’s relationship to the planet’s wildest places and most fascinating species. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Defeat of Stone Work. 11:00 Austin City Limits The Black Keys/J. Roddy Walston & The Business.
5
12 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jewel in the Crown Incidents at a Wedding. 9:00 Golden State of Mind: The Storytelling Genius of Huell Howser 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Leaving Home Forever. 11:00 Speakeasy Geddy Lee with Michael Chabon.
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jewel in the Crown Questions of Loyalty. 9:00 Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work American Masters Take a hilarious yearlong ride with the iconic comedian. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Once in a Moonlit Junkyard. 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Speakeasy Carlos Santana with Harry Belafonte.
NOVA Colosseum Monday, February 11 8:00 pm
Wednesday
6
13 7:00 Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Cafe Season 2 premiere. The Steep Canyon Rangers. 8:00 Shakespeare Uncovered ‘Antony & Cleopatra’ with Kim Cattrall. 9:00 Shakespeare Uncovered ‘Romeo & Juliet’ with Joseph Fiennes. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center Joe Satriani honors electric guitar pioneer Les Paul.
7:00 Last Will. & Testament Who wrote the works of William Shakespeare? 8:00 Shakespeare Uncovered Taming of the Shrew with Morgan Freeman. 9:00 Shakespeare Uncovered Othello with David Harewood. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Space Ace. 11:00 Front and Center CMA Songwriters Series with Dierks Bentley.
Friday
14
7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Tour of Southern California. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5 - Episode 6. A long and painful mystery is solved. 9:30 Masterpiece Mystery! Inspector Lewis The Lions of Nemea. 11:00 Globe Trekker Indonesia: Java & Sumatra.
7
7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Salute to the Working People. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5, Episode 5. 9:30 Masterpiece Mystery! Inspector Lewis Entry Wounds. 11:00 Globe Trekker
Golden State of Mind: The Storytelling Genius of Huell Howser Thursday, February 12 9:00 pm
Saturday
Nashville Public Television
wnpt.org
15
1
6:30 Great British Baking Show Final. 8:00 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5 - Episode 9. The Crawleys go to a shooting party at a castle in Northumberland and return to Downton for a joyful Christmas. 10:00 Healing ADD with Dr. Daniel Amen, MD & Tana Amen, RN
MARCH
7:00 Great British Baking Show Patisserie. 8:00 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5 - Episode 8. Mrs. Patmore gets a surprise. Anna is in trouble. 9:15 Masterpiece Mystery! Grantchester, Part 6. 10:30 Start Up Board to the Core: Salemtown Board Co./ Meckley’s. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
22
7:00 Great British Baking Show Advanced Dough. 8:00 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5 - Episode 7. Isobel and Lord Merton reveal their plans. 9:00 Masterpiece Mystery! Grantchester, Part 5. 10:30 Start Up Maids Quarters: EcoFriendly/Orbit. 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
24
3
2 7:00 Dailey & Vincent – Alive! Multi-Grammy-nominated Dailey & Vincent backed by their 10-piece band and a full orchestra. 8:30 John Denver: Country Boy An intimate profile marking the 70th Birthday of “America’s Everyman.” 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 My Yearbook: 1960-1963
4
7:00 Elvis: Return to Tupelo From Elvis’ difficult childhood to his triumphant 1956 homecoming concert. 8:30 Joe Bonamassa: Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks The guitarist performs a tribute to legendary bluesman Muddy Waters. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 John Denver: Country Boy
25
7:00 Nature The Last Orangutan Eden. 8:00 NOVA Building Wonders: Hagia Sophia - Istanbul’s Ancient Mystery. 9:00 Earth A New Wild Water. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Brushes at Dawn. 11:00 Austin City Limits Gary Clark Jr. and Alabama Shakes.
18
7:00 Nature Owl Power. 8:00 NOVA Building Wonders: Petra – Lost City of Stone. 9:00 Earth A New Wild Oceans. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Captain Clutter Buck’s Treasure. 11:00 Austin City Limits 2014 Hall of Fame Special. Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, Double Trouble and more.
American Masters August Wilson Friday, February 20 8:00 pm
26
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jewel in the Crown Ordeal By Fire. 9:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonde-White Combating the physical signs and consequences of aging. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine A Clean Sweep. 11:00 Evening with Gwen Ifill Hosted by Gwen’s friend and fellow journalist Michele Norris.
19
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jewel in the Crown The Regimental Silver. 9:00 Looking Over Jordan: Tennessee Civil War 150 9:30 Wessyngton Plantation: A Family’s Road to Freedom: Tennessee Civil War 150 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Desperate for a Dubfield. 11:00 Sharon Isbin: Troubadour
28
7:00 Motown 25 (My Music Presents) Hosted by legendary comedian Richard Pryor with reunions of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, Four Tops, & more. 9:30 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5 - Episode 8. 11:00 Motown 25 (My Music Presents)
21
7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Season Premiere, 1976. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Season 5 - Episode 7. 9:30 Masterpiece Mystery! Inspector Lewis Beyond Good and Evil. 11:00 Globe Trekker Central Japan. Megan visits Kyoto, Osaka and Himeji.
Nashville Public Television
Nature The Last Orangutan Eden Wednesday, February 25 7:00 pm
27
7:00 Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Café A special edition from the Belfast-Nashville Songwriters Festival in Ireland. 8:00 Great Performances La Dolce Vita: The Music of Italian Cinema. 9:30 Games of the North Modern athletes of traditional Inuit sports. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Mysterious C.W. Northrop. 11:00 Front and Center Keith Urban.
20
7:00 Music City Roots: Live from the Loveless Cafe A.J. Croce, Robbie Fulks, The Wood Brothers. 8:00 American Masters August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand. 9:30 Becoming An Artist Applying to the Young Arts program. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center Lady Antebellum. Taped in Nashville.
Visit wnpt.org for complete 24-hour schedules for NPT and NPT2
7:00 My Yearbook: 1960-1963 Pop crooner Bobby Vinton hosts this My Music special devoted to 1960-1963. 9:00 Aging Backwards with Miranda Esmonde-White 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Dr. Christiane Northrup Glorious Women Never Age. Seven steps every woman should take in her journey to getting older – without aging.
7:00 Genealogy Roadshow Best of Genealogy Roadshow. 8:00 The Italian Americans Loyal Americans/The American Dream (19301945). Second generation of Italian Americans enters the labor movement. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Things in Wesley’s Shed. 11:00 Afropop Afropunk Presents the Triptych.
23
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Bismarck, Hour 2. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow San Diego, Hour 3. 9:00 Independent Lens American Denial. Jim Crow racism affects notions of race and class today. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine Beware of the Elbow. 11:00 Afropop The Sound of Torture.
17
7:00 Genealogy Roadshow Philadelphia – Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 8:00 The Italian Americans La Famiglia/Becoming Americans. A brief history of the great flight from the Italian mezzogiorno region. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The First Human Being to Ride a Hill. 11:00 Ladies’ Turn
16
7:00 Antiques Roadshow Bismarck, Hour 1. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow San Diego, Hour 2. 9:00 Independent Lens Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine The Glamour of the Uniform. 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Growing Up Gambling
Nas h vi lle
Ge m s Three Nashville Jewelers with Wildly Different Aesthetics Create the Way We See Accessories in 2015 by Stephanie Stewart-Howard
28.13 carat emerald ring in platinum with diamonds 23.36 carat emerald earrings with diamonds
Nothing Ordinary
G •
Gondwanaland Gems & Jewelry Private Jewelry Consultant www.gondwanalandopals.com
RINJUEL E
rin Herb’s architecturally driven designs flow with the movement of the body, the shape of the bone beneath the skin—and that’s no accident. Born into a family of architects, Herb also had a career in interior design before turning her focus to jewelry, and her awareness of line, function, and form echoes her training. That’s not to suggest that her work is cold or without artistry—far from it. Herb’s work is absolutely the result of artistic consideration as much as formal design. The results are exquisite linear works that complement your face, neck, ears, and arms. Their beauty is undeniable. “[When I was] a child in a family of architects, there were always materials lying around. For example, small ceramic tiles, tiny gray hexagons. I’d take the found objects and turn them into something else. It was very simple, but I could visualize ways to repurpose them. I used to do that a lot, look at the positive and negative forms and shapes. That even extended to watching a movie—I’d look at shadow and negative space. I have always taken inspiration from non-traditional sources.” Her father took her to his design sites, showing her the beauty in everyday objects, teaching her to use all her senses to evaluate line and form.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SARAH BERRY
Erin Herb’s Architectural Creations
She follows a four-part design process reflecting her background: first, programming “the best part, where the dream is born.” Here she creates a vision statement and image boards. Then comes schematic design, translating a concept into sketches and models. Next, design development means refining the idea and working out details. Finally, what she refers to as the “construction documents” from an interior design point of view means the literal creation of the piece in its final form. Her current work is focused on a rich palette of neutrals, with gray pearls and 14-karat gold-filled wire. Though she admits to a love of color, the starkness of these pieces stands out. Her work with semi-precious stones also makes a profound statement—clean, elegant, and strong. “I don’t want to be predictable. I want to surprise my customers,” she says. For more about Erin Herb, visit www.rinjuel.com.
Herb’s parents taught her that “less is more” and the importance of what she calls “honest design”—design with minimal form and a lack of superfluity. “To me, minimalism is using only what you need. So my jewelry is responsive to the body, pure form and weightless feel, so it merges as if it’s part of the person wearing it—and it doesn’t wear you.” That’s why her earrings, for example, may be tiny or mid-sized, but will never be bulky or heavy.
( page 63 ) Wood, onyx, orange raku ceramic bead, hematite, grey freshwater pearls, and metallic glass spacers with a sterling silver clasp (center) Hand formed 14K gold-filled frame and metal feather with a red poppy jasper round stone (right) Hand formed 14K gold-filled frame and metal feather paired with paper beads and a piece of rough cut lapis (left) Diamonds and jade set in 14K gold
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 65
Victorian pressed glass charms on vintage brass chain 66 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
&
GLEN
EFFIE
The Look of Vintage Modern
B
rooke Griffith’s designs repurpose old pieces into incredible new ones. Her line, Glen & Effie, takes its name from her grandparents, who shared with her an appreciation for the aesthetic and the values of the times prior to the 1950s. Growing up, she spent summers at their farm, learning the value of craftsmanship, the real value of handmade objects, and an appreciation for detail that she believes was common to their generation but less so with the current ones.
Griffith’s mother (an East Tennessee designer) and grandmother made a practice of taking the young girl to flea markets, estate sales, and the like, where on her small budget she began to build up a personal collection of trinkets and jewelry bits. As she grew older, her stash grew bigger, and the connections she made with dealers along the way became firmly established.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CAITRIN WILLIAM S
Four and a half years ago, she made the move to Nashville for college at Belmont and remained here as an interim teacher at Hume Fogg and as a tutor. She sees teaching as a profession just as creative as making art.
