Column: Artist exhibit opens at Wesleyan, local musician playing Macon’s classic venues

The work of two Macon artists – one a visual artist, the other musical – is on display locally in the days and weeks ahead and each is clear that what they do is most importantly a matter of self-expression.

Add to that they both say it’s important their works connect in some form or fashion with others in meaningful ways and both also say their work and message are paramount over success.

First is Anna Richards. Richards, at 32, is a non-traditional fine arts major in her last semester at Wesleyan College. Her exhibit, “The Woman at the Desk” opened Thursday with a reception in the Frances P. & Dennie L. McCrary Gallery in Wesleyan’s Murphey Art Building where it’s on display through Jan. 20 from 1 to 4 p.m.

“The show is essentially about the perception people have of the woman at the desk - of women office workers, administrative assistants and such - and the fact they’re commonly not seen for who they are but as adornment and as the office function they perform,” Richards said.

As an abstract artist, Richards and her work ask when is the last time you as a consumer, seeker of services or even as an employer, saw the female receptionist, the secretary, the assistant, as a person rather than an instrument of service.

It’s something Richards said she has experienced as well as something she sees as a cultural malady. She said much of her thinking and work was informed by the popular grassroots 9 to 5 Movement of the 1970s which addressed women’s rights and economic shortfalls in the workplace. Out of that movement grew the popular comedy film, “9 to 5,” a more recent documentary and numerous books of the period like “Secretary” and “Not Servants, Not Machines.”

This is, after all, Richards’ senior honors thesis exhibit in which she academically and artistically explores the 9 to 5 themes. In both arenas, she pursues the ideas behind the movement and how she can express them artistically.

I’ll withhold spoilers, but that even impacts the materials Richards chose and how she used them to create art. Art, she adds, that in ways stylistically reflects some of her heroes like Willem de Kooning and Agnes Martin.

“It’s a very nuanced topic because there’s a positive side to having a job, of course, and I know personally there are some great work situations that can add a great deal to life, but there’s also the undeniable side where the assistant’s role, the office workers place, is draining even for the most enthusiastic person,” Richards said. “The feelings of being invisible and unimportant as a person can be overwhelming. It doesn’t matter what your passion is it’s just a matter of what you’re needed for. It can leave you a shell of a person and for many, that’s their life. What I wanted to do in the show was speak to those issues through my art, reinterpret them and bring in the idea of transformation.”

Not only in her art, but that’s also much of what Richards is doing in her own life as she pursues her passion for art. That scenario gives her effort an enhanced sense of truth and reality.

“I think the work is appealing,” Richards said, “but I hope it brings those who see it to consider who the woman at the desk really is. My goal is to be honest, that’s the driving force behind my art.”

Richards maintains a brisk social media presence and her website is www.annarichardsart.com.

Second, there’s singer-songwriter Rachel Forehand. A Macon native, Forehand grew up with her dad, Dwayne Forehand, and uncle, Keith Forehand, and family friends playing music and keeping the Allman Brothers Band and similar on the turntable. Attempts to get her to learn guitar as a youngster failed, she attributes that to ADD, and besides, she said she couldn’t sing a lick.

So though the music was big in her life, she said she never saw herself as a musician.

Until she hit 18 and was a South Georgia college student.

Until her boyfriend of the time was killed in an auto accident.

“I don’t know, I just wanted to learn and I started writing these songs, and, low and behold, I could sing and people seemed to like it,” she said.

There’s a good chance you may have seen Forehand playing around town or regionally, but if you haven’t you have no excuse in days ahead. Forehand is on a Macon tour of sorts playing each weekend through early March in some of Macon’s classic spots. Jan. 21 she’s at the Society Garden, Jan. 29 at Parish, Feb. 10 back at the Society Garden, Feb. 15 at Northside Cheer’s, Feb. 25 at The Hummingbird, March 1 at Parish and then March 16 back at Northside Cheer’s.

After that, you’ll have to travel to Jasper or Woodstock or Thomaston for a while to see her.

As you might expect, Forehand’s music is influenced by Southern Rock but not limited to it. She admires Johnny Cash who tops a long list of those she admires, including Janis Joplin and JJ Grey & Mofro. Forehand said she doesn’t let musical genres get in the way of expressing herself which is what her music is all about.

“I just love to play music,” she said. “I don’t really have a big dream of being on the Billboard charts, I just want to share the songs in me and want to touch somebody else through them that may go through similar things. We all need to know somebody understands in a way. To me, that’s success.”

What does she get out of it?

“In my heart, I feel like God blessed me with music, I really believe that,” she said. “I was a terrible singer as a child – awful – and now I can sing. The opportunities and how they’ve come have been so amazing. You hear that if you don’t use something you lose it and I know I’d be a fool not to use what God’s given me. What I get out of it is I feel satisfied using my gift and if it gives something to others then I’m satisfied knowing I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Though Forehand’s shows are entertaining and offer a good time, much of her music has come out of loss and sorrow. That includes the death of Macon area musician Dustin Murdock who was a friend and – literally – instrumental in the EP “Six Strings & Day Dreams” she premiered last year at Grant’s Lounge.

And then there’s her grandmother who was key in her upbringing and the fact she suffers from Alzheimer’s. Out of that is the sadness it brings and the toll it takes on her and her father who serves as her primary caregiver.

“I wrote a couple of songs about that, one called “The Long Goodbye” and the other having to do with the love and dedication I saw in my dad to care for her,” Forehand said. “I wrote them just for me with no plans to record them but I’ve been encouraged to share them. We recorded them in Athens and I hope they’ll speak to people in that situation.”

Aside from performing, at 25 years old Forehand is a first-grade teacher in her day job and as a songwriter recently worked with Otis Redding III to produce a commercial jingle for Meals on Wheels locally.

“As a performer, I’d say the important thing to me is to be prepared and know what I’m doing so the audience and I can go on a journey together,” she said. “As a songwriter, it’s to be honest and true to myself, not necessarily to write a hit. I’m not writing for the radio but for the heart.”

Keep track of Forehand and her music at www.rachelforehand.com,

It’s good seeing local artists advancing in their work and tackling ideas and issues artfully in their own way. It’s good to see Macon, its venues and its colleges and universities fostering them. As audience members, we can get a lot of enjoyment from their work, satisfaction in their messages and – when we go participate – satisfaction in knowing we’re helping such a community flourish - maybe even be “successful” despite that not being their No. 1 goal.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.