A Time for Counting Blessings
Because I am hearing impaired, I have to admit that for many years I didn’t give much attention to birds. After getting my first hearing aids, I remember commenting to a loved one that suddenly it seemed as though the birds were shouting at the top of their lungs as I walked along Main Street. The partial restoration of my ability to hear has made a major difference in my life. Friends tell me I’m more involved in the world around me. The telephone is no longer the obstacle it once was. My experience of music, which I have always loved, is much deeper and richer than ever. I’ve had the pleasure of rediscovering movies and plays through the delight of hearing words, phrases, and significant moments previously missed. It’s as though I’ve come out of a shell and had to learn how to pay attention from the confinement of letting so much pass by as unimportant because I couldn’t hear it anyway. But I think I will never forget that birdsong was the first thing to break through my self-imposed isolation.
Despite all this, I was still puzzled in this last week by the fact that I was noticing birds so particularly. Doves on Monument Hill flew into my awareness. Mockingbirds dive bombed robins and starlings in aggressive defense of their territory. Cardinals in vivid red made such a good match for their ladies in more matronly rust tones. Then I saw a plump, sassy blue jay and I knew why I had birds on the brain. They were a continuing reminder of our friend Lynne Olka.
If you keep up with this column, you may remember that Lynne was one of the first artists featured here. She died recently, weeks after an automobile accident put her in a coma. Her death was one that produced mixed emotions, sadness and grief for a friend gone so suddenly from our lives combined with relief for a creative, talented soul released from a body that had lost the ability to express itself. Getting older includes an increasing familiarity with death and its consequences. It becomes easier to place departed ones within the great pattern of life. Whether this is an example of wisdom or just a coping mechanism for our own inevitable mortality I do not know. I do know that Lynne Olka’s passing is a deeply felt loss for both myself and her close friend, gallery director James-Ben Stockton.
Although the images surrounding this text will help you understand, those of us who knew her personally immediately recognize why birds are such good symbols for Lynne and her life. They were the frequent subject of her art work. They were her dear friends and pets. “While I was always glad to see Lynne come in the door of the gallery,” says James-Ben Stockton, “it was such a special treat when she brought one or more of her parrots with her.” Her sister Bonnie remembers that she would carry fledgling parrots that she’d rescued in her sleeves as she went about her errands. It was her prismacolor blue jay image that came to mind when I saw that sassy bird in a walnut tree and knew exactly who would be the subject of this column. Aside from her painting, birds were Lynne’s passionate interest and it must be noted that she exemplified the old axiom about the resemblence between humans and their pets. With her large, round glasses and short hair and stature, Lynne often made me think of Archimedes, Merlin’s owl in “The Sword in the Stone”. When something engaged her interest, the glasses went swiftly to the top of her head and laser-like attention was directed at the source.
I previously shared with you some of Lynne’s biography - her birth in New York state and upbringing in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She was fortunate in being able to spend much of her working life in art-related fields such as illustration, design and layout for various print media. When I interviewed her for her feature in the Neighbor/Artist column, it was obvious that she got tremendous enjoyment from the work that combined her restless creativity and professional career. Hers was a life characterized by hard work and personal challenges; during her last years here in Greeneville, which we were privileged to share, she dealt with bouts of ill-health including severe allergies. James-Ben Stockton recalls that she shared her friendship through good and bad. “We would talk for hours, about all sorts of things,” he says. “Lynne was always interested in starting a new project. It pleased me that she used her interaction with the gallery, and the creativity it inspired, as a way of healing herself.” Over the past few years Lynne’s use of her talent in specific projects for James-Ben Art Center resulted in an amazing variety of art work. Handpainted reproductions of pages from the medieval St. Gall Gospel Book showed her mastery of illustration. Tiny framed Christmas ornaments revealed her affection for animals. Her gift for portraiture brought joy to local families and led to new growth as an artist. “In response to the gallery emphasis on art with historic themes, Lynne developed ‘story portraits’,” says James-Ben. “In these, she not only painted an historic figure but included items significant to that person’s life and career. Among her last works were images of Andrew Johnson and Davy Crockett. The Johnson image was one of the best contributions to our Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection.”
Like James-Ben, I am very sad for the departure of a friend. As with other talented artists, there is always regret for the creative works that will never be. But Lynne left us with a loving gift. My last memory of Lynne is of her throwing back her head in uproarious laughter as she told us stories of her youthful indiscretions. From the twinkle in her eye, I could tell she would have been happy to do them all again. It is always appropriate, at times of difficulty even more than when all is copacetic, to count your blessings. Lynne Olka was one of mine.
Goodbye, dear friend.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Neighbor Featured Artist #25: Nancy Jane Earnest
Nancy Jane Earnest Finds Authenticity in the Art of Life
There is a conventional wisdom belief that artists must suffer for their art and that success in one or more of the creative media comes only after the paying of one’s dues. The fact that devoting a life to art is seen as risky and likely to be unsuccessful explains why so many parents of budding artists have encouraged their offspring to “get a real job.” Yet the “neighbors” we’ve introduced in previous columns, as well as the delightful one we’ll meet in this one have given over both careers and lives to creative expression. The fact that so many of them have retained and continued throughout their lives the playful vision of their childhoods suggests to me that their art is as innate a part of them as their hair and eye color. Fortunately, conventional wisdom is often wrong. Not only are many artists successful in their own terms, many also have the good sense to realize that art is something to be enjoyed, not suffered over. Nancy Jane Earnest, native Greene Countian and a pixie-like self described “renegade painter”, has an ample sufficiency of this good sense, in equal measure with her talent and potent personal energy. If you don’t already know her, allow me to make the connection.
Since, in describing Nancy Jane, I just made reference to certain elfen qualities, don’t assume that this implies any delicacy in the expression and energy she gives to her art. Think of Tinker Belle portrayed by Dame Judi Dench and you’ll have a better picture. It takes a robust spirit to excel in writing, illustrating, painting, jewelry-making, and both vocal and instrumental music. “I am a perpetual student,” she says, “of art, music, and life.” Of all the vivid personalities profiled in this column, none has deeper roots in this area - Earnest is one of the oldest surnames in Greene County. In Nancy Jane’s case, it is appropriate to take her “perpetual student” label seriously. She holds three degrees from East Tennessee State University, a BS in English, an MFA in jewelry and metalsmithing, and a recent MA in counseling. “I will easily convince you that my life is a cultural banquet, filled with musical instruments to learn, concerts to attend, landscapes to paint, stories to write, and friendships to cultivate,” she says. The list of her accomplishments and activities is exhausting to read, let alone to imagine one person actually experiencing but since Nancy Jane is one of the first artists I met when I moved to Greeneville, I can attest both to the extent of her talents and the variety of their expressions. After gaining her MFA, she spent years in the world of goldsmithing, designing, creating, and repairing jewelry. She teaches art in several different media in creativity workshops, and music as a private instructor. This is juxtaposed with her own continuing studies in these same fields. She is sought after for her free lance work in writing and illustration. As a performer, she appears with the Johnson City Civic Chorale and the Johnson City Community Concert Band, and is the founder of Woodnote Early Music Ensemble. In painting, she has followed a similar template, studying with some of the country’s best known artists, exhibiting in both one person and group shows, and sharing these experiences through teaching. The completion of her Masters in counseling was an outgrowth of Nancy Jane’s lifestyle rather than a departure from it. She has created for herself a world in which art and life are inseparable and seamlessly connected. “My home is my studio; my life is my hobby,” she says. “I never intended to sit on the sidelines of life. I am a participant - a celebrant.”
Nancy Jane’s personal history is enrobed in creative experiences. In memories of her younger self, she recalls her habit of early rising as allowing for a lot of time spent amusing herself in the morning. “My bedroom was heated by a space heater that had a large flat top and was a light cream color. I remember placing pieces of broken crayon on top of the heater and watching as the colors swirled together when the crayons melted. Then I’d put a piece of paper on top to soak it up.” A second-grade success came with an award for a drawing of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Drawing expanded into painting, in a way that can still be seen in Nancy Jane’s distinctive richly textured impressionist style. “I was bitten by the painting bug at 12, when family friends gave me an oil painting set. Knowing nothing about how to use it, I just started squirting paint from those little tubes and I’ve been a renegade painter ever since.” During high school, her father gave her a Famous Artist correspondence course but she got the chance for formal training while at ETSU. “I’m proud of the fact that I received the very first jewelry MFA that ETSU gave,” she says. Her professor in this field proved to be an example of the best a university setting can offer, giving instruction in commercial production as well as the creation of artistic show pieces. One less than stellar painting teacher, she remembers, advised his students to “paint what you feel.” “And I felt it was a cop out. But looking back, it may have been good advice in that it helped me establish my own style early on.” Nancy Jane’s most recent degree in counseling meant a return to the world of academia but, as noted before, this more psychological field is not separate from the art that is her long-established way of experiencing life. “I’ve covered a lot of ground in all the years I’ve been a producing artist,” she says. “Something new for me would be the creation of a line of greeting cards that would feature my art work as well as my sentiments. It would be a form of subliminal counseling.”
“Nancy Jane and I have several places where our artistis world’s intersect,” says James-Ben Stockton, director of Greeneville’s regional art center. “I also studied metalsmithing in college with a particularly influential professor in that field. And as far as painting goes, a well done impressionist piece will always catch my eye. Nancy Jane’s new collection of landscapes, twelve by twelves in oil on gallery-wrapped canvas, are hanging where I can always see them when I’m working with clients.” For Greeneville locals who would like to get better acquainted with Nancy Jane Earnest and her art, James-Ben Art Center, which proudly represents her, is a fine place to begin.
There is a conventional wisdom belief that artists must suffer for their art and that success in one or more of the creative media comes only after the paying of one’s dues. The fact that devoting a life to art is seen as risky and likely to be unsuccessful explains why so many parents of budding artists have encouraged their offspring to “get a real job.” Yet the “neighbors” we’ve introduced in previous columns, as well as the delightful one we’ll meet in this one have given over both careers and lives to creative expression. The fact that so many of them have retained and continued throughout their lives the playful vision of their childhoods suggests to me that their art is as innate a part of them as their hair and eye color. Fortunately, conventional wisdom is often wrong. Not only are many artists successful in their own terms, many also have the good sense to realize that art is something to be enjoyed, not suffered over. Nancy Jane Earnest, native Greene Countian and a pixie-like self described “renegade painter”, has an ample sufficiency of this good sense, in equal measure with her talent and potent personal energy. If you don’t already know her, allow me to make the connection.
Since, in describing Nancy Jane, I just made reference to certain elfen qualities, don’t assume that this implies any delicacy in the expression and energy she gives to her art. Think of Tinker Belle portrayed by Dame Judi Dench and you’ll have a better picture. It takes a robust spirit to excel in writing, illustrating, painting, jewelry-making, and both vocal and instrumental music. “I am a perpetual student,” she says, “of art, music, and life.” Of all the vivid personalities profiled in this column, none has deeper roots in this area - Earnest is one of the oldest surnames in Greene County. In Nancy Jane’s case, it is appropriate to take her “perpetual student” label seriously. She holds three degrees from East Tennessee State University, a BS in English, an MFA in jewelry and metalsmithing, and a recent MA in counseling. “I will easily convince you that my life is a cultural banquet, filled with musical instruments to learn, concerts to attend, landscapes to paint, stories to write, and friendships to cultivate,” she says. The list of her accomplishments and activities is exhausting to read, let alone to imagine one person actually experiencing but since Nancy Jane is one of the first artists I met when I moved to Greeneville, I can attest both to the extent of her talents and the variety of their expressions. After gaining her MFA, she spent years in the world of goldsmithing, designing, creating, and repairing jewelry. She teaches art in several different media in creativity workshops, and music as a private instructor. This is juxtaposed with her own continuing studies in these same fields. She is sought after for her free lance work in writing and illustration. As a performer, she appears with the Johnson City Civic Chorale and the Johnson City Community Concert Band, and is the founder of Woodnote Early Music Ensemble. In painting, she has followed a similar template, studying with some of the country’s best known artists, exhibiting in both one person and group shows, and sharing these experiences through teaching. The completion of her Masters in counseling was an outgrowth of Nancy Jane’s lifestyle rather than a departure from it. She has created for herself a world in which art and life are inseparable and seamlessly connected. “My home is my studio; my life is my hobby,” she says. “I never intended to sit on the sidelines of life. I am a participant - a celebrant.”
Nancy Jane’s personal history is enrobed in creative experiences. In memories of her younger self, she recalls her habit of early rising as allowing for a lot of time spent amusing herself in the morning. “My bedroom was heated by a space heater that had a large flat top and was a light cream color. I remember placing pieces of broken crayon on top of the heater and watching as the colors swirled together when the crayons melted. Then I’d put a piece of paper on top to soak it up.” A second-grade success came with an award for a drawing of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Drawing expanded into painting, in a way that can still be seen in Nancy Jane’s distinctive richly textured impressionist style. “I was bitten by the painting bug at 12, when family friends gave me an oil painting set. Knowing nothing about how to use it, I just started squirting paint from those little tubes and I’ve been a renegade painter ever since.” During high school, her father gave her a Famous Artist correspondence course but she got the chance for formal training while at ETSU. “I’m proud of the fact that I received the very first jewelry MFA that ETSU gave,” she says. Her professor in this field proved to be an example of the best a university setting can offer, giving instruction in commercial production as well as the creation of artistic show pieces. One less than stellar painting teacher, she remembers, advised his students to “paint what you feel.” “And I felt it was a cop out. But looking back, it may have been good advice in that it helped me establish my own style early on.” Nancy Jane’s most recent degree in counseling meant a return to the world of academia but, as noted before, this more psychological field is not separate from the art that is her long-established way of experiencing life. “I’ve covered a lot of ground in all the years I’ve been a producing artist,” she says. “Something new for me would be the creation of a line of greeting cards that would feature my art work as well as my sentiments. It would be a form of subliminal counseling.”
“Nancy Jane and I have several places where our artistis world’s intersect,” says James-Ben Stockton, director of Greeneville’s regional art center. “I also studied metalsmithing in college with a particularly influential professor in that field. And as far as painting goes, a well done impressionist piece will always catch my eye. Nancy Jane’s new collection of landscapes, twelve by twelves in oil on gallery-wrapped canvas, are hanging where I can always see them when I’m working with clients.” For Greeneville locals who would like to get better acquainted with Nancy Jane Earnest and her art, James-Ben Art Center, which proudly represents her, is a fine place to begin.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Neighbor Featured Artist #24: Dell Hughes
Dell Hughes’ Talent Transforms Passionate Interests into Fine Art
In looking back over the list of 23 artists who’ve been featured under this byline, it is an understatement to describe the group as one of amazing diversity. When I was first asked to write this column, the name of the publication in which it appears, The Greeneville Neighbor, suggested an irresistible approach. The introduction of artists who are also among our neighbors in this community has made it possible to feature talented folks from the West Coast to upstate New York. But there is great satisfaction in turning the spotlight on the locals, those gifted individuals who are so much a part of the permanent community fabric that their talent is at risk of being taken for granted. Greeneville has benefited richly from the talent, dedication, and passionate energy of Dell Hughes. If you have attended a local theatrical production in the last twenty years, or visited local galleries and museums, or observed a Civil War reenactment, you have seen Dell’s wonderful work whether you realized it or not. So permit me to share with you some perspective that will enable you to give Dell Hughes the appreciation he has earned in Northeast Tennessee.
Most of our featured artists displayed an early talent for art, but Dell takes the cake in the “precocious” category. “I remember seeing a Mobil Oil sign with a Pegasus drawn on it,” he says. “I drew the winged horse and showed it to my mother. She didn’t believe I had drawn it so I turned the paper over and did it again. She still has that picture in a small frame. I was two and a half at the time. I’ve been drawing and painting ever since.” Even before starting school, Dell was defining his own artistic tastes. “I was reading and drawing pictures from comic books before I started the first grade,” he says. “I collected only certain types of comics with certain styles of artwork. I am a realist. The artwork had to be as detailed and as realistic as possible.” Throughout his life, Dell’s career and intense varied interests have both shaped and been expressed by his artistic efforts. Drawing and painting have broadened out into theater and film, sculpture and writing. A veteran of Vietnam, with service in both the Navy and the Army, Dell took up residence in Greeneville in the late 1980’s after a transfer from his work in Army recruiting. Born in Bradenton, Florida, of parents from South Carolina, Dell says he “never felt comfortable in the flat, hot terrain” of his native state. Early vacations in the mountains were a revelation. “I felt like I was coming home.” He met his wife Jane (who will be featured for her own artistry in this column) as his date for his high school prom. They married in 1970 and together made the move to Greene County in 1989. Dell’s affinity for the mountains proved to be no coincidence. As it happens, his family had roots in Northeast Tennessee, with branches from the Hughes family tree living in the area since before the Revolutionary War. Hughes Tavern, owned by Dell’s family, was a meeting place for John Sevier and the men planning to carve out a new state from the North Carolina territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. In Dell’s case, ancestry has taken the form of more than just a geographic attraction. “My family owned and operated a trading community near Cumberland Gap. They not only sold goods but made them, which is probably where my creativity comes from.” The variety of media in which Dell is proficient he attributes both to this genetic heritage as well as his technical work in theater, motion pictures, and reenacting. “Getting involved with theater groups and the movie industry allowed me to see that there was an outlet for my interest in creating things that did not exist and recreating things that did.” This talent was even useful in Army recruitment, for which Dell created a life-size John Wayne figure in complete battle gear, which traveled with him to schools and colleges. The result of his varied interests and love of detail has been work in an amazing array of creative forms. “I can turn my hand to metalworking, woodworking, tailoring, leathercraft, painting, and sculpting to create a piece of some historic period,” he says.
Theatergoers in this area have appreciated Dell’s talents, both as a performer and in his technical wizardry, for years. His love of history has found an outlet in reenacting drawn from several segments of America’s past, which has taken the form of both performing and craftsmanship. “For many of my interests in reenacting there is involved a duplicating of items: clothing and equipment that is no longer available.” But this affection for earlier times has also found expression for Dell in the form of fine art. In collaboration with artist/historian Dr. Robert Orr and popular local artist Joe Kilday, Dell co-created historic-themed murals for the Nathanael Greene Museum, including a panoramic image of Greeneville in the 1860’s which has appeared on a museum-fund raiser postcard and on the cover of Orr’s biography of Andrew Johnson. Sculpturally, Dell has brought forth busts of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and of Andrew Johnson, the latter featured as part of the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center. It is these pieces that reflect Dell’s current emphasis and future direction. “I have really been doing more and more sculpting,” he says. “I enjoy recreating people in miniature and even life size. For the last three years I have been selling 12” articulated recreations of the characters from the old TV series Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. I hold the copyright on these figures and have sets of them in nine countries and more than half the states in the U.S.” This variety of expression defines Dell’s course in the future and is also something of a life plan. “I guess I’m more of a pseudo-Da Vinci in that I do art and also design gadgets and build stuff,” he says. “My art and theater keeps me young and active. I plan to retire at the age of 237.”
