Tag: Eclectic Eye

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Artist Christina Huntington’s “Recent Still Lifes” at Eclectic Eye

CREDIT: Courtesy Christina Huntington

When Memphis artist Christina Huntington began a weekly series of small, alla prima (wet-on-wet, in one sitting) oil paintings of still life arrangements, she did so as a way to reawaken her dormant art skills. On her website, christinahuntingtonart.com, Huntington states that most of the paintings for this first “real show” were produced in one sitting. The idea, inspired by Carol Marine’s book Daily Painting, is to practice a lot and enjoy it by not getting too invested in getting it right.

But she did get it right and has already sold nearly two dozen pieces framed in black resin or wood frames with glass, cropped to show the raw edges of under-painting, and floated on an off-white mat.

Courtesy Christina Huntington

Christina Huntington’s Seven Radishes

By day, Huntington is a senior information architect at Archer Malmo. She graduated from Rhodes College with degrees in studio art and creative writing but gained her appreciation for art-making from her father who maintained a lifelong art practice. Her mother is a Philippines-born Spaniard and her father is from Mississippi.

“My father is my biggest and first artistic influence,” Huntington says of her late father, who passed away eight years ago. “My mother struggled with English. I often helped her understand during a time when Memphis wasn’t as diverse. This plays into my work as an observer — taking in information and translating.”

Her brushwork in this series depicting fruits and vegetables, flowers, and nostalgic objects balances the illusion of depth and volume while honoring the medium of painting.

“Recent Still Lifes,” Eclectic Eye, 242 S. Cooper, viewable by appointment through the first week of January.

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Art Art Feature

MrBbaby’s Chucho Adorns Eclectic Eye

Memphians cruising along Cooper Street may have noticed a new, brightly colored mural on the wall of Eclectic Eye. In it, a giant, multi-hued creature carries a smiley face in his outstretched paws. The mural, it turns out, features a Los Angeles-based artist, MrBbaby, who worked at the invitation of the Memphis-based Birdcap, says Robbie Johnson Weinberg, the owner, creator, and manager of Eclectic Eye.

“Michael Roy [Birdcap] is a longtime friend and collaborator,” Weinberg says. “I just consider that his wall. He can do whatever he wants with that.” When the mural maker said he had an artist friend coming through town who wanted to add something to the building, Weinberg’s answer was short and sweet: “Let’s go. Let’s do it.” She adds: “I believe 150 percent in my soul that art is transformative, and I love that I have spaces available for us to experience people from other places.” So to learn more, I spoke with MrBbaby about her new mural at Eclectic Eye, her heritage, and the art of making the unseen and unheard feel welcomed and remembered.

MrBbaby and Chucho at Eclectic Eye in Cooper-Young

MF: How did you find out about this project?

I’m originally from California, but decided to venture off on a road trip to Tennessee. Naturally, I contacted Birdcap, who set this project up for me.

MF: How do you know Birdcap?

I know him through the art world. I was in Miami two years ago for Art Basel, which is when we officially met.

MF: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your experience making art?

I’m originally from San Diego. I’ve been painting my entire life — it’s always been the thing I knew I wanted to pursue. I sort of jumped in with blind faith. I did the work without knowing where it would eventually lead, not because I was looking for an outcome but just because I loved to do it so much; there was no stopping me, even if no one ever noticed me. Eventually, my work took me to Los Angeles, where I reside as a full-time artist.

MF: The mural at Eclectic Eye is dazzling. Tell me a little bit about your use of color.

I come from a Latin background. I am Mexican and Puerto Rican. They’re both places that pride themselves in art. It’s hard to be in Mexico without seeing art everywhere you turn. I have always been drawn to the vibrant colors used. I feel like when it comes down to the furniture, the buildings, even the food, there’s a special passion and artistic touch to even the most mundane objects. The culture is one of my biggest inspirations.

MrBbaby

MF: I understand that the character in the mural, Chucho, is a recurring character for you. Can you tell me about them?

Chucho is a piñata. I originally created him to represent the battles of life. Life is often hard and challenging; sometimes it feels like it’s chasing you with a bat waiting to crack you down. Chucho represents hope in the moments when life gives you lemons, when it wants to tear you down just like a piñata. He represents that no matter the battle you face, and how hard it seems in the moment, you can take the power back and take something away from these moments. As uncomfortable as they are, these moments give you growth and they give you an understanding you didn’t have before. Bad things happen to everyone, and it’s how you choose to see them that will eventually determine the story of your life. It’s accepting that life is a rollercoaster, and the battle of good and bad things that have happened or will happen never ends. These moments are inevitable, but you can be a victim or take the strength in knowing that when you are uncomfortable, you are growing in unmeasurable ways.

