Section A
A1-2    Sweetgrass
A3    Summerwinds Resorts
A4-5    CYCA – CY Festival T-shirts
A6    The Flying Pencil Art
A7    House of Mews Cat Adoption
A18    Paul Clark Artwork
A9    Blue Sky Tie Dye
A10    Glass Finish art
A11    Metal Museum
A12-13    New Contemporary Works By Amery
A14    Hand Carved Wooden Gifts
A15    Garden Delights
A16    Albert Cook Plumbing
A17    Saltire Images & Photography
A18    BOH Creations
A19    Buckeye Hollow
A2    WEVL FM 89.9
A21    Dilly and Dough
A22-23    Spring River Candles
A24-25    Midtown Acupuncture
A26    Elaine Neeley Arti
A27-28    Generations
A29    Can I Keep It?
A30    Solstice Studios
A31    Vintage Clothing and Folk Art
A32-33    Celtic Crossing    Restaurant
A34    In The Eye Designs
A35    Through the Portals Fused Glass
A36    Judy Vandergrift fine art
A37    Multi Media by Lauren Coulson
A38    Pinkie’s Jams & Jellies
A39    Tutu Fancy    tutus
A40    Mixed Metal Jewelry
A41    GinkgoGlass
A42    Dorothy Spencer Art
A43    Kingfish HotRods Metal Art
A44    David Smith Antiques
45-46    Artistic Impressions by Dottie Harness
A47    Backwoods Toys
A48    Winfrey Works
A49    Debbie Sew Busy
A50-51    Rich’s Folk Art
A52    Liz Stafford Designs
A53    St. John’s SOJOs
A54    Creative Wire Jewelry
A55    Anderson’s Pottery
A56    Marjorie Mebane Originals
A57    Southland Park Gaming & Racing
A58    Southern Soy
A59    Heifer International
A60    Sew Great!
A61    Marokel Handcrafted Jewelry
A62    Mr. Sogs Creatures
A63    Sierra Club Chickasaw Group
A64    GaGa in Memphis
A65    Paintings Kristi Bauer
A66    P.M. Crafts
A67    Chris Greer Studio
A68    John D’s Wood Things
A69    Sundry Blossoms
A70    Lali’s Designs
A71-72    Graffiti Graphics
A73    Boyd’s Photography
A74    Poplar Ridge Pottery
A75    Tracey Lee Duncan Artworks
A76    Real Art
A77    Silver Leaf Jewelry
A78    Memphis Freethought Alliance
A79    Joy Wright
A80    Emily Allison Studios
A81    Earthcrafts
A82    Fancy That! Hats
A83    Stevie’s Stuff
A84    Wooden hands
A85    McAlister’s Deli
A86-87    The Eclectic Artist
A88    Snookies
A89    The Dead Set
A90-91    Cabin Dreamworks
A92    Marjorie’s Meltdowns
A93    Down South Country Candles
A94    Ledman/Lunsford Art
A95    Trilogy Tattoos     bumper stickers
A96    Patricia Louriero Jewelry
A97    Friends for Our Riverfront
A98    Just*a*tad Crosses and Such
A99    Hats etc. by Trudy
A100    Love Nation Creations
A102    Handmade Books and Other Art
A103    Utopia Animal Hospital
A104    Ole Don’s Craft Shoppe
A105    Zebra Marketing T-shirt
A106    Toadilly Handmade
107-108    J & S Design
109-110    Au Fond Farmable
A111    Gavin’s Metal Art
A112    Soy Creations
A113    Sherry Sanders
A114    Burke’s Book Store
A115    A-Star Canvas Paintings
A116    Rene Nickel
A117    Certo Italian Handcraft
A118    Starving Artists’ Co-op
A119    Dell Clark    Studio art jewelry
A120    Rock Paper Scissors
A121    Memphis Roller Derby
122-123    Robyn G. Nickell and Co.
A124    J & D Richardson Photography
A125    Playhouse on the Square
A126    Art n Things
A127    On the Rag Designs
128-129    Southern Rocks and Fossils
A130    Vintagecraft
A131    Greywood Creations
A132    SJS Images Fused Glass
A133    For the love of vintage
A134    Sew Sassi Quilts
135-136    Pronto Pup
A137    Lenny’s Sub Shops
A138    Don Blalock specimens
A139    Temp U Temporary Tattoos
A140    Angi Art & Pottery by Sandy
A141    Bearly Chenille
A142    Artsy Fartsy
A143    Bebo folk art
A144    Attic dwellers
A145    EyeAccentuate Photography
A146    Mid-South Pride
147-148    MGLCC
A149    Joanz N Studios
A150    Happy Hippie
A151    Painted by Holly
A152    Planned Parenthood
A153    Wilmot Originals
A154    J. R. Pillows
155-156    By Nature Playing w/Fire
A157    Powers Design & Studio
A158    Candy Hill Creations
A159    ANA Designs
160-161    Memphis Drum Shop
A163    Art by Susan
A164    The Art of the Bath
A165    Susanglass and Hel’s Bels Beads
A166    Wolf River Conservancy
A167    Morrisette Pottery
A168    M & M Handcrafts
169-170    Soul Fish Café
A171    Salvation Army Kroc Center
A172    MPM Designs
A173    Meg’s Unique Beaded Jewelry
A174    Unique Gifts
A175    Custom Trinkets & Treasures
A176    HPC
A177    Celtic Dream Creations
A178    Painted Aurora
A179    Joy Artfully
A180    Imagine Brazil
A181    Vintage Collectables and Jewelry
A184-85    Ben & Jerry’s
A186    Karen Bottle Capps Folk Art
A187    Gail Grice Pottery
A188    Wolf Ridge Crafts
A189    Gurleygurl Design
A190    Daily Blessings Farm Goat Milk Soap
A191    T-Mobile
A192    P & G Creations
A193    Love For Sale
A194    Art from Door of Hope
A195    Beauty Hound
A196    Prestage Artistic Wood
A197    Kindred Spirit Styles
A198    Concessions
A199    Concessions
A200    Cha Cha Charly’s
A201    Zoftigdoll
A202    Ear Art Designs
A203    Enchanted Florist
A204    Leslie Turner Designs
A205    Coldwater Alpaca Ranch
A206    Pet Hats & Tags
A207    Mid-South Spay & Neuter Services
A208    MPACT Memphis
A209    Castle Delites
Sections B
B1    Mewtopia Cat Rescue
B2    Methodist Healthcare / Emer.Mobile
B3    Studio 1688
B4    Art by Kenny Hays
B5    Big River Graphics
B6    The Blues Foundation
B7    Covenant Creek Farm – Goat Dairy
B8    McCarter Coasters
B9    Empty Space
B10    Green Seas Wire
B11    Indie Memphis
B12    Lil McKH Jewelry
B13    Christine Jones Photography
B14    Glassical Imagination Welcome
B15    Kelly Gourds
B16    Kingfisher Designs Jewelry
B17    Concessions
B21    Liz’s Art
B22    Citizens to Preserve Overton Park
B23    Metal and Mud Designs
B24    The Guthridges
B25    Bob X Art
B27    Lalosh Silver
B28    Birdhouses Galore and More
B29    Gifted Hands
B30    Goner Records
B31    Lester Jones Raku
B32    Pawprintclothingcompany.com
B33    Lou’s Pizza
B34    ARTjamN
B35-36    Glass Works
B37-38    Yvonne Bobo
B39    Elke’s Bees
B40-41    Java Cabana
B42    Bubble & Wax Bistro
B42    CASA of Memphis
B43    Loudean’s
B44    Photography & Bottle Holders
B45    Adeli Designs
B46    Soul Food Canvases
B47    Snow Lake Pottery
B48    Girl’s With Guitars
B49    Amazing Jellyfish
B50    Garden Path Studio
B51    New World Henna
B52    Paintings By Sarah
Section C
C1    Art by Lizi Beard-Ward
C2    Chuck’s Fabulous Retro
C3    Glass Jewelry By Betty Burton
C4    Darla L-Henson / Bryan Blankenship
C5    Robert McCarroll Ceramics
C6    Artwork by Barry Joyce
C7    Desert Destiny Designs
C8    State Farm Insurance
C9    Lisa Hudson Pottery
C10    Rixwoodwurx
C11    Christenberry’s Creations
C12-13    Tracy Parish Collectibles
C14    Blockhead Arts
C15    Eco Art
C16    Mud Pie Factory
C17    Mr. Hyde’s Custom Leather
C18    Aluminations
C19-20    KCtiedye.com
C021    Shelby Farms Park & Greenline
C22    Jeffrey Stayton
C23    Garden of Aden
C24    Knitosophy
C25    Empty Nest Studio
C26    Art Works
C27    Antebellums
C28    Mark McKie
C29    Ellen Hays Jewelry
C30    Hartwell Arts
C31    Greater Memphis Greenline
C32    The Reef Restaurant
C33    WKNO
C34-35    Do Sushi
C36    The Beauty Shop
C37    Memphis Heritage
C38    Bell Fine Art Jewelers
C39    Jennifer Hyatt
C40    Driveway entrance to Section E
C41    Crop Circle Designs
C42    Weidhaas Design
C43    Filigree inc
C44    Opera Memphis
C45    Peace and Justice Center
C46    Revolutions Bicycle Shop
C47    Memphis Area Gay Youth
C48    Def. Depot Concerned Citizen Comm.
C49    First Congo Church
C50    First Congo Church
C51    Meditation Works
C52    Stellaware
C53    Anago Samina
C54    Memphis Bonsai Society
C55    D&J Creations    “sculptures
C56    K and J Designs or Wooden Toys
C57    Distracted Art
C58    Harper’s Slate Illuminations
C59    Apothecary Fairy
C60    Friends For Life
C61    My Word! Jewelry
C62    The Bag Girl
C63    Sam’s Engine Company
C64    Lawimosa Designs
C65    2 Stitches    “aprons
C66    Dryads Dancing
C67    Georgia Grace Ink
C68    Lifelink Church
Section D
D1    Irish Creations
D2    KC’s Clip Joint
D3-4    Flybabt Designs
D5    The Classy Bag Ladies
D6    Kmt. Creations    “Prints
D7    FlowLuckyFree
D8    Casm Creations
D9    AROMA 4 U
D10    International Flair
D11    Girls Night Out Parties
D12    Ladybug Loops
D13    Pomegranante Moon
D14    Hippie Geek
D15    Lucy’s Pottery
D16    Sistas’ Doin’ it for Themselves
D17    Name Trains
D18    The Freckled Frog
D19-20    Trinkets & Baubles
D21    Awesome Laundry
D22    Soc Creatures by Dara
D23    Handmade Jewelry Made Esp. for You
D24-25    Happy Days Clothing
D26    Kudzoo Kids
D27    Wire-wrapped Jewelry
D28    DeDe’s Jewelry Box
D29    Usborne Books & More
D30    Kathrene Labelle Jewelry
D31    Cookie Lee Jewelry and Scentsy Candles
D32    The Nile
D33    Lucky Bamboo
D34-35    Gifts To Go
D36    Bella Designs from Italy
D37    Bows By Lisa
D38    United Housing
D39    Bead-A-Ful Beads
D40    Heavenly Essence Skin Care
D41    Lynne’s Pearls
D42    Emme
D43    VonStine Jewelry Designs
D44    Make A Statement Studio
D45    Mid South Aikido
D46    Rhodes College Bid Diehl
D47    Insolite
D48    Best Wishes Boutique
D49    Groovy Gurlz
D50    Inspirations by Iron Petal
D51    Kashlee Kreations
D52    Funny Faces
D53    Ask A Vet
D54    Your Name in Gold or Silver
D55    Fire and Water Creations
Section E
E1    Michael Rocks Jewelry
E2    Paul Baker Books
E3    Agnes Gordon Spark Pottery
E4    AEB Design
E5    Tall Cotton Photography & Art
E6    Penny Poems
E7    Slover-Wilson-Art
E8    FeeFiFibby art
E010    Southern Silverworks
E11    Taro Pop
E12    GoodMoodGirl Mood Jewelry
E13    Erin Bradley Designs
E14    Lisa Bolton Art

E15    Knack Paintings

E20    Hooper Troopers Hula Hoops

By J. Everett
In a world full of throw-aways, three artists prove that one person’s trash is someone else’s treasure. Emily Allison, Mark Lammie, and Kenny Hays find beauty and humor in the discarded. Their imaginative works fill Gallery Fifty Six with “trashy art” for the September show, Recycle!
Emily Allison loves junk. You may call it garbage, but in Emily’s hands those tin cans become finely beaten silver and those bits of glass transform into enamel mosaics. Throwing her offbeat sense of humor into her shake and bake creations, she serves up sculptures and collages that are beautiful, yet quietly humorous.
Mark Lammie gathers previously used materials like cans, wood, dirt, and bark for his work. “The materials I use have all been discovered along my art making road and get used, discarded, and reused constantly…every work I create is an act of discovery as well as a repeat of a previous act, just like life.” His creations will lure you in as his stories unfold.
Kenny Hays has always been a railroad man, which means lots of down time waiting for that next train. That’s when he hits the tracks and picks up stuff. Lots of stuff! His found-object mobiles hang from Memphis overpasses, and his lone pipe and pliers saxophone player is soon joined by an entire scrap-metal orchestra. You’ll be delighted with his repertoire.
Everyone is invited to the artist’s reception, Friday, September 10, from 5-8pm, at Gallery Fifty Six, 2256 Central Avenue. Wear your garage sale bargains and enjoy seeing what really happened to all that stuff you’ve thrown away! For more information go online to galleryfiftysix.com or call (901) 276-1251.

From the official press release from Gallery 210:

The other day I was at a friend’s house. He was looking for a corkscrew and couldn’t find it. Fumbling through one drawer he asked another friend to take a look in the junk drawer—pointing to one just down from where he was rummaging. “Junk drawer? That’s an intimate thing!” said the one to the other.  Filled with things too precious to discard but neither valued, neither useful nor useless—in some sense like the treasures tucked away by a child in a shoe box and shoved under the bed or buried by a tree in the back yard. They are like souvenirs taken from sojourns as though they were the deepening of childhood memories: sluggishly past traumas, whizzing by the mundane, dawdling in the company of the cherished and monumental, or just pebbles in shoes. Intimate perhaps because we often feel as though we are those junk drawers: cobbled together with miscellany that doesn’t quite seem to fit together, point to anything larger or say anything—anything; just a discarded mess of unattended to questions. Baubles.

Chad Irwin’s Patchwork Junk Drawer deals in these baubles. His is the amalgam of dust and detritus all too often discard into drawers like these or tossed to the side of the road or passed by without any thought. There he pauses and contemplates, sifts through the confusion and re-envisions it into art. A bottle cap, denim patch, button and bone become Coelacanth. The discarded becomes the “discarded, found and re-integrated” just like the prehistoric fish once thought extinct but now rediscovered and highly sought after by museums and collectors.

His medium is just junk: frayed pieces of yarn, buttons, broken shells, rusted nails and cast off on canvases and in frames which look equally regal. It’s a hard sell to a culture so enamored by the pristine, and who already threw this stuff away once before. But where most see irrelevance, Irwin finds a challenge. May be its out of his own brokenness (or may be its in response to the shattered he’s encountered) mingling with an out-and-out dissatisfaction with the status quo that necessitates his humble attempt at mending. That’s why he collects, catalogs and assembles as if he were an archeologist, or anthropologist, but instead of deciphering and piecing back together what was, he attempts to study the discard in order to re-shape it into what could be. His is not about answers rather possibilities. And that is most what a junk drawer represents: the perpetual hope for purpose, usefulness and meaning, but always teetering with apprehension—flirting with irrelevance. That is the challenge in each of his pieces for us. First a confrontation with the garbage, then a reconciliation, or at least, the prospect of one. He obliges his viewer to reconsider value both their own and in general.

Patchwork Junk Drawer will be on display at Gallery 210 from September 9th until October 16th 2010. It will feature more than 20 works by local artist and Pennsylvania transplant, Chad M. Irwin. There will be an opening reception Friday, September 17, 6:00-8:00 PM. The exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. General gallery hours are from 9:00 a.m. – Noon, Monday thru Friday and 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Sundays.

By J. Everett

Ah, the hound-dog days of August in Memphis. Heat, mosquitoes, music, and Elvis Week…and all the fans that come to keep the pop-phenomenon’s flame ablaze.  At Gallery Fifty Six one artist pays tribute to the hungry musicians who were turned loose on the insatiable public, while two other artists’ feature the fans who will never let them go.

Michael Whitaker’s objective lens captures the individuals who make up the masses that refuse to forget the King. Whitaker explains, “After a twenty-five-year career in social psychology documenting some of the most disturbing human behaviors…I pursued a second career in fine art and documentary photography, documenting brighter aspects of human nature…spotlighting unpretentious persons with gentle spirits who traditionally go unnoticed.” Beginning on the 25^th anniversary of Presley’s death, Whitaker spent two years documenting the Elvis phenomenon, intrigued by “the extraordinary manner in which fan devotion continues to grow across generations extending from those who first experienced Elvis in 1954 to those unborn at the time of Elvis’ death.” He adds, “Along the way I interacted with hundreds of persons who readily articulated the impact Elvis had upon their lives… ensuring the legacy of Elvis will remain on the road to forever.”

Pop-music inspired graffiti grabbed the attention of M.J. Reeves. She turned her camera lens toward concrete walls to give us glimpses of sentiments so heart-felt that the words had to be written for all to see. Her photographs are mounted on tiles bringing the illusion of real walls into the gallery.

Then, to really turn up the heat, Jeannie Reynold’s oil paintings (on canvas and guitars) evoke memories of a sexy, mellow voice on vinyl. In vivid colors she captures the energy and expressions of a certain sensuous singer leaving us all to plead, “Turn-ma-loose!”

The public is invited to the artists’ reception on Friday, August 6 from 5-8pm, at Gallery Fifty Six, 2256 Central Avenue. Turn-ma-loose runs through the month of August, Tuesday-Saturdays from 10am-5pm. For more information, call (901) 276-1251 or go online to galleryfiftysix.com.

By Jim Allman

The latest show to hit Midtown Memphis’ new but increasingly potent Gallery 210 is a collaboration between Chris Nadaskay and Melinda Eckley titled, Sitting up with the Dead. This title refers to the distinctly southern tradition of keeping a vigil over the recently departed. You’re probably wondering “Who’s passed?” According to Nadaskay and Eckley it is our modern culture’s place of archeological significance.

The show will exhibit a museum like atmosphere in an attempt to encapsulate the feeling that each piece is a “remnant of some future past” excavated and historically meaningful. But what is it that our present culture esteems, and how will its treasures be perceived when exhumed? What contribution, if any, will they make? Will they liberate, enlighten or impede?

Nadaskay and Eckley are both artists of repute and professors at Union University. Eckley is also an alumni of Memphis College of Art. Nadaskay currently works in mixed media/ceramic wall relief, while Eckley creates sculptural installations.

Gallery 210 is located in Lifelink Church at 1015 S. Cooper. The show opens with 
a reception and artist lecture and runs July 16th-August 15th. The opening night reception (July 16th from 6-8 pm) is open and free to the public. General gallery hours are from 
9 am-noon, Monday-Friday 
and 9 am-1 pm, Sundays. For more information please call 901-377-3372.

By J. Everett

Gallery Fifty Six reaches beyond Memphis as members of the Energy Art Movement (EAM) contribute their work for the July show, Energizing Radiance. EAM is an international contemporary multimedia art movement promoting quality, diversity, and evolution on the common ground of energetic depictions. The artists believe that enhancing their creations with energy adds value to their art as they strive to follow a progressive trend of evolution in the Fine Arts.

Founder Giorgio Vaselli says, “We are in a phase of transition where distressing economic times have crept into homes with real-life implications. The current mentality, however, is just a fleeting illusion, and it only takes a new energizing vision to alleviate it. This is the purpose of our exhibition. We wish to bring some of our inner light to the people.”

Vaselli, a Hungarian who now lives in Canada, will be at the gallery for the opening reception, as will participating artists from around the world. Vaselli along with curator, Janice Nabors Raiteri, and assistant curator, Rollin Kocsis, will be giving interviews about the movement throughout July at local TV and radio stations. Raiteri and Kocsis, members of EAM, each had several works selected for display in the show.

Energizing Radiance will bring light energy to people who see the show,” says Vaselli. “This show will shine at Gallery Fifty Six, catalyzing the much-needed mental transition from the recession toward more optimistic vistas.” The show will run from July 1-30.

The public is invited to the artists’ reception on Friday, July 9th from 5-8 pm, at the gallery. For more information, please call 901-276-1251 or go online to galleryfiftysix.com. For an intriguing look at EAM, check out their site at energyartmovement.org.

By Donna Bowers

This Saturday night and every Saturday night through August 31st the Painted Planet Artspace will host “Saturday Night Live at the Planet” in the fenced-in performance area directly behind the Painted Planet art gallery. On these Saturday nights, the Planet offers live performance art and live music plus hot dogs, chips, and sodas all free for all our art lovers.