Such anticipated longevity gives Northeast Tennesseans a lot to look forward to from Dell Hughes. His work, featuring the Andrew Johnson bust for the Bicentennial Celebration Collection, is available with great pride at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery art Center.
In looking back over the list of 23 artists who’ve been featured under this byline, it is an understatement to describe the group as one of amazing diversity. When I was first asked to write this column, the name of the publication in which it appears, The Greeneville Neighbor, suggested an irresistible approach. The introduction of artists who are also among our neighbors in this community has made it possible to feature talented folks from the West Coast to upstate New York. But there is great satisfaction in turning the spotlight on the locals, those gifted individuals who are so much a part of the permanent community fabric that their talent is at risk of being taken for granted. Greeneville has benefited richly from the talent, dedication, and passionate energy of Dell Hughes. If you have attended a local theatrical production in the last twenty years, or visited local galleries and museums, or observed a Civil War reenactment, you have seen Dell’s wonderful work whether you realized it or not. So permit me to share with you some perspective that will enable you to give Dell Hughes the appreciation he has earned in Northeast Tennessee.
Most of our featured artists displayed an early talent for art, but Dell takes the cake in the “precocious” category. “I remember seeing a Mobil Oil sign with a Pegasus drawn on it,” he says. “I drew the winged horse and showed it to my mother. She didn’t believe I had drawn it so I turned the paper over and did it again. She still has that picture in a small frame. I was two and a half at the time. I’ve been drawing and painting ever since.” Even before starting school, Dell was defining his own artistic tastes. “I was reading and drawing pictures from comic books before I started the first grade,” he says. “I collected only certain types of comics with certain styles of artwork. I am a realist. The artwork had to be as detailed and as realistic as possible.” Throughout his life, Dell’s career and intense varied interests have both shaped and been expressed by his artistic efforts. Drawing and painting have broadened out into theater and film, sculpture and writing. A veteran of Vietnam, with service in both the Navy and the Army, Dell took up residence in Greeneville in the late 1980’s after a transfer from his work in Army recruiting. Born in Bradenton, Florida, of parents from South Carolina, Dell says he “never felt comfortable in the flat, hot terrain” of his native state. Early vacations in the mountains were a revelation. “I felt like I was coming home.” He met his wife Jane (who will be featured for her own artistry in this column) as his date for his high school prom. They married in 1970 and together made the move to Greene County in 1989. Dell’s affinity for the mountains proved to be no coincidence. As it happens, his family had roots in Northeast Tennessee, with branches from the Hughes family tree living in the area since before the Revolutionary War. Hughes Tavern, owned by Dell’s family, was a meeting place for John Sevier and the men planning to carve out a new state from the North Carolina territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. In Dell’s case, ancestry has taken the form of more than just a geographic attraction. “My family owned and operated a trading community near Cumberland Gap. They not only sold goods but made them, which is probably where my creativity comes from.” The variety of media in which Dell is proficient he attributes both to this genetic heritage as well as his technical work in theater, motion pictures, and reenacting. “Getting involved with theater groups and the movie industry allowed me to see that there was an outlet for my interest in creating things that did not exist and recreating things that did.” This talent was even useful in Army recruitment, for which Dell created a life-size John Wayne figure in complete battle gear, which traveled with him to schools and colleges. The result of his varied interests and love of detail has been work in an amazing array of creative forms. “I can turn my hand to metalworking, woodworking, tailoring, leathercraft, painting, and sculpting to create a piece of some historic period,” he says.
Theatergoers in this area have appreciated Dell’s talents, both as a performer and in his technical wizardry, for years. His love of history has found an outlet in reenacting drawn from several segments of America’s past, which has taken the form of both performing and craftsmanship. “For many of my interests in reenacting there is involved a duplicating of items: clothing and equipment that is no longer available.” But this affection for earlier times has also found expression for Dell in the form of fine art. In collaboration with artist/historian Dr. Robert Orr and popular local artist Joe Kilday, Dell co-created historic-themed murals for the Nathanael Greene Museum, including a panoramic image of Greeneville in the 1860’s which has appeared on a museum-fund raiser postcard and on the cover of Orr’s biography of Andrew Johnson. Sculpturally, Dell has brought forth busts of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and of Andrew Johnson, the latter featured as part of the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center. It is these pieces that reflect Dell’s current emphasis and future direction. “I have really been doing more and more sculpting,” he says. “I enjoy recreating people in miniature and even life size. For the last three years I have been selling 12” articulated recreations of the characters from the old TV series Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. I hold the copyright on these figures and have sets of them in nine countries and more than half the states in the U.S.” This variety of expression defines Dell’s course in the future and is also something of a life plan. “I guess I’m more of a pseudo-Da Vinci in that I do art and also design gadgets and build stuff,” he says. “My art and theater keeps me young and active. I plan to retire at the age of 237.”
Such anticipated longevity gives Northeast Tennesseans a lot to look forward to from Dell Hughes. His work, featuring the Andrew Johnson bust for the Bicentennial Celebration Collection, is available with great pride at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery art Center.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Neighbor Featured Artist #23: Jane Wilson
Jane Wilson Shows Mastery in the Art of Chocolate
It occurs to me that all of the artists introduced and explored in previous columns have something in common. Their creations have longevity. Paintings, sculptures, quilts, and even songs endure long after those who have made them pass into history. So it must be observed that the definition of art cannot be based on the length of existence of its expressions. Ice sculpture is an art but it melts. Live theater is an art that exists only until the final curtain comes down. Wine-making is an art that ends when the bottle is empty. Fine food is one of the arts that is most universally appreciated but which disappears when the meal is over. Among the culinary arts, chocolate making is near the top. So Jane Wilson, proprietor and resident artist of Blue Ridge Chocolates, should attract your interest. Whether you know her already or are just meeting her in this feature, she is, by the very nature of her specialty, one of the most popular artists in Northeast Tennessee.
Jane’s chocolate has a European heritage. Her first encounter with confections was as a child and came from the impeccable hands of her German grandmother, who owned a chocolate shop in Washington, D.C. “I remember the first time I was ever in that shop,” she says. “A lady sat with her hand on a block of milk chocolate. The heat from her hand melted the chocolate and coated her palm. Then she’d coat a nut meat with the chocolate in her hand and set it on a tray with a whirling motion that made a pattern on each individual candy. I was hooked.” In practical terms, the quality that raises Jane’s own European sweets out of the ordinary comes from more than just the use of organic creams and fair trade Belgian chocolates. It comes from darker chocolate which yields a bonus in both anti-oxidants and flavor. It comes from the fact that she makes her own marzipan (starting from the whole nut), that delectable almond based paste that has the ability to take both shapes and colors. Above all, it is the fact that she brings both artistry and playfullness to her her confections that makes them irresistible.
Jane Wilson speaks with the beautiful cadence of East Tennessee and grew up near Elizabethton. The culinary arts were a family tradition; in addition to her grandmother, both her mother and aunt were caterers. Although she spent years as a resort hotel chef, her affinity with art extends into other media, particularly textile design. “My mother told me that my first creation was done when I was three and was given a needle and thread. I sewed the clothes I was wearing to the carpet.” She later studied at the Art Center Association in Louisville, and design at both ETSU and Eastern Kentucky University. Her early “attachment” to textiles led to a career in their design, with her products eventually collected in several different countries. More of her working life was spent as a chef at hotels in North Carolina. With her return to her childhood home in East Tennessee came also a return to her earliest memories of fine foods, her grandmother’s chocolate shop. “I came home both in geography and in making chocolate, which is something I really enjoy. I guess it was working my way back home.” She recalls the elegant small dinners her grandmother hosted, complete with chocolate leaves pealed from dipped rose petals, and petit fours made with candied rose petals from her tiny garden. The inventiveness of Jane’s creations; truffles, molded chocolate eggs filled with chocolate bunnies and orchids, woven birds nests with marzipan eggs, shortbreads with impressionist-style irises painted in icing, white chocolate frogs on royal-icing lily pads, chocolate bears or motorcycles on cookies, bear paws with caramel pads and almond claws; come not only from her design skills and art training but from her family role models. “My mother was a craftsperson in addition to her cooking skills. My father, who was in industrial design, taught me to think like an engineer. Making what you needed with your own hands was normal.” In her own business, Blue Ridge Chocolates, this innate inventiveness adds charm to Jane’s confections, in which marzipan carrots get their color from saffron and cranberry juice with green chlorophyll tops recreated from the memory of Jane’s grass-stained jeans.
With such artistry as part of her nature, it’s little wonder Jane Wilson found her way into James-Ben Gallery in Greeneville. “She came in, presented a tray of chocolates on the counter in front of me and said ‘this is what I do with my art school training’ ,“ recalls gallery owner James-Ben Stockton. “In her playfulness and splendid creativity, she is so much like other artists I work with except that her medium is chocolate, which has an amazing ability to bring people in the front door.” Like other affiliate artists with the gallery, she is willing to accept individual commissions. “I love to do special things for people”, she says. This proved particularly timely at a moment when Stockton was challenging his artists to create pieces to celebrate the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial. Jane responded with a gingerbread replica of the Johnson Tailor Shop, from which the dark chocolate roof can be removed to reveal Tennessee Truffles, with dark chocolate enrobing a molasses buttercream filling, a co-creation of Jane Wilson and Stockton, who conducts cooking classes himself. “Marquis Mountain South is planning a focus piece on Jane, the gingerbread Tailor Shop, and the Tennessee Truffle in their august issue,” he says.
In meeting Jane Wilson of Blue Ridge Chocolates, folks in this area have a great deal to look forward to. Even more than the availability of her confections at James-Ben Gallery, and the likelihood of more original creations in chocolate in the future, is the prospect of learning some of Jane’s secrets. “I’d enjoy teaching the craft and business of chocolate,” she says. Plans are being completed for a 3 day chocolate workshop to be offered this fall at the Gallery.
Blue Ridge Chocolates, for a discreet individual indulgence, a sampling selection, or in basic large quantity, can be found at James-Ben Gallery in downtown Greeneville.
It occurs to me that all of the artists introduced and explored in previous columns have something in common. Their creations have longevity. Paintings, sculptures, quilts, and even songs endure long after those who have made them pass into history. So it must be observed that the definition of art cannot be based on the length of existence of its expressions. Ice sculpture is an art but it melts. Live theater is an art that exists only until the final curtain comes down. Wine-making is an art that ends when the bottle is empty. Fine food is one of the arts that is most universally appreciated but which disappears when the meal is over. Among the culinary arts, chocolate making is near the top. So Jane Wilson, proprietor and resident artist of Blue Ridge Chocolates, should attract your interest. Whether you know her already or are just meeting her in this feature, she is, by the very nature of her specialty, one of the most popular artists in Northeast Tennessee.
Jane’s chocolate has a European heritage. Her first encounter with confections was as a child and came from the impeccable hands of her German grandmother, who owned a chocolate shop in Washington, D.C. “I remember the first time I was ever in that shop,” she says. “A lady sat with her hand on a block of milk chocolate. The heat from her hand melted the chocolate and coated her palm. Then she’d coat a nut meat with the chocolate in her hand and set it on a tray with a whirling motion that made a pattern on each individual candy. I was hooked.” In practical terms, the quality that raises Jane’s own European sweets out of the ordinary comes from more than just the use of organic creams and fair trade Belgian chocolates. It comes from darker chocolate which yields a bonus in both anti-oxidants and flavor. It comes from the fact that she makes her own marzipan (starting from the whole nut), that delectable almond based paste that has the ability to take both shapes and colors. Above all, it is the fact that she brings both artistry and playfullness to her her confections that makes them irresistible.
Jane Wilson speaks with the beautiful cadence of East Tennessee and grew up near Elizabethton. The culinary arts were a family tradition; in addition to her grandmother, both her mother and aunt were caterers. Although she spent years as a resort hotel chef, her affinity with art extends into other media, particularly textile design. “My mother told me that my first creation was done when I was three and was given a needle and thread. I sewed the clothes I was wearing to the carpet.” She later studied at the Art Center Association in Louisville, and design at both ETSU and Eastern Kentucky University. Her early “attachment” to textiles led to a career in their design, with her products eventually collected in several different countries. More of her working life was spent as a chef at hotels in North Carolina. With her return to her childhood home in East Tennessee came also a return to her earliest memories of fine foods, her grandmother’s chocolate shop. “I came home both in geography and in making chocolate, which is something I really enjoy. I guess it was working my way back home.” She recalls the elegant small dinners her grandmother hosted, complete with chocolate leaves pealed from dipped rose petals, and petit fours made with candied rose petals from her tiny garden. The inventiveness of Jane’s creations; truffles, molded chocolate eggs filled with chocolate bunnies and orchids, woven birds nests with marzipan eggs, shortbreads with impressionist-style irises painted in icing, white chocolate frogs on royal-icing lily pads, chocolate bears or motorcycles on cookies, bear paws with caramel pads and almond claws; come not only from her design skills and art training but from her family role models. “My mother was a craftsperson in addition to her cooking skills. My father, who was in industrial design, taught me to think like an engineer. Making what you needed with your own hands was normal.” In her own business, Blue Ridge Chocolates, this innate inventiveness adds charm to Jane’s confections, in which marzipan carrots get their color from saffron and cranberry juice with green chlorophyll tops recreated from the memory of Jane’s grass-stained jeans.
With such artistry as part of her nature, it’s little wonder Jane Wilson found her way into James-Ben Gallery in Greeneville. “She came in, presented a tray of chocolates on the counter in front of me and said ‘this is what I do with my art school training’ ,“ recalls gallery owner James-Ben Stockton. “In her playfulness and splendid creativity, she is so much like other artists I work with except that her medium is chocolate, which has an amazing ability to bring people in the front door.” Like other affiliate artists with the gallery, she is willing to accept individual commissions. “I love to do special things for people”, she says. This proved particularly timely at a moment when Stockton was challenging his artists to create pieces to celebrate the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial. Jane responded with a gingerbread replica of the Johnson Tailor Shop, from which the dark chocolate roof can be removed to reveal Tennessee Truffles, with dark chocolate enrobing a molasses buttercream filling, a co-creation of Jane Wilson and Stockton, who conducts cooking classes himself. “Marquis Mountain South is planning a focus piece on Jane, the gingerbread Tailor Shop, and the Tennessee Truffle in their august issue,” he says.
In meeting Jane Wilson of Blue Ridge Chocolates, folks in this area have a great deal to look forward to. Even more than the availability of her confections at James-Ben Gallery, and the likelihood of more original creations in chocolate in the future, is the prospect of learning some of Jane’s secrets. “I’d enjoy teaching the craft and business of chocolate,” she says. Plans are being completed for a 3 day chocolate workshop to be offered this fall at the Gallery.
Blue Ridge Chocolates, for a discreet individual indulgence, a sampling selection, or in basic large quantity, can be found at James-Ben Gallery in downtown Greeneville.
Neighbor Featured Artist #22: Dane Hinkle on CD Baby
Dane Hinkle Spreading His Wings as Independent Singer/Songwriter
Folks who read this column know who Dane Hinkle is because of his music and his previous feature as a Neighbor artist. But now, so do music lovers in Germany, England, Japan - and all over the world. When something wonderful happens to one of your neighbors, you want to know about it. Dane is a rising star among independent musicians who have discovered that the Internet has the power to reach a global audience and the flexibility to let ordinary people with extraordinary talent stay true to their roots while letting their light shine forth. His evocative blend of folk and rock with a base of soulful harmonica has caught your ear for the past several years. Now CD Baby, one of the world’s largest online CD distributors and sources for digital downloads, currently has Dane's latest CD “Me Now” premiered at #21 among its Editor’s Picks in the acid rock genre. CD Baby was founded in the late 1990’s by a full-time independent musician as a means to sell his own music online. His efforts attracted the attention of musician friends and colleagues in a similar situation and grew into a thriving business. CD Baby has been described as the “utopian” online store for independent musicians; the artists get most of the income from their sales and deal with a distributor that values the integrity of those it represents. CD Baby operates from four solid principles – its artists are paid weekly, they receive contact information about the fans who buy their products, there are no minimum sales in order to stay on the active roster, and the company accepts no advertising or paid placement of music. Every CD distributed has been “juried”; listened to and given the thumbs up or down by the CD Baby staff. Since 2004, the online company has offered the option of digital music downloads through such sources as Apple iTunes, Emusic, and Napster. Nearly a quarter of a million musicians make their work available through CD Baby, making Dane Hinkle’s current place among the editors picks especially worthy of bragging rights. Since its founding, the company has sold more than 4.5 million CD’s worldwide and paid out more than 75 million dollars to independent musicians.. For Dane Hinkle, music was the focus through which he healed the emotional wounds of years of dangerous work as a smoke jumper firefighter. For the past seven years, the writing, performing, and recording of his own music and songs has become an increasing commitment through which he’s traveled a long road in a short amount of time. “I guess I’m most comfortable with the label ‘singer/songwriter’,” he says. While speaking very little about the hazardous work that is now a part of his past, he acknowledges its worth in the music he’s now expressing. “The most important thing I’ve learned is that you can’t be afraid of what’s coming out of you. Music is about emotion and the experiences I had out in the field gave me some scary lessons in what ‘real’ feels like. Your emotions were completely uncensored.” His early efforts in song-writing came through from dreams and he still receives inspiration from this source. Much of the distinctive style that can be heard on Dane's recordings is the result of his need to manage his own spontaneity. “I bought my own recording studio because I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a song. I can stumble over and get the basics laid down and then I don’t have to try and remember it when I wake up in the morning.” He took the same care in mastering the technical aspects of recording as he has in writing and performing his music, spending about a year becoming proficient with his digital recording equipment. He plays all the instruments as well as doing all the vocals on his recordings because it gives him greater control over the final sound. “I think wanting that degree of control isn’t so much ego as it is being honest,” he says. “A painter wouldn’t be happy letting someone else put the final brush strokes on a landscape or portrait. I sit in the studio and the music is what comes out of me. Some people, even kids who aren’t old enough to remember, say my songs take them back to the ‘60’s. But I’m just letting it come out, not making a statement – if they hear politics or protest, it’s because essential, powerful, defining music was such an part of the ‘60’s." I was interested that CD Baby described the “Me Now” CD as a mix of Piedmont blues, rockabilly, and acid rock.” Because of the spontaneity of his creative style, Dane has taught himself to do all his own instrumentation as a matter of convenience. As a result, he can capably find his way around vocals and bass, lead electric, and acoustic guitars. “I really feel like I’m most proficient on the harmonica,” he says. “I also like to play with other bands and do some harmonica solos but not as the front man.” But he also feels that his one-man approach to producing his music has created some of the attraction generating its increasing popularity. “Since the harmonica is what I do best, I feel that the music is noticed and picked because it has the element of sincerity and simplicity – the sound isn’t overproduced because I’m not as proficient with the other instruments.” Even with a finished product that is notable for simplicity, Dane is aware of an increasing commitment to his music - “I put more than 2000 hours of studio time into ‘Me Now’.” – and pleased with both his own progress and the reaction he’s getting. “I like it that the kids are picking up on my songs. It’s that 1960’s connection – we’re getting back to a place where the changes around us are reflected by the music we make and listen to. I don’t know what the odds are of having gotten this degree of recognition from such self-made creativity in such a short amount of time.” Dane Hinkle can be heard in live performances here in Greeneville, including regular Thursday appearances in the Brumley at the General Morgan Inn and at Ella’s, now open on East Andrew Johnson Highway next to Popcorn Video. His CD’s are proudly available locally at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center, and online both in CD form and in digital downloads (including #21, Editor’s Pick acid rock, “Me Now”) at CD Baby.
