Heart, Hands, and Healing Art Workshop in Blue Ridge and Chatsworth, Georgia

Feeling God's Love ~ Vicki Wagoner, The Practical Intuitive

Vicki Wagoner, "The Practical Intuitive," presents her nationally recognized Heart, Hands, and Healing Art (a workshop for therapy and personal expression), on Saturday, March 26 at 10 a.m. to noon at the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association (The Art Center), located at 420 W. Main Street, Blue Ridge, Georgia.

After having a profound experience while participating at an art workshop, hypnotherapist and artist, Vicki Wagoner, was inspired to create her own art program Heart, Hands, and Healing Art, as a life-transforming experience in creativity. Her technique encourages creative and personal expression through a process of painting with the hands – no brushes, rules, or artistic abilities required. The painting creates itself. Each participant starts with the same blank canvas, and when the session is over, Vicki assists them in discovering the epiphanies of new perspectives, possibilities, and insight that have been subconsciously created during the painting process. Group participation is welcome and encouraged. The workshop is open to people of all ages. The artist suggests wearing old clothes to allow for full self expression.

Wagoner's workshop has been featured on the Telly award-winning, national cable TV show, Art of Living. Wagoner, an expressionist artist, has given workshops in Georgia, New York, Alaska, Florida, and Tennessee. Her workshop has been featured as part of a hospital drug and alcohol abuse program, in spiritual healing sessions for abused and traumatized women and children, and in corporate creativity seminars.

Vicki Wagoner is from Blue Ridge, Georgia. Her Facebook Fan page is: https://www.facebook.com/Vicki-Wagoner-The-Practical-Intuitive-161154893949429/ .

There was also to be a Heart, Hands, and Healing Art in Chatsworth, Georgia, on April 3. That event has been postponed. Please see the artist's Facebook Fan page (above) and check with the artist for details of her next workshop.

Forging Ahead ~ Vicki Wagoner, The Practical Intuitive

Blue Ridge Mountains Art Association, Blue Ridge, Georgia:
https://www.facebook.com/Blue-Ridge-Mountains-Arts-Association-The-Art-Center-71399694474/

Works by Aunspaugh features the artist's newest obsession: balls of crap!

Works by Aunspaugh opens Thursday, March 10, at MAC Gallery at 121 E. Market Street in Chatsworth, Georgia. The meet-and-greet reception will be from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Richard "Dick" Aunspaugh will exhibit his newest work. The show features watercolors, drawings, mixed-media pieces, sculpture, and pottery.

Most of the visual images center around the artist's newest obsession, "balls of crap." Aunspaugh creates sculptures from miscellaneous found objects ~ ahem, crap! that we all have lying around our houses. There's so much of it these days. He recycles these artifacts of modern civilization into sculptural balls and amorphous forms, some of metal, some of plastic, and some a strange conglomeration of both. The sculptures stand alone, but he also does intricate paintings of the same, turning them into surreal landscapes.

Aunspaugh is environmentally conscious. Last summer, he raised money by completing a canoe-a-thon, Georgia River Network's Paddle Georgia 2015, a seven-day, 95-mile trip down the Ogeechee River. He plans to do the same for the charity's Paddle Georgia 2016 tour, a 103-mile water journey from Dalton to Rome, Georgia, down the Conasauga, Oostanaula and Coosa rivers. He has already raised about $375 this year.

Aunspaugh taught art for 33 years at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia, retiring in 2006. His work has appeared in various exhibits throughout the country. In August the artist loaned some works to Murray Arts Council for an eclectic exhibit. He visited the gallery, which is housed in the century-old Cohutta Bank building, and was charmed by the space. He agreed to do a solo exhibit there.

Admission to the gallery is free to the public. The art will remain up through May 27. For more information, email Dave Robinson, daverobinson1764@charter.net or call 706-229-1575 (bus. cell).

Related Links:

For more about the artist, Richard Aunspaugh, see my previous post, http://southernmusejournal.blogspot.com/2016/01/art-by-aunspaugh-at-murray-arts-council.html or...

