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Nashvillian of the Year Award Dr. Ming Wang, Harvard & MIT (MD, magna cum laude); PhD (laser physics) Presented by Kiwanis Club International, Nashville, TN The Kiwanis Club of Nashville is proud to announce Dr. Ming Wang, director of Wang Vision 3D Cataract and LASIK Center, world-renowned laser eye surgeon, author, and philanthropist as the 35th recipient of their coveted Nashvillian of the Year Award for 2015. Dr. Wang receives the award by exemplifying the qualities of Outstanding Nashvillian of the Year and the Kiwanis International Vision. Dr. Wang worked diligently to make the world a better place, when he established the Wang Foundation, helping patients from over 40 states in the U.S. and 55 countries, with sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge. “It is difficult to know anyone who works as hard giving back to the community and changing the lives of children as much as Dr. Ming Wang,” said Kenny Markanich, president, Kiwanis Club of Nashville. “He has helped countless children through the charitable outreach of his foundation, giving free surgeries to repair their vision.” Dr. Wang actively contributes to the Nashville community as the founding president of the Tennessee Chinese Chamber of Commerce and as an honorary president of the Tennessee American-Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The mission of these two chambers is to help educate Tennessee businesses about China, helping Tennessee to increase its export to China. He is also a co-founder of Tennessee Immigrant and Minority Business Group, an organization that provides support to the diverse cultural and ethnic businesses in our community. For the past 35 years, the 100-year-old civic club has bestowed the annual ac-
colade upon an individual who has gone beyond the expected scope of their abilities for the betterment and benefit of the Nashville community. The selection committee was spearheaded by George H. Armistead, III, one of the three original architects of the award (along with the late Gillespie Buchannan and the late Ralph Brunson). Past winners of note include Martha Ingram, Roy Acuff, Jack Massey, Phil Bredesen, Vince Gill, Tim Corbin, Mike Curb, Frank Wycheck, Darrell Waltrip and Mayor Karl Dean. A program saluting Dr. Wang was held at the Patron Club, Friday, July 29th at 11:30am. Dr. Wang was presented with
a commemorative plaque along a commissioned caricature.
About Kiwanis: Kiwanis Club of Nashville is a local chapter of Kiwanis International. This global organization of more than 660,000 members is dedicated to serving the children of the world. It annually raises more than US$100 million and dedicates more than 18.5 million volunteer hours to strengthen communities and serve children. Members of every age attend regular meetings, experience fellowship, raise funds for various causes and participate in service projects that help their communities. Dr. Wang can be reached at: drwang@wangvisioninstitute.com Wang Vision Cataract & Lasik Center 1801 West End Ave, Ste 1150, Nashville, TN 37203 615-321-8881 www.WangCataractLASIK.com
ADVERTORIAL BY WANG VISION 3D CATARACT & LASIK CENTER
THE RYMER GALLERY presents
Mean Sixteen
New paintings by Woodrow White
February 3 - March 1 The Rymer Gallery / 233 Fifth Avenue / Nashville 37219 / 615.752.6030 / www.therymergallery.com
5 T H AV E N U E O F T H E A R T S DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE
PUBLISHED BY THE ST. CLAIRE MEDIA GROUP
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Columns HUNTER ARMISTEAD | FYEye MARSHALL CHAPMAN | Beyond Words ERICA CICCARONE | Open Spaces LINDA DYER | Appraise It RACHAEL MCCAMPBELL | And So It Goes JOSEPH E. MORGAN | Sounding Off ANNE POPE | Tennessee Roundup JIM REYLAND | Theatre Correspondent MARK W. SCALA | As I See It
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, or by mail for $6.45 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 credit card number.
TINNEY CONTEMPORARY
©Jeanie Gooden
WOMEN OF ABsTRACTION Martica Griffin . Jeanie Gooden . Mary Long . Anna Jaap . Mildred Jarrett
J A N UA RY 7 - F E B R UA RY 1 1 , 2 0 1 7 237 5th Ave N . Nashville 37219 . 615.255.7816 . tinneycontemporary.com
5 t h Av e n u e o f t h e A r t s Downtown nAshville
On the Cover Noah Saterstrom
February 2017 18
Road to Shubuta Oil on canvas, 48” x 96” See page 58.
Features 10
Dragon Harmony Chinese Music and Instruments at Nashville State Community College & MTSU
18 Black History Month at Monthaven Mansion Hendersonville Arts Council Showcases Humane Society along with the Art of Ted Jones
33
20
Greg Ridley’s Influence Lives On Woodcuts Gallery through March 10
24
HATCH-ed Hatch Show Print’s Iconic Impression upon Four Artists
27
Jeremy Cowart Gatlinburg Calling
58 Two Converging Paths into History Noah Saterstrom’s Shubuta and Other Stories at Julia Martin Gallery 64
Stop Me Feeling Claire Morgan’s Meditations on Man and Nature
68
Dana Gluckstein DIGNITY: Tribes in Transition
68
74
Denied Realities While Exploring the Invisible Structures that Shape Society, Mary Mooney Confronts Beauty with Beauty
Columns
27 33
Nashville Gems Six Local Jewelry Designers Who Want to Make You Look Good
42
The Power of 2 Allen DeCuyper & Steve Sirls
45
Caravaggio ‘n’ Me The Work of a Narrative Photographer
50
Murphy’s Law Realism Subverted & Short Stories
50
16
Crawl Guide
80
Arts & Business Council
82
As I See It by Mark W. Scala
84
The Bookmark Hot Books and Cool Reads
86 Theatre by Jim Reyland 87
Sounding Off by Joseph E. Morgan
89
Studio Tenn
90
Art Smart by Rebecca Pierce
96 ArtSee 98 FYEye by Hunter Armistead 100 NPT 105 Beyond Words by Marshall Chapman 106 My Favorite Painting
HOPEFUL FRAGMENTS INTRODUCING
ROGER HALLIGAN
JAN CHENOWETH
FEBRUARY 4 - 24
©ROGER HALLIGAN
THE
arts
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COMPANY
FRESH. ORIGINAL. CONTEMPORARY.
2 1 5 5 t h Ave of the Arts N. Na sh v i l l e , T N 3 7 2 1 9 • 6 1 5 .2 5 4 .2 0 4 0 • t h e a r t s c o mpa n y . c o m
5TH A VEN UE OF TH E A RTS • DO WN TO WN N A SH V IL L E
Dragon Harmony
by Bob Doerschuk
Photograph by Randy Raine-Reusch
Chinese Music Ensemble - Mei Han, Xuanye Mi, Zengguang Li, Jie Ji
B
urned out on banjos? Fed up with fiddles? Then take a day off and spend some time exploring the Center for Chinese Music and Culture in Murfreesboro. Inside the Miller Education Center on the MTSU campus, you’ll find an array of instruments—bronze bells, drums, gongs, zithers, hammered dulcimers, and, come to think of it, some items that somewhat resemble banjos, collectively representing 56 national ethnicities. You might arrive in time for a student concert or a lecture/demonstration on some aspect of ancient or contemporary performance. And you might make the acquaintance of Dr. Mei Han, the Center’s director. The daughter of military parents in China, she was sufficiently sheltered from the Cultural Revolution to master the zheng, the pentatonic plucked-string zither that has been a staple of Chinese music for more than two millennia. Her journey to Tennessee is nearly as epic as her instrument’s history, from the vicinity of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square during the popular uprising of 1989 to teaching positions in Canada and at Ohio’s Kenyon College before arriving at MTSU two years ago.
In addition to establishing student groups at two Murfreesboro elementary schools, one specializing in drums and the other in instruments fashioned from gourds, the Center will reach out to the public through two upcoming concerts. Led by Han, MTSU’s Chinese Music Ensemble will join with Nashville’s contemporary music project Intersection, several artists from Beijing, and composers Zhou Long, Chen Yi, and Wu Fei to present “Dragon Harmony,” featuring both traditional and recent music as well as the premiere of a yet-untitled work by Wu Fei. Audience members are invited to try out several of the featured Chinese instruments before each performance. na The “Dragon Harmony” concerts begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 11, at the Auditorium at Nashville State Community College and Sunday, February 12, at MTSU’s Miller Education Center. Tickets may be purchased on eventbrite.com. For more information, visit www.intersectionmusic.org and www.mtsu.edu/chinesemusic.
How did this renowned scholar and virtuoso wind up in Murfreesboro? “The University and the Confucius Institute in Beijing began planning this center five years ago,” she explains. “The fact that I was hired to be the director was part of the program. The Confucius Institute in general is to teach the Chinese language, but they also wanted to have an opportunity to introduce Chinese culture. Because Nashville is known as Music City USA, Middle Tennessee State University proposed to host this program.”
Ji Jie
Photograph by Chenguang Zhou
Bell performance
Photograph by Chenguang Zhou
Chinese Music and Instruments at Nashville State Community College & MTSU February 11 & 12
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Publisher’s Note
A Great City Deserves Great Art I’ll make no bones about it. I am a huge fan of Marilyn Murphy. Her work always makes me scratch my head and smile when I’m looking at it. Is it a dream or a memory? Is it real or imagined? Is it a question or an answer? Her work seems to make no physical sense whatsoever, and yet it is all perfectly logical and very familiar. Marilyn has single-handedly rewritten the laws of physics and has created a world that quite frankly looks a little more inspired than ours right now. Meet Marilyn on page 50. This rather crazy petit maquette showed up on our doorstep a while back. A very cryptic anonymous letter informed us of the author’s intent to switch the head and tail of the Nathan Bedford Forrest sculpture that loiters on I-65 near the Harding Road exit. We’re not sure who left it for us or why, but we do want you to know that we think it is a vast improvement over the Jack Kershaw original. Far be it for us to encourage you to break the law, but ...
And whilst I have your attention, and politics aside, I want you to know that I think Meryl Streep is a damn fine actress.
Carol Gove, Grown Up, 2016. Mixed media collage on canvas, 40” x 30”
January 21st - March 4th
Join us for our annual
Cups of Co-opportunity
Saturday, February 11, 7:30-11:00am Pick a clay cup from over 300 made by The Campus artists, students, and teachers Fill it up and enjoy the festivities! All donations benefit VSA of TN
1416 Lebanon Pike, Nashville, TN 37210 • 615.242.0346 Hours: M-F 8am-4:30pm, Sat 10am-2pm www.theclaylady.com
www.cumberlandgallery.com | 615.297.0296 | 4107 Hillsboro Circle
BENNET T GALLERIES CARYLON KILLEBREW
Boundary Waters, 72” x 48”
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
February Crawl Guide Franklin Art Scene
Hatch Show Print’s Haley Gallery is showing the Single Figure Series, hand-brayered, hand-printed works made with an 1885 wooden typeface that fills an entire 26” x 40” sheet. In celebration of the month, Hatch pays homage to artist Robert Indiana by using the letters L, O, V, E on the feature wall. Works by David Wolske, monoprints by Jim Sherraden, and restrikes from the historical Hatch Show Print collection are also on display.
Friday, February 3, from 6 until 9 p.m. Williamson County Visitor Center is featuring woodturner Ben Paty. See paintings by abstract artist Leslie Morales at Williamson County Archives. The new owner Emily Newman, Savory Spice Shop of Bagbey House and More is showcasing his vintage-style repurposed lamps and lampshades. At Savory Spice Shop Emily Newman is exhibiting her heavily textured oil and acrylic painting. Enjoy a vast array of sculpture, paintings, and prints at Imaginebox Emporium. Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church is hosting artists Rosie Morton and Dolly Georgieva-Gode. Visit the Old Old Jail and see the traveling exhibition The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966: Commemorating Fifty Years of Preserving Tennessee’s Historic Structures, Sites, and Landscapes.
Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston Saturday, February 4, from 6 until 9 p.m.
CG2 Gallery is hosting an opening reception for Hoping for a Happy Ending, a group exhibition of gallery artists Christian Clayton, Marcus Kenney, Sean Norvet, Chris Scarborough, and Christina West. David Lusk Gallery is showing Garden by Carlyle Wolfe and I Will Have to Tell You Everything by Hamlett Dobbins. See Psych Pastorale: New Paintings by Richard Feaster and Awful Things by Alex Lockwood at Zeitgeist. Julia Martin Gallery is presenting Noah Saterstrom’s exhibit Shubuta and Other Stories, which includes works Ashley Doggett, Channel to Channel by Samuel Dunson (see page 58). COOP Gallery is opening Genesis, a group exhibition by Marlos E’van, Samuel Dunson, and Brandon Donahue, in which each artist works with the combination of painting, sculpture, and installation that represents ideas or objects that have Xavier Payne, Refinery Nashville a past but have been recycled and afforded a new beginning. abrasiveMedia is featuring Ryan Rado, a Nashville native who uses colors on repurposed objects to create abstract images, and FALL is performing improv aerial fabric performances throughout the night. mild climate is exhibiting Objects Talk, a solo show by April Bachtel. At Seed Space see new drawing, sculpture, and animation by Matt Christy. Channel to Channel is unveiling Ashley Doggett’s A History, contemporary paintings that speak to the historical erasure of African American trauma and violence that black people have faced since slavery, especially black women. Refinery Nashville is showcasing narrative 2-D work featuring a nostalgic quality by Xavier Payne.
First Saturday Art Crawl Downtown Saturday, February 4, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Erin Murphy, The Browsing Room
The Arts Company is introducing sculptor Roger Halligan and painter Jan Chenoweth, two artists new to Nashville. In their Nashville debut exhibition Hopeful Fragments, the artists, who also happen to be husband and wife, are presenting their abstract contemporary sculptures and painting. Tinney Contemporary is exhibiting Women of Abstraction featuring work by Martica Griffin, Jeanie Gooden, Mary Long, Anna Jaap, and Mildred Jarrett. The Rymer Gallery is presenting Mean Sixteen, new paintings by Woodrow White. The Browsing Room Gallery at the Downtown Presbyterian Church is hosting an opening reception for Portals, Boundaries, and Infinite Spaces by Nashville artist Erin Murphy, which explores atmosphere, spatial relationships, and surface as characters in themselves.
In the historic arcade, WAG is showing Pantomime, which examines ideas around gesture featuring works by Ashley Obel and Kayla Miller.
Jan Chenoweth, The Arts Company
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Boro Art Crawl
Friday, February 10, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Street, Dreamingincolor, Sugaree’s, Quinn’s Mercantile, L & L Contractors, Funtiques, Let’s Make Wine, Simply Pure Sweets, The Boutique at Studio C Photography, Earth Experience, Daffodilly Design, Oaklands Mansion, Moxie Art Supply, and The Block.
East Side Art Stumble
Saturday, February 11, from 6 until 10 p.m. The Red Arrow Gallery is having an opening reception for Denied Realities by Mary Mooney (see page 74).
Jefferson Street Art Crawl
Saturday, February 29, from 6 until 9 p.m.
Dawna Magliacano, The Write Impression
At The Write Impression, enjoy the work of Dawna Magliacano, who employs bright colors and a playful eye to tell a story, which she often leaves half told to draw the viewer in. See photographs of nature from all over the United States by Spears McAllister at the Murfreesboro City Hall Rotunda. Mayday Brewery is featuring the work of Jackie Cheuvront, an acrylic artist who loves to explore figures from horror movies and the esoteric. Also participating are VNTG, Bella’s, Trendy Pieces, Green Dragon, Liquid Smoke, Wall
Jefferson Street has long been a historic district for art, music, and the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, and the Jefferson Street Art Crawl returns for the month most often associated with love and black history. Art History Class will lead a discussion about the work of the educator and Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas at the Susie Brannon McJimpsey Center. One Drop Ink will host several students from the historically black colleges and universities found on Jefferson Street and will offer tattoo specials. Woodcuts Gallery will have print specials for the month and will continue to show select works from Nashville’s master artist Greg Ridley. Check facebook.com/jsactn for information on the featured artwork at The Garden Brunch Cafe, Harambe House, Jefferson Street Sound, and Alkebu-lan Images.
INVICTUS 20 Works Celebrating African Americans’ Pursuit of Freedom and Will to Survive February 2–24, 2017
Organized by Maya T. King, Junior, College of Arts and Science Curated by Yollette T. Jones, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Science Sponsored by: Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture Program of Vanderbilt Divinity School Co-sponsored by: Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, Office of the Dean of Students, College of Arts and Science, Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Charles White, The Pope X (1972). Etching. Private collection.
