Attic Opening: Footprints & Shadows

Join us Friday, November 21 as

The Attic Gallery
presents
Footprints & Shadows



New paintings by:
• Keith Alford
• Vidal Blankenstein
• Lesley Silver
• James Smithhart
• Jamie Tate

jewelry by
• Betsy Liles

airplanes by
• David Lambert

and clay by
• Ky Johnston
• Matt Steadman

(plus new folk art from the Kentuck
Festival)



Reception:
Friday November 21
7 PM - 9 PM

As we walk through the world we all leave footprints and cast shadows. Artists leave theirs in their paintings, clay,
jewlery, sculpture, etc...
Come meet the artists
See more at atticgallery.net or call 601 638 9221
Dinner & an Art Opening?
Our friends Sally & Chris of
Main Street Market
are opening that Friday night (Nov. 21) just so you can enjoy a wonderful dinner before the opening.



Call 601 634 8088 to reserve your table. (Reservations are a must)




They are only five blocks away at the corner of Main and Cherry Streets. (...and it's B.Y.O.B.)

37 Years in the Attic?

Join us for our

37th Anniversary Show
Contemporary Rhythms:

New paintings by:

• Jean Blue

• Sandra Halat
• Ellen Langford

• Patt Odom

• Susie Ranager

and clay by

• Pat Hankins

Join us to celebrate
37 Years in the
Attic Gallery

Friday October 17
7 PM to 9 PM

These 5 women are serious artists whose work always teaches me something. Come see their latest.
For more info: call 601 638 9221

Dinner & an Art Opening?
Our friends Sally & Chris of Main Street Market are opening that night just so you can enjoy a wonderful dinner before the opening.

Call 601 634 8088 to reserve your table. (Reservations are a must)

They are only five blocks away at the corner of Main and Cherry Streets

(And it’s B.Y.O.B.)

Read About the Rayburn/Joe Show in the Clarion Ledger

Click to see Sherry Luca's recent article (on the Clarion Ledger website) about our new show.

Dale & Mamie "Coming Home" to the Attic

Dale Rayburn & Mamie Joe

Friday, March 28

On Friday, March 28, the Attic Gallery will hold a homecoming of sorts for Roswell, Georgia artists Dale Rayburn and his wife, Mamie Joe. They will be showing a selection of their latest paintings, monotypes, etchings, and collages in an exhibit called “Coming Home.”

Although both Dale Rayburn and Mamie Joe are native Mississippians, they moved away from their home state over 37 years ago. Lesley Silver had only recently opened her Attic Gallery in Vicksburg when she saw their work in Atlanta. She contacted them immediately because their work seemed to be exactly what she wanted for her fledgling gallery. “It was original graphics (etchings) and it was Southern, a combination that was rare at the time. Dale’s piece was called ‘My Turn, Your Turn’ and I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw it,” she recalls. “Dale responded, and the rest is history. The Attic has exclusively represented Dale and Mamie in central Mississippi since the early 1970’s. Since that time they have become nationally known. Just last month Rayburn and Joe both won major awards at the Cocoanut Grove Show in Florida.

Dale’s early etchings often featured old men as their subjects; and Mamie’s were often images of cats or glamorous women. “Their work seemed to tell stories and they quickly developed a following of collectors here in Vicksburg with many eagerly awaiting their newest work.” Silver said. “They have evolved over the years, but both Dale and Mamie continue to do work that people connect to.”

Along with their signature work, they will be showcasing a new project for the first time here in Vicksburg. It is a group of collaborative collages created on the computer. “It’s something fun we have been working on,” Dale Rayburn said, “and the Attic seemed like a good place to share it.”
The couple wanted to call this exhibit Coming Home, because, even though they have maintained ties to Mississippi, they recently have built a new studio at Rayburn’s family’s old home place in Carriere, Mississippi. “After Katrina, we had to come tend to the old farm and somehow we have reconnected, and wanted to be able to spend time here and work here.”

