Category: Monthly Art

“Dear Diary, I feel very hopeful today…” One of my favorite (and most honest) editors warned me to avoid making my columns sound like diary entries.  But sometimes the subject of an assignment creates a sincere emotional moment for a writer, and it’s nearly impossible to eschew the personal response.  Of course, there’s a little…

“What does it mean?” I haven’t taken a poll, but it might be interesting to ask how often an artist working in the Abstract hears that particular question.  It might be more enlightening to ask if that question becomes challenging to hear over time – not because it’s necessarily a bad question, but because most…

In his poem, “Extra Innings” Arthur Smith describes the memory of a baseball game from his distant past.  It’s the ninth inning, there are two outs, and the opposing pitcher is Tom Seaver.  The game is a no-hitter as the poem’s narrator takes the bat and makes a mighty swing that connects and soars.  I…

Once again, the walls of our Market Square restaurant are alive with color. The work of Asheville artist, Kathryn Gunn is a vibrant collection of color, light and reflection that comes from an intuitive place where music and mindfulness mingle with canvas, acrylic, and curiosity. Gunn only recently started painting – in fact, until last…

The image of the tortured artist is cliché because it’s often true, and, more so, because we talk about it a lot.  In fact we love it.  It may be that it appeals to a strange human craving for martyrdom:  we love those who suffer for their passions.  But not all artists fall on their…

By day, Casey Fox is the celebrated manager of Library Fund Development for the Knox County Public Library.  Featured as one of the Knoxville News-Sentinel’s “40 under 40,” Fox gets kudos for her fund-raising efforts, particularly a capital campaign to help digitize the library’s historic archives. But when she’s not busy contributing to the Library’s…

Beth Meadows’ current studio is a working space, not open to the public; but if you were to find your way there, you would find yourself in a nest of ideas – one lined with images and materials that the artist collects because they draw her attention.  In the exhibit now hanging at Tomato Head…

The World is Not Enough. It’s a 007 title, yes, but I daresay that there are times in non-cinematic life when we’ve all had just about as much of the world as we can stand.  But in seeking solutions, perhaps even escapes or mere moments of diversion from life as we know it, there are…

November brings the return of the work of Denise Stewart-Sanabria to the walls of Tomato Head.  In summer of last year, Denise exhibited a collection of Vanitas – still-life paintings that treat domestic imagery in symbolic terms, often as images of death and change.  Denise’s exhibit included many large format and food centric compositions that…

The third time, they say, is a charm, and if that’s the case, then Ruth Allen should have a spectacular showing on the walls of the Tomato Head.  Ruth’s work captured Mahasti’s eye during a visit to Big City Bread Cafe in Athens, GA.  Mahasti recalls that, “there was a really cute artist studio in…