Folks who read this column know who Dane Hinkle is because of his music and his previous feature as a Neighbor artist. But now, so do music lovers in Germany, England, Japan - and all over the world. When something wonderful happens to one of your neighbors, you want to know about it. Dane is a rising star among independent musicians who have discovered that the Internet has the power to reach a global audience and the flexibility to let ordinary people with extraordinary talent stay true to their roots while letting their light shine forth. His evocative blend of folk and rock with a base of soulful harmonica has caught your ear for the past several years. Now CD Baby, one of the world’s largest online CD distributors and sources for digital downloads, currently has Dane's latest CD “Me Now” premiered at #21 among its Editor’s Picks in the acid rock genre. CD Baby was founded in the late 1990’s by a full-time independent musician as a means to sell his own music online. His efforts attracted the attention of musician friends and colleagues in a similar situation and grew into a thriving business. CD Baby has been described as the “utopian” online store for independent musicians; the artists get most of the income from their sales and deal with a distributor that values the integrity of those it represents. CD Baby operates from four solid principles – its artists are paid weekly, they receive contact information about the fans who buy their products, there are no minimum sales in order to stay on the active roster, and the company accepts no advertising or paid placement of music. Every CD distributed has been “juried”; listened to and given the thumbs up or down by the CD Baby staff. Since 2004, the online company has offered the option of digital music downloads through such sources as Apple iTunes, Emusic, and Napster. Nearly a quarter of a million musicians make their work available through CD Baby, making Dane Hinkle’s current place among the editors picks especially worthy of bragging rights. Since its founding, the company has sold more than 4.5 million CD’s worldwide and paid out more than 75 million dollars to independent musicians.. For Dane Hinkle, music was the focus through which he healed the emotional wounds of years of dangerous work as a smoke jumper firefighter. For the past seven years, the writing, performing, and recording of his own music and songs has become an increasing commitment through which he’s traveled a long road in a short amount of time. “I guess I’m most comfortable with the label ‘singer/songwriter’,” he says. While speaking very little about the hazardous work that is now a part of his past, he acknowledges its worth in the music he’s now expressing. “The most important thing I’ve learned is that you can’t be afraid of what’s coming out of you. Music is about emotion and the experiences I had out in the field gave me some scary lessons in what ‘real’ feels like. Your emotions were completely uncensored.” His early efforts in song-writing came through from dreams and he still receives inspiration from this source. Much of the distinctive style that can be heard on Dane's recordings is the result of his need to manage his own spontaneity. “I bought my own recording studio because I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a song. I can stumble over and get the basics laid down and then I don’t have to try and remember it when I wake up in the morning.” He took the same care in mastering the technical aspects of recording as he has in writing and performing his music, spending about a year becoming proficient with his digital recording equipment. He plays all the instruments as well as doing all the vocals on his recordings because it gives him greater control over the final sound. “I think wanting that degree of control isn’t so much ego as it is being honest,” he says. “A painter wouldn’t be happy letting someone else put the final brush strokes on a landscape or portrait. I sit in the studio and the music is what comes out of me. Some people, even kids who aren’t old enough to remember, say my songs take them back to the ‘60’s. But I’m just letting it come out, not making a statement – if they hear politics or protest, it’s because essential, powerful, defining music was such an part of the ‘60’s." I was interested that CD Baby described the “Me Now” CD as a mix of Piedmont blues, rockabilly, and acid rock.” Because of the spontaneity of his creative style, Dane has taught himself to do all his own instrumentation as a matter of convenience. As a result, he can capably find his way around vocals and bass, lead electric, and acoustic guitars. “I really feel like I’m most proficient on the harmonica,” he says. “I also like to play with other bands and do some harmonica solos but not as the front man.” But he also feels that his one-man approach to producing his music has created some of the attraction generating its increasing popularity. “Since the harmonica is what I do best, I feel that the music is noticed and picked because it has the element of sincerity and simplicity – the sound isn’t overproduced because I’m not as proficient with the other instruments.” Even with a finished product that is notable for simplicity, Dane is aware of an increasing commitment to his music - “I put more than 2000 hours of studio time into ‘Me Now’.” – and pleased with both his own progress and the reaction he’s getting. “I like it that the kids are picking up on my songs. It’s that 1960’s connection – we’re getting back to a place where the changes around us are reflected by the music we make and listen to. I don’t know what the odds are of having gotten this degree of recognition from such self-made creativity in such a short amount of time.” Dane Hinkle can be heard in live performances here in Greeneville, including regular Thursday appearances in the Brumley at the General Morgan Inn and at Ella’s, now open on East Andrew Johnson Highway next to Popcorn Video. His CD’s are proudly available locally at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center, and online both in CD form and in digital downloads (including #21, Editor’s Pick acid rock, “Me Now”) at CD Baby.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Neighbor Featured Artist #21: "Dusty" Anderson
Artist Dusty Anderson An Innovator in Glass Imagery
I have a confession to make. Even though I consider myself an artist, I can’t draw worth a flip. In previous columns you’ve heard me go on about how broadly I define art, how many different expressions it can take, and all that is absolutely true. That being said, maybe it’s fair to say that we really admire the things we can’t do ourselves. So in my heart of hearts, my greatest admiration in art is reserved for the artists I designate with a capital A, - those who who can draw. Something about the ability to create in lifelike two dimensions that which actually exists in three seems miraculous to me. Many years spent in association with the arts has not lessened this feeling for me. If anything, becoming informed about the many different ways images can be created has widened my appreciation for them all. When I find a new technique that I haven’t seen before, it’s like discovering art all over again. This was my reaction on first seeing the work of Dusty Anderson, whose creations in glass bridge the gap between drawing and carving. It is for situations like this that I’m glad that this column includes visual images so you don’t have to rely on my descriptions to appreciate Dusty’s pieces. I’ll be very much surprised if you don’t find them as amazing as I did.
Dusty Anderson is from Michigan by birth, from the South by upbringing, and a free spirit by inclination. “My Father’s job moved us to Alabama when I was young,” she says. “Growing up on the Chattahoochee River had to have helped shape my love for wildlife art.” She displayed a talent for drawing and illustration while in high school, and did “silly cartoon t-shirts for classmates”, even realizing that she could earn some money along the way. But this creativity was self-guided. “Growing up and going to small schools meant that I never had any art classes until I attended college.” Encouragement for Dusty, not only to draw but to think creatively and originally, came from her mother. “She provided blank paper and colors instead of coloring books,” she says. In her late teens, she went out on her own to, as she says to “find myself”. She supported herself with her art work and by her sign painting skills. In the 1980’s, Dusty’s mother encouraged her to go back to school to see if she could channel her talent into a career in advertising design. “I enjoyed the life drawing class,” she says, “but I found I was a ‘mood-drawer’ . I could meet the assignment deadlines but found that I didn’t do my best work under those restrictions.” She also encountered an experience common to many good artists, including several featured in this column. “I was told by a teacher that everything I knew about drawing and art was wrong - that I had to forget it and learn how to do it their way. That irked me, since I had been selling my art since I was fifteen and figured my way couldn’t be all wrong.” James-Ben Stockton, local director of Greeneville’s regional gallery,who appreciated Dusty’s work from the moment she walked through his front door, wasn’t surprised to hear this story. “I have had so many good artists tell of being victimized by bad art teachers that it seems like a sort of rite of passage for them. The only positive thing I can say about such experiences is that, for the artists who persevere inspite of such treatment, these experiences seem to motivate them to be true to their own originality.” Toward the end of her college soujourn, Dusty got the chance to paint the lettering on the town’s water tower. “I knew then that a degree in advertising design wasn’t going to be for me.”
The pathway into her current art form, which is engraving/carving on glass, came from a personal motivation. “I had an old van that I’d painted a dusty rose,” she says. “I wanted roses carved into the windows and found someone who could do the work but who quoted me more than I could afford. Being an artist myself, I decided to try my hand at it and have really enjoyed developing my technique into the fine lines and details that I’m able to achieve now.” The subject matter for Dusty’s pieces was influenced by those childhood memories of growing up on Alabama’s Chattahoochee River. Wolves, deer, turkeys, owls, bears, and racoons have come to life through her artistry. (As a heads-up to the families of outdoorsmen in the area, these pieces would make wonderful Father’s Day gifts!) Dusty’s skill has recently led her to branch out into portraiture in glass. A fine example is a marvelous image of Andrew Johnson, done in honor of the 17th president’s 200th birthday (http://www.james-ben.com/johnson_collection.htm). Dusty can work from photographs and notes that portraits are not necessarily limited to people. “Her motorcycle portraits are dynamite,” says gallery director Stockton. Dusty’s work is available by individual commission.
Like many others, Dusty Anderson has found this region to be a wonderful haven for a restless soul. “Over the years, I’ve moved around this fantastic country quite a bit, but when I found East Tennessee, I feel I’ve finally come home.” As with other creative transplants to the area, the move has been both satisfying and stimulating. “By meeting other artists and going to art shows, I’m constantly finding new forms of art I’d like to try,” she says. Considering the success of her current creativity, the possibilities for Dusty are worthy of eager anticipation. Her work is locally available and original commissions can be arranged through James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
I have a confession to make. Even though I consider myself an artist, I can’t draw worth a flip. In previous columns you’ve heard me go on about how broadly I define art, how many different expressions it can take, and all that is absolutely true. That being said, maybe it’s fair to say that we really admire the things we can’t do ourselves. So in my heart of hearts, my greatest admiration in art is reserved for the artists I designate with a capital A, - those who who can draw. Something about the ability to create in lifelike two dimensions that which actually exists in three seems miraculous to me. Many years spent in association with the arts has not lessened this feeling for me. If anything, becoming informed about the many different ways images can be created has widened my appreciation for them all. When I find a new technique that I haven’t seen before, it’s like discovering art all over again. This was my reaction on first seeing the work of Dusty Anderson, whose creations in glass bridge the gap between drawing and carving. It is for situations like this that I’m glad that this column includes visual images so you don’t have to rely on my descriptions to appreciate Dusty’s pieces. I’ll be very much surprised if you don’t find them as amazing as I did.
Dusty Anderson is from Michigan by birth, from the South by upbringing, and a free spirit by inclination. “My Father’s job moved us to Alabama when I was young,” she says. “Growing up on the Chattahoochee River had to have helped shape my love for wildlife art.” She displayed a talent for drawing and illustration while in high school, and did “silly cartoon t-shirts for classmates”, even realizing that she could earn some money along the way. But this creativity was self-guided. “Growing up and going to small schools meant that I never had any art classes until I attended college.” Encouragement for Dusty, not only to draw but to think creatively and originally, came from her mother. “She provided blank paper and colors instead of coloring books,” she says. In her late teens, she went out on her own to, as she says to “find myself”. She supported herself with her art work and by her sign painting skills. In the 1980’s, Dusty’s mother encouraged her to go back to school to see if she could channel her talent into a career in advertising design. “I enjoyed the life drawing class,” she says, “but I found I was a ‘mood-drawer’ . I could meet the assignment deadlines but found that I didn’t do my best work under those restrictions.” She also encountered an experience common to many good artists, including several featured in this column. “I was told by a teacher that everything I knew about drawing and art was wrong - that I had to forget it and learn how to do it their way. That irked me, since I had been selling my art since I was fifteen and figured my way couldn’t be all wrong.” James-Ben Stockton, local director of Greeneville’s regional gallery,who appreciated Dusty’s work from the moment she walked through his front door, wasn’t surprised to hear this story. “I have had so many good artists tell of being victimized by bad art teachers that it seems like a sort of rite of passage for them. The only positive thing I can say about such experiences is that, for the artists who persevere inspite of such treatment, these experiences seem to motivate them to be true to their own originality.” Toward the end of her college soujourn, Dusty got the chance to paint the lettering on the town’s water tower. “I knew then that a degree in advertising design wasn’t going to be for me.”
The pathway into her current art form, which is engraving/carving on glass, came from a personal motivation. “I had an old van that I’d painted a dusty rose,” she says. “I wanted roses carved into the windows and found someone who could do the work but who quoted me more than I could afford. Being an artist myself, I decided to try my hand at it and have really enjoyed developing my technique into the fine lines and details that I’m able to achieve now.” The subject matter for Dusty’s pieces was influenced by those childhood memories of growing up on Alabama’s Chattahoochee River. Wolves, deer, turkeys, owls, bears, and racoons have come to life through her artistry. (As a heads-up to the families of outdoorsmen in the area, these pieces would make wonderful Father’s Day gifts!) Dusty’s skill has recently led her to branch out into portraiture in glass. A fine example is a marvelous image of Andrew Johnson, done in honor of the 17th president’s 200th birthday (http://www.james-ben.com/johnson_collection.htm). Dusty can work from photographs and notes that portraits are not necessarily limited to people. “Her motorcycle portraits are dynamite,” says gallery director Stockton. Dusty’s work is available by individual commission.
Like many others, Dusty Anderson has found this region to be a wonderful haven for a restless soul. “Over the years, I’ve moved around this fantastic country quite a bit, but when I found East Tennessee, I feel I’ve finally come home.” As with other creative transplants to the area, the move has been both satisfying and stimulating. “By meeting other artists and going to art shows, I’m constantly finding new forms of art I’d like to try,” she says. Considering the success of her current creativity, the possibilities for Dusty are worthy of eager anticipation. Her work is locally available and original commissions can be arranged through James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Neighbor Featured Artist #20: H.R. Lovell
Tennessee’s Artist-in-Residence Maintains a Presence in Greeneville
Isn’t it interesting how often treasures are found in unexpected places? Although great cities like Paris, New York, and Chicago are celebrated as the centers of fine art, with many opportunities for students seeking to launch their careers, quite often it is the countryside that produces artists of true genius. In such cases, it can seem that providence places creative doorways in the paths of folks unaware of their own potential. Once through the doorway, they seem to enter a place where serendipity rules, so that one connection leads to another, and creative advancement accelerates. A good example of this happenstance is found in the story of H.R. Lovell, Tennessee’s Artist-in-Residence, and a self-described “farmer who paints.” Twice now in the last ten years, the General Assembly has selected him to represent and exemplify our state at its best. With roots deep in agriculture, and from a farm that might be found in any one of Tennessee’s three regions, Lovell truly does embody the state in which he was born. As someone whose paintings were first shown in Greeneville more than five years ago, he is an artist/neighbor worth spending some quality time with.
H.R. Lovell was born and raised in Cheatham County, Tennessee, and still operates his family’s farm there near Ashland City. Although he considers his art career to have started when he was nearly thirty, the talent he has cultivated was there all along. “I could always draw,” he says. “I was drawing before I even started school but it was always in black and white.” Self-taught, Lovell got his first chance to experiment with color when asked to do a drawing of a friend’s childhood home. Not satisfied with the result in colored pencil, he re-did the piece using a set of dime store watercolors. “To be honest, I thought it looked pretty loud,” he says. But the friend was pleased and paid ten dollars for the work. “I was thinking all the time that I might have overcharged her,” Lovell recalls. He continued to experiment and seek advice about better materials. When he had several paintings done another friend noticed that one was of her grandfather’s homeplace. After purchasing it, the painting traveled with her to her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a real estate agent, one of her clients was legendary Navajo artist R.C. Gorman, to whom she showed Lovell’s painting. The result was an invitation to exhibit at Gorman’s Navajo Gallery. Having no familiarity with the art world, Lovell at first declined. “I had to confess that I’d never heard of R.C. Gorman, much less having any idea who he was,” says Lovell. “Then he called me and told me to watch the Today Show the next morning. Sure enough, he was featured and interviewed. I did some rethinking and told R.C. I’d come out to New Mexico, even though I only had six paintings.” After the show at the Navajo Gallery, Lovell’s production was back to square one, since all six paintings sold, even after Gorman tripled the prices. This would prove to be a recurring pattern in Lovell’s career. “I was getting ready to do a show in Nashville a few years later but before it opened, Mel Tillis asked to see my paintings and ended up buying all of them. We had to cancel the show.” His wide base of collectors makes Lovell’s originals a scarce commodity and has led to his production of high-quality giclees of most of his paintings.
One Saturday afternoon in the 1990’s, H.R. Lovell discovered James-Ben Gallery in Franklin, TN. “He was out for a drive and wandered up the stairs,” recalls James-Ben Stockton. “We’ve always focused on creating a relaxed, low-key experience for visitors and H.R. really connected to that. I found his paintings to be both superb and unassuming, reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth. And his personal story was a great example of how art can open doors into a new experience.” Stockton found out that Gorman had, in fact, nicknamed Lovell the “Andrew Wyeth of the South”. James-Ben Gallery offered Lovell his first one-man show. “While we were in process of putting it together, H.R. was first designated Tennessee Artist-in-Residence by the General Assembly,” says Stockton. “The opening reception became an occasion which our state legislators attended and where H.R. was presented with the official proclamation.”
Lovell works in both watercolor and egg tempera, a technique employed by the Renaissance masters from the days before oil paint came into common use. “He tends to choose subjects that evoke memories in the minds of viewers,” says Stockton. “Old homes, abandoned farm wagons, quilts – and remarkable portraits ranging from the marvelous faces of World War I veterans to young Mennonite girls – H.R. has a wonderful gift for touching hearts.” Most paintings begin with pencil sketches, connecting them with Lovell’s earliest efforts in drawing. A segment on PBS’s Tennessee Crossroads brought Lovell to the attention of a wide variety of art enthusiasts. With every passing year, that particular show is rated among the top five requested for repeat airings by viewers. Lovell’s work has been discovered and collected by such notables as Randy Travis, Burl Ives, Tanya Tucker, Pat Head-Summit, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, and Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the Bush administration. All are drawn to the work of a man who combines a good heart with astonishing talent. “One of his more recent paintings contains a wonderful personal story,” says Stockton. “H.R. was doing an iris painting as a tribute to the state flower. One of his biggest fans and collectors was terminally ill and kept asking to see it even if it wasn’t finished. H.R. took it to his hospital room one Tuesday and they spent the afternoon talking about it and reminiscing. It was their last visit.” “I was so glad that I was able to give him such enjoyment that day,” recalls Lovell. “In his honor, I renamed the piece ‘Tuesday’s Gift’.”
