Press Release: Historic Knoxville Showcased in Local Art

Historic Knoxville Showcased in Local Art

The grand Market House on Market Square.  JFG Coffee’s warehouse on Jackson.  The old Woolworth’s building with its distinctive awning.  4 Market Square.

Whether the structures are long gone or are still with us in a repurposed form, Knoxville has a rich architectural history.  Two local artists bring historic Knoxville alive in their latest works.

Painter and muralist Heather Wolfe of Farragut, TN, looked through a book on Knoxville’s Park City and found the perfect photograph as her inspiration for her newly installed mural at downtown’s Walnut Building.  In it, horse-and-buggy teams line what is unmistakably Market Square; the Market House stands tall in the background.  “Look closely at the photo,” Wolfe’s grandfather said as she showed him the book when first discussing the idea for her latest mural.  What she saw was one of the first cars on Market Square - outnumbered by horse buggies, but a car, nonetheless.  The mural she painted with that photo as inspiration is in black-and-white, with touches of pink…Wolfe’s modern take on Market Square in the spring.

Tell furniture artist Raven Toney that one of Knoxville’s historic buildings is being repurposed, and he’ll immediately ask “That wood in there isn’t being thrown away is it?”  Though he’s lived in Knoxville only two years since moving from Los Angeles, Toney knows all too well that often “redevelopment” means “trash bin” for some of Knoxville’s most historic wood.  He has crafted dining tables and benches (the “Jackson Bean” series) from discarded flooring from the JFG Coffee warehouse.  A hutch (“Grahamworth”) built with Sevier County barnwood is accented with that distinctive soft-teal metal awning of the Woolworth’s building.  And the recently opened 4 Market Square is represented in the form of a pedestal-with-shadow-boxes (The Cleveland”) made of heart pine.    

Both artists display these works and more through the month of April at downtown’s Walnut Building, 706 Walnut Street, Suite 100, Knoxville, TN.

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Contact:  Juli Neil, Publicist

The Living Room

706 Walnut Street, Suite 403

Knoxville, TN 37902

865-386-2949    cell

julicayeneil@yahoo.com

Knoxville, Tennessee. April 10, 2009.