Calendar of Events

In Ijams' Hallway Gallery. Stop by to see gorgeous underwater photography by Bryce Gibson in July! Gibson's stunning photos of native, freshwater fish will help you appreciate the beauty and diversity of wildlife living in East Tennessee's waters.

More events at http://ijams.org/events/. Ijams Nature Center, 2915 Island Home Ave, Knoxville, TN 37920. Hours: Grounds and trails open during daylight hours. Call for Visitor Center hours. Information: 865-577-4717, www.ijams.org

Showtimes
Fri Jun 29, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sat Jun 30, 2018 | 8:00PM
Thu Jul 5, 2018 | 8:00PM
Fri Jul 6, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sat Jul 7, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sun Jul 8, 2018 | 2:00PM
Fri Jul 13, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sat Jul 14, 2018 | 8:00PM
Sun Jul 15, 2018 | 2:00PM

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry as we celebrate the 75th birthday of both the Playhouse and the granddaddy of the modern musical. Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammersteins’s Pulitzer Prize winning show follows the trials and tribulations of young love. Set against the dynamic turn-of-the-century backdrop of the American west, one of Broadway’s most popular and beloved scores comes alive, sweeping across the stage as farmers and cowboys alike kick up their heels and hitch their wagons to the groundbreaking birth of a brand new state!

Oak Ridge Playhouse, 227 Broadway, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. Information and tickets: 865-482-9999, www.orplayhouse.com

Art Exhibit at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church - Free and open to the public.
Reception Friday, June 15, 6:00 to 7:30 pm. Artists’ talks at 6:30 pm.

Bobbie Crews
This collection of portraits was done in oil on canvas, quickly capturing personalities and revealing information about that person in a quick and concise manner. Some of the portraits are fleshed out with color pushing the image off the canvas, while others are capture the essence with burnt umber over a toned canvas. Both have their charms.

A self-taught artist who later earned a BFA in 2007 as an adult at the University of Tennessee, Crews has done portraits of people all her life. In 2009 she began creating “Intimate Portraits of Automobiles.” She has earned awards at several “Concours d”Elegance” car shows around the country and has shown in art museums in El Dorado and Topeka, Kansas; Biloxi; Indianapolis; and Midland, Michigan. She’s currently exhibiting at Carlock Motorcar Company in Brentwood, Tennessee. The Knoxville Family Justice Center houses a permanent exhibit of her work about women’s issues. I’ve participated in many other group and solo exhibitions and her murals are scattered around East Tennessee. Published by PBS television, American Art Collector, Hemmings and other magazines, and a member of the OPA and Portrait Society of America, Crews works on commission, especially in portraiture; teaches; critiques; and gives workshops and presentations.

Clay Thurston
Thurston says, “Wildlife and nature are gifts that should be enjoyed and protected by all of us. Patience is the number one element of capturing my subject, and I will spend weeks, months and years learning animal behaviors, studying the environment and finally getting the photo.”

Born in New Hampshire and raised in Maine, Thurston finished his undergraduate degree in education at Sam Houston State and his Masters in Education and Biology at the University of Tennessee. He taught in Oak Ridge Schools for 33 years, retiring from teaching in 2005. Since then, he has worked full time in nature and wildlife photography. He has traveled the world and shared his experiences through his work with other nature enthusiasts. He was honored to present his work to the North American Nature Photographers Association a few years back and exhibits all over the eastern half of the United States. www.claythurston.com

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919. Gallery hours: M-Th 10-5, Su 10-1. Information: 865-523-4176, www.tvuuc.org

Sanctuary Vegan Café will open a new exhibition of photographs by Aubrey Langley on Thursday, June 7 at 6:00pm. The event will include a reception and brief presentation by the photographer. The event is free and open to the public. (Show runs through August 1)

Aubrey Langley is 25 years old and has autism. Her condition has caused her a lot of anxiety and at times, seemingly insurmountable obstacles, for instance, making eye contact with humans is a big challenge. Fortunately, early on, Langley discovered the healing power of animals. She surrounds herself with dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, birds, rats, hamsters and more through her work at a veterinarian clinic and volunteering at the Gentle Barn Tennessee, a farm animal sanctuary.
Photography has been a passion of Langley’s all her life. When she was very young, she loved to line up her stuffed animals on a bench and take photos of them with a little disposable camera. Today, she uses much more sophisticated equipment and hopes to make photography her career.

The Sanctuary Vegan Café art program invites visual artists and
photographers from the east Tennessee region to showcase their work with
themes reflecting healthy plant-based diets, animal liberation, environmental
awareness, positive inspirations, and peace and love for all sentient beings.