Visit the artist's Facebook Fan page at: https://www.facebook.com/Dick-Aunspaugh-Artist-Craftsman-405959900190/

Murray Arts Council's Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/murraycountyartscouncil/

Dick Aunspaugh's Paddle Georgia 2016 Fundraiser: https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/richard-aunspaugh/paddle-georgia-canoeathon-2016

Georgia Rivers website: http://www.garivers.org/paddle_georgia/index.html

Works by Aunspaugh, at Murray Arts Council Gallery in Chatsworth

Ball of Crap, watercolor by Richard Aunspaugh

Murray Arts Council in Chatsworth, Georgia, will host Works by Aunspaugh, an exhibit of art by Richard Aunspaugh, Fulbright scholar and professor emeritus of Young Harris College. The public is invited to attend a wine-and-cheese reception to view the art and meet the artist on Thursday, March 10, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the gallery at 121 East Market Street in Chatsworth.

The exhibit will feature the artist's current work. For his “Ball-of-Crap” sculptures, he recycles found objects. He makes intricate drawings and paintings of the same, turning them into eerie landscapes. The pop and Dada influences in his art come from his early immersion in the art scene of New York City. The artist received his Master of Arts degree at New York University in New York City. 

While in New York in the 1960s, Aunspaugh participated in “Happenings,” including You, by Wolf Vostell; The Tart, by Dick Higgins; and Calling, at the Festival of the Avant Garde in New York City.  He also took part in exhibits at Brooklyn Museum of Art, Pepsi Cola Exhibition Gallery, and State University College in Potsdam, as well as exhibits in San Francisco, California, and Georgia.

Aunspaugh, taught at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia, for thirty-three years, retiring in 2006. During his tenure at the college, he continued to both exhibit and study art. He went back to New York for intensive workshops, as part of the Masters program at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, earning his Master of Fine Arts degree there and participating in the MFA Thesis Painting Exhibit in 1990. 

Richard Aunspaugh - A Retrospective: A Lifelong Look at an Artist's Work (link) was held in 2004 at the William W. Fincher and Eunice L. Fincher Visual Arts Center at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Georgia. Aunspaugh has also exhibited at Nexus Art Center in Atlanta, State College in Minot, North Dakota, the LaGrange National II in LaGrange, and the art department at LaGrange College (his alma mater—he received his Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1963). His work has been in other prominent exhibits throughout the state of Georgia. In 1979, Aunspaugh received the honor of a Fulbright Study Tour: “Art of the Low Countries,” Belgium and the Netherlands.

The gallery in Chatsworth is a small venue for the artist, but he is glad to do a show for the non-profit arts organization. He recently loaned works to Murray Arts Council for a collaborative exhibit. While visiting the gallery, he was charmed by the space—a century-old bank building—and agreed to have a solo show.

Everyone is welcome to attend the March 10 reception from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The art will remain on view until May 27. For more information, please call Dave Robinson of Peach Realty at 706-229-1575.

___________

Event Details: 

Art by Aunspaugh

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 10, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Murray Arts Council Gallery

121 East Market Street

Chatsworth, Georgia

Media Contact: Dave Robinson - 706-229-1575

The exhibit will remain up through May 27, 2016.

Links:
Richard Aunspaugh - A Retrospective: A Lifelong Look at an Artist's Work 

http://www.reinhardt.edu/News/0304_releases/Aunspaugh_exhibit_020904.html

Five Questions for Dick Aunspaugh (article, Jan. 2012), Today@YHC 
http://www.yhc.edu/about/news-media/publications/today/january-2012#5q