Brooke Griffith wearing Glen & Effie earrings
Eventually, she decided to deconstruct and rebuild the collection to create her own line—one that was taken up by David Fox at Leiper’s Fork’s The Copper Fox. Word got out, and Glen & Effie has been very much in demand since, with a New York trunk show scheduled in January. The component materials that go into Griffith’s work range from the Victorian era through the 1940s. “I was really fortunate,” she says. “When I was buying pieces at flea markets and sales, people were more than willing to share their knowledge of an item’s history, to teach me how to identify things. “I am a storyteller,” she declares. “My work is manifested through my jewelry. It all comes down to the story—and my family loved telling stories. When you reuse vintage and old things, they bring the past to light and give it a new story. This is about more than beads that have been strung together to make something new. They all come from different times and places to make a story in itself. Everything has its own journey, its own story—and our society sometimes seems to move too fast for us to recognize that.” Brook Griffith is the featured jeweler at Sotheby’s/Lipman Featured Artist Event on February 17. For more about Glen & Effie, visit www.glenandeffie.com or www.thecopperfoxgallery.com.
“
Victorian brass belt buckle and dress pin, vintage Bakelite belt buckle, and glass and rhinestone flapper beads c.1920
I am a storyteller. My work is manifested through my jewelry. NashvilleArts.com
”
February 2015 | 67
Rinjuel.indd 1
1/7/15 11:37 AM
3mm brass ball chains, Roman coin and key, and signature clasps
Debe Dohrer Design
Reconstructing Chic
D
ebe Dohrer didn’t plan her jewelry design career; she began by working as an image consultant, dealing primarily with men in high-end professions, helping them find ways to present themselves in their best light. The Scottsdale-born Dohrer’s success in this endeavor brought her to the NFL in 2005, at which point she became the only female clothier at the time working directly with coaches, execs, and players on self-presentation. Shortly thereafter, she started dressing NFL quarterback Brett Favre and his wife, Deanna. Deanna Favre, a breast cancer survivor, was making numerous TV appearances at the time, promoting the couple’s charity, Farve4Hope, and Dohrer wardrobed her for The Today Show and other occasions. At the same time, on a whim, Dohrer took a beading class in Nashville with Titan’s coach Jeff Fisher’s assistant.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JERRY ATNIP
Two toned restructured chain and brass mesh discs
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 69
Brushed 3mm silver ball chain with silver mesh circles
“My aesthetic is very architectural, industrial,” she says. “I use a lot of reconstructed chain, some found objects. My goal is to truly enhance the wearer’s wardrobe. I see the outfit as a canvas and the accessories as something to enhance. I want that one little feature to stand out, to turn heads. The jewelry that you wear all the time, to me, is something that should make you feel you’re at the top of your game.” Debe Dohrer Design is availa ble in numerous locations around Nashville. Please visit www.debedohrerdesign.com and www.paullequireandcompany.com. Hand woven turquoise necklace, Japanese glass beads, and Yoruba bell charm with patina finish
“I made a charm bracelet in the class,” she says. “But afterwards I looked at it, and it was just not me.” She returned to the jewelry studio and found herself drawn to glass-bead weaving, especially to peyote stitch—as an Arizona native, it had a resonance for her. She learned it, went home, and spent the next five hours with a tube of 4mm beads, making with them a two-and-a-half-inch slab of woven peyote stitch. Dohrer showed the piece to normally conservative dresser Deanna Favre, and she loved it. A concept was born.
Before long, Dohrer had a jewelr y collection of her one-of-a-kind pieces at The Perfect Pair. Then Paul LeQuire and Company asked her for an exclusive line, and she complied. MODA Boutique followed, and soon she was also selling in a gallery in Santa Fe.
She continued doing her peyote stitched pieces but built upon them, combining them with bits of chain and found objects to create strong, impactful pieces—often flexible in terms of wear. A piece might be a lariat-style necklace worn one way, a bracelet or cuff worn another. “The older I get, the more I want it to be strong, but also
70 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Debe Dohrer
COURTESY OF DEBE DOHRER
simple, straightforward, and versatile,” she says. She makes use of semi-precious stones, fossils, and strong, distinctive clasps and toggles to differentiate her work from the ordinary.
“The One.”
anatra jewel
The finest gia certified excellent cut diamonds. Personal service with integrity. Exceptional value.
.
HANDCRAFTED VINTAGE INSPIRED
2200 21st Avenue South, Suite 106 615.292.1212 www.barkerdiamond.com
6027 highway 100 nashville tn 37205 615.352.9696
anatrajewel.com
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 71
ENGLISH & COMPANY
• Home Consignment • 118 Powell Place • Nashville, TN 37204 Mon. - Sat. • 10:00 - 5:00 • (615) 315-5589 englishandcompanytn@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook
Nashville Arts Gallery Guide 2015
EnglishAndCo_0215.indd 1
1/9/15 1:22 PM
PUBLISHED APRIL 2015 | LISTING DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 20
Nashville Arts Magazine is compiling a comprehensive listing of all local art galleries and museums. Our editors will update the current guide, but if you have new contact or address information, please email us: info@nashvillearts.com
For advertising or enhanced listing information, call the Nashville Arts Magazine office: (615) 383-0278
’60
Opening Reception: Friday, February 20, 6:00 – 8:30 pm • Marnie Sheridan Gallery and Patton Visual Arts Center
Lynn Mayes, Sullivan, Acrylic on Panel
’87 ’70 Anne Blair Brown, Lighthouse Guardian, Oil
Beth Brandon, Les Poules, Oil
Exhibition: February 20 – April 1, 2015 • Gallery Open Monday – Friday 8:00 am to 4:30 pm • 3801 Hobbs Road, Nashville, TN 37215 • www.harpethhall.org
NashvilleArts.com
MAN OF FAITH
TED JONES
February 2015 | 73
Self-Portrait, 1982, Block print, 50" x 38"
by Sara Estes Photography by Tom Griscom
I
n 1924 Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first Afr ican Amer ican painter to achieve international acclaim for his work wrote about his religious subject matter. He explained that the most important goal of an artist’s effort should be “to try and convey to your public the reverence and elevation these subjects impart to you, which is the primary cause of their choice.” Like Tanner, Nashville-based artist Ted Jones is a purveyor of reverence and elevation. Jones draws his inspiration from the wealth of human experience, specifically the black experience, and, more recently, Old and New Testament subjects. Over the course of his career, Jones’s work has made a transition from a racial discourse to a religious one. In his latest work, he reinterprets a nd mo d e r n i z e s icon ic re l i g iou s scenes, picking up a torch left by early-twentieth-century masters such as Tanner, Thomas Eakins, and Abbott Handerson Thayer. His earlier prints and paintings, which depict everyday life in the African American community, carry out a mission similar to that of artists like Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, and Hale Woodruff.
Ted Jones, Charlotte Street Woman, 1980, Wood block print, 49” x 26” 74 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
He works in a variety of media, largely focusing on copper repoussé reliefs, pr i nt m a k i n g , p a i nt i n g , a nd w o o d
Bus Stop, 1994, Block print, 36" x 48"
sculpture. While his medium often changes with each new project, Jones has developed a signature graphic style that has carried on throughout his career. Curvaceous lines, bold figurative elements, rich detail, and an expert use of negative space can always be expected in his images. Charlotte Street Woman, a two-color w o o d b l o c k p r i nt f e a t u r e d i n t h e Te n n e s s e e S t a t e Museum’s 2014 exhibition, A Creative Legacy: African American Arts in Tennessee, i s a pr i me e x a mpl e of Jones’s trademark style. A matr iarcha l f ig ure il lustrated entirely out of or nate st ippl ing sits f ront - a nd- center on a simple chair. She ex udes grace, power, and authority. The heav y red background draws all of our attention to the organic outline of the subject and creates an aura of divine femininity. The figure is voluptuous and her features exaggerated just enough to be emphasized w it hout becom ing c a r ic at u r i zed. She sits
beneath a classic archway that harks back to ancient frescos and Renaissance portraiture. The subject matter of his large-scale woodblock pr i nt R e q u ie m P ro ce s s ion fo r t h e Yo u n g Brothers, which was included in last year’s Jubilee! exhibition at Fisk University’s C a r l Va n Ve c ht e n G a l l e r y, i s unapologetically solemn. It is an image about young black me n d y i n g ne e d l e s s l y a nd t he su f fer ing it causes within a community. While the message may hit the viewer with a heavy dose of solemnity, the beauty of his figures and the flawless composition transport us to a place of awe.
Arise Maiden, 1995, Block print, 36" NashvilleArts.com
A tall man with a wiry frame, trademark over-sized glasses, and a thick New Orleans drawl, Jones is a soaring presence whose ebullience rarely goes unnoticed. Referring to his studio as his “chapel” and his artwork as his “offering and prayer,” Jones has a distinct calling, divine or otherwise, to create. February 2015 | 75
Social Hour, 1991, Block print, 38" x 62"
Born in New Orleans, Jones studied art at Louisiana’s Xavier University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He went on to earn graduate degrees in art at Michigan State University and the University of Montana. Unlike many seasoned pros in his field, the years have done nothing to quell his spirit or his passion. Jones maintains that art should never be a chore but a source of joy. Jones has numerous gallery and museum exhibitions under his belt, and his work is collected in museum, private, and corporate collections across the nation. Yet what is most inspiring about Jones is that he has figured out how to truly live the artist’s life. He has achieved something rare: a critical balance that has resulted in a life-long career of fervent, joyful art-making. Jones has lived and worked in Nashville since the 1970s, and to all those who are acquainted with him and his work, he is considered a local legend.
the importance of enjoying the process and putting your heart into whatever you create. “The process of creating art is where the fun happens.” Jones’s work ethic and prolificacy are almost dizzying. Since the 1990s he has turned his attention almost exclusively to producing work, churning out dozens of new series and exploring new techniques. “If you’re going to be an artist, you’ve got to make work,” says Jones. “It’s that simple.” The key to his on-going, prolific practice is he doesn’t get too attached to the final product. He is quick to sell his work, donate it to institutions, or on some occasions give it away to friends and family. “The product is just a record or representation of what has happened, so I always look forward to getting to work on the next piece,” he said.
