Wonderful art things are happening in Tupelo, Mississippi with numerous outlets for visual, musical, and other art forms. With the Gumtree Museum of Art being a focal point, art seems to be radiating outward. Even the downtown restaurants are a part of this artistic revival with places like Kermit's Outlaw Kitchen serving incredible meals featuring local produce and meats, the Thirsty Devil bar with the wall decorated with artwork purchased from local artists, to Vanelli's Italian restaurant with trippy primitive artwork done by Paul Thorn, internationally known singer songwriter from Tupelo.
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| Joseph MacGown doing an abstract version of the scene |
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| Belle Naugher, Gumtree Museum Director |
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| Painting one of the masked figures |
More recently, the
Link Centre, located at 1800 W Main Street in Tupelo, has mushroomed into a great facility devoted to providing artistic opportunities for all types of people in the community. Saturday night was a great example of bringing people together for a night of arts. Mary Art Contrary (does anyone really know her real name??) put together a "Secret Show" that started at 7:51 PM on Saturday, March 4. The "Secret Show" featured a wonderful band (name unknown, apparently the night was about secrets), four models wearing costumes and imaginative masks created by one of the artists who posed for artists who wanted to draw or paint them, numerous artists who came to paint the models or just paint and draw in general, a few artists selling prints and/or originals, some writers who read their poetry, and a cash bar.
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| models! |
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| Luisa and Ella! Thanks for coming with us and drawing along |
The entire scene was an underground type of venue with hardcore biker looking jokers poised in front of their easels sketching and painting while listening to hard riffs from guitarist/singer John West and his crew.
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| Artists working |
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| Ben and Justin painting side by side |
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| Ben Frazier |
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| Justin King |
In addition to painting, Joseph and I had a good table full of prints. The folks there seemed to really love our art, and we ended up selling quite a few!
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| Me, wearing a shirt with my art. |
All in all, it was a very interesting night. We met some cool artists and art appreciators! I am overwhelmed with optimism for the arts after seeing the great things that are happening here regionally and elsewhere. Though federal and state funding for the arts appears to be headed in the wrong direction, artists are not letting this slow them down!!
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| John West on guitar and his buds |
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| Awesome painting! |
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| One of the models looking at the art created |
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| models |
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| drawing away |
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| checking out handmade masks |
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