Montgomery, ALA – The Alabama State
Council on the Arts and the Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery is
currently showcasing an exhibition of works by Montgomery pen and ink artist
Melissa Tubbs. The exhibition will be on display
January 7 - March 22.
This
exhibition entitled “Celebration & Preservation” is an Alabama Bicentennial
Commission Commemorative Project celebrating two centuries of Alabama’s
architectural history. Twenty-five pen-and-ink drawings of buildings from
throughout the state have been created by Tubbs for a traveling exhibition
which will be shown at six venues. The work has already traveled to Auburn University and the Gadsden Museum of Art. It will
travel to the Tuscaloosa Arts Council, the Mobile Arts Council and finish at
the Tennessee Valley Art Association in Tuscumbia in June 2019.
The public is invited to meet the artist
on Sunday, January 27 during a FREE public reception from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm. A
gallery talk will be conducted at 3:00 pm.
Alabama’s architecture
ranges from characteristic folk houses to structures typical of fashionable
tastes of their day. They represent architectural styles such as Victorian
Gothic, Georgian, Greek and Roman Revival, Romanesque Revival, Byzantine
Revival, Usonian, Art Moderne, and Mid-Century Modern. Tubbs has created
finely-detailed drawings of the buildings that have played a part in the
state’s history. “The works of
“Celebration & Preservation” are accurate and beautiful representations of
structures that endure, which makes the exhibition a testimony to what has been
preserved,” says Jay Lamar, Executive Director of the Alabama Bicentennial
Commission. “It is also a powerful
statement about the value of preservation itself. “Celebration &
Preservation” encourages viewers to see our architectural treasures with fresh
appreciation. It will also inspire us to preserve them for the future.”
Tubbs has traveled the
state photographing the buildings she selected to draw, as well as gathering
their histories and facts for a 32-page catalog accompanying the exhibition.
The drawings depict homes and businesses from 1820, one year after statehood,
through 1997 with a project from the Rural Studio run by Auburn University.
Melissa Tubbs is an architectural
portraitist. She earned a bachelor’s degree in visual design from Auburn
University and began a career in commercial design, and raised a family. After
20 years of designing magazines and creating drawings and pastels on her own
time, in the mid-1990s she was offered commissions that would dramatically
alter her career and her approach toward art. One such commission was by
a local law firm who commissioned Tubbs to document every courthouse in
Montgomery and surrounding counties.
Tubbs soon came to the
realization that this new subject engaged her interest and passion for
architecture and made better use of her finely honed technical abilities.
In addition to numerous commissions, Tubbs used her pen to document significant
works of architecture and the decorative ornaments on those structures. Indeed,
some of the artist’s finest works are of building details, focusing on
architectural embellishments, different textures of building materials, and the
dramatic patterns of light and shadow cascading across the surfaces of the
structure.
Pen and ink drawings
require careful preparation, concentration, intensity, and error free
execution. Tubbs’ process begins with a camera and a zoom lens. She
takes several photographs of the overall subject, and detail photographs at
different exposures to document information in the area of sunlight and
shadow. The basic design is sketched on paper with a graphite
pencil. Concentrating on one small section at a time, she builds up
layers of ink and depth through a combination of hatched and crosshatched marks
until the subject is adequately defined. After all areas have been
worked, she reinforces overall shadow patterns to pull all the individual areas
together into a unified drawing.
For the last two dozen
years, Tubbs has been a full-time artist, architectural preservationist, and
community arts enthusiast. She was commissioned by the Montgomery Area
Business Committee for the Arts to create drawings as awards given to
outstanding business supporters of the arts. The Montgomery Museum of
Fine Arts commissioned a series of eight drawings of its interior and exterior,
and a few years later asked her to document a new building addition. Strathmore
Artist Papers commissioned a drawing for their Series 400 Smooth Surface
drawing pad covers. Melissa B. Tubbs has been recognized through numerous
commissions, dozens of publications, and inclusion in a variety of exhibitions
from Montgomery to New York.
The
exhibit is on display in the Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery through
March 22. The gallery is operated by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and
is free and open to the public Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. The gallery is
located on the first floor of the RSA Tower, located in downtown Montgomery at
201 Monroe Street.
For Additional information,
please contact: Amy Williamson at (334) 242-5150 or by email at amy.williamson@arts.alabama.gov