On the second Friday of each month, Painted Planet presents an art opening spotlighting one or more of Painted Planet’s favorite artists. The July show, opening on July 9th from 8-11 pm will spotlight the mystical, dreamlike works of Cherokee Indian Dream Coach and artist Kevin “Chasing Wolf” Hutchins. Read this artist’s bio and see his work on our website, paintedplanetart.com, on the “featured artist” page. We will have live music and refreshments on that evening and some of the most inspirational art you’ll find anywhere. Mark your calendars and invite your friends to join you at Painted Planet.

Healing Planet, Painted Planet’s free cancer ministry for women, meets the 2nd Monday night each month for Spa Nite from 6:30-9:30 pm, where we offer a multitude of free pampering services for women in the fight of their lives. Healing Planet is a host site for the American Cancer Society’s Look Good Feel Better Program. If you are fighting cancer or know someone who is, tell them about Painted Planet – Healing Planet’s free cancer ministry.

Painted Planet is located at 798 S. Cooper. Our hours of operation are noon-6 pm Tuesday– Friday (except on opening nights) and noon-10 pm on Saturdays. Call us at 901-725-0054, email us at paintedplanet@bellsouth.net, look us up on the web at paintedplanetart.com, or check us out on Facebook at The Painted Planet Art Gallery and Healing Planet.

By Janice Nabors Raiteri

School may be out, but the June show at Gallery Fifty-Six “One Room Schoolhouse: Recent Works by J.C. Graham” is in. J.C.’s thoughtfully placed splashes of color grab your attention, but it’s the details, textures, and seemingly random objects or words that pull the viewer into J.C.’s sepia-toned art collages. You can’t help but stop, enjoy, and wonder.

J.C. Graham grew up on a farm in rural Arkansas, “As an artistic child in such an environment, I found out quickly that I was my own best friend. I preferred to dig through junk piles and old barns in a manner that most would deem ‘treasure hunting,’ but I was looking for indications that life had been there before me…from some point when I was much younger I became fascinated with what I consider this dance with life, living, and death…and all of the material goods we gather to ourselves in the process.”

Former lives somehow continuing through left-behind objects fascinated J.C., “A rusty nail was just that to most people, but my young imagination was completely tormented and entertained by what human life had relinquished the nail to time. It was significant to someone at some point in history…It was driven into wood to keep some kind of structure together…It had life and was precious to me as a child.  Now those nails, hinges, and such combine to create a structure at my hands…boxes, paintings, and assemblages that are insignificant, yet give fulfillment to individuals and characters well beyond their living years.”

I disagree only with the word “insignificant.” In my opinion, this odd assortment of found objects couldn’t have landed in better hands.

“One Room Schoolhouse: Recent Works by J.C. Graham” shows from June 2nd-July 1st. The public is invited to an opening reception on Friday, June 4^th, 5-8 pm at Gallery Fifty-Six, 2256 Central Ave. For more information, call 901-276-1251 or go on-line to www.galleryfiftysix.com.

By Philip Jaynes

If you venture to the Northern edge of Cooper-Young, going north on Cooper, and you get caught at the light at Cooper and Central, you can admire the spring plants at the Midtown Nursery and check out the activity at Mapco. But if it happens to be a sunny day in April or May, and it’s about three in the afternoon, chances are you will get a shot of yellow light, turning to green, turning to red, and then to purple. This is not coming from the traffic signal. These colorful flashes of the sun’s rays are reflected at the world from the railroad trestle dead ahead, just across Central. As you get closer, you notice a mobile, hanging from the tracks. There’s a trumpet mounted inside a bright metal ring. Hanging from the ring is a symmetrical series of dull metal shapes, punctuated by two compact discs. The discs are responsible for the colorful reflections. Kenny Hays is responsible for the mobile.

If your timing is just right, you might even catch a glimpse of Hays, he’s a Switchman/Breakman for the Union Pacific Railroad and has been based out of the yard just west of that trestle for the last thirty-eight years. His father worked for the same railroad until he retired, eighteen years ago. His connection to Cooper-Young has been many years in the making. Kenny remembers his father bringing home fried pies from the Pie Factory when he was a small boy. He told me that working for the railroad consists of an awful lot of waiting. He now gets about an hour and a half of free time in the middle of each workday. He spends it mostly in the establishments in Cooper-Young. You can see his unique mobiles at the trestles at Barksdale and McLean, as well as hanging in the gable of Central BBQ.

