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CREATIVE GROOVE
Ian McFarlane's photographs of Europe are on display at Etienne
Brasserie through July.
Turk Glass. Newcomers to the festival include
Mandy Elias, Sergio Ruano of Spgke-N-For,
Jason Thomas of Red Rocket Farm, Letter
Landmarks, Gabriel Brown and Kathleen
Masters. Art market Chair Sean Cook worked
with two other jurors, Pat McCaffrey of
Swampware Pottery and glass artist Susan
Staley, to select the artists.
Cook says that the group is really excited
about presenting their work and that he
"loves them all." Drop by Washington and Hull
streets to say hello, check out the artwork and
take some home with you! The Artists Market
is open Friday, June 24, 5-10 p.m., Saturday,
June 25, noon-10 p.m., and Sunday, June 26,
12:30 p.m.-8 p.m.
Another Round: I had never visited ARTini's
Art Lounge before last week, but was curi
ous about the painting studio/gallery since it
occupies the space that was once the Phoenix
Market. The studio is a breezy, shotgun-style
room with high ceilings and rough brick-and-
plaster walls on one side. On the other, a per
fectly smooth and gallery-white wall is where
owner Kate Cook showcases paintings, prints
and photographs by local artists.
Her goal for the space is to encourage
local art in two ways: "With ARTini's gallery
aspect, I simply want to support the local arts
as much as possible. Like many artists would
agree, we can be our own worst critics, and
I'm excited that I have a venue in which I can
represent artists with enthusiasm. With the
painting parties, I feel as if I'm bringing art to
Turn Your Watch Back About
100,000 Years: Traveling a
little farther east, a sculptural
installation and contemporary
dance performance at the
Lyndon House is inspired by
historic Mesopotamia. Artist
Glen Kaufman (retired UGA
Lamar Dodd School of Art
fabric design professor) presents "Kaunakes:
Ghosts of Mesopotamia." During the open
ing for the exhibition, Andrea Trombetta
(UGA MFA 2005) will perform a work of
contemporary dance. She describes the col
laborative piece as "inspired by the traditional
kaunake garments which have historic roots
in Mesopotamian culture made alive through
historic/contemporary associations with Iraq
today from Saddam Hussein to the present.
The ever increasing loss of civilian lives made
manifest by the gallery space filled with empty
garment forms floating in space and enhanced
by interpretative dance performance."
While Trombetta's live performance will
only accompany the opening and closing of
the exhibition, "Kaunakes" will be on view at
the Lyndon House through Aug. 6. The open
ing and performance will take place at the
Lyndon House Arts Center in the Lukasiewicz
Gallery on Wednesday, June 22 at 7 p.m.
Drawing from Sources Closer to Home: The
artists in "From Our Studios," are three
friends who present their work together at the
Oconee County Library gallery. The exhibition
includes mixed-media paintings by Robin Fay,
intricately composed quilts by Sarah Hubbard
and paintings created in dyed silks by Rene
Shoemaker. Though the artists work in dif
ferent media, they share a penchant for rich
colors and lots of texture. On view through
July 20.
Caroline Barratt arts@flagpole.com
Taking It to the Streets: This weekend marks
AthFest's 15th year and, along with show
casing dozens of local bands throughout the
five-day festival, local artists will also be
part of the scene. The 46 artists presenting
their work at the AthFest Artists Market this
year are primarily Athens-based, but some are
traveling from North Carolina, South Carolina,
Alabama and Florida to attend. A few return
ing artists are Jamie Calkin, Chris Hubbard
(CHUB), Robert Smith of Blacksmith Guitars,
Chuck Hanes of Misty Mountain Pottery,
ReCycle Jewelry by Russell Williams and Ken
more people—exposing them to art and artists
they may not otherwise [experience]. ARTini's
unintimidating atmosphere may open them up
to visit other galleries."
Cook has planned additional exhibitions
throughout the rest of the year and welcomes
new submissions. Paintings by Matt Bahr are
on display through July. His scenes of surf
ers shooting the curl are very escapist and
appropriate for summertime. Bahr studied at
the School of Visual Arts in NYC and is a new
addition to Athens; he works as an illustrator
at New World Graphics. ARTini's shows rotate
monthly; look for Vernon
Thornsberry's paintings there
in December if you missed him
this month at This-Way-Out.
-< Living Vicariously: Even
if your summer plans do not
include a European vacation,
you can do a good job of pre
tending by visiting Etienne
Brasserie downtown to dine
on moulesfrites and view Ian
McFarlane's dreamy photo
graphs that he took while in
France and Italy. Romantic
scenes of churches, old
wooden boats on the shore,
street scenes and fashionable
shop fronts are great visual
sources for imaginative travel.
