A trip down south

Last month Scott and I flew for a visit to Atlanta and surrounding areas. My family lives in the area and we thought that we would use this visit as an opportunity to scope out the Atlanta art and print scene. Our first stop, immediately after landing was the Atlanta Printmaker`s studio where upon entering the space this fun Sean Starwar's print greeted us. 

Susan Ker-Seymer was so kind to give us a tour of the facilities and it started our trip off on the right foot. It's a neat space!

  

Susan then directed us to the Marcia Wood Gallery, near the Mexican restaurant Nomas with cafe and gift shop. The food was incredible and the place was charming to say the least. We were so full we waddled to Marcia Wood Gallery.  Where we were quickly revived by the exceptionally stunning painting exhibition by Benjamin Britton. Bright, energetic and oh so intense.  The paintings are mostly very large and the digital images on his website do them no justice. 

An old friend had recommended we should stop at "the Goat Farm" artist community.

Funny thing, it actually never crossed my mind that we would find an actual goat farm. The goats where cute with exceptionally short legs, but we couldn't get to any artists or art works since there was a movie being shot and the movie people chased us away. But real goats...

Next stop was at Anne Irwin Fine Art and we discovered 5 other galleries on the same street. During our explorations very quickly a theme became clear. Not much in terms of print. Tons and tons of paintings and painters, some sculpture, some photography. We sort of accidentally stumbled across Bill Lowe Gallery where all the work had an extra set of 00 added to the end of all prices. Definitely intimidating. But we did discover what was one of our favourite artists from this adventure: 

Jung Kwan Sik. The artist cut into Granite and then paints with acrylics. Seeing the end results in person is absolutely stunning. 

After exhausting ourselves along Miami Circle, we moved on to Lagerquist Gallery .  

Where I fell in love with this Cinthia Joyce sculpture "Jackrabbit" it reminds me of Albrecht Duerer rabbit drawings and my childhood in general. 

After almost no sleep the night before being up since 4 am and traveling we were plenty exhausted and headed home to see my family. 

After a few days of resting and shopping my parents, Scott and I went on a daytrip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Which quite honestly blew us away. It's not a particularly big city but I don't think we walked down one street without encountering public art. There are sculptures and installations and city beautification projects everywhere! Very impressive. And just a lot of fun. We did a duck tour on an amphibious vehicle which was a great way of finding out about the history and seeing major sites quickly. 

Trail of Tears memorial

Little island in the Tennessee river where logging families used to BBQ and Picnic until it was bought up by a private person. 

Gorgeous properties in the Buff view art district.

Saw and photographed at least 5 of these beautiful Herons.

A sculpture taking flight. 

The Hunter Museum of Art 

More art this time in front of the Hunter Museum. 

She is putting on a show for the whole neighbourhood. 

We visited the Rembrandt Cafe in the Bluff View Art district.
What a great place! It would be a dream for a long weekend vacation. 

Birds steeling crumbs at the Rembrandt Cafe. 

Sculpture outside the River Gallery.

River Gallery was another Chattanooga Highlight. Great collection of any kind of art work you can imagine. Some crafts as well. Prints, paintings, sculptures and much more. Some of the eclectic collection reminded me quite a bit of Swoon Gallery and Brandt Eisner's taste.

Barbara Odil's La Loba

wonderfully strange sculptures by Kristen Stingle

Kelly Jean Ohl table at River Gallery. I couldn't leave without owning one of her rattles. It was like seeing my drawings turned into three dimensional objects.

After exploring Chattanooga we couldn't leave town without visiting the Tennessee aquarium, which consists of two buildings, one with absolutely massive fresh water tanks and one with salt water.
The fresh water tanks were very impressive. And I dreamed of giant fish for weeks after.

What fascinated me most about visiting the Aquarium where all the different animals and plants and also art works with interesting patterns and textures. I couldn't wait to start drawing again.

jelly fish inspired glass sculptures

upside down jellyfish

Awesome Turtles with awesome patterns.

Finally before our departure Scott and I went for a hike at Amicalola Falls in Northern Georgia. The trail for this waterfall is the approach trail to the start of the Appalachian trail that one can hike from Georgia all the way to Maine.

Top of the falls.

Quick stop at Burt's Farm to visit pumpkins.