Since moving to Greeneville, James-Ben: Studio and Gallery has introduced H.R. Lovell’s work to a Northeast Tennessee audience. A one-man show and reception featuring Lovell originals was mounted in the gallery, in part through the generosity of the son whose late father inspired “Tuesday’s Gift.” Lovell’s paintings are a tribute to Tennessee, and a wonderful thread connecting the different regions of the state. His work is always available through James-Ben at Greeneville’s regional gallery. Meet H.R. Lovell through the gift of his artistry. He is truly a distinguished artist/neighbor.
Isn’t it interesting how often treasures are found in unexpected places? Although great cities like Paris, New York, and Chicago are celebrated as the centers of fine art, with many opportunities for students seeking to launch their careers, quite often it is the countryside that produces artists of true genius. In such cases, it can seem that providence places creative doorways in the paths of folks unaware of their own potential. Once through the doorway, they seem to enter a place where serendipity rules, so that one connection leads to another, and creative advancement accelerates. A good example of this happenstance is found in the story of H.R. Lovell, Tennessee’s Artist-in-Residence, and a self-described “farmer who paints.” Twice now in the last ten years, the General Assembly has selected him to represent and exemplify our state at its best. With roots deep in agriculture, and from a farm that might be found in any one of Tennessee’s three regions, Lovell truly does embody the state in which he was born. As someone whose paintings were first shown in Greeneville more than five years ago, he is an artist/neighbor worth spending some quality time with.
H.R. Lovell was born and raised in Cheatham County, Tennessee, and still operates his family’s farm there near Ashland City. Although he considers his art career to have started when he was nearly thirty, the talent he has cultivated was there all along. “I could always draw,” he says. “I was drawing before I even started school but it was always in black and white.” Self-taught, Lovell got his first chance to experiment with color when asked to do a drawing of a friend’s childhood home. Not satisfied with the result in colored pencil, he re-did the piece using a set of dime store watercolors. “To be honest, I thought it looked pretty loud,” he says. But the friend was pleased and paid ten dollars for the work. “I was thinking all the time that I might have overcharged her,” Lovell recalls. He continued to experiment and seek advice about better materials. When he had several paintings done another friend noticed that one was of her grandfather’s homeplace. After purchasing it, the painting traveled with her to her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a real estate agent, one of her clients was legendary Navajo artist R.C. Gorman, to whom she showed Lovell’s painting. The result was an invitation to exhibit at Gorman’s Navajo Gallery. Having no familiarity with the art world, Lovell at first declined. “I had to confess that I’d never heard of R.C. Gorman, much less having any idea who he was,” says Lovell. “Then he called me and told me to watch the Today Show the next morning. Sure enough, he was featured and interviewed. I did some rethinking and told R.C. I’d come out to New Mexico, even though I only had six paintings.” After the show at the Navajo Gallery, Lovell’s production was back to square one, since all six paintings sold, even after Gorman tripled the prices. This would prove to be a recurring pattern in Lovell’s career. “I was getting ready to do a show in Nashville a few years later but before it opened, Mel Tillis asked to see my paintings and ended up buying all of them. We had to cancel the show.” His wide base of collectors makes Lovell’s originals a scarce commodity and has led to his production of high-quality giclees of most of his paintings.
One Saturday afternoon in the 1990’s, H.R. Lovell discovered James-Ben Gallery in Franklin, TN. “He was out for a drive and wandered up the stairs,” recalls James-Ben Stockton. “We’ve always focused on creating a relaxed, low-key experience for visitors and H.R. really connected to that. I found his paintings to be both superb and unassuming, reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth. And his personal story was a great example of how art can open doors into a new experience.” Stockton found out that Gorman had, in fact, nicknamed Lovell the “Andrew Wyeth of the South”. James-Ben Gallery offered Lovell his first one-man show. “While we were in process of putting it together, H.R. was first designated Tennessee Artist-in-Residence by the General Assembly,” says Stockton. “The opening reception became an occasion which our state legislators attended and where H.R. was presented with the official proclamation.”
Lovell works in both watercolor and egg tempera, a technique employed by the Renaissance masters from the days before oil paint came into common use. “He tends to choose subjects that evoke memories in the minds of viewers,” says Stockton. “Old homes, abandoned farm wagons, quilts – and remarkable portraits ranging from the marvelous faces of World War I veterans to young Mennonite girls – H.R. has a wonderful gift for touching hearts.” Most paintings begin with pencil sketches, connecting them with Lovell’s earliest efforts in drawing. A segment on PBS’s Tennessee Crossroads brought Lovell to the attention of a wide variety of art enthusiasts. With every passing year, that particular show is rated among the top five requested for repeat airings by viewers. Lovell’s work has been discovered and collected by such notables as Randy Travis, Burl Ives, Tanya Tucker, Pat Head-Summit, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, and Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the Bush administration. All are drawn to the work of a man who combines a good heart with astonishing talent. “One of his more recent paintings contains a wonderful personal story,” says Stockton. “H.R. was doing an iris painting as a tribute to the state flower. One of his biggest fans and collectors was terminally ill and kept asking to see it even if it wasn’t finished. H.R. took it to his hospital room one Tuesday and they spent the afternoon talking about it and reminiscing. It was their last visit.” “I was so glad that I was able to give him such enjoyment that day,” recalls Lovell. “In his honor, I renamed the piece ‘Tuesday’s Gift’.”
Since moving to Greeneville, James-Ben: Studio and Gallery has introduced H.R. Lovell’s work to a Northeast Tennessee audience. A one-man show and reception featuring Lovell originals was mounted in the gallery, in part through the generosity of the son whose late father inspired “Tuesday’s Gift.” Lovell’s paintings are a tribute to Tennessee, and a wonderful thread connecting the different regions of the state. His work is always available through James-Ben at Greeneville’s regional gallery. Meet H.R. Lovell through the gift of his artistry. He is truly a distinguished artist/neighbor.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Neighbor Artist #19: Ellen McGowan
Great-Grandmother Sculptor Brings One-Person Show to Greeneville
Currently, Greeneville has the privilege of experiencing first hand the sculptural works of one of Tennessee’s best known artists. Because sculpture is grouped among the “fine arts” , and has been linked over the centuries to such legendary figures as Phidias in classical Greece, Michelangelo in the Renaissance, and Rodin in more recent times, the medium can seem too lofty for the average person. But sculpture is brought down to earth and in touch with ordinary folks through the hands of Ellen McGowan. This talented and feisty West Tennessean has for years been a favorite of visitors to James-Ben: Art Center, both in Franklin and Greeneville. The gallery has now realized a goal that has been many months in planning, the mounting of a one-person show featuring the sculpture of Ellen McGowan, which will continue through the month of May. Since Greeneville has been introduced to a wider variety of her work, it seemed good to devote this column to introducing her as an artist/neighbor.
A native of Memphis, Ellen McGowan recently returned to her home county after years of living in Middle Tennessee. The daughter of an Englishman who came to this country to study medicine and a mother who was a musician, Ellen had focused on art before even starting school. “My mother had an artist friend, and one day she was painting a picture for me,” she remembers. “I tried to draw a tricycle in the picture. I couldn’t do it, so I kept practicing and was determined to get it right. I was probably 5 years old, but I knew then that I wanted to be an artist.” Growing up in Chicago after her family relocated gave Ellen the chance as a child to study at one of America’s great art centers, the Art Institute. College brought her back to Tennessee, where she would receive both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Fine Art. She married her husband Robert, a botanist, just before his departure for service in World War II. Upon his return, they turned their attention to family and careers. Ellen completed her college work after her children were born. Her studies included the Memphis College of Art. “I taught art and music while my husband taught botany. I thought to myself, I am not going to teach the rest of my life,” she recalls. “I bought a potters wheel and a kiln. I made pots, and I found I liked putting faces and different things on them.” From these elements, a turn in the direction of sculpture seemed natural for Ellen. “I began working sculpturally in the late 1960’s, creating small figures in clay that I dug locally and fired in a salt kiln I built myself.” Further studies included valuable time spent with master sculptor Bruno Lucchesi. Because she was more interested in creating figures of “everyday people doing everyday things”, the pieces created at the beginning of her career in sculpture were what she calls “genre pieces”. Exhibited singly or in groupings, her works won numerous awards and led to commissions from patrons including some prominent names. She created all of the original pieces of the Alex Haley collection, depicting the Pulitzer prize-winning author’s childhood. “He was an extraordinary man,” she says. “He would tell stories of his childhood and I would sculpt the stories into the originals for the collectibles to be cast from.” Lee Trevino and Bette Midler would also commission the creation of sculpture to capture memories. Both former governor Ned Ray McWherter and long-time lieutenant-governor John Wilder have entrusted treasured moments to Ellen’s skillful hands, as has entertainer Tom T. Hall.
In the 1990’s Ellen enlarged her efforts to create larger works in concrete and bronze as public display pieces and for commercial production of garden sculptures. She is still the primary designer for Mid-South Ornamental Concrete Company. Her larger works now grace the facilities of such museums as those of Christian Brothers University in Memphis, the West Tennessee Regional Art Center, and the Alex Haley Museum in Henning, as well as more emotional sites such as the Memorial Garden at the Lewis County Hospital in Hohenwald, Agape Family Services in Memphis, and the Perry County Time Capsule at the Bicentennial Capital Mall in Nashville. Corporate commissions for Ellen have come from such entities as BellSouth, Nashville Metropolitan Airport, and First American Bank. Among the celebrity patrons mentioned earlier, she has not limited herself to her smaller scale works but has also brought forth life-size portrait bronzes, such as that of Lee Trevino’s daughter, Olivia. There is a continuing source of satisfaction for Ellen from her concrete garden sculptures, which reside in locations all over the country. “My great-granddaughter told me the other day she saw one of my ‘little girls’ in a yard on her way to school,” she says. But the smaller, personality-rich clay figures which she started making back in the 1960’s still are highest in her affection. “As I now enter my eighties, I have recently resumed concentration on my more personal work. I am treating myself to all ‘genre pieces’ in my old age since that’s what I love to do.” Unable to resist the charms and foibles of her fellow humans, she carries a sketch pad with her and quite often captures delightful moments of spontaneity. One piece catches an affectionate interlude between an elderly couple and is titled “Never Too Old to Flirt”. “My work is personal,” Ellen says. “All my work has to be personal. I don’t want a piece to look like a computerized image.”
It is Ellen McGowan’s ‘genre pieces’ which Greene Countians can enjoy at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center. “I’ve known Ellen since I first moved my jewelry studio to Franklin, more than twenty-five years ago,” says James-Ben Stockton. “She and I have both been fortunate enough to have careers in art and have shared quite a few laughs about the twists and turns along the way.” It is the family focus of Ellen McGowan’s work that will appeal to Northeast Tennesseans. Her return to the style of sculpture that began her career is mirrored by her return to her native Shelby County and her family, which now consists of four generations. “My great-granddaughter, Jordan, wants to save the earth,” she says. “She is taking after my husband.” Through the month of May, and throughout the year, the work of Ellen McGowan is available at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Currently, Greeneville has the privilege of experiencing first hand the sculptural works of one of Tennessee’s best known artists. Because sculpture is grouped among the “fine arts” , and has been linked over the centuries to such legendary figures as Phidias in classical Greece, Michelangelo in the Renaissance, and Rodin in more recent times, the medium can seem too lofty for the average person. But sculpture is brought down to earth and in touch with ordinary folks through the hands of Ellen McGowan. This talented and feisty West Tennessean has for years been a favorite of visitors to James-Ben: Art Center, both in Franklin and Greeneville. The gallery has now realized a goal that has been many months in planning, the mounting of a one-person show featuring the sculpture of Ellen McGowan, which will continue through the month of May. Since Greeneville has been introduced to a wider variety of her work, it seemed good to devote this column to introducing her as an artist/neighbor.
A native of Memphis, Ellen McGowan recently returned to her home county after years of living in Middle Tennessee. The daughter of an Englishman who came to this country to study medicine and a mother who was a musician, Ellen had focused on art before even starting school. “My mother had an artist friend, and one day she was painting a picture for me,” she remembers. “I tried to draw a tricycle in the picture. I couldn’t do it, so I kept practicing and was determined to get it right. I was probably 5 years old, but I knew then that I wanted to be an artist.” Growing up in Chicago after her family relocated gave Ellen the chance as a child to study at one of America’s great art centers, the Art Institute. College brought her back to Tennessee, where she would receive both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Fine Art. She married her husband Robert, a botanist, just before his departure for service in World War II. Upon his return, they turned their attention to family and careers. Ellen completed her college work after her children were born. Her studies included the Memphis College of Art. “I taught art and music while my husband taught botany. I thought to myself, I am not going to teach the rest of my life,” she recalls. “I bought a potters wheel and a kiln. I made pots, and I found I liked putting faces and different things on them.” From these elements, a turn in the direction of sculpture seemed natural for Ellen. “I began working sculpturally in the late 1960’s, creating small figures in clay that I dug locally and fired in a salt kiln I built myself.” Further studies included valuable time spent with master sculptor Bruno Lucchesi. Because she was more interested in creating figures of “everyday people doing everyday things”, the pieces created at the beginning of her career in sculpture were what she calls “genre pieces”. Exhibited singly or in groupings, her works won numerous awards and led to commissions from patrons including some prominent names. She created all of the original pieces of the Alex Haley collection, depicting the Pulitzer prize-winning author’s childhood. “He was an extraordinary man,” she says. “He would tell stories of his childhood and I would sculpt the stories into the originals for the collectibles to be cast from.” Lee Trevino and Bette Midler would also commission the creation of sculpture to capture memories. Both former governor Ned Ray McWherter and long-time lieutenant-governor John Wilder have entrusted treasured moments to Ellen’s skillful hands, as has entertainer Tom T. Hall.
In the 1990’s Ellen enlarged her efforts to create larger works in concrete and bronze as public display pieces and for commercial production of garden sculptures. She is still the primary designer for Mid-South Ornamental Concrete Company. Her larger works now grace the facilities of such museums as those of Christian Brothers University in Memphis, the West Tennessee Regional Art Center, and the Alex Haley Museum in Henning, as well as more emotional sites such as the Memorial Garden at the Lewis County Hospital in Hohenwald, Agape Family Services in Memphis, and the Perry County Time Capsule at the Bicentennial Capital Mall in Nashville. Corporate commissions for Ellen have come from such entities as BellSouth, Nashville Metropolitan Airport, and First American Bank. Among the celebrity patrons mentioned earlier, she has not limited herself to her smaller scale works but has also brought forth life-size portrait bronzes, such as that of Lee Trevino’s daughter, Olivia. There is a continuing source of satisfaction for Ellen from her concrete garden sculptures, which reside in locations all over the country. “My great-granddaughter told me the other day she saw one of my ‘little girls’ in a yard on her way to school,” she says. But the smaller, personality-rich clay figures which she started making back in the 1960’s still are highest in her affection. “As I now enter my eighties, I have recently resumed concentration on my more personal work. I am treating myself to all ‘genre pieces’ in my old age since that’s what I love to do.” Unable to resist the charms and foibles of her fellow humans, she carries a sketch pad with her and quite often captures delightful moments of spontaneity. One piece catches an affectionate interlude between an elderly couple and is titled “Never Too Old to Flirt”. “My work is personal,” Ellen says. “All my work has to be personal. I don’t want a piece to look like a computerized image.”
It is Ellen McGowan’s ‘genre pieces’ which Greene Countians can enjoy at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center. “I’ve known Ellen since I first moved my jewelry studio to Franklin, more than twenty-five years ago,” says James-Ben Stockton. “She and I have both been fortunate enough to have careers in art and have shared quite a few laughs about the twists and turns along the way.” It is the family focus of Ellen McGowan’s work that will appeal to Northeast Tennesseans. Her return to the style of sculpture that began her career is mirrored by her return to her native Shelby County and her family, which now consists of four generations. “My great-granddaughter, Jordan, wants to save the earth,” she says. “She is taking after my husband.” Through the month of May, and throughout the year, the work of Ellen McGowan is available at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Neighbor Featured Artist #18: Medha Karandikar
Artist Neighbor Bridges India and Appalachia
Every year, the coming of spring brings with it a new set of clothes for the mountains to wear. Because the Appalachians are part of one of the oldest mountain chains on earth, this process of beautiful renewal has been going on for millions of years. It is only in recent time that human beings have added their part to this cycle. The original inhabitants of Northeast Tennessee, who gave the Great Smokeys their name, left a fairly light footprint on the land. Since their time, all successive generations adding their unique mark to the cycle of beauty have been immigrants. The Scots-Irish and Germans play a large role in the culture of Appalachia. But the future will be shaped in part by those coming to America in the 20th and 21st centuries. Artist Medha Karandikar is a wonderful example of this. A resident of Morristown, she has brought the influences of India into the artistic life of Northeast Tennessee, adding a distinctive spice to the culture of Appalachia.
Medha Karandikar was born in India. “I lived there for a good part of my life and later moved to the U.S. eleven years ago with my husband and two children,” she says. Entirely self-taught, she was attracted to art from her childhood in Mumbai. “It all started when I was given a couple of used canvases to try my hand at,” she recalls. “I had to cover them up with house paint to get a clean surface to paint on. Later I would accompany an artist cousin on sketching trips around Mumbai, which gave me the chance to use her art supplies. Helping her with exhibits and shows gave me inspiration.” While her personal artistic journey took shape during her childhood and early adult life in India, Medha feels strongly that a major aspect of her creativity is American. The more open culture of the United States, she believes, lent energy to her creative drive. “Although I have drawn and painted all the time, this country has given me the most encouragement, opportunity, and inspiration,” she notes. Medha works in a variety of media, harmonizing colored graphite, pen-and-ink, watercolor, paper collage, and acrylics into designs which also include her own style of calligraphy. While art for display is the most visible form of her creativity, it is not the most basic element of Medha’s self image. “Writing, drawing and painting have been my passion, in that order,” she says. “Painting is just an embellishment to what I write and draw. Happenings around me affect my psyche tremendously, and come out in the form of writing. Doodling while talking on the phone often gives me good ideas to work on larger pieces.”
