2010 april nashville arts magazine

Nashville Arts Magazine | April 2010 | 1

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http://www.nashvilleartdealers.net/


11Spotlight

Lauren Rolwing, International Poster Winner

Lauren Rolwing, a local illustrator, was chosen out of 1,834 entries from around the world as one of the best one hundred artists to represent Freedom of Expression, by Poster for Tomorrow, an inter-national poster competition that exists to promote various human rights causes. Two marquee exhibitions will be held in Paris at the Louvre Museum and in Milan at La Triennale museum. These posters are on view in multiple cities worldwide. Look for a feature on Ms. Rolwing in an upcoming Nashville Arts Magazine.

Rigoletto by Nashville Opera

A story of dark intrigue, Rigoletto blends Verdi’s music with Victor Hugo’s tragic tale of a father’s vengeance. Nashville Opera will present this opera as their final production of the 2009-2010 season on Saturday, April 10, at 8 p.m. and Tuesday, April 13, at 7 p.m. in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center located at 505 Deaderick Street in Downtown Nashville. Sung in Italian with projected English translations, Rigoletto is directed by John Hoomes and features the Nashville Symphony under the direction of Maestro Joel Revzen, Arizona Opera’s artistic director and principal conductor. tickets range from $17 to $80 and may

be purchased from Nashville Opera at (615) 832-5242, online

at www.nashvilleopera.org, or at the tennessee Performing Arts

Center Box Office locations.

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12 | April 2010 | Nashville Arts Magazine

12Spotlight

Andrew Jackson and the Young in Heart

When Andrew Jackson, newly elected as the seventh presi-dent of the United States, moved on horseback from his Nashville home, the Hermitage, to the White House in Washington, it was with an immense sense of loneliness, following the recent death of his beloved wife, Rachel. But the situation changed for the better when he invited young people, who themselves were facing sorrow and failure, to join him there and take up activities that would revive their spirits as well as those of the president and the nation.In Andrew Jackson and the Young in Heart, a newly released novel based on historical fact, author Wilbur Cross offers a unique glimpse into the softer side of “Old Hickory” and the romantic spirit of President Andrew Jackson. www.wilburcross.wordpress.com

Ageless are those who still suppose The rain brings petals to the rose, Who tolerate the winter’s fling Knowing it will soon be spring; Who see in dreams some lesson learned And not dark signs of passion spurned. What prompted them to be so clever? They are the Young in Heart forever. – Annie-Belle Donelson

Inside OutA Curatorial Perspective on Joyce Melander-Dayton

by Herb Williams

I have a deeper understanding of Melander-Dayton’s process than most. I was lucky enough to be invited into her studio. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Like her artwork, the space was fascinating. There were huge bolts of bright-colored felt stretched out on the floor, and the surrounding walls were covered with custom-built storage cases for various fabrics and threads. What enthralled me the most was climbing up a ladder to look through her storage system of glass beads. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of various-sized glass Mason jars containing hollow glass beads of every conceivable shade and finish. The organization of the materials spoke leagues of the artist’s professionalism, attention to detail, and obvi-ous obsession with her work.

The power of an artist who has come into the stride of realizing her full voice and potential is staggering when coupled with the fact that the artist is both humble and grounded. The focus and quality in the artwork left impressions in my visual memory that I can only compare to other great artists whose work stays with you long after viewing, such as Helen Frankenthaler or Joan Mitchell.

A mid-career retrospective exhibition featuring twenty-five years of works

by the renowned Santa Fe-based artist Joyce Melander-Dayton will open

at the Rymer Gallery on April 3, 2010, and will remain on view through

April 24. Melander-Dayton creates contemporary textile works that pull

from her childhood experiences in Asia, her love of music, and the worka-

day elements of her life.



13Nashville Film Festival by Freya West

Nashville is a town used to celebrity sightings and big events

in the music business, but come April 15, the red carpet will roll out in Green Hills, welcoming filmmakers and filmgoers alike to the Nashville Film Festival (NaFF). Celebrating its forty-first year April 15–22 at Green Hills Cinema, NaFF will boast more than 220 films from 38 countries with several guest directors, actors, and more than 23,000 filmgoers there to experience independent and international film in Nashville. Created in 1969 as the Sinking Creek Film Celebration, the Nashville Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in the South. Although the films come from as far away as Denmark (Applause) and Japan (Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl), NaFF also takes time to celebrate local talent. The Tennessee Film Night (part 1 and 2) showcases short films from Tennessee filmmakers. And NaFF is one of the only film festivals that will let you walk their red carpet even if you’re not film royalty. Along with Tennessee Film Night, opening ceremonies will include a screening of the BAFTA-award-nominated film, Nowhere Boy, a biopic of the creative childhood of John Lennon.

Artistic director Brian Owens says he has seen Nashville- and Tennessee-made films rise in number and quality over the past few years. “Unless you’re in a major city, when you run across a great local film, you feel like it might be a fluke, but there’s really some great talent here. A lot of people are doing it right.”

The festival is keeping their guest list close this year, but if past guests such as William Shatner, Vincent D’Onofrio, Al Gore, Nicole Kidman, William H. Macy, John Waters, Oprah Winfrey, and Robert Redford are any indication, the 2010 red carpet should be just as glamorous and varied.