Dale and Mamie will be at the opening reception from 7 PM to 9 PM on Friday, March 28 at the Attic Gallery at 1101 Washington Street in downtown Vicksburg. The show will continue through April. For more information call the Attic Gallery: 601 638 9221.

Sherry Lucas reports on the Weather, The Weather

Read what Sherry Lucas has to say about our annual theme show in the Clarion Ledger.

The Weather The Weather (Our Annual Theme Show)

Attic Gallery Theme Show: The Weather, The Weather

Opening Friday, February 29

from 7 PM until 9 PM

On Friday, February 29 the Attic Gallery will open their annual theme show featuring the work of more than forty artists from across the South including New Orleans, Birmingham, and all over Mississippi. The theme this year is "Weather."

"Every year we pick a word or idea from somewhere, and let all our artist friends know. Somehow, since it's February, the weather seemed to be on our minds, so we decided to make it our theme. Giving the artists a theme seems to jump start the creative process for them here at the beginning of the year," explained Lesley Silver, owner of the Attic Gallery located in downtown Vicksburg for over 35 years.

"We've been doing these for over 20 years. Themes from past years include: cats, doors, coffee cups, hands, masks, signs, and the kitchen."
"Many of the participating artists turn out to see what everyone else has done. Some interpret the theme in a straightforward way, but there are always some whose work causes people to hesitate and scratch their heads over how the piece relates to the theme. That's part of the fun of it."

There will be paintings, sculpture, photography, pottery, and more.

"Our coffeehouse will be open downstairs that night, so it should be a fun evening to be on the corner of Grove and Washington Streets."

The opening reception will be Friday, February 29 from 7 PM to 9 PM at the Attic Gallery at 1101 Washington Street in downtown Vicksburg. The public is invited. For more information call 601 638 9221 or see our web site: atticgallery.net. The show will continue through March.

Among participating artists will be:
Janet Akers
Keith Alford
Julia Allen
Duncan Baird
Elizabeth Barenis
Sam Beibers
Jean Blue
Mike Box
Pat Brown
Con Christeson
Susan Clark
Hannah Cohen
Fletcher Cox
Charles Crossley
Paul Fayard
Lori Felix
Martha Ferris
Max Ford
Pat Fowler
Kathy Gergo
Amy Glisan
Elayne Goodman
Pete Halverson
Mary Hardy
Teresa Haygood
Kennith Humphrey
Ky Johnston
Ellen Langford
Ron Lindsey
Ross Lunz
Nancy Mitchell
Byron Myrick
Patt Odom
Jennifer Owen
Neil & Stephen Pillow
HC Porter
W Earl Robinson
Euphus Ruth
Lesley Silver
Earl Simmons
Ceci Smith
James Smithhart
Jamie Tate
Felandus Thames
Marianne Wynn

Joni Bishop art in the Attic

Joni Bishop is not only performing in our Highway 61 Coffeehouse this Thursday (Dec. 6), she is having an exhibit of her art in the Attic. Most of her paintings are of blues and folk musicians. They will be around until this Saturday, December 8. Come meet Joni and see her paintings.

Joni's introduction to the world of music began when she got her first guitar at age 9 and discovered the folk/ roots music of singers like Mississippi John Hurt. & Elizabeth Cotton. Not only did the music captivate her, but the faces on the LP jackets as well. It was then that she began to develop a love for both music & art and to discover her own gifts: for writing songs, singing, playing finger-style guitar, and for sketching pencil portraits of the musicians she loved to listen to.
Since those early days, Joni's career as a singer-songwriter has become well established on the American folk music scene. She has toured extensively throughout the US and in Europe. Her distinctive songwriting-vocal-guitar style won her recognition in many noted song festivals here and abroad and landed her a staff-writing deal with Galleon Music Publishing Co. in Los Angeles before arriving in Nashville in 1989. She was a New Folk winner in the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, has recorded for CBS Records, BWE Records and released 5 CDs on her own independent label Polestar Records. Joni's songs have been recorded by other artists as well, among them country singer Crystal Gayle, pop group 3T, Australian country artist Shanly Dell and numerous folk artists and bluegrass groups and her music continues to receive airplay around the country on Americana, college & public radio.
As a visual artist, Joni had her first solo art show, "Roots, Rhythm & Gospel", in Nashville in 1998, where she exhibited over 40 of her folk-art Jazz/Blues/Gospel portraits of some of her most beloved subjects: the musicians and singers whose music has influenced, uplifted and inspired her through the years - Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Rev. Gary Davis, and the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, to name a few. Her work has been shown throughout the Southeast United States in conjunction with her concert tours in places like New Orleans, Memphis & Washington DC.. Joni is based in Nashville where she continues to write music, record and paint. Having completed her 5th CD 'Steal Away Home', a folk-gospel collection of spirituals that includes a booklet of her art illustrations, Joni is currently busy working on a new CD of original music and a multi-media theatre piece that will incorporate elements of art, music & film......