Murray Arts Council in Murray County, Georgia

Murray Arts Council in Murray County, Georgia, is the first organized multi-arts center for this North Georgia County. For a tiny non-profit, it started out with lots of energy and great ideas. First, it promoted Go Murray Arts, a center for visual, theatrical, and musical arts. GMA leased the old bank building on Market Street in Chatsworth: a wonderful brick building over a hundred years old, I think. It has lots of character. John Christian, the director, quickly filled the building with lots of great paintings: big canvases featuring showbills for plays to decorate the walls in the music/stage area, and a multitude of landscapes, portraits, and nature paintings to jump-start the next-door visual-arts and music galleries. He advocated for funds to build a small stage and quickly organized some talent shows for local children. Soon there were monthly block parties, music jam sessions, karaoke, and a small gallery to showcase local visual artists. Our local schools now have scheduled art classes that come to them in the Go Murray Arts van. Bruce opened a coffee shop that serves as a nice stopping place for creative (and hungry) souls. He recently wowed everyone with his rendition of "Just a Gigolo" on karaoke night: what a wonderful, booming voice! It all has such an exciting, metropolitan feel to it. All of these things are a "first" for Chatsworth. The arts center is already experiencing its first growing pains, after barely a year. The bank building, which has great expanses of "character," unfortunately has very little in the way of actual working space. Tables and chairs were crowded around a tiny stage. John Christian has already expanded Go Murray Arts into Eton, Georgia, by opening a visual-arts studio on 1st Street there. At present, the old bank building is still in the picture. The coffee shop and galleries are still there, for now. It's not an easy thing for a small town to support an arts center, but we're hoping that the Murray Arts Council, Go Murray Arts, and the Coffee Shop continue to flourish and grow.

Here's to cultural opportunities in Murray County and North Georgia in general: hoping we can keep everything going and growing!

Related websites:

Go Murray Arts Facebook Fan Page
John Christian's Arts venue, now in Eton, Georgia

The Coffee Shop and Gallery Facebook Fan Page

Murray Arts Center
(Arts council, non-profit)
Chatsworth, Georgia

Note: the non-profit itself was set up in nearby Dalton (Whitfield County) by current board members, with documentation filed by Brad Rowe and Penny Carpenter for the council located in Chatsworth.

Booth Western Art Museum

Cartersville, Georgia: Our day trip got sidetracked, but we enjoyed the day after all. Our first stop, a museum, was closed. We decided to try the Booth Western Art Museum, and it was a very nice visit. The Booth has a large collection of original oil paintings of Civil War scenes. They are professionally executed and highly illustrative. Plaques give a brief history of each battle. Civil War buffs should enjoy this exhibit. One gallery features posters for western movies. For some, the original gouache cover illustrations hung alongside the paperback books that featured the art. One room has a stagecoach. Another gallery features the presidential collection: Reproductions of American presidents hang over original letters and brief biographies of each featured president: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and many others; and modern presidents (Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Bush). Some letters are of more importance than others, but it is a large, nice collection ~ sure to please the history buff.

Art Shows have been disappointing...

Art shows in Dalton, Georgia, were disappointing this year. The Creative Arts Guild Festival 2007 had quite a few jewelers (handmade artisan jewelry). There were few painters and only a couple of sculptors and potters.

The decline might be natural, since jewelry probably sells better than the other arts and crafts in North Georgia. I doubt if many people have the budget or taste for fine arts.

The Patrons Purchase and Exhibition (indoor component of the Creative Arts Guild Festival) was a great disappointment. It's usually a very good show, packed with excellent pieces, of reasonably good quality for a small city. This year, it was dull. It reminded me of an amateur show. There were only a handful of paintings worth looking at, and those took the awards. (Usually, there are many good pieces, and only a few awards ~ so it would be a hard show to judge! Not this year, though.)

Old Rock Building Prints

Chatsworth, Georgia: Old Rock Building ~

The prints of the Old Rock Building are back. They look good. They are trimmed and have no border, so my framing suggestion would be a gallery mount, leaving a white or off-white border between the print and the mat. Murray County Board of Education will sell the prints to raise funds for the renovation of the Old Rock Building, which is currently under way. The original art was an acrylic painting donated by D.K. Pritchett. You can see the art prints at Pat's Antiques in Chatsworth (posted date, current 06-30-07).

For more information on the Old Rock Building and why it is so special to Chatsworth, see the articles at southernmuse.com/rockbldg.html

FYI: The building is now called the V.C. Pickering Administrative Offices, but is affectionately known as the old rock building. As of 2004, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Murray County High School Historic District (District 04000628) 1004 Green St., Chatsworth, Georgia. After renovation, the building will be the central offices for Murray County Schools.