Leisa A. Hammett

Hardscrabble Rural Vet Turned Novelist, William Gay, Passes On

He was one of the most hard-scrabble-looking writers upon whom I've ever laid eyes. Numerous times over the years, I saw acclaimed rural carpenter turned novelist William Gay sit on author's panels at the Southern Festival of Books and not say a whole lot that I can remember. I *think* he may have mentioned once that literary notoriety had not changed his life much and that he still lived in a trailor.  His presence was most humble, as if he felt he didn't belong there. But belong he did. More so than most anyone else there. My friend, author-philospher Bill Peach, whom I hold in most high esteem, wrote the following about Gay who died Thursday:

"William Gay, the Hohenwald, Tenn., native who late in life earned a following as one of the most acclaimed Southern writers of recent years, was reportedly found dead last night from heart failure at his Lewis County home. He was 68.

"A Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy, Gay had been writing since he was 15 years old, supporting himself with carpentry and drywall-hanging jobs as well as a stint on a television-tube assembly line. It wasn't until 1998, however, that he published his first short stories, followed by his prize-winning first novel, The Long Home, in 1999.

"Its celebrated follow-up, Provinces of Night, made Gay's literary name as an heir to the tradition of Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. Of his three published novels and collected short stories — with a fourth novel, The Lost Country (excerpted here at Chapter16.org), as yet unpublished — Gay's works were twice filmed.

"Gay's hard-living reputation only enhanced his literary mystique. He traveled often, however, and was scheduled to do a reading Monday at Lincoln Memorial University with fellow writer Sonny Brewer."

 

Wow.

Read Serenity Gerbman's remembrance at Chapter16.org.

Provocateurs, Entrepreneurs @ Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Part II

Artist Jerry Adams's dreamy watercolors first grabbed and held onto my heart in 2008 at a very special  exhibit. "The Artist's Voice: A Tennessee Exhibition Featuring Artists with Disabilities" bubbled up from a dream turned vision to a committee (of which I was a member) to the Conte Community Arts Gallery at Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts where it hung in glory and then faced a sad, unfortunate death, failing to ever tour nationally as it was once envisioned.

 

Jerry Adams was but one artist whose work was discovered in the juried show of adult artists from major cities to Tennessee's rural nooks and crannies. Artists Yvette Renee Parrish-Cowden and Massood Taj, then both of Full Circle Art, took their magic artistry of love and encouragement on the road, statewide, teaching the workshop-attending artists with disAbilities how to compile a portfolio and market their work. Even four years later, I am struck at the oddity and the sadness, as I judge it, of that sentence. Like the rest of life that so many take for granted, artists with disAbilities are often disadvantaged, lacking supports and services to help them integrate fully into our society and do many of the things that others take for granted. For the duration of the project, "The Artist's Voice" helped spotlight the deserving Tennessee artists' talent.

Fortunately, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, a national University Center for Excellence (UCED) and the first Intellectual and DD (developmental Disabiltiy) Research Center, established in a network of centers by President John F. Kennedy, continuously focuses on the work by and about artists and individuals with disAbilities in their lobby area gallery. Last week "The Journey with Grace" profiled currently featured exhibition artist, photographer Matthew Drumright. Painter Jerry Adams shares the current show's gallery space with Drumright.

 

Adams is driven by his passion to create art, but has little motivation, according to his website, for public accolades. Still, like all artists, he wishes to make his artistic endeavors a viable enterprise. Yet, with the hurdle of cerebral palsy, his challenges in this task are magnified as the disAbility impairs his motor skills.

His works of deep color and fluid motion are a kind of personal salvation for Adams, who has spent most of his adult life in segregated communal living environments where personal career gain is often out of reach. (Take note, special needs parents, please, about what you really wish for your children's future living).

Persistently painting since 1980, Adams has gained respect and recognition by private collectors and has been featured in exhibitions at Nashville International Airport's Arts in the Airport program, Vanderbilt University, The Tennessee Performing Arts Center and First American Bank. He received the 1993 Metro Davidson County Disabled Artist of the Year award, among other various honors. 

Go, Jerry, go. Paint, Jerry, paint....Your gift is an inspiration and a gift to eyes, heart and soul. Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. More about Adams and Drumright's work, including photographs of the Vanderbilt show, here.

Above credits: photo, Farris Poole; painting by Adams, entitled "Subterranean Divide, Part One."