Highlights of the festival include:

Provinces of Night. Based on the William Gay novel of the same name, Provinces of Night follows the story of Fleming Bloodworth (Reece Thompson), a young man in 1952 Tennessee who lives in solitude save for his books and dreams of being a writer. That is, until he meets his estranged grandfather E. F. Bloodworth (Kris Kristofferson) and a mysterious girl named Raven Lee Halfacre (Hilary Duff). Dark secrets lurk in each one’s past, and Fleming must weather the provinces of night in order to find the dawn.

Applause. Thea Barfoed (Paprika Steen) is a critically acclaimed actress whose heavy drinking led to a divorce and the loss of her two boys. Now out of rehab, Thea wants to be involved in her sons’ lives again. Thea tries to prove herself to them and her ex-husband, but the hard life on stage and the ghosts from her past slowly come knocking at her door. A Southeast premiere from Denmark, directed by Martin Zandvliet.

Art House. With a cast including Iggy Pop and Greta Gerwig, Art House follows the tale of a communal house for art students. Threatened by the university dean who wants to turn the house into a home for

varsity golfers, the students’ only chance is to prove their worth as artists individually and as a whole. Directed by Victor Fanucchi, Art House will world-premiere here at the Nashville Film Festival.

Tickets are available online starting April 5 to members and April 6 to the public at http://www.ticketsnashville.com or at the Green Hills Cinema box office during the festival.

below: Reece thompson and Kris Kristofferson star in director Shane Dax taylor’s adaptation of the William Gay novel, Provinces of Night.bottom: Paprika Steen takes a star turn in the Austrian drama Applause.


22Hit Us With Your Best Shot!Nashville Arts Magazine would like to invite you to our very first

amateur photography contest!

Send in your own photo of what best represents Nashville to YOU—whether it’s a pair of old cowboy boots, the Nashville skyline at sunset, or anything in between. The photos will be judged by a panel of professional Nashville Arts photographers. The top three winners will have their photos published in a future issue! Winners and runners-up will also be featured online for everyone to view!

Get creative and Good Luck! We look forward to receiving your best photographic work.

Submission Guidelines:

•Onlyamateurphotographywillbeaccepted.No

professionals.

•Limitthreeentriesperperson.

•Specificationsforyourhi-resimagemustbeatleast1,000

pixels by 1,000 pixels at 300 dpi.

•ContestrunsnowthroughMay15,5:00p.m.

•[email protected].

•Pleaseincludeyourfullname,aphone,andemailcontact

where you can be reached.

•Byenteringthiscontest,youareagreeingtoreleaseyour

content to Nashville Arts Magazine to publish this photo-

graph as judged.

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Gary R. HaynesAmerican Realismby Jay Sheridan | photography by Bob Schatz

We all have innate abilities which, with a bit of luck, turn to

passions. If the stars align, those passions are cultivated into successful careers. These are the people the rest of us admire.

Gary R. Haynes, of Haynes Galleries in Franklin, has spent a lifetime chasing his dream.“I worked construction for a year and saved money to attend the Harris School of Advertising Art in Nashville in the early sixties,” Haynes says. “Mr. Harris taught us the fundamentals—how to draw, how to paint, how to make a figure—everything but how to get a job.” But a job was what he needed.

After a couple of entry-level jobs, he went to work for the ad firm Lavidge & Associates in Knoxville and, at night, took painting courses with Carl Sublett at the University of Tennessee. Sublett was an American Realist painter who was acquainted with Andrew Wyeth. Naturally, Sublett’s focus on Wyeth’s work influenced his students.

“My prize possession is the first Wyeth item I collected, his book on the Olsons titled Christina’s World,” Haynes says. “As a student of art, I was a realist, and I admired Andrew’s technical skills—his mastery of technique and his ability to make objects and people real enough to jump off the page were overwhelming. I was drawn to his watercolors because they were wonderfully designed. They had an abstract quality, yet they were very real.”

Haynes continued to paint in the Wyeth style for five years, but the demands of his day job began to require his full focus. By happenstance, he met Eric Ericson, who had become a leading figure in regional advertising circles. “Eric was the only man in the world who would set the type for an entire annual report and then start over because he decided he didn’t like it,” Haynes says. “But I respected that pursuit of perfection, and I learned a lot from him.”

Haynes went to work for Eric Ericson & Associates in 1975 as asso-ciate creative director. The agency grew fast, and Haynes moved to the account management side and soon became a partner.

left: N. C. Wyeth, Thoreau Fishing, 1936, Charcoal on paper 33.625” x 33” this is a charcoal sketch for one of ten illustrations Wyeth painted for the book Men of Concord by Henry D. thoreau. Wyeth was a student and admirer of thoreau.

above: Doug Brega, Maine Coastal Home, Watercolor on paper, 13.5” x 20.5” this is a portrait of Rockwell Kent’s home in Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. Jamie Wyeth bought the house and lived and painted there until he moved to Southern Island.


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Ericson passed away in 1987, and Haynes eventually bought the company. Along the way, a couple of venture capital companies which he co-founded grew rapidly and became publicly traded.