For the people who know him, Jones is somewhat of a mystic and a spiritual beacon. He’s the kind of person who doesn’t have to In addition to a busy studio practice, he has had search too hard for transcendence because a successful career as an educator. Currently it’s always been in his shirt pocket. A true a professor at Fisk, he has also taught at Plant & Shadow, Block print, 54" x 33" artist, Jones harbors a grand and peaceful Tennessee State University and Florida A&M. acceptance of the way the world turns. With a smile and a shrug Known for his straightforwardness in the classroom, his he says, “It is what it is.” philosophy of art-making and teaching can be boiled down to Contact Ted Jones at tjones@fisk.edu. three words: “Make good work.” He stands by it. He also stresses 76 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Finding and Exploring New Territory for Life’s Adventures Gregory Wolynec, Music Director
Sneed Road 61.4 Acres $2,999,999
V i s i o n s
College Grove
MOZART - Symphony No. 32 in G
THEOFANIDIS - Visions and Miracles
52 Acres $1,300,000
MENDELSSOHN - “Scottish” Symphony No. 3 in A Minor
CLARKSVILLE
Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015 - 3pm George and Sharon Mabry Concert Hall Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN
NASHVILLE Monday, Feb. 9, 2015 - 7:30pm The Grand Lodge of Tennessee Freemasons Auditorium 100 7th Avenue N., Nashville, TN 37203
Ashland City
235 Acres $1,100,000
Tickets available now online at gatewaychamberorchestra.com or by phone at 931-444-6240 and 615-712-3683
Call the Man that Loves the Land! • Homes with land • Farms • Estates • Recreational
Travis W. Robeson Property Specialist
615-944-3909 • www.TravisRobeson.com
Dekalb County
200 Acres $399,000
Dekalb County Providing Gifts from the Heart All Year Long!
155 Acres $299,999
GASLAMP ANTIQUES &
GASLAMP TOO
100 Powell Place, Suite 200 & 128 Powell Place, 37204 : GasLampAntiques.com Feb 10th, 2pm, Tea@Too Workshop! Open M-Sat 10-6 & Sun 12-6 : 615-297-2224 / 615-292-2250 © Susan W.N. R uach
615-263-4800
1932–2012 ®
Old West & sOuthWest Original art, JeWelry and rustic Furniture
36” x 48”
Once Upon a Time
mixed media
916 8th ave., sO. nashville (615) 598-2074
Visit our Nashville area location by appointment - (815) 347-9698
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
GerardVanderschoot_0215.indd 1
tue-sat • 12 tO 5:30 pm • Or by appOintment WWW .t he r ed F eather g allery . cOm
1/13/15 11:52 AM RedFeather_0215.indd 1
1/16/15 10:25 AM
Sometimes You Win, Ceramic tile on wood, 29” x 23”
Polly Cook Lost
and
Found:
a
Story
of
Love
and
Heartbreak
by MiChelle Jones
P
oems of the Romantic era, German Expressionist woodcuts, Leonard Cohen’s songs, 1940s movies, the Texarkana landscape—these are some of the things that color Polly Cook’s small ceramics, paintings on canvas, and especially her large-scale tile paintings. But her most obvious inspiration comes from love and relationships. Her colorful, complex compositions depict people falling in and perhaps out of love, pining for absent lovers, or trying to remember what they saw in their partner. NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 79
“I do so many things with romance and love, then I get kind of self-conscious that I’m still interested in love, I still have the cupids,” Cook said from her home in Texas. “Then I think, songs do it, movies do it.” The Nashville native keeps her local ties strong through visits and representation at York and Friends Fine Art. While romance and relationships loom large in her work, she incorporates many other images and themes into her compositions. In Tell Me a Story, a 46” x 48” tile painting, she recycled illustrations from old children’s books as wallpaper patterns, drawing them freehand. A photograph from Cook’s travels to Scotland provided the misty scene glimpsed through a window.
Café My Love, Ceramic tile on wood, 26” x 33”
Tell Me a Story, Ceramic tile on wood, 46” x 58” 80 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
“Sometimes for the large pieces I’ll do sketches in a sketchbook, but most of the time I will just start in,” Cook explained. “I try not to think too much about it, let my subconscious come out. As I’m working, I’ll get little ideas, different little scenes, layers. I try not to analyze it. I just try to put things in that come to me.”
Cook goes back and forth between clay and canvas projects, but clay is her first love and her preferred medium. It’s been that way since she discovered it as a 10-year-old in an art class at the art center in Centennial Park. She earned a BFA in ceramics at the University of Tennessee and began participating in craft fairs organized by what is now known as Tennessee Craft. She made lots of bowls, trays, and little sculptures that she covered in drawings. From these she soon moved on to larger surfaces, eventually reaching the extended proportions of her tile paintings. “I was like, these need to be bigger,” Cook said. Now she rolls out slabs of clay on large worktables before covering the clay with an under glaze so she can carve into it like a woodcut technique. Sometimes she cuts the clay so the tiles come out relatively straight; other times she allows the clay to break as it dries. “I like it to look like old ruins, so sometimes I’ll just cover it over so it won’t warp and just let it crack.” She then fires the tiles, reassembles them for glazing, and fires them again (in little pieces). Finally she glues them onto plywood to complete the painting. “The big ones end up pretty heavy and nobody wants to help move them,” Cook said, “so I hire a couple of really strong, piano-mover-type guys.”
Hotel Recuerdo, Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 36”
Whether a large tile painting or a smaller vase, Cook’s ceramics tell stories of romantic relationships, but to say they are love stories doesn’t adequately describe them. They’re complicated. They are presented like songs; they offer the gist of a story. “For a long time I thought I might be a writer,” Cook said. “Then I found myself spending more time in the ceramics studio. But coming from that background of loving writing and loving reading, I just wanted to start to try to make visual stories.” For more information about Polly Cook visit www.pollycook.com. Her work is available locally at York & Friends Fine Art. www.yorkandfriends.com Return of the Native, Ceramic tile on wood, 28” x 46”
Her tile paintings depict not only numerous scenes along the course of a romance, they showcase her strong sense of composition. On the left side of Love Returns (28” x 46”), an elderly woman leans on a tree under a canopy of autumn foliage, a path stretching behind her through greenery and blue skies. The right side of the piece shows a couple dancing in their small apartment. Wispy white sheers hang at a window through which a row of buildings with glowing lights is visible. A woman with wavy hair and large eyes is at the center, bridging the two halves of the painting. Many of the elements in this painting show up again and again in Cook’s work: buildings with columns of windows, couples embracing, and someone ruminating about the state of their relationship. The paintings are also packed with patterns and texture. Hotel Recuerdo, a painting in warm hues of red and orange, exhibits a proliferation of patterns: on a dress, on walls, on a series of windows on a neighboring building—even a vase of flowers features a design.
Love Returns, Ceramic tile on wood, 28” x 46”
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 81
#8 U Street, Acrylic, watercolor, and charcoal on watercolor paper, 10” x 30”
Alison Poland Cities in Color
by Erica Ciccarone
W
hat do you get when you cross the calculated precision of an architect with the emotive sensibilities of an abstract painter? Alison Poland is an artist of two minds who explores the tension between the abstract and technical in her charcoal and watercolor paintings.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY SCARL ATI
Studying to earn her architectural license, Poland finds inspiration in the constructed world. Her work focuses on different subject matters, the strongest being her pieces that manifest her perception of city streets and buildings. Poland marries her skills here, combining her perspective as an architect with the emotional resonance she gleans from the subject matter.
(left) #32 American Indian Museum Façade, Watercolor and charcoal on watercolor paper, 30” x 10” 82 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
“
Years down the road, the streets may have changed, the building may have changed, but the feeling’s still there. That’s what drives me.
”
Using color and lots of blurry, diagonal lines to create interest and movement, Poland abstracts buildings to capture their natural rhythm, often twisting them around landscapes. “I believe everyone has a skill set that they use to communicate with other people,” she says, “whether they write well, whether they speak well. My skill is being able to draw and convey an emotion and capture the context of a community. I think it’s my obligation.” In this way, she seeks to preserve a place’s essence. “Years down the road, the streets may have changed, the building may have changed, but the feeling’s still there. That’s what drives me.” Poland is relatively new to Nashville. She arrived six years ago via DC and has easily made the city her home. Inspiration in the arts came early. At age four, she painted on mirrors with her father using images from National Geographic, a memory that’s been up front for her this past month as she’s mourned his recent passing. She
#37 City of Rooftops II, Charcoal/watercolor on watercolor paper, 30” x 20”
went to business school, currently works as a project manager, and is expecting her third child in March, but she’s always looked for artistic outlets. “No matter what I’ve done in life, I’ve always been an artist first.” As much as possible, Poland tries to pay it forward by donating her work to auctions for charitable causes. She approaches the art-making process much the same way she does when drawing a building for a blueprint. She sketches five to seven pieces at a time and then starts the charcoal build-up. She adds fixate, lets it dry, and repeats, working in layers. If she wants to create something more abstract, she slices the drawing vertically and scoots the section up or down, creating a hiccup that shifts the piece. Poland said she had to work very hard at attaining the precision and detail required in architectural drawing, keeping her artistic impulse at bay. She has the restraint and know-how to do so now, but she’s still an artist at heart. “I fell in love with the impressionists. I think that’s why I always play with that tension of abstract and the technical drawing I’m skilled in. These pieces are a great way for me to marry what I’ve been trained to do and what I naturally think.”
#29 Baltimore Towns II, Charcoal, watercolor on watercolor paper, 30” x 20”
Alison Poland will be the featured artist showing in the gallery at Hampton Home Furnishings, located at 2106 21st Avenue S. A reception with the artist will be held February 26, 4 to 7 p.m. Visit www.facebook.com/PaintedWhiteCanvas to learn more about her.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 83
Anne McCue Songwriter, Guitar Player, Producer, Radio Show Host 84 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
NAM: If your life were a song, what would the title be? AM: Blue Sky Thinkin’. That’s the title of my new record. It’s very uplifting. NAM: What are you really bad at? AM: Organization. I don’t know how to organize things. NAM: If you were 80, what would you tell your children? AM: Meditate every day, do yoga, and be a vegetarian. Lay off the sugar, and stay off the Internet, unless you really have to. NAM: Are you messy or a neat freak? AM: I’m messy. I don’t have time for neat. NAM: What’s your favorite thing to eat? AM: Indian Food. I like Woodlands a lot.
I
NAM: What do you most like about yourself?
Interview by Paul Polycarpou Photograph by John Scarpati
AM: My empathy towards others. I try to stay in touch with
t ’s a long way from Melbourne, Australia, to East Nashville, but that’s where you’ll find this dynamic and thoughtful performer these days. With her signature look and sound McCue is wowing audiences and critics on both continents with her finely crafted songs and heartfelt guitar playing. We caught up with this Renaissance woman between recordings for her new album Blue Sky Thinkin’. As talented as she is beautiful, McCue has a lot to say, and it’s all worth listening to. Catch Anne McCue at The Sutler on February 14. For more visit www.AnneMcCue.com.
Nashville Arts Magazine (NAM): Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Anne McCue (AM): “Amazing.” I say
it all the time.
NAM: Are you living at the right time? AM: Yes. For a woman, this is the best time. If I was a man I would want to live in the 1920s in Paris with all those great writers. NAM: What is your mantra?
that all the time.
NAM: What was the last book you read? AM: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. I reread it. Great book. NAM: What about you would most surprise people? AM: I love to play golf. NAM: Who has most inspired you? AM: When I was younger it was the writers, James Joyce, Samuel Becket, Sartre. In music it was Neil Young, Lucinda Williams.
Q&A
AM: “The time of the lone wolf is over, gather yourselves, we are the ones we have been waiting for.” I put that on my new album. NAM: What is your greatest fear?