It was Medha’s work in collage that particularly caught the attention of gallery director James-Ben Stockton. “I’ve always adored collage,” he says. “It’s an art form that is open to anyone, regardless of skill level or previous experience.” Since becoming affiliated with James-Ben: Studio & Gallery Art Center, Medha has had the chance to teach collage in a workshop format through the gallery and shares Stockton’s enthusiasm. “Paper collage can be thought of as a basic building block of artistic expression,” she says. “It helps free the mind to view existing colors and forms as raw material from which other images can be assembled.” In the past few years, Medha’s art has gained increasing attention in East Tennessee, in no small part due to her involvement in her adopted community. Stockton credits her with a knack for retaining her style while gaining acceptance in the region. “A few years ago, I challenged my artists with a request for pieces with historic themes and childhood memories,” he recalls. “Medha produced art from her memories of India, including folk dances and visits to the railway station. They made for a delightful connection between Greene County and Bombay.” Recently, Medha’s work was selected for inclusion in Artstravaganza!, Knoxville’s yearly fine arts show. Further recognition came when her “Dragonflies” painting-collage was chosen as the March image for the event’s inaugural “Art of Healing” calendar. Even more recently, Medha was invited to be in residence and teach classes at Tennessee River Arts Village in Perryville. “In addition to being talented as an the artist,” says Stockton, Medha is warm, engaging, and articulate. Students will not only learn from studying with her but can expect to have a wonderful time in the bargain.”
In the future, Medha would like to continue her exploration of collage using printed paper as though it were paint. She continues to work as a writer, allowing her emotional expressions to give rise to symbolic sketches, which later can evolve into detailed drawings of paintings. At the same time, she is continually nurtured by her family and home. “My husband and children are my biggest support system,” she says. “My mother inspires me by her gentle questions about what I’ve been doing - it prompts me to to something creative.” A recent visit to Medha’s home exposed Stockton to another art form, cooking. “The food she prepared for us was so wonderful I’ve asked her to teach the July 19th “Fresh from the Garden” Artisan Cooking School class: an Indian Inspired Vegetarian Meal.”
So take the opportunity to meet your artist/neighbor from Morristown, Medha Karandikar. Her work is available locally and displayed with great delight at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Every year, the coming of spring brings with it a new set of clothes for the mountains to wear. Because the Appalachians are part of one of the oldest mountain chains on earth, this process of beautiful renewal has been going on for millions of years. It is only in recent time that human beings have added their part to this cycle. The original inhabitants of Northeast Tennessee, who gave the Great Smokeys their name, left a fairly light footprint on the land. Since their time, all successive generations adding their unique mark to the cycle of beauty have been immigrants. The Scots-Irish and Germans play a large role in the culture of Appalachia. But the future will be shaped in part by those coming to America in the 20th and 21st centuries. Artist Medha Karandikar is a wonderful example of this. A resident of Morristown, she has brought the influences of India into the artistic life of Northeast Tennessee, adding a distinctive spice to the culture of Appalachia.
Medha Karandikar was born in India. “I lived there for a good part of my life and later moved to the U.S. eleven years ago with my husband and two children,” she says. Entirely self-taught, she was attracted to art from her childhood in Mumbai. “It all started when I was given a couple of used canvases to try my hand at,” she recalls. “I had to cover them up with house paint to get a clean surface to paint on. Later I would accompany an artist cousin on sketching trips around Mumbai, which gave me the chance to use her art supplies. Helping her with exhibits and shows gave me inspiration.” While her personal artistic journey took shape during her childhood and early adult life in India, Medha feels strongly that a major aspect of her creativity is American. The more open culture of the United States, she believes, lent energy to her creative drive. “Although I have drawn and painted all the time, this country has given me the most encouragement, opportunity, and inspiration,” she notes. Medha works in a variety of media, harmonizing colored graphite, pen-and-ink, watercolor, paper collage, and acrylics into designs which also include her own style of calligraphy. While art for display is the most visible form of her creativity, it is not the most basic element of Medha’s self image. “Writing, drawing and painting have been my passion, in that order,” she says. “Painting is just an embellishment to what I write and draw. Happenings around me affect my psyche tremendously, and come out in the form of writing. Doodling while talking on the phone often gives me good ideas to work on larger pieces.”
It was Medha’s work in collage that particularly caught the attention of gallery director James-Ben Stockton. “I’ve always adored collage,” he says. “It’s an art form that is open to anyone, regardless of skill level or previous experience.” Since becoming affiliated with James-Ben: Studio & Gallery Art Center, Medha has had the chance to teach collage in a workshop format through the gallery and shares Stockton’s enthusiasm. “Paper collage can be thought of as a basic building block of artistic expression,” she says. “It helps free the mind to view existing colors and forms as raw material from which other images can be assembled.” In the past few years, Medha’s art has gained increasing attention in East Tennessee, in no small part due to her involvement in her adopted community. Stockton credits her with a knack for retaining her style while gaining acceptance in the region. “A few years ago, I challenged my artists with a request for pieces with historic themes and childhood memories,” he recalls. “Medha produced art from her memories of India, including folk dances and visits to the railway station. They made for a delightful connection between Greene County and Bombay.” Recently, Medha’s work was selected for inclusion in Artstravaganza!, Knoxville’s yearly fine arts show. Further recognition came when her “Dragonflies” painting-collage was chosen as the March image for the event’s inaugural “Art of Healing” calendar. Even more recently, Medha was invited to be in residence and teach classes at Tennessee River Arts Village in Perryville. “In addition to being talented as an the artist,” says Stockton, Medha is warm, engaging, and articulate. Students will not only learn from studying with her but can expect to have a wonderful time in the bargain.”
In the future, Medha would like to continue her exploration of collage using printed paper as though it were paint. She continues to work as a writer, allowing her emotional expressions to give rise to symbolic sketches, which later can evolve into detailed drawings of paintings. At the same time, she is continually nurtured by her family and home. “My husband and children are my biggest support system,” she says. “My mother inspires me by her gentle questions about what I’ve been doing - it prompts me to to something creative.” A recent visit to Medha’s home exposed Stockton to another art form, cooking. “The food she prepared for us was so wonderful I’ve asked her to teach the July 19th “Fresh from the Garden” Artisan Cooking School class: an Indian Inspired Vegetarian Meal.”
So take the opportunity to meet your artist/neighbor from Morristown, Medha Karandikar. Her work is available locally and displayed with great delight at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Neighbor Featured Artist #17: The Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection
In His 200th Year, Andrew Johnson Continues to Inspire
With all the word processing tools available these days to the journalist, it is reassuring that the 5 “W’s” are as useful as they ever were. Very little of interest to the reader can be conveyed without the categories of who, what, when, where, and why. Much of the previous Neighbor Artist column space has focused on the “who, what, and when” that describe the talented folks of this region. The “where” that traces the source of their inspiration and the “why” that attempts to explain it can be more elusive, and tend to vary from artist to artist. But sometimes a broad theme can unite creative individuals across the whole spectrum of artistic media. The Andrew Johnson Bicentennial has done just that for the artists of James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
“Greeneville is remarkable not only in the intensity of its history but in the way the community values its own heritage,” says James-Ben Stockton. The director of a regionally celebrated art center, Stockton (and your faithful writer of this column) relocated to Greeneville in 2002. “In finding our niche and relating to our new home in Northeast Tennessee, it seemed natural to present art with historic themes. We did a similar process in 2003 for Greeneville’s 220th anniversary. But the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial celebration has really struck a chord with our artists.” With barely three months of the year-long birthday party for the 17th president having passed, 24 different artists, artisans, and organizations have joined their creative efforts, under Stockton’s direction, into the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection.
The Bicentennial Collection is amazing both for the range of talents taking part and for the variety of creations available to the public. “There are pieces that can be touched, used, viewed, watched, listened to, smelled, tasted, and played with,” says Stockton. The visual artists in the painting media have applied their brushes to Andrew Johnson themes. Greene County natives Barbara Miller and Barbara Bible “Jake” Carter have recreated moments from the Johnson story in acrylics and watercolors. “Jake” in particular has focused on paintings featuring the women of the Civil War era, making poignant use of the women who participate in the annual reenactment of the Battle of Blue Springs. Lynne Olka, with her gift for portraiture, has realized a unique Andrew Johnson story-portrait. Featured in it is not only an amazing likeness of the 17th president but scenes and objects from his life, including the gold watch presented to him by the former slaves of Nashville freed by his proclamation. Other striking images associated with Johnson, including his tailor shop and monument atop the hill in the National Cemetery, have been created from the talents of Greeneville native son Gary Sams, whose drawings of historic sites are local favorites. Another unique approach to the Johnson images springs from the gifted eye of Chris MacAdoo, who has captured Greeneville’s hometown president in evocative wood-block prints. Marilyn Heilman has added to the collection her two pen & ink drawings, “Old Jail Gates” and “The Old Jail Restoration” executed for the Greene County Historic Trust’s Restoration Project. All three artists have these images available in limited editions. Historian Robert Orr, local expert on Johnson’s life and career, who appeared on C-Span’s series featuring the presidents, is known in Greeneville as a man of many talents. He has used that talent to demonstrate his intimate knowledge of Johnson in an excellent biography, “President Andrew Johnson of Greeneville, Tennessee”, as well as in a wonderful video production, “His Faith Never Wavered”, written by Orr and superbly directed by Louise Orr in cooperation with the Greene County Heritage Trust. Middle Tennessee art photographer Barry Stein was so taken with the Andrew Johnson Homestead that he preserved it in his own uniquely styled giclee, also available in limited edition.
Other gallery artists have approached the Johnson story and images in three dimensions rather than two. Well-known local Dell Hughes has added Andrew Johnson to his series of Civil war busts with a marvelous likeness in cold-cast images available both in bronze finish and hand-painted. Mrs. Hughes, Dell’s spouse Jane, has applied her own artistry and whimsy to create the playful Raggedy Eliza and Andy Johnson dolls. From Main Street: Greeneville, and available exclusively from James-Ben: Studio & Gallery Art Center are ceramic replicas of the Andrew Johnson Homestead in the popular series featuring Greeneville’s historic structures. A combination Christmas tree ornament and year-round table top sculpture depicting President Johnson and family enjoying a colorful carriage ride is another exclusive from the gallery, obtained from the White House Historical Association. “These have been extremely popular, portraying Johnson as they do in one of his rare moments of relaxation and fun,” says Stockton. Another playful and unique piece, in the form of edible art, is coming from Jane Wilson of Blue Ridge Chocolates (which make a wonderful excuse for popping by Stockton’s gallery on Main Street). Wilson is creating a gingerbread/dark chocolate house based on the Johnson tailor shop featuring her “Tennessee Truffles” filled with her special molasses cream. For more serious fun, local artist Willadeen Fort has created a specialty chess board with figures from the Civil War. Bisque-fired and hand-painted Confederate and Union soldiers contest the field in more thoughtful combat. For gentler souls, Sharon Collins – “quite simply one of the best stained glass artists I’ve ever seen,” notes Stockton – has called on the talents of the reclusive Eliza Johnson. Collins has created a window hanging based on a quilt attributed to Eliza Johnson found at the foot of her bed. Functional pottery inspired by pieces in the kitchen of the Johnson Homestead have come from the studios of locally celebrated potters. Phil Homes, of Piney Flats, has produced a series of Johnson inspired crocks in his distinctive iron-red glaze. Greenevillian Tim Frain, known for his Appalachian Impressions pieces, has created the look of older salt glazed pieces from the 19th century with a contemporary and more environmentally friendly glaze of his own creation. The pieces inspired by items in the Johnson Homestead collection, including the gold watch element in Lynne Olka’s Johnson story portrait, were brought into being with the help of Kendra Hinkle, museum technician. Hinkle’s father, noted artist and retired Greeneville police detective C. Kenneth Hinkle, is offering through the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial limited edition prints of his oil on canvas board originals. Of particular interest is his depiction of Johnson at work in his tailor shop across the street from his Early Home, a view no longer visible since the tailor shop’s enclosure within the Memorial Building in the 1920’s. An appealing 13 month daily look at Johnson’s life and times can be found through the Bicentennial Calendar, produced by the Nathanael Greene Museum. Ghostly encounters with the Johnson family are part of the regular and highly sought-after tours offered by Appalachian GhostWalks. From James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center itself come the last but not least items in the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection. The gallery studio is producing, in limited edition, sterling silver collectible jewelry featuring the 17th president. And for an entertaining and memorable experience in living history, there is “Tennessee Tailor”, conceived and directed by James-Ben Stockton, available only by arrangement with the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, and featuring your faithful columnist bringing Johnson’s own words and thoughts to life from the pages of history.
Altogether, an amazing collection of talent has brought together the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection. Its inspiration, Greeneville’s hometown president and the “Defender of the Constitution” is entirely deserving of every expression of respect, admiration, and affection. These offerings and others yet to come can be found at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center in historic Downtown Greeneville.
With all the word processing tools available these days to the journalist, it is reassuring that the 5 “W’s” are as useful as they ever were. Very little of interest to the reader can be conveyed without the categories of who, what, when, where, and why. Much of the previous Neighbor Artist column space has focused on the “who, what, and when” that describe the talented folks of this region. The “where” that traces the source of their inspiration and the “why” that attempts to explain it can be more elusive, and tend to vary from artist to artist. But sometimes a broad theme can unite creative individuals across the whole spectrum of artistic media. The Andrew Johnson Bicentennial has done just that for the artists of James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
“Greeneville is remarkable not only in the intensity of its history but in the way the community values its own heritage,” says James-Ben Stockton. The director of a regionally celebrated art center, Stockton (and your faithful writer of this column) relocated to Greeneville in 2002. “In finding our niche and relating to our new home in Northeast Tennessee, it seemed natural to present art with historic themes. We did a similar process in 2003 for Greeneville’s 220th anniversary. But the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial celebration has really struck a chord with our artists.” With barely three months of the year-long birthday party for the 17th president having passed, 24 different artists, artisans, and organizations have joined their creative efforts, under Stockton’s direction, into the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection.
The Bicentennial Collection is amazing both for the range of talents taking part and for the variety of creations available to the public. “There are pieces that can be touched, used, viewed, watched, listened to, smelled, tasted, and played with,” says Stockton. The visual artists in the painting media have applied their brushes to Andrew Johnson themes. Greene County natives Barbara Miller and Barbara Bible “Jake” Carter have recreated moments from the Johnson story in acrylics and watercolors. “Jake” in particular has focused on paintings featuring the women of the Civil War era, making poignant use of the women who participate in the annual reenactment of the Battle of Blue Springs. Lynne Olka, with her gift for portraiture, has realized a unique Andrew Johnson story-portrait. Featured in it is not only an amazing likeness of the 17th president but scenes and objects from his life, including the gold watch presented to him by the former slaves of Nashville freed by his proclamation. Other striking images associated with Johnson, including his tailor shop and monument atop the hill in the National Cemetery, have been created from the talents of Greeneville native son Gary Sams, whose drawings of historic sites are local favorites. Another unique approach to the Johnson images springs from the gifted eye of Chris MacAdoo, who has captured Greeneville’s hometown president in evocative wood-block prints. Marilyn Heilman has added to the collection her two pen & ink drawings, “Old Jail Gates” and “The Old Jail Restoration” executed for the Greene County Historic Trust’s Restoration Project. All three artists have these images available in limited editions. Historian Robert Orr, local expert on Johnson’s life and career, who appeared on C-Span’s series featuring the presidents, is known in Greeneville as a man of many talents. He has used that talent to demonstrate his intimate knowledge of Johnson in an excellent biography, “President Andrew Johnson of Greeneville, Tennessee”, as well as in a wonderful video production, “His Faith Never Wavered”, written by Orr and superbly directed by Louise Orr in cooperation with the Greene County Heritage Trust. Middle Tennessee art photographer Barry Stein was so taken with the Andrew Johnson Homestead that he preserved it in his own uniquely styled giclee, also available in limited edition.
Other gallery artists have approached the Johnson story and images in three dimensions rather than two. Well-known local Dell Hughes has added Andrew Johnson to his series of Civil war busts with a marvelous likeness in cold-cast images available both in bronze finish and hand-painted. Mrs. Hughes, Dell’s spouse Jane, has applied her own artistry and whimsy to create the playful Raggedy Eliza and Andy Johnson dolls. From Main Street: Greeneville, and available exclusively from James-Ben: Studio & Gallery Art Center are ceramic replicas of the Andrew Johnson Homestead in the popular series featuring Greeneville’s historic structures. A combination Christmas tree ornament and year-round table top sculpture depicting President Johnson and family enjoying a colorful carriage ride is another exclusive from the gallery, obtained from the White House Historical Association. “These have been extremely popular, portraying Johnson as they do in one of his rare moments of relaxation and fun,” says Stockton. Another playful and unique piece, in the form of edible art, is coming from Jane Wilson of Blue Ridge Chocolates (which make a wonderful excuse for popping by Stockton’s gallery on Main Street). Wilson is creating a gingerbread/dark chocolate house based on the Johnson tailor shop featuring her “Tennessee Truffles” filled with her special molasses cream. For more serious fun, local artist Willadeen Fort has created a specialty chess board with figures from the Civil War. Bisque-fired and hand-painted Confederate and Union soldiers contest the field in more thoughtful combat. For gentler souls, Sharon Collins – “quite simply one of the best stained glass artists I’ve ever seen,” notes Stockton – has called on the talents of the reclusive Eliza Johnson. Collins has created a window hanging based on a quilt attributed to Eliza Johnson found at the foot of her bed. Functional pottery inspired by pieces in the kitchen of the Johnson Homestead have come from the studios of locally celebrated potters. Phil Homes, of Piney Flats, has produced a series of Johnson inspired crocks in his distinctive iron-red glaze. Greenevillian Tim Frain, known for his Appalachian Impressions pieces, has created the look of older salt glazed pieces from the 19th century with a contemporary and more environmentally friendly glaze of his own creation. The pieces inspired by items in the Johnson Homestead collection, including the gold watch element in Lynne Olka’s Johnson story portrait, were brought into being with the help of Kendra Hinkle, museum technician. Hinkle’s father, noted artist and retired Greeneville police detective C. Kenneth Hinkle, is offering through the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial limited edition prints of his oil on canvas board originals. Of particular interest is his depiction of Johnson at work in his tailor shop across the street from his Early Home, a view no longer visible since the tailor shop’s enclosure within the Memorial Building in the 1920’s. An appealing 13 month daily look at Johnson’s life and times can be found through the Bicentennial Calendar, produced by the Nathanael Greene Museum. Ghostly encounters with the Johnson family are part of the regular and highly sought-after tours offered by Appalachian GhostWalks. From James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center itself come the last but not least items in the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection. The gallery studio is producing, in limited edition, sterling silver collectible jewelry featuring the 17th president. And for an entertaining and memorable experience in living history, there is “Tennessee Tailor”, conceived and directed by James-Ben Stockton, available only by arrangement with the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, and featuring your faithful columnist bringing Johnson’s own words and thoughts to life from the pages of history.
Altogether, an amazing collection of talent has brought together the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Celebration Collection. Its inspiration, Greeneville’s hometown president and the “Defender of the Constitution” is entirely deserving of every expression of respect, admiration, and affection. These offerings and others yet to come can be found at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center in historic Downtown Greeneville.