Provocateurs, Entrepreneurs @ Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Part I

 

This beautiful image:

 

...was taken by this young man ~

 

Matthew Drumright, above, has been taking pictures since he was age 10. His talent was nurtured by a teacher who "gets it." Marti Proffit-Strueli is also my daughter's art teacher and one of the main reasons I transferred Grace out of her cluster to attend Hillsboro High School. It is a story of the difference a teacher can make in encouraging a students' dream. It is also the story of parents who listened and nurtured their son's talent, who believed, dreamed big and believed in their special son's big dreams.

Drumright not only believed in his dream, he followed it and works as an intern for Michael Gomez Photography in Nashville. Like many artists, Drumright also holds a second job to help support himself and his craft. His photograph, “Night Snowfall,” was on display in the S. Dillion Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington , D.C., as part of the VSA arts ”Driving Force” art exhibit. In 2005, VSA arts of Tennessee awarded him the Professional Artist Award. Matthew enjoys photographing nature, people, sports and special events but mostly capturing his nephews in those treasured moments.

A Special Olympics athlete since 1991, Matthew trains and competes in multiple sports. He has been fortunate to have been selected to compete in three Special Olympics World Games and Two Special Olympics National Golf Tournaments. He served as the official Healthy Athletes photographer for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho. As a Global Messenger, Matthew speaks to civic, corporate, school and church organizations about Special Olympics and how it has enhanced his life.

Provocateurs, Entrepreneurs is the current exhibit at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, in Nashville. The Center hosts four exhibits annually featuring work by or about people with disAbilities.

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To Matthew's parents and other similar special needs parents, I say thank you for lighting the way, blazing a trail that I and other parents of special needs artists can follow. You have gifted your sons and daughters, me, my daughter, and all who come in contact with your children's art. Bless you for thinking outside the box. The world is a more beautiful place because of the vision you held and encouraged.

Photo of Drumright: Michael Gomez, Gomez Photography, (who receives kudos for also thinking outside the box. We need more open hearts like Gomez).

To See as Artists See: More Phillips Collection @ Frist Center!

 

We benefit by giving ourselves over to the direct experience of the work of art.  In this way one enters the artist’s world, learning to see as artists see. ~ Duncan Phillips

 

 

Lucky. Lucky. Lucky are we in Nashville to be only one of only two U.S. venues to host To See as  Artists See: American Art from the Phillips Collection. This dreamy show chocked full of 100 luscious works by 75 notable artists including Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Arthur Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, Stuart Davis, Jacob Lawrence, Adolf Gottlieb and Robert Motherwell was an international sensation in Roverto (Italy), Madrid and Tokyo before landing at Frist Center for Visual Arts until early May.

D.C.-based Phillips Collection brought Nashville, in 2004, one of the Center's most popular exhibits: From El Greco to Picasso: European Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The current exhibit, which launches today, presents a comprehensive selection of the Collection's American treasures.

The paintings present a survey of American painters from 1845–1965. The exhibition begins with nineteenth century American art heroes, including Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins whose works set the course for modern art in the U.S. The exhibition concludes with works by the Abstract Expressionists whose efforts to create a new visual language in the 1940s caused the art world to turn its attention from Paris to New York and made American art a significant global force.

Many of the artists in this exhibition were influenced by and captured in their work some of the biggest changes transforming society during their lifetimes: the rise of industry and new modes of transportation, the growth and electrification of cities and the invention of everyday objects.   

Throughout this exhibition, specific paintings are connected to inventions and innovations that changed the world.  These include: the Erie Canal (Arthur B. Davies, Along the Erie Canal, 1890); the electric light bulb (John Sloan, Six O’Clock, Winter, 1912); tube paint (Theodore Robinson: Giverny, ca. 1889) and acrylic paint (Helen Frankenthaler, Canyon, 1965); skyscrapers (Edward Bruce, Power, ca. 1933) [one of my favorites]; the egg beater and electric fan (Stuart Davis, Egg Beater, No., 4, 1928) and mobiles [yes!] (Alexander Calder, Red Polygons, ca. 1950).

The Phillips Collection is considered a jewel among American museums and was the country's first museum of modern art, founded in 1921. From its inception, The Phillips Collection championed the very best in American art and artists. Duncan Phillips was a collector without peer in his time and still has much to teach us about how to appreciate, enjoy and collect art. 