NAM: What can you not leave the house without?
AM: I can’t leave
without my hat.
AM: Mortality is constantly on my mind. It drives me to get
things done.
NAM: Who is your favorite artist? AM: I like Degas, and I like Van Gogh. His use of color. Nowadays: Connie Schwarz, Jules McCue, Lisa Galipeau. NAM: Why Nashville? AM: I joined a band in Melbourne, Australia, and we got a record deal with Columbia Records in New York. It was never in my plan, but I came to America for music. NAM: What do you like most about the city?
AM: It’s a beautiful city. Peaceful and exciting all at
the same time.
NAM: Which song can you not live without?
AM: I love the song Greensleeves—it’s an old Indian melody—and the song Joan of Arc by Leonard Cohen. NAM: Are you happy with where you’re heading?
NAM: Which living person would you most like to meet? AM: The Dalai Lama and Leonard Cohen. I met Cohen one
time. He was wearing a pork-pie hat. He said goodbye, but he never said hello.
AM: I am. I love my new album. I have a new children’s book coming
out. I think 2015 is going to be a busy, productive year for me.
NAM: What’s it like being you these days?
NAM: A person you want to have coffee with?
AM: There’s less push and pull in my life. I’m more confident of who
AM: Oprah. I think she’s pretty amazing.
NAM: What is your greatest extravagance?
I am, more in the moment. I feel like my life is more stable now.
NAM: What do you sing when you’re alone in your car? AM: I sing my own songs; I make stuff up, songs that have not been
written yet.
AM: I don’t really get to go shopping much. I love hats. A friend
dyed my hair the wrong color, and I started wearing hats. I feel safe in hats.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 85
Poet’s Corner
The City that Never Stops Giving — Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay
Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay serves as Nashville Youth Poet Laureate, a program of the Nashville Mayor’s Office, Metro Nashville Arts Commission, Nashville Public Library, Nashville Public Schools, Southern Word, and Urban Word. For more information go to www.southernword.org.
BACKGROUND PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP 86 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY SUMAN DAS
The city never stops giving on the corner of 5th and Broadway where downtown traffic is a harrowing consistency, when the light turns green, it doesn’t always mean go. Roy Orbison wrote “Oh Pretty Woman,” emboldened by the femme of mercy below his apartment balcony where tourists and the music leave a warm taste of affinity, by the Starbucks in the Renaissance that snags money from teenagers who rendezvous before school. They never spell my name right on the little cups filled with magic. From this crosswalk, electricity ripples through the crooked streets of the city. The paths of headlights mature into veins of a breathing atmosphere. The wait is forgiving, and when we don’t like what we see and all significance is lost, we turn around softly and walk the other way. A newfangled story in a blink and a sigh, blinkers signaling a right turn, people staring straight ahead, headlong into the bright eyes of a symmetrical world. So begins the journey across the black and white, when everyone becomes familiar and nothing feels strange. Every step falls into the heartbeats of a million lonely people, and when the crosswalk ends, so does another chance encounter with a supreme stranger that you never would have otherwise met— a James, a Taylor, a small life changer, the old love of a never ending family meets the new love of a never ending home, and the city never stops giving.
Ancient Red Oak on Edge of an Agricultural Landscape, 2008, Oil, 30” x 40”
Old Beech Tree at the Edge of an Old Forest, 2012, Oil, 18” x 24”
Brindley Opens Cheekwood’s Celebration of Trees
N
by Skip Anderson
Cheekwood • through April 19
ashvillians have long associated beautiful trees with the Cheekwood estate, since the Cheek family built the English-style mansion in the wooded hills of West Nashville in 1932. The family’s fortune is largely attributed to Maxwell House Coffee, which a pair of Cheek cousins developed and eventually sold to a precursor of General Foods a year before the stock market crashed. Various family members occupied the estate’s home until the late 1950s when they sold it for the sole purpose of establishing an art museum and botanical garden, which opened to the public in 1960.
landscape artist Charles Brindley. Most of the works in the collection prominently feature trees, including four drawings and one painting of the campus’s signature chinquapin oak that famously defines the estate’s Swan Lawn. “The exhibit at Cheekwood has two bookends,” Brindley tells Nashville Arts Magazine. “One represents my lifelong commitment as an artist of drawing, which has defined me as an artist and as a person. The other bookend will be the paintings, which have a very strong color element and harmony.” Trees of Myth and Legend is Brindley’s third exhibition at Cheekwood. He first exhibited there in 1982 and again in 1996. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Brindley not only sketches on-site field drawings of his well-rooted subjects; he also frequently paints large-scale works in the field, rather than working in a studio from two-dimensional representations such as drawings or photographs.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JERRY ATNIP
The exhibit Charles Brindley: Trees of Myth and Legend is open Tuesdays through Sundays until April 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Beech Tree in Summer–Spirit of the Greenwood, 2007, Oil, 40” x 48”
Now, fifty-five years later, Cheekwood is celebrating the trees whose canopies give its fifty-five-acre campus shade, shape, color, and life with a series of tree-themed exhibits throughout 2015 called A Celebration of Trees. The exhibits will also honor Tennessee’s Arbor Day, National Arbor Day, and Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year for trees. The first exhibit to open, Trees of Myth and Legend, brings approximately seventy hyper-detailed drawings and paintings from
Charles Brindley
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 87
Music City’s
d n a B t s Bigge
Your Nashville Symphony | Live at the schermerhorn
DATE PACKAGES FOR TWO FROM ONLY $180
^
DVORÁK’S NEW WORLD
VALENTINE’S WITH PATTI LABELLE
February 5 to 7
February 13 & 14
with the Nashville Symphony Added morning concert on Feb. 6
Old World meets New World in this instantly recognizable classic. With Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2.
MATINEE & EVENING CONCERTS
IN THE MOOD
STYX
and the Nashville Symphony
February 15
February 19 to 21
Treat your sweetheart to the ultimate date with hits like “If You Only Knew,” “On My Own” and more.
A night of classic songs and swing dancing, including “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Moonlight Serenade.”
Classic rock anthems including “Come Sail Away,” “Lady,” “Renegade,” “Fooling Yourself,” “Blue Collar Man” & more.
A 1940s Big Band Musical Revue
with the Nashville Symphony
RICHARD DANIELPOUR
WORLD PREMIERE
MAHLER’S NINTH
with the Nashville Symphony
February 27 & 28
AEGIS EST. 2013
CLASSICAL SERIES
POPS SERIES
March 6
CRAIG FERGUSON’S HOT & GRUMPY TOUR Walking the Earth
March 9
Mahler’s last completed symphony is an epic work of profound beauty bursting with emotion and humanity.
SCIENCES FOUNDATION
DAVE KOZ
JAZZ SERIES
This dynamic saxophonist plays everything from classic pop and jazz tunes to his own original compositions.
The star of The Late Late Show and host of Celebrity Name Game performs his witty and hilarious stand-up comedy.
BEETHOVEN & THOMAS HAMPSON with the Nashville Symphony
March 12 to 14
The world’s greatest baritone premieres new music by Richard Danielpour, plus Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony.
LEGENDS OF MUSIC SERIES
615.687.6400 | NashvilleSymphony.org 88 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Jaume Plensa
Dramatic Sculptures Coming to Nashville Cheekwood • May 22 to November 1 by Skip Anderson
C
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONT Y WILDE © JAUME PLENSA
heekwood recently announced that it teamed up with the Frist Center for the Visual Arts to bring to Nashville a major exhibition by Jaume Plensa this spring. The internationally acclaimed sculptor has had solo shows at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain; the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the United Kingdom, among many others. The exhibit, titled Human Landscape, will run May 22–November 1.
The show will include two new works by Plensa: a double sculpture titled Soul of Words and a “monumental cast-iron head” titled Laura with Bun, a 23-foot-high cast-iron portrait that will greet visitors at the entrance of the West Nashville estate’s wooded grounds. “Cheekwood has this duality of obviously a garden but also beautiful interior spaces,” Plensa, native of Barcelona, Spain, said in a release. “Even more for me, thinking that it was once a private home; it does not have the dimensions or concept of a museum. I’m extremely curious about the garden but also about the house.”
the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. The Frist will also display four of the artist’s sculptures, including Isabella (2014), which will mirror a “sister” cast-iron sculpture sited at Cheekwood.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONT Y WILDE © JAUME PLENSA
The forthcoming exhibition is born from a partnership between Cheekwood and
Nuria & Irma, 2007 and 2010, Stainless steel, 158” x 158” x 118” and 158” x 158” x 114”
The Heart of Trees, 2007, Seven bronze figures and seven trees, earth, 39” x 26” x 39” each
NashvilleArts.com
Also at Cheekwood will be Plensa’s Heart of Trees (2007), which features seven seated bronze figures “embracing” a live tree. Each figure is a self-portrait of the artist with the names of his favorite composers covering it. In preparation for the installation, Cheekwood planted Kentucky coffeetrees, an ornamental species known to grow quickly. The installation will also include Silent Music (2013), a seated stainless steel figure comprised entirely of stainless-steel musical notes.
“We are proud to be bringing another major exhibition by an internationally renowned artist to Cheekwood,” says Jane MacLeod, Cheekwood’s president and CEO. “Cheekwood’s beautiful landscape and historic origins offer such a unique venue for the display of large-scale contemporary sculpture. With each exhibition of this caliber, we continue to build recognition as a national treasure and our reputation as one of the Southeast’s premier art destinations.” Jaume Plensa’s sculpture will be on exhibit at Cheekwood May 22 to November 1. For more information visit www.cheekwood.org. February 2015 | 89
PHOTOGRAPH BY TED BARRON
“I’m a lover a fighter a prophet a fool The keeper of confidences the Lord of Misrule A consummate Jack-of-all-trades of the Dickensian School But they ain’t never made no love I couldn’t lose...”
90 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
— Steve Earle King of the Blues
Steve Earle Legendary Songwriter Brings Home the Blues with His New Album Terraplane
by Holly Gleason
S
teve Earle always knew he’d make the lean blues Terraplane. The man who pioneered a muscular hybrid between the Outlaws and Guns N’ Roses is better known for his long association with Townes Van Zandt than Lightnin’ Hopkins, but Hopkins was around Houston as Earle was finding his way.
“Townes was all about the blues,” Earle continues, words landing like spent casings. He used to say, “There’s two kinds of music: the blues and zippa-dee-do-dah.” He spent a lot of time with Lightnin’ Hopkins, “so a lot of what I know I got from Townes. . . . But I spent time with Lightnin’, even though he died right after I moved to Nashville.” Earle pauses for a nanosecond, which feels like a minute. “I know people who know a lot more are gonna say [Terraplane] doesn’t dot this “i” or cross that “t”, but they weren’t in the room with Lightnin’ Hopkins. Townes and Guy and I were. So I know there’s more to it than just the form; there’s how you write and the feel, the whole thing.” The sixty-year old roots icon isn’t defensive. He’s sure of his intentions, pleased with the execution. From the first harmonica blast of “Baby Baby Baby (Baby)” through the last exhaled breath on “King of the Blues,” Terraplane works various blues forms to create twelve songs of raw want, ache, and reckoning.