On view through July.
BLACK FLAG DADS UNITE!
Father's Day was June 19.1 hate Father's
Day. Not because it's a transparent grab at
consumer dollars (which it is), or because
it's an occasion driven entirely by familial
guilt (which it also is), but because for a day
that's supposed to be about celebrating the
sheer doodah greatness of fathers, it always
leaves me feeling horribly inadequate. I don't
golf. I don't fish. I don't barbecue or hunt
or fix things or build things in the shop. I
don't even have a shop. Or a den. Looking at
the marketing for Father's Day, it's clear that
whatever dads are supposed to be, I'm not it.
The life lessons I have passed on to my
children are of dubious value at best. That the
Joel episodes of "MST3K" are better than the
Mike episodes. That you shouldn't take drugs,
despite the fact that every artist you like was
better on them than off. That it's not only
acceptable but crucial to assess a potential
partner's musical tastes before dating him or
her (I dated a Chicago fan for a year—some
times I still wake up
screaming). That the
only sequel you should
ever watch is Evil Dead
II. That dating a writer
will ruin your life—just
look at your mother.
So, Cliff Huxtable
I'm not, but what am
I? What kind of dad
goes to shows and
bitches about the lousy
sound in virtually every
club in this town?
Or hangs a couple of
nights a week at the
hipster bar despite
his lack of fashionable
footwear and a scalp
that can now be seen
from space? What sort
of pathetic scenes-
ter man-child have I
become?
Thanks to Henry
Owings and the staff
of the mighty Chunklet
magazine, I now have a
name: Black Flag Dad.
"He's the middle-aged
guy standing, arms
crossed, by the bar or
near the door guy at rock shows. He's drink
ing responsibly, not macking chicks and he
doesn't recognize a mosh pit unless it's mov
ing in a circular direction." That comes from
the new book by Owings' crew, The Indie Cred
Test (Chunklet Industries, 2011), a tome jam-
packed with everything hipsters need to know
about not crossing that line between detached
irony and pretentious douchebaggery.
As someone who has lived in this town
since the days when people used to move here
specifically in order to see Stipe on the street
and pretend not to notice, I've encountered
every breed of hipster, record-store scholar,
culture snob and trust-fund bohemian to be
found in the wild. This book is for them, a col
lection of quizzes, litmus tests and commen
taries to help navigate the perilous country
of cool in all its varied terrain. How eclectic
is your DVD collection, and how often and
prominently is the word "Criterion" displayed?
Do you dress "vintage" enough, and does it
look like you shopped for your clothes or do
you make it seem like your vinyl car coat and
American-made Chuck Taylors just grew from
your body like snakeskin? Do you actually like
all that Afro-dub music you keep buying or do
you use it to cover up your Genesis albums
when company comes over? And how deftly do
you walk that tightrope of buying music that's
obscure enough to make you appear "discern
ing" and just well-known enough that other
people will know how "discerning" you are?
Anyone familiar with Chunklet pretty much
knows what to expect in the way of snarky
humor and pop-culture references, but they'll
also realize that the book, like the magazine,
often falls into its own trap. In order to make
the jokes about music snobbery, Owings et al
have to display their own. You can't rag on
David Yow without a full understanding of why
jokes about David Yow are funny. It's hard,
therefore, to tell what is self-deprecating
humor at the expense of others and what is
just plain old irony of the sort that hipsters
suckle like Enfamil—and that question in
itself is ironic (don't you think?).
Still, The Indie Cred Test is pretty damn
funny and worth a straight-through read on
the coffee table and repeated skimmings
thereafter from its place on your cinder-block-
and-lumber bookshelf or next to the toilet.
And it'd make a great gift for Father's Day for
your favorite Black Flag Dad.
See what I did there? I took the opening
stuff and referenced it again in the conclu
sion. That's what writers do. Just don't date
them (see, I did it again!).
Attention, Writers: The 17th annual Harriette
Austin Writers' Conference will be held July
22 & 23 at the Georgia Center. This is a great
opportunity for writers to network and get
noticed by authors, agents and publishers. If
you have a manuscript you'd like to submit for
review at the conference, the deadline is June
20. Manuscripts can be sent to Scott Medine
at evan654@gmail.com. For information
about the conference, visit http://2011hawc.
wordpress.com.
John G. Nettles
El
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JUNE 22, 2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 9