Each new exhibition runs for two months. The next “call for artists” for the
year 2019 will be in November.

Sanctuary Vegan Café is located at 151 N. Seven Oaks Dr, Knoxville, TN 37922.

Chris Smith is showing his paintings and photography at the Morristown Hamblen Library through July 31.

Everyone studies history in school. The importance of history is essential to modern living. It not only tells us where we’ve been, or where we are now, but where we are going. Smith feels that the same theory applies to art. His artwork is an exploration of our past, “an echo in time” to better relate to our present and help shape the future of art. Smith’s story begins at the age of 5 in Dallas, Texas, where his jealousy of his brothers’ abilities to draw led him to pick up the pencil. In time, this need to draw grew as well as the need to create. At 7, he had surpassed his brothers’ abilities but was still insecure of his own. As a child his parents moved a lot, which made forming relationships difficult. Drawing helped some in opening up. However, the insecurities were still there. He took art class through 7th and 8th grade, which was the only formal art schooling he received. Chris dropped out of school in 9th grade and immediately got into the work force. Married at age of 21, Smith started family life and his passion for art began to get buried and lost in the shuffle. Many years later, and after the marriage failed, Smith returned to his art.

Smith says, “I found a spark of inspiration in the most unlikely way. Playing a game on my phone, I met a woman that captured my heart and sparked my passions for art once more.” he said. This rekindling quickly became an inferno that led to painting and living in Tennessee. Oils, acrylics, newspaper, plaster, pens, and color pencils have been used in Smith’s artwork that now exceeds 100 pieces. “This solo exhibition represents some of my best works over the course of what is now the end of my first year painting,” he said. “My artwork has been influenced by many of art’s most notable masters - Monet, Picasso, Pollock, Bacon, Klee and most notably Van Gogh. I feel that the key to finding art’s future is found in its past. I hope that like the pages of history books, my art not only speaks to its viewers but it moves them to forge its future.”

All artwork is available for sale unless labeled NFS. Prints are available for sale per request. Commissioned work is also welcomed and must be scheduled. If you would like more information, contact Chris Smith at 423-714-6738 or 423-714-6708 or contact Smith_Art_Studio@Yahoo.com. The Morristown-Hamblen Library hosts ongoing exhibits of Morristown Art Association members with the exhibits changing every two months. For information about the Morristown Art Association, visit www.morristownart.org; the current exhibit or to purchase the art, please contact the artist; or call the Morristown-Hamblen Library at 423-586-6410.

The first thing to know about Ocean Starr Cline is that that is her given name. The second important thing to know is that, despite the invariable interest that her name excites, she’s not much concerned with what others think. In fact, it’s an essential part of how she lives:

“My parents had me in San Francisco, named me, and immediately moved me to Clay County, Alabama where everybody was Jeremy, Jason, Sarah and Amanda. I fit in like a purple giraffe on the farm. I complained bitterly about my name for years and years and I was going to change it when I got old enough, but, by that point, I had gotten used to it – because there’s always somebody who’s going to stare or has a comment. It really fortified me to be able to put any kind of art on the wall. Some people are going to like it some people are not. And I just don’t care.”

But Cline’s life and art is very much about caring for other people though not in an intrusive or interfering way. Cline’s paintings evince a sense of that magic – although she often works in a similar palate, her paintings each carry a unique voice, you might even detect an aura. Her approach to art leaves her open to whatever magic or inspiration comes to her in the moment.

Starr Cline’s exhibit will be on view at the downtown Knoxville Tomato Head on Market Square from June 4th through July 1st. Her exhibit will move to the West Knoxville Tomato Head from July 3rd through August 6th. http://thetomatohead.com/ocean-starr-cline/

Tomato Head, 12 Market Square (865-637-4067) and 7240 Kingston Pike, Suite 172 (865-584-1075), in Knoxville.

The project, inspired by a similar exhibit at Rotary Botanical Garden in Janesville, Wisconsin, is designed to promote community participation and artist collaboration at the UT Gardens, Knoxville, as well as to raise awareness and support for the Gardens. 27 local professional and amateur artists have created unique interpretations of a wooden hummingbird silhouette. The pieces will be displayed throughout the summer of 2018 for Gardens visitors to enjoy. The Hummingbirds will then be sold at a live auction on September 8, 2018 with all proceeds benefiting the UT Gardens, Knoxville.

UT Gardens, Chapman Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996. Information: 865-974-7151, https://ag.tennessee.edu/utg/Pages/default.aspx

Reception date TBA

In the Sandra J. Blain Gallery
Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN 37738. Information: 865-436-5860, www.arrowmont.org

The opening reception on Thursday, May 3 from 5:30-7:30pm is free and open to the public.