Neighbor Featured Artist #16: Dane Hinkle
Musician Finds Ending and Beginning in Greeneville
We’ve had occasion, on previous visits to this page, to talk about the arts most often associated with the mountain South. While furniture making, pottery, and quilting all combine practical need with beauty, the Appalachian art that most directly reveals the soul is music. No color or shade of human emotion is beyond the range of musical expression. Joy and sorrow, love and hate, anger, despair, and exhilaration - all are the feelings carried forth in words and music. The intensity of these feelings is part of the unique signature of music in the mountains. The folks who make such music most often sharpen and polish their talent on countless porches, church gatherings, camp sites, and bonfires throughout Appalachia. But the genuineness and appeal of that music is bound by no feature of geography.
Since coming to Greeneville, it has been my privilege and pleasure to get to know Dane Hinkle, and to be a witness to the emergence of an artist. Dane has roots in Greene County that are both deep and wide reaching. His father, Charles Hinkle, is retired from the Greeneville Police Department, and has been a touchstone for his son in more ways than one. Dane Hinkle was born in San Francisco but raised in Greene County from an early age. Rather than following his father into law enforcement, he became a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, battling the dangerous and unpredictable blazes that plague the American West. Eventually, Dane worked his way into the elite Chena Hot-Shot Crew, a team of international firefighters, and also served with the Alaska Smoke Jumpers, who parachute into remote areas to do their work. At first, the danger was part of the job’s intoxicating appeal. Dane notes that the combination of adrenaline and sleep deprivation produced experiences of heightened sensation and awareness. Colors were more intense, and all senses were sharpened. “It was an interesting feeling,” he says. “During training I learned to call it ‘the black door’.” One close call that occurred while in that state proved to be the one that erased “all the fun” from firefighting. Dane ran out of a flare-up but has no memory of how he ended up where he was found. “I just know the helicopter pilot told me that he circled around when he saw us but that I was a mile away from my first location when he picked me up.”Some of Dane’s fellow firefighters weren’t so lucky. It’s little wonder that he returned to Greeneville in need of healing. One of the places he found it was in music and art.
“There’s a parallel between opening up your creative self and those ‘black door’ moments,” says Dane. “When I realized that, it made it easier to get comfortable with the flashes of inspiration I’d get.” Noting that his father had channelled some of his police career stress into oil painting, Dane took up the brushes and discovered that he had, in fact, inherited some of his father’s talent. from his international experience, he produced miniature stone sculptures reminiscent of Japanese netsuke from the local fossiliferous limestone. He also found himself beginning to write songs. Two different but related traditions influenced Dane’s first efforts, which, along with gallery director James-Ben Stockton, I was fortunate enough to hear. One influence was the combination of music and social change in the 1960’s, especially Bob Dylan and the Beatles. “There was a little something about Bob Dylan. There was electricity in the air during his time,” says Dane. Inspiration also came from the folk music/storytelling tradition of Appalachia. Dane, who worked on the crew invloved in the 2003-2004 renovation of the Andrew Johnson Homestead, found out that Johnson’s often dirt-poor constituents were sometimes called “mudsills”. This touched a chord in his heart. “I’m trying to reinvent some music where the lyrics have deep meaning. My songs are sometimes emotional and sometimes cynical but the music itself is always easy to listen to. It comes from the elements of real life.” This approach has generated songs with titles like “Softly in Time”, “Cotton Candy Sunset”, and “Ashes on Molly’s Grave”. Dane thinks of his style as the offspring of folk music and the blues.
“Dane is a Renaissance man,” says gallery director James-Ben Stockton. “When we first go to know him, we were delighted and impressed with his visual art, his paintings and sculptures. But quite often, he’d drop by in the late afternoon or on the weekend to play and sing for us a song he was working on. For someone who appreciates art enough to work with it professionally, it was a true privilege to observe and participate in art ‘in the making’.” For Dane, the nurturing of his gifts has been a layered process. “I started on the harmonica first,” he says. “When I first sat down with a guitar, I probably knew three chords but I built from that.” His first recordings were mostly vocals and guitar, done on borrowed equipment. Then he bought the elements of a digital recording studio, which enabled him to add in bass and harmonica for a richer sound. “I spent the better part of a year learning how to use the studio - I think I read the manual for three days before I even turned it on.” At the same time, he has expanded his live performances to include regular Thursday night appearances at the General Morgan Inn from 6 to 8:30 in the evenings. “Doing both, making my own recordings and continuing to perform live, has kind of nudged me in the direction I’d like to go, which means putting a band together. My studio lets me layer several tracks together where I play all the instruments. To do that on stage means you need more musicians.” This ongoing creative process continues to provide healing for that bruised and battered man who left a firefighting career to come home. “Now I’m working on combining the music with spending time outdoors, staying active to build up my energy and find new sources of inspiration. It’s like doing and thinking at the same time helps you be better at both. James-Ben explained to me that it was like working an experience out through your body and then expressing it by letting it come out through your hands. A lot has happened since I came home. I guess you could say that Greeneville is both a launching pad and a landing strip at the same time.”
Music is one of the hardest art forms to describe in words. The best way to experience Dane Hinkle’s music is to hear it. For live performances, look for him each Thursday evening at the General Morgan Inn. Be sure to check out his web site, www.mudsilldane.com. Dane’s music is available from over 30 sites and has been downloaded from as far away as Europe. To find both his CD’s and his paintings and sculptures, they are available locally at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center, which is extremely proud, in the case of Dane Hinkle, Artist, to have been present “at the beginning.”
We’ve had occasion, on previous visits to this page, to talk about the arts most often associated with the mountain South. While furniture making, pottery, and quilting all combine practical need with beauty, the Appalachian art that most directly reveals the soul is music. No color or shade of human emotion is beyond the range of musical expression. Joy and sorrow, love and hate, anger, despair, and exhilaration - all are the feelings carried forth in words and music. The intensity of these feelings is part of the unique signature of music in the mountains. The folks who make such music most often sharpen and polish their talent on countless porches, church gatherings, camp sites, and bonfires throughout Appalachia. But the genuineness and appeal of that music is bound by no feature of geography.
Since coming to Greeneville, it has been my privilege and pleasure to get to know Dane Hinkle, and to be a witness to the emergence of an artist. Dane has roots in Greene County that are both deep and wide reaching. His father, Charles Hinkle, is retired from the Greeneville Police Department, and has been a touchstone for his son in more ways than one. Dane Hinkle was born in San Francisco but raised in Greene County from an early age. Rather than following his father into law enforcement, he became a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, battling the dangerous and unpredictable blazes that plague the American West. Eventually, Dane worked his way into the elite Chena Hot-Shot Crew, a team of international firefighters, and also served with the Alaska Smoke Jumpers, who parachute into remote areas to do their work. At first, the danger was part of the job’s intoxicating appeal. Dane notes that the combination of adrenaline and sleep deprivation produced experiences of heightened sensation and awareness. Colors were more intense, and all senses were sharpened. “It was an interesting feeling,” he says. “During training I learned to call it ‘the black door’.” One close call that occurred while in that state proved to be the one that erased “all the fun” from firefighting. Dane ran out of a flare-up but has no memory of how he ended up where he was found. “I just know the helicopter pilot told me that he circled around when he saw us but that I was a mile away from my first location when he picked me up.”Some of Dane’s fellow firefighters weren’t so lucky. It’s little wonder that he returned to Greeneville in need of healing. One of the places he found it was in music and art.
“There’s a parallel between opening up your creative self and those ‘black door’ moments,” says Dane. “When I realized that, it made it easier to get comfortable with the flashes of inspiration I’d get.” Noting that his father had channelled some of his police career stress into oil painting, Dane took up the brushes and discovered that he had, in fact, inherited some of his father’s talent. from his international experience, he produced miniature stone sculptures reminiscent of Japanese netsuke from the local fossiliferous limestone. He also found himself beginning to write songs. Two different but related traditions influenced Dane’s first efforts, which, along with gallery director James-Ben Stockton, I was fortunate enough to hear. One influence was the combination of music and social change in the 1960’s, especially Bob Dylan and the Beatles. “There was a little something about Bob Dylan. There was electricity in the air during his time,” says Dane. Inspiration also came from the folk music/storytelling tradition of Appalachia. Dane, who worked on the crew invloved in the 2003-2004 renovation of the Andrew Johnson Homestead, found out that Johnson’s often dirt-poor constituents were sometimes called “mudsills”. This touched a chord in his heart. “I’m trying to reinvent some music where the lyrics have deep meaning. My songs are sometimes emotional and sometimes cynical but the music itself is always easy to listen to. It comes from the elements of real life.” This approach has generated songs with titles like “Softly in Time”, “Cotton Candy Sunset”, and “Ashes on Molly’s Grave”. Dane thinks of his style as the offspring of folk music and the blues.
“Dane is a Renaissance man,” says gallery director James-Ben Stockton. “When we first go to know him, we were delighted and impressed with his visual art, his paintings and sculptures. But quite often, he’d drop by in the late afternoon or on the weekend to play and sing for us a song he was working on. For someone who appreciates art enough to work with it professionally, it was a true privilege to observe and participate in art ‘in the making’.” For Dane, the nurturing of his gifts has been a layered process. “I started on the harmonica first,” he says. “When I first sat down with a guitar, I probably knew three chords but I built from that.” His first recordings were mostly vocals and guitar, done on borrowed equipment. Then he bought the elements of a digital recording studio, which enabled him to add in bass and harmonica for a richer sound. “I spent the better part of a year learning how to use the studio - I think I read the manual for three days before I even turned it on.” At the same time, he has expanded his live performances to include regular Thursday night appearances at the General Morgan Inn from 6 to 8:30 in the evenings. “Doing both, making my own recordings and continuing to perform live, has kind of nudged me in the direction I’d like to go, which means putting a band together. My studio lets me layer several tracks together where I play all the instruments. To do that on stage means you need more musicians.” This ongoing creative process continues to provide healing for that bruised and battered man who left a firefighting career to come home. “Now I’m working on combining the music with spending time outdoors, staying active to build up my energy and find new sources of inspiration. It’s like doing and thinking at the same time helps you be better at both. James-Ben explained to me that it was like working an experience out through your body and then expressing it by letting it come out through your hands. A lot has happened since I came home. I guess you could say that Greeneville is both a launching pad and a landing strip at the same time.”
Music is one of the hardest art forms to describe in words. The best way to experience Dane Hinkle’s music is to hear it. For live performances, look for him each Thursday evening at the General Morgan Inn. Be sure to check out his web site, www.mudsilldane.com. Dane’s music is available from over 30 sites and has been downloaded from as far away as Europe. To find both his CD’s and his paintings and sculptures, they are available locally at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center, which is extremely proud, in the case of Dane Hinkle, Artist, to have been present “at the beginning.”
Neighbor Featured Artist #15: The Wood Studio
Wood Studio Reflects Tradition of Family Craftmanship
If there is an art as essential to the Appalachian culture, it is furniture making. Born in the mountains out of necessity - from the need to produce practical items for the household. It was part of the character of the mountain settlers to make these functional pieces beautiful as well. To this day, the Appalachian region is known as a mecca for cabinetry, with a tradition of keeping the art in the family and passing it to the next generation. As an example of what I’m talking about, let me introduce you to the creative world of the Cochran boys.
Visitors to James-Ben: Studio & Gallery in downtown Greeneville have seen the work of Randy, Keith, and Dylan Cochran whether they know it or not. The magnificent 8 foot maple front counter in the gallery is a creation of the Wood Studio, and represents the loving, meticulous aesthetic expressed by this team of a father and two sons. Randy Cochran and gallery director James-Ben Stockton had become acquainted as exhibitors in fine craft shows. “I hadn’t seen Randy for a while when he came to a reception for one of my gallery shows,” says Stockton. “He told me he was finally going into custom furniture-making full time. What a good day that was!” When Stockton’s gallery relocated and re-opened in historic Greeneville, a friend offered a gift of a new front counter and asked who Stockton would like to have make it. Without hesitation, he put her in touch with Randy Cochran.
A native of north Alabama, Randy Cochran is a charming fellow whose Southern drawl and wicked sense of humor make a fine counterpoint to the sophistication of his designs in cabinetry. He’s been known to describe his style as “Scandinavian-Shaker”, after two furniture-making traditions he admires. “When I was in school at Auburn, I was lucky enough to study with instructors whose professors were from the Bauhaus School of Design,” he says. After a career that included design and fabrication of wood-working machinery, telephones, industrial machinery, electronics, and museum exhibits, he built his first commissioned piece of furniture in 1973, and opened the Wood Studio in 1986. “I’ve worked every day like a crazy man ever since to build up our small family business.” As a founding member of The Furniture Society, Randy also devotes considerable time and energy to promoting the craft he loves.
Keith Cochran, Randy’s oldest son, cultivates a laid-back, ball cap persona that overlays a deeply artistic soul. He admits that he “filled all my high school electives with art classes.” His dead-pan delivery of jokes is a characteristic he shares with his father. “Keith came by the gallery on the morning of September 11th, 2001, and told us what was happening before we’d even turned on the television,” says Stockton. “We were so used to his sense of humor that at first we didn’t believe him.” Also like his dad, Keith got his degree from the College of Industrial Design at Auburn. While still in high school, he began working in the field of custom car audio systems and continued this work professionally for several years. After graduating from Auburn with several “Best of Studio” awards under his belt, Keith went to work as a custom boat builder for Hugh Saint, Inc., producing classic mahogany runabouts. With the opening of the Wood Studio, he was lured into the perilous world of self-employment.
With an outgoing father and brother, both of whom are inveterate comedians, Dylan Cochran is the “quiet one”. He began working in the Wood Studio while still in high school and was voted “Most Talented” by his classmates. An award-winner in several different art competitions, he staked out his own unique territory within a creative family with his environmental work. While continuing the family connection to Auburn University, Dylan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management and spent a summer as an intern for the Council on Environmental Quality within the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C. While still in college, he participated in the Cooperative Education Program and worked as an air quality technician for an environmental consulting firm. Eventually he, too, was sweet-talked into devoting full time to the family business.
All three Cochrans now reside near the Wood Studio’s new location in north Alabama. Randy took up housekeeping in the family’s old home, a 1914 bungalow nestled “in Little Wills Valley within spitting distance of the southern-most collection point for the Trail of Tears.” Keith, with his beautiful wife Allison (and a pack of wild dogs) lives within the Bankhead National Forest. Dylan is in nearby Arley residing at the Wood Studio’s newest shop. With a fine view of Lookout Mountain, and nearby Lewis Smith Lake to satisfy outdoor interests, the Cochran boys seem to have found a contentment that feeds their creative productivity.
I’ve chosen to spend my words in describing the artists in this column because the striking visual images of their work speak more eloquentlly of their skills and love of wood than I could possibly manage. Appreciation of the beautiful design and splendid craftsmanship of the Wood Studio’s commissioned furniture has even been expressed by actor/activist Robert Redford, who has included the Cochrans’ furniture in his exclusive Sundance Catalog. “At the heart of every piece is our ambition to celebrate the natural beauty and character of the material,” says Randy (in one of his more serious moments). The Cochrans produce a full range of furniture and cabinets but a Wood Studio chair is a particular prize for its comfort and back support. “Sometimes it’s hard to get customers to sit in one of the chairs because they’re so beautiful,” says Stockton. “But once we persuade them to sit down it’s hard to get them to get back up agaiin.” Locally, the work of Randy, Keith, and Dylan can be seen, touched, sat-on, ooohed and ahhhed over, and acquired or ordered at James-Ben: Studio & Gallery. “I’ve seen men caress our maple front counter with a tenderness that makes their wives jealous,” says James-Ben Stockton. “We take great pride in affectionately representing these three gentlemen.”
If there is an art as essential to the Appalachian culture, it is furniture making. Born in the mountains out of necessity - from the need to produce practical items for the household. It was part of the character of the mountain settlers to make these functional pieces beautiful as well. To this day, the Appalachian region is known as a mecca for cabinetry, with a tradition of keeping the art in the family and passing it to the next generation. As an example of what I’m talking about, let me introduce you to the creative world of the Cochran boys.
Visitors to James-Ben: Studio & Gallery in downtown Greeneville have seen the work of Randy, Keith, and Dylan Cochran whether they know it or not. The magnificent 8 foot maple front counter in the gallery is a creation of the Wood Studio, and represents the loving, meticulous aesthetic expressed by this team of a father and two sons. Randy Cochran and gallery director James-Ben Stockton had become acquainted as exhibitors in fine craft shows. “I hadn’t seen Randy for a while when he came to a reception for one of my gallery shows,” says Stockton. “He told me he was finally going into custom furniture-making full time. What a good day that was!” When Stockton’s gallery relocated and re-opened in historic Greeneville, a friend offered a gift of a new front counter and asked who Stockton would like to have make it. Without hesitation, he put her in touch with Randy Cochran.
A native of north Alabama, Randy Cochran is a charming fellow whose Southern drawl and wicked sense of humor make a fine counterpoint to the sophistication of his designs in cabinetry. He’s been known to describe his style as “Scandinavian-Shaker”, after two furniture-making traditions he admires. “When I was in school at Auburn, I was lucky enough to study with instructors whose professors were from the Bauhaus School of Design,” he says. After a career that included design and fabrication of wood-working machinery, telephones, industrial machinery, electronics, and museum exhibits, he built his first commissioned piece of furniture in 1973, and opened the Wood Studio in 1986. “I’ve worked every day like a crazy man ever since to build up our small family business.” As a founding member of The Furniture Society, Randy also devotes considerable time and energy to promoting the craft he loves.
Keith Cochran, Randy’s oldest son, cultivates a laid-back, ball cap persona that overlays a deeply artistic soul. He admits that he “filled all my high school electives with art classes.” His dead-pan delivery of jokes is a characteristic he shares with his father. “Keith came by the gallery on the morning of September 11th, 2001, and told us what was happening before we’d even turned on the television,” says Stockton. “We were so used to his sense of humor that at first we didn’t believe him.” Also like his dad, Keith got his degree from the College of Industrial Design at Auburn. While still in high school, he began working in the field of custom car audio systems and continued this work professionally for several years. After graduating from Auburn with several “Best of Studio” awards under his belt, Keith went to work as a custom boat builder for Hugh Saint, Inc., producing classic mahogany runabouts. With the opening of the Wood Studio, he was lured into the perilous world of self-employment.
With an outgoing father and brother, both of whom are inveterate comedians, Dylan Cochran is the “quiet one”. He began working in the Wood Studio while still in high school and was voted “Most Talented” by his classmates. An award-winner in several different art competitions, he staked out his own unique territory within a creative family with his environmental work. While continuing the family connection to Auburn University, Dylan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Management and spent a summer as an intern for the Council on Environmental Quality within the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C. While still in college, he participated in the Cooperative Education Program and worked as an air quality technician for an environmental consulting firm. Eventually he, too, was sweet-talked into devoting full time to the family business.
