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.”