Vanderbilt Divinity School, Room G-20 (Ground Floor) Gallery Hours: religionandarts.com Opening Reception: February 2 3–7 p.m. • Divinity School Closing Reception: February 22 Noon–2 p.m. • Black Cultural Center
Carlton Wilkinson, Violencia - Palenque de San Basilio, Colombia, South America, Digital image, 10.5” x 15.5”
Black History Month at Monthaven Mansion Hendersonville Arts Council Showcases Humane Society along with the Art of Ted Jones by John Pitcher
A
rtist Ted Jones considers his studio to be a chapel and his artworks to be offerings and prayers. Not surprisingly, his numerous prints, paintings, and repoussés often have divine themes. Yet his art is remarkable primarily for its intense human emotion. Some of Jones’s most recent creations are now on display at Monthaven Mansion in Hendersonville. The exhibit, curated by photographer Carlton Wilkinson, is part of the Hendersonville Arts Council’s celebration of Black History Month. In addition to Jones’s artwork, Monthaven is also hosting a major photography exhibit called Humane Society: A View from Our Lens.
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Duan Davis, Boy Play, 2016, Digital image, 24” x 24”
Gale Clemons, Baby on New Knees, 2016, Digital image, 15” x 10”
“The title of the photography show is a play on words,” Wilkinson says. “In most of these pieces, the photographers are taking a humane look at humanity at large. Most of Ted Jones’s works are religious and spiritual in nature, and all of them are recent, having been created in just the last several years.” One of Middle Tennessee’s most prolific artists, Jones taught at Tennessee State University for over 34 years and was also a professor at Fisk University. Tall, wiry, and spectacled, Jones is known for a signature graphic style filled with rich detail and bold figurative elements. His Monthaven exhibit will include Fallen Brother, a striking block print showing a man on his knees, his crooked fingers clawing the air as if in agony. The show will also feature Immaculate Heart of Mary, a relief that calls to mind the religious icons of the Middle Ages.
Ted Jones, The Pentecost, 2015, Block print, 32” x 22”
About a dozen photographers will have their work on display in Humane Society. Some of the photographs take strong political stands. In his Liberation South Carolina, Wilkinson shows a celebratory scene of the Confederate flag being taken down from the state capitol. In Joyce Perkins’s Selma Now, an older African-American man holds up his fist in defiance on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, site of the “Bloody Sunday” attack on civil rights marchers in 1965. Other photos show the simple pleasures of American life. Duan Davis’s Boy Playing is an affecting black-and-white photograph of a child frolicking on a city street. Gale Clemons’s Baby on New Knees is an intimate portrait of domestic bliss. na These two major shows will fill five galleries at Monthaven Mansion, 1017 Antebellum Circle, Hendersonville. The exhibits run through March 2. For more information, please visit www.hendersonvillearts.org.
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Greg Ridley’s Influence Lives On by Peter Chawaga
Woodcuts Gallery through March 10
who has pulled about 20 pieces from the gallery and local collections for the exhibition. “He has a really interesting way of capturing people and expressing them.” One of the pieces to be exhibited, Ode to Chancellorsville, is a prime example of the Smyrna native’s fascination with history and his signature technique, in which the artist hammers a reverse relief on the back of a sheet of metal. It’s a method that Ridley passed down to many students, including local repoussé artist Jamaal Sheats, in a teaching career that lasted from 1951 until his death in 2004. “Mr. Ridley mentored many young artists, that was his thing,” says Sheats, the director and curator of Fisk University Galleries, a position once held by Ridley. “I once did a show in New York and found that there were four other artists, our age range was 60 years, and we had all studied under Greg Ridley. When you talk about his legacy and you talk about a footprint, he not only taught art. He taught us life skills. He would try to prepare us for the future.” And Ridley was a pioneer, the first person ever to receive a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Louisville and an African-American in the mid-century South who translated a personal interpretation of history into his work. “Mr. Ridley was strong-willed, he was a fighter, he was an advocate,” recalls Sheats. “He had a firm belief of what was right and what was wrong and his work exemplifies that. Certain pieces, you can look at and see that they are beautiful, but there’s also another layer of information, some social commentary that is there.”
Untitled, 2002, Copper repoussé, 12” x 9”
S
As a nod to Ridley’s influence, the exhibition is being held as part of the Jefferson Street Art Crawl, promoting the work of artists in an area that has historically been a hub for Nashville’s African-American community. It is the chance to demonstrate that Ridley is very much alive in his work and the numerous lives he influenced.
ome of those who have passed continue to live through their work, in contributions vibrant and alive as the maker ever was. Some live on through the connections they’ve made with those still here, memories that persist in beating hearts. And even more still live on in the history books, the trails they blazed trod by others. Greg Ridley, a pioneering artist and professor whose work will appear at Woodcuts Gallery & Framing in a new exhibition, lives on in all of these ways. He was a prolific artist, working in many media, but possibly best remembered for his 80-panel repoussé depictions of Nashville’s history housed at the public library.
“I thought it was great to have a Black History Month exhibit that had a really strong historical context,” says Booker of the show. “Mr. Ridley is such a big part of the history of the area and Fisk and Jefferson Street, and so many people personally had a link to him. There are incredible historical black figures that are walking right down the street next to you. This show is highlighting the history that is right now.” na
“He worked primarily in copper repoussé, but he also did a lot of painting and a lot of sketching and we have a lot of his other works too,” says Omari Booker, the curator at Woodcuts,
Ridley’s work is on view at Woodcuts Gallery & Framing, 1613 Jefferson Street, until March 10. Nashville Arts will be hosting an art talk there at 6 p.m. on February 17. For more information, please visit www.woodcutsfineartgallery.com.
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19th and 20th Century American and European Paintings and Sculpture
Charles Clair, French, 1860-1930, The Shepherdess, oil on canvas, 46 1/2 x 36 1/2 inches Framed: 53 x 42 1/2 inches, Signed and dated 1909 lower left 6608A Highway 100 • Nashville, TN 37205 • 615.352.5050 • www.stanfordfineart.com
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HATCH-ed
by Megan Kelley
Hatch Show Print’s Iconic Impression upon Four Artists Belcourt Theatre through March 1
Fat Crow Press, Girl with Rooster, Linocut
Crowing Hens Bindery, Magnolia grandiflora, Hand colored letterpress printed linocut
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panning a historic tradition of mentor and artist, HATCH-ed is an exhibition of printmaking curated by Jason Brown for the Belcourt Theatre, featuring master printmaker Jim Sherraden alongside three Hatch Show Print alumni, Julie Sola of Fat Crow Press, Mary Sullivan of Crowing Hens Bindery, and Bryce McCloud of Isle of Printing. Sherraden’s work forms the crux of the exhibit, showcasing an artistic timeline of influence that ripples outward from his time at Hatch Show Print and through the three other artists who have worked under his wing. Brown has chosen iconic works from each of the master printmaker’s decades of making, weaving Scandinavian and Cuban influences through his unique and personal markmaking, balanced beside the firm grasp of letterpress technique that has reinvigorated Hatch Show Print.
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In each artist, the imprint of their time at Hatch is visible and yet vocalizes their own particular styles. The exhibition ripples with both legacy and possibility.
These traits echo in the work of Sola, Sullivan, and McCloud, as each artist amplifies certain visual tendencies reflected in the mentorship of Hatch and Sherraden. Sola’s prints echo the bright colors and bold compositions familiar to Hatch’s aesthetic, and Sullivan often handcolors the negative space within her controlled markmaking, adding a range of expression to the sensitive, detailed botanicals.
Isle of Printing, Linocut / letterpress print
Often described as a “training ground” for printmakers who come to study under a 138-year legacy of letterpress, Hatch Show Print is known for its instantly recognizable forms. Bold carvings showcase the clean composition of letterpress while also embracing visual texture, heritage aesthetics, and bright colors. Sherraden’s work pulls from this language while writing it in his own hand. His work is often handcolored after printing, working bright color through the organic visuals of handpainted strokes. His marks—in contrast to Hatch’s clean edges and commercial lines—thrive on their rough, frenetic energy, translating the movement of the artist into the carving knife and the inconsistencies of wood. In the crown jewel of the exhibition, #20 Paper Quilt, elements of Sherraden’s woodblock prints are quilted, forming one vast visual example of what print can achieve when used as a jumping-off point for conceptual exploration.
McCloud’s work, too, takes on this element of physical artifact: his Bryce Bux were distributed and then redeemed for barter goods such as postcards, hugs, or recipes, and his commercial series capture the clean aesthetics of advertising. Like Sherraden and Sola, McCloud’s works amplify the power of negative space amid busy linework, creating iconic spaces. Like Sullivan, he brings a contemporary perspective to traditions of visual narrative. In each artist, the imprint of their time at Hatch is visible and yet vocalizes their own particular styles. The exhibition ripples with both legacy and possibility. na View HATCH-ed through March 1 at the Belcourt Theatre. For business hours and for information about an artist talk by Jim Sherraden, visit www.belcourt.org. View more of the artists’ work online at www.jimsherraden.com; at www.fatcrowpress.com; at www.crowinghensbindery.com; and at www.isleofprinting.com.
Jim Sherraden, # 20 Paper Quilt, Woodblock print and watercolor
Where Sullivan engages markmaking with the precise hand of the old masters—her Wyandotte demonstrates her skill through breathtakingly miniscule, uniform letters and ornaments—Sola’s work reflects the intensity of mark found in Sherraden’s aesthetic. Sola’s figures are expressed in rounded, hatched lines, their features scratched through the linocut with dynamic energy. In her Linocut Lamp, Sola’s work breaks from the page and transforms into three dimensions, pushing the intention of print into the realm of the sculptural.
HISTORY EMBR ACING A RT
202 2nd Ave. South, Franklin, TN 37064 26• www.gallery202art.com nashvillearts.com
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615-472-1134
Photograph by Jeremy Cowart
jeremyCOWART
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GATLINBURG CALLING
n November 23, 2016, a fire started along the Chimney Tops 2 that would eventually spread throughout Gatlinburg and become the worst fire in Tennessee in the last 100 years. The fire claimed 14 lives and destroyed over 2,000 homes and businesses. As the devastation became apparent, Nashville-based photographer Jeremy Cowart had an idea to use his camera to bring healing and awareness to those whose lives would forever be touched by this tragedy. With a volunteer crew Cowart photographed families on a white mattress contrasted by the dark rubble of their destroyed homes. The photographs were taken using a camera attached to a drone. The following powerful images, along with many others, showed the world the magnitude of the devastation, and yet within each there is hope, compassion, and resolution. You can see more of the images at www.voicesofgatlinburg.com. Please visit the GIVE section on the site if you would like to donate to a particular family. Our sincere thanks to Jeremy Cowart for creating this important and sensitive body of work. For more information, visit www.jeremycowart.com and www.voicesofgburg.com.
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Mayor Mike Werner
I am so thankful for the strength and peace that the Lord has given me. I continue to ask for wisdom in the healing and recovery period. My family is amazing and comforting to me and I am so fortunate to have them. Better days are ahead for all of us. I am not surprised by the love and actions of the people of this area they are the reason this place is so special. We thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and donations. Right now, the best thing you can do is make plans to come back to Gatlinburg.
If you would like to help those who were affected by the wildfires, please visit www.mountaintough.org
Claudia López An American neighbor came knocking on my door telling me you need to get out and get your kids out. He repeated that over and over until he finally got me to understand it wasn’t safe for me and my family. We left Gatlinburg at 5pm. It was so hard to breathe. I desperately need a permanent home. I go out daily trying to find something better and I haven’t had much luck. Last night I was staying at the shelter. I’m a single mom struggling to stay strong for my babies and find us a home. I need a place where I can feel secure for me and my two babies. We won’t be able to have a Christmas.
Well, it’s a long story how we got out. We barely did. We were trapped by trees and fire was all around us. Our power was out, and when it got dark we could see fire all over Wiley Oakley. We looked down at Westgate, and saw it catching. Then we got in my mom’s SUV with the two kids, one is 9 months, and the other one is 8 years old. We couldn’t back out because of trees down. We got the kids out and came back in. Once we came back in, we called 911. On the third time of calling them, they answered. After talking to them I knew they were inundated with calls, so I was afraid they wouldn’t get to us.
Christen Salter
Down the road I saw someone chainsawing trees down. I ran down there, and asked him if he could help us. He was helping someone up the road get out. So I asked him if, when he was done, he would come help us. About 15 minutes passed, and we were seeing the fire grow. People were calling us, and asking if we were getting out, but we were trapped. He came back and started chainsawing, and as soon as he was done, we got into my dads old truck. Me, myself, the kids, my mom, and the other pets. Dad stayed behind. The police later retrieved him, and made him evacuate shortly after. By the time we got to the bottom of our hill, two houses behind Westgate, fire was all around. We were directed out of Gatlinburg, into Pigeon Forge, in the other lane on the spur. We could feel the fire all the way in the truck. Smoke was everywhere. We have never been so happy to breathe fresh air. That night we stayed at my cousins. What we miss the most: our family heirlooms. And our pictures. We also miss the comfort of our home. We are grateful for everyone’s help but we certainly miss our home.
Kirk Fleta My name is Kirk Fleta and I grew up on a 3,200 acre watershed called Norton Creek. My father, after many years, lost it after being distraught from the death of my mother when I was 11. My brother, sister and I were each given one acre and I managed to hold on to mine despite good offers. It’s been my dream to build a stone house since I was a kid. I’ve been working on it for years one step at a time doing all the work myself with some help from dear friends of mine. It’s a creative process so I love it. What I had built thus far was a work of art using solid Oak and Eastern Cedar. It was just a two-story shed, 720sqft, but it was beautiful. Now I am standing in its ashes wondering why me. But it wasn’t just me, it was my whole town. None of us saw it coming. It was the perfect firestorm. The recent drought lasted for months with layers upon layers of leaves from numerous fall seasons just waiting for a spark. As misfortune would have it two mischievious teenagers would spark it with matches and local record breaking winds preceding an oncoming storm would fuel the fire. Now it’s time to rebuild putting all regret and disappointment behind us. My best friend tells me turn tragedy into Triumph but that is my instinct anyway and that’s the way I roll. Thousands literally have reached out to me with assistance and I’m grateful and honored to have such wonderful friends and family out there in the world. This tragedy has reinstated my faith in mankind. I’ve always been one to prefer giving over receiving, so as I get back up on my feet I will boomerang all of this love and compassion right back to my home community so that we all can rise up stronger and better than ever before! It’s time to shine like the sun and make the world a better place!
YOON’S
YOON’S STAGGERINGLY STAGGERINGLY COMPLEX COMPLEX WALL WALL DRAWINGS...ARE DRAWINGS... BOTHARE CAPTIVATING BOTH CAPTIVATING AND AND AWE-INSPIRING. AWE-INSPIRING. - DEXTER WIMBERLY, INDEPENDANT CURATOR - DEXTER WIMBERLY, INDEPENDENT CURATOR
FEBRUARY 9 – MARCH 18
HEESEOP YOON HIDE & SEEK Visual artist Heeseop Yoon explores the fleeting nature of modern
consumerism through the intricate detail of her towering landscapes. Inspired by photographs of everyday objects–jumbled, piled, stacked and discarded–Yoon creates a unique collage that blends and transforms the original images into a drawing of interconnected lines. OZARTSNASHVILLE.ORG
nashvilleGEMS
by Karen Parr-Moody
Six Local Jewelry Designers Who Want to Make You Look Good
G
old and silver lend handcrafted jewelry a
warm glow, and the creative hands of designers imbue it with soul. Such jewelry is the remedy for the winter blues and is the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day. Nashville is home to many fine jewelry designers; here are six who
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
caught our attention.