All three Cochrans now reside near the Wood Studio’s new location in north Alabama. Randy took up housekeeping in the family’s old home, a 1914 bungalow nestled “in Little Wills Valley within spitting distance of the southern-most collection point for the Trail of Tears.” Keith, with his beautiful wife Allison (and a pack of wild dogs) lives within the Bankhead National Forest. Dylan is in nearby Arley residing at the Wood Studio’s newest shop. With a fine view of Lookout Mountain, and nearby Lewis Smith Lake to satisfy outdoor interests, the Cochran boys seem to have found a contentment that feeds their creative productivity.
I’ve chosen to spend my words in describing the artists in this column because the striking visual images of their work speak more eloquentlly of their skills and love of wood than I could possibly manage. Appreciation of the beautiful design and splendid craftsmanship of the Wood Studio’s commissioned furniture has even been expressed by actor/activist Robert Redford, who has included the Cochrans’ furniture in his exclusive Sundance Catalog. “At the heart of every piece is our ambition to celebrate the natural beauty and character of the material,” says Randy (in one of his more serious moments). The Cochrans produce a full range of furniture and cabinets but a Wood Studio chair is a particular prize for its comfort and back support. “Sometimes it’s hard to get customers to sit in one of the chairs because they’re so beautiful,” says Stockton. “But once we persuade them to sit down it’s hard to get them to get back up agaiin.” Locally, the work of Randy, Keith, and Dylan can be seen, touched, sat-on, ooohed and ahhhed over, and acquired or ordered at James-Ben: Studio & Gallery. “I’ve seen men caress our maple front counter with a tenderness that makes their wives jealous,” says James-Ben Stockton. “We take great pride in affectionately representing these three gentlemen.”
Neighbor Featured Artist #14: Barbarabara "Jake" Bible carter
Watercolors Come Naturally to "Jake"
There is an irresistible quality to modesty. Such charm is radiated by those talented individuals who seem genuinely surprised by the gifts they possess. They seem to count their blessings with every new creation, which adds an element to their creativity that attracts others to it. When Barbara Bible Carter sat down to talk with me, and announced that she didn’t think there was anything about her that readers would find interesting, she was really saying that her paintings told her story better than words could. A small, elegant woman, with a serenity often illuminated with a bright smile, she demonstrates a gentility that is only enhanced by the accent that speaks to her rural Greene County roots. She is an artist/neighbor in the deepest sense of the term.
In declaring herself a person without formal education, Barbara claims the pride of place that is shared by many mountain folk. It obviously surprised her to be the subject of an art column. “I’m just a little snot-nose kid out of the holler in East Tennessee,” she says. Her family had an old grocery in Bible’s Chapel and the house where she was born was without electricity. Her mother, she remembers, always made sure that there were crayons around for drawing, while her father supplied her basic identity. “I sign all my paintings ‘Jake” because that was his nickname for me.” From her earliest memory, she noticed and found beauty in the minute details of nature. She remembers walking up a path to her mother’s garden and being captivated by the tiny flowers she saw along the way. Drawing was part of her growing up, with inspiration coming from such simple sources as the Sunday comics. “I’ve always noticed the differences between light and shadow,” she says. “I’m an intuitive painter - rather than making a statement or telling a story, my paintings are an expression of what looks right to me. I’m not real big on painting by the rules.”
The Bibles moved closer to Greeneville when Barbara was 7, and her artistic ability found an outlet in school. “We didn’t have much in the way of art teachers but I would draw different subjects relating to what we were learning.” That she would one day exhibit her paintings and win awards in competition was unimaginable at the time but she recalls setting personal challenges for herself. “When I was 10, I remember sitting on a rock in the creek and seeing the reflection of the sunset. I told myself I wanted to be able to paint it just like I saw it.” An aunt who worked in oils and copied well-known works for the enjoyment of herself and friends was an ongoing source of inspiration. “She painted well into her nineties. I painted in oils for a while but found myself attracted to watercolors and happier with what I did.” This choice of medium was a challenge in and of itself. Watercolor is generally regarded as the most difficult of the painting arts to master, and Barbara was unsatisfied with her first efforts. “Then I got the chance to do some work with a teacher named Anita Rhoney, who set me on the right track with some basic techniques. With watercolor, you can’t just paint over a mistake.”
As an adult, Barbara continued both to practice her creativity and to gain knowledge and experience wherever possible. While living in both Greenwich, Connecticut, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she took advantage of the urban opportunities to attend art classes. Upon returning to East Tennessee, as often happens, she found that her most valuable instruction was no further away than Johnson City in the person of local legend Urban Bird. “He teaches in a very casual way, and his blunt, honest criticism really makes sense to me,” says Barbara. “He has such a good eye for seeing and correcting design flaws. I remember a piece I was working on where he said ‘well, you sure didn’t get that mill wheel right’. So I turned it into an old tire instead.” Bird has said of Barbara that she has progressed faster than most of his students. She began exhibiting in 2004 and has been both pleased and amazed to do better in competition than some of her fellow students whose work she particularly admires. Gallery director James-Ben Stockton, who has shown Barbara’s work for several years, attributes her success not just to good training but to her innate skill for making it ‘look right’. “Her gift for understanding light and shadow is the key,” he says. “She really loves the contrast between the two. That’s what raises her paintings far above the ordinary.”
With time and dedication, Barbara feels she’s beginning to hit her stride with her paintings. “I like to do everything fast,” she says. “That’s why watercolor and I get along so well.” This same sense of ‘making it look right’ also translates to her other love, interior design. “When I remember growing up in a home without electricity, it amazes me to have a 17 room house to decorate now. My friends all want me to help with interior design at their homes. Now remember, I’m no socialite! But I really enjoyed having a home economics teacher come by with her students to see how I did my house for Christmas.” With a stack of painting projects waiting for her, she has no lack of creativity to express. For now, Barbara works from photographs but looks forward to painting in the open air when the chance comes. “It took me a long time to know who I was. Watercolor was a major step in helping me with the times when I didn’t feel like I could do anything. It’s the joy of my life. I’d paint all the time if I could. I love the light and shadow. That’s the whole thing.”
Barbara Bible “Jake” Carter’s work is available locally and displayed with great satisfaction and regional pride at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
There is an irresistible quality to modesty. Such charm is radiated by those talented individuals who seem genuinely surprised by the gifts they possess. They seem to count their blessings with every new creation, which adds an element to their creativity that attracts others to it. When Barbara Bible Carter sat down to talk with me, and announced that she didn’t think there was anything about her that readers would find interesting, she was really saying that her paintings told her story better than words could. A small, elegant woman, with a serenity often illuminated with a bright smile, she demonstrates a gentility that is only enhanced by the accent that speaks to her rural Greene County roots. She is an artist/neighbor in the deepest sense of the term.
In declaring herself a person without formal education, Barbara claims the pride of place that is shared by many mountain folk. It obviously surprised her to be the subject of an art column. “I’m just a little snot-nose kid out of the holler in East Tennessee,” she says. Her family had an old grocery in Bible’s Chapel and the house where she was born was without electricity. Her mother, she remembers, always made sure that there were crayons around for drawing, while her father supplied her basic identity. “I sign all my paintings ‘Jake” because that was his nickname for me.” From her earliest memory, she noticed and found beauty in the minute details of nature. She remembers walking up a path to her mother’s garden and being captivated by the tiny flowers she saw along the way. Drawing was part of her growing up, with inspiration coming from such simple sources as the Sunday comics. “I’ve always noticed the differences between light and shadow,” she says. “I’m an intuitive painter - rather than making a statement or telling a story, my paintings are an expression of what looks right to me. I’m not real big on painting by the rules.”
The Bibles moved closer to Greeneville when Barbara was 7, and her artistic ability found an outlet in school. “We didn’t have much in the way of art teachers but I would draw different subjects relating to what we were learning.” That she would one day exhibit her paintings and win awards in competition was unimaginable at the time but she recalls setting personal challenges for herself. “When I was 10, I remember sitting on a rock in the creek and seeing the reflection of the sunset. I told myself I wanted to be able to paint it just like I saw it.” An aunt who worked in oils and copied well-known works for the enjoyment of herself and friends was an ongoing source of inspiration. “She painted well into her nineties. I painted in oils for a while but found myself attracted to watercolors and happier with what I did.” This choice of medium was a challenge in and of itself. Watercolor is generally regarded as the most difficult of the painting arts to master, and Barbara was unsatisfied with her first efforts. “Then I got the chance to do some work with a teacher named Anita Rhoney, who set me on the right track with some basic techniques. With watercolor, you can’t just paint over a mistake.”
As an adult, Barbara continued both to practice her creativity and to gain knowledge and experience wherever possible. While living in both Greenwich, Connecticut, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she took advantage of the urban opportunities to attend art classes. Upon returning to East Tennessee, as often happens, she found that her most valuable instruction was no further away than Johnson City in the person of local legend Urban Bird. “He teaches in a very casual way, and his blunt, honest criticism really makes sense to me,” says Barbara. “He has such a good eye for seeing and correcting design flaws. I remember a piece I was working on where he said ‘well, you sure didn’t get that mill wheel right’. So I turned it into an old tire instead.” Bird has said of Barbara that she has progressed faster than most of his students. She began exhibiting in 2004 and has been both pleased and amazed to do better in competition than some of her fellow students whose work she particularly admires. Gallery director James-Ben Stockton, who has shown Barbara’s work for several years, attributes her success not just to good training but to her innate skill for making it ‘look right’. “Her gift for understanding light and shadow is the key,” he says. “She really loves the contrast between the two. That’s what raises her paintings far above the ordinary.”
With time and dedication, Barbara feels she’s beginning to hit her stride with her paintings. “I like to do everything fast,” she says. “That’s why watercolor and I get along so well.” This same sense of ‘making it look right’ also translates to her other love, interior design. “When I remember growing up in a home without electricity, it amazes me to have a 17 room house to decorate now. My friends all want me to help with interior design at their homes. Now remember, I’m no socialite! But I really enjoyed having a home economics teacher come by with her students to see how I did my house for Christmas.” With a stack of painting projects waiting for her, she has no lack of creativity to express. For now, Barbara works from photographs but looks forward to painting in the open air when the chance comes. “It took me a long time to know who I was. Watercolor was a major step in helping me with the times when I didn’t feel like I could do anything. It’s the joy of my life. I’d paint all the time if I could. I love the light and shadow. That’s the whole thing.”
Barbara Bible “Jake” Carter’s work is available locally and displayed with great satisfaction and regional pride at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Neighbor Featured Artist #13: Phil Homes
Potter Celebrates the “Mark of the Fire”
Without question, pottery is one of the most venerated art forms in the culture of Appalachia. This appreciation for one of mankind’s oldest crafts is also found in other social traditions across the world. There is a great deal of consistency in pottery forms due to their functional expressions and the techniques that produce them, which makes it possible for pottery lovers from one region to appreciate pieces from other cultural areas. Folks in Northeast Tennessee have access to such an opportunity in the work of their neighbor from Piney Flats, Phil Homes.
“I’ve been working with clay for more than 40 years,” says Phil Homes, a well-spoken silver-haired charmer, whose long experience with his craft is evident from his assured conversation on pottery of all kinds. Like many of the previous subjects for this column, he was drawn to and relocated to the mountain South but, given the production level of his pottery studio, “retirement” is hardly an appropriate description for his move to Northeast Tennessee. A Midwesterner by birth, Homes joined the Piney Flats community nearly five years ago, bringing many years of broad experience in art but with a special affinity for pottery. “I studied engineering which eventually led to a degree in architecture from Lawrence University,” he says. “When I decided that I wanted to teach art, I got both a masters in art history and a MFA from the University of Iowa. But I suppose it was luck that dictated that my first teacher and most enduring influence was perhaps the world’s best potter.” This was Toshiko Takaezu, who would inspire Homes’ to identify as a potter. At first, he would combine both fields and teach both art history and pottery at a small Midwestern college. But over time, pottery gained more and more of his attention. “By the ‘80’s, I had more or less stopped teaching art history.”
After shifting his emphasis to the production of his own work, Homes exhibited widely in New England and the upper Midwest. “Over time, my work has changed considerably. At first I really focused on functional pieces with my designs rising from utilitarian forms. Then I explored more expressive sculptural forms with more complex surface decoration. But over time, my pieces have become simpler and subtler, with designs that emphasize the processes from which they’re made - keeping some of the marks of forming, decorating, and firing.” This elegant simplicity is what attracted Greeneville gallery director James-Ben Stockton to Homes’ pottery. “He’s a ‘potter’s potter’,” says Stockton. “Other potters represented in the gallery will often come in and want to see the new pieces Phil has brought in.” Stockton believes that Homes’ pieces are appealing because of his mastery of the Japanese influence of his first teacher, Toshiko Takaezu. “The elements that Phil does so well - the subtle glazes, the conscious retention of firing marks, the basic raised to the level of elegance - these are examples of the Japanese aesthetic. They are attractive to both both experienced and beginning collectors.” Other elements point to the Japanese perspective in Homes’ creativity. He particularly enjoys the production of raku, in which pieces fired to 1800 degrees are brought together with combustible materials, which ignite to bring both beautiful and unpredictable elements in glazing. “This offers almost unlimited, if not always controllable, variation of surface and pattern,” says Homes. “Phil has a wonderful selection of colors, including a gorgeous iron-red,” says gallery director Stockton. “His raku is glorious - it’s subtle and soft, not flashy. The pieces are of genuine museum quality - they generate an immediate sense of significance and quality.”
Another distinctly Eastern aspect of Homes’ production are his wonderful teapots. “I used to make very expensive ones until I realized that they were probably being put on shelves as ornaments. So now I make smaller ones and sell them for less on the premise that somebody might actually use them to make tea.” Although he usually favors simpler thrown forms in pottery, Homes makes a point of continuing to produce the more time-consuming teapots. “You throw the pot, then you throw the spout, then you throw the lid, then you have to fit them all together. So you can’t possibly make any money making teapots. But I like to make teapots.” Here again can be seen Homes’ early emphasis on functional, utilitarian pieces recurring in his more recent creations. “Nothing is ever lost,” says Homes. “Instead it is assimilated as part of a larger concept. The vessal tradition, utilitarian function, and subtle form and surface are not mutually exclusive. Eash expands and enhances the other.”
Even after many years at his craft, Homes still gets a sense of immediate gratification from working with clay. “You do something to it and it reacts instantly. You touch it and you leave your fingerprint. You squeeze it and it changes form. I’ve done some painting and a lot of sculpture and certainly you interact with the material, but never so much as with clay.” Like most artists, Homes has creative ambitions that are as yet unrealized, but plans to keep future experiments within his chosen realm of pottery. “There’s so much else to try,” says Homes. “You have some input with clay, but you don’t have ultimate control.”
Phil Homes pottery, in raku and stoneware, in functional yet sculptural forms, and, yes, including teapots, is locally carried and proudly exhibited by James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Without question, pottery is one of the most venerated art forms in the culture of Appalachia. This appreciation for one of mankind’s oldest crafts is also found in other social traditions across the world. There is a great deal of consistency in pottery forms due to their functional expressions and the techniques that produce them, which makes it possible for pottery lovers from one region to appreciate pieces from other cultural areas. Folks in Northeast Tennessee have access to such an opportunity in the work of their neighbor from Piney Flats, Phil Homes.
“I’ve been working with clay for more than 40 years,” says Phil Homes, a well-spoken silver-haired charmer, whose long experience with his craft is evident from his assured conversation on pottery of all kinds. Like many of the previous subjects for this column, he was drawn to and relocated to the mountain South but, given the production level of his pottery studio, “retirement” is hardly an appropriate description for his move to Northeast Tennessee. A Midwesterner by birth, Homes joined the Piney Flats community nearly five years ago, bringing many years of broad experience in art but with a special affinity for pottery. “I studied engineering which eventually led to a degree in architecture from Lawrence University,” he says. “When I decided that I wanted to teach art, I got both a masters in art history and a MFA from the University of Iowa. But I suppose it was luck that dictated that my first teacher and most enduring influence was perhaps the world’s best potter.” This was Toshiko Takaezu, who would inspire Homes’ to identify as a potter. At first, he would combine both fields and teach both art history and pottery at a small Midwestern college. But over time, pottery gained more and more of his attention. “By the ‘80’s, I had more or less stopped teaching art history.”
After shifting his emphasis to the production of his own work, Homes exhibited widely in New England and the upper Midwest. “Over time, my work has changed considerably. At first I really focused on functional pieces with my designs rising from utilitarian forms. Then I explored more expressive sculptural forms with more complex surface decoration. But over time, my pieces have become simpler and subtler, with designs that emphasize the processes from which they’re made - keeping some of the marks of forming, decorating, and firing.” This elegant simplicity is what attracted Greeneville gallery director James-Ben Stockton to Homes’ pottery. “He’s a ‘potter’s potter’,” says Stockton. “Other potters represented in the gallery will often come in and want to see the new pieces Phil has brought in.” Stockton believes that Homes’ pieces are appealing because of his mastery of the Japanese influence of his first teacher, Toshiko Takaezu. “The elements that Phil does so well - the subtle glazes, the conscious retention of firing marks, the basic raised to the level of elegance - these are examples of the Japanese aesthetic. They are attractive to both both experienced and beginning collectors.” Other elements point to the Japanese perspective in Homes’ creativity. He particularly enjoys the production of raku, in which pieces fired to 1800 degrees are brought together with combustible materials, which ignite to bring both beautiful and unpredictable elements in glazing. “This offers almost unlimited, if not always controllable, variation of surface and pattern,” says Homes. “Phil has a wonderful selection of colors, including a gorgeous iron-red,” says gallery director Stockton. “His raku is glorious - it’s subtle and soft, not flashy. The pieces are of genuine museum quality - they generate an immediate sense of significance and quality.”
Another distinctly Eastern aspect of Homes’ production are his wonderful teapots. “I used to make very expensive ones until I realized that they were probably being put on shelves as ornaments. So now I make smaller ones and sell them for less on the premise that somebody might actually use them to make tea.” Although he usually favors simpler thrown forms in pottery, Homes makes a point of continuing to produce the more time-consuming teapots. “You throw the pot, then you throw the spout, then you throw the lid, then you have to fit them all together. So you can’t possibly make any money making teapots. But I like to make teapots.” Here again can be seen Homes’ early emphasis on functional, utilitarian pieces recurring in his more recent creations. “Nothing is ever lost,” says Homes. “Instead it is assimilated as part of a larger concept. The vessal tradition, utilitarian function, and subtle form and surface are not mutually exclusive. Eash expands and enhances the other.”
