Hot News of Tomato Weird - I'm Still Speechless

News of the Tomato weird came to me via an eleven year old Boy Scout who was standing in the blazing sun in the 100 degree heat of noon on Tomato Art Fest Day in East Nashville. This child very earnestly and sweatily reported to me in a voice I barely remember, "When the human brain reaches 104 degrees it ceases to process language." Now in the cool bliss of my home, I take a deep breath and wonder if that is why perhaps that I can barely remember anything I said or heard that day. I very mysteriously only recall the things I saw and how I felt.

If you want to know how HOT I felt then next year you should dress like me. I decided to call my outfit "The Black Solar Suit." If you want to make a Solar Suit like mine put on black yoga pants, black sandals, a black halter top dress, and top it with a tiny black lace jacket. Once out on the black topped streets you will realize what we are all doing out in this heat. We are activating our most profound selves by collecting the radiant energy from the sun and absorbing it along with the more than fiery passionate energy from each other.

You might be speechless about all this now but come January when everyone else has S.A.D. all us once seemingly overheated Tomato Festers will be skipping along like a day in May. In the spirit of East Nashville we will be happy to share some of it with you. If someone comes your way in the winter months with an extended pointer finger do not shy from it. Let us ZAP you with our wonder powers that we collected from our day on Woodland Street amidst a sea a red heads, Purple Cherokees, fancy red umbrellas, sweaty kids and dripping ice pops in their melting plastic wrappers. We will be singing to you since our language centers will be cool and energized, "Don't you wish your tomato was HOT like ME?!??, Don'tcha? DON'T CHA? " I know you do! Zaaaaaaaaap!

"Tomato and Goliath"

Giclee prints sounds so very fancy especially when you say it with a French accent and turn your nose up with a little twinkle in your eye like this, "zhee-klay." Now you are picturing me with a baret and a black scarf saying my special sophisticated art word to the crowd that is gathering around my giclee print at Art and Invention Gallery with ooohs and aaaahs.

My giclee prints are created by Duane at Picture This Gallery in Hermitage, TN. Herb Williams is a parent at the school where I teach art and recommended him to me. Since I am a huge fan Herb's work and loved the print he donated to my classroom I took his advice and got over the long drive out there to see for myself what he was raving about. Once there I was warmly greeted and taken care of by the one and only fabulous Duane.

Giclee prints are an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are created from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various surfaces including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclee printing process provides better color accuracy than other types of prints. Picture This Gallery has an amazing scanner that captures even the tiniest detail in my work. Even better are the human hands and eye of Duane who scans my work in sections because the original is so large and then takes the time to carefully and beautifully pull it all together to look exactly like the original.

It is a miracle to me that Duane can take a 3' X 4' canvas, scan it, blend it and then print it with such accuracy and detail on the 16" X 20" archival paper that you can see even the itty bitty eyelashes on each and every face that is featured on my work. It's like a ship in a bottle! Each time I have Duane create a print for me I stare at it in amazement for hours. The quality of the giclee print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums,and art galleries.

Numerous examples of giclee prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Chelsea Galleries. Recent auctions of giclee prints have fetched $10,800 for Annie Leibovitz, $9,600 for Chuck Close, and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans. You will find my "Tomato and Goliath" glicee print at Art and Invention Gallery during Tomato Fest for only $40.00 each. Hope to see you there on August the 14th staring with joy into the fabulous details of your very own "Tomato and Goliath" print.

A sneak peak is provided for you here, you can click on the image(and then click again) to make it a little larger but you really must see for your self and in person how much richer and more vivid this print is on paper instead of pixels! Thank you for looking and I hope to see you on August 14th at Art and Invention Gallery.

Do something scary - try a film noir.

We have all heard the phrase, "Do something that scares you everyday." I had already done the world's tallest roller coaster, delivered a baby through natural childbirth, and taken a dive off an Olympic height diving board. I didn't think there was much left for me to be afraid of. That was until I was faced with honoring my commitment to be an actress for a team who was participating in the Nashville's 48 Hour Film Project. I drove right up to their studio with my number one fear, Public Speaking. Being in this short film was no ordinary public speaking, it was acting in front of BIG cameras with HUGE fuzzy microphones and knowing that what I was saying and doing was going to be viewed and judged by a few hundred people. The icing on the scary cake was that the team I was volunteering to help called to inform me that I was to wear comfortable clothing because I was going to be preforming a fight scene. Me? A Charlie's Angel? eeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!! Dear Friends, I am not an actress nor do I play one on t.v.! I was terrified, but I showed up with my bundle of nerves and the willingness to try.






My insecurities and fears were dashed thanks to Black Box Media Group and their team who was participating in the 48 Hour Film Project. Beth Knott, Brad Staggs, Pam Melton and Christie Haffner couldn't have been more fun to play with and clearly have fun working together. They "drew" film noir and were given complete artistic license except for these elements: Character: Evan Minors, Prop: a chess set, and Line of Dialogue: "It's not easy being me." Oh yea, and only 48 hours to write a script, find a cast, secure a location, film it, edit it, score it and turn it in. Thankfully, Black Box Media Group does just about everything in their beautiful Marathon Village studio. They are a full service video production company specializing in television, product video, commercials, and demo reels. They are also amazing creative, funny and super nice.



Black Box Media Group graciously received my volunteer acting help like a blind date at Starbucks. I had only responded to an email from Jenny Piper saying that her friends needed some help with their film project and I honestly had no idea what I was really getting into until that day. That was the fun of the project; it was about doing not talking, and thinking fast on your feet. All the short films (5-7 minutes) will be playing at the Belcourt Theater on August the 11th. You will find me "The Trigger Happy Gun Wielding Art Thief" along with my family there shaking in my shoes scared and excited to see myself on a the big screen. You will also find many other creative and brave people who thankfully make us get out and do crazy things that we are later glad for.

Check out these links
Black Box Media Group
48 Hour Film Project





Here is a sneak preview of my brief and wondrous life in Black Box Media Group's film noir.(photos by Keith and Leo Spadafino)