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28 carat emerald in platinum with diamonds
Gondwanaland Gems & Jewelry Private Jewelry Consultant Contact Wayne Roland Brown 615-308-9349 www.gondwanalandopals.com
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
Jackie Hicks
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It seemed like a crime not to resurrect that beautiful piece and wear it some way
Jackie Hicks Costume jewelry was popularized by French fashion designer Coco Chanel and her Italian contemporary Elsa Schiaparelli during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1924 Chanel began pushing this craze for “vrais bijoux en toc,” or costume jewelry that looks real. Other jewelry designers followed, including Miriam Haskell, Weiss Jewelry, and Eisenberg & Sons. These are the very names that jewelry designer Jackie Hicks adores today and whose jewelry she repurposes to create “eye candy,” statement necklaces made in bold silhouettes such as Maltese crosses, as well as daring cuffs. “You need to honor those pieces by bringing them up to date so you can wear them,” she says. Her craft began eight years ago at an estate sale where she found a single vintage clip earring. “It seemed like a crime not to resurrect that beautiful piece and wear it some way,” she says of her initial inspiration. Hicks was soon searching flea markets and antique shops for more vintage pieces and parlaying them into one-of-a-kind pieces. Her muse is Iris Apfel, the 95-year-old fashion icon known for wearing over-the-top statement jewelry. “I so identify with her,” Hicks says. “Anything that is exuberant or makes a statement or is slightly humorous, I like it. Something with an attitude.” Attitude is on full display through Hicks’s jewelry. “If you’re going to wear something, wear something unique and thoughtful,” she says. “Don’t wear something that just anybody could throw on.” Jackie Hicks can be contacted via email at jjhicks225@ comcast.net. Her jewelry line is also carried at the Belle Meade Shoppes. Photography by Jerry Atnip
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Bela Begonias
Photograph by Thomas Wilson
Bethany Wilson
Jewelry designer Bethany Wilson’s work is informed by the mountains and beaches of this gorgeous planet. She has been lucky enough to travel extensively—throughout Central America, Italy, and Spain, to name a few spots—and she credits her aesthetic to what she has seen. “I’m really drawn to the mountains contrasting with the ocean,” she says. “So teal and aqua and turquoise—all shades of green—those are my favorite colors that you’ll see pop up again and again.” Her most popular piece right now is a jade pendant that has been “dipped” in copper or gold. “The gold dipping is unique about what I do,” she says. “It sounds easy, but that is not the case at all.” To make a stone look dipped in metal requires what Wilson calls her “self-taught chemistry degree.” After much trial and error, she discovered a way to electroform metal onto various stones, arrowheads, and rock crystals.
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I’m really drawn to the mountains contrasting with the ocean. So teal and aqua and turquoise—all shades of green—those are my favorite colors that you’ll see pop up again and again.
Wilson formally studied ceramics, photography, interior design, and fashion design, but is a self-taught jewelry maker. Still, when it came to choosing a career, she says, “The stigma of a starving artist seemed very real to me.” Her husband ultimately convinced her to jump, feet first, into creating a jewelry business. She now sells in Nashville at Pieces in Germantown and at House Of, a Nashville Fashion Alliance store in the Belmont area. “All of my growth has been organic so far,” she says. “It’s surreal to me; it’s like a dream.” For more information, visit www.belabegonias.com.
Photograph by Kelsey Cherry
Photograph by Ridley Green
Suzanne Crook and Carolyn Greenfield
Carden Avenue If your jewelry is featured in Emerson Grace, the stylish boutique in 12South, then you have made it in the world of hip Nashville jewelry. It’s one of the best showcases in this fashionable city, and it’s where Carden Avenue’s diverse jewelry line bumps elbows with other beauties.
Then there is the inherent versatility of Carden Avenue. While The Statements offers show-stopping pieces, The Classics features designs for the less bold, such as dainty freshwater pearls and tiny semiprecious stones on fine chains. Leather, horn, and turquoise breathe life into The Naturals. “The blessing is that we have broad appeal,” Greenfield says. Carden Avenue also boasts layering pieces that can be dressed up or down, such as long strands of delicate beads. And some necklaces can be worn as a lariat, a belt, or a choker.
Photograph by Ridley Green
Crook says, “The one thing that excites me about our jewelry is that so many different people can wear something similar in nature and, depending on how they wear it, it reflects their style.” “We have some very creative customers,” Greenfield says. In addition to Emerson Grace, Carden Avenue is available at the Hermitage Hotel boutique and at www.cardenavenue.myshopify.com.
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Photograph by Ridley Green
Photograph by Ridley Green
Suzanne Crook and Carolyn Greenfield comprise the design duo behind Carden Avenue, a line that falls into three aesthetic categories: The Naturals, The Classics, and The Statements. Like magpies, Crook and Greenfield seek beautiful findings with which to feather their handmade line, from vintage coins to old bullets.
A L L
T H E
B E S T
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J E W E L RY
5 1 0 1 H a r d i n g R o a d N a s h v i l l e , Te n n e s s e e 3 7 2 0 5 6 1 5 . 3 5 3 . 1 8 2 3
Fine Art & Gifts by Olga Alexeeva & Local Artists
www.OGalleryArt.com
615-416-2537
Olga Alexeeva, artist and owner, is available for commissioned works for home and business Art classes by Olga are conducted weekly
Olga Alexeeva, Nashville Song, Acrylic, 30 x 40
FEATURED ARTIST Ron Paliotta Music and Heart Jewelry
Made in Spring Hill, TN • Patent pending 100% American made
Adjustable bracelets with music charms and earrings to match, by an Italian jewelry designer www.musicandheartjewelry.com
Open 7 Days a Week • Monday-Saturday 10-6 • Sunday 11-5 1305 Clinton St. Ste. 120 • Nashville, TN 37203
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
Jacki Holland
Jacki Holland Victorian mourning jewelry, medieval tapestries, African beadwork: These are a few inspirations behind Jacki Holland’s jewelry. The new-toNashville designer has also been a longtime collector of stones, horns, African trading beads, animal bones, and crystals. From this mélange of treasures, Holland creates her eponymous line in which strands of tiny crocheted beads are rendered lace-like, and rough-hewn stones look as fanciful as those plucked from a child’s rock collection. For seven years, Holland worked for a chic Chicago boutique, Robin Richman, as a fashion buyer, a job through which she traveled from New York to Paris. “I met incredibly talented designers and artisans along the way,” she says. “They taught me to always be true to oneself and one’s work and to only design what you love. Those experiences certainly opened my eyes and shaped the artist and designer I am today.” Like the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen, Holland’s ability to channel both the glamorous and gothic is remarkable. The color black is seen throughout, in matte chains, tourmaline beads, and silk ribbons with frayed edges. Even her colored stones veer into darkness, the garnets and moss agates emitting more black than color. Trends have no place here. Holland has created a line that is completely apart from fashion’s timeline. “I don’t have collections so much as one body of work that flows as a continual story,” Holland says. “I add new stones or try different stitches or beading techniques, but ultimately I always circle back.” Learn more at www.jackiholland.com.
Photography by Jerry Atnip
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Merry Beth Myrick
Photograph by Judith Hill Photography
Merry Beth Myrick Designs
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Myrick’s jewelry is imbued with an edgy elegance. It is easy to see that her heart is poured into her work.
There is an intimacy to forging jewelry by hand. The metal glows, sunrise-like, under the torch as the artisan—in this case, metalsmith Merry Beth Myrick—creates something one of a kind. Due to this method, each of Myrick’s works bears miniscule nuances. And when a mistake happens, Myrick views it through rose-colored glasses—because beauty can exist in imperfection. “I will ask myself, how can I make this mistake again,” Myrick says. “That is not a question most people ask themselves.” Myrick creates her line, Merry Beth Myrick Designs, from sheet metal or wire made of copper, brass, and sterling silver sourced entirely in the U.S. Then she hammers, saws, and uses an acetylene torch to create every last milligram, right down to the clasps and ear wires. Ethically sourced semiprecious stones are also in the mix. Myrick’s jewelry is imbued with an edgy elegance. It is easy to see that her heart is poured into her work, as with the collection Embrace, which was created during a threemonth period of soul searching. “It’s a collection of all of these raw feelings and emotions and accepting them all,” Myrick says. For the Embrace collection, Myrick used a technique called fold forming to wrap the metal, like fabric, around raw stones. “It’s almost like a pod, like the metal is hugging or securing the stones,” Myrick says. “Then it is wrapped in sterling silver wire. It’s almost warrior-esque.” Myrick’s work is sold at Batch in the Nashville Farmers’ Market, Upper Eastside Nashville, and Alegria, as well as at www.merrybethmyrickdesigns.com.
Photography by Jerry Atnip
Photograph by Hunter Armistead
Tania Smith
Crystal Gypsy Designs From Nashville, reaching the Karen Hill Tribes silversmiths in Thailand is no easy feat. But for Tania Smith, the silver beads the tribes make are vital to the originality of her jewelry line, Crystal Gypsy Designs. So off she globetrots. Her forays are revealed as she rattles off the sources, beyond Thailand, for her current collection’s amulets, gemstones, and beads: Tibet, India, Nepal, Turkey, and Egypt. “That’s why I call my company Crystal Gypsy,” Smith says. “Because I have these adventures; I go where no one goes. I meet people and I go on these journeys and sometimes, at the end of them, are these amazing gemstones and such. It’s a little Indiana Jones-ish.” Smith has long been in the music business as a keyboard player, but she jumped into jewelry design 15 years ago after purchasing an array of Tibetan amulets that were up to 100 years old. From these she created the Tibetan Collection, which is still available today. Semiprecious stones are also woven into the collection, as well as turquoise, Smith’s childhood favorite. And everything is handmade, whether by Smith or by artisans from around the world. “That’s what I love about my company,” she says. “I search for old pieces that have this rich story and history, then I make them into one-of-a kind pieces.” Crystal Gypsy Designs will be on view during a February 11 trunk show from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Paul LeQuire and Company gallery, which carries the line, www.paullequireandcompany.com. It can also be found at www.crystalgypsy.com.
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The Power of
allenDECUYPER & steveSIRLS
T
he historic house in the Richland-West End neighborhood dates to 1810 and is one of the oldest in the Nashville area. It is picture-postcard perfect, manicured but welcoming. The kind of place you drive by and wonder who lives in it and if you would ever get an invitation to dinner there. Inside, Allen and Steve, a dynamic duo by any definition and a couple for the past thirty-eight years, have built a home that is as refined as it is comfortable. Period furnishings and appointments blend seamlessly with local contemporary art. Both successful in their real estate and garden design careers, they are committed to community involvement and have hosted and chaired numerous fundraising activities that have benefitted our art and educational institutions. On a frozen January morning I sat with them and their two greyhounds by the crackling living room fire. Steve mentioned that Allen likes to cook and I, of course, mentioned that dinner invitation‌ na
Interview by Paul Polycarpou Photograph by Rory White
SS: How nice. Claire Armistead. She’s just made it all happen and holds her head up. She has it together, philanthropic, enjoys people . . .
What is your greatest extravagance? AD: Travel. We love France and go there often. SS: It’s really not that expensive to go. New York is more expensive. We just celebrated Allen’s sixtieth birthday in Paris with seventy-five friends. I also like to collect old hand-forged antique silver.
AD: And Martha Ingram, both strong women, strong leaders.
What’s on your bucket list? SS: To go to Japan and see the wonderful gardens there.
Who would you like to have a long conversation with? AD: Barack Obama. He has accomplished a great deal in the last eight years. I think he has been misunderstood and treated a little unfairly. He broke a lot of barriers.
SS: And Hillary, I’m not sure how all those misconceptions came about. A tremendous doer and believer in people.
What’s your idea of a perfect evening? AD: Dinner at the house with friends.
SS: He is the most intelligent on his feet speaker we’ve ever heard, certainly in my lifetime.
SS: For two or twenty-five. He loves to cook. A perfect evening for me is to go to the symphony. It’s a treat.
The last great book you read? SS: America’s First Daughter by Laura Kamoie and Stephanie Dray about Patsy Jefferson. I want to read it again.
How did you get involved in the Nashville art scene? SS: We were cast into the Nashville art scene early on because of people like Walt and Mary Schatz and Carol Stein. I was on the Nashville Cares board for many years, and Allen and I both chaired their silent auction. We also had all the thank-you parties for Artrageous here at the house. That exposed us to a lot of Nashville’s great artists.
Last good movie? AD: Funny Face. We showed it at our fundraiser for the Friends of Chantilly where part of the movie was filmed. What is your greatest achievement? SS: Allen’s greatest achievement is being kind to people who move to this cIty. He is an ambassador for Nashville, he’s the Pied Piper.
AD: Artists are always asked to donate their work to art auctions, and we wanted to do something that gave back to them.
AD: Dogs and children always come to me first.
So who are some of your favorite artists? AD: That’s so hard to do.
SS: When the Garden Club of Nashville elected our garden for the Archives of American Gardens in the Smithsonian. That was really an honor.
SS: One of mine is Anna Jaap. We have a lot of her work from different periods. And Kelley Estes, beautiful art and sculpture.
What talent would you most like to have? AD: I’d love to paint or draw.
How does Nashville stack up culturally to other major cities? SS: I think it’s more hidden. It’s here but you have to find it. It’s not in your face yet.
SS: Play the piano. I took lessons but didn’t have the brain for it.
AD: I think Nashville is surprising to people. I relocate many people to Nashville and I know they come with many preconceived notions of what this city is about, and they are always surprised by what they discover.
So what music do you like to listen to? SS: All of it. I love classical and standards. New and old music. AD: I’ve gone back to appreciating bluegrass. Parts of that really speak to me.
SS: One of the largest surprises is the Country Music Hall of Fame. We’ve introduced people from all over the world, and they all love it there.
What’s it like being you these days? AD: I’m really big on neighborhoods and preservation and community and the environment, and I won’t retire from that, ever.
AD: For a city this size we are so lucky to have a great symphony, opera, and ballet that are not on the endangered list.
SS: And I’m on the foundation board for the Historical Commission, and that is a new concern, preserving our history.
What do you think of the explosive growth of our city? SS: It will probably continue for a while longer. I do hope that all the young people who are moving here get involved with our communities and continue the philanthropic thrust that makes this a great city.
AD: I think we’ll always be involved in the community. If you live somewhere you have to be involved. What would surprise people to know about you two? SS: That we are both very private people. We attend so many functions, which is fine . . .
AD: This is a good time for Nashville. We haven’t been through big boom or bust cycles. And we’ve had four fabulous mayors that helped make that happen—Bredesen, Purcell, Dean, and Barry.
AD: But we like to be here at the house with our dogs. What would you grab if the house was burning down? AD: Each other!
A living person you most admire? AD: I think highly of Steve. 43
nashvillearts.com
Watkins Summer
ceramics • photography • comics • painting • & more!
art Camp 2017
week-long camps for ages 5-13 and teen workshops for ages 14-18 each week in June
More information and register at watkins.edu/community-education/ University School of Nashville usn.org/summer
USN
Summer Camps 2017
Caravaggio ‘n’ Me The Work of a Narrative Photographer
On February 6, Bill Gubbins’s first Nashville solo photography exhibit will open at Fido. We selected some of his images and asked him for thoughts on photography and his work.
Text and Photographs by Bill Gubbins
My ground zero has always been this: No matter what the subject matter, or how taken or viewed, every photograph is its own miracle; a fragment of the world, captured in a sliver of time. And though we obviously take photos for granted, the
Bill Gubbins
Photograph by Hunter Armistead
W
hile never a “photographer” in any conventional sense, I have furiously shot aspirational fine-art photos during sporadic periods lasting anywhere from six months to two years, and then just as furiously put the camera back to bed for as long as fifteen years. The most recent photo flurry began last August and has yielded the majority of the work shown here.
notion that one might be able to stop time and then freeze a small portion of it for future examination seemed not just impossible but actually unthinkable before photography’s invention almost 200 years ago. Looking at photographs has always been a critically important leisure-time activity for me. I get my kicks through my eyes. The photos of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander are clear inspirations and, in their honor, I’d like to offer three points of contextualization as you look at the following work. First, these photos aren’t of something, they’re about something. Second, each photo has a narrative flow that can be “read” like a prose piece or “watched” like a play. And third, I believe any photograph tells you far more about the photographer behind the camera than it does the subject in front of it. If someone’s “soul” is captured in a photo, it’s the photographer’s, not the subject’s.
Now add that all together and you get something akin to narrative photography. Of course, this is quite old-school in painting, where “narrative painting” has existed forever. There was even a specialized form of it back in the 1400s called “istoria” (also “historia”) whose guiding principles were paintings “crammed” with “skillfully modulated details” and “high-minded religious, mythological, and historical messages.” And, since none other than Caravaggio was a practicing istoriaist, we’re all in pretty good company. So these photos had better be pretty good, because if they aren’t . . . the Caravaggio comparison will be mighty embarrassing. na Wolf Up! is on view at Fido February 6 through April 6. For more information, visit www.bongojava.com/fido-cafe/.
Ah yes, two women appear to study each other, frozen, separated by time, space, culture, race; never to get closer, never to get further apart, a dichotomy never to be resolved. A metaphor perhaps for the act itself of looking at photographs?
I pick the stage and wait until the characters show up to see what the play’s going to be about. When the woman holding the flowers entered from the lower right I knew the protagonist had arrived. And, in a setting reminiscent of Intolerance’s “Fall of Babylon,” she appears to be heading to the giant glass throne on the left, as if preparing an offering to an unseen ruler—or god.
