bringing some of memphis to knoxville

You've seen this picture before. I wrote about the building here. Last week, I received another piece of good news. This photograph was chosen for the next Arts in the Airport  show. I had no takers on the Plane Art, but that just means I can use it somewhere else. 

I  sat down a few days ago and worked the drop-off and reception dates into my art calendar deadlines. I started to panic a bit because I've got a lot on my art plate right now. It gives me a headache to think about how I'm going to get some of it done, but I'm more than thankful for being chosen to participate and show.

This is the second of my photographs that will be shown in Knoxville this summer. My photograph of Yee-Haw will hang at the Bijou Theater gallery through the end of June. Sears Crosstown, Memphis will be at the McGhee Tyson Airport through October.

I only really started taking these photographs about a year ago. It's nice to know that someone besides me thinks they are compelling.

sears crosstown

Sears Crosstown, Memphis, 2011

I shot these photographs when I was visiting Memphis for Christmas. The Sears Crosstown building opened in 1927 and served as a store and catalog distribution center until its closing in 1993.  That year I was 7, and the building has been vacant most of my life. I've always liked it, but I really don't know why. In high school, it was the type of place more mischievous teenagers than I would break into to explore. Lately there have been movements in the Memphis art community to develop it into a useful place filled with apartments, art studios, and performance spaces. Crosstown Arts began in 2010 and offers small classes and workshops, as well as tours of the building. With funding from a Crosstown Arts grant, Robin Salant created  The Crosstown Solar Lighting Project, a colored-gel light installation for the  south windows of the building. Memphis' Urban Sketchers has even used the building as subject material for an afternoon of on-site drawing. Once I graduated from college, I never wanted to return to Memphis to live, but I admit to being a little envious of the people who get to experience all of this.

 

Sears Crosstown, Memphis, 2011