By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Lynne W. Griffey, a retired schoolteacher and painter, lives in a house where she has a bird’s eye view of her favorite creatures from nature: birds. She has witnessed their beauty often from her back deck and, from her upstairs painting studio, she captures them on canvas.
From 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, Griffey’s recent works will be celebrated at Silke’s Old World Breads Bakery and Café at 1214-A College Street. The event is free and open to the public.
The paintings from this show, entitled “Facets: From Finite to Fanciful,” will remain on the walls of the café through March.
The “Evening with the Artists” event has come to be a tradition for Silke Tyler, the owner of the café, who is also a photographer and painter.
“We fill the tables in the Stammtisch room with breads, pastries, meat and cheese plates, a salad plate, condiments and dressings and pizzas,” she said of the convivial affairs.
“And of course we will have Red River Breeze playing,” she said of the area band inspired by Celtic music. The group will create a musical backdrop for Griffey’s beautiful artwork.
Griffey’s paintings of birds blend elements of realism and whimsy. For this show, she said, “the fanciful kicked in with 3-D textured backgrounds.” She added real items from nature to the paintings, such as a feather, a seashell or a nest. She also wrote anecdotes to accompany many of the works.
One such passage was written for the painting “A Songbird’s Gift,” which was inspired by Harper Lee’s book “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In it she talks about the “symphony of joy” these creatures create “as the earliest golden rays of dawn rise on the horizon.”
Additionally, Griffey writes, “These innocent creatures are thrilled to have another day to sing their gratitude to our earth. How do we begin our day? Maybe taking a lesson from the songbird would give us the freedom to sing of our blessings and gifts.”
There will be a bounty of delicious food at the artist’s reception at Silke’s Old World Breads Bakery and Café from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22.
Photo by Silke Tyler
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.