The Arts Company: A Summer of Serendipity

In the middle of Nashville stands a 6,000 square foot art venue; housed in a historic downtown building, The Arts Company has offered a wide variety of art mediums a since 1996. One look at The Arts Company's website and it is obvious that this is an energetic and modern gallery:

Our gallery mission is to maintain a presence of distinctively fresh, original, and contemporary artwork for individuals and businesses, offering an eclectic mix beyond the typical gallery model at unusually affordable prices.

The Arts Company's current exhibition is amazing. Following is the description from their website:

A SUMMER OF SERENDIPITY

Eclectic Adventures in Artwork, Décor, Books, Artifacts, Music & More

Featuring:

-The Shapes and Colors of Brother Mel
-The Intimate World of Leonard Piha
- 65th Anniversary of Ed Clark’s Grand Ole Opry Photographs: July 20, 1946
- Thornton Dial Original Drawings Jim Hubbman Watercolors

Each of these art groupings are absolutely amazing. One artist, in particular, will appeal to art lovers who enjoy bright colors, interesting shapes, and a quirky vibe: Brother Mel.

(Self portrait, at right.)

Brother Mel is an American Marianist Monk and creates art to support his monastic order. At age 82, he has been creating and selling art for 60 years.

Versitile in a number of mediums, Brother Mel's exhibit at The Arts Company is primarily metal sculptures and paintings. He also creates stained glass pieces, hand-made paper, and frescos.

This photo of a corner of the exhibition shows a sample of the energy and joy that radiates from so many of Brother Mel's works. The bright colors of the painted metal are from all over the color spectrum, yet a majority are of the same saturation level, which brings the pieces together. An occasional duller color, such as the lighter blues in the spiral in the bottom left corner, give the eye a place to rest as it moves around the piece.

Photos from the Brother Mel exhibition at The Arts Company can be seen here.

The exhibition A Summer of Serendipity will run at The Arts Company through August 20, 2011.

------------------------

Read more about Brother Mel in this 2007 blog entry.

Brother Mel's homepage is here.

Zeitgeist Gallery's "Sub Urban Legends"

Zeitgeist Gallery houses a contemporary art gallery as well as an architectural design studio. Established in 1995, it is located in Nashville's Hillsboro Village (a trendy little spot close to both Belmont and Vanderbilt Universities.)

Zeitgeist Gallery is currently showing an exhibit titled "Sub Urban Legends." The introduction from the gallery's website is as follows:

Zeitgeist is pleased to present two artists new to the area: Justin Plakas and Jessica Wohl. In keeping with Zeitgeist’s tradition of summer exhibitions reaching into the area studio community, these two artists kick off the first of two “project space” shows.

Jessica Wohl's contributions to the exhibit are on the topic of "suburbia." Zeitgeist Gallery's Facebook page has some previews to Jessica's work, which is very interesting. The previews represent two mediums. In the first medium, Jessica uses embroidery to alter "found" photographs. The second medium is ink on paper drawings. Both mediums start with something traditional and expected yet have a twist that represents the flaws and secrets that suburbia holds.

In contrast with the altered photos, which are very obviously sinister and symbolic, the ink on paper drawings seem at first to be simply visually interesting drawings: a closer look reveals symbolic commentary.

The piece shown at right, for example, seems at first to be an image of a family swimming in a nice pool outside their home. Further inspection, however, reveals a young boy on the right peeing into the pool as though he were at a urinal. Underneath the water, and barely noticeable, is a shadow that seems to be two people under the surface and using straws to get air. In addition, there is a person under the tree on the left, peering at the family from the outside of the fence (while a security camera bears down on the scene from the right of the house.) The subtle details are open for interpretation and allow the viewer to infer possible meanings for themselves.

The show runs from July 7 through July 30, 2011.

Andy Warhol exhibit at the Frist

Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts is hosting an iconic exhibit this summer: the works of pop art legend Andy Warhol. The exhibit is in Nashville through September 11th.

The almost 300-piece collection is notable for including not only Warhol's major and most famous pieces (such as Campbell's Soup Cans or the visually loud portraits of Marilyn Monroe), but in addition including personal items and lesser-known works, with audio and visual recordings rounding out the experience.

Warhol is best known for his high-contrast, brightly-colored pop art prints. Pop art was an experimental form that artists were using in the 1960s in response to increased commercialism in American culture; Warhol made the art form his own by focusing on every-day objects and celebrities. Sometmes his art pieces were serious, and sometimes they were meant to be humorous; Warhol was often described as having a deadpan style - both in his art, and in his public personality.

The Mailyn Monroe series was a group of mass-produced silk-screen prints based on photographs. The prints are in a wide assortment of bright, deeply saturated and contrasting colors, the combinations of which create images which range from oddly beautiful to frigteningly cartoonish. These images have been reproduced, cropped, regrouped, and even spoofed over and over again in American culture.

Andy Warhol's career as an artist spanned nearly 40 years. From magazine illustrations in 1949 to pop art of the 1960s to dozens of collaborative paintings with Jean-Michel Basquiat in the 80s, Warhol was a highly influential figure in 20th century American art. For this reason alone, the exhibit is worth the visit.

-------------

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is located on Broadway in downtown Nashville. Housed in a beautiful 1933 building that originally served as the main Nashville post office , the Frists' 24,000 square feet of gallery space houses several concurrat exhibitions which rotate on a regular basis.

Metro Nashville Public Art: bike racks

As a department of Metro Nashville Government, the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission (MNAC) uses public money to fund public art. The artist-designed bike racks series combine form and function by providing a visually interesting alternative to an object of necessity.

