As I was a “wigglesome” child, my parents encouraged me to dance. In 1959 my wiggles won a scholarship to dance with the Jose Lemon Modern Dance Company in New York City. My father said, “You’re too young to be alone in the big city. Besides, dancers starve. Learn something practical. You can always dance on your own.” So, I stayed home and went to UTC. I had a teacher’s aide scholarship under George Cress. After I got my BFA I went on to study marketing and promotion. My first job was trimming windows for Lovemans, a Chattanooga owned department store. I soon began illustrating fashion ads and eventually became their Advertising & Promotions Director. Every job built on skills learned from the job before. Retail was my “day job.” On the side I produced radio and TV ads for a score of clients with a crew of advertising professionals. I began getting national advertising awards for illustration and design including an "Addy" (sort of like an Oscar) for creative promotion. I was President of the Chattanooga Advertising Federation and was honored with its Silver Medal in 1975. After hours I still danced like a fiend and painted with a passion.
In 1970 Hubert Shuptrine, a prized native son of Chattanooga and an internationally lauded master watercolorist, sold out at Plum Nelly before the gates had even opened. His light-flushed, realistic Southern style was a huge influence on me and every other artist working in the region at the time. His artistic genius had taken him far beyond rustic art shows, so Fanny Mennen chose me to replace him at her famous clothesline art show the next year. People stood in rain-or-shine lines to get into the colorful autumn woods where they could buy directly from the region’s finest artists and craftsmen. Included in this exciting venue, my primary artist soared. I sold out of paintings early on the first day of the festival and discovered a responsive market that was eager to collect regional work through the years to come.
I had been painting imaginary women, women who I fantasized becoming. But, because of the impact of Wyeth and Shuptrine on my work, the women soon became more realistic, a part of the passing scene, the fading world of the South. I created over a hundred watercolors and egg temperas of women working at common chores. The American National Bank, now SunTrust, honored me with a one woman show, “Women of the South,” which traveled the Southern states. Some of the paintings entered corporate and museum collections. As time passed I held fast to my theme of evolving femininity and returned to a more intuitive style. My paintings again depicted imaginary women asleep with their potential, sleeping women nested in quilts and surrounded with stream of conscious dreams. Eventually my drowsing women awakened and took flight in a series of winged canvases. My work reflected the restless age I was living through, mirroring the times as well as my own transitions. Over the years I was honored with a multitude of one-woman shows. (Really, too many to list.) Talk about twirling!
I have a studio home on Lookout Mountain which eventually became Notchwood, a rustic fine arts gallery offering the fine pottery, basketry and paintings native to the Appalachians. At first I opened only on weekends, but as business became brisk, I gave up my “day job” and concentrated on being a “Gallery Owner & Producing Artist.” At nights I taught classes in advertising graphics and fashion illustration at Hunter Museum and Chattanooga State. I was fortunate enough to travel several times to Europe and apprentice with respected masters in pigment and paper making. In Vienna I saw the works of Gustav Klimt, with whom I felt an immediate identity. His decorative work on the feminine spirit was a new inspiration, closely fitting my own vision. I was doing the double time dance and reveling in it.
In 1984 my paintings took a new turn as I began to portray real women who had the courage to live their dreams to the fullest. I found patrons for the select women who I felt had a sure sense of themselves. These painting were interpretive and representative rather than realistic, in the way photography is. This work became a new way for me to define feminine beauty. The portraits contained symbolic nesting messages along with the distinct personal details pertinent to the subject. I ground my own dry pigments from natural earths, gemstones and minerals. By painting on a wet limestone ground over Masonite, I created a sort of mini-fresco which could be transported. Because dry pigments are crystalline in nature, the reflective results are rich in unexpected depths. Most of these works are life-size and many were designed to fit architectural spaces. I closed Notchwood to the public in 1988 and devoted myself to this new phase of my continuing theme. In 10 years I completed 100 portraits of Distinctive Women. These collected works are registered in the Library of Congress of the United States. They have been exhibited widely, but most famously at the Palm Beach Governor’s Club in Palm Beach Florida and in 1996 at the Trump Mansion Mar-a-lago.
Painting a fresco demands long hours in a rigorous dance of tightly focused attention where no mistakes are tolerated. Up to six months are needed to fully develop a subject with artistic elegance. Occasionally, to escape the strict demands of creating such portraits, I explore other media. I play with Styrofoam, concrete, clay and even house building. I make pots, jewelry and even sinks. Recently I have been keeping my fingers flexible by slapping clay around and letting it slap back. There is a wonderful Chattanooga city program with fine instructors. who really know their stuff. It is a joy to see them guide someone on the wheel. It keeps me dancing.
I truly believe the Primary Artist inside each of us serves an apprenticeship through life, learning each step anew in the never ending dance of self discovery. Because I knew so many friends seeking the best in themselves without a guide, I wrote The Essential Apprenticeship for the Primary Artist in 2004. Through self dialogues it outlines how to define and develop the Primary Artist within. By virtue of our specific DNA, each of us has distinct gifts and a unique perspective from which to perform. This inner elemental artist may be artistic, athletic or pragmatic. It may choose any number of media to express itself, such as music, movement, nurture or numerical facts. Any path in life is enhanced by utilizing the creative impulse of the Primary Artist. Its performance endows us with self worth.
An artist acts on possibilities. Nothing of worth happens until we dance between the real and the ideal. Once we define ourselves as artists we have a higher purpose. We must expect the best of ourselves. Having this self knowledge and human worth is vital to a productive life and a progressive civilization. If young kids can capture this inner personal power when they are ripe with energy, think of the magnificent worlds they will create. Teaching the young how to transform themselves using their Primary Artist has become another quest for me. I am now working on Twinkle-Twinkle: How do I become who I want to be? A youth version of The Essential Apprenticeship. It is another upward step in my lifelong spiraling dance.
On New Year’s Eve of 1992 I married John Harris, a consummate dancing partner. His sales business specializes in institutional outfitting. His solid nature balances my floating spirit. By virtue of this happy match, I became, in 2001, the “Nonnie” to grandson Frankie Alan Reynolds and in 2011 to granddaughter Mollie Poole. My true calling as a besotted observer emerged. One great thrill is to introduce paint and clay to eager young hands. The magical results are always astounding.
I have witnessed so many young artists take their place in the dazzling dance. They see the ideal and make it real. Alan Shuptrine, Hubert’s son, is a master gilder, a rare talent. He created museum quality frames for many of my Distinctive Women Portraits. He has recently turned his masterful hand to watercolors with stunning results. More about him and his exciting work may be found at www.goldleafdesigns.com . Frances MacDonald, a fine encaustic painter, has innovated public mural arts for the young. These delightful streetscapes enliven our environment and involve the young in the exciting artistic process. Kem Alexander, a well known Chattanooga sculptress, has pushed common concrete to new dimensional limits. She demonstrates her ingenious craft with a passion that makes her work memorable. WOW! I could name so many more musicians, actors, writers, teachers, who make Chattanooga a rich cultural nest.
Missy Crutchfield is a tireless champion for the arts in the Chattanooga community. She understands how fundamental arts are to a true education. All of us should be fully aware that the arts describe the combined wealth and worth of a civilization. The arts demonstrate what it is possible for humans to accomplish. The many threads of the arts create the very fabric, the lively diverse textures of our daily lives. Chattanooga is blessed to have a multitude of devotedly practicing Primary Artists thriving in our very midst. They fill our days with ease, magic and delight. They enchant our nights with their dancing dreams. They show us the way to a better tomorrow. Come join the dance.
My father would be proud to know that I never really stopped dancing, and that I rarely dance alone.