Clarion Ledger says...

Read what Sherry Lucas has to say about the Intersecting Visions show in the Clarion Ledger.

36 Years brings Intersecting Visions...Anniversary Show Opens

Byron Myrick's Clay Vessels


Jamie Tate's Painting, Smoke & Mirrors


Margaret Barber's Teapot



Jean Blue Painting


Photograph by Melody Golding



Kennith Humphrey painting


Photograph by Will Jacks

Join us as the Attic celebrates our 36th year bringing art to downtown Vicksburg and beyond.

Our Anniversary Show is called Intersecting Visions, and features the remarkable visions of 7 artists:

Margaret Barber - Clay
Jean Blue - Paintings
Melody Golding - Photography
Kennith Humphrey - Paintings
Will Jacks - Photography
Byron Myrick - Clay
Jamie Tate - Paintings


Friday, October 12
7 to 9 PM



Since opening in 1971 the Attic Gallery has shared the visions of hundreds of artists. To celebrate our latest milestone we are bringing together 7 creative friends both old and new. Vicksburg local, Jean Blue has been on our staff for nearly 20 years, and has been a favorite featured artist for at least 30. Her paintings are always waited for and sought after. Lesley thinks, "Jean is using stronger colors and underpainting techniques which make this work pop. They are full of symbols. This group includes both landscapes and paintings of Jean's inner landscape."

Also from Vicksburg, prolific painter, Kennith Humphrey has been our best selling artist since we moved into our "new" building over 10 years ago. "Kennith is as always fearless with colors. He stretches the imagination with his distortion of figures and seems to make surprising discoveries as he paints."

One more local artist, Melody Golding, is one of the latest to hang her work here. She is a painter and photographer who has recently completed a massive Katrina related photo project. "We have known Melody for years, and have watched her growth as an artist. Her photos for the show are ethereal & seductive."

From the Mississippi Delta town of Stoneville, outgoing director of the Mississippi Art Colony, Jamie Tate will be presenting new abtract paintings. "Her paintings may be nonobjective, but her textures and forms definitely make you feel a connection to the land of the Delta."

Also from the Delta, (Cleveland, Mississippi) photographer Will Jacks is making his Attic debut with a stunning collection of mysterious sepia toned images. "In his own words these photos of New Orleans are 'mostly very abstract and surreal,' and 'in some way or another illustrate the human spirit.' Powerful..."


Byron Myrick from Moselle, Mississippi returns to the Attic with his signature clay sculptural vessels which are the result of careful construction, breaking, glazing and reassembly. "A metaphor for life?: rebirth as something new and better, definitely different."

Margaret Barber of Montgomery, Alabama will be showing for the fist time in the Attic. A member of the Mississippi Craftsman's Guild, she also works with clay, creating elegant teapots and other vessels. "Her clay work seems to dance - the pieces have a life of their own. Her marks and style transform these familiar forms."

The show opens on Friday, October 12 at 7 PM at the Attic Gallery in downtown Vicksburg. The work will hang for approximately one month.

The public is invited.

Mary Hardy

MARY HARDY - Ocean Springs

Artