Artsy Partsy

If you want to see some very interesting works of art, allow me to recommend my favorite coffee shop – Old City Java in Knoxville. It is in one of my favorite parts of an old part of town. With a name like Old City Java, who would have guessed that one? As I sit here, enjoying a cup of fresh java (the coffee is fresh even if the city is old) the art on the walls captured my attention deficit dominated brain. For almost a minute, I looked around and pondered the meanings behind the art and gave them new names that seemed to better match what was on the canvas.

The first piece of art that jumped out at me, other than the ceiling painted like Van Gough’s Starry Night, was the dear head on the wall. You are probably wondering why a trendy place like Knoxville would have the redneck décor of a mounted animal head. If you are really wondering that, you have never been to Knoxville. This place is – believe it or not – a trendy place for Knoxville. The deer head on the wall is at artist’s interpretation of a deer head. I would not have chosen Play-Doh for my medium, but what do I know? I call it “Deer DOH!”

Glancing to my left, I see art that is reminiscent of absolutely nothing. It is the body of a runner and the head of double-trunked wooly mammoth riding on a skeletal three-headed dog that looks cranky. I have entitled this one, “Never Eat Tai Food Before Bed”.

There is another one that I call “Lines” that can best be described as a bunch of lines on a piece of paper. Did you notice that I never claimed my titles were creative? There is likely a deeper meaning related to the angst of the artist expressed in the intersecting of the lines which represents the cutting off of the creative process by the incorporation and commercialization of the art world thereby relegating the true artists to the coffee shops while the politically savvy artists can make lots of money. Either that or someone had a straight edge, a bunch of colored pencils and too much time on their hands. “Lines” seems like a good title regardless.

The last art I noticed looks like two funnels that are attached at the small ends that are sitting up making them look like filled in hourglasses. These orange sculptures are topped with a flat surface and are interspersed around the room. It feels like they are surrounding you, they are everywhere you look! I named them “Orange Invasion”. Those were really bugging me so I asked the guy who made my coffee what he calls them. He looked me in the eye, with a straight face said, “We call them ‘coffee tables’.” I like “Orange Invasion” better.