“I’ve got a guitar player who cut his teeth on Texas blues, and Chris [Masterson] drew me back. I’d hear it at sound check; it brought me back to that part of Texas music I grew up on.”
Though Guitar Town hit like a wrecking ball thirty years ago, Earle’s earliest music was equal parts outsider country and the blues. His first concert: Canned Heat. His first band: the Speed Blossom Blues Band at 13.
“1968: East/West, Shuggie Otis, and the first Zeppelin albums came out,” he marvels. “And those first two ZZ Top records were flat out blues.”
Like the Chess Records Earle cites through the conversation, they were sexy. If he eschews his usual political bent, there’s plenty of sex in the grooves, whether the acoustic backdoor “The Usual Time,” the low-sloping Stones-ish “Go Go Boots Are Back,” or the Chicago blues “You’re the Best Lover that I Ever Had.”
“‘Lover’ started out to be Lightnin’ Hopkins. But I realized it was “Smokestack Lighting” the more I played it. You know, when the blues got athletic maybe the girls just weren’t that interested.
But those Chess Records? Those were black jukebox records, designed to get people moving, and they didn’t last more than three minutes ’cause the jukebox operators wanted you to keep putting money in. “That’s the visceral thing to the blues: it is about sex. No way around it.”
Admitting his music, which appeals to veterans, activists, a certain kind of blue-collar rock or country fan, can be heavy on testosterone, Earle acknowledges his yearning ballads keep the girls in the room. “I have to look at my audience, and they’re getting uglier and hairier every year. . . . I started playing music because I’m from Texas and don’t play football, and I wasn’t crazy enough for rodeo—so it’s always been about girls. But writing about sex is hard.”
If writing randy was challenging, Terraplane delivered. He read his talking blues “The Tennessee Kid” at the St. Mark’s Poetry Marathon, “and it worked.” Like his bluegrass The Mountain, stylistically committing appealed to him. “There’s a sense of accomplishment, working to forms. ‘Put me in a box. Give me a limited vocabulary and special tools . . . .’ Like a haiku. To achieve that, you’ve achieved something. “The blues are pretty much iambic pentameter. Not really just the words, but taken together, the beats, the lyrics, the music, and playing, that’s what it is. So I’m as proud of this as I am The Mountain.”
Recorded in five days with blues producer R.S. Fields at Berry Hill’s House of Blues Studio, there’s a greasy, gritty texture to the tracks and a sense of swagger that isn’t flexing. “That’s just it,” Earle muses. “‘Bringing It All Back Home’ and “Highway 61” were blues records. Most Dylan records since then are. It was intentional. It’s also a good form to work from.
“But you know, I’ve done it. Now I’m thinking about my next records.” His next two projects—a duet project with Shawn Colvin, then a country record—are already percolating. But don’t think he’s coming to save today’s mainstream country. Laughing, he chides, “Please! It won’t get on country radio. I’m too old, and I’m not getting a lobotomy any time soon.” For now, Terraplane needs touring, and Earle is ready for the task. He will bring his lean four-piece, featuring crackerjack husband/wife duo the Mastersons, to City Winery March 6 and 7. Steve Earle and The Dukes’ Terraplane will be released on February 17. For more information visit www.steveearle.com.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 91
YEOMAN’S IN THE FORK
A RARE BOOK & DOCUMENT GALLERY
LOCATED IN HISTORIC LEIPER’S FORK, TN
Metro Arts Announces THRIVE Microfunding Program Funding up to $4,000 may be available for innovative, artist-driven projects that engage the community in the arts and demonstrate clear neighborhood impact. Application and resources available at www.artsnashville.org.
3BR, 2BA, 1,650± Home on .88± Acres
MetroArts_0215.indd 1
1/5/15 1:11 PM
)RUUHVW 9DOOH\ &LUFOH
Absolute online AuCtion
bid now through February 4 at 10am Public Inspections: Jan 22nd at 10am CT & Feb 3rd at 10am CT
Wednesday thru Saturday 10-5 | Sunday 1-5 4216 Old Hillsboro Road | Franklin, TN ph: 615.983.6460 | fx: 615.515.9060 www.YeomansInTheFork.com
be sure to check out our collecting blog
Hydes Ferr
y Pike
12
Pike
R ARE BOOKS & DOCUMENTS BOUGHT AND SOLD
TRACT 2
sville
Join us in protecting and collecting the printed page
20.627± Acres
Clark
BATTLE FOR THE BOOK
2 miles from Briley Pkwy
TRACT 1
112
BoUnDARIes APPRoXImATe
©Pictometry.com
&ODUNVYLOOH 3N +\GHV )HUU\ 3N +LJK 'DLO\ 7UDIÀF &RXQW Utilities on site Acres Zoned sCn & oV-Com TRACT 1: 2.47± ACRES TRACT 2: 18.157± ACRES
Absolute online AuCtion bid now through February 5 at 10am
(615) 517-7675 Preview and bid at: ZZZ 0F/HPRUH$XFWLRQ FRP 10% Buyer’s Premium. 15% Deposit.
6 a.m.
Nashville
Nashville
6 a.m.
A Ca
mera
Obscu
ra
ory R y b y ud m St o o r Bed
A
White
t 6 a.m. there’s already a hustle downtown—in breakfast joints, on construction sites, and elsewhere—but that’s an exotic story to most folks I know. People I know are still at home, and the story of 6 a.m. is a fuzzy, transitory time when the world pushes in from outside against sleep, excuses a messy bed, and encourages time spent over a cup of coffee.
Each room is shot with the “camera obscura” technique: every window is darkened with black plastic except for a nickel-sized aperture in a window. The view from the aperture in the window is inherently projected upside-down and backwards opposite the aperture against the walls, representing the outside world’s siren call of dawning light.
This photo project is about bedrooms, with or without the room’s tenant, with the exception of an artist who stayed up all night and didn’t touch her bed till after 6 a.m. on the shoot date.
My gratitude belongs to the subjects of this series for their early morning grace, patience, and accommodation.
For more about Rory White visit www.rorywhite.com/RORYWHITE.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 93
Fo (previous page) The Bachelorette sleeps with her dog. He doesn’t bat an eye while staring the camera down throughout this 30-second exposure. (left) The New Parents are, of course, already out of bed. They don’t need to wait for the sun to coax them from their slumber. (below) The Girl’s Room stars the color pink. The mother confesses, “She doesn’t like to sleep in here; she says the drawings frighten her.” None of the drawings frighten me, except one of the gingerbread man with the caption: “Run, run, as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.” (top right) The Bachelor also sleeps with a sweet, loyal, and deaf dog. The dog’s master is a drummer. It’s a P.E.T.A. match made in heaven. (bottom right) The Artist’s Loft overlooks downtown Nashville. She paints all night and has not been to bed yet. Her bedroom doesn’t even have a window, so I make an exception and photograph her in the kitchen holding a cup of coffee. (last page) The Fisherman lives on the river and keeps a painting over his bed that’s remarkably similar to the inverted projection. He kept a fishing rod in the adjacent room that I failed to stand in the corner. Where is the fisherman? At 6 a.m., fishermen fish.
94 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 95
96 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Critical I
Story Breakers David Lipscomb University • through February 6 by Joe Nolan
I
n the introductory text Mike Calway-Fagen wrote for his Story Breakers exhibition at the John C. Hutcheson Gallery at David Lipscomb University, the artist acknowledges that our capacity for apprehending the world around us is directly proportional to our ability to use language to tell each other the stories of our cultures. However, in this display of photographs, collage, and sculpture, the artist attempts to interrupt that conversation with humor, jarring juxtapositions, and a fisherman’s lie or three. The Progression of Regression encapsulates the show’s themes, offering a taxidermic German shepherd perched triumphantly on a large, old wolf pelt. The work suggests an evolutionary narrative, picturing the success of the domesticated dog over the feral wolf. However, it’s disturbing to see a domestic animal preserved in such a way, and it made me wonder if being proud and dead was better than propagating one’s species toward such humiliating ends. Clap Quick the Immortal Child wins the Best Title in Show award for its onomatopoeic musicality and the manner in which it evokes the wild, innocent sensuality of this rolling sculpture, which features parts from an old chair and a kid’s xylophone toy. The piece is one you want to touch—or bang on—more than you want to talk about it, and it reminded me that the action and sensation of simply being alive is often obscured by our semantic understanding of the world.
Mike Calway-Fagen’s Stor y Breakers continues at the John C. Hutcheson Gallery at David Lipscomb University through February 6. For more information visit www.lipscomb.edu.
The Progression of Regression, 2010, Taxidermic German shepherd and old wolf pelt, 73” x 49” x 42”
Theatre
No Shame Open Mic Theatre in East Nashville by Jim Reyland
N
See and par ticipa te in No Shame Thea tre on Febr uar y 19 at The Building in East Nashville. More infor ma tion is availa ble a t No Shame Thea tre Nashville on Facebook a t on.fb.me/1C U4Lgn.
PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN EDWARDS
o Shame is a brand new, very cool concept, open mic theatre with three rules: Must be original, must not exceed five minutes, and you may not hurt anyone or anything, including yourself. It happens ever y third Thursday at The Building on Woodland, which is also a very cool concept. The theme of the February 19 show will most likely have something to do with Valentines, funny or otherwise. It will get started at 6 p.m. for sign-ups; 7:30 p.m. is show time. Admission is $8 (free if you perform). BYOB. So get your act together at least once a month and take it to where there’s No Shame.
Kevin Baxley at No Shame Theatre NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 97
Sketches from Life, 2014, Oil, 14” x 11”
Sketches from Life, 2014, Oil, 14” x 11”
Nashville Architect Stephen Wells, 2011, Oil, 42” x 30”
Ann Cowden
A Profile
in
P o rt r a i t s
by Gracie Pratt
F
or artist Ann Cowden, a portrait is not just a reflection of a likeness but a glimpse into an individual’s character and personality. Her portraits are born out of careful study and intentionality. She is determined to create pieces that will be treasured for generations, and her clients would testify that she has done just that.
Cowden has been an ar tist f rom the time she was a child, always eager to capture on paper what she saw with her eyes. It was a hobby that developed through her adulthood and continued as she raised her children, painting with them at the kitchen table. Throughout her career in interior design, painting was a love that persisted.
98 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
When she became a grandmother, her inspiration became more specific. She wanted to paint portraits of her grandkids. She recalls her first attempt at a portrait after years of painting landscapes and abstracts and remembers that her initial response was, I can’t do this. But instead of putting it aside, her lack of experience pushed her to study. So she began to visit
museums, collect art books, and attend workshops with renowned portrait artists such as Anthony Ryder and Max Ginsburg. Her initial interest turned into an intense study of portrait artists and their techniques. She found Nashville to offer a rich art community. “Nashville is unusual in that there are so many good artists here.” Even now, though she has produced hundreds of portraits, Cowden considers herself to be in the constant state of learning from other artists.
