Sewanee art gallery features works from 13 area artists

Porcelain bird bases by Bean and Bailey Ceramics.

Glass by Thomas Spake

Vase by glassblower Thomas Spake

Melissa Goodson has a list of criteria that separates tourists from the locals in Sewanee, Tenn.

The owner of Locals gallery, located in that small Monteagle Mountain town, says true "Sewaneetians" - her inventive term for a resident of Sewanee - have lived through the mountain's grey winter and driven in its ubiquitous fog. The locals get their groceries at "The Pig" (the Piggly Wiggly grocery), but count the days until Pearl's restaurant opens again.

Locals are also the artists who exhibit in either of two shows hosted annually by her gallery. The gallery only opens its doors twice a year - May through July and September through December - with an exhibit by artists who live within 30 miles each time. The space was a grocery, dry cleaner and bank before being renovated by local craftsmen into an arts-and-crafts design about six years ago. Now, as Goodson describes, it's a place "where life around the mountain is reflected in art."

"Each show has its own identity. We really try to work with (members of the) Craft Artists of Southern Tennessee to stay as local as possible," she says. "We've done 10 seasonal shows so far, and every season we welcome two, sometimes three, new artists."

This season's show features 11 returning artists plus new contributors: painter Victoria Pearmain and Anderson and Jessie Bailey, owners of Bailey and Bean Ceramics. Among returning favorites are Samford McGee with etched copper work, Susan Church's hand-tooled boxes and Jim Ann Howard, who uses inks and paints made from walnuts, ground rocks and clays of the mountain area.

Welder Jamey Chernicky turns his work into a hobby when he forges iron, steel and sheet metal into sculpture of all sizes. Goodson says Chernicky uses scrap metal from leftover sprinkler system installations and salvages car hoods, bumpers and doors.

Glass blower Thomas Spake is showing at Locals for the third time. This show and Chattanooga Market's holiday market are his only two in the area for the remainder of this year. Spake says his glass at Locals is inspired by colors of Tennessee's landscape.

"Most of the pieces are sandblasted or acid-etched, which gives them a matte finish," he says. He engraves many of the sandblasted pieces by carving through the outer layer to reveal rich colors inside.

Spake chose Locals because "it's a nice space with nice people who are showing your work because they are interested in you as a person and as an artist." He says Goodson and staff have visited his studio several times to watch him work and understand his creative process.

"They really want to learn what makes you tick and how you do your art so they can share that with visitors who come through," Spake explains.

Contact Susan Pierce at spierce@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6284.