Captain Ahab (far left) walks away, Renee, while Ed “Kookie” Byrnes checks the pompadour one last time before his big scene. I don’t know about you, but this photo is so damn weird—joyously goofy, even—that it makes me glad to be alive.
This photo has been taken a million times before, but I don’t think this version is off-the-rails trite. Do you? And given it was shot from a car at 70+ mph, it’s not too shabby that the vertical line of the billboard and the vertical line of the building line up perfectly.
Call me old-fashioned, but I just can’t resist a big city mural for a nice illusion-versusreality shot. Of course, that the resulting photo is an illusion itself makes me the butt of my own joke. But I don’t take it personally.
Pure Gary Winogrand/Lee Friedlander homage, complete with their patented second-look ironic details. In this case, it’s the cross the statue is holding (behind the trees on the right), as if heavenly forgiveness is being sought for the naked Philadelphians on their annual birthday-suit bike ride. 48 nashvillearts.com
Best literary-form-to-photograph analogy? Prose? Poem? One-act play? Yes all, but don’t forget the ever-elliptical Japanese haiku. While the legendary Bashõ (1644-1694) might become bamboo-cane violent at this comparison, I think this photo proves the point.
Hallucinatory detail: OK, it’s not real, it’s just a big photo mural (but of what?—the back nine at Augusta?) but then why—in this otherwise hyper-real environment—is there an abstract-expressionist canvas on the table? With the word “amor” in it? (Sally Mann would never waste her time on drivel like this, would she?) 49 nashvillearts.com
MURPHY’S LAW Realism Subverted & Short Stories
Marilyn Murphy opens at Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery through March 3 Customs House Clarksville March 1–April 30
Words by John Pitcher Photograph by Rory White
M
arilyn Murphy’s spacious home, located in a leafy Nashville
neighborhood, may as well be an art gallery. Every wall in the house is covered with this beloved artist’s paintings and drawings, most of which depict delightfully playful collisions of reality and fantasy. In Murphy’s artworks, buildings, machines, and people are rendered with degrees of realism that seem photographic. Yet in these same works, Newton’s Law of Gravity invariably gives way to Murphy’s Law of Whimsy, with objects and people breaking free of their earthly tethers to float freely, and one assumes happily, in the sky. A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Murphy has been an art professor at Vanderbilt University since 1980. After 36 years on the job, Murphy will retire from Vanderbilt in August. The university is celebrating her notable career—her works have been shown in more than 300 exhibits worldwide—with an important show, Marilyn Murphy: Realism Subverted, which runs through March 3 at Vanderbilt University’s Fine Arts Gallery. On the eve of this exhibit, Nashville Arts Magazine caught up with Murphy to discuss her life and career.
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Marilyn Murphy
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Air and Dreams, 2008, Oil on canvas, 38” x 61”
JP:
What inspired you to become an artist? Did you discover art, or did art discover you?
MM: I wanted to be an artist from the time I was a little girl. My mother had a lot to do with it. She was extremely creative and always encouraged me. My own creativity helped me out in the fourth grade. I received an assignment to read 25 books and also had to write 25 reports. I quickly found that I could write a shorter book report if I did a nice drawing with it. I probably spent more time on the drawings than the other kids did on the book reports. I knew at that point I’d be an artist. JP:
I’ve noticed many of your drawings have a narrative flair. Does that stem from the book report experience?
MM: Actually, I never thought of that before. That’s an excellent observation. I love narrative. I love books, fiction as well as nonfiction. Also, I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which has a lot of Frederic Remington’s art. Many of his paintings and drawings were developed for books and illustrations. They all told a story, and I learned to love that kind of art early on. JP:
You arrived at Vanderbilt University in 1980. How has the university changed over the years?
MM: It was a wonderful place from the beginning, but it had a very homogenous student body. Fortunately, there was a real push in the late 80s early 90s to become more inclusive, economically, ethnically, and intellectually. Now it’s so diverse we have students from Europe, Asia, and from all across the United States. We all learn in a lot of different ways. Diversity gives us a considerably richer learning experience.
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Storm Chaser, 2013, Color pencil, 30” x 22”
JP:
How has Nashville’s art scene changed over the years?
MM: When I first came here I knew all five serious visual artists in Nashville. Now I don’t even know all the art crawls. It’s amazing. I think the opening of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts was the real turning point for the arts here. I was part of a community group called Nashville’s Agenda that came up with the idea for the Frist Center. Our leaders in the community were saying back in the 1980s and early 1990s that Nashville was about to explode in the arts. Turns out they were right. JP:
You grew up in the Southern Plains and have spent most of your adult life working in the South. Have these locations influenced your work
MM: You see the action of the wind and the movement of clouds in some of my works, and that probably has to do with my growing up in the Plains. Another place that has influenced my work is Australia. In Queensland, big fires are set during the sugar cane harvest, and I’ve tried to capture the essence of those fires. When I was a kid, my mother took my brother and me to factory open houses, which I found fascinating. So in my early works I started drawing factories and other images of power. Later I moved from images of power to images of the ephemeral, like wind and clouds.
Intermission, 2016, Oil on canvas, 40” x 30”
JP: The writer Peter Frank once referred to your work as “lucid dreaming.” Is that an apt description, and if so, how do dreams inform your works? MM: I love surrealism, though I’m not a full-fledged member. I think it’s true that my works include a curious juxtaposition of images that you might find in dreams.
Lychee, 1989, Color pencil, 25” x 38”
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Cane Fire, 1989, Graphite,19” x 25”
The Trade, 2014, Graphite, 38” x 44”
“
I always tell students to find a medium that compels them, because there will come a time when you don’t have an idea. But if you have a medium, you’ll experiment and new ideas will flow.
Popular Science, 2005, Graphite, 30” x 22”
Studying Vincent and the Mystery of Vision, 1991, Graphite, 25” x 19”
The Plumper, 2011, Graphite, 22” x 30”
JP:
I often think of you as the Gabriel García Márquez of painters, since you seem to have embraced that novelist’s love of magical realism. How did you develop your approach to visual storytelling?
come to my studio and provide insightful critiques of my works. Other artists I love include Caravaggio, Vermeer, Van Eyck, Kehinde Wiley, Dorothea Tanning, Lee Bontecou, and Audrey Flack.
MM: It probably comes from my love of novels and film noir. I want my work to look like a film still. That way it’s up to you as the viewer to figure out what is going on. There’s realism in this approach, but also a lot of surprise. JP:
JP:
MM: I always tell students to find a medium that compels them, because there will come a time when you don’t have an idea. But if you have a medium, you’ll experiment and new ideas will flow.
What attracted you to drawing and painting?
MM: I always loved to draw. It’s so immediate. I especially love the pull of a pencil point across the surface of paper. Before going to graduate school, I did try other things, like animation, ceramics, and printmaking. I even made crazy hats. But in the end I just loved 2-D, and I never felt like I needed to make installations or anything else. Though one day I might do some short animated films. JP:
Any advice for up-and-coming artists?
JP:
You are retiring after 37 years as Professor of Art at Vanderbilt. What do you plan to do with your time?
MM: I plan to be happy as a clam in my studio. I’m also looking forward to doing more traveling, spending time with friends, and reading. na Marilyn Murphy: Realism Subverted runs through March 3 at Vanderbilt University’s Fine Arts Gallery. For more information, please visit www.vanderbilt.edu/gallery. From March 1 through April 30, Customs House Museum in Clarksville will show Murphy’s work in the exhibit Marilyn Murphy: Short Stories with a reception slated for March 9 from 5 to 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.customshousemuseum.org. See more of Murphy’s work at www.marilynmurphy.com. Murphy is represented by Cumberland Gallery, www.cumberlandgallery.com.
Who are your favorite artists?
MM: Some of my favorite artists are Nashvillians like Barry Buxkamper, Ron Porter, Bob Durham, and Jane Braddock. I’ll often get together with Barry and Ron to go to a gallery opening or to the Frist. They’ll also
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Twilight Engineer, 2010, 30 x 22 inches, colored pencil and pastel on paper
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Marilyn Murphy: Realism Subverted Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery Through March 3 1220 21st Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203
Two Converging Paths into History Noah Saterstrom’s Shubuta and Other Stories at Julia Martin Gallery
In Times of War, Oil on linen, 48” x 60”
by Jochen Wierich
A
ccording to the art historian Lisa Saltzman, contemporary art from Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial to Kara Walker’s silhouette cutouts is an accumulation of sites of memory. Digging through these sites of memory, artists follow the shadows and footprints left by historic trauma.
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“
Unlike history painters of previous centuries, Saterstrom is not a storyteller who happens to use painting as his medium. His painting practice ventures into territory where personal narrative and memory collide with the history of slavery and Jim Crow in the Deep South.
Samuel Dunson, Antebellum, Oil on canvas, 48”x 60”, painted in response to Noah Saterstrom’s In Times of War
While researching artists from Mississippi for an upcoming exhibition organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art, I encountered Saterstrom’s multi-panel painting Natchez Bluff when it was exhibited at the Historic Natchez Foundation. In a frieze of seventeen small paintings, Saterstrom struggled
For artist Noah Saterstrom, historic trauma is a family affair. His recent body of work takes us to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. His grandparents’ home was on the Natchez Bluff, where one can still enjoy a view of the Mississippi River while sitting on the porch of a mansion.
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with the challenge of representing the history of Natchez outside the narrative framework of aristocratic nostalgia.
Sunken Trace, Oil on canvas, 24” x 36”
Unlike history painters of previous centuries, Saterstrom is not a storyteller who happens to use painting as his medium. His painting practice ventures into territory where personal narrative and memory collide with the history of slavery and Jim Crow in the Deep South. In researching his ancestors in antebellum Natchez, Saterstrom discovered that one side of the family openly advocated for the abolition of slavery while another side owned thousands of slaves. In Saterstrom’s canvases, this family history is woven into an ever-widening inquiry into the American historic crucible: the French and Spanish colonizers, the Natchez Indians virtually wiped out by the French, Natchez planters who wanted to remain in the Union, the African-American Union soldiers who came to occupy Natchez, and so on. In the history of American painting, Saterstrom found inspiration in the work of Philip Guston. Like Guston, Saterstrom seeks to express in painting the darker side of history with canvases that conjure the traces of human pain and suffering.
Bridge, Oil on canvas, 24” x 30”
Saterstrom graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, and he is very familiar with the history of European art. In his work, one can easily draw analogies with Goya, Daumier, and Delacroix, artists who created graphic images of war atrocities, although the violence in Saterstrom’s work is more subdued. It is implied but rarely bubbles to the surface. If Guston and others sought to find a painterly way to draw and paint that which is unspeakable, Saterstrom is stuck in a different kind of dilemma. The very family stories that feed his imagination are also what serves him as a reminder of his own limitation as an unreliable narrator—which makes his paintings more compelling. In the exhibition Shubuta and Other Stories at Julia Martin Gallery, Saterstrom presents a new body of work that tackles a gripping family story. During the Union occupation of Natchez, one male family member was accused of spying for the Confederacy and had to go into hiding. His pregnant wife, her son, and his nurse and caretaker, a female slave named Emeline, left Natchez for the town of Shubuta. The wife lost her baby on the way. The visitor first encounters this story in a long, frieze-like panel portraying a non-linear narrative somewhere between myth, memory, and dream. The bedridden mother is visible on the right side of the painting lying in a cart with a bloodstained cloth between her legs. Other, smaller paintings reference the slave-owning family mostly through ghost-like presences of ancestors/masters and slaves.
Cutting Bayonets, Oil on canvas, 18” x 24”
Bed Barges, Oil on canvas, 30” x 40”
Road to Shubuta, Oil on canvas, 48” x 96”
“
…Saterstrom seeks to express in painting the darker side of history with canvases that conjure the traces of human pain and suffering.
Boys Will Be, Ink on paper, 22” x 18”
Renting William, Ink on paper, 18” x 22”
Child Version of Child, Ink on paper, 12” x 15”
Christmas 1879, Ink on paper, 18” x 22”
Upon entering another room in the gallery, the visitor encounters a provocative and unsettling pair of paintings. On one side is Saterstrom’s In Times of War, a depiction of the mother after her miscarriage taking shelter at a plantation when her breasts became engorged. To give her engorged breasts relief from excruciating pain, slaves gave her two puppies. Next to it is a painting by the Rymer Gallery artist Sam Dunson. When Dunson and Saterstrom met at Julia Martin Gallery, they engaged in a discussion about race and representation that inspired the idea of an artistic call-and-response. Says Julia Martin: “Days after this conversation is when it occurred to me to invite Sam Dunson to make a response piece to In Times of War. He and Noah both enthusiastically agreed to this exchange.” Dunson, who only briefly saw In Times of War, returned to his studio and channeled his response into a painting that visually enacts sheer terror and takes its title from a dictionary: “antebellum /an-tee-bel-uh-m/ adj. before or existing before a war, especially the American Civil War; prewar.” Dunson’s painting turns the antebellum plantation romance into a nightmare, a disturbing scene of violence and power abuse, that stands in the best artistic tradition of making truths evident through caricature. However, if Kara Walker’s black silhouettes of plantation perversity and pain remain specters from the past, Dunson’s high-energy painting makes the plantation a phantasmagoric reality. During one of my meetings with Noah Saterstrom, he reminded me of Pliny the Elder’s legend about the Corinthian maid and the origin of painting. According to the legend, the young woman drew the outlines of her lover’s face onto a wall projected by candlelight right before he left for war. The young man never returned, but his shadow on the wall remained. The story reminds us that in the history of painting there is a fundamental correlation between trace and memory. While they are very different painters and storytellers, both Saterstrom and Dunson fill the void left by history’s absence with a fervent imagination and the desire to know. na Shubuta and Other Stories by Noah Saterstrom with works from Sam Dunson is on view at Julia Martin Gallery through February 15. For more information, visit www.juliamartingallery.com. See more of Saterstrom’s work at www.noahsaterstrom.com. To see more of Sam Dunson’s work, go to www.therymergallery.com.
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Stop Me Feeling Claire Morgan’s Meditations on Man and Nature Frist Center for the Visual Arts
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February 10–May 7
If you go down to the woods, 2014, Muntjac (taxidermy), butterflies, torn polythene, nylon, and lead, 118” x 118” x 99”
“
The best art introduces us to new perspectives—on ourselves and the world we live in. Often it is beautiful, but always it is arresting, luring you into pausing and looking intently and thereby seeing the world a bit differently, too. 64 nashvillearts.com
by Margaret F. M. Walker
C
laire Morgan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and lives and works in the north of England. Trained as a sculptor, she has exhibited across the United Kingdom and Europe, and her February exhibition at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, titled Stop Me Feeling, is her inaugural solo show in the United States. Her artwork is a meditation on interactions of the animals and plants of the natural world with humans and the built environment. She explores the varied materiality of these dissimilar worlds and the futility of man’s attempts to control natural processes of life and death. Morgan’s signature works are fragile and intricate installations in which thousands of organic and inorganic materials hang from thousands of threads. These are created with painstaking craftsmanship. Trinita Kennedy, the exhibition’s curator at the Frist, describes her work as “very impressive from a technical view.” A video within the exhibition elaborates on the process and planning that go into her artworks. Morgan intentionally separates elements that are normally clustered in nature—flies, dandelion fuzz, trash particles. Yet, when taken as a whole, these sculptures create the illusion of a solid structure and an intricately woven web. Animals are central to her practice, particularly the animals found in city settings: deer, foxes, birds, rodents, insects. The artist does her own taxidermy, and it is from this process that her works on paper stem. These are gestural and spontaneous, a creative converse to her meticulous, mathematical approach to sculpture.
The Air that We Breathe, 2014, Pencil, watercolor, and traces of taxidermy on paper, 30” x 22”
It is most appropriate that Morgan’s first solo exhibition in the United States would be in Music City. Her poetic titles are often inspired by song lyrics; even the title of the exhibition, Stop Me Feeling has its roots in a Trent Reznor song made famous by Johnny Cash. The artist states that her work is intended to have no exact message but rather is an invitation into the things that she ponders. Reflecting on the title of this exhibition, she wrote “This interests me—our shared experience that in art, and particularly in music, prevails over an individual’s situation. We are all intricately connected in ways we may not expect.” This idea is manifested in her sculptures both physically and conceptually. Of the three sculptures in Stop Me Feeling, two are smaller cabinet pieces with birds as their central element. Within You Without You features a small dunnock almost hidden among a dense installation of brightly colored torn polythene. Morgan is fascinated by the persistence of nature to exist among the brick and concrete of particularly rundown environments, noting how plants will grow in any crack or crevice. In Cluster**** a stuffed carrion crow is suspended among flower seeds, leaves, and insects. It dominates the scene, causing us to think about the place of this least-loved of birds in our midst. The apparent randomness of colors and materials surrounding it, as well as the title itself, point to the chaos of nature, though it is ironic given Morgan’s acute precision.