A well-regarded art critic in addition to being a collector and museum director, Phillips believed we benefit by giving ourselves over to the direct experience of the work of art.  In this way one enters the artist’s world, learning to see as artists see.  In his extensive critical writings, Phillips was adamant: he sought “artists of creative originality and of sincere independence.”  

Source: Frist Center for the Visual Arts

I attended the Frist Center media tour for this exhibit yesterday and I'm making plans to return. I honestly cried as I so moved by certain portions of the exhibit starting with a Georgia O'Keefe painting that had palpable energy. And on to the enormous Augustus Vincent Tack, Aspiration, 1931, painting above and the Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1968. I am in awe at how esteemed our city's main arts center has become that we are continually attracting first times and limited tours as grand as this. Again, I was incredibly moved, and in at least one of my visits, I plan to take my daughter Grace, for I found where her style fits in the history of art. It's one of those times I wished they'd taught art history in my arts high school....More about that coming soon.

If you are in Nashville or planning a visit here, go see this amazing exhibit.

"Life is Juicy;" The Art of Cindy Wunsch

 

The above collage is by one of my favorite Nashville-based artists. Not only is Cindy Wunsch's art inspirational and fun, she is one of the most positive, encouraging, genuinely caring individuals I know and also one of the best art teacher's I've ever experienced. Here's Cindy's artist statement that I loved so much I wanted to share here:

 

"I am someone who dreams about flowers,

who finds love angelic and  

who wonders about everything.

 

"I am a person who feels

that the most

romantic of life's moments can be found

in the ordinary.

 

"I am interested in creating works of art

as poetic as a classic song, yet make

you want to dance.

 

"Beneath the glossy covering of these

images you might find wallpaper, wax,

paint chips, and scraps of just about

any kind, as well as unique experiences,

old memories and simple thoughts.

 

"I hope they make you wonder."

 

I'm drawn to this particular (copyrighted) collage of Cindy's in part because of its' sentiment. So true....I have a magnet version of the image on my fridge. Learn more about Cindy Wunsch and her art at www.cindywunsch.com. The above collage was also featured in the annual Tomato Arts Festival art show at Art and Invention Gallery in our fair city's wacky, eclectic East Nashville region. "The Journey with Grace" featured Cindy's art last here in a blog post here.

Going Easy on the Eyes

It's been a wordy week here at "The Journey with Grace" with two long posts ("An Irreverent Homage to a Mentor" bookending the week on ArtsFriday tomorrow,) and with the week's kick-off post featuring a personal domestic affairs update and a short piece on personal "grace" wedged in the middle with only a tad of type art....We gotta get some visual ahhhhhrt in here this week. So, I'm pleased to slide in happy news and a peek at Nashville artist Lisa Ernst's painting, below:

Trumpet Diptych, “36” x 48,” permanent collection, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, copyrighted, Lisa Ernst

Ernst's above painting is one of several artists' works featured on the cover of the soon-to-be released book, Contemporary Painters. The coffee table book highlights the selected work of 100 artists worldwide. Ernst has five works included in the publication, including the above.

The artist's work was featured by "The Journey with Grace" in these previous posts: Art & Medicine, Arts at the Airport and Fruits of Summer.

It's been a bit cold, gray and dreary here in Nashville this week. I hope this splashes a douse of a needed color not only for your peeps but also for your spirit. Enjoy!

Take Note: Southern Light Photographers

A visual feast that promises to touch the soul of the viewer plus--what opportunity (and fun):

Copyrighted image, "Savannah Canopy," featured in exhibition, by extraordinary South Light photographer, Nick Dantona.

One of Nashville's finest art galleries and a personal favorite, The Arts Company, introduces a two-month celebration of photography featuring the eight "South Light" photographers of The South Through Eight Lenses & A Code. Accompanying the exhibition is a "Salon Saturday Festival," featuring special photography events; expert panel discussions; a master class presentation by photography legend, Sylvia Plachy, including a street photography excursion; a juried portfolio review that morphs into its own exhibition within an exhibition. All will be part of the Festival activities during "Salon Saturdays."

In addition, the 21^st Century technology of QR Codes will be incorporated into the photography exhibition. Show visitors will be able to scan Quick Read Codes with their smartphones and bring to life a deepened understanding of the images before them. These images may be documentary, landscape, portraits, or even abstract constructs of the Land of Dixie, but each one will reveal a secret about itself. Pretty cool, huh? Oh, I love this city, it's photographers and other artists!

