Have You Seen Bob project

"Have You Seen Bob" http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Have-you-seen-bob/164395610249824 is a project of Richard Legg, a British photographer http://www.tinlizard.co.uk/ . He has been contacting photographers around the world to photograph "Bob". Bob is a screen print on cardboard of a rather depressed looking kind of Hipster Dude. Collaborating photographers receive a Bob in the mail, and go about putting them in their world. I decided on a simplistic narrative bit. My Bob has had an:

Adventure in Appalachia

Bob heads to the Big City on a snowy Saturday night. Lots of pretty girls in Downtown Knoxville. They ignore Bob. Why is it always this way?


Bob heads up Rt. 75 N hoping that maybe if he pays he can get some action. Wrong. The strip joints are closed. It is Sunday morning.

Bob gets a sign that he might be heading the wrong way.


Should he end it all? Of course not. That water looks freezing.

Bob heads for the wilderness. Maybe he should just live in a cave.

Could he survive here?

Not likely. A giant icicle knocks Bob down and nearly kills him.

Bob decides he'll make another go of it, and heads back to Knoxville. Maybe if he takes his hands out of his pockets and looks up once in a while people won't think he's a total drip. Maybe he just needs a latte.

Two January Exhibits

POINT TIME: A Confluence of Artists
A multimedia group exhibition of Knoxville artists curated by Jean Hess

An innovative showcase of visual artists representing a specific micro-locus in East Tennessee will be co-presented by the Slocumb Galleries at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, and the William King Museum in Abingdon, Virginia with the sponsorship of the Carnegie Hotel. The exhibition, "Point Time: A Confluence of Artists" opens this coming January 2011. Knoxville arts writer and painter Jean Hess, whose own work and interests focus on geographic linkages and historical memory, is the invited curator. Hess has taken the unusual curatorial track of seeking out 38 Knoxville-area artists operating at myriad levels of public awareness to create work ranging from experimental media to traditional crafts. Rather than attempt to focus on work that proves a curatorial point, or that supports a personal agenda, Hess has chosen to make a painting that encapsulates in abstract form the geographic coordinates of specific places where the show's artists have lived before moving to Knoxville.

Participating artists are: Chad Airhart, Emily Bivens, Sara Blair, Shirley Brown, Robmat Butler, Bill Capshaw, Nick de Ford, Don Dudenbostel, Alan Finch, Stacey Fletcher-Reynolds , Diane Fox, Thaddeus George, Marcia Goldenstein, Carl Gombert, Jorge Gomez del Campo, Joyce Gralak, Barron Hall, Amira Haqq, Briena Harmening, Brian Jobe, Lauren Karnitz, Cindy Latham, Beauvais Lyons, Deborah McClary, Fritz Massaquoi, Evan Meany, Jessica Meyer, Althea Murphy-Price, Alison Oakes, Denise Stewart-Sanabria, Zachary Searcy, Jason Shoemaker, Jered Sprecher, Emily Taylor, Patricia Tinajero, Jessie Vanderlaan, Hawa Ware, David Wolff.

For more information about the artists and the exhibition, please contact curator Jean Hess at jeanhess@bellsouth.net. William King Museum’s Reception: is on January 11, Tuesday from 6-8 p.m. with exhibit duration from January 11 to 31, 2011. For information about the William King Museum, kindly email curator Elyse Gerstenecker at egerstenecker@wkmuseum.org or call 276.628.5005.
The Slocumb Galleries’ Curator’s Lecture & Closing Reception is on January 28, Friday, with the lecture starting at 4 p.m. Ball Hall Auditorium, reception follows at the Slocumb Galleries. The exhibit duration is from January 12 to 28, 2011. The Slocumb Galleries is open Mondays thru Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with extended hours during receptions and on January 15, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 430 p/m/ in commemoration of Governor Bill Haslam’s Inauguration. Questions about the Slocumb Galleries may be referred to SG Director Karlota Contreras-Koterbay at contrera@ets.edu or call 423.483.3179.
Image courtesy of artist Jean Hess