Within You Without You, 2015, Dunnock (taxidermy), torn colored polythene, nylon, and glass, 29” x 24” x 24”
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Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds, 2016, Triptych: taxidermy residues, salt, graphite, and mixed media on paper on canvas, 55” x 89 “
The exhibition also includes several works on paper that include taxidermical residue. Using traces of this process and her notations as a starting point, Morgan then incorporates elements in graphite, watercolor, and mixed media. The resulting works, while wholly different from her sculptures, offer a new way for viewers to approach the issues that she finds so intriguing. The best art introduces us to new perspectives—on ourselves and the world we live in. Often it is beautiful, but always it is arresting, luring you into pausing and looking intently and thereby seeing the world a bit differently, too. Take a minute to do this with Claire Morgan’s work at the Frist. Zoom into one of her thousands of details and see how very different it seems when taken as part of a cohesive whole, for therein lies one of her methods of opening our eyes to some of the tensions and connections of the world in which we live. na Claire Morgan’s exhibit Stop Me Feeling opens at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts on February 10 and remains on view through May 7. For more information, visit www.fristcenter.org. See more of Morgan’s work at www.claire-morgan.co.uk.
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Claire Morgan
Photograph by David Holbrook Photography_courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve
If you go down to the woods is a monumental installation. In it, butterflies and torn polythene in a single color have been applied to the sculpture’s strings to create three cleanly defined geometric planes in space. Wandering gently into the mix is a muntjac (a miniature deer). From a certain angle, the thousands of small orange pieces look simply like dust particles quivering in the light, but then the stark angles of the greater design bring back to mind the human effort to control our natural surroundings. Kennedy describes the artist’s sculptures as “an elaborate project” and continues by saying, “It amazes me how prolific she is, given how time intensive her work is.”
SECRETS OF
BUDDHIST ART Tibet, Japan, and Korea
919 BROADWAY DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE FRISTCENTER.ORG
February 10 through May 7, 2017
#BUDDHISMFCVA
This exhibition was organized by the Newark Museum. Platinum Sponsor
Supporting Sponsors
Hospitality Sponsor
Supported in part by the 2017 Frist Gala Nirvana and Mandala Society Patrons and
Attributed to Gyeju (flourished ca. 1680s). Seated Buddha, Korea, 17th century, Joseon Period (1392–1912). Wood, lacquer, gold, and rock
crystal. Newark Museum, Purchase 2013 Mr. and Mrs. William V. Griffin Fund, 2013.26
Woman with Pipe, Haiti, 1983
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Photograph by Tai Power Seeff
Dana Gluckstein with Komtsae Damo and Xixao Kxao, Botswana, 2009
danaGLUCKSTEIN DIGNITY: Tribes in Transition MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery through April 6
by Bob Doerschuk
T
here are at least two ways to look at DIGNITY: Tribes in Transition, the exhibition of Dana Gluckstein’s work on display through April 6 at MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery. You might marvel at the variety of people depicted in her travels throughout the world or her ability to use light to highlight features and suggest narratives. But that’s just the first step toward appreciating the greater cause that motivates her. “This show is not about people who are exotic and far away,” she insists. “It’s about how we heal.” Of course, to our eyes these images are exotic: a proud Masai warrior in Kenya, an aged medicinal healer in Haiti, a Balinese dancer perfectly postured, a pensive young woman in Bhutan. For all their diversity, they share something that Gluckstein believes the so-called developed world needs desperately.
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Samburu Women, Kenya, 1985
Masai Warrior Initiate, Kenya, 1985
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It was photography that moved Gluckstein to think differently about the world and its inhabitants.
Himba Girl with Braids, 2007
Young Woman, Bhutan, 2010 70 nashvillearts.com
Aboriginal Artist, Australia, 1989
dedicated herself to photography full time.
“Indigenous peoples live close to the earth,” she explains. “We’re far removed from it. We walk into a supermarket and we seem to have abundance, so it takes us longer to realize the devastation happening on our planet.”
It took little time for her to build a strong corporate clientele in San Francisco. “I shot a campaign for Toyota,” she recalls. “We spent three days walking around Santa Monica, finding people and creating portraits. The campaign ran in many magazines and even in Times Square. It was wonderful because it was based on 100 images of people, showing their connectedness as one in humanity.”
It was photography that moved Gluckstein to think differently about the world and its inhabitants. People had always fascinated her—that’s why she majored in psychology at Stanford University. And she had been artistically creative since childhood. Still, she might never have found a higher purpose to her work had it not been for the six months she spent in Florence, Italy, during her junior year. Enamored with the city’s natural light, she reconsidered her priorities and, after graduating from Stanford,
Gluckstein moved on to doing portraits of internationally renowned public figures—Muhammad Ali, Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev. In every session she sought her subject’s
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essence. After a while, her mission began to center on indigenous peoples in remote places. The stories in their eyes informed and inspired her. Influential thinkers took notice and invited her to share what she had learned. In 2011 she spoke at the opening of the DIGNITY exhibit at the United Nations in Geneva. Two years later, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, she spoke on how art can improve the state of the world. Even as her impact grows internationally, Gluckstein insists that the key to positive change lies in the hands of each individual. “The image of the Hawaiian chanter in my exhibit is very important to me,” she says. “She symbolizes the sorrow of what has happened to indigenous peoples across the planet and through time. She’s issuing a wakeup call. We all have to listen deeply.” To support indigenous rights in the United States, contact www.amnestyusa.org and www.earthjustice.org. na DIGNITY: Tribes in Transition is on display through April 6 at MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery. An artist talk and book signing with Dana Gluckstein is scheduled for February 9 at 7 p.m. in room 103 of MTSU’s Bragg Building. For more information, visit www.baldwinphotogallery.com. To see more of Gluckstein’s photography, visit www.danagluckstein.com.
Chanter, Hawaii, 1996 72 nashvillearts.com
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Convenient Ignorance, Acrylic on acrylic glass, 24” x 24”
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Mooney’s work is that of an artist processing her struggle within the confines of cultural expectations that control definitions of beauty, value, opportunities, respect, and success for women. 74 nashvillearts.com
by Sara Lee Burd
Denied Realities
While Exploring the Invisible Structures that Shape Society, Mary Mooney Confronts Beauty with Beauty Red Arrow Gallery
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February 11–March 5
Frivolous Biology, Acrylic on acrylic glass, 36” x 60”
I
n her upcoming solo exhibition at the Red Arrow Gallery, Mary Mooney claims the visual language of feminine beauty. She shakes up the message and uses it to subvert gendered power dynamics that promote set notions of femininity as weak and frivolous. She approaches the tension between beauty and seriousness in her art by creating works of aesthetic elegance and sincere investigation. That she uses colors, forms, and titles associated with feminine beauty to mediate a tough message about the relentless, destructive journey many woman find themselves on is an intentional paradox: “I want my art to appear beautiful, but I want it to have more substance below the surface. Storms and discontent. It’s sort of an experiment to see if something written in this language can be taken seriously.” Mooney’s art is rebellious, and her grounding in feminism adds gravitas to her work. The exhibition title, Denied Realities, comes from Mooney’s thinking of women as the original “other.” Mooney explains her series as an awakening to the idea that society is not naturally set up to advance women. Critiquing patriarchal society, Mooney realized, is not about putting down men; it is about being aware of everyday encounters we take for granted. Simply put, patriarchy relates to the fact that inheritance and family lines are passed through males. Serving these significant roles in society, the male voice takes authority and the position of women is accessory, and this power dynamic permeates family, religion, politics, law, and economic organization. Mooney explains, “Being a woman is different than other “others” because there isn’t a specific event that we can identify as the starting point. It is a legacy that extends beyond our cultural collective memory, which makes it difficult to define and harder to combat. Being secondary in a culture to the point that we don’t even recognize it as normal, it just IS.”
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Selective Visibility I, Acrylic on acrylic glass, 24” x 24”
The Only Way Out Is Through, Acrylic on acrylic glass, 24” x 24”
and is a reminder of when accomplishment moved away from being a good mother and counterpart of the nuclear family to having more roles in the working world. Good looks were key to entering and succeeding in the male-dominated professional world.
The visual artist explored her relationship with being a woman in contemporary society through books at first: The Beauty Myth, The Gender Knot, A Brief History of Misogyny, and We Were Feminists Once: The Buying and Selling of a Political Movement. Mooney says that while she read, “I saw so many problems that I had that subtly related.” Filled with confusion and anguish, the artist continues: “There is some power in realizing that this is all part of patriarchal culture and some hopelessness in that because it’s not going to change in a generation even in my lifetime. I’m 30 years old and I feel ill equipped to articulate or identify so many things that are just people responding to the type of culture we live in.”
Mooney creates artworks using squeegees, ceramic tools, and other rubbery ended objects, which she uses to blend and pull acrylic paint across thick sheets of acrylic glass. She elicits visual tension in her abstract artwork through juxtapositions of contrasting and complementary colors, light and dark hues, and soft and hard lines. Through intuitive movements, she layers the pigments to form dynamic compositions with interplay between atmosphere, visual balance, and depth.
Mooney’s work is that of an artist processing her struggle within the confines of cultural expectations that control definitions of beauty, value, opportunities, respect, and success for women. The cultural obsession with attractiveness presents a blend of inaccurate concepts that women must contend with: 1. Beauty can be objectively defined. 2. The result of interacting with beauty brings positive feelings. 3. It is a significant goal that should be pursued, and 4. It is something innately desirable and good. Mooney explains the absurdity of maintaining physical beauty as a standard for women: “One, it’s wholly unattainable—there is no finish line to that, and two, it’s something that is also really vapid.”
Some of her works include exclamations such as “NO”, “STOP”, or “F***” on the primary layer of her painting. She explains her subtle inclusion of words: “I like that they are hidden. The gold writing can be a visual element, but then there is also my presence, emphasizing my process of physically working behind a barrier building compositions with layers of acrylic paint.” The thought of coming up to the limit and working against it, for Mooney, is akin to the glass ceiling so many women seek to shatter. In Selective Visibilities for example, Mooney wrote the word “NO” but anyone seeing the painting would read “ON.” The relationship between the two vastly different terms made of the same two letters opens room for interpretation. From the artist’s side the expressively written word appears as a declaration, the impulse to begin a work about societal pressure regarding feminine beauty. From the outside “ON” could be read as a call to engage in continuous activity or whatever associations the viewer may have with the word.
To critique advancement of feminine beauty through her art, Mooney developed a visual plan that included creating a unique color palette that she calls “80s Rococo.” Turning to her studies in art history, Mooney selected her hues from the ultra-decorative, frivolous, and saccharine schemes of Rococo art that dominated late-18th-century Parisian upper-class culture. The 1980s appealed to Mooney because it was the time of her mother’s coming of age
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Subtle Battles (detail), Acrylic on acrylic glass, 30” x 40”
Advertisements for beauty products claiming things like light and radiance have created persistent visual tropes of femininity. Mooney’s titles communicate her concerns with the commodification of beauty. They include terms that call out ideals of physical appearance such as Radiant Light and also statements associated with struggle against dominant culture such as Subtle Battles, The Only Way Out Is Through, and Convenient Ignorance. For her solo exhibition, Mooney is including an interactive installation above the gallery’s staircase. Plexiglas sheets suspended from the ceiling illuminate once a group of people arrive at a particular step along the path to the second floor. That a critical mass of bodies is required to make change and progress upward is a metaphor for the way Mooney understands the history and the future of women struggling for understanding and equal rights.
Mary Mooney’s Denied Realities opens on February 11, 2017, at the Red Arrow Gallery. Sara Lee Burd will host a conversation with the artist live at the gallery on Thursday, February 23. For more information, visit www.theredarrowgallery.com.
Mary Mooney in her studio
Photograph by Angela Marshall
Mooney’s art is part testimonial, part social critique, but she is not trying to make political statements. “There are so many charged words like patriarchy and feminism, and I don’t want people to get lost in those terms. These paintings are really just a way for me to process my understanding of the world, and it is my hope it will encourage others to do the same.” na
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HENRY RASMUSSEN The Beckomberga Mask Series
Energy Series, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48”
MADDIN COREY
Scarred Adultress (Acid Justice, Bangladesh) 2015, Acrylic, 61 x 49 inches
Artist Discussion February 1st at 6 PM Exhibition through April 14th Galerie Tangerine is free and open by appointment Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Inquiries may be directed to Annette Griffin 615 454.4103 x 200 www.galerietangerine.com
Artichoke, Oil on canvas, 36” x 36”
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ARTS&BUSINESSCOUNCIL
BY SUZANNE KESSLER
— Sunday Mirror
Fair Enough This article, the last in a series exploring the fair use doctrine and the visual arts, continues looking at “transformative” use, related to the first fair use factor—the purpose and character of the use—and the three other fair use factors all considered when determining if an artist’s appropriation of pre-existing copyrighted material is fair or not. Even when weighing those three other fair use factors (the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used, and the effect upon its market or value), many courts have relied most heavily on the concept of transformation—that is, has the artist’s work sufficiently altered the copyrighted original by creating a new aesthetic, character, or meaning, thereby making the artist’s use non-infringing, or “fair”? Certain courts have found transformative fair use even where substantially entire original works have been appropriated if, in the subjective opinions of the courts, the artists changed the originals into something new and distinctive. Different courts, however, may have deemed such wholesale appropriations infringing. So, if it is up to courts to analyze, subjectively, the character of an artist’s use of pre-existing copyrighted material, are courts effectively now serving as art critics and interpreters? Are the creative choices of appropriation artists ultimately at the mercy of the courts? As mentioned in the first article of this group, artist Richard Prince has recently been sued by multiple individuals for copyright infringement in connection with his New Portrait series, which consists of third-party-owned photographs that Prince enlarged and reproduced in their entirety without, the plaintiffs contend, enough alteration to constitute transformative fair use. If any of these cases ultimately get resolved in courts, yet more interesting tales in the history of the fair use doctrine will be written. If nothing else, these Prince cases have the potential to further clarify—or confuse— what it takes for an artist to truly transform copyrighted material into something new and non-infringing, at least in the opinions of courts turned art interpreters.
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Suzanne Kessler Suzanne Kessler is Of Counsel at Bone McAllester Norton PLLC and Adjunct Professor at Vanderbilt Law School, where she teaches courses in intellectual property licensing and entertainment law.
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ASISEEIT BY MARK W. SCALA
Mark W. Scala Chief Curator Frist Center for the Visual Arts
Togetherness:
Installation view, The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, MCA Chicago, July 11–November 22, 2015
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Photograph by Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago
Individuality and Community
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owadays many artists are wondering if and how they should respond to an emerging political environment that they fear may be hostile to beliefs they cherish—beauty, ethics, truth, individual expression, tolerance, and community building. Should they just continue to do as they have always done, knowing that creativity has a humanistic and aesthetic dimension that transcends politics? Or is there a need for a direct response, for an art that overtly strives to change the hearts of people who may be able to influence the world in a positive way?
The pendulum between private contemplation and social connectedness reflects dichotomies felt by artists around the world.
In politics, groups of like-minded citizens hold more sway than lone individuals. Even in art-making, which is often most compelling when it gives us a singular voice, collaboration and cooperation can enlarge that voice, extend its reach, and make it feel less like one is singing alone in the shower.
“All art is political,” it is often said, meaning that art of every type, not just propaganda, conveys values that, purposefully or not, either reinforce or challenge systemic norms. Even artists unwilling to dive headlong into polemics can alter worldviews by undermining certainty with ambiguity or putting forth private insights, as well as startling beauty and fresh visions that dissolve numbness—an important step in recovering from shock.