Over the years, he had continued to follow the Wyeths, investing in a piece here and there. His success in business was feeding his lust for the masters of American Realism. Soon, it was artists like John Singer Sargent and Emile Gruppe and William McGregor Paxton who attracted his attention, followed by emerging contemporary painters. Before long, the Hayneses were spend-ing time in Maine, becoming friendly with the Wyeth family, and working the auction circuit in New York and New England. His passion was beginning to come full circle.

left: Andrew Wyeth, The Pantry, 1969, Watercolor on paper, 30” x 22.5” The Pantry was one of the last paintings Wyeth did in Christina Olson’s house, which was the subject of many Wyeth paintings.

top left: Stephen Scott young, In Prayer, Watercolor on paper, 11” x 15” While young has begun to find new sources for inspiration, his sitters are often people living in rural areas of the Bahamas, Florida, and coastal South Carolina.

above: Burton Silverman, Shoka, Watercolor on paper, 15” x 10.5” Silverman’s treatment of water-color is very fluid. He works on hot press paper, which is a hard surface; the medium doesn’t blend and bleed like traditional watercolor.


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Haynes Galleries was launched in early 2010 as a specialist in American Realist art and as a resource center for collectors. The focus is on providing discreet, full-service counsel to like-minded collectors who are interested in building a personal collection or buying and selling for investment purposes. A national market-ing campaign has generated significant interest from leading art publications, emerging artists, and collectors alike.

The pieces in Haynes’s own world-class collection are for sale as well and include significant works of leading artists from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. While there is a decided emphasis on the Wyeth family—N. C., Andrew, Jamie, Carolyn, and Henriette—the rising stars of today’s Realist move-ment are well represented. A considerable selection of works from David and Doug Brega, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jeremy Lipking, Burton Silverman, Peter Poskas and Stephen Scott Young, among others, is included.

He sold the ad agency in 1999, converting its headquarters at the historic Fall School building in Nashville into executive suites. After a twenty-five-year hiatus, he started painting again and hold-ing art classes in part of the sprawling, thirty-six-thousand-square-foot building. It was a creative space, and another section served as a gallery for his growing collection of American Realist art.

In 2008, he sold the building. With a substantial collection of art spanning three centuries, Haynes had unintentionally become retired. The concept for Haynes Galleries began to coalesce.

“Art had always been an integral part of my life,” he says. “But now that I was free of any professional obligations, I was able to really focus on buying and selling artwork. Along the way, I realized that there was a need for collection management services and auction representation, archival and framing advice, all the things that I would have benefitted from over the years as a collector.”

above: Brett James Smith, The Last Run, Watercolor on paper, 21” x 29” What is important in outdoor paintings is mood, a feeling of how things were and still can be. today, Smith is considered to be among the best in his field.


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Ruth Crnkovich, M.A., A.A.A., serves as director of the gallery and brings decades of experience as a highly skilled fine-art appraiser and curator to her relationships with clients. “We’re serving clients across America, and we want prospective customers to visit our web site, to become familiar with the collection, our services and our philosophy on working with people who collect on this level,” said Crnkovich. “We’ll then make an appointment to get together and talk more about goals and objectives without the distractions found in a storefront. It’s a very personal and private approach to the art business.”

Haynes admits that he’s living his dream today, perhaps to an extent which he couldn’t quite comprehend when he bought the book Christina’s World 40 years ago.

“It just happened because I focused on what I loved,” he says. “I worked hard at it, day and night, because I wanted to be better at it than anyone else. I guess that’s what it means to be passion-ate about something.”

Haynes Galleries is open by appointment only.

www.haynesgalleries.com

below: Jeremy Lipking, In Profile, 2004, Graphite on paper, 16” x 20” Lipking is an emerging talent. Well known for attaining artistic maturity early in his career, Lipking is quickly becoming an influential artist today.

left: N. C. Wyeth, Next Morning Came a Clear Hot Day, 1918, Oil on canvas , 28” x 33” this was an illustration for Scribner’s. During his life he created over three thousand illustrations—113 books, twenty-five of them for Scribner’s.


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John Guider is a quiet man, introverted, yet amicable. His gentle voice sounds like the soft warbling of an old soul. He is the kind of person who immediately puts you at ease; an air of peaceful-ness seems to hover around him. Talking to Guider and experiencing his art is like peeling back layers of onion skin. I entered his studio surprised by his shyness; I left impressed by his bold approach to life and art.

Guider is part alchemist, part Odysseus. He has spent years toiling over various chemical solutions and compounds to improve his photo-graphic art. He has also lived the last ten years with a spirit of adven-ture, braving the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico, and the uncharted territories of his own emotions in the solitude of a lonely boat.

For over thirty years Guider worked as a commercial photographer but slowly began to realize that he wanted something more. “I couldn’t justify doing it for money anymore. I sold my studio. I wanted a project that would be solely my own. I wanted something that would challenge me not just intellectually but spiritually.” Guider found that challenge in a small boat and later in the tech-nique of platinum printing, and his life has never been the same.

John GuiderVisions in Platinumby Sophie Colette

left: Statue of Liberty, New york, New york, 1983. On vacation with my kids, we visited New york City, leaving nothing out of our itinerary.

opposite page: tennessee State Capitol, Nashville, tennessee, 2009. Platinum/palladium print, 24” x 36”. this piece was commissioned by Lois Riggins-ezzell and Leigh Hendry of the tennessee State Museum to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the building of our state capitol.

