(snipet of "David and Goliath" for Tomato Art Fest 2010)
Standing in front of a blank canvas can feel a bit like the battle of "David and Goliath" especially when your mission is to represent your fabulous East Nashville community. When your community is a giant of creativity and inspiration the feeling of personal smallness is even more magnified. Thankfully none of us are alone here on the East side of the river, we are only an email or facebook post away from each other.
In the beginning it was just me, the Lockeland yearbook, and a massive 3'X4' blank canvas. Thankfully, after a few emails and posts to the list serve the community spoke to me about everything from the theme of the piece (the flood) ,to the characters and the research behind why the characters where significant to the story we were creating. Thus East Nashville and I set about to create the tale of Superheroes vs. Villains, and we transformed a simple comic book idea into an epic story like "David and Goliath."
During the flood many people rose up to help face the giant forces that threatened to destroy us. But that brown, yellow, murky monster just kept coming. Neighbors gathered and threw sandbags at it, amassed sump pumps to combat it, and it still kept coming. Each small person on their own two feet held hands with the community around them and gained the power of many to do great works. To name each person would take forever but to look at my Tomato Art piece you will see the faces of 307 children that represent the small forces that were gathering all over Nashville to create armies of helpfulness. The children symbolize our smallness and remind us that by sticking together we can accomplish great things. The children are our "David" facing the "Goliath Flood" while fearlessly and happily smiling all the while. The flood called for more than one Goliath so King Kong, Godzilla, and an Army of Aliens dominate along with the rising flood waters that are engulfing our Fair City.
Enter, stage left, the tomato. What better symbol could there be for the uniting of hands that drowned the flood? The little "Davids" in the piece are hurtling them at the "Goliaths" with great success. A small Army of children being led by our own East Nashville crew of Alan Murdock and Catherine McTamaney are pulling out the General Jackson (which represents East Nashville) from the mouth of the flood. Meg MacFadyen is not forgotten here because Meg IS our great tomato and is represented all over the canvas.
Just as hands reached over hands to help in the flood relief you reached out to me through your facebook and email posts. The East Nashville community generously poured out suggestions, and research to support them, for such questions as: "Who should King Kong and Godzilla be holding?" It is from these responses that you see Alan, Catherine, Meg, Dolly, Vince Gill, and Taylor Swift. Even the flood itself was requested as the setting for my piece by several list serve regulars. Thank you for your support!
Tomato Art Fest itself is a David and Goliath story. The brain child of Meg and Bret to share creativity and their uniting peaceful ideals with our great city. There are and always have been many challenges to pulling the Tomato Art Fest off each year after year but Meg and Bret always do it. They are our heroes of the tomato season and all that comes with it. Happy Summer friends and see you on August 14th at Art and Invention Gallery!