“
To be a really good portrait artist, you have to convey who that person is. You need their spirit to come out.
”
With a degree in art f rom Vanderbilt University, Cowden is experienced in myriad art forms. She has worked with mediums from watercolor to pottery, but oil painting has become her medium of choice because of its “permanency, richness, and transparency.” According to Cowden, it “passes down through generations beautifully.”
President Woodrow Wilson, 2012, Oil, 30” x 24” PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY SCARL ATI
Cowden keeps an assortment of sample paintings and regularly adds to this collection with new landscapes and portraits, but the majority of her paintings are commissioned. Though Cowden often works from a photograph, she likes to see the subject in person so that she can capture details such as eye color, skin tone, and face structure precisely. As she works, she invites the family to visit the studio to see the portrait develop. Not only has she painted pictures of loved ones for families, she has also been commissioned for higher-profile projects. When she was selected by the University of Virginia Law School to paint a portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, she recalls poring over photographs from old newspapers and records in preparation for beginning the portrait. She also read a full biography of Wilson, determined to capture not only the physicality but the personality of the president. It is a factor that characterizes all of her portraits, a component that Cowden believes is absolutely essential. Ann Cowden’s portraits and landscapes will be on view February 6–8 at Lipscomb University. For more information about the artist visit www.anncowden.com.
Ann Cowden NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 99
Garrett Mills at The Rymer Gallery
Andrew Shapero, Andrew Kline, Esther Lindstrom at The Rymer Gallery
Rivers Wildhay, Ellis Eberle at Coop Gallery
SEE ART SEE ART SEE Holly Murphy, Patrick Murphy, Alex Blau at David Lusk Gallery
Emma Allen Jamison, Rachel Siegman at Corvidae Collective Gallery
Marlos E’van, Terry Thacker at WAG
The Arts Company
40AU Gallery
Hrag Vartanian, Vekan Gueyikian, Adrienne Outlaw, Mark Hosford at David Lusk Gallery
100 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Meg Tackett, Brock Colyar at The Rymer Gallery
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN JACKSON
Michael Weintrob, Carl Thomason at The Arts Company
Erica Ciccarone, Tony Youngblood at Julia Martin Gallery
Zeitgeist
Julia Martin and Mollye Brown at Julia Martin Gallery
The Rymer Gallery
SEE ART SEE ART SEE Santhosh Velaga, Vadis Turner, Chelsea Velaga at Zeitgeist
Justin Loring, Kelly Devereaux at The Rymer Gallery
Betsey Mator, Austin Littrell, Harry Underwood at Julia Martin Gallery
Cassidy Conway, Dameon Guess at The Arts Company
Mika Agari, Richard Friley, Sharon Friley, Marlos E’van at WAG
Jonathan White, Jamie Germain at Julia Martin Gallery
Susan Chopson, Alexandra Chopson at Tinney Contemporary NashvilleArts.com
Patrick DeGuira, Andrea Zieher at Zeitgeist February 2015 | 101
ART
SMART A MONTHLY GUIDE TO ART EDUCATION
TENNESSEE ROUNDUP
PHOTOGRAPH BY THERESA MONTGOMERY, TN STATE PHOTOGRAPHY S ERVICES
by James Wells, Poetry Out Loud State Program Coordinator and Tennessee Arts Commission Arts Education Special Projects Coordinator
Poetry Out Loud—Not the Typical Student Competition
I
magine walking into a school and, intermingled with the typical buzz of students and teachers, you hear the rhythmic hum of poetry being recited. Classic poets Keats, Dickinson, and Poe, as well as modern lyrists Ellis, Clampitt, and Clifton, join the lineup of sports teams, hairstyles, and math lessons. Across Tennessee, students are celebrating poetry with the same competitive spirit they have when rooting for their favorite sports team. They are working to represent their school this spring at the statewide Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition, which will be held March 14 at the Nashville Children’s Theatre. Each competitor will recite three poems without the use of props, costumes, amplification, or music. Tennessee’s winning student will receive $1,000 and a trip to Washington, DC, to represent Tennessee at the national finals and compete against fifty-two other high school students from across the country and its territories. “Throughout POL’s ten years, students have benefited from their time spent in the competition. Through memorization and competitive per for mance, the students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, improve reading skills, and develop an appreciation for
Poetry Out Loud 2014 finalists Sidney McCarty, Clarksville High School; Emily Bass, Cedar Springs Homeschool; Juliet Lang, Fairview High School; Anita Norman, Arlington High School
poetry and literature,” says Anne Pope, Tennessee Arts Commission Executive Director. Open to all public, private, and home school high school students in Tennessee, POL satisfies more than half of both the National Council of Teachers in English (NCTE) language arts standards and Tennessee’s language arts standards by providing a wide range of poems from many periods and genres. “My students have gained many skills during the POL preparation. They have learned to dig deep to find the meaning behind the words of the poetry they read. They have learned to be students who stand out and don’t blend in with the crowd. They have learned to take pride in being unique and special,” says McEwen High School
102 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
(McEwen, TN) English and journalism teacher Shannon Tolene. Last year, Tennessee State winner Anita Norman went on to win the National Championship. She was the first Tennessean to win, beating out 365,000 students from around the country. I recently received a call from Anita’s father, Edward Norman, who called to tell me Anita had been accepted to Yale. He said that when the competition is as fierce as it is for openings at top schools, you need to have that edge. He felt that Poetry Out Loud was Anita’s edge and was grateful that she had the opportunity to participate. I would like to encourage high school students and teachers to consider becoming a part of Poetry Out Loud for 2016 and to join us in Nashville on March 14 to size up the competition.
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL OOPS by Cassie Stephens | Photography by Tiffani Bing
A
PHOTOGRAPH BY JUAN PONT LEZICA
bout a month ago, I received a letter in the mail, which was pretty neat for a couple of reasons. One, I love getting mail. It’s so unusual these days that it’s almost like opening a gift on Christmas morning. And, let me tell you, this letter was truly a gift. The condensed version read like this: Would I be interested in having my students go to a real live recording studio to sing on a real live single?
Music teacher Leah White, art teacher Cassie Stephens, third-grade teachers Amy Gordon and Susanne Johnson, The Happy Racers Nathan Meckel, Mark Niemiec, and Layne Ihde with recording stars from Johnson Elementary
Okay, this was way better than any Christmas gift I’ve ever received. The man behind the letter was Mark Meckel, executive producer of said single. Mark’s been working with children’s book authors to create songs that accompany their books. His latest project is a song titled “It’s a Beautiful Oops” to go with the book Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg. If you’re not familiar with the book, it’s a yellow-covered box of a book chock full of flip-tabs, pop-ups, and magic that explore the idea of turning your mistakes, or “oopses,” into something beautiful. It’s the perfect book for an art teacher to read to her students as it encourages them to let go of the notion of perfection and explore the process of creating and all the possibilities it holds. I’ve been reading it to my students since it came out, so I was extra excited to have them be part of this adventure. Now, I’m no music teacher. Thankfully, I work with an incredible one. I immediately took Mark’s letter to Leah White, who jumped on board without hesitation. Together, we decided our class of seventy
Third-graders sing for the recording of “It’s a Beautiful Oops”
Students painted while listening to “It’s a Beautiful Oops”
third grade kids would be the perfect recording stars. From there, we gathered support from our administration and the third grade team of teachers. With only a week and a half of practice, Leah prepared the students for their big debut.
Students learn about recording equipment
I have to admit, I was a nervous wreck the day of the session. Not because I didn’t think the kids would do a great job; Leah White is seriously a master music teacher. Because I didn’t know what to expect, the fear of the unknown, you could say. However, all that was gone the moment we entered The Blue Room recording studio in Berry Hill. The studio itself was beautiful, but what impressed me the most were the guys working there. They were so kind to our students, so thoughtful in answering their countless questions and so generous with their time. Mark was buzzing with a contagious excitement that made the entire session electric. He was even thoughtful enough to have the students Skype with Barney Saltzberg, the book author, after their session. It was truly a magical day that I know none of us are likely soon to forget. NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 103
ON THE HORIZON: AMERICAN VISION NOMINEES The Scholastic Exhibition • Cheekwood Museum Galleries • Through April 19 by DeeGee Lester | Photography by Christopher Hamrick
For the 24th consecutive year, Cheekwood partnered with the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers to host the regional art competition and exhibition for Middle Tennessee. This exhibition displays the 63 Gold Key-winning pieces (from 1,385 student submissions) and celebrates the most outstanding works from the 2015 competition. The following American Vision Nominees were selected as Best in Show from the Gold Key awards. For more information, visit www.cheekwood.org.
ROBERT GREEN
JACK LADD
University School of Nashville
Hume Fogg High Academic Magnet
A
s the son of an art teacher, Rober t Green had no intention to do art. He admits that he was “more of a science guy” and loved the theoretical side of math and physics. He was also into non-stop action sports such as ice hockey or soccer. “I tried to avoid art, but I came back around in high school,” he admits. Now, interspersed with a rigorous academic schedule, including a Vanderbilt calculus class last fall and this semester’s independent study of calculus-based physics, Robert has found a balance through art. “Without art, I would have been crazy,” he says. His efforts have paid off with an American V ision nomination for Split. “The idea started with a photo. A friend and I were taking pictures, and he took one that was blurred. I decided to try to recreate the feeling of the look through dr awing, ” Robert says. “It took some time to figure out the process. When pencil on paper didn’t work, I decided to use paper vellum. Using plastic Robert Green, Split, 2014, Graphite powder on gloves, I dipped my vellum, 22” x 19” finger into powdered graphite and built up the darks by rubbing it onto the very slick surface. I used erasers to blend and to pull out the lights.” The result is a strange, artistic rendering that appears to be not quite drawing and not quite photography—an eerie double image that hauntingly captures and lures the viewer.
Jack Ladd, End of the Line, 2014, Acrylic on canvas board, 16” x 20”
L
ooking at Jack Ladd’s piece End of the Line, the truth of the famous quote “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure” comes to mind. Indeed, this particular pile of junk, tossed into a dumpster from a work site, has resulted in an American Vision nomination for the Hume Fogg senior. “I was really surprised,” Jack says. “There were so many applicants. It was the first time I had submitted a piece, although I’ve been in art for four years and attended the Governor’s School for the Arts last summer.” For that class, he decided to do something with a child’s bike. His idea was to give it some poignancy—perhaps showing a bike in pieces.
“We were having work done at our house, and I photographed a bike that had been tossed in the dumpster with construction materials. I scrapped the idea of a dismantled bike. Everything is just as it appeared. I didn’t climb into the dumpster and arrange things. So I didn’t suffer for art,” he laughed. The result is a nostalgic reminder of growing out of childhood. He hasn’t decided on a college major, but he knows he wants to continue with his art. “It’s a place to calm down from the stress of other classes.” He plans to attend Oberlin College, which offers a small, intimate learning environment as well as experimental classes in which students get credit for taking or teaching a class. “I might teach a class on acrylic painting.”
