Support Local Artists

Way back in the ancient days of 2001 and 2002 I had a favorite show on HGTV. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of it!  It was about professional artists and crafters.  It was narrated by a gal who was formerly a news anchor in Knoxville, Tennessee.  I loved this show because it explored how the artists worked and where they found their creative muses.  I find the whole artistic process fascinating. And I sometimes feel it is lost in our consumer society where mass appeal is everything. 

Then came the housing boom of the mid-2000's.  All the wonderful arts-focused TV shows went away.  In their place came the home re-model and re-decorating shows.  It was also around this time that the local retail stores were flooded with horrible, gaudy mass produced paintings and enormous, fake objet d'art to fill all the lonely 2 story foyers and family rooms in our McMansions.  To put it frankly, interior decorating fell to an all time, raunchy low with the housing boom. Our huge and expensive houses were filled with the cheapest (not in $$ but in quality) stuff imaginable. You know what I'm saying.  You just donated some of it to Goodwill recently, didn't you?  Me too.  But, I'm going back to craft - real craft. I'm keeping only the stuff that's real; original work made by local artisans.  Of course, some of my favorite art in all the world will always and forever be the stuff made by my kids when they were little bitty's - that's the best art ever, as any mom will tell you. But my other art has been collected over the years at local galleries and at art shows put on by folks like the Alpha Arts Guild and at venues like the Alpharetta Arts Street Fest. 

One of my favorite places to view and buy art through the years has been the Raiford Gallery in Roswell.  I think Judy Raiford has a fine selection of clay pieces, paintings, and jewelry. It was the that introduced me to the art of turned wood.  I am mesmerized by this particular art although I do not, as yet anyway, own any turned wood pieces.  The good stuff is kinda pricey.   

I am happy to see that PBS has a new series called Craft in America.  Please visit the link I just provided to find out more because the episode I watched this evening was really wonderful.  The website shows that the Craft in America series actually devotes an episode to the art of turned wood, specifically that of the Moulthrops.  I've long heard of the Moulthrops, who are from Georgia.  What I would give to acquire one of their pieces!  

I really hope all the gaudy pseudo-art of the first decade of the 2000's has become a thing of the past.  We have always had real artists among us and theirs is the art worth having.  They are in galleries and art shows.  They belong to local art guilds.  Artisans keep the heart beating because they translate beauty into things we can see and hear and they speak the local vernacular through their art.  

Support local artists.