Madison Artists Guild Gallery is pleased to introduce Atlanta-native Christy Holmes to the community with the opening of Welcome South Brother, a mixed media show celebrating the beauty of southern culture.
The colors and smells of Christy’s portrait-artist grandmother’s studio created a magical world for the young protégé, and Christy gravitated towards making anything and everything with her hands. While art remained her love, college saw the left-brained tendencies of practicality win out, and Christy studied Marketing at UGA while secretly wishing she were an Art major. Fast forward through several years in the marketing profession, and Christy returned to her artistic roots, pursuing post-grad art classes while balancing raising a family. In 2019, Christy returned to her first love and is now a full-time working artist at The Urban Collective in Chamblee.
“I am a mixed media painter, inspired by color, patterns and textures, and enjoy using found materials – vintage books, maps, papers and letters – to collage to a canvas and then randomly paint over . . . It’s almost like a scavenger hunt to find the hidden layers beneath.” In a recently completed series on UGA’s National Championship win and the Atlanta Braves World Series win, Christy utilized parade confetti, song lyrics, vintage logos and photographs from the events in the layering technique.
Welcome South Brother brims with locally-inspired layered works depicting local churches, historic buildings and Madison street scenes as well as views of the Atlanta skyline, Piedmont Park, Athens’ scenes and Uga - the UGA mascot - from the National Championship win series. Adding to the southern charm of this exhibition are paintings of simple country roads and farm life.
Welcome South Brother may be seen in person at MAGallery from 11 AM – 5 PM, Tuesdays through Saturdays March 29 through April 30. The exhibition is also available on-line for viewing and shopping at themadisonartistsguild.org/shop
MAGallery is located at 125 W. Jefferson Street in Madison and represents one facet of the Madison Artists Guild, a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to education and the encouragement of artistic endeavor. For more information, please visit TheMadisonArtistsGuild.org or call 706-342-9360.