The Metro Arts website currently shows there are seven of these bike racks around Nashville. Many cities and urban areas are making an effort to encourage walking, biking, and the use of mass transit as a way to save energy and protect the environment, and Nashville is no different. For this project, MNAC partnered with Metro Public Works and the Mayor's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. This is a very concrete example of art interacting with and responding to public policy and social movements.

The bike rack sculpture I like the most is Microphone Rack. It was created by Franne Lee, Keith Harmon, and Mac Hill, and is installed at the northeast corner of Demonbruen Street and Music Row. The microphone looks almost alive, with the pedestal for its feet and the head of the microphone as a bowed head - the machine as living object reminds me of the jumping and squeaking lamps used in Pixar shorts. Humans are hard-wired to see eyes, faces, and other human-like features in shadows and objects; by making the microphone anthropomorphic, the designers added an additional layer of interest to the piece.

This to me is a perfect kind of public art - if we have to look at objects anyway, they might as well be visually pleasing; extra points are awarded in my book for quirky.

Photography Studio Field Trip

1. How does the process of platinum printing affect the way that Guider's photos look?

The platinum prints look metallic and shiny (but not reflective), with very vivid shades of gray. They show much more detail than traditional black and white prints. Because platinum is a very stable element, the metal is immune to chemical reactions that damage silver prints; the platinum will not break down or fade in the way that traditional prints do.

2. Explain the values (scale from white to black) in Guider's photos.

According to Guider, film negatives record 1,000 values of gray between solid black and solid white. The human eye can see 15,000. Traditional black and white film development using silver prints has a range of only 10 grays. Platinum printing has 100 gray values - still not as varied as the negatives are capable of, but ten times the values that silver prints offer.

3. How have Stacey Irvin's travels affected her work?

When I Googled Stacey to read more about her, I found an article on Vanderbilt's website where she is quoted as saying: “Photographers can be peacemakers. People learn about each other through photographs. I want people to take away a sense of our shared humanity.”

Stacey's sees an innate dignity in all people, and it's obvious in her photos. The more she travels, the more she finds ways to connect with people, even despite language barriers. Through her camera lens, she seems to find a shared humanity in people all over the world. Her photos show that the basics of the human experience is the same no matter where you are.

4. Choose a photo by Guider or Irvin and do an analysis of its values/colors/form/content. Describe your response to this work.

I noticed this picture of Stacey's website, and she had it hanging in her studio, also. I was initially drawn to the purple the girl is wearing, simply because purple is my favorite color.

Then I noticed how she framed the shot and where the girl is lined up - many photographers (as well as painters and other visual artists) use the "rule of thirds" in composition. The image is divided into nine imaginary parts with both the horizontal field and the vertical field divided with two lines, to create equal-sized thirds. Placing a subject along these lines or at their intersection creates visual interest. The vertical line of the girl's nose is almost exactly where the left vertical line would be on the photo.

Additionally I like how she uses a shallow focus depth of field - so the girl is in sharp focus, while the background is a bit out of focus. This way the girl is the most important part of the picture, while her surroundings are more implied. Stacey obviously used a fast shutter speed since the dandilion seeds are caught mid-air as the girl blows the flower.

The main colors in this picture are purple, green, and shades of black/white/brown. Because of this the subject of the picture is more noticable, since she doesn't have to compete for our visual attention. The colors are all on the cool side of the color wheel, so they are calming

----------------------

Both Stacey and John were extremely interestng, and I'm glad we had the chance to meet them and hear about their work!

This is my idea of a good sculpture!

I don't even have words for how awesome this is. The artist's name is Anchalee Saengtai. Wired Magazine did a story on her last month:

Thai Sculptor Transforms Scrap Parts Into Jumbo Autobots.

Honestly, seeing one of these things in person would be every little boy's dream. (As well as many grown men.)

There's an interesting debate in the comments to the Wired story, as to whether this work constitutes "art" - or "Art" with a capital A?

Even if Anchalee didn't come up with the character or concept of the actual Transformer, to make a 19 foot sculpture that represents ANYTHING is an artistic endeavor to me!

Messy art

I've been thinking a lot about the write-ups I need to do for the photography studio we visited, as well as what I'm going to do for the assignment for the final. I've also been thinking about how Jake and I have incorporated art into our lives the past few years, particularly the messes that my love of art supplies has allowed. And THAT is more interesting to write about, so here I am. :)

Jake figured out pretty quickly that I couldn't say no to him when it comes to buying books, art supplies, and educational items. (Does this make me a good mom, or a push-over? Talk amongst yourselves.)

He also figured out that if I turned my back or got involved with folding laundry he could use his art supplies the way HE wanted to.

::

So once upon a time (he was 3, I think), I bought Jake some foam Christmas trees at Michael's, along with cute little decorations for them. I turned my back one day and he scattered ALL the little foam pieces all over the floor. I was in shock when I saw it - there's that moment when you go . . . OMG, did that REALLY happen? Usually these kinds of messes, I walk away from until I feel like cleaning them. Those foamies probably stayed on the floor for hours LOL.

Another thing I do when I'm shocked is take pictures - because I know I'm going to think it's funny later. So this image is what I posted on my blog about it that night.

And these pictures . . . holy cow these make me giggle. Jake had a little desk and chairs next to my computer desk in our dining room when he was 2, and I gave him free reign with crayons and stickers. I was CONSTANTLY finding him coloring on the walls and even the side of the counters. It was kind of hilarious. I particularly like the look on his face in these pictures - like what? why are you looking at me like that? He was being very deliberate and working hard!

The writing on the left side of the page (this is a scrapbook page) says "Jake showed an interest in art at an early age. Or something. Jan. 2005." heh.