The Knoxville Museum of Art presents Scenic Impressions: Southern Interpretations from the Johnson Collection, featuring more than 40 paintings from the extensive holdings of the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Scenic Impressions examines the influence of the Impressionist movement on art created in and about the American South. Artists represented in the exhibition include Kate Freeman Clark, Elliott Daingerfield, Gilbert Gaul, Alfred Hutty, Rudolph Ingerle, Willie Betty Newman, Alice Huger Smith, William Posey Silva, and Catherine Wiley, many of whom exhibited their work in Knoxville in the early twentieth century. The exhibition enables KMA viewers to appreciate the accomplishments of East Tennessee Impressionists such as Catherine Wiley within the larger context of her peers from around the Southeast.

Scenic Impressions is organized by the Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Johnson Collection is one of the premier collections of Southern painting in the country. Scenic Impressions underscores the Johnsons’ commitment to illuminating the rich cultural history of the American South and advancing scholarship in the field.

“The artists in Scenic Impressions were inspired by the beauty and variety of Southeastern landforms, especially along the extensive coastline and in the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina,” said KMA Executive Director David Butler. “The vision of these painters stimulated a new appreciation of the Appalachian landscape that eventually led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They showed us how to value what’s in our own backyard. The Johnson Collection has done us all a tremendous service by gathering so many first-rate examples of this rich and creative period.”

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World's Fair Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37916. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10AM-5PM, Sunday, 1-5PM. Information: 865-525-6101, www.knoxart.org

You are invited to view more than 20 examples of southern mountain rifles and pistols at an upcoming temporary exhibit at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend, Tennessee, from May 1 to October 25, presented by the Kentucky Rifle Foundation. These 18th and 19th century tools were essential for the survival of pioneers in the frontiers of Eastern Tennessee and Western Carolina.

These southern mountain rifles fully evolved in the last quarter of the 18th and the first quarter of the 19th centuries, as pioneers and settlers moved into what is now Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina. In the original colonies during this time, the Kentucky rifle was becoming an art piece in its “Golden Age,” while on the frontier, the southern mountain rifle had become an unadorned, iron-mounted utilitarian piece.

Baxter Bean, whose work exemplified the typical southern mountain rifle, was a third-generation gunsmith who worked in the Jonesboro, Tennessee, area. One of Baxter’s rifles, which will be on exhibit, was brought into Cades Cove by Wilson “Wilse” Birchfield, who named the rifle “Old Bean.” Wilse chose to live high in the mountains just under Gregory’s Bald. When he moved out of the Cove into the mountains, the old timers told him the bears would eat him alive. Wilse’s response to this was, “Old Wilson may eat some, too.”

For more details and to learn about special programming, call 865-448-0044 or visit www.gsmheritagecenter.org. This exhibit is included in the cost of daily admission to the Heritage Center or FREE to GSMHC members.

Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, 3/4 mile east of traffic light at the Highway 321 and 73 intersection towards the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Townsend, TN. Hours: M-Sa 10-5. Information: 865-448-0044, www.gsmheritagecenter.org

Dogwood Arts Art In Public Places - Temporary Sculpture Exhibition

Art in Public Places is a large-scale outdoor sculpture program showcased throughout Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and Alcoa, Tennessee. The annual rotating installation is one of many Dogwood Arts programs focused on providing access to the arts for everyone, promoting awareness of the strong visual arts community thriving in our region, and creating a vibrant and inspiring environment for residents and visitors to experience. Over the past eleven years, Dogwood Arts has curated and installed over 220 works of art, and the Art In Public Places program has gained national recognition as a platform for world-class artists. This year’s ambitious collection of sculptures created by artists from across the nation has been selected by Director of the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Justin Rabideau.

Dogwood Arts, 123 W. Jackson Ave, Knoxville, TN 37902. Information: 865-637-4561, www.dogwoodarts.com

Meeting every Sunday from 11 AM - noon at Adair Park, 1807 Adair Drive, Knoxville, TN 37918, near the Gazebo and Playground.

Meeting every Wednesday from 6-7 PM at Good People, 4026 Chapman Hwy, Knoxville, TN 37920.

Beginning April 7, meeting on Saturdays from 11 AM - noon at Olde Mechanicsville Park on Arthur St. near the Firehouse and the Lotus Light Center.

Requested donation of $10 for each class, $17 for two classes/week, or $22 for 3 classes/week.

Information: Karl Hess, karlalanhess@gmail.com