A possible model for such a citizenry of artists can be seen in the works featured in The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. This remarkable exhibition tells
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Photograph by Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago
Installation view, The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, MCA Chicago, July 11–November 22, 2015
an old mansion in upstate New York plays their instruments and sings plaintive lyrics, creating a collective bond while in physical isolation from each other. At the end, they join together and walk through the fields singing, their voices remaining in harmony. But whereas the isolated performances were tinged with melancholy and regret, this finale is sweet and full of fun; the ensemble glows with the pleasure of togetherness.
the story of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which included such cerebral avant-gardists and free-jazz pioneers as the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, and Muhal Richard Abrams. Offering cutting-edge public performances and music training for inner city youth, the members of AACM have advocated a renewed spirit around black identity through experimentation and a passion for transformation. The collective merges inspiration from many sources, from African percussive traditions to what the AACM website calls “the music of the future,” with experiments that evoke avant-garde compositions by John Cage or the mystical spaciness of Sun Ra.
The pendulum between private contemplation and social connectedness reflects dichotomies felt by artists around the world. Imagine each of the musicians in The Visitors not just in a separate room but in a different city or country, connected only through headsets—a network of isolated voices, emanating from far-flung homes, neighborhoods, cities, and nations around the world. Even though they are alone, these musicians are linked by technology and the shared desire to contribute to the emotionally stirring composition they are playing. When they come together at the end, the technological bond gives way to a more physical, palpable connection. An example of what is today called “relational aesthetics,” The Visitors emphasizes human interaction over the making of an art object.
This has been an environment in which musicians and artists have nourished one another. In the 1970s–1990s, visual artists like Wadsworth Jarrell and Jeff Donaldson provided a dynamic visual counterpart in works that reflect influences from densely patterned African textiles to the raw energy of Abstract Expressionism. The generation that followed has continued the spirit of AACM in their efforts to use art to transform lives; it includes the multidisciplinary artist Nick Cave, who is in The Freedom Principle and whose major installation at the Frist Center this fall is being organized by my colleague Katie Delmez. More than a celebration of Chicago’s cultural identity, the lesson of The Freedom Principle is that radical creativity can generate communal energy anywhere in the world.
The Visitors is just one work, while The Freedom Principle defined a loosely held set of tenets that spans generations and milieus. Yet I see them both as agents of renewal, artistic and social. Dynamically melding art with life, they share optimism and at times even joy at the possibilities opened by their joined voices, not only for their community but also for the world. na
From this roiling avant-gardism, we can move to the more introspective (though no less radical) work of Ragnar Kjartansson, the Icelandic artist whose The Visitors is closing this month at the Frist. An ensemble of eight musicians spread throughout
To learn more about Nick Cave’s Inspired Community Art Project, visit www.fristcenter.org.
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THEBOOKMARK
A MONTHLY LOOK AT HOT BOOKS AND COOL READS
Perfect Little World: A Novel
Signals: New and Selected Stories
Kevin Wilson
Tim Gautreaux Get your fix of gritty short stories with Tim Gautreaux’s latest collection, Signals. Set in and around Louisiana, Gautreaux’s stories follow working-class people doing their very best in a world that just seems to conflict with their very best. Gautreaux will be at Parnassus Books February 1 to discuss and sign Signals.
Following up the success of his previous novel, The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson is at it again with Perfect Little World. In his latest, Wilson takes a look at another slightly left-of-normal family. After high school graduate Izzy Poole discovers she’s pregnant, she agrees to participate in a commune-style parenting experiment run by a college psychology professor.
Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel George Saunders Hang onto your seats, American short-story master George Saunders has written a novel! Told through a chorus of ghostly voices, Saunders’s newest follows Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in the wake of their 11-year-old son’s death. It’s strange, it’s heartbreaking, it’s about Abraham Lincoln—in short, it’s perfect. Meet George Saunders February 24 at Parnassus Books.
I Me Mine: The Extended Edition George Harrison The closest thing George Harrison has to an autobiography is back with more material than ever. Music lovers and Beatles fans will delight at this new edition of I Me Mine with full-color photographs and over a hundred full lyrics to Harrison’s songs. No music library is complete without it.
Miranda Herrick: REDUCE, REUSE, REPEAT
January 30 – March 31, 2017 • Marnie Sheridan Gallery • Access Gallery from Esteswood Drive
Opening Reception: Sunday, February 12, 3-5 pm Harpeth Hall School • 3801 Hobbs Road, Nashville 37215 • 615-297-9543 • www.harpethhall.org
Tennessee State Museum
For upcoming events, visit tnmuseum.org 505 Deaderick Street • Downtown Nashville Free Admission • 615.741.2692
THEATRE
Jim Reyland’s new book, Handmade: friendships famous, infamous, real and imagined, is available at Amazon.com in paperback and on Kindle. jreyland@audioproductions.com
BY JIM REYLAND
Posterity
Patrick Waller and Ruth Cordell
Photograph by Michael Scott Evans
The Nashville Rep Works on Its Legacy
“Patrick Waller and I have shared the stage many times, but in Posterity I am privileged to work with a man who knows how to take a larger-than-life character and turn him into a human being. René Copeland and Doug Wright have set a beautiful table. Our Nashville audience will experience a feast for all their senses.” —Actor Chip Arnold
It’s an interesting question: How will we be remembered? Have we left anything of value behind to spark our memory in others? Will history of any kind treat us kindly? Did we have the stuff while here to foster random thoughts or casual mentions years after our final goodbye? Do most of us care? Of course, our families will pine, but beyond that, is more possible? In other words, let’s contemplate the ego facet of the big picture. Where will we stand, even though we are no longer in it? Some, because of great achievement or sheer repetition, will be remembered distantly, some fleetingly, some in passing. Others, depending on their press agents, will linger in recurring commercials, historical documents, and stamps. Is it simply the volume, or is it the quality of the noise we make that will make us hard to forget? Finally, if you believe “Life” is merely a starting point, and so much more good stuff lies ahead, does it really matter? Pulitzer and Tony winning playwright Doug Wright, author of I Am My Own Wife, Quills, and Grey Gardens, poses many of these questions in his new play Posterity, developed during his time as the Nashville Rep’s Ingram New Works Fellow. Now it’s up to us to decide if we agree with his conclusions. Take a world-renowned Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, near the end of his career and force him into a room with Norway’s favorite sculptor, Gustav Vigeland, at the peak of his career when his ambitions require him to persuade a reluctant Ibsen to sit for him. Their battle begins. Debating what a person’s true legacy is—the work achieved during our life or how our loved ones remember us—unexpectedly teaches them something fundamental as the two explore a complex yet basic human question: Who will I be to posterity? “When Doug Wright was working on Posterity as Nashville Rep’s Ingram Fellow, it was clear that it would be an outstanding play, one asking how a person wants to be remembered after his or her death. Now, two years later, our performing the regional premiere of Posterity is an appropriate homecoming for the play since the Ingram New Works Project helped Doug get the script on its feet,” says René Copeland, producing artistic director for the Nashville Rep. “For years, scripts created through the Ingram have left Nashville for performances across the country, and I’m beyond excited that out of this impressive catalog of plays, Posterity is one that will appear locally in front of our audiences as a fully staged production.” After Posterity, the 2017 season at the Nashville Rep concludes with A Raisin in the Sun, followed by the Ingram New Works Festival in May—a showcase of new works created in Nashville for the American Theatre.
Chip Arnold
Photograph by Michael Scott Evans
“In Posterity, an ambitious and sometimes reckless Gustav Vigeland learns more than he ever thought possible about art and life from the master playwright Henrik Ibsen. This is an absolute bucket-list role for me in that I am afforded the opportunity to work one on one with Chip in an amazing piece of theatre,” says actor Patrick Waller. na Enjoy all of these wonderful, provocative questions as they come to life upon the Nashville Rep stage. Nashville Rep’s Posterity runs February 11–25 in Johnson Theater at Tennessee Performing Arts Center located at 505 Deaderick Street in downtown Nashville. Preview performances are February 9 and 10. Tickets are $25 for previews and start at $45 for regular run. Tickets can be purchased online at www.nashvillerep.org.
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SOUNDINGOFF BY JOSEPH E. MORGAN
Contralto Gwendolyn Brown sings “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” arranged by Dave Ragland
On January 12, 2017, Fisk University hosted an event “that shared community voices in song, spoken word, instruments, and visual arts,” celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and those who stood “upon these shoulders.” It was an extraordinary evening.
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The concert opened with a communal performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Lift Every Voice.” The first solo, “Over My Head,” featured local soprano Tyler Samuel, and Rollo Dilworth’s “Hold Fast to Dreams” was sung by Margaret Campbelle-Holman’s exquisitely prepared MET Singers. Gwendolyn Brown followed with a stirring “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” Jessie Montgomery’s “12 Moods” brought us into the 20th century with his fresh setting of Langston Hughes’s poetry. At midpoint, the evening turned to oral history as Freedom Rider Dr. Ernest “Rip” Patton told of his experiences at Nashville lunch counters and Parchman Prison, but most of all he spoke, sang, and inspired human perseverance in the face of oppression. Next the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed three spirituals, and Dave Ragland’s Diaspora Ensemble performed two of his works, “Zion’s Walls” and “Mother to Son” featuring Adrianna Clemons. After Allen Christian’s strong performance of “Ol’ Man River,” Intersection and the MET Singers returned for John W. Work III’s “Trilogy of Three Spirituals.” The grand finale presented “Freedom Is Coming” featuring the MET’s charismatic bass Garrel Lawrence and inspiring spoken word performances by Cedric Dent Jr. and Franklin Willis. In all, the evening reflected the history, strength, and diversity of Nashville—as expected from an Intersection collaboration. With so many moving parts, including a temperamental sound system, one couldn’t expect perfection. However, when measured by the numerous standing ovations and moments of hushed emotionalism, the concert was simply extraordinary—I can’t wait for next year. Learn more about Intersection at www.intersectionmusic.org.
Photograph by Brianna Cooper and Willie Curtis
Upon These Shoulders at Fisk
Wolf UP!
The mildly entertaining, neo-derivative, fine-art photo stylings of
BILL GUBBINS Opens February 6
1812 21st Avenue S., Nashville Every Day: 7AM-11PM
Wolf Up!, the photos of Bill Gubbins and other concepts herein are all leisure properties of Gubbins Light & Power Company, LLC, Š 2017
STUDIOTENN
The Elephant Man Jamison Theater
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February 16–26 performance in the role of Joseph Merrick, embracing the physical challenges that will be used to illustrate Merrick’s rough, gray, elephant-like skin.
Cultured, self-educated, human—words not often used to describe the stars of sideshow attractions in the 19th century, but such is the case for Joseph Merrick, known as the Elephant Man. Merrick’s medical malady made him a staple of human oddity in life and the subject of books, film, and awardwinning theatre long after his death.
“This is a major ‘coming-of-age’ role for me here at Studio Tenn,” Novak said. “It will be a very strenuous part to play both physically and emotionally, but I’m blessed to be surrounded by such a supportive cast.”
Studio Tenn’s Matt Logan brings Victorian romanticism to Middle Tennesseans as artistic director of the Broadway classic The Elephant Man, set to appear on the stage of The
Composed of 12 actors, The Elephant Man is set to include Studio Tenn regulars Brent Maddox (It’s A Wonderful Life, The Glass Menagerie) as Dr. Frederick Treves and Megan Murphy Chambers (The Wizard of Oz, Les Misérables) as Mrs. Kendal. Making its Broadway debut in 1979, Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man is based largely on Treves’s book The Elephant Man chronicling Merrick’s life story.
Photography by MA2LA
David Bowie, Mark Hamill, and Bradley Cooper have all graced the stage as the “half man, half elephant” and have over the years earned the production a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play, a Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, and many others. Following the success of the stage play, The Elephant Man later became a Hollywood film starring William Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, and Anne Bancroft, which received a number of American and British Academy Awards.
Factory’s Jamison Theater in mid February. A performance you don’t want to miss, The Elephant Man follows the amazing transformation Merrick faced, pulling the heartstrings of audiences everywhere by conveying tragedy and inner beauty through a powerful blend of craftsmanship and drama. Logan challenges the audience through dramatic, poetic portrayals of Merrick and his condition, abandoning the use of prosthetics to portray the Elephant Man through physical artistry and movement. “It will be an experience like no other for our audience,” Logan said. “We’re conveying Merrick’s abnormalities by putting to use a more sophisticated physical theatricality that will not only bring Merrick’s external form, but internal, to life.”
Logan’s inspiration to add The Elephant Man to the Studio Tenn season and present the masterpiece in a more compassionate light stems largely from the deep, emotionally compelling story of Merrick. “Merrick’s journey focuses on the difference in who we are underneath versus what we look like on the surface,” Logan said. “It reminds us to always examine our hearts and brings the question of who is truly the doctor and who is the patient to the surface.” na
Once again, Studio Tenn brings superior talent to the stage to depict the condition that consumed Merrick’s body. In his first Studio Tenn production, Taylor Novak delivers an unmatched
The Elephant Man runs February 16 through 26, 2017, at the Jamison Theater in The Factory at Franklin. For tickets, visit www.studiotenn.com. 89
nashvillearts.com
ARTSMART
A monthly guide to art education
TENNESSEE ROUNDUP Every Student Succeeds with the Arts Last month marked the deadline for the public to submit feedback to the Tennessee Department of Education about its state plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is the national education law dedicated to an equal education for all students. ESSA empowers states and districts by emphasizing local control.
• Educator Support – Supporting the preparation and development of an exceptional educator workforce • District Empowerment – Providing districts with the tools and autonomy they need to make the best decisions for students Regarding the arts, the 300-page document references stakeholder input that included the arts and music as areas to consider for expansion of curriculum and course offerings. The plan indicates that districts and schools have the flexibility to use Title IV grants through the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) program to offer a well-rounded education, with the arts and music specifically recognized as components of such in ESSA. Districts and schools have the option to identify the arts and music as areas for improved access or additional resources under SSAE. According to the plan, if districts choose to include the arts and music for proposed district spending, then required district needs assessments must include the arts. Another area where the arts are highlighted is under the approved activities for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers which are designed to provide academic enrichment during out-of-school time. The plan indicates that such programs should connect to in-school programming and state academic standards and focus on:
Taking into account stakeholder feedback gathered from numerous town hall meetings (including feedback provided after a convening of arts education leaders at the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Collective Impact Conference last summer) and an online platform, six working groups wrote Tennessee’s plan for ESSA to be submitted to the federal government this spring with full implementation beginning in the 2017–2018 school year. The state’s draft ESSA plan addresses requirements of standards, accountability, and assessment and outlines five priorities including: • Early Foundations & Literacy – Building skills in early grades to contribute to future success • High School & Bridge to Postsecondary – Preparing significantly more students for postsecondary completion
Photograph courtesy of State Photography
• All Means All – Providing individualized support and opportunities for all students with a focus on those who are furthest behind
by Ann Talbott Brown Director of Arts Education Tennessee Arts Commission
• Increasing reading and math proficiency • Strategies that will improve high school graduation rates and increase postsecondary access/success • Providing intentional, hands-on approaches that increase students’ interest/engagement in STEM programming National research shows that the arts benefit the above three focus areas as well as seamlessly connect with many of the five priorities of the state’s plan. With local control, districts and schools must recognize the arts as part of helping every student to succeed. For more information, contact Ann Brown at ann.brown@tn.gov or visit tnartscommission.org/grants-at-a-glance/.
ARTSMART
Photographs by WCS Communications Department
4th Annual WCS Fine Arts Festival
Artworks by participating students are selected by individual teachers or teacher panels. Dufrechou explains, “This is a completely non-competitive event in which students simply get to show off what they are doing. All of our schools are on equal footing with the primary focus being quality arts education programming.”
In Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, Lord Darlington defines a cynic as a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Indeed, “how much does that cost” pales in importance as a question in comparison to “how does this illustrate and enrich our lives.” The tradition of arts festivals brings together communities to explore and discover the value of the arts as an expression of who we are.
Years of research have documented the connection of the arts to improved student academic performance throughout the nation. In addition, a strong school arts program serves as a foundation upon which to build the reputation of a city in reinforcing the importance of the arts to community culture.
On March 4, the Factory in Franklin hosts the fourth annual WCS Fine Arts Festival (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) showcasing the creativity and cultural contributions of students from Williamson County Schools. The popularity of this festival is evident, attracting almost 5,000 people last year into an environment that inspires conversations and interactions around both visual and performance art.
Putting together this massive event is a labor of love. The festival is 100% community funded. In addition to Williamson County Schools and the host site (the Factory at Franklin), local sponsors include WCAR (Williamson County Association of Realtors), Spring Tree Media Group, SWC (Signs and Wonders Company), Third Coast Clay, Partners in Building, Lincoln Financial Group, Shuff’s Music and Piano Showroom, Twine Graphic Design and Screen Printing, the Education Foundation for Williamson County, Andrews Transportation Group, and Nashville Violins.
