Neighbor Featured Artist #2: Caroline Blanks

The last time we got together, I talked about the mountains and how they seem to nurture artists of all kinds. As a preacher used to say about his previous sermons, that’s true – but there’s more... One of the best things about our mountains is the way they welcome folks home. It doesn’t matter whether you were born up here. If you decide to call the mountains home, they’ll always agree with you.
Caroline Blanks is an “artist neighbor” who has traveled a long way to come home to northeast Tennessee. Born on the West Coast, with parents who were international teachers, Caroline’s high school years were spent in Seoul, South Korea. Life overseas led her to adventures in Taiwan, Italy, France, Austria, Germany, and Egypt. “Perfect for a budding artist,” she says with a grin. Caroline returned to the West Coast and the University of Washington for a BA in fine arts, with a major in photography but with training in drawing, painting, and design. Her connection with the Far East led her to Guam, but an encounter with Super Typhoon Paca brought her to East Tennessee into the shelter of the mountains and back to the original home of the Blanks family. “Five or six generations ago, my ancestors, the Fines, operated the first ferry to cross the river near Rogersville,” she says. “We found the old cemetery. It was overgrown but I think the DAR has restored the family patriarch’s gravesite.” Since moving to Greeneville, Caroline has been joined in the area by her twin sister, who relocated from Budapest, Hungary, and her parents, George and Lois Blanks, who crossed the country from Seattle.
Art has been working its magic in Caroline’s life, particularly in the past ten years. James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center has represented her since 2004, beginning with her sculptures and garden art crafted in cement and steel. But more recently, she has traded concrete for canvas, and in the process rediscovered her love of impressionist painting in acrylics and oils. “I tend to combine acrylics and glazes,” she says. “I love the luxuriousness of oils but I’m too impatient to wait for them to dry. The hardest thing about painting is getting past the ‘ugly’ stage! And every painting has an ugly stage.” Caroline’s paintings now reflect the spirit of her surroundings. “You paint what you experience,” she notes. “What’s important to me is to capture the atmosphere around the subject. It’s similar to painting based on the quality of light – without attention to atmosphere and light, the painting will be mediocre.” Employed for the past ten years at Forward Air Corp., Caroline credits both her job and supportive co-workers for the creativity she expresses during off hours. “I’m so lucky to be able to paint. It gives meaning to my free time and lets me put emotion into my fine art that I hope will appeal to those who see it.” Her current landscapes of local Greene County scenes are captured moments of time. Her goal is that those who see her paintings will experience them with a full range of senses. “I want a painting of peonies to fill the room with the scent of spring. I want bouquets of wild flowers to evoke hot summer days, and stands of early daffodils to bring on the chill of spring rain. These are memories that future generations can still recapture and experience as though they were there when the brush was touched to canvas.”
Recently, Caroline has had a new inspiration for her art. Her parents, George and Lois, purchased and are restoring the Richard Doughty home on North Main Street in downtown Greeneville. Their daughter’s accomplishments in a variety of artistic media have been a godsend. Caroline has created “movable murals” for the home that can be changed according to the season. She has also “marbleized” two different fireplace mantles as well as creating metallic finishes for the ceilings. “The decorative work complements my fine art,” she says. “I get to play with all sorts of new materials. It’s the best of both worlds. Fortunately my parents are both adventurous and supportive so I think their spontaneity is helping to re-create the original spirit of the house. Which,” she adds, “ will still be known as the Doughty House.” Another influence from her decorative work has spilled over to her fine art paintings. “I’m painting much larger canvases. It’s getting harder to ‘paint small’ (unless I need some artistic instant gratification).”
Greene County is fortunate, not only that Caroline Blanks has ‘come home’ but that her life here is generating intensely personal creativity. “My art gives me such peace,” she says. “I find the play of paint on canvas and the dance of the knife and brush to be a kind of meditation.” We are all enriched by her continually emerging gifts. Caroline’s work is handled locally, and proudly displayed at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.

Neighbor Featured Artist #1: Barbara Miller

There are several unique things about our East Tennessee mountains that artists find spellbinding. Their beauty as the subject matter for visual images is an obvious feature. But as inspiration, the enchantment of the Appalachians goes deeper. Talent seems to spring up from the earth here. Running water sings to creative spirits; the hills breed quiet that allows artists space to imagine. The folks that settled the area liked for their closest neighbor to be a couple of miles away. Because of that tradition, we have a bigger responsibility to get to know the neighbors we have.
Barbara Miller is a perfect subject to initiate this column. She was born and bred in Greene County, which makes her a product of the region’s innate gifts and talents. Her art is touched with magic; she can paint a watercolor that will make you think you’ve never seen a flower before, or an acrylic mountain scene that’ll make you swear you’re flying.
Miller has memories of growing up in the community that many Greene Countians can share. These memories are echoed in the artwork she creates today. She fondly remembers her visits to the goldfish pond at the old Takoma Hospital, where she was born. She recalls the drawing that convinced her parents (still among her biggest fans and supporters) that art was going to be an important part of their daughter’s life. “It was a picture of President Kennedy,” she says. “Even at age 5 I drew him from the shoulders up, complete with nostrils and eyeballs.” The artist attended 1st grade in the last year the Roby School was open to elementary students (and wryly expressed the hope that her attendance there had nothing to do with the decision to close it). She recalls that one of her teachers gave her the first practical hint about composition in art – learn how to fill up the sheet. Another strong memory is of living downtown in Greeneville. “We lived in Mr. Rhea’s rental house, which had been Valentine Sevier’s slave quarters. The Big Spring was right in our backyard!” Art was a continuing presence as Miller grew up, and included the eight art credits she received in high school, as well as the informal lessons she gave to her fellow students. A love of draftsmanship, which led to studies in architecture after graduating, is part of the foundation of her creative output today. “I’m obsessed with pens, pencils, and paper quality,” she says. “To me, a clean sheet of paper is heaven.”
Miller has worked professionally for American Calendar and the Diamond G art department. Her work as a commercial/graphic artist has been invaluable to her fine art pieces. “What commercial art may lack in creativity it more than makes up for in improving technical shills,” she says. Technical skill has been a godsend to her fine art, giving her the confidence to work in watercolor – which she describes as the most difficult of the painting media to master – and in both acrylics and oils. Among them, Miller enjoys the “look” of watercolor the most but has a more spontaneous feeling with acrylics and oils. “With acrylics and oils, you paint ‘what is’. In other words the painting is experienced as you create it. Watercolor requires more careful planning.” Acquisition of new techniques is also part of Miller’s work, which has lead to recent forays into pastels.
Miller’s artistry has not gone unnoticed outside her native Greene County. She recently exhibited at the Madison Wise Gallery in New York’s SoHo district in a show called “Natural Instincts”, and one of her original pieces was purchased by the Amica Mutual Insurance Company of Rhode Island for their annual Thanksgiving card. Currently her professional work still influences her fine art creations and keeps her technical skills sharpened for their creation. She works for Package Express as a graphic artist handling marketing and newsletters. To feed her soul and keep in touch with the inner child, she serves as the coordinator of children’s ministry at Asbury United Methodist Church. Her sense of humor gets a yearly boost from her work as a writer and performer in the annual Kiwanis Kapers.
For Barbara Miller, art is as much a part of herself as breathing. That she has been able to practice it both as a profession and as a form of personal expression is truly a blessing, although sometimes a mixed one. “There are times when my graphic work has been so intense that I can’t even think of touching brush to canvas,” she admits. “But God gave me many talents and the spirit to explore them. Everything I do is God’s gift.” Miller’s fine art pieces are available and proudly displayed locally at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.