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middle: Amish Farmhouse, etheridge, tennessee, 1992. Bill McNew, a friend and Harvard-trained historian, was asked by the Amish to research their community and report his findings. Amazed by what he found, he asked me to tag along and photograph. We’d leave before sunrise to catch the good light, and he’d tell me their stories all along the way.

top: Canoe at Water’s edge, Mississippi River, 2003. After a hard day of fighting the currents and whirlpools of the tricky river, I’d often land on a remote sandbar, set up my tent, and collect myself as the evening drifted into a blissful calm.

opposite page: Flowers in Storefront Window, New Orleans, 2006. A year after Katrina, the Gulf Coast was still a shambles. the image seemed appropriate for what was going on.

bottom left: Varanasi, India, 2002. At daybreak, we were loaded into an arcane wooden rowboat and set adrift on the Ganges River. Staying close to the banks of the holy city, we saw humanity come alive in ways I had never witnessed before.

below: Kendra, Nashville, tennessee, 1999. In casting a poster for the tennessee Repertory theatre, I was introduced to Kendra, who had just recently returned from Myanmar, having studied to be a Buddhist nun. She agreed to reshave her head for this image.


39In 2003 Guider pushed his small boat into a stream on his property. He followed it out to the Cumberland River and on to the Mississippi River and New Orleans. He spent hours in solitude photographing nature that often goes unnoticed. His experiences were raw. Guider describes sitting in his craft during tornado warnings and lightning storms. Once, his boat was attacked by an alligator. “I can’t tell you how many electric storms I’ve been in. You hear the sizzle and wonder when it’s your turn.”

When Guider returned to Nashville to begin processing his photo-graphs, he found the images he had worked so hard to capture seemed to fall flat. They did not measure up to the emotional caliber of his personal experiences. So he set off on a new adventure. “For a year after the journey, I printed. Nothing that I came up with emulated the emotions that I felt as I made each image.”

Finally, Guider discovered the art of platinum printing. He threw himself into mastering this new form. “I spent more time learning the art of platinum printing than I did on the journey.” For Guider, both aesthetically and emotionally, the rewards of platinum printing have been as rich as the metal with which he works. He is one of only ten or so individuals working in black and white platinum printing on a large scale, bringing a world-class art here to Nashville.

Guider explained to me the complicated technical process by which he must work. Most photographs capture only an infinitely small range of values compared to the perception of the human eye. Through platinum printing, Guider can achieve a scale of light to dark that is hundreds of times more varied than the traditional photograph. He must work on metal-free paper that has to be imported from France, and his materials are so sensitive that he has to record the ambient air temperature, humidity, and drying time when he develops. Guider does not work in a darkroom like most photographers. He explains,

“Platinum and palladium are so light insensitive that you can do it in room light.” After immersing his prints in the platinum and palla-dium concoction, Guider places them on a vacuum easel beneath a five-thousand-watt bulb.

The result is something truly amazing. My interest was piqued by the technical qualities of Guider’s process, but when he showed me his platinum print of the Statue of Liberty, I was blown away by an image I have seen thousands of times. The tone and dimension of the composition are unparalleled. I literally felt my jaw drop.

Whether he looks at a rushing fountain in Paris or a still, hot swamp on the Mississippi, Guider tries to communicate the beauty that he sees around him to those who are lucky enough to encounter his photographs. “I try to recreate the emotion that I felt when I saw it, those moments when I am looking at the simplest things. I want to make those simple things important—somehow make them as beautiful as I sense that they are.” One glance at a John Guider photograph reveals that he does in fact live in a beautiful world. Johnguider.com All images © John Guider 2009.

middle: Seagull, tierra del Fuego, 2007. I made my way to Ushuaia, hoping to catch a ride to Antarctica. the air coming off the Straits of Magellan felt so fresh, I felt like life was beginning all over again.

below: tree Roots, Harpeth River, Williamson County, tennessee, 2003. the first seven days of my ninety-day journey solo by canoe was spent on the Harpeth. the intimacy of that very special river and the time I had to myself combined to create one the most spiritual experiences I had ever felt.

bottom: Hostas, Washington, D.C., 2005. I discovered this simple garden of hostas tucked in between all the iconic monuments of our great capital.



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Colin LindenUnder the Black Hatby Currie Alexander Powers | photography by Anthony Scarlati

I know a thing or two about Colin Linden. His smile could start a fire. He loves red wine and red meat. His slide playing can make you weep. He needs very little sleep. He once had a job as a Santa Claus. He calls his mother every day. He met Howlin’ Wolf when he was eleven years old. You’ve probably seen him around; black hat and beard. He has been mistaken for a professional poker player and a Hasidic Rabbi. He’s not that complicated. He plays guitar. He plays guitar very well. The word prodigy is usually assigned to classical musicians, four-year-olds whizzing through Rachmaninoff. We don’t think of prodigies playing blues. At age twelve Linden made his first public appearance at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto. He got up on stage and proclaimed, “When I left New York two years ago, I was ten. Now I’m sixty-two. So I grew fifty-two years in two years. If that ain’t the blues, tell me what is?” He ripped into some Howlin’ Wolf, and people never forgot him.