With a sense of pride, nearly 1,500 K–12 students have the opportunity to express their unique voice and vision through the arts, ranging from visual arts and theatre to music, including band, chorus, and orchestra performances. In addition to the 2- and 3-dimensional artworks displayed in the Factory gallery commons area, Third Coast Clay will offer a hands-on collaborative arts project to festival visitors.
A highlight of the event is the featured evening performance by Tracy Silverman along with the Centennial High School Guitar Ensemble and orchestra members from across the county.
“This yearly event serves as a spotlight on the tremendous amount of work being done in our fine arts programs in Williamson County Schools, as well as publicly acknowledging the value of arts education to the foundation of a nationally recognized school district,” says WCS Fine Arts Specialist Melissa Dufrechou.
Everyone is invited to enjoy the festival and see and experience the best of arts education.
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by DeeGee Lester Director of Education The Parthenon
Photograph by Drew Cox
For information, see www.wcs.edu/schools/fine-arts.
ARTSMART
Chris Cheney and Nieves Uhl in their Sawtooth Print Shop studio
Growing up, we didn’t have art class in my school. So, during the summer months, I made a point to seek out every Vacation Bible School I could find. It didn’t matter what denomination it was, I just needed to know would there be arts and crafts and would there be barrel drink (if you grew up in the 80s, you know the amazing colored sugar water served in the plastic barrels of which I speak). While I have swapped my barrel drink for grape-flavored adult drink, I find that I still seek out art classes even now. It was at one such printmaking class at the Frist that I met Chris Cheney and Nieves Uhl, the combined forces that make up Sawtooth Print Shop. These two are not only incredible artists and printmakers, but super fun folk to hang out with. Even though our class at the Frist was a couple of years ago, I made a point to stay in contact with these two (some call it stalking; I call it “awkward friendmaking”). When I recently started creating Field Trip videos for my students, which take them on virtual trips to the studios of creatives, I knew I wanted to visit Chris and Nieves at Sawtooth Print Shop. Located at a newly renovated facility in Berry Hill, in a building bustling with other creatives, I found Chris and Nieves along with a handful of employees and interns. Their business is unlike any other locally as they work with their customers to create custom wood-carved printing plates. These designs are combined with their huge collection of antique type (one particular cabinet of type was thrown from a barn during a tornado!) and their antique printing press from the 1920s. Visiting their studio was a blast, mostly because Chris and Nieves are a hilariously fun and creative duo. After meeting at Hatch Show Print, they eventually became neighbors and business partners. In 2012, they opened Sawtooth and the rest is history. Filming their process was enlightening. My students are going to learn about woodcarving, letterpress, working with clients, and the math that goes into such precise printmaking work. This kind of creating is not one that can simply be explained to understand, but must be witnessed. I’m so lucky that Chris and Nieves have allowed me to take my students on a virtual field trip to their art-making world.
Photograph by Juan Pont Lezica
To find out more about Sawtooth, be sure to visit their website at www.sawtoothprintshop.com. To view the virtual field trip to their shop, visit my channel, Cassie Stephens, on YouTube.
by Cassie Stephens Art Teacher Johnson Elementary
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Show Poster for Shovels and Rope, Letterpress printed woodcut, 16.5” x 12”
A Field Trip to Sawtooth Print Shop
ARTSMART Danza Azteca Coatlicue: Cultural Touchstone
Cultural touchstones have been defined by Samuel Whitesell as phenomena—whether objects, stories, music, or dance—linking generations within a society. The constant movement of people in modern society makes the discovery and maintaining of cultural “roots” especially challenging and rewarding.
of female performers, one of the distinguishing features of Aztec dance is the prominent role of men. Warriors perform, attired in stunning headdress, colorful costumes, and dance footwear with layers of bells helping them to articulate a range of rhythmic sounds from delicate pulsating to intimidating.
For founders Julia Rivera and Alicia Leos, Danza Azteca Coatlicue has become a cultural touchstone to Nashville’s Hispanic community, bringing together the rhythms, color, and pageantry of ritual dance as a way to preserve and share a unique heritage.
“The specialized steps of every dance require commitment and discipline,” says Rivera. Dancers meet in the garage of her home, working to learn the history, meaning, and steps of the dance, while simultaneously learning to work together to relay the story of the dance to audiences. The result is a dance spectacle that is embraced and enjoyed at performances throughout the city— from Centennial Park and the Frist Center for the Arts to the historic Ryman Auditorium.
“This is especially important for our children. Many of them were born here, and I want them to understand where they came from,” says Leos. “This is how cultures come together.” Created six years ago, the dance troupe has thrilled audiences across the community, including the annual Celebrate Nashville in Centennial Park, and was recently presented the Outstanding Art & Culture Ambassador Award by the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
“We want to show everyone our culture, to learn about it and love it as we do,” says Rivera. In the process, Danza Azteca Coatlicue embraces its role as a cultural touchstone. www.facebook.com/danzaazteca.denasville
The ancient dances honor Coatlicue (pronounced Qual-dique), the Aztec Earth Goddess, always depicted with a skirt distinguished by the flowing, rhythmic movement of snakes.
Knowledge of the ancient ritual dances passed among the peoples of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, managing to survive for performance in the modern world. In addition to the beauty
Photographs by Julia Rivera
“We have a dance dedicated to her,” says Rivera, “but other dances honor other gods and goddesses.”
ARTSMART Cups of Co-Opportunity
Blair School of Music: Living Sounds
Among the oldest of world traditions is the making of pottery. Born of necessity and infused with creativity and beauty as well as functionality, it is imbued with the power to serve as a unique gift from artist to recipient, connecting lives in meaningful ways.
On Saturday, February 11 (7:30 to 11 a.m.), Clay Lady Studios hosts the seventh annual Cups of Co-Opportunity, connecting Tennessee pottery artists with pottery enthusiasts and benefiting VSA Tennessee. A non-profit founded by Ambassador Jean Kennedy 35 years ago, VSA serves over seven million children and adults across the nation in providing arts education opportunities to people with disabilities.
Alyze Rabideau, 2016 Composition graduate gets advice from Michael Slayton, head of the Composition Department
Photograph by Daniel Dubois/Vanderbilt University
Photograph by Lyndy Rutledge
Through film and imagination, we envision the life and creative process of a composer as alternately joyful and excruciatingly painful. We imagine the composer writing, ripping, and tossing in frustration and starting again, grasping at snippets of tunes half hidden in the mind, then rushing to the piano only to realize that brilliant melody has escaped from the mind. For the composer, it is all worthwhile in the triumph of hearing one’s music performed onstage before an audience.
On Wednesday, February 15, at 8 p.m., the Blair School of Music presents Living Sounds, the highly anticipated performance showcasing the contributions of music composition majors.
This annual event links together potters, community, and VSA artists in a “chain of giving” that mirrors and extends the mission and community impact of the Clay Lady, Danielle McDaniel.
“Ten years ago, the faculty put this concert series explicitly into the hands of the composition majors. They self-govern now (i.e., each year they elect their own officers), and the selection of works for a particular Living Sounds concert is entirely up to them. I think this is one of the strongest aspects of our program,” says Michael Slayton, head of the Composition Department at Blair. Our students learn how to build and execute an effective concert. They make their own advertisement posters and programs; they emcee the entire evening, sometimes offering “living program notes” from the stage. It’s all a wonderful learning experience for young composers, housed in a safe environment where they are free to experiment, to try new things, to see what works and what doesn’t.”
Cups of Co-Opportunity patrons may select from over 300 cups or mugs in a variety of styles, shapes, and colors and make a financial donation. While many patrons arrive early to grab the most unusual designs, others prefer waiting for the magical 9 a.m. opening by co-op artists of the glass kiln for the “reveal” of more cups following a 14-hour raw-flame kiln process. Guests revel in launching their mugs with hot beverages and breakfast breads and participate in activities ranging from table games to a crochet circle or a Jenga© competition. “VSA Tennessee is most appreciative of the Cups event that The Clay Lady Studio does to support our programs,” says Lori Kissinger, VSA-TN executive director. “This event has become vital to our organization in helping us offer over 20 arts programs a year to people with disabilities, including a dance program, music program, visual arts workshops, and residencies in schools, festivals, and camps.” The community is invited to enjoy a unique way to spend a cold February morning while extending the chain of giving and the magic of the arts to Tennessee’s large VSA family.
The February 15 performance is one of three Living Sounds concerts presented each year. The next performance is scheduled for April 5 when five composition majors will be joined by visiting guest composer Robert Nelson and soprano Sonja Bruzauskas to present six different settings of the same poem: “On the Question of Angels,” by Louisiana Poet Laureate Ava Haymon. In a special concert on April 19, eleven composition majors paired with eleven violin majors from the studio of Professor Connie Heard will present “Violinvasion!”, an evening of new works for solo violin or violin plus one accompanying instrument.
For more information, visit www.theclaylady.com.
For more information, visit www.blair.vanderbilt.edu.
94 nashvillearts.com
Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano, and Julius Drake, piano Perform Schubert’s Winterreise
NeLLie Jo
Tuesday, February 27 • 8 p.m. • Ingram Hall A rare opportunity to hear Schubert’s celebrated Winterreise song cycle in its entirety, performed by one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of our day. Sponsored by the Mary Cortner Ragland Master Series Fund
2400 Blakemore Ave. Nashville, TN 37212
For the complete concert calendar, please visit blair.vanderbilt.edu
#2, oil pastels, by Nellie Jo Rainer
615-519-0258 • NellieJo@NellieJo.com • www.nelliejo.com
Brandon June and Jenny Sauer at Andy Anh Ha Gallery
Ashley Luther and Linda Luther at The Rymer Gallery
Tu Trieu and Eric Thomas at The Arts Company
ARTSEE
Maryanne Morris at BelArt Gallery
Jenny Easterling and Craig Brabson at Craig Brabson Gallery
Brandi Anderson and Jerel Flint at Erabellum Fine Art & Jewelry
Erin Connally at Tinney Contemporary
ARTSEE
Inge Klaps and Georganna Greene at Cumberland Gallery
Dale Allen Pommer, Travis Pommer, and Christopher Hammond at Wolf and Crow Gallery
Sara Behbahani and Andria Odom at The Rymer Gallery
Upreyl Mitchell at WAG
ARTSEE
Photograph by John Jackson
Marianne Moss and Courtney Moss at Erabellum Fine Art & Jewelry
Tokyn Heath and Mary Bischof at Papp-Art Gallery
Rob and Dana Lyons at Andy Anh Ha Gallery
Brook Wend, Maggie Herzberg and Chandler Settle at Viridian
Erik Olson, Sierra Cullati and Joanci Cullati at “O” Gallery
Richard Packhem and Rachel Panitch at Erabellum Fine Art & Jewelry
DeAndre Davis and Desiree Ciara at Tinney Contemporary
Photograph by John Jackson
Will Morgan and Richard Lancaster at The Arts Company
ARTSEE
ARTSEE
Tim Costanzo and Sara Brewington at Craig Brabson Gallery Connor Dilworth and Brooklyn Thompson at Tinney Contemporary
Denny Adcock at The Arts Company
Cornelious Dixon and Kirsten Grimes at The Arts Company
Greg Klingler, Lara Shelton, Michael and Ann Jenkins at Blend Studio
Lori Field, Carol Stein and Carol Gove at Cumberland Gallery
Teresa Shields and Ruby Westkaemper at The Rymer Gallery
Photograph by John Jackson
PHOTOGRAPHY: MOMENTS BY MOSER PHOTOGRAPHY
ARTSEE
Kaitlin Savage and Andrew von Zellen at Cumberland Gallery
Nathan Presmyk and Kristy Presmyk at “O” Gallery
TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHY BY HUNTER ARMISTEAD
Photograph by Jerry Atnip
FYEYE www.hunterarmistead.com
A Frame of Film, A Line of Words, Capture the Creative Culture of Our City
Sarratt Art Studios NON-CREDIT ART CLASSES AT VANDERBILT
Nathan Spoon Poet
To Wit If Central Casting were calling for a poet, they would pick my friend Nathan Spoon. At 44 with graying hair, receding hairline, shuffling gait, and his shy grin, he is never without a stack of books with imposing titles such as Unoriginal Genius, Crystallography, Falling Ill, and The Post-Human Dada Guide at his side. Spoon is in fact a poet, and a rising one. Having published his first book of automatic poetry two years ago, his work has recently appeared in Oxford Poetry, Mantis, Reflections (Yale Divinity School), and X-Peri, an online experimental poetry magazine for which he also does research. His poetry is in part a reaction to his strict upbringing in rural Tennessee by a Baptist minister. While remaining a Christian, he has thoroughly educated himself in Eastern religions, especially focusing on their mystical and meditative sides to gain deeper understanding and connection with the divine and the universe. Spoon enters this connection, or “gray area” as he calls it, to begin writing. Once still and calm, he patiently waits for the words to appear. “I won’t start a piece if I have any idea what it will be about,” he says. Upon receiving his first line, the poem begins, almost writing itself. When the thread is finished, he makes some quick revisions. Ta da. He experiments and plays with words as if in his own private lab. Focusing more on the musicality of his words than their meaning, he’s a bit of a mad scientist in this way, drawing heavily on his Dada (wild and whimsical art movement of the 20s) influences.
POTTERY JEWELRY PHOTOGRAPHY DRAWING PAINTING FUSED GLASS AND MORE Classes begin the week of January 23, 2017 Open to the Nashville community
Ultimately Spoon is a man of wit, which he calls “educated insolence,” the “lover’s tussle,” or “the tongue’s lingering to save the flavorful” in his poem “The Composite Stone.” In every turn of his work, there is a signature Spoon twist.
Schedule and Registration online at www.vanderbilt.edu/sarrattart
Nathan Spoon writes all manner of poems based on generosity and authenticity. Some are deceptively simple. Others, deep and wide as the Pacific, call for several readings. All of them, however, are worth the plunge.
LOCATED IN THE SARRATT STUDENT CENTER AT 2301 VANDERBILT PLACE, NASHVILLE TN 37235
Read more of Nathan’s poems at www.nathanspoon.com.
Courtesy of Nick Spanos
Arts Worth Watching
EN POINTE The New York City Ballet is featured in two episodes of Great Performances, Fridays at 8 p.m., February 17 and 24. Both were recorded at the stunning Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; both are all-Balanchine programs of works choreographed by the company’s legendary founder. Peter Martins, NYCB’s Ballet Master in Chief, hosts. In New York City Ballet in Paris, 24 ballerinas soar around the stage in the finale of the joyful Walpurgisnacht Ballet, set to music by Charles Gounod. La Valse, on the other hand, is about a woman captivated by a figure of Death. Created in 1951, this ballet is set to music by Maurice Ravel. New York City Ballet Symphony in C gets its title from a sparkling piece set to music by Georges Bizet and featuring a cast of 50. Monday, February 20, at 11 p.m., Black Ballerina puts the careers of several generations of African-American ballerinas center stage.
me when you don’t even know me?” he asks. The film was presented with NPT’s Human Spirit Award at the 2016 Nashville Film Festival and makes its on-air debut Monday, February 13, at 9 p.m. In addition to prime-time offerings on Independent Lens and American Experience, we are presenting two documentary series in late-night, including Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. This season airs Thursdays at 11 p.m. and focuses on the lives of Africans on the continent and throughout the rest of the world. The second season of Reel South will air Tuesdays at 11 p.m. Produced by the Southern Documentary Fund, the series highlights films about the South. Darius Rucker hosts this new season, which includes Deep Run (February 7) about a young transgender Christian; Soul City (February 14 at 11:30 p.m.) about a 1970s utopian community in North Carolina; and The Exceptionally Extraordinary (February 28), a feature on a family-owned store that creates elaborate Mardi Gras costumes.
Among the new films on Independent Lens this month is Accidental Courtesy, a documentary about musician Daryl Davis’s effort to meet and change the minds of KKK members. “How can you hate
The Mostly Mozart Festival is a series of concerts, operas, and dance performance presented in venues around New York each summer. Friday, February 3, at 8 p.m., Live from Lincoln Center celebrates
La Valse from Great Performances: New York City Ballet in Paris
Courtesy of Michael Lidvac
SCREEN GEMS
MOZART, MOTOWN AND MORE
Smokey Robinson, the 2016 recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song
the 50th anniversary of the beloved festival. Another prolific, popular, and profound composer is honored the following week in Smokey Robinson: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Music, airing Friday, February 10, at 8 p.m. Samuel L. Jackson hosts the evening of performances by Gallant, JoJo, Ledisi, Kip Moore, Corinne Bailey Rae, Esperanza Spalding, Joe Walsh, BeBe Winans and Robinson himself. Motown founder Berry Gordy also makes a special appearance. A new season of Front and Center’s CMA Songwriter’s Series begins Friday, February 17, at 7 p.m. with a performance by Darius Rucker that was recorded at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works. Ronnie Dunn performs on the show Friday, February 24.