Launching 2012: New Year's Traditions

There's the standard fare of black-eyed peas (the edible version you stir in a pot) and greens. Opening and closing a door to let out the old, jumping from a perch at midnight to leap into the new....And while I usually incorporate those fun things into the dawn of my new year traditions, I also incorporate two others.

Burning bowl, Leisa A.Hammett

I was in my late 20s, living in Atlanta, when I first heard about The Burning Bowl ceremony observed by Unity churches across the country. But it was a decade-and-half later, in 2003, before I attended my first and have continued almost every year since then. In essence, you write down all the things in your life you wish to discard and be done with and then you burn that list. At Unity of Nashville, burning bowl service,  attendees then write a letter to themselves as if it were the end of the year, congratulating themselves for all the things they have manifested in their lives. The church mails the letter in the self-addressed envelope at the end of the year and it is amazing to see what the spirit of intention can manifest. This year's service was done more Taize style and I found it to the most moving burning bowl service I had attended. Maybe it was in part that I was so ready to release and start anew. I left feeling purged and cleansed.

II felt the same at the end of Sunday, when I created a trilogy of vision boards to manifest three main things in my life this coming year. In 2007, a climatic year in my life, I created my first vision board. Before I even pasted down the image of New York City I felt compelled to place into my career section, something incredible happened....Every year since I've either attended an artist friend's vision board party or created my own alone. This year I hosted a small gathering of friends in my home. Between clipping, pasting and arranging, we sipped mimosas and fed our souls with friendship and steaming bowls of black-eyed peas and chopped kale. I generally "feng shui" mine, clustering certain things I wish to manifest in my life into certain areas on the poster board. Again, I have been amazed that often up to nearly 90 percent of what I intend to create, big and small, manifests. It's about the power of intention, of creative thought, of Believing. I generally put mine in my kitchen in a very visible spot, such as the cupboard next to the fridge where I reach for my drinking glasses so that each time it is in my visual field, I either consciously or unconsciously am reminded about what it is that I am choosing to create. My goals have ranged from love relationships, travel, things for my daughter, career achievements, small material items, etc. 

However you mark the beginning of this New Year, I wish it to be full of Peace, Joy, Love, Happiness and Abundance for you. I'd love to hear your traditions here in the blog comments! 2012 is going to be phenomenal! I'm convinced!

"I Dare to Imagine the Dream" A New Year's Prayer

Western Lake, Grayton Beach, Fla., Fall 2009, copyright: Leisa A. Hammett

"I am aware, there is but One Life, I am this field of creative potential in all Its' power, glory and possibility.

"I accept there is always a way to greater good. I act like it, think like it, imagine it and behave like it.

"I anticipate what it feels like to achieve my desired outcome that blesses all. I dare to imagine the dream God has given me as really being so. I take the time each day to picture it as I know it can be, eager to be a lover to life. I do this with great love, joy and deep appreciation to Spirit that it is so. And so it is."

--Dr. Mitch Johnson, Center for Spiritual Living Nashville, 1.25.09

(This prayer-post has appeared the two previous New Year's. Here's last year's and can't seem to locate the other....)

Merry Christmas!

An early holiday greeting (Happy Holidays, et. al.,). I'll be back here on Tuesday....Above: I'm a bit nutty about the work of Nashville-area artist David Arms. (How could anyone NOT be?) I've been wanting to feature one of his amusing, eye-and-soul-soothing images here for a very long time. Arms was gracious to give me the pick of his galleries for my "Journey with Grace" Christmas image for you readers. Interestingly, the one I chose for its' visual qualities was named "igbok," from his 2008 portfolio. I've featured igbok on "The Journey with Grace" many times.

When I recently mentioned "igbok" to some members of the spiritual center of which I am a member, they commented in unison: "IT IS ALREADY OKAY!" So, true. Even in what seems imperfect in our lives in the moment, it is Divinely Perfect and Perfectly Imperfect--as I've come to say. This last year was much about that for me and knowing that it was igbok and already okay helped me to journey on through the tough times. Blessings to you this holiday season, dear readers. You gift me with your readership and encouraging feedback! (I'll always take More especially here on the blog itself in comments! Wink.)