For all of you that couldn’t make it out, I thought I would post some images of how the show turned out. There is more to see than what I can address in a blog, so if you can make it, I would highly recommend stopping by the Cress Gallery of Art at UTC before the show is taken down April 28th.

I thought this show had a much more organic/natural feeling to it in comparison to Show One’s high contrast and vibrant colors. Upon entering the gallery, an organic feeling is inspired beginning with my sculpture positioned in the front left floor space having live ivy and soft light reflecting off of frosted Plexiglas.

"Conflicted" - Jessi Taylor

Directly behind me low on the floor, Jean Pitts’ bisqued ceramic installation reminded me of a dry riverbed with rounded stones smoothed out by decades of rushing water.

"Familiar" - Jean Pitts

The positioning of the ceramic vessels lead beautifully to the “10″ panels and bookshelves leaning against the opposite wall. The panels where created using a system of rules inspired by the Ten Commandments of the Bible.

"10" - Michael Mahaffey & Stephanie Tate

The warm color palette and lightness of the panels is reflected nicely in the next two pieces. The first is an ethereal series of drawings by McKinley Bryson on vellum which have an extraordinary play on light and shadow. The second is a series of oil paintings by Tom Shaw, positioned across the room from the “10″ panels.

"673780s." - McKinley Bryson

Individually Titled - Thomas Shaw

A 24 Hour Festival

MAINx24 was a lot of things, but mostly it was a huge party! The event itself was a great success for the southside of Chattanooga and the process and organization of the event was a huge success for everyone involved.

The party was planned by community volunteers and produced with help from CreateHere, which is where I came in. My part in the process was to update last year’s brand and create all the collateral necessary to promote and direct the event. Before all was said and done the whole CreateHere Design team was involved and we had fourty-eight separate events on the schedule, which is double the events from last year. We produced posters, newspaper ads and schedules in English and Spanish, as well as a billboard, banner and teaser handbill of the schedule.

Some of you might have heard me talk about the ChattanoogaWorks project in the past. I’ve been working on it at CreateHere since August. I even gave a presentation on it at Chattanooga’s Pecha Kucha Night on January 22nd. But the wait is over, the time has finally come for the project to offically lauch!

ChattanoogaWorks started out as a small project for myself and several other CreateHere newbies and has transformed into a community wide outreach utilizing all the resources in the CreateHere arsonal. Look for our new public ad campaign to go up around town via CARTA bus ads and several billboards, not to mention this series of posters that have been up for the past couple of weeks around town:

So what does all this mean for Chattanooga? It means it’s time for Chattanoogans to get out their cameras, and submit their photos to the new and improved site, which launches February 20th. This is not a traditional photo contest. It is not strictly for pros or strictly for amateur photographers, we want everyone’s take on Chattanooga. The end goal is not prize money, although winners will be chosen. The goal is to accumulate as many photos as possible to get a unique perspective on Chattanooga and to display these photos in our online gallery and to ultimately compile these photos into a book.

Inspiration for ChattanoogaWorks came from projects like the Next American City and The Everyman Photo Contest.

www.CreateHere.org

I began working at CreateHere in mid-August of 2008, and to be honest, when I took the job I had no idea what they really do. I tried to do some research before my interview and I got the general impression that they were a non-profit trying to get creative people to come and live in Chattanooga.

So six months later I still think that CreateHere is a non-profit trying to get creative people to come to Chattanooga, but now I know what that actually means.

The official mission statement:

CreateHere is. . . re-energizing Chattanooga’s efforts to become a more dynamic city. We put creative capital to work in the revitalization of Chattanooga through programs that:

• Support the professional growth of artists & artisans

• Build the capacity of entrepreneurs to develop sustainable ventures

• Enable the development of visionary ideas for the community’s future

• Showcase local artistic achievements, entrepreneurial successes, & visionary
  ideas; and create platforms for social action based on them

So that sounds awesome right? So what does that mean to the average Chattanoogan? It means that we’re a resource, a network of support for you. Whether your interested in opening your own business, learning more about how to improve the business you’ve already established, or if your an artist looking for grants and opportunities to show your work or if your looking to get involved in improving your community and need help, that’s what we’re here for.

So CreateHere doesn’t really fit into a nice little box, because it is always growing and adapting to the needs of Chattanooga.