This February, we would love for you to support NPT! Simply go to www.wnpt.org and click the donate button. Remember, encore presentations of many of our shows and program theme nights are broadcast on NPT2, our secondary channel.
A still from The Exceptionally Extraordinary Emporium on Reel South
Courtesy Reel South
This month on NPT includes the continuation of the Masterpiece series Mercy Street and Victoria, Sundays at 7 and 8 p.m., respectively.
February 2017 Weekend Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30
5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00 6:30
Saturday
am Thomas and Friends Bob the Builder Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Splash and Bubbles Curious George Nature Cat Ready Jet Go! Sewing with Nancy Sew It All Garden Smart A Chef’s Life Martha Bakes The Mind of a Chef noon America’s Test Kitchen pm Cook’s Country Kitchen Sara’s Weeknight Meals Lidia’s Kitchen Simply Ming Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting Best of Joy of Painting Rough Cut – Woodworking with Tommy Mac Woodwright’s Shop This Old House Ask This Old House Woodsmith Shop PBS NewsHour Weekend Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville
This Month on Nashville Public Television
Sunday
am Sid the Science Kid Cyberchase Sesame Street Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Splash and Bubbles Curious George Nature Cat Ready Jet Go! Tennessee’s Wild Side Volunteer Gardener Tennessee Crossroads Nature Washington Week noon To the Contrary pm Born to Explore Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope Expeditions with Patrick McMillan Globe Trekker California’s Gold Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi America’s Heartland Rick Steves’ Europe Antiques Roadshow PBS NewsHour Weekend Charlie Rose: The Week
Maya Angelou: American Masters And Still I Rise profiles the woman known for her lyrical thought and activism.
Tuesday, Feb 21, 7:00 pm Weekday Schedule 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00
am Classical Stretch Body Electric Wild Kratts Ready Jet Go! Nature Cat Curious George Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Splash and Bubbles Sesame Street Dinosaur Train Peg + Cat Super Why! Thomas & Friends noon Bob the Builder pm The Cat in the Hat Splash and Bubbles Curious George Nature Cat Ready Jet Go! Odd Squad Odd Squad Wild Kratts Arthur Martha Speaks WordGirl PBS NewsHour
Nashville Public Television
Nature: Spy in the Wild Animatronic creatures capture animal behavior in the wild.
Wednesdays, Feb 1 – March 1, 7:00 pm
Africa’s Great Civilizations Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores Africa’s precolonial history. Monday – Wednesday, Feb 27 – March 1, 8:00 pm
7:00 Mercy Street One Equal Temper. The Greens work together to hide an ugly secret. 8:00 Victoria on Masterpiece An Ordinary Woman. Will Victoria and Albert get married? 9:00 Secrets of Six Wives Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. 10:00 Start Up Cheesy Effects. 10:30 Tennessee Uncharted 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
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Weds, Feb 8 – 22, 9:00 pm
City in the Sky
Sunday
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Indianapolis, Hour Two. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Charleston, Hour One. 9:00 Independent Lens Birth of a Movement. D.W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation unleashed an ongoing battle about race relations and representation. 10:30 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Independent Lens: Spies of Mississippi
Monday
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7:00 Finding Your Roots Tragedy + Time = Comedy. Jimmy Kimmel, Norman Lear and Bill Hader. 8:00 Oklahoma City: American Experience The rise of the extremist militia movement and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Reel South Deep Run. A young transgender man in North Carolina.
CeCe Winans Weds, Feb 8, 11:00 pm
Austin City Limits:
Tuesday
Nashville Public Television’s Primetime Evening Schedule
February 2017
8 7:00 Nature: Spy in the Wild Intelligence. Animal intelligence, ingenuity and creativity. 8:00 NOVA Ultimate Cruise Ship. Shipbuilders try to build a huge vessel. 9:00 City in the Sky Departure. A new series about airports. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits CeCe Winans, St. Paul & The Broken Bones.
7:00 Nature: Spy in the Wild Love. The rarely explored emotions of animals. 8:00 NOVA Search for the Super Battery. 9:00 Aurora – Fire in the Sky The origins and meaning of the colorful glow of polar skies. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Band of Horses, Parker Millsap.
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9 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 B.B. King: American Masters The Life of Riley. 9:00 Looking Over Jordan: African Americans and the War 9:30 First Black Statesmen: Tennessee’s Self-Made Men 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange
7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Sister Rosetta Tharpe: American Masters The Godmother of Rock & Roll. The gospel superstar whose spiritual passion infused the secular world of popular rock ’n’ roll. 9:00 Reconstruction: A Moment in the Sun 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange
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10 7:00 Music City Roots Live from the Factory Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founder John McEuen’s birthday celebration. 8:00 Smokey Robinson: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Music Samuel L. Jackson hosts an all-star tribute. 9:30 Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Soundstage Old Dominion.
7:00 Music City Roots Live from the Factory Emily West, Mike & Ruthy, Govt. Cheese. 8:00 Live from Lincoln Center 50 Years of Mostly Mozart. An anniversary celebration of the renowned music festival. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Soundstage Jason Isbell.
Fri, Feb 17, 7:00 pm
Tues, Feb 14, 9:00 pm
Friday
Front and Center: Darius Rucker
Thursday
Independent Lens: Tower
Wednesday
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Songs by Johnny Mercer. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Downton Abbey Season 5, Part 6. A long and painful mystery is solved. 9:30 Grantchester Season 2, Episode 6. A dead girl’s parents seek revenge. 10:30 Bluegrass Underground Mac McAnally. 11:00 Globe Trekker Food Hour: Sicily.
7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Transportation. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Downton Abbey Season 5, Part 5. Rose makes a handsome new acquaintance; Edith’s link to Marigold draws attention. 9:30 Grantchester Season 2, Episode 5. Are Sidney and Geordie’s crime-fighting days over? 10:30 Bluegrass Underground Hurray for the Riff Raff. 11:00 Globe Trekker Wild West USA.
Mon, Feb 20, 8:00 pm
The Talk: Race in America
Saturday
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Palm Springs, Hour 2. 8:00 Africa’s Great Civilizations Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. discovers the complexity, grandeur and diversity of the civilizations that flourished across the African continent before European colonial powers arrived. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Black Women in Medicine
7:00 Finding Your Roots Family Reunions. 8:00 Africa’s Great Civilizations Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s new series. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Reel South The Exceptionally Extraordinary. A family-owned store supplies Mardi Gras costumes. 11:30 Reel South The Last Barn Dance.
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7:00 Nature: Spy in the Wild Meet the Spies. 8:00 Africa’s Great Civilizations 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Sturgill Simpson, Asleep at the Wheel.
MARCH
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7:00 Nature: Spy in the Wild Bad Behavior. Animal mischief, crime and retribution. 8:00 NOVA Why Trains Crash. Infamous accidents; crash prevention designs. 9:00 City in the Sky Arrival. Technology and global networks are used to safely land. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits James Taylor.
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7:00 Nature: Spy in the Wild Friendship. Animatronic “spy creatures” record animal behavior in the wild. 8:00 NOVA The Origami Revolution. How the ancient art influences NASA missions and other scientific advances. 9:00 City in the Sky Airborne. Keeping planes functioning and safe. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Austin City Limits Foals, Alejandro Escovedo.
2 7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Rhythm and Blues 40: A Soul Spectacular 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Fats Domino: American Masters Domino’s brand of New Orleans rhythm and blues became rock ’n’ roll. 9:00 Housing: NPT Reports Town Hall A discussion of issues affecting housing in Middle Tennessee. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange
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7:00 Tennessee Crossroads 7:30 Volunteer Gardener 8:00 Jimi Hendrix: American Masters Performance and interview footage reveal the guitar wizard. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Afropop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange
3 7:00 Front and Center CMA Songwriters Series. Kip Moore. 8:00 Bee Gees One Night Only 9:30 Rick Steves’ Festive Europe 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Rhythm and Blues 40: A Soul Spectacular
24 7:00 Front and Center CMA Songwriters Series. Ronnie Dunn. 8:00 Great Performances New York City Ballet Symphony in C. 9:00 Great British Baking Show Masterclass 4. Lemon and raspberry eclairs, raspberry and chocolate doughnuts. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center Shawn Mendes.
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7:00 Front and Center CMA Songwriters Series. Darius Rucker performs at Marathon Music Works. 8:00 Great Performances New York City Ballet in Paris. An all-Balanchine program. 9:00 Great British Baking Show Masterclass 3. Swedish Princesstarta, mini sausage plaits. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Front and Center Rob Thomas.
Visit wnpt.org for complete 24-hour schedules for NPT and NPT2.
7:00 10 Homes That Changed America Grand estates, public housing, etc. 8:00 10 Parks That Changed America Serene spaces. 9:00 10 Towns That Changed America Towns that influenced urban and suburban planning. 10:00 Start Up Don’t Horse Around with the Chocolate. 10:30 Tennessee Uncharted 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
7:00 Maya Angelou: American Masters And Still I Rise. The life of the author and activist who inspired generations. 9:00 Frontline: Out of Gitmo 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Reel South Overburden. A pro-coal right-winger and a environmentalist grandmother whose lives collide when a mine disaster shatters their community.
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Palm Springs, Hour 1. 8:00 The Talk: Race in America How black and Hispanic families counsel their kids to stay safe if they are stopped by the police. 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 Black Ballerina African-American dancers past and present.
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7:00 Mercy Street Unknown Soldier. 8:00 Victoria on Masterpiece The Engine of Change. Victoria must choose a regent in case she dies during childbirth. 9:00 Tales from the Royal Bedchamber 10:00 Start Up Strike an Adventurous Pose. 10:30 Tennessee Uncharted 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
14
7:00 Finding Your Roots War Stories. 8:00 Ruby Ridge: American Experience The 1992 FBI siege and the modern militia movement. 9:00 Independent Lens: Tower The August 1, 1966, mass shooting at the Univ. of Texas. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:00 Reel South Soul City. A proposed 1970s racial utopia in North Carolina.
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7:00 Antiques Roadshow Indianapolis, Hour 3. 8:00 Antiques Roadshow Charleston, Hour 2. 9:00 Independent Lens Accidental Courtesy. Musician Daryl Davis tries to meet, befriend and change the minds of KKK members one at a time. 10:30 Last of Summer Wine 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Tavis Smiley
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6:00 Mercy Street Southern Mercy. Hopkins and Emma set out to rescue wounded Union soldiers. 8:00 Victoria on Masterpiece The Queen’s Husband. Albert’s noble cause. 9:00 Tales from the Royal Wardrobe 10:00 Start Up Alpaca the Candles. 10:30 Tennessee Uncharted 11:00 Tavis Smiley 11:30 Scully/The World Show
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7:00 Daniel O’Donnell: Back Home Again 8:30 Downton Abbey Season 5, Part 9. The Crawleys go to a shooting party at a castle in Northumberland and return to Downton for a joyful Christmas holiday. 10:30 Bluegrass Underground 11:00 Bee Gees One Night Only
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show Indiana. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Downton Abbey Season 5, Part 8. Someone tries to derail Rose and Atticus’ happiness. 10:00 Wessyngton Plantation: A Family’s Road to Freedom 10:30 Bluegrass Underground The Cox Family. 11:00 Globe Trekker Food Hour: Ireland.
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7:00 Lawrence Welk Show This Colorful World. 8:00 Keeping Appearances 8:30 Downton Abbey Season 5, Part 7. Isobel and Lord Merton reveal their plans; Robert ejects another guest. 9:30 Royal Wives at War The 1936 British abdication crisis. 10:30 Bluegrass Underground J.J. Grey and Mofro. 11:00 Globe Trekker Road Trip: Andes.
© Susan W. N. Ruach
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Merrick Printing Company Richard Barnett, Sr. VP – Sales Cell (502) 296-8650 • Office (502) 584-6258 richard.barnett@merrickprinting.com
Merrick Makes It Happen.
The unexplainable ... Where does that first heartbeat come from? One minute we’re a mass of reproducing cells, then all of a sudden ... there it is! ... a heartbeat. Despite all the medical journals and research, there isn’t a doctor on earth who can explain where that first heartbeat comes from. So it remains a mystery. Something that can’t be explained. I love things that can’t be explained. I remember being five years old, sitting on a hillside at dusk in front of my house in Enoree, South Carolina. I was with Gene Crocker, the fourteen-year-old boy who lived next door. Mama always said Gene was a genius because he’d read the World Book Encyclopedia twice. Anyway, Gene and I were sitting there watching the stars come out, when, out of the blue, he asked if I knew what infinity was. I told him I didn’t, then said, “What is it?” “See all that black up there around the stars?” he said. “Uh-huh.” “Well, all that black goes on forever. There’s no end to it. It’s infinity.” I tried to grasp what Gene was saying, but my mind didn’t want to go there. “Well, what if ...” I stammered. “What if all that black up there is a wall? ... a black wall?” “Fine,” Gene said. “Let’s say it’s a wall. So ... what’s on the other side of the wall?” Suddenly, I saw it. Infinity. And it hurt my brain so bad, I burst into tears. I wouldn’t see infinity again for another twenty years. Not until I started writing songs in Nashville. It’s hard to explain where songs come from. I often say, “My songs are smarter than I am.” And that’s true, in a way. Because the really good ones don’t come from us. They come through us. I’ve also said, “The hardest part about writing is creating the space so it can happen.” And every now and then, if you’re open to it and the stars and planets are lined up just so, something great will present itself. And whenever that happens, it’s like seeing infinity. Or hearing that first heartbeat. Marshall Chapman is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter, author, and actress. For more information, visit www.tallgirl.com.
BEYONDWORDS
Photograph by Anthony Scarlati
BY MARSHALL CHAPMAN
MYFAVORITEPAINTING STRYKER WARREN
I
have an unquenchable thirst for photorealism, and I prefer to follow and support local artists. I am therefore grateful to Carol Stein at Cumberland Gallery for introducing me to Nashville artists of whom I have grown particularly fond: Robert Durham, Jeff Danley, Ron Porter, Marilyn Murphy, Red Grooms, and Barry Buxkamper. I enjoy pieces by each, but the painting that speaks to me in a unique fashion is Listening by Jeff Danley. The body language in Listening is ethereal yet palpable. I see and hear tranquility but also angst; I see beauty but a moodiness and chaos just a step away as “Hanna” leans into the wall. It is at once simple yet so complex. I imagine her having just completed a conversation for which she seeks physical support from a barren wall on Santorini while she gathers herself, listening to her subconscious as she processes a conversation just completed with her lover. Listening predictably attracts attention—a fixation—when friends see it for the first time. The same reaction is apparent on second and third visits. A visual polarity. And eyes that never stray from Listening belong to Jeff’s East Nashville studio mate Bob Durham, who gazes across my living room from his Privacy Fence self-portrait. I sense both a quiet observer as well as a guardian; it is easy for me to hear Bob consoling “Hanna” and offering her reassurance. I first met Jeff on a Saturday when he delivered Vortex to the gallery. I saw our daughter as the figure in the painting and was mesmerized by the expressiveness. That single Danley hung in my home until Listening. Beyond the character and unique mood of Listening, Jeff was born missing his right arm below the elbow, but in addition to his exquisite painting, he is a musician—a drummer. One cannot help but fall in love with this guy, right?
Jeff Danley, Listening, 2013, Oil on canvas, 64” x 36”
Jeff has masterfully captured my imagination as well as all who have leaned in and listened. na
ARTIST BIO: Jeff Danley
A self-taught artist, he has been painting full time since 1991, and his work has been in numerous juried, invitational, and gallery shows across the country. His paintings have been featured in many regional and national publications, including New American Paintings, Oranges and Sardines, The Oxford American, and Nashville Arts Magazine. In Nashville, Danley is represented by Cumberland Gallery, www.cumberlandgallery.com. See more of his work at www.jeffdanleypaintings.blogspot.com.
Stryker Warren
Photograph by Sheri Oneal
Jeff Danley grew up in Georgia, Florida, and California. He now lives in Nashville where he has worked as a professional drummer and as an art director, set decorator, and prop master for television commercials and music videos.
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