104 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
DUYEN PHAM Hendersonville High School
A
t once dramatic and whimsical, Duyen Pham’s Vision Award Nomination In Full Bloom demonstrates the capabilities of technology as another medium for the creation of artworks that captivate the viewer.
A student at Hendersonvil le High School, Duyen arrived with her family from Vietnam in 2009 and began the challenging process of learning English while keeping pace with classmates. She also began exploring the creation of digital art. “Since my artwork has mainly been digital art on the computer, I haven’t used much of my culture in my artwork, but I am still working on my digital portfolio, and I would like to have a few pieces of work incorporating Vietnam.”
For In Full Bloom, Duyen says, “I used Adobe Photoshop to create the entire piece. We study different styles and technical ways to create digital designs. For In Full Bloom, I was able to make it three-dimensional. I am very detailed with my artwork, and this is my most complex piece. I spent probably twenty hours on this project, and it has over twenty layers.” She plans to attend the University of Tennessee in Knoxville next year. Duyen is strong in math, taking honors trigonometry and calculus, and plans to study accounting or engineering, but “art will always be my hobby,” she says.
Duyen Pham, In Full Bloom, 2014, Digital art, 9” x 11”
LISA QU Brentwood High School
W
hile attending the Governor’s School for the Arts last summer, Lisa was introduced to the process of making sculpture. With a passion for the newly acquired medium and challenged in class at Brentwood to create wearable art that showed emotion, she created a headdress inspired by African tribal tradition. The result is a Vision Award Nomination that is both flamboyant and majestic—a piece that elicits both surprise and awe in viewers. “It’s a lot of fun,” Lisa says, “but it is not fun to wear. It’s heavy and hurts your head.”
Inspired by African tribal headwear and animals such as the antelope and armed with sketches, Lisa crafted the headdress that rises from a welded steel crown. Using the school’s welding machines and wood shop, she added the massive horns and created details with an impressive array of feathers and beads. The one word title, Pride, reflects the diversity of life and culture.
Lisa embraces the arts and believes it is important for every student. “Art gives you a better feel for the world, better perception, and opens you to change. I can’t imagine my life not having art in it,” she says.
Lisa Qu, Pride, 2014, Mixed media headdress, 44” x 22” x 11”
The high school senior has been admitted to Washington University in St. Louis through early decision. She has yet to decide on a major but wants a minor in art. NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 105
LILA WEISS
B
University School of Nashville
eginning this month, the Gordon Jewish Community Center is offering a wide array of art classes for people of all ages. Choose from drawing and painting classes, knitting lessons, art journaling, and bookbinding. L ear n ne w skil ls in a papercut art workshop, tips and techniques for travel photography, making a textile matzoh cover, and more. With convenient scheduling, reasonable rates, and professional instruction, the Gordon Jewish Community Center once again provides a wonderful opportunity for people of all ages to grow Hebrew House Blessing, 2015, Paper cut, 14” x 11” their creativity.
Lila Weiss, Muse, 2014, Oil on canvas, 40” x 46”
G
ART CLASSES FOR ALL AGES
rowing up at the University School of Nashville, Lila Weiss had the opportunity to explore many art mediums—painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, and printmaking. Although trying them all, her focus remained on painting. Many artists find inspiration in recurring themes. For the second year, Lila submitted a portrait to the Alliance competition featuring her friend Katie, and for the second year her work has been recogniz ed with a Vision Award nomination. ( L a s t y e a r, s h e w o n a National Gold.) Her friend since arriving on campus dur ing her freshman year, Katie, Lila’s repeat art subject, permits her one last portrait before the girls separate for college.
For a complete schedule of art classes and to register, please visit www.nashvillejcc.org/art-classes.
CUPS OF CO-OPPORTUNITY The Clay Lady’s Artist Co-op • February 21
T
he 5th annual Cups of Co-opportunity hosted by The Clay Lady’s Artist Co-op benefits VSA Tennessee, a nonprofit supporting art opportunities for artists with disabilities. Last year, these ceramic artisans made 275 handcrafted mugs to sell at their Cups of Co-opportunity event and were able to donate $2,500 to VSA. This year, they plan to offer over 350 mugs in hopes of raising more than $3,000. In addition to suppor ting suc h a wor thy c ause, Cups of Co-opportunity is a fun, family-appropriate event with plenty of hot beverages and activities. At 9 a.m. they will open the gas kiln to offer even more brilliantly colorful mugs. Cups of Co-opportunity benefitting VSA Tennessee takes place on February 21 from 7 to 11 a.m. at The Clay Lady’s Artist Co-op. For more information, visit www.theclaylady.com.
The project began with spontaneous photos on a bench in the school cafeteria. “I wanted her face and hair to stand out against the plain wall,” Lila says. “The colorful outfit was just luck; nothing was pre-arranged. I then used the photo to recreate the portrait. The hardest part was to get the right dimensions on canvas.” Always shy, Lila found art to be a place of fun and imagination. “I can always express myself and say a lot through my art.”
Art has also opened opportunities for her, including a two-week early college program at the Art Institute in Chicago last summer. Inspired by continued success, she plans an art major in college and a possible art teaching career. 106 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
MUSIC MAKES US: COME ON, JOIN THE BAND
John Early Museum Magnet Middle Band Program by Rebecca Pierce | Photography by Tiffani Bing
O
ne of the goals of Music Makes Us was to ensure that all middle and high schools have band programs, but in schools with high poverty rates, it is a lot easier said than done.
Mrs. Nicholson explains her approach. “I want to give a positive musical experience to our kids. I want our kids to achieve at a high level so they can grow as musicians and as team members. My ultimate goal is to build self-esteem through musical achievement.”
To establish and grow the band program at John Early Museum Magnet Middle Prep ( JEMMMP), which has a 92% poverty rate, it is taking the dedication and hard work of Executive Principal Risè Pope, Band Director Ila Nicholson, and Aspiring Teacher Toby Deaver. They credit Dr. Nola Jones of Music Makes Us for bringing them together, and the Country Music Association for providing 95% of their instruments.
Executive Principal Risè Pope talked about some of the obstacles and how the school is making it work. “Like many other schools with high poverty levels, it is often difficult for families to imagine funding an instrument when basic needs are a challenge. In addition to financial barriers, our population often lacks familiarity with the band experience. Gaining trust is critical before parents will enroll and fund students in band. All the performances, promotional materials used throughout the year, and community chatter really make the difference when it comes to gaining the support of parents and exciting students about joining band.”
The band program at JEMMMP is the third new band program Ila Nicholson has started. She has total command of the room, and when she takes the podium, all sixth grade squirming comes to a halt. She demands a lot from her students musically and in terms of personal responsibility, but they know she cares about them. She interacts with her class as she conducts, shouting out compliments as individual students achieve success and declaring, “I’m so proud of you guys!” when the band gets it right.
This year Mrs. Nicholson shares her podium with Aspiring Teacher Toby Deaver, who is currently in her final year of a 4+1 Bachelor’s + Master’s program at Vanderbilt. It has been a good fit for the duo. Nicholson has allowed Ms. Deaver to test her wings as a band director, and Deaver has given JEMMMP the network of connections and resources she’s collected over the last four years. Through Music Advocacy Week, she connected students and parents to the Nashville Symphony, Vanderbilt University, and the Nashville Jazz Workshop. She considers her greatest success of this year so far to be the number of parents and family members who attended the Music Advocacy Concert at Blair School of Music. “I was floored by the size of the crowd. One of the intents of the Music Advocacy programming was to connect North Nashville and Vanderbilt. Because music education and performance is an accessible academic outlet for parents, I saw the Music Advocacy Concert as an opportunity to spark that connection.”
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 107
GORDON JCC ART CLASSES
A Regional Premiere Musical never before seen on Nashville’s stages!
WINTER & SPRING SCHEDULE Drawing/ Painting Draped Cloth with Rhonda Wernick Thursday | 2/5 & 2/12 | 9am-12pm Knitting Lessons Thursday | 2/5-2/26 | 1:30-2:30pm Art Journaling and Bookbinding with Terry Kornman Friday | 2/6 & 2/13 | 10am- 2pm Right Brain Drawing with Meryl Kraft Friday | 3/6-3/20 | 10:30am-12pm Papercut Art Workshop with Kim Phillips Sunday | 3/22 | 12:30-3:30pm Textile Matzoh Cover with Kaaren Engel Monday | 3/30 | 12:30-2:30pm Landscape Impressions with David Nicols Friday | 4/17 | 10am-3pm
Tickets at nashvillect.org or 615-252-4675.
Travel Photography: Tips & Techniques with Larry Fuldauer Friday | 5/15 | 10am-11:30pm | bring your camera Oil Painting with Rhonda Wernick Monday | Monthly | 9-11am
Based on the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems Published by Hyperion Books for Children Script and Lyrics by Mo Willems Music by Deborah Wicks La Puma
DISCOVER YOUR ARTISTIC SIDE. Sign up today, class space is limited. For more information, prices, and supply lists, visit nashvillejcc.org or Meryl@nashvillejcc.org.
Jan 15 - Feb 8, 2015
* some classes include supplies
801 Percy Warner Blvd. | Nashville, TN | 615.356.7170 | nashvillejcc.org
better prepared for life… like this cardiologist. Support music education for all metro students. Dr. Andre Churchwell, Cardiologist Vanderbilt University Medical Center
GET INVOLVED! musicmakesus.org
108 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Gabriella Havron, Gower Elementary School
Backstage with Studio Tenn
The Cash Legacy
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANTHONY MATUL A
Honors the Iconic Music of the Man in Black
Jamison Hall • February 19 to March 6 by Cat Acree
W
hen a musician’s persona is as tied to their songs as Johnny Cash’s was, it’s risky to honor them through their own work. But as much as Cash was a man of the people, he was also a rebel. So to hell with it: The riskiest—and therefore potentially the most rewarding—production in Studio Tenn’s 2014–2015 season is their musical revue The Cash Legacy. Like last year’s The Hank Legacy, it’s “much more than a concert and a little less than a musical,” says Artistic Director Matt Logan. With no dialogue and no script, it’s the most original way to honor an artist’s enduring relevance and timeless inspiration. Eight musicians will salute the Man in Black through his own music, some of which has been treated to updated arrangements and filtered through contemporary country, Americana, and rock ‘n’ roll, while others are too sacred to touch. Walking that line is Music Director Don Chaffer, who also arranged the music for The Hank Legacy. “There are songs that are legendary Johnny Cash songs, some of which you can’t mess with because that’s how it needs to go, then other songs that you wouldn’t dare try [the original] way, because it’s Johnny,” says Chaffer. The greatest challenge of The Cash Legacy is honoring the man without straying into cliché, in a way that feels genuine to his family. “The goal,” Chaffer says, “is for the audience to walk away with a feeling not only of some sort of core of Johnny Cash, but also with a sense of how he translated to so many different people so many different ways.” The Cash Legacy, presented by Firestone, will run February 19 to March 6 at Jamison Hall within The Factory at Franklin. For more information, visit www.StudioTenn.com.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TIFFANI BING
Paint
the
Town
WITH EMME
Emme is a seventh-generation Nashvillian and an owner of Boulevard Communications, LLC Photography by Tiffani Bing
symphony ball
Symphony Ball Chairman Karlen Garrard and Louis Garrard with children, Frances and Paul
sold-out event forget why they were there: to support impeccable music. Symphony Ball
A
winter chill is enchanting when it occurs at the Symphony Ball. Ask anyone in Laura Turner Concert Hall at the Schermerhorn S y m p h o n y C e n t e r o n a c r i s p, m i d - D e c e m b e r e v e n i n g . Everyone—from white-tied patrons to servers to dance-committee helpers—felt a tingle and welling of emotion when the four members of Nashville Pipes and Drums took the stage with the symphony orchestra, conjuring a sublime version of “Highland Cathedral.” With Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero casting music about like Harry Potter shooting spells from his holly and phoenix feather core Warren and Monteray Smith wand, the moment was magical indeed.