He met blues singer Howlin’ Wolf, the giant of a man with the fierce growl, when he was eleven. The Wolf was sixty-one. Most kids would have been shaking in their boots. Linden found his hero. Wolf inaugurated Linden into the brotherhood of blues, ageless music to be passed down generation to generation. When Wolf passed in 1976, Linden was already deeply steeped in country blues—Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, the Mississippi Sheiks. At nineteen, Linden made the last recording of eighty-year-old Sheiks’ guitarist Sam Chatmon, Sam Chatmon and the BBQ Boys. At twenty he recorded his first album, Colin Linden Live! At forty-nine, he has produced eighty albums and played on over three hundred. Stepping into Colin Linden’s home studio in the Waverly area of Nashville is an experience. It’s a good-sized room, but very little floor or wall space is visible. Your first thought might be that Molly Maids should be visiting more often. CDs, cables, amplifiers, guitar cases are everywhere. But on closer inspection you see that there may be some method to the mess. It’s ordered chaos, evidence of a life in constant motion; music already made, being made, planning to be made. The fruits of that activity sit on the


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50“I always told students that the most important thing that they could ever do was to be around artists.” Chihuly’s workshop is known as a “hotshop” and sits inconspicu-ously on Lake Union in the heart of Seattle. There are no signs trumpeting its world-renowned reputation, no fanfare—just a large, faceless, pre-fabricated building, the kind that litters industrial land-scapes. But inside, it’s a whole other world.

Conjuring up images of Dante’s Inferno, nine hot ovens bubbling with flames over two thousand degrees Fahrenheit run from early morning to mid afternoon. As many as six glass blowers, called gaffers, are hard at work at any one time, pulling, firing, molding, bringing the glass to life. Surprisingly, the gaffers wear little protective gear, in some cases only sunglasses and special gloves that reach just beyond their wrists, when handling the glass in its molten state. Their move-ments are quick and remarkably fluid. In Chihuly’s hotshop each gaffer passes off the liquid glass from one station to another like a track team passes off a baton; once their sprint is over, it’s the next

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52person’s job. The heat in the hotshop is unimaginable, and yet no one seems to notice or care. Each gaffer stays focused, fresh, and strong to handle the glass, to bend and to mold it into Chihuly’s vision.

“Had I not been a sculptor or an artist, I might have liked to be a film director.”

Chihuly likens his role in the creation of his work to that of a film director or architect. As a motion picture is made up of a series of moments captured on film, coming together under the director’s hand, similarly the glass-blowing process is made up of series of elements coming together toward completion. Watching Chihuly working and communicating with his team in the hotshop, it is apparent he brings together a finely tuned operation.

Just neighboring the hotshop is Chihuly’s Ballard studio where he dreams up, designs, and works with engineers, architects, and weld-ers on his concepts for new creations. The destination for a new Chihuly masterpiece could be anywhere in the world. These days, he’s creating commissioned works that are going to Dubai, Kuwait,

Makaw, and Singapore. Over the past three decades his work has traveled to hundreds of the world’s top museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Louvre where he was one of four Americans ever to have a one-man exhibition, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Prominent personalities including the Queen of England are among his ardent admirers.

Major creations have hung in Venice, Jerusalem, London, and Tokyo. His massive chandeliers grace famous entryways such as the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Some of his most impressive works to date include “Light of Jerusalem,” a sixty-foot wall made from twenty-four enormous blocks of ice shipped from Alaska, installed in Jerusalem in 1999; a “Crystal Tree of Light” commissioned for the White House Millennium Celebration, and his largest botanical exhibit installed at the Royal Botanical Garden in Kew, England, in 2005.

From original drawings to final walk-through, every part of the design is intentional. In the museum setting, Chihuly is particu-larly detail oriented as to how the light will reveal his art forms, and he gives special attention to the flow of foot traffic around the pieces. His installations in botanical gardens have also caught the imagination of the art world. Here, Chihuly creates other worlds dancing with color and light. Gigantic glass boats and big floating


53orbs brighten our world, transforming familiar places into extraor-dinary expressions. Looking remarkably like sea life resting on the ocean floor, his bright and colorful glass sculptures reflect and enhance the very nature that surrounds them.

“I had the energy to do some-thing, and I was lucky to find something that I could do well.”

In Chihuly’s great narrative there are two irreversible events: a shoulder injury that occurred while bodysurfing, and the loss of sight in one eye, resulting from a car accident, that has prohibited the artist from blowing glass and has led him to his more omni-present role as director and architect. Rather than letting these impediments stifle his creativity, Chihuly has used them for his benefit by focusing on his painting and creating more innovative, masterful works.

Chihuly’s excitement for color, for glass is contagious. In the creative core at his studio, everyone’s energy is centered around Chihuly’s obsession with expanding the field of light and glass to the next horizon. Up close, Dale Chihuly is a big personality,


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a discerning man, quick to act, and economical with his words. My meeting with him proved a rare and special occasion. He left an indelible impres-sion—he appeared like a comet for our interview, burned brightly, and was gone just as quickly when the questions were over.

On extended view from May 9, 2010, to January

2, 2011, Chihuly at the Frist will present a variety

of colorful and energetic installations designed

specifically for the upper-level galleries. Selections

will be drawn from the artist’s well-known series

including Seaforms, Macchia, Ikebana, and

Persians. Highlights include a delightful garden-

like Mille Fiori composition and an impressive free-

standing tower. On May 20–22, 2010, the Nashville

Symphony will celebrate a Chihuly weekend of

performances, featuring Bartok’s Bluebeard’s

Castle. Chihuly has created a spectacular set

design for this production. At Cheekwood’s Art

Museum and Botanical Gardens, Chihuly will

exhibit May 25–October 31, 2010. For more infor-

mation, visit Chihulyinnashville.com.