The mobiles are the latest in the evolution of Hays’ art. He is a ’71 graduate of Treadwell High School, where he took art but didn’t particularly excel at it. He gives credit to Helen Stahl, one of his art teachers, for allowing him to observe the creative process. He also observed that process from his grandmother, who used scraps to make quilts and used spools to make folk art pieces and even furniture. Most of the technique and style he uses today, he learned from trial and error—that and watching the painting instructional shows on WKNO. He started by filling sketchbooks with pencil drawings and then proceeded to painting a mural on the wall of a rented house without the permission of the landlord. In the 1990’s, he began entering his paintings in the Mid-South Fair, with much success. At about this time, his grandmother’s influence began to surface in his “found” art.

Spending his workdays at the railroad, he started picking up the odd pieces that fell from boxcars and off of trains. He wired the pieces together and found a great source for expressing his art. Friends began to give him interesting things that they came across, left for trash on the curb. He was once given an unsalvageable piano. What a treasure of wooden hammers, a big cast metal soundboard, and strings and keys! This piece allowed him to combine his art with his other love, music. He also found a connection with the shop that repaired the band instruments for the Memphis City Schools. He was able to obtain the instruments that were beyond repair and give them a new life in a different branch of the arts.

Beyond the railroad yard, Kenny Hays is mostly known around Memphis as a performing singer-songwriter. He first picked up the guitar at the age of twenty-four. He learned the basic chords and strumming well enough to accompany himself in the privacy of his own home. He also began to put his own life’s experiences in the songs he wrote. He began to be a regular in the musical nightlife of Memphis in about 1995. Before that, his time was filled with the sports and activities of his teenage son, Chris. Now, his skill on the guitar has improved greatly, and his songwriting has kept him appearing at venues such as the Delta Fair and as the opener for Memphis Acoustic Music Association’s concerts with Richard Gilewitz and Sid Selvidge. On any given Thursday night, he and his wife of 37 years, Ann, can be found at Nancy Apple’s Pickin’ Party at Kudzu’s. And you can look for him at this fall’s Cooper-Young Festival, where he will be displaying his art for the 8th year.

A trumpet, symbolizing W. C. Handy and the rich history of the City of Music; the compact discs, symbolizing the digital musical industry and the music of today; the thrown-away pieces, linking everything together like the limbs of a family tree; and, of course, the circle…no beginning, no end. All hanging from the tracks, blowin’ in the wind.

By Sandy Malone

Janice Nabors Raiteri works with various inks to achieve a translucent, three-dimensional effect in her paintings. “My most recent work is a process that, as far as I know, no other artist is doing. The vividly colored inks on synthetic papers have surprising results. I call the paintings ‘orgastracts,’ since they evolve somewhat organically into their final semi-abstract state. Studied control is not my intention, but rather, invoking a mood or a memory…all conveyed with ink that flows, not into words, but into images that hopefully say even more.” Her show, “To Think in Ink,” will be at Gallery Fifty-Six May 1st through June 2nd. She will donate a collage, “Rooftops,” for a silent auction, with all proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis.

Leaving Memphis after a twenty-year stint in real estate, Janice taught writing and painted for galleries in Oxford, MS, Lawrence, KS, and Portland, OR, before three young grandchildren lured her back recently. A graduate of Kingsbury and the University of Memphis, she also studied painting at the College of Art and writing at the University of Mississippi. Her short stories have been published in various literary magazines and anthologies, and one of the screenplays she co-wrote with her husband, Charles, was almost a movie. (Don’t ask!) Since August, Janice has been curator for Gallery Fifty-Six, working with owners Frank and Mindy Roberts to offer upscale (but affordable) artworks by professional regional artists.

To make May at Gallery Fifty-Six even more intriguing, new artist Bridget Russell will introduce paintings from her curiously conscious “Unconscious Moments” series.

The public is invited to an artists’ reception Friday evening, May 7th, from 5–8 pm, at the gallery, 2256 Central. For more information, call 901-276-1251 or go online to galleryfiftysix.com.