September Featured Artist Gay Arthur Press Release

In-Town Gallery presents the oil paintings of Gay M. Arthur, whose collection of new work, “The Promise of Place”, immortalizes the spaces in which we live, work, play, learn and worship that all hold a sense of promise. The exhibit runs through the month of September. Gallery visitors can meet the artist at a special reception on the first Friday, September 5, 2008, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

“Since graduating from UTC with my art degree in 2003 my work has focused mainly on structures that were slated for demolition. I am attempting to shift gradually from those spaces that no longer exist and their impermanence to those that have, up to this moment, survived. In this series of oil paintings there are still a few structures that were torn down but most of the places have been restored and are still standing. Perhaps this refers to my own aging process and my personal attempts to continue to improve and sustain myself!” Ms. Arthur explains.

There is a wide range of topographical topics in this series. There are houses from Hixson, St. Elmo, Highland Park, and Ft. Wood. The artist included the First Methodist Steeple, the Industrial YMCA, a firehouse and a barn or two. All of these are places that held some sort of promise, an internal dialogue of our human experience.

Ms. Arthur quotes Gaston Bachelard, “Inhabited space transcends geometrical space.” and “(A)house that has been experienced is not an inert box.” She believes that it carries a promise to those who live inside it. They enter the dwelling with the hope that their needs will be met, and search within for the answers. Some of these places so skillfully rendered no longer exist, but the memory of their existence has been recaptured on canvas.

In keeping with the restoration of the sites the artist has chosen to frame many of the works in old window frames from salvage. They hold the history of their respective spaces as well. Although challenging, she has enjoyed working within the specific requirements of those window frames, finding the parallel of our own personal limitations of space. Ms. Arthur hopes that the viewer will share in the motionless memories housed within these structures. “I invite you to share in the intimacy that these dwellings provoke. Come inside, cross the thresholds of promise. Perhaps they will awaken the dreams housed within you.”

Jane Yelliot’s “Family Zoo”

“Family Zoo” is a whimsical collection of watercolor portraits by Jane Yelliott, the featured artist for August at In-Town Gallery. These personal studies are of her relatives with their beloved pets, from dogs to donkeys. Jane expresses her preference, “Trees, flowers, mountains and lakes are all beautiful things to paint, but animals, and children in particular, are just incredible creatures to paint.”

The most prominent artwork in the “Family Zoo” exhibit on the front wall of the gallery is a life-sized tan and white cow named Esmerelda. Jane painted this on a sheet of plywood for the Cherry Street location of In-Town Gallery in 1984. It was hoisted up to the roof and secured above the entrance façade. When the gallery moved to its present location on Frazier Avenue in 1994, Jane gave it to her son, Grant, and daughter-in-law, Shula, for their farm in Ooltewah.

Esmerelda is the third in a series of six cows that Jane has painted. The first, a black-and-white cow named Mariah, went to Jane’s sister, Martha, who took it to Hawaii. The second cow was in the live auction at the Hunter Museum’s Spectrum. The fourth was commissioned by a patron who lost the bid for number two. Her fame as the “cow lady” led to her receiving a commission from the Smithsonian Institute to make a two-sided cow, in black and white, for a special “Think Tank” exhibit at their zoo in Washington, D.C.

During her 24 years at In-Town Gallery, as a versatile artist in many different mediums, Jane has produced portraits in pastel and oil, imaginative dragonfly and butterfly designs in ink and watercolor, and colorful figures on porcelain tiles. In the 1990s Ruth Holmberg commissioned her to paint the “Parade of Turtles”, a collection of colorful turtle designs on large black porcelain tiles for the floor of the Tennessee Aquarium, in honor of her husband, Bill. Later, Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, NC, commissioned her to create a series of murals made with hand-painted tiles depicting the evolution of food throughout history. Some years ago she won the Masonry competition with her brick-and-mortar design for a sidewalk bench on Market Street that features lively cats and fish painted with ceramic glazes on large slow-fired bricks.

written by Helen Burton

Ruth Holmberg with Truffle

Our faithful subs - Gail Rich and Doug McCoy

Jane talking with Verina Baxter

Shown with Jane Yelliott's "Family Zoo" exhibit at In-Town Gallery during the recent opening reception, are family members (left to right ) Susan Batten, Ryan Norris, Finch Yelliott, Shula Yelliott, and Jane Yelliott.