MF: We’re in an unprecedented global moment — from coronavirus to the protests in support of the  Black Lives Matter movement to climate change. What do you think is the role of art in such challenging times?

Originally during quarantine I worked so much, almost as a distraction, but then I hit a dead end. I felt like the moment in time we are in had me questioning my role, and what I am really providing for the community. I have always created artwork that’s inclusive of a lot of different cultural backgrounds. I wanted to keep culture alive; that has always been my goal. I believe art has the power to bring people together or to express an idea without the use of words, making it universal. Art has the ability to transform spaces. Art has the ability to make people who may feel unseen or unheard feel welcomed and remembered, to amplify others’ voices, especially in my mural work. I want to continue to do that for the community.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Mr. Potts is Found

I’m a fan of Nextdoor.com, and by “fan,” I mean I like to make fun of it. If you’re not familiar with Nextdoor, it’s a social network built on geographical neighborhoods. People gripe about their missing newspapers; they ask for recommendations for plumbers; they ask, “fireworks or gunshots?” on a daily basis; they are obsessed with “suspicious looking teens” (who are usually wearing hoodies and have a dark complexion). But mostly, Nextdoor is about pets — lost pets, found pets, pet grooming, dogs seen wandering around, parakeets, even.

As a member, I get a daily email from Nextdoor.com that lists all the posts of the day in sequence. I noticed a while back that the random juxtaposition of the post titles form a kind of found poetry, and so I’ve taken to making screen shots of a few of these and putting them on Twitter as “your nextdoor.com moment of zen.”

Last week, I posted this, which I thought had a certain three-act play feel to it:

Mr. Potts

Gunshots?

Mr. Potts is Found!

People tweeted funny remarks. “Was Mr. Potts murdered?” etc. Ha ha. It was just a silly Twitter moment, and I quickly forgot about it. Then, while driving home, I saw a sign on the Eclectic Eye that read “Welcome Home Mr. Potts.” It hit me that maybe there was more to this Mr. Potts saga than I knew. And there was. Much more.

Mr. Potts, a gray, flat-faced 10-year-old feline, wandered off from his Midtown home on December 11th. His owners, Clay and Gracey Smythe, and their children, Stanley, James, and Leo, were devastated. They posted pictures of Mr. Potts around the neighborhood; they posted his mugshot on Nextdoor. No response.

Around Christmas, there was a sighting of a thin, gray cat near Summer and Holmes, miles from Midtown, but it wasn’t Mr. Potts. In early January, a cyclist reported that a dead cat matching Mr. Potts’ description was lying on Cleveland, but it wasn’t him. Over the next few weeks, the Smythes followed up on several tips, but none bore fruit. Mr. Potts, it appeared, was gone. And if he was alive, he was out in some of the coldest January weather Memphis had seen in years, and unlikely to survive. The Smythes offered a $1,000 reward, but still no luck.

In late January, Clay Smythe figured Mr. Potts wasn’t coming back, so he took all of his beloved cat’s food, toys, and kitty litter and left them in front of the House of Mews in Cooper-Young. It was a donation that took a Gift of the Magi twist a couple days later.

On Smythe’s birthday, January 26th, the Cifaldi family, who live near Summer Avenue, posted photos on Nextdoor of a stressed, frail cat they’d found in their garage. A number of people saw the post and immediately notified the Smythes, who scurried over to the Cifaldis’ house, where they encountered a wobbly, emaciated creature curled into a ball. It was Mr. Potts! He recognized his family, gave a cry of recognition, and fell over. They rushed him to the Summer Avenue Emergency Animal Hospital, where he was given fluids and nursed back to the point where he could return home in a few days.

It’s a hell of a story. Mr. Potts survived six weeks of winter weather, wandering countless miles around Memphis, living on God knows what. It’s a story of faith: The Smythes persisted long after most families would have given up. It’s story of a neighborhood, and a community, and good people’s willingness to go the extra mile to save someone’s beloved pet. And it’s a story with a happy ending. Lots of happy endings, really. 

The Cifaldis donated $500 of their reward to an organization that helps rescue animals. There’s a bumper sticker being made that reads, “Mr. Potts is Midtown,” and proceeds from the sale will go to the House of Mews. It’s more like “Midtown is Mr. Potts,” at this point.