“If I had to sum up success, I’d say ‘energy.’ Without it, you won’t be successful.”

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Chihuly In His Own WordsAs a kid, I used to go to church where there was some beautiful

stained glass. I paid more attention to that than the minister prob-

ably, but it wasn’t until I went to college and at one point started

weaving tapestries that I put little pieces of glass into the tapestries.

And then I got a little oven so I could melt the glass a little bit so it

wouldn’t cut the tapestries, so I could smooth off the edges. One

night I melted some stained glass between four bricks and put a

pipe in there—it wasn’t even a blow pipe, just a regular piece of gas

pipe I guess—gathered up some glass and brought it out and blew a

bubble, and I had never seen glass-blowing before.

Years later I found myself in Venice, Italy, working at the famous

Venini factory. And that year the Rhode Island School of Design asked

if I would start a glass program, and I took that opportunity to go to

such a great institution. That was in the late sixties. Throughout the

seventies, I taught at RISD, and I had a remarkable batch of students.

If you made a list of the best glass artists in the country, I would guess

that at least ten of them would have been from RISD in the seventies.

I also started the glass school Pilchuck, which is an hour north of

here, and that’s been extremely successful. We end up with four

hundred to five hundred students there every summer. Some of them

are beginning students; some of them are advanced students; some

are professors. We get all sorts. What happened is that a lot of these

students ended up wanting to be around glass as much as they

could. Today there are about one thousand glass artists in Seattle

and about one hundred glass shops.

In the early eighties I quit teaching, and I moved back to Seattle

to be more connected with Pilchuck and more connected with my

mother, who lived in Tacoma. I didn’t really have any money at that

time. I was able to trade with a patron of the arts for a warehouse

to work in, for some of my glass. Then a few years later I had saved

up enough for a down payment, and I bought the hotshop, which

is about thirty thousand square feet. Now we have about twenty

people there making glass. Then glass from there is sent over here

to Ballard where the sculptures are built. There are probably sixty

people working in the Ballard building.

I used to show more objects, seaform sets or baskets. But over time,

what I do is make mostly commissions and installations for people’s

homes, businesses, lobbies. And then, the next most important thing

we do is have exhibitions and museums, mostly in the United States

but sometimes abroad. We do about two museum shows a year; we

do about two botanical garden shows a year, which are similar in

size to the museum shows. We do about four gallery exhibitions a

year. So that keeps us pretty busy with all those exhibitions. Then

I think we do about fifty commissions a year, which keeps us busy.

And lately we’ve been doing a lot of big commissions in Kuwait,

Dubai, Singapore, Makaw.

The guys and gals that head up the team are responsible for what

that team does. Some of them have worked for me for twenty years

“People often ask me why I don’t

blow glass anymore. I lost the

sight of my eye over twenty

years ago. It was almost like

I was meant not to blow glass,

and I was meant to be a director.

That position suits me.”


57and, each gaffer I deal with, probably in his or her own way. I might

talk about it; I might make some drawings. I might blow glass with

them for a day and then the next day look at the glass and decide,

is this what I’m after.

Of course they have to be told what to do. So, like the boat—I’ll tell

them make me a red and yellow boat. And then I’ll go down usually

when it’s finished and look at it and say I like it or I don’t, or let’s put

some orange into it. Or let’s try taking some pieces out and see what

it looks like if it’s half empty. Or the opposite, let’s put some pieces

on the floor and see if it’s interesting to have part of it on the floor.

The whole studio is really creative whether we’re mocking up some

piece, whether we’re designing a new show, whether we’re design-

ing a new book.

I travel to a certain degree to exotic places, but I mostly prefer to

travel when I’m doing a show. I don’t really like going to Hawaii and

lying on the beach for a couple weeks. That never has thrilled me,

but it definitely thrills me even less now. I’m supposed to go on safari

this summer—and I wouldn’t go if it weren’t for my son, Jackson,

who’s about to be twelve, and that’s what they want to do. I’ll prob-

ably go for part of it. And I happen to like trains, and South Africa

has what’s considered the most beautiful train in the world, kind of

like the Orient Express.

Film director is a term I use a lot to describe what I do. Or architect.

You know, I don’t really know how Frank Gehry works, but I can tell

you that he’s got a lot of people working for him, that’s for sure. And he

interacts with them mostly, I think, on the level of making models. You

know, and again, probably like me, he probably has certain people

who have worked for him for a long time. And they are responsible

for making it work. Probably even harder in his case because they

have all that engineering, computer stuff to figure out for those steel

buildings. And I think he was one of the first architects to creatively

use all those shapes in such a way that I don’t think he could build

those buildings if it weren’t for computers; they’d just be too hard to

figure out. And a film director—as you know, they work in different

ways. Some of them like to look in the camera to see what the shot is.

I went on the set of the making of the film Lethal Weapon. Richard

Donner was the director, and Mel Gibson, Joe Pesci, and Danny Glover

were in it. So I went there, and they were going to do a big scene where

they blow up a boat, like a three-hundred-foot boat, and all those guys

are coming up in a speedboat; they were the cops I guess. But interest-

ingly, I went out on the boat with the director and the cameraman.

The cameraman didn’t have any camera. There were five other guys

who were shooting this scene from other places, and Donner and the

camera guy never even talked about the movie whatsoever. We were

out there for half an hour until they got ready to shoot, and finally

when it’s action, they’re looking at five different videos, and from that

point he could probably tell them what to do. The way they did it, they

obviously oversaw everything the way it had to be overseen.