Music power couple Faith Hill and Tim McGraw was presented the Harmony Award, which, as Nashville Symphony Association Board Chairman Jim Seabury put it, “honors the creative energy that pulses through our city each day.”
Frank and Julie Boehm
And that was just five minutes of a bewitching evening.
Charlie and Laura Niewold
The evening began in the West Lobby with cocktails and trying on exquisite jewelry offered by the fabulous Zonnie Sheik. Chimes brought guests into the concert hall. On the menu: Oysters Rockefeller, an arugula and pear salad, beef filet, and black forest cake prepared by Kristen Winston.
Bravo to the resourceful and creative chairmen team of Anne Maradik and Karlen Garrard for their exquisite vision of the 30th Symphony Ball. Not for a moment did any of the 430 guests at the
Giancarlo, Virginia, Shirley, and Claudia Guerrero
Symphony Ball Chairman Anne Maradik and Rich Maradik with children, Jackson (back row), Maddie and Bo
110 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Under the artful hand of The Tulip Tree’s Mark O’Bryan, the hall’s décor was a nod to the thirtieth, aka pearl, anniversary. Bronze was a unique signature color incorporated into the creamy color scheme. Volunteers on the design team were Kaki Pulliam, Kate Satz, and Melissa Mahanes.
Jami Frazier, Kathryn Wroth, Emily Shannon
“Our hope was to make the evening luminous, timeless, and celebratory . . . worthy of the thirtieth ‘pearl’ anniversar y,” said Chairman Maradik. “Inspiration drawn f ro m p e a r l s o f a l l shades—greys, blush pinks, creams. Tahitian, South Seas, etc.”
The program included music by the Symphony before Crissy and Bill H a s l a m i n t ro d u c e d Mary and Mike Spalding the Harmony Award recipients. Backed by the orchestra, Hill and McGraw then charmed the audience to “Live Like You Were Dying” and “Where Are You Christmas?”
Susan and Luke Simons with Kathy and Bobby Rolfe
Co-hosts for the seated dinner under twinkling lights were Julie and Frank Boehm, Barbara and Jack Bovender, Karen and Bruce Moore, and Laurie and Jim Seabury. Spotted bewitched by the evening were: Mary Jo and Steve Shankle, Mary and Tom Gambill, Robin Martha Ingram and Gil Merritt and Richard Patton, Katie and Kevin Crumbo, Julie and Bob Gordon, Barby and Govan White, Elizabeth and Bob Dennis, Janet and Earl Bentz, Cathy and Clay Jackson, Margie and Bert Dale, Carolyn and Hartley Hall, Ellen Martin and Gerry Nadeau, Barbara Keith and Richard Payne, Chrissy and Bill Hagerty, Elizabeth and Larry Papel, and Jennifer and Gus Puryear.
After closing remarks by Symphony CEO Alan Valentine, guests danced until the wee hours of the morning to the Craig Duncan Orchestra. On December 9, Amy Grant and Vince Gill had graciously hosted the black-tie patrons party at their Belle Meade home. Libby and Ross Cheek
Harmony Award winners Faith Hill and Tim McGraw
Hank Ingram and Chris Hart
Phil and Allison Brooks with Cam and Carolyn Sorenson NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 111
& The Factory
Historic Downtown Franklin
Friday, February 6, 6-9 p.m.
BELLE MEADE JEWELRY & REPAIR
Rings Sized While You Wait!
S TAT E O F T H E A R T L A S E R W E L D E R Platinum • 14K & 18K • Antique Restoration • Sterling Silver • Eyeglass Repair Appraisals • Engraving • Prong Rebuilding • Watch Repair & Watch Batteries
Same Day Jewelry Repair!
Nearly 30 galleries and working studios in a 15-block area, featuring artists at work, live music, wine and more! There’s no cost to attend
www.FranklinArtScene.com Facebook.com/FranklinArtScene Sponsored By:
112 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
Belle Meade Plaza 4548 Harding Road (Next to Newk’s)
269-3288
BelleMeadeJewelry.com
follow us on
Beyond Words
by Marshall Chapman
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANTHONY SCARL ATI
If the shoe fits . . .
Mind you, I had shopped for days before leaving Nashville, hoping to find a new pair of running shoes to replace the old ones I was now wearing. The soles were so worn the inside lining was beginning to show. “Do you have any women’s running shoes in size 11?” I asked the young woman behind the counter. Those are all size 11s,” she said, indicating an entire rack. Are you friggin’ kidding me?
Adding further shock, I found not one but two size 11s in bright, imaginative colors with cool designs that seemed to call out Yes! Buy me. You will never regret it! I tried on the first pair which were a bright reddish-orange. They felt comfortable enough to warrant a modeling session. So I walked outside and asked my friend, our South African driver, and the newly arrived representative from Rancho La Puerta what they thought. Unanimous verdict: they looked great! Then I tried on the other pair, which were lime green and black with white soles.
Shoes have always been a problem for me. I am tall and thin; therefore, my feet are long and narrow. Years ago, I wore a size 10½ narrow. Women’s shoes normally come in half sizes up to 10. After that, it’s 11, 12, etc. So whenever I found a 10½ shoe, it was cause for celebration. As for finding a 10½ narrow, well, that was cause for even greater celebration. Shoe manufacturers seem to think feet grow wider as they grow longer. They also seem to think women with long feet don’t want to have fun, because style offerings beyond size 10 are extremely limited. I gave up trying to be fashionable years ago, resigning myself to flip flops, tennis shoes, and going barefoot. Then a strange thing happened. About a year ago, I noticed my feet had lengthened a half size. Just last week, I was told the practice of yoga does this—lengthens the foot a half size. Also, my father once proclaimed that, as we age, we become shorter and our feet become longer. So for whatever reason, I now wear a size 11.
The minute I began walking in them, I thought, Oh, my God, these are the most comfortable shoes I have ever felt in my life!! With each step, it was like the shoes were giving me a foot massage. “I’ll take them,” I told the sales woman. “And I’d like to keep them on.” “But of course,” she replied.
As I headed for Customs, I tossed my old shoes in the trash.
Later that evening, while taking off my fabulous new running shoes, I nearly fell out when I saw printed on the inside label—SIZE 13! www.tallgirl.com
Last August, something happened at the Mexican border that restored my faith in not only shoe manufacturers, but the future happiness of my feet. I was traveling with a friend to Rancho La Puerta, a wellness center just outside Tecate, Mexico. Due to flight delays and cancellations, my friend and I had missed the last charter bus from the San Diego airport to “The Ranch,” as Rancho La Puerta is referred to locally. So we ended up taking a taxi to the border where a representative from The Ranch was supposed to meet us. As it turned out, our driver was from South Africa and spoke little English. He’d also never driven to the border. But after several conversations with his dispatcher, he seemed confident enough to gun the motor and take off. At this point, my friend and I were so tired and hungry, we were happy to be rolling, even if in the wrong direction.
As we neared the border, our driver began saying, “Tennis shoes . . . tennis shoes!” while looking around. We had no idea what he meant. Then I saw a sign next to the border gates that said PAYLESS SHOES. “That must be it!” I cried.
So we pulled into the parking lot.
The representative from Rancho La Puerta was running a little late, so I decided to check out Payless Shoes.
NashvilleArts.com
February 2015 | 113
My Favorite Painting
T erri J ordan Curator of Exhibits, Customs House Museum
I
The works I own are an eclectic mix, comprised mostly of pieces purchased from artists that I have known in some fashion. My current favorite piece though is a small painting titled Bleeding Hearts by the late Robert Dash. It is very dear to me for a couple of reasons. First, it was a gift on my forty-fifth birthday from someone very special. Second, Dash’s painting reminds me of my younger days growing up in beautiful upstate New York (the Catskill Mountains). It brings back memories of summer vacations and days spent outside. In its simplicity in brushstrokes and color palette, Bleeding Hearts makes me smile—and makes me a little homesick. And isn’t that what great art should do?
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY SCARL ATI
’m lucky enough to spend every day surrounded with art and making art. Being a museum curator allows me the opportunity to enjoy great works on a continuous, rotating basis.
ARTIST BIO
ROBERT DASH
Robert Dash, Bleeding Heart, 1970, Acrylic on board, 7” x 7” 114 | February 2015 NashvilleArts.com
A native of New York City, Robert Dash (1934–2013) studied at the University o f New Mex ic o in A lbuquerque; however, his college education did not include formal arts education. He had an appreciation of the visual arts, particularly the abstract expressionists. After a year abroad in Italy he returned to begin a career in the arts in New York City. In 1960, Dash exhibited his paintings for the first time. He continued his career showing in Holland, England, Ger many, and around the United States. Aside from his works on canvas, Dash also gardened and wrote in his residence and conservatory, Madoo, near Eastern Long Island’s Sagg Pond.
MAKE IT MEMORABLE.
MAKE IT GRAND.
Upgrade to elegance with Grand Avenue. Whether a wedding, gala or a special night out, our professionals will meet your travel needs with our diverse fleet — the largest in Nashville. Riding in a one-of-a-kind vintage roadster, an understated sedan or a limousine, you’ll arrive in style. Our dedicated special occasion team will design a seamless, reliable transportation plan tailored just for you. Corporate, special occasion and customized transportation.
Call us today at
615.714.5466
or visit
or toll-free at
866.455.2823
GrandAvenueWorldwide.com
GAT 019.15 | NA | 1/15
B E D R I V E N.
TWEET WORTHY SPRING COLLECTION 2015
NASHVILLE | MGBWHOME.COM FEATURING: BASTILLE CHAIR, HUNTER SOFA, LAWSON DRAWER SIDE TABLE, MELROSE COCKTAIL TABLE, POWERSHAG RUG, RUBIX LAMP, TRANSITION ART