Time to Eat the Donuts/8-2010

I was one of the 1st to exhibit in the new Clayton Center or the Arts complex at Maryville College in their niiiice double gallery space (BlackberryFarms Gallery) in the smaller building. (The construction had so many corporate sponsors that virtually every detail of the place has names. Dr. Mark Hall, head of the art dept., even dedicated a toilet stall to someone. It is in the men's room, so I was never able to verify the brass plaque that is on one of the doors.....but it is very amusing stuff).

My exhibit was titled "Eat Me", and was compiled of anthropomorphic food paintings. Everybody focused on the donuts, of course..and the impaled strawberries. We even had donuts at the reception. I was kind of disapointed that the exhibit didn't attract any cops, but a security guard did walk through at one point.

Quantum Confusion: Plywood and Plexiglas Drawing Installation

It's been one year in process, and I finally installed it today for a group figurative exhibit: Continuare: The Figurative Tradition in Contemporary Art , at the Ewing Gallery at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The exhibit runs from Aug. 1- Sept. 12th and also includes East Tennessee artists Bain Butcher, Judy Condon, Lynda Evans, and Carl Gombert; Asheville artist Virginia Derryberry, and Florida artist Thaddeus Erdahl. There will be an afternoon closing reception Sun., Sept. 12th. Gallery summer hours are Tues. -Fri. 12-4, and will be switching to regular hours when school opens.

There have been many theories given to the existence of many, or parallel worlds, both in the disciplines of Quantum Physics and Metaphysics. They range from solid research that can deliver actual theory-proving data, to the more esoteric work of Lewis and Kripke, which has a tendency to sound like the conversation of a couple of 1960’s era grad students on acid. Popular media occasionally tries to produce their own version of these theories, from an episode of “Lost in Space” that scared the pants off me when I was a kid by showing characters on the program walking into another world through a special mirror portal, to the contemporary and excellent Fox network series “Fringe”. Whether any parts of these theories eventually prove to be true remains to be seen, but with further developments in the world of Quantum Physics, we are constantly reminded that the more we discover, the less we know.
My own installation plays with the portal idea, using Plexiglas (instead of a mirror). The Physicist, with her pencil and clipboard, is the only alert presence, as the other participants complacently participate in something they haven’t figured out yet.

The installation size is approximately 8’W x 16’L x 8’H, and contains eleven full scale charcoal portraits on cut-out plywood. They are mounted on black ½” plywood floor stands. Two sheets of 4’ x 8’ Plexiglas are both sandwiched between emerging and disappearing people, and are also stabilized by cables connected to the ceiling.

rear view


right angle

detail

Recent Exhibits: Plywood People

From fall '09 to spring '10 my plywood people have been going on road trips and having fun. Most recent is Modern Girls, Contemporary Tennessee Women in Art at the Custom House Museum in Clarkville. It is an invitational survey put together by Terry Jordan, curator. They just did an amazing job installing this exhibit. There is a ton of Adrienne Outlaw's work which added even more interactivity with viewers, but what is cool is that work that is interactive with viewers tends to be interactive with the work of all the other artists in the gallery.

URBhana 3

From Clarksville Online:

"Women’s History Month at the Customs House Museum is a special treat for the eyes. Opened on the second of March, Modern Girls is a show of contemporary works by Tennessee’s foremost female artists.
The exhibit includes known painters April Street, Edie Maney, Julia Martin, and Jennifer Utterback, woodturner Brenda Stein, installation artists Adrienne Outlaw and Sher Fick, award winning watercolorist Anne Bagby, multi-media artist Denise Stewart Sanabria, sculptor Irene Ritter and Annamaria Gundlach, and photographer Caroline Allison. Curator, Terri Jordan, says of the exhibit, “I wanted to focus this Women’s History Month on some of the talented women currently making their way in the art world, that have a connection to Tennessee."

~
I put in two new pieces that are part a Quantum Physics conceptual installation that is part of a group figurative exhibit this summer at the Ewing Gallery/UTK. , and an older piece, "Aaron".

Karley

panoramic gallery view

~
Nashville's 1st Saturday Gallery Crawl at the Arts Company. Most of the work was from the abandoned photo album series I had at the Tennessee Art Commission Galleries "Skeletons in Closets" back in July '08 with Laura Chenicek. Fun night, tons of people out on a nice, warm night.

~

Who are the Live Humans? If I cut out the color saturation, it is harder to tell. A two-person exhibit this winter with Atlanta painter Corey Barksdale at Creative Art Guild in Dalton, GA.

Corey's wife and daughter check out Daddy's paintings.

Pre-reception-only flat people.

~

Another big installation in a long corrider gallery at The Renaissance Center in Dickson, TN
Also showing in this cluster of three exhibits was Greg Schlanger and Jodi Hays.

~

Back in fall '09- winter '10, seven of my people went to The William King Museum in Abingdon, VA for their biennial survey of contemporary art in the Appalachian Highlands, "From These Hills". Mod Squad looks particularly interesting viewed through Travis Graves' "Action and Consequences". There was a ton of really cool emergent work in this exhibit.-video, installation, conceptual pieces using found objects, and bizarre and wonderful photography.

Latest Donuts

Bite. It's a big one- 42" x 48". I'm eager to finish this series (4 more to go) so I can buy more donuts to set up the next series.

Snake Box

This works-my husband's 1st reaction was that it was real. The graphite snake drawing is fused on mylar, then nailed on supports that project out of a dowel you can rotate with knobs on the side of the frame. I filled the box (Had to hand build it) with ink jet prints on vellum of leave scans, and real milk weed seeds. 3 views during rotation:

The latest Donuts Behaving Badly painting: "Boston Creamed". Who knew donuts could express so much about the human condition?

Elkmont Project: Ghost Town

Elkmont is decaying at an alarming rate, and the Park Service does not have the $6,000,000.00+ to initiate Alterative C, which is to preserve 19 cabins and remove the rest. Though they did release plans to entirely re-do the Cades Cove Road in March 2010 today, nothing has been announced regarding Elkmont. I have a fear that the earmarked cabins will be beyond saving once they do have the capital.

As an artist and photographer, my project is to record what is left of Elkmont. Through photographing primarily the interiors of the cabins, I intend to preserve the spirit of the lives that evolved within these summer homes. The floor plans, colors, and details inside these places radiate the joy and abandon that overtake people when removed from the responsibilities of their regular lives. The simple beauty has me obsessed and mesmorized by the cultural remains of a once vibrant community. I have well over 100 finished images, and hundreds more that are simple documentation.

The exhibit installation will involve having the work divided on the walls according to which of the three areas of the community they were taken in. Photos of the deterioration of the floors will be printed large and mounted directly on the gallery floor, where they will be interspersed with large, hanging photos of interiors.

Part 2 of my project, (after I get a worthy venue for the exhibit) is to sit down with former owners to scan scan family photos to offset my own, to get a solid sense of history. I already have a few vintage photos from public collections.

A few sample photos of my work:

One of the houses furthest up Society Hill

This is the Murphy Lodge from Millionaire's Row (next to Little River trail) below, which belonged to a friend's aunt.


The Parrot House on Millionaire's Row


I call this one "Scream".

Another shot from a house far up Society Hill.

The house my freind's family owned when she was a kid. They called it Oh-So-Cozy. Yes, that is a pink dress hanging in the window.

Inside a Daisy Town house.

An upstairs scene from Society Hill. You can never have too many colors of paint.

This was written on the living room floor, obviously by the owner, inside the Thomas House on Society Hill. "You Take My Home, My Wings Grow With Pain, Good Bye.