We are in the process of designing a museum, a Chihuly museum,

with a beautiful garden, with an exquisite glass conservatory in the

middle of the garden, with a restaurant and a museum store and a

small auditorium. And we’re hoping it will be completed by spring.

So that’s the biggest project I’ve ever done. And, fortunately, I’ve

got a lot of great, creative, talented people working with me, or I

could never even think about doing that project! That’s why you’re

lucky to have people who can work with you, just like making a

movie—there are like two or three hundred people out there on that

set. And they’ve figured out how to do it somehow. And it takes a

lot of people and a lot of money.


63

“The paradox of being a ballet dancer is that the body is inherently

imperfect for the form.”


64

“Being a choreographer is a collaborative effort. I’m co-creating all the time. The basics are making up the steps and then working with the dancers’ bodies. Not only their bodies but who they are as people. It’s not a stone or a piece of paper; it’s a person. I love connecting with particular dancers, understanding them, understanding what they do, how they do it. It’s extremely intimate, very personal.

“The paradox of being a ballet dancer is that the body is inherently imperfect for the form. Nobody has the perfect body, and each day you have to look in the mirror and see those imperfections. Hopefully, you move beyond that, but you must have a certain amount of flexibility, but not too much. There are the hip rotation, the shape and strength of the legs, how the feet point, straight knees. The classic aesthetics—lines of infinity.”

“I’m sort of the guy behind the curtain. I try to teach how to be an artist, how to approach layering a role, how to analyze it, how to make the dancer’s line look better. I have to create the center of who they are to see clearly how they move, how they express themselves, to find themselves in the role.”


75

NA: Is the term “good ol’ boys club,” as it relates to the

country music business, a term of the past?

LS: It’s alive and well and kicking. There is a network, and if you think there is not you’re gonna hit a big wall real fast.

NA: If there aren’t as many women competing for cuts in

the business, doesn’t that give you an advantage?

LS: If you’re a woman and you can write and sing, then there’s going to be a place for you. Every publishing company wants a great female writer. For a male, there are so many more to compete against, so they’re going to have a harder time.

NA: Have you noticed a difference in the way your female

co-writers approach a song, and vice versa, when you sit

down to compose?

LS: A lot of times men will come in with a great groove. They come at a song from the melody end. A lot of women will come in from the lyrical end. They often have more lyric ideas, or they approach a song from a more emotional place. But you’ve got to have both: the tenderness and the punch. NA: What advice would you offer to women songwriters

seeking to set themselves apart?

LS: When I came to town, I was an elementary guitar player. Then I learned open tunings, and it allowed me to write differ-ent kinds of melodies and also to stand alone on stage and play on my own. Learn to play by yourself. I’ve had a whole career doing that.

NA: With a crystal ball in hand, what do you see the future

holding for women in country music?

LS: Taylor Swift has blown the doors off [the business]. There’s no one who can say a girl can’t make it here. And Dolly Parton did it in the sixties the same way. She was a smart business person like Taylor is. No man’s rule ever stopped Dolly from what she wanted to do. She played ball with the boys, but she was good at the game. lesliesatcher.com

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“In the battle of the sexes on Music Row, a great song is the equalizer.”



76

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77

Make your next print project interactive with

Lithographics media to mobile technology.

Try it right now: text litho to 64842. Every 5th

person will receive a $10 gift card from Starbucks.*

No strings attached—unless, of course, you prefer

tea—just a good shot at a little cup of happiness.

For more information about media to mobile

technology or your next print project, please contact

Shannon Barger at [email protected]

or call 615.889.1200.

Proud Print Provider for Nashville Arts Magazine

w w w. l i t h o g r a p h i c s i n c . c o m

1835 Air Lane Drive

Nashville, TN 37210

*Standard rates may apply.

Coffee’sOn Us. Simply

textlitho

to64842

LithoG NashvArtsad2 3/23/10 3:22 PM Page 2


84

the tennessee Repertory’s Martha R. Ingram New Works Festival

brings us new plays by Nashville playwrights.

It’s your big night out at the theater. The actors are on stage, the lights are bright, the props, the sets, all award-winning pyrotechnic cool. Nice, but something’s strange on 42nd Street. Everything is still, just sitting there, quietly staring back at you, the actors with nothing to do, nothing to say. Oh man, did somebody forget the play?

Enter Claudia Barnett, Ross Brooks, Matthew Carlton, Diane DiIanni, Nate Eppler, McAdoo Greer, and Valerie S. Hart—Nashville playwrights in residence at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s Martha R. Ingram New Works Lab. Talented writers all, who together and alone will embark on a perilous journey to save us from the silence. David Auburn, the Martha R. Ingram New Works Fellow, a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner and winner of the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play for Proof, will be their expert guide.

“I’m thrilled to be coming to Tennessee Rep,” says Auburn. I’m deeply excited to play a role in that process and to work with and get to know a new and talented group of writers—not to mention

Theater

“It’s the play, baby!”by Jim Reyland

“Programs like the Ingram New Works Lab and Festival are the bone marrow of American theater: they’re where the new life, the new energy, the new ideas come from.”

– David Auburn

to return to a part of the country I love and miss. I spent my high school years in Arkansas.”

