Twenty-plus years of documenting the South's vernacular art, visionary environments and traditions….plus modern art exhibits, Faulkner and Eudora, and This Week's Various. Welcome.
Had a terrific time at our new Birmingham Ballard Designs last month meeting former Chief Floral Designer at the White House, Laura Dowling. Above, Margot Shaw of Flower Magazine introduced, and Helen Ballard, founder of Ballard Designs also spoke.
The store was set up for the audience, with food and drinks. Faux flowers from Ballard were mixed in with fresh blooms, and that’s what Laura worked with to show us an arrangement while she was speaking with us of her philosophy on design and how she came to work at the White House.
Laura spoke beautifully and some of my morning garden club friends came too.
Just a few of the pieces the Savoy had on display this visit:
Kevin Kehoe: Western Book Club — this is a 30” x 50” oil on linen, acquired in 2016 for the Booth Western Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. Kevin wrote about it that the painting is from his Western Therapy series that “celebrates social distancing before social distancing was a requirement. It’s all about finding a place to exhale, where a real book replaces Facebook. A place where you and your dog are a book club of two. It’s about losing yourself so you can find yourself. It’s about nature re-introducing you to yourself…“
The Booth Western Art Museum is also located in Cartersville. It was opened in 2003 and is a 120k sq ft space featuring contemporary Western artwork and a Presidential gallery. We don’t have a lot of really large spaces dedicated to Western art in the southeast so this is special.
Cubeworks: 1946 Mercury Woody Wagon made up of Rubix cubes with epoxy resin
and here, with a 1946 Mercury Station Wagon
Billy Schenck‘s The Big Wait. He lives in Santa Fe and is a World Champion Ranch Sorting winner.
Laurie Stevens‘ Motel Galata is a 48″x36″ oil on canvas, also from the Booth’s permanent collection. She lives and works in Montana.
The Motel Galata is an actual business in Galata, Montana. Here’s a pic.
Would enjoy seeing her take on the Lookout Mtn Tourist Lodge sign in Chattanooga — I took this pic in 2010:
Leaving Auburn, we stopped at a plant shop and restaurant I’d only heard of — sounded incredible — and sure enough, *it is*. We’re going to make plans to come back to Botanic in Opelika at night for supper when the inside must just be magical:
first, the retail side
the restaurant structure
While we weren’t going to stay long enough to have supper there, we did go into Columbus, Georgia and very much enjoyed The Animal Farm restaurant
We walked in just as happy hour was running out, but generously extended and we were able to get in an order for deviled eggs and a spicy margarita
everything was just terrific
the peanut butter pie and banana pudding, mmmmmhhh
Have we ever talked about how lots of people put vanilla pudding (just the packet) in their peanut butter pie to make it lighter? I’ve tried it at home and can pick it out now when restaurants include it — and it’s fine — but I think I prefer a more straightforward pie without it, even though it can come across especially rich.
The next day, we were off to the Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. They change their exhibits pretty often so what’s on display isn’t static.
One of the exhibits we saw is already swapped out and now features ‘Supercars’: a 1983 Lamborghini Countach, 1992 Jaguar XJ220 Coupe, 1995 Ferrari F50 Targa, 2009 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster, and others. Earlier this year but closed now, they showed movie cars which included the 1949 Buick Roadmaster Convertible from “Rainman” on loan from Barry Levinson, who directed the movie, and a 1984 Ford LTD Country Squire Family Truckster like from “Vacation” on loan, no kidding, from the Griswolds of Canton, Georgia.
Speaking of…I’ll post something similar to that next week…
Since I mentioned our stay last year at the Graduate Hotel in Columbia SC, here are some pics from my visit at the Columbia Museum of Art then. My main focus there was the excellent-excellent Lee Alexander McQueen & Ann Ray: Rendez-Vous exhibit , which I got to see again this year at the Frist in Nashville. It’s at the Grand Rapids Art Museum now through January 12, 2025 .
Ed Ruscha, Ghost Station — and if you’re thinking “oh that’s really an inkless Ruscha Standard Station, Amarillo TX” — yes (no longer in stock, but Gagosian had a print of the Ghost Station available previously). I saw the color version below at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2021.
Harry Bertoia’s untitled sculpture (Bush form)
…Andy Warhol’s Mao, 1972
The Columbia Museum of Art will be hosting Keith Haring: Radiant Vision from September 27, 2025 – February 15, 2026
In May, I got to see Kate Medley‘s Thank You, Please Come Again at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, and just saw it again at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts in Auburn. It just opened and will be up through May 25, 2025. The JCSM writes about it:
Photojournalist Kate Medley covers national news in the American South, focused on storytelling and environmental portraiture. In this exhibition, Medley invites viewers to see the people and culinary art of service stations, convenience stores and quick stops located across the South, shining a light on the unexpected community, generosity and creativity found in hidden corners of the U.S.
Thank You Please Come Again features twenty-two photographs that document photojournalist Kate Medley’s ten-year journey through the heart of the American South. Medley’s images focus on roadside service stations and convenience stores that double as eateries—or, in the words of Mississippi-born writer Kiese Laymon, “restaurants that serve gas.” Through everyday interactions at these uniquely Southern institutions—which often function as both grocery stores and community hubs in rural areas—Medley captures the region’s local color and evolving cultures.
The exhibition book was published by Bitter Southerner and turned out to be my Mother’s Day gift, picked up at Square Books.
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