Memorializing a Macon icon

Nothing can overshadow the loss of one of Macon’s favorite sons, a son who adopted this city as his home. However, as many of the hand-held signs along the route of Gregg Allman’s funeral procession read, in Allman’s own words, “The Road Goes on Forever.”

Macon’s artistic disposition will continue to inspire and to nurture stars in every creative genre, a fitting legacy for Allman and for the legion of Macon musical icons lost before him.

CELEBRATING THE ENDURANCE OF THE ARTS

On First Friday, the day before the day-long public tribute to Allman, local painter Marthalyn Fortson opened an exhibition of her translucent and transparent watercolors in the gallery at Macon Arts Alliance. Fortson’s unusual manipulation of color and perspective elicited generous comments from viewers of the untitled works. Sue Bond, an accomplished painter who has admired Fortson’s work for several years, compared her paintings to hearing a great symphonic performance or seeing a well executed ballet.

The counterpoint of fluid watercolor with the precise definition of geometric shapes and trees resembled airy stained glass compositions in many of the paintings. Others evoked memories of sun-dappled walks through the forest on a fall day.

In a study in contrasts, Fortson was joined in the Macon Arts exhibition by a clay artist and a couple of woodturners. Amy McCullough, who works in clay but eschews the moniker “potter,” said in her biographical sketch, “I do not throw pots or use molds like you would find in a typical pottery studio.”

McCullough’s work is non-functional — you cannot expect to find a pitcher or baking dish in her collection. Since she does not mass produce any of her decorative pieces, each one is absolutely unique. One of her creations, with its jagged edges and negative spaces, resembled driftwood that might be found washed up on a beach — nature’s own artistic expression.

The display of Bill Bulloch’s bowls, inlaid and turned on a lathe, are a riot of confetti colors swirled with wood in playful shapes that are best seen on stands that allow the interiors to be seen as well as the outer surfaces. Chip Nasworthy’s restraint with his turned bowls plays on the beauty and intricacy of the natural wood grain.

A NEW MEANING FOR ‘SPACE AGE’

At the 567 Center for Renewal, Casie Trace, a trained illustrator, transports the viewer to another dimension with her “Spaced” exhibition, which also opened on First Friday. But the title of Trace’s show does not tell the whole story. This is not a trip for Star Wars fans — it is a comprehensive array of paintings using color and inferences of places and situations to tell the artist’s evolution from illustrator to painter.

One painting, a pixelated galaxy of stars, as seen from some distance, appears to move as one might see it in a planetarium. A recent trip to China was the inspiration for Trace’s Chinese city skyline, with the back of an obvious tourist in the foreground, arms propped on a handrail, seeing the city lights come alive at sundown.

Trace uses shades of blue and purple in many of her night paintings, stars seen in an inky sky, with vestiges of brilliant sunlight in Van Gogh’s oranges, golds and reds tenaciously hanging on at the end of day.

Reminiscent of the aurora borealis over the Mendenhall River in Alaska, one canvas of a river valley cloaked in the darkness of tall firs has the eerie lighting of the mystical phenomenon washing the crest of the mountains.

Trace is a regularly scheduled instructor at the 567 in classes for adults and children. Watch for summer events on their website, the567center.org, for opportunities to enroll during the next few months.

The shows at both galleries will be on display through June 30.

This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Memorializing a Macon icon."