Scott
Burris
is a folk art painter from Canton, Georgia. The grandson of a Methodist
minister, Scott retired from his career as a custom furniture maker
after a car accident, and decided to focus on doing what he loves
- making art. Scott creates boldly colored paintings and sculptures
that reflect his joy of life. His works are whimsical and playful,
and bring a smile to the face of everyone who sees them.
Painter
Christian Bryant moved to Monteagle, Tennessee
from Georgia in 2002. Always fascinated with art, he has surprisingly
had no formal art training. Lacking teachers, Christian apprenticed
himself under the masters of his medium, including Claude Monet,
Eduard Degas, Vasily Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian. In addition to
the skills and technique he gained through this arduous process,
he looked to the world he knew to inform his eye - his grandparents’
dairy farm in Georgia, continuously operating through five generations;
the rolling mountains of the Cumberland Plateau; the southern Gothic
architecture of the University of the South; and the city-scapes
of Nashville, Atlanta, and Chattanooga. Highlights of his career
to date include painting the cover of a Pulitzer-nominated novel;
publication of two paintings in the Kentucky review Churches, Banks,
and Bars; exhibitons in Stirling’s Coffeehouse Gallery in
Sewanee and the Quid Nunc in Sewanee, and the Adams Edgeworth Inn
in Monteagle; and classes taught at Cheekwood Museum in Nashville
and the Lausanne Academy in Memphis.
Cathy
Ellis Connery is splits her time between her homes in Nashville,
Tennessee and Monteagle, Tennessee. She graduated from the University
of the South in Sewanee, Tennesee in 1976, as part of the third
graduating class that accepted women. Cathy creates oil, water color,
and mixed media paintings which display both an intense introspection
and a slightly twisted sense of humor.
Folk
Artist Floyd
is a reclusive resident of Grundy County, Tennessee. He creates
whimsical paintings and mixed media sculptures.
His range of materials includes acrylic, oil, and spray paints,
wood, plasma-cut steel, and found objects. On of his specialities
is the creation of folk-art crosses, which he describes as rural
burglar alarms. He explains, "Most of the criminals in the
South have been raised in very religious households. They aren't
usually confronted with the cross when they're committing crimes.
It gives them pause, and makes them think about what they're doing
when they're faced with a cross."
Stephen
Hawks
creates his paintings in his studio in Lumpkin, Georgia. Stephen
uses oils, acrylics, and plant-based pigments to make his intense
abstract paintings. Much of his work draws from a spiritual base,
and draws inspiriration from the art of Rudolph Steiner, among other
artists. Stephen also makes beautiful wood-fired pottery.