Martha R. Ingram, Nashville’s most enduring champion of the arts, is their greatest supporter.

“As Tennessee Repertory Theatre continues to be a leading regional theatre, it is thrilling to see the company collaborate with nationally-recognized playwrights such as David Auburn as well as foster the development of local playwrights through the New Works Lab that culminates with the New Works Festival. I am confident that this collaboration will not only make positive contributions to the Nashville theatre community, but also the American theatre land-scape as a whole.”

Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s producing artistic director René D. Copeland will provide the encouragement.

“It has been such a pleasure to have David Auburn as our New Works Fellow this year. He is clearly committed to contributing to efforts

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.tennesseerep.org


88

Hunter ArmisteadWhat characteristic do you most like about yourself?

My capacity to be ridiculous—a talent I inherited from my father.

And what do you like least?

Too much of a perfectionist but I’m working on it.

What was the last book you read?

Leave the Office Earlier by Laura Stack.

Who would you most like to meet?

I’d like to meet my doppelganger to see what I’m really like.

What are you going to be when you grow up?

I have no plans to grow up. I don’t want to lose my childlike curiosity.

Who has most inspired you?

Khenchen Palden Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Rinpoche, my mother, and Camilla Dahl, who persuaded me to go to Berlin.

Who is your favorite artist?

Art—Avedon. Music—John Lennon. Lennon was so honest, and he loved fearlessly.

What are you most proud of?

I’m getting kinder. I’ve worked really hard at it.

Why Nashville?

I returned from Berlin with a new appreciation for all that I have here. More than I deserve.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

The moments where I am too sure or unsure.

Are you happy with where you’re heading?

I like what I’m trying to do but can’t see any more of the movie than where I am today.

What’s your mantra?

At the end of the day, it’s about how kind you were.

What’s it like being you these days?

It depends on the day, but I am trending up. I’m happier, more creative, and I’m having more fun.

What talent would you most like to have?

Prioritization—wait, I’ll get back to you.

What is your most treasured possession?

My photographs.

What is your greatest regret?

I wish I’d used my time better. And I’d have said yes twice as much.

you have five minutes left to live; what are you going to do?

Pray and do my best to relax.

Anything Goes

Hunter Armistead is a local fine art and commercial photographer. Formerly Mel of college band Mel and the Party Hats, he has recently returned from a year in Berlin, where he created two photographic series, one of which was a flip book of one hundred people he photographed on the street in one day. His work can be seen in the Arcade during the monthly Art Crawl at his new space, the Immediate Art Gallery, where he will also be doing performance art.

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91


Award, and many more deserving volunteers were given awards during the evening. The highlight of the evening was the live auction emceed by those wild and crazy Jugg Sisters. The Ballet Ball has come a long way since this year’s honor-ary chairmen Clare Armistead and Elizabeth Nichols created what was then known as the Masked Ball. A fellow designer and myself created the decor for Clare and Elizabeth that first year, and I will never forget Clare saying all she wanted on the tables was a simple, low bowl of roses, and that she got! Betsy Wills and Jennifer Puryear chaired this year’s ball and with the help of Mrs. David Mahanes III did a wonderful job creating an art deco setting at the new Hutton Hotel. This was the first year the Ballet Ball was held here. The ballroom gave me somewhat of an elegant Manhattan feeling—small and cozy. James Adams created the cocktail of the evening “Irish Arabesque,” something with blue vodka. The evening started with a ballroom dance exhibition with our very own Linda and Stephen Mason performing. The Masons were wonderful, Linda in the waltz and fox trot and Stephen in the American tango. The 2010 Vasterling Award for Artistic Vision and Excellence in Dance was presented to Mr. Jacques d’Amboise. I was in the elevator with Mr. d’Amboise, and he told me that all the lovely crystal award needed was to be full of Jack Daniels—not a problem Mr. d’Amboise! Those joining the Masons on the dance floor were Lucy and Lucius Carroll, James and Jessica Adams, Emily and Lee Noel, Arlyne and Ted Cherney dancing the night away to Pat Patrick. Betsy Wills looked beautiful in her peachy beaded gown by Dez Zamek; Anne Dobson always great looking with her long black train (she said the train was the distance Matt was to stay behind her—a bit Victorian, hey?); Rachael Oldham in a stunning one-shoulder silver Muna with fox trim. My favorite dress by Dez Zamek was worn by Laura Cooper, an aqua short flowing chiffon cocktail attire that I know looked good on the dance floor. Lisa and John Campbell hosted the patrons’ party the week before the ball in their lovely home. Sandra Lipman and Nancy Cheadle will lead the ball next year—what a great duo!

I regret to end this on a sad note, but it would not be right not to mention the passing of the Ambassador of the Arts to Nashville Nancy Saturn. We at Nashville Arts Magazine and all of Nashville will miss Nancy, but I know she is with Alan, and they are plan-ning one heavenly art show! Loved you, Nancy.

right: Lucy Carroll, Keith and Leslie Churchwell, Lucius Carroll

below left: emily James and Betsy Wills, co-chairbelow right: James Adams, Cliff Garrard, Jessica

Adams, Karlen Garrard

left: Jean Ann and Barry Bankerbelow: ellen Martin and Gerry Nadeaubottom: emily Noel, elizabeth Cato, Jacques d'Amboise, Sandra Lipman


95


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2010 april nashville arts magazine

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