Show - Featuring Williamson County's Scott Hodes - on Display Through June

(Columbia, Tenn. - March 9, 2011) - - - The Pryor Gallery at Columbia State Community College will feature glass and metalwork by Scott Hodes (from Williamson County) and wild-flower artist, Andrea Wilson during May and June 2011.

Hodes, who is from Williamson County, owns and operates Chaos Glass and Metalworks in Bon Aqua, TN, where he fabricates hot glass into fabulous objects and utilitarian fixtures. "Capturing both an instant of Chaos, in the atmospheres of my vessels, and the motion of the moment in their shaping, I produce fine craft," says Hodes. His formal training was at the University of Wisconsin, where he majored in studio art with an emphasis in glass and neon. Returning to his home state, he pursued his dream of attending the Tennessee Technological University's Appalachian Center for Crafts. There he studied with both glass and blacksmithing and went on to earn a Masters of Fine Arts at Kent State University. In 1996, Scott returned to Tennessee, built his studio "from the ground up," and began to produce his hot visions in glass and metal.

He has earned national, statewide, and local awards and is well represented in permanent collections such as the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Tennessee Governor's Residence, and St. Mary's Hospital in Knoxville. His awards include the first Lifetime Achievement Award, given in 2008 by the Nashville Film Festival and presented to Patricia Neal; and Lifework's Foundation Purchase Award for the "Empty Bowls" charity for six years. His work has been featured in several issues of Nashville Arts Magazine, the Tennessee Artisan, and the Tennessean. He is a member of the Tennessee Association of Crafts Artists and the Craftsmen's Guild of Mississippi and has served on the board of the Arts Council of Williamson County. At this point in his career, Scott works mostly by commission, which he will be happy to take from this exhibit. "As a craftsperson in a world based economy, where factories create nice glass inexpensively, I strive to fill the niche of independent glass artisan; a niche of fine crafts, where only outstanding originality and the highest level of technical excellence are acceptable."

Wilson is the recipient of the Award for Drawing and Prints at the Thirteenth Annual International Juried Art Exhibition, September 2010, by The American Society of Botanical Artists and The Horticultural Society of New York. She is a draftsman and painter of wildflowers in her native Pittman Center, Tennessee, where she lives and maintains a studio gallery on Buckhorn Road. "She will share preparatory drawings with us, a discovery that I will claim, personally," says Lucy Scott Kuykendall, curator/director of the Pryor Gallery. "Andrea finds lovely specimens of all the lovely spring through fall blooms in the East Tennessee Mountains, photographs them, then selects and draws her arrangement to be painted." Those preparatory drawings are what we will feature.

In addition to the above stated award, Wilson received the Distinguished Media Award at the 14th Sevier County Biennial Juried Exhibit, Best in Show at the 13th Sevier County Biennial, and 1st place in the 2008 Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage Art Competition sponsored by the Great Smoky Mountains Association. "I've lived with this flower all my life-it's a striking image of color and line. I began the sketch in late summer when the flower is in bloom around my home. I took living specimens to my drawing board, plus probably 60 or more digital images that I shot of the various details I knew I wanted to incorporate. I prepare a free-hand sketch for all my paintings-not from a projected. I finished the painting in December." Wilson also keeps a busy teaching schedule. She recently led a wild flower sketching class at the 2011 Wildflower Pilgrimage in Gatlinburg.

Wilson's etchings, prints, and note cards will be for sale. Original paintings are available from her Gallery or web site, www.andreawillson.com.

The Pryor Art Gallery is located in the Waymon L. Hickman building on Columbia State's Columbia Campus. The Gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., and on Friday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. The gallery is also open on weekends during special events. For more information on the events held in Pryor Gallery, call (931) 540-2883.