New Group Exhibition
March 5-26, 2021
New Group Exhibition with Betty Bullen, Geri Forkner, Jack Retterer, Alex Rifwald, Paula Shahid, David Smith, and William Tate
Opening reception: Friday, March 5, 5:00-8:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 9 AM – 5 PM
Seven local artists who are members of the Arts & Culture Alliance are proud to present an exhibition of recent works made using a range of media. These artists include: Betty Bullen, Geri Forkner, Jack Retterer, Alex Rifwald, Paula Shahid, David Smith, and William Tate.
Artist bios/statements
Betty Bullen
Betty Bullen has spent the last 20 years developing her skills as an oil painter. She received her early education in public schools before attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her art education has come from classes and workshops with professional artists in the United States and abroad. This includes workshops at Studio Incamminati, Philadelphia with Lea Colie Wight and Kerry Dunn, Scottsdale Artists School, Arizona with Tom Browning and private workshops and classes with David Laffel, Robert Johnson, Seth Haverkamp, Casey Childs, and Roger Dale Brown. Betty knows there is no single approach that works for everyone, so she continues to educate herself in a manner to build her individual style while adhering to the discipline of traditional oil painting. While she enjoys painting a variety of subject matter her focus is in portraiture and figure painting.
Betty has shown her work as a member of the Tennessee Artists Association in local venues and has had one person shows at the Blount Mansion Gallery, Bijou Theater Gallery, and Hamblen Library. In addition she has shown jointly with watercolorist Steve Black at the Emporium Gallery. She is a juried member of Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists, Tennessee Artists Association, and Portrait Society of America for whom she currently serves as Ambassador to The State of Tennessee.
www.bettybullenart.com
Geri Forkner
Geri is a longtime weaver, felt maker, and lover of all fiber techniques. As a member of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild, she strives to maintain the skill levels of our ancestors’ crafts while using them in unique new ways. She teaches both children and adults and exhibits her work internationally. She was awarded a residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts as an Appalachian Craft and Culture Fellow. Lately her projects have been inspired by nature, both understanding its complexity and finding joy in its beauty. Projects that straddle the border between science and art are presented along with pieces inspired by the abundant textures, shapes, and patterns at the Tennessee Aquarium.
Blog: www.weavingschool.wordpress.com
Instagram @geriforkner
Jack Retterer
As a nature photographer, I am mesmerized by the beauty of nature …even though these experiences are daily events here in East Tennessee. When out in nature, the world around me seems to connects with my inner being. When outdoors, I become one with nature.
Photography allows me to capture and share this oneness with others. Whether it is the grandiose vista of mountain ranges or the delicate filaments of a mushroom clinging to side of a decaying fallen tree, nature is a wonder to behold, an experience to cherish and a connection to share.
As a teacher of Fine Art Photography at the University of Tennessee, the students I have the pleasure of teaching challenge me in a most positive way and help me stay fresh in my approach to photographic art.
www.JackRettererPhotography.com
Alex Rifwald (she/her)
Alex Rifwald is a Knoxville native, lover of color, and photographer. After 10 years photographing for commercial and wedding clients, lost sight of her own visual language and expression. In the last few years, Alex renewed her excitement in the medium and began creating work just for herself. The photographs in this collection represent a joyful return to the enthusiasm she embodied when she first began taking photos.
Alex lives in Fountain City with too many pets and her husband Jeff. She graduated from MTSU in 2011 where she worked as the college newspaper’s photography editor and studied Global Studies & Mass Communication. Her work has been shown or published in a wide variety of places such as the New York Times, the Pigeon Parade Quarterly, Arts & Culture Alliance’s National Juried Exhibition of 2021, Black Box Gallery in Portland, Oregon, the Matca Space for Photography in Hanoi Vietnam, The Patterns Book by HITRECORD, and more.
email: alexblackwelder@gmail.com
instagram – facebook – blog
Paula Shahid
I grew up in a small New England town in MA, by the Atlantic Ocean. I loved the outdoors and I also loved drawing from a very young age. I never followed the crowd. Once, in first grade, the art teacher asked us to write and illustrate a short story about something black and white. EVERYONE used a skunk or a cow as their main subject. I wrote about my favorite black and white shirt! I distinctly recall my art teacher showing my home room teacher my story with great pride! I was deemed “ most creative” that day. I went on to create and post many, many drawings up on the coat closet door, for relatives to see as they came in. They would always give me lots of positive feedback alms encouragement.
I was positive that I should major in Art Education/Art Therapy by the time I was in high school. I went on to get my Bachelors in Art Ed/ Art Therapy and Masters in Counseling. I currently work with Alzheimer’s patients at Avenir Memory Care in Farragut, TN. Doing artistic projects with them and watching their faces light up is the best job in the world!
David W. Smith
David W. Smith enjoys creating artwork through many mediums, particularly woodworking. Smith grew up in Gatlinburg, Tenn. and graduated with honors from Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Fla. He works as a creative director/designer by day in Knoxville in the healthcare field.
Having honed his craft for more than 50 years, Smith enjoys producing art in one form or another, both to satisfy his own creative outlet and for others to enjoy. Smith finds himself crafting pieces at his home workshop as large as furniture or as intricate and small as a pencil. His inspiration is the “blank canvas” of a beautiful piece of wood, waiting to be reshaped into his final vision. He is well-versed in working with a wide variety of materials, various coatings and pigments and repurposing other natural materials like paper to create the shapes that accompany his wooden creations. His 3-Dimensional pieces often emulate the movement and flow of a mountain stream or a whisp of wind through the branch, likely inspired by his Smoky Mountain rearing. Smith says his art allows him to churn out all those ideas that have been rattling around in his head for so many years.
William Tate
I have only been an artist for a few years actually.
Out of uncertainty of my life’s path, in the early 80s I left university and studying art to pursue the adventures young men dream about. Twenty-three year later, I found myself retired from the Air Force and working in London for a prestigious boy’s school where my artistic interests and higher education goals were revived. Looking to return to school, I settled on Maryville College which had a cozy atmosphere where I knew I could find a home. After two and a half years I finished my Bachelors (2020) magna cum laude, culminating in my senior thesis centered around Dadaism. Discovering Dadaism that final year was a total revelation in where I wanted to be mentally and artistically. My intent was to revive Dadaism in a new era, confirming retention of a lot of the original artistic direction (such whimsy, social commentary, and political critique), ensure recognition of its roots in Futurism, Cubism and Expressionism, and also acknowledge its art movement sister, Surrealism.
During the development of my senior thesis I found that the Dadaist medium of collaging was by far the most exciting artistic exercise ever. My preference is to tell a story with a collage, determined by the purpose of the piece to inform, comment, or criticize. Within the overall piece there will also be smaller stories, or building blocks, that invite the viewer to close in for details. Preferring to work in analog with a physical hunt for components in magazines, books, and newspapers, the starting vision can grow and alter even before the first slather of medium is applied to paper in the discovery of better images and story elements. It is a cathartic process with newer, fresher ideas coming and going. Often I have to be careful not to be distracted by sudden inspiration for another piece. Collaging will remain my primary focus and method of expression although recently I have begun to follow a natural progression towards paper art forms.