Perhaps Gracey Smythe summed it up best in a post on, yes, Nextdoor: “It makes me smile to see how many people care about this. … It shows such beautiful humanity and love!”

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Art Art Feature

Upside Down and Inside Out

In her exhibition “Beth Edwards: Inside Out” at David Lusk Gallery, Edwards’ saturate, surreal paintings take us deep inside memory and the creative process and, along the way, turn some of Baudrillard’s postmodern notions inside out. Instead of viewing representations (what Baudrillard calls “simulacra”) as perversions or pretenses of reality, Edwards welcomes all images as raw materials that feed her imagination.

All color schemes and combinations of high-and-low art are possible in Edwards’ worlds. In Happy Day, an exuberant anthropomorphic mouse stands in front of an orange divan and plastic plant and looks at the painting of a human figure fractured by cubism. In Annunciation, a baby doll with a green face and orange hair stands in a royal-blue room looking out an open window. In Edward Hopper-like fashion, sunlight pours into the otherwise empty room creating a geometric pattern on the wall.

All of Edwards’ art is filled with spirit and anointed with light. With the vintage dolls, cartoon characters, and modernist paintings of her mid-20th-century childhood, Edwards builds highly expressive worlds that suggest what is most “real” is unfettered memory and imagination.

“Beth Edwards: Inside Out” at David Lusk Gallery through September 29th

“NIA: Salon 3,” Delta Axis @ Marshall Arts’ current exhibition, showcases established artists and newcomers in an unsettling, exhilarating group show that depicts the world at a boiling point.

Frank D. Robinson’s mesmerizing installation, Full Support, covers the entire back wall with 21st-century posters and paraphernalia. In the large mixed-media painting, Baby Jesus, Ron Herd creates a mosaic of the hopes/needs/fears that drive us all. Crowns, crosses, and doves are everywhere. Large transparent wings flank Christ’s body. Red flames burn inside him, and his crucified feet cradle an ebony baby with an all-seeing eye.

Ron Herd’s Baby Jesus

A charred lump of clay, dressed in crudely stitched burlap, stands at the end of a road blown into rubble in Dail Chambers’ mixed-media installation Crossroads. While Chambers records what happens when disparate points of view collide, Aundra McCoy’s Spirit Dolls provides hope that the world’s cultures and creeds might find a way to co-exist. McCoy’s beaded and feathered fetishes are filled with spirit all-embracing and all-encompassing enough to weave Middle Eastern, Native-American, and African motifs into one exquisitely beautiful work of art.

“NIA: Salon 3” at Delta Axis @ Marshall Arts through September 29th

Two of the most cogent images in Jonathan McNabb’s exhibition “New Works,” at Eclectic Eye, take us inside a cathedral and an abandoned prison.

In the silver gelatin print, Notre Dame Cathedral, Christ still hangs on the cross near the ceiling but is almost lost in the shadows. Candles burn far below.

In Prison Interior, light pours through the crumbling walls and jail cells of an abandoned correctional institute, where pictures of family members, Hollywood stars, and comedians are still tacked to the walls. The sunlight pouring through empty jail cells brings to mind Christ’s message — more powerfully than the shadowy scene of the crucifixion in a grand cathedral — of stones loosened, tombs emptied, and darkness pierced by light.

“Jonathan McNabb: New Works” at Eclectic Eye through October 3rd

Photo artist Ian Lemmonds is another artist who finds beauty and hope in unexpected places. Five out of eight prints in “Serial Monogamy,” Lemmonds’ current exhibition at L Ross Gallery, consist of piles of Barbie doll legs backdropped by various shades of monochromatic tiles. Light reflecting off the plastic and ceramic surfaces transforms the legs into glowing bouquets. The slender, long-stemmed shapes counterpoint the square tiles on which they lie. Lemmonds captures our attention with body parts placed in obscure settings. As we stand transfixed, searching for metaphor and meaning — is there something titillating, prurient, or brutish about these dismembered limbs? — he surprises us with an experience of beauty that means everything and nothing.

Another untitled print has a similar effect. Two minuscule human figures look at a huge luminous plastic rabbit materializing out of the floor. This is not the radioactive creature that ate New York. Instead, a father hoists his son onto his shoulders to better see the limpid-eyed creature embued with something like hope and the suggestion that beauty and wonder are all around us.

“Serial Monogamy” at L Ross Gallery through September 30th