Even after many years at his craft, Homes still gets a sense of immediate gratification from working with clay. “You do something to it and it reacts instantly. You touch it and you leave your fingerprint. You squeeze it and it changes form. I’ve done some painting and a lot of sculpture and certainly you interact with the material, but never so much as with clay.” Like most artists, Homes has creative ambitions that are as yet unrealized, but plans to keep future experiments within his chosen realm of pottery. “There’s so much else to try,” says Homes. “You have some input with clay, but you don’t have ultimate control.”
Phil Homes pottery, in raku and stoneware, in functional yet sculptural forms, and, yes, including teapots, is locally carried and proudly exhibited by James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Neighbor Featured Artist #12: Mark Goodman
Artist Mark Goodman Paints Jazz
I have always been impressed with the passions that motivate artists. They add fuel to a kind of inner fire, both inspiring and energizing the creation of works which then can have the same motivational effect on others. Within the world of music, America’s unique contribution, jazz, represents one of the most passionate genres available to both composer/performers and listeners. For the artist featured in this column, the sounds of jazz have inspired a body of visual work as vibrant and colorful as the music that motivated its creation. Mark Goodman paints jazz.
Mark Goodman is a Michigan native whose work as a graphics artist has taken him to positions all over the country. He was precocious in art and remembers scribbling in pencil on any flat surface he could find. This included, he admits, “tables (which I still do) and my favorite, under my mom’s piano bench, where she couldn’t see the primitive art and I wouldn’t get in trouble!” He is mostly self-taught in drawing and painting although he credits teachers at all levels in school with recognizing and encouraging his talent. He specializes in art direction for weekly newspapers, a profession he entered while still living in Michigan. It was while in such a position with the Nashville Scene that he first wandered into James-Ben: Studio and Galleries in Franklin, TN. “He happened to be carrying some photographs of his paintings. Like many graphic artists he did art work that was more an expression of his personal style. In Mark’s case, most of the images were non-representational but done in what he considered the colors of jazz, particularly the cool blues and hot reds,” says gallery director James-Ben Stockton. One photograph grabbed hold of Stockton’s interest. “It was an abstracted image of a saxophone player. I remember waving it at Mark and saying ‘This! Show me more of this!’” To say that the rest is history would be an inappropriate use of understatement. From that interaction came more than Stockton had bargained for. “The next time I saw Mark, he showed me the first of his ‘jazz portraits’.” “I had always done cartooning and illustrating. It wasn’t until 1996 that I started painting in acrylics on canvas. One of my proudest moments was seeing my first show with James-Ben - it was the place where my parents first saw my art on display.”
Music was also an important part of Mark’s life from childhood. His mother and both sisters played the piano and he remembers plenty of records with everything from classical to showtunes to the Beatles. “I’m crazy about jazz,” he says. “Since I can’t sing or play an instrument, the best way I c ould connect to jazz was to paint with the music cranked up around me.” As a particular jazz portrait took shape on canvas or paper, that particular artist’s sound guided Mark to evocative representations. Although the faces were and are instantly recognizable, the paintings are often named for a song composed by or made famous by that artist. Over time, Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Frank Sinatra, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and many other legends of the genre have reappeared through Mark’s gifted interpretation. His association with James-Ben: Studio and Gallery over more than a decade has proved satisfying both creatively and financially. Even after relocating first to the Denver area and then to Fort Worth, Texas in his capacity as an art director, his connection to the gallery was and still is fresh and vital. The act of having worked in concert to produce a successful painting series proved self-perpetuating. “Mark’s skill as a graphic artist, with his splendid use of color and composition, is made even more marvelous artistically when he creates a piece that feeds his soul as well,” says Stockton. “His work has consistently sold well because its quality leaps off the wall.”
Part of Mark Goodman’s success is due to his genuine devotion to the music that inspires him. Through the gallery, he supported the Franklin Jazz Festival, not only making trips back to Tennessee to attend the event but donating the use of his images to promote the festival. “There are a lot of folks, myself included, who have Mark’s Louis Armstrong image in their collection of prized t-shirts,” says Stockton. The original painting, as well as that first effort, the abstracted sax player, went into private collections in Middle Tennessee. It is a blessing that Mark Goodman’s art, along with the warm friendship of Mark and his wife Patty, relocated with James-Ben: Studio and Gallery to Northeast Tennessee as well. “We displayed Mark’s jazz portraits even before we opened the gallery doors in an exhibit at the Capitol Theater,” says Stockton. Recently, Mark and Patty Goodman visited Greeneville and, along with his jazz portraits, generously participated in Jazz at the Carnegie. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the paintings benefitted both the ETSU Jazz Ensemble and the Niswonger Children’s Hospital. “I was very proud to help out a cause I really believe in, and hope to do it again,” says Mark. “I love Greeneville and enjoyed meeting all the wonderful people there.” The next exhibit of Mark Goodman art will be in the soon-to-open Ella’s restaurant in the former Bellacino’s location. “The paintings will be a tremendous asset in creating the warm atmosphere of good food, good music, and fine art,” says Stockton.
Greeneville can look forward to being the recipient of new artistic explorations from Mark. “I would like to branch out into all kinds of music art, maybe some bluegrass, as well as rock, punk, and blues. All of that has influenced me like jazz, which is my fondest music of all. Jazz is a sweet lady,” he says. As a matter of fact, Mark’s assertion that he paints jazz from a lack of musical talent may be proven wrong in the bluegrass genre. A mandolin made the the trip with him to Greeneville and produced some mighty fine notes during their visit. In addition to its upcoming debut at Ella’s, Mark Goodman’s paintings continue to be locally available and displayed with great affection and pride at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
I have always been impressed with the passions that motivate artists. They add fuel to a kind of inner fire, both inspiring and energizing the creation of works which then can have the same motivational effect on others. Within the world of music, America’s unique contribution, jazz, represents one of the most passionate genres available to both composer/performers and listeners. For the artist featured in this column, the sounds of jazz have inspired a body of visual work as vibrant and colorful as the music that motivated its creation. Mark Goodman paints jazz.
Mark Goodman is a Michigan native whose work as a graphics artist has taken him to positions all over the country. He was precocious in art and remembers scribbling in pencil on any flat surface he could find. This included, he admits, “tables (which I still do) and my favorite, under my mom’s piano bench, where she couldn’t see the primitive art and I wouldn’t get in trouble!” He is mostly self-taught in drawing and painting although he credits teachers at all levels in school with recognizing and encouraging his talent. He specializes in art direction for weekly newspapers, a profession he entered while still living in Michigan. It was while in such a position with the Nashville Scene that he first wandered into James-Ben: Studio and Galleries in Franklin, TN. “He happened to be carrying some photographs of his paintings. Like many graphic artists he did art work that was more an expression of his personal style. In Mark’s case, most of the images were non-representational but done in what he considered the colors of jazz, particularly the cool blues and hot reds,” says gallery director James-Ben Stockton. One photograph grabbed hold of Stockton’s interest. “It was an abstracted image of a saxophone player. I remember waving it at Mark and saying ‘This! Show me more of this!’” To say that the rest is history would be an inappropriate use of understatement. From that interaction came more than Stockton had bargained for. “The next time I saw Mark, he showed me the first of his ‘jazz portraits’.” “I had always done cartooning and illustrating. It wasn’t until 1996 that I started painting in acrylics on canvas. One of my proudest moments was seeing my first show with James-Ben - it was the place where my parents first saw my art on display.”
Music was also an important part of Mark’s life from childhood. His mother and both sisters played the piano and he remembers plenty of records with everything from classical to showtunes to the Beatles. “I’m crazy about jazz,” he says. “Since I can’t sing or play an instrument, the best way I c ould connect to jazz was to paint with the music cranked up around me.” As a particular jazz portrait took shape on canvas or paper, that particular artist’s sound guided Mark to evocative representations. Although the faces were and are instantly recognizable, the paintings are often named for a song composed by or made famous by that artist. Over time, Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Frank Sinatra, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and many other legends of the genre have reappeared through Mark’s gifted interpretation. His association with James-Ben: Studio and Gallery over more than a decade has proved satisfying both creatively and financially. Even after relocating first to the Denver area and then to Fort Worth, Texas in his capacity as an art director, his connection to the gallery was and still is fresh and vital. The act of having worked in concert to produce a successful painting series proved self-perpetuating. “Mark’s skill as a graphic artist, with his splendid use of color and composition, is made even more marvelous artistically when he creates a piece that feeds his soul as well,” says Stockton. “His work has consistently sold well because its quality leaps off the wall.”
Part of Mark Goodman’s success is due to his genuine devotion to the music that inspires him. Through the gallery, he supported the Franklin Jazz Festival, not only making trips back to Tennessee to attend the event but donating the use of his images to promote the festival. “There are a lot of folks, myself included, who have Mark’s Louis Armstrong image in their collection of prized t-shirts,” says Stockton. The original painting, as well as that first effort, the abstracted sax player, went into private collections in Middle Tennessee. It is a blessing that Mark Goodman’s art, along with the warm friendship of Mark and his wife Patty, relocated with James-Ben: Studio and Gallery to Northeast Tennessee as well. “We displayed Mark’s jazz portraits even before we opened the gallery doors in an exhibit at the Capitol Theater,” says Stockton. Recently, Mark and Patty Goodman visited Greeneville and, along with his jazz portraits, generously participated in Jazz at the Carnegie. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the paintings benefitted both the ETSU Jazz Ensemble and the Niswonger Children’s Hospital. “I was very proud to help out a cause I really believe in, and hope to do it again,” says Mark. “I love Greeneville and enjoyed meeting all the wonderful people there.” The next exhibit of Mark Goodman art will be in the soon-to-open Ella’s restaurant in the former Bellacino’s location. “The paintings will be a tremendous asset in creating the warm atmosphere of good food, good music, and fine art,” says Stockton.
Greeneville can look forward to being the recipient of new artistic explorations from Mark. “I would like to branch out into all kinds of music art, maybe some bluegrass, as well as rock, punk, and blues. All of that has influenced me like jazz, which is my fondest music of all. Jazz is a sweet lady,” he says. As a matter of fact, Mark’s assertion that he paints jazz from a lack of musical talent may be proven wrong in the bluegrass genre. A mandolin made the the trip with him to Greeneville and produced some mighty fine notes during their visit. In addition to its upcoming debut at Ella’s, Mark Goodman’s paintings continue to be locally available and displayed with great affection and pride at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
Neighbor Featured Artist #11: Gary Sams
ART THAT MAKES YOU SMILE
I hope you will enjoy the images accompanying this column as much as I have. Quite often, artists are accused of taking themselves too seriously. For Gary Sams, though, a good sense of humor is not only part of what motivates him to create, it is an essential tool for the medium he prefers. The phrase “luck of the draw” can be traced to card games. In Gary Sams’ case, it not only describes what he does so well but might even appear in one of his creations.
Gary Sams is one of your artist/neighbors whose roots are deep in Northeast Tennessee. Born and raised in Greene County, he has spent most of his life and career here, married his high school sweetheart, and has been part of giving two more generations to the region in his children and grandchildren. He is a graduate of Greeneville High School and served in the U.S. Navy from 1969 to 1974. Although he is a pretty low-key fellow, who doesn’t do a lot of bragging about his talent as an artist, chances are you’ve seen some of his work in Greeneville. For three years in the ‘90’s he produced limited edition calendars with his drawings of Greeneville’s historic buildings and sites as subject matter. The calendars, of course, are long since out of date. But Gary’s images were so evocative that the pictures from those calendars still hang in many of Greeneville’s businesses to this day.
In our conversation, Gary told me that he doesn’t recall being creatively inspired by other artists but gives his mother credit for recognizing his drawing talent at an early age. “At five or six I would tag along with her to her women’s meetings,” he says. “I was kind of shy so she would give me pencils and cards to draw on.” Over time it became a habit for him to draw on whatever was handy. In school, this gained him quiet support from his teachers. “I was a doodler in class when I got bored. I had one teacher who would assign me to draw whatever president we were studying in her history class.” Since his childhood, pen and ink has been Gary’s preferred medium. His only formal training, other than a couple of weeks training with Johnson City legend Urban Bird, was one high school class in mechanical drawing. It was during his service in the Navy that his talent took definite shape. “I had a captain who asked me to illustrate pamphlets for him and to create visual aids for him to use in doing presentations. Just before my discharge I crossrated to Draftsman Illustrator. But that wasn’t what I really enjoyed. I got my fun from doing cartoons.” Gary noticed that All Hands, a Department of the Navy magazine, was holding a contest for cartoons. He submitted two entries, gaining a second place and honorable mention. “One of the side benefits of this was that my ship mates would ask me to do caricatures. Today I do something similar for my hunting buddies.”
Gary’s first serious approach to his illustration came after his discharge from the Navy. “For a short while I worked at the old Magnavox plant in the mail room. This was when I started doing pen and ink drawings and selling them in limited edition prints. Before long, they were publishing my cartoons and other artwork in the company magazine.” At this same time, being back home with an avid interest in hunting and fishing brought another dimension to Gary’s creativity. “Overall, my work mainly deals with the outdoors and the simple beauties of nature that we often overlook.” He found that being out hunting or fishing with friends was very much like his years in the Navy as an experience of comradeship well seasoned with humor. “You spend a lot of time waiting in tree stands while you’re hunting,” he says. “Sometimes an idea for a cartoon came from one of my hunting buddies doing something stupid. But there’s also an awful lot of nature going by while you’re waiting and a lot of that is pretty funny, too.” In addition to his limited edition calendars with historical subjects, Gary has also produced cartoon calendars for hunting magazines. His work has appeared in Archery World, Bowhunter, Boar Hunter, Beard and Spur, and Buckmasters. “Currently, Rack and Tennessee Valley Outdoors publish my work on a regular basis,” he says.
Looking ahead to retirement a few years down the road, Gary would like to explore painting in oils and acrylics, a departure from the black and white expression that has characterized most of his creativity. “I have only done one limited edition print in color,” he says. “I’ve got an acrylic and an oil painting that were inspired by my study with Urban Bird.” But for the most part, Gary’s work is meaningful because it is a product of relaxation. “The ideas for my cartoons just pop into my head when I’m thinking about something else,” he notes. “My creative blocks happen when I’m trying to force ideas to come. That’s one reason I find the work in oil and acrylic kind of stressful. The cartoons happen spontaneously, and can be sketched out with whatever’s handy. They’re a natural part of what I do for enjoyment.”
It is his belief that “cartoons are relaxing” that makes Gary Sams’ work delightful fun apart from his tremendous talent for drawing. If you haven’t had a chance to see this side of his creativity before, it’s a pleasure to introduce it to you. Gary’s evocative historical images are also available in limited editions prints. As part of the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Collection, his work can be obtained locally and is displayed with both pride and affection at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
I hope you will enjoy the images accompanying this column as much as I have. Quite often, artists are accused of taking themselves too seriously. For Gary Sams, though, a good sense of humor is not only part of what motivates him to create, it is an essential tool for the medium he prefers. The phrase “luck of the draw” can be traced to card games. In Gary Sams’ case, it not only describes what he does so well but might even appear in one of his creations.
Gary Sams is one of your artist/neighbors whose roots are deep in Northeast Tennessee. Born and raised in Greene County, he has spent most of his life and career here, married his high school sweetheart, and has been part of giving two more generations to the region in his children and grandchildren. He is a graduate of Greeneville High School and served in the U.S. Navy from 1969 to 1974. Although he is a pretty low-key fellow, who doesn’t do a lot of bragging about his talent as an artist, chances are you’ve seen some of his work in Greeneville. For three years in the ‘90’s he produced limited edition calendars with his drawings of Greeneville’s historic buildings and sites as subject matter. The calendars, of course, are long since out of date. But Gary’s images were so evocative that the pictures from those calendars still hang in many of Greeneville’s businesses to this day.
In our conversation, Gary told me that he doesn’t recall being creatively inspired by other artists but gives his mother credit for recognizing his drawing talent at an early age. “At five or six I would tag along with her to her women’s meetings,” he says. “I was kind of shy so she would give me pencils and cards to draw on.” Over time it became a habit for him to draw on whatever was handy. In school, this gained him quiet support from his teachers. “I was a doodler in class when I got bored. I had one teacher who would assign me to draw whatever president we were studying in her history class.” Since his childhood, pen and ink has been Gary’s preferred medium. His only formal training, other than a couple of weeks training with Johnson City legend Urban Bird, was one high school class in mechanical drawing. It was during his service in the Navy that his talent took definite shape. “I had a captain who asked me to illustrate pamphlets for him and to create visual aids for him to use in doing presentations. Just before my discharge I crossrated to Draftsman Illustrator. But that wasn’t what I really enjoyed. I got my fun from doing cartoons.” Gary noticed that All Hands, a Department of the Navy magazine, was holding a contest for cartoons. He submitted two entries, gaining a second place and honorable mention. “One of the side benefits of this was that my ship mates would ask me to do caricatures. Today I do something similar for my hunting buddies.”
Gary’s first serious approach to his illustration came after his discharge from the Navy. “For a short while I worked at the old Magnavox plant in the mail room. This was when I started doing pen and ink drawings and selling them in limited edition prints. Before long, they were publishing my cartoons and other artwork in the company magazine.” At this same time, being back home with an avid interest in hunting and fishing brought another dimension to Gary’s creativity. “Overall, my work mainly deals with the outdoors and the simple beauties of nature that we often overlook.” He found that being out hunting or fishing with friends was very much like his years in the Navy as an experience of comradeship well seasoned with humor. “You spend a lot of time waiting in tree stands while you’re hunting,” he says. “Sometimes an idea for a cartoon came from one of my hunting buddies doing something stupid. But there’s also an awful lot of nature going by while you’re waiting and a lot of that is pretty funny, too.” In addition to his limited edition calendars with historical subjects, Gary has also produced cartoon calendars for hunting magazines. His work has appeared in Archery World, Bowhunter, Boar Hunter, Beard and Spur, and Buckmasters. “Currently, Rack and Tennessee Valley Outdoors publish my work on a regular basis,” he says.
Looking ahead to retirement a few years down the road, Gary would like to explore painting in oils and acrylics, a departure from the black and white expression that has characterized most of his creativity. “I have only done one limited edition print in color,” he says. “I’ve got an acrylic and an oil painting that were inspired by my study with Urban Bird.” But for the most part, Gary’s work is meaningful because it is a product of relaxation. “The ideas for my cartoons just pop into my head when I’m thinking about something else,” he notes. “My creative blocks happen when I’m trying to force ideas to come. That’s one reason I find the work in oil and acrylic kind of stressful. The cartoons happen spontaneously, and can be sketched out with whatever’s handy. They’re a natural part of what I do for enjoyment.”
It is his belief that “cartoons are relaxing” that makes Gary Sams’ work delightful fun apart from his tremendous talent for drawing. If you haven’t had a chance to see this side of his creativity before, it’s a pleasure to introduce it to you. Gary’s evocative historical images are also available in limited editions prints. As part of the Andrew Johnson Bicentennial Collection, his work can be obtained locally and is displayed with both pride and affection at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.
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