Knoxville and the arts

[Sonicgoo]

after reading JaNell post about an ArtForum I thought that I would start a post about knoxville arts

Knoxville has always inspired me, the southern gothic always seemed to be lurking just below the surface of the muddy river with it's 100 year old bridge, and older graveyards.




the gothic nature of the town has directly inspired some great photography by local photographers such as Christian Lange a professional Photographer who also plays in Black Grass and Jan Lynch(rip).

The literary talent that comes out of knoxville is always talking to the artist sometimes directly such as R.B. Morris thanking the painters on his first cd. Sometimes inderectly as James Agee 's book Let us now praise famous men has become a standard for Photographers to read to better understand how Walker Evans looked through the lens on the same project.

Like Cormac states: the city built on no known paradigm, a mongrel architecture reading back through the ages of the abberant disordered and mad I apologize if I misquoted it was done from memory. Cormac's ex-wife directly affecting the arts by opening up Annie's which later would become Lucille's lol

Although not gothic in style, there is also a short lineage of painters coming from the Delaney brothers.

http://sunsite.utk.edu/delaney/gallery.htm

http://sunsite.utk.edu/delaney/neely.htm
"A Tale of Two Brothers"
by Jack Neely


who influenced a few of the existing painters that are still alive and painting. I feel that you can see the influence in local painters Walt Fieldsa, Steve Pogue and Kathy Friedman.

Walt new Joseph Delaney with Joseph as his drawing instructor if I'm not mistaken. Take a look at the music mural in the Old city to notice this lineage of local style. As for Steve and Kathy I have never discussed this with them so I don't know what they would say about it, but I can see the influence.

http://www.korrnet.org/chroma/Murals/WaltsMurals.htm

So with all of these things being said, then my questions to you are...

What about Knoxville do you find inspiring, interesting or proper material for the arts?

What would be what would be an interesting show in knoxville?

What would be a good place to have such a show? Out of town?

Last is this the proper forum for such a discussion

[Hardcoregirl]

Last is this the proper forum for such a discussion

Works for me...it's my forum, and it seems probably to be the most fitting place to talk about it, giving the current selection of forums.

I'll try to answer some of your other questions later.

[JaNell]

Actually, the policy has been, if there's a call for a new forum, post threads that would go into that forum in General to allow as many people as possible to respond to it.

Since there has been a call for an Art Forum by more than one person, posting Art related threads in General is very important - it shows that there is an interest in Art, and that a forum for it is needed.

Posting Art threads in Crafts is counter-productive to convincing the Powers-That-Be that we need an Art Forum, and that it is, indeed, a very different thing from the Craft Forum.

[ms.tangledwebs]

Bah!!! You darn artistically inclined people, get your own forum!!! Me loves my crafts, but Gwynn is a better painter than I could ever claim to be, and our sketching seems to be about on the same level (and as gifted as she is, I am not claiming a 3 yr old prodigy here)

[Hardcoregirl]

Actually, the policy has been, if there's a call for a new forum, post threads that would go into that forum in General to allow as many people as possible to respond to it.

Since there has been a call for an Art Forum by more than one person, posting Art related threads in General is very important - it shows that there is an interest in Art, and that a forum for it is needed.

Posting Art threads in Crafts is counter-productive to convincing the Powers-That-Be that we need an Art Forum, and that it is, indeed, a very different thing from the Craft Forum.

Well, I think the chances of having an art forum are pretty slim, because other forums we have asked for aren't as popular as say, qothquiz...I don't think there is really enough interest for an entire forum to be created. Plus only those who can host their own art would really be participating and I don't think we have that many artists on here with webspace....enough to warrant a forum at least.

These are..just my opinions...and arts and crafts are different things, but are pretty easily lumped together...thats why we have arts and crafts stores like Michaels, A.C.Moore, etc.

[Hardcoregirl]

Out of my curiousity..I looked up the definitions at dictionary dot com.

art     P   Pronunciation Key  (ärt)
n. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
The study of these activities.
The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.



High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.
A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.
A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.


Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: ?Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice? (Joyce Carol Oates).


arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
Artful contrivance; cunning.


Printing. Illustrative material.


craft     P   Pronunciation Key  (krft)
n. Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency. See Synonyms at art1.
Skill in evasion or deception; guile.
An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry.
The membership of such an occupation or trade; guild.


pl. craft A boat, ship, or aircraft


Yeah, so you can talk about art here if ya wanna....if it makes ya happy we can call it arts and crafts goth.....I don't really care...lol

[Sonicgoo]

Hello Buttercup

Thanks for the defining post and for letting us chat in here.

I fully understand JaNell's point of view as it is a bit distracting to have such a broad topic, moving in the discussion from painting walls or soap to the dark lineage that bubbles up from that river into someone's imagery lol.

If it's becomes to distracting well maybe then it will illustrate the need for another forum However in the mean time thank for your southern gothic hospitality

Another artist that I love from Ktown is Cynthia Markert.



She is making a living last I heard from her art, She has stated her influence by Gustav Klimt to me and I think it shows. Some of the ladies are also portraits of local ladies.

I wouldn't mind putting together a questionaire email interview of sorts to send to her, and then we could post her answers here.

Is that a reasonable idea and what questions should we ask?

http://www.cynthiamarkert.com/
http://www.cynthiamarkert.com/dressofmanyfaces.jpg


Scott

[Hardcoregirl]

Sonicgoo, you asked earlier what we find inspiring. There is a lot...I was born at Fort Sanders hospital and am still in love with the south even though the humidity is never something I will be used to.

I'd say the most inspiring thing is the people...especially other creative people, like Adam from 11th street, Ricky Moon, JaNell, Vertigo25, scarecrow and all of our writers, crafters, sewers, graphic designers, photographers, musicians, etc. Of course, I find the rich history of a place inspiring too, and of course, nature.

Of course human emotion and experience is inspiring. duh. hehe.


Personally I do not like Cynthia Markert's work. All of her paintings look exactly the same to me, and I find those women unappealing. She is a sweet woman though. I don't know...I think its good for an artist to have their own recognizable "style" but I think she should branch out a little. But what do I know...*shrug*

[Sonicgoo]

Yeah the south has images galore that haunt the imagination.

songs like these illustrate that for me:
Long Black Veil

But sometimes at night where the cold winds moan
In a long black veil she cries all o'er my bones.
She walks these hills in a long black veil.
She visits my grave when the night winds wail.

Walls of time

The wind is blowing 'cross the mountains
And down on the valley way below
It sweeps the grave of my darling
When I die that's where I want to go

Humidity is somehing I miss now that I am away from it. The air here NE is very dry, although people from farther west think that it's humid here, but I miss the warm blanket that coats your skin in the mountains

Personally I do not like Cynthia Markert's work. All of her paintings look exactly the same to me, and I find those women unappealing. She is a sweet woman though. I don't know...I think its good for an artist to have their own recognizable "style" but I think she should branch out a little. But what do I know...*shrug

Wow I'm surprised that you don't like Cynthia's work, but hey that's how it goes.

As for the women I dig there skinny pasty look...

I do agree with your criticism for branching out, although that can be easier said than done, This was something that Jackson Pollok for instance was never realy able to do.

As for the artist you mentioned unfortuanly I haven't seen anyones work except for Janell's hopefully there will be future post with there work.

Does any one know Steve Ingram is he still around does he still make art work?

[Lost Traveler]

The decay of the old city (though most of that will be disapearing soon), The look of the city at night just after a light rain (it can actually look pretty). the fact that you can see a building from the 30's sitting on tiop of one for the 1800's right down the street from the boxes built in the 60 and 70's, right next to where they are tering down a classic victorian so they can build one of those local red brick monstrosities (if your like me and woundered why they keep building them? The guy who designs them actually heads the local building comittee (not sure of title)).

The angst of the area, one of the poorest run big colleges surrounded by a population dedicated to the eradication of education. The fact that this city has been sitting on its potential for over 139 years, (and if you went back those 139 yrs you'd find the same groupsof people doing the same things).

The surrounding areas sometimes when you travle through the moutains and theres a mist coming up off the ground and the moon is coming up (or setting), you can almost believe this are is magic.

(dont get me wrong I still believe this whole area is where hope comes to die)

but thats what i find inspireing around here.

[Sonicgoo]

(dont get me wrong I still believe this whole are is where hope comes to die)

Great Quote lol

Yeah the old furniture building across the road from Harolds on Gay Street, It's beatiful as the sun sets it turns yellow. The same building years ago housed the MidDay merry go Round which was a Country music Radio program.



So I think about all of those rogue musicains coming out of that building, walking across the road to Harold's to eat

[Sonicgoo]

This came came from my friend Eric Sublett you can usually find him in the Longbranch at one end of the bar or other. He's a large bearded fellow sometimes wears a berea, if you see him tell him Scott says Hi.

Eric and his father along with alot of other folks had some galleries on 11th street, this was the original artist colony. Their gallery was in what is now the 11th street coffe house.

This is the last paragraph of about 6 pages about the begingings of an old art group Chroma. It also talks about an old Rogue artist from knoxville, I think some of you might find it of interest.


Eric's work


Eric's dad Carl's work

Carl does wonderful abstractions which I would have liked to post her but could not find one in my google search.

Black Rain on the Roof was an exhibit, more a community effort, for a fallen comrade. Tom Bowler had always been around it seemed to me, roughly my contemporary, a little my senior, but not by much. I remember, just after Thanksgiving 1988, the first really cold night of the year, he died. The news commentators had said that the homeless where in danger and warned that people should bring in their pets. His death made the news, confirmation of the warning the previous night's broadcast had given. Thanksgiving day I had seen him walking along Alcoa Highway, took him to the Golden Gallon, where he got food for his dog and I gave him a ride back to his place. We had stopped, like the few other times I had driven him home, at the top of the drive where a chain blocked the entrance that led through the trees down into the hollow bottom. When we saw each other we sometimes threw the I Ching, a way of dispensing with small talk and cutting to the chase, but this day he read my palm, it being easier in the car, but that all went without saying. "You will see the Devil," he said, "but it will turn out all right." That was the last time I saw him. Months before, he bought a painting from me, but said "You keep it for me, until I have a place to hang it." I still have it, Hickory Winds. It's a watercolor of woods in winter, no snow, sepias, umbers, and sienna, burnt and raw, looking through the trees, where there is a circle of stumps in the mid foreground, rotting, but there are young trees taking the old ones' places, growing up in their midst. We talked about painting a lot. It was not until he had died that I saw much of his work. With him it seemed a mental exercise, serious whimsy is what I would call it. He would never have mounted an exhibition of his paintings on his own. It would have seemed too pretentious to him. When he died, however, all his friends came together at Sam and Andy's (a diner on the strip) for a wake, and there, we all decided to mount one in his honor. Fortunately, Tom's paintings were roughly the same size as mine. This meant that I had a number of frames that was sufficient to frame the roughly forty works that were gathered up by his friends. Puddy Ray and Jack Rentfro volunteered to put together a catalog of his writing and peoples eulogies and such. Money was collected from everyone and Buzz Kelley and I took part of it and bought lights and wired them into the space that was donated through Lee Ann Mitchell. She is a sculptor and then a grad student, who was also promoting undergrad art shows around town and assisting Dennis Peacock with the Sculpture Tour at the university (one of the best programs ever sponsored by U.T.). The building, owned by Peter Calendruccio, was an empty storefront on Central Avenue near its crossing at Jackson and across from Manhattan's. We had the opening reception on Friday the 13th of January 1989. The Bowler Exhibit was a watershed. It was one of the few times that the entire community came together in a concerted effort such as that. It is unfortunate that it takes a death to achieve this sort of outpouring, and all of it was under the media spotlight.


Back at the Artist's Colony, there was an event that consummates and confirms, the birth of a child. Frances Johanna Morris was born just before Tom Bowler's death, in the way that birth and death are often, in our minds at least, juxtaposed to one another. This birth was symbolic but absolutely necessary to us becoming a true colony. Frances' parents had just recently moved into the building that The Appalachian Artistic Affiliation had moved out of a short time earlier. Danielle and R.B. Morris took that Gallery and changed the name to The Lost Pavilion Gallery. Their space was complete except it had always had insufficient lighting. After the success of the Bowler Show, Black Rain on The Roof, it was decided to move the entire thing, lights and all, to the Lost Pavilion for an extended run. When the show was over, the lighting could stay on in the gallery as an upgrade. The consensus was that this was what Tom would have wanted.


The Sublett Gallery had one more show and at the end of February I moved to a house in the Fort Dickerson neighborhood across the river. Those two events, the death of a friend and subsequent expressive outpouring of the Fort Sanders community, and the consummation and fulfillment of the colony symbolically by the birth of Frances Morris, seemed for me to be a capstone placed by events upon my tenure at the 11th Street Artists' Colony. I bid farewell to the fishbowl and began my new life as a first time homeowner in South Knoxville. For Chroma, on the other hand, it was just the beginning.

[vertigo25]

I'm going to have to agree with CD. I think the most interesting aspect of Knoxville (artistically) is the shear amount of entropy. Luckily this has always been one of my favorite subject matters.

[Lost Traveler]

Nice shot, thats the kind of stuff i like.

[Sonicgoo]

Hello Lost Traveler:

http://homepage.mac.com/rbatey/Menu24.html

Yeah I don't know the artist Robert BAtey that made the photo found it with a google search, but I love that building if you walk over to gay street and then go south half a block you can look down through the facade you can see a wonderful piece of Graffitti by R2, and if you are there aoround sundown the building turns all yellow. I've started many an evening smoking and walking down that street , while watching that building glow with all of that yellow old history. I've been meaning to make a painting of that building for years but have as of yet to get to it.

Hello Vertigo25

I had never realy thought of the entropy as an asset, but I can see your point, maybe that is what inpires so many artist is that every one is constantly telling them that there stuff is crap, leading to well I'll show you lol

I agree all of the old buildings, the word entropy realy puts into a broader spectrum. things that gravitate towards the inert.

That's a great idea for a show actually, a show called entropy based on Ktown, I could get into that.

en·tro·py ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ntr-p)
n. pl. en·tro·pies
Symbol S For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work.
A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.
A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message.
The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity.
Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

Hmm on online show possibly...
Were to get webspace...? Korrnet maybe?

[vertigo25]

Goo: I'm confused. Are you *in* k-town or are you *from* k-town? You should have been at 11th Street today at lunch time. There is someone working on something that may lead to other things.... (is that vague enough?) One of those things is a show. maybe entropy would be a very good theme....

[Sonicgoo]

Hello Vertigo:

I'm a knoxvillian, but I'm not in Ktown... My christian name is Scott Cardwell, don't know if we've met. A majority of my inspiration comes from knoxville, it's the region were all of my relatives are and have been for years.

I'm in lincoln NE, working on a mural project, working my way to Boston by mid August.

Believe it or not Lincoln is much more boring than Knoxville.

I tend to ballon ideas up faster than I can do them, but let me know if I can help in any way.

[Sonicgoo]

This is a reproduction of a photograph of the bridge at Strawberry Plains, 20 miles northeast of Knoxville, ruins in the foreground and military fort on the hill in the background; on General Longstreet's line of retreat after his siege of Knoxville; taken in 1864.

Just thought it was a cool photo

http://www.zazzle.com/products/product/product.asp?searching=on&searching%5Fsearch%5Fcolumns=%2A&searching%5Fsearch%5Fcondition=knoxville&caching=on&product%5Fid=228140792424437107&index=3

[Hardcoregirl]

Wow...that is nifty. My great great grandfather who fought in the civil war is buried in Strawberry Plains (yes my dad's family has been here for a loooong time).

Yep, I find the history of the area inspiring.

Jebus, I need to work on my geneaology.

[torch_32]

I'm a knoxvillian, but I'm not in Ktown... My christian name is Scott Cardwell,

Scott Cardwell? I think I know you. Didn't you do a lot of backdrops for Jean-Philippe? I have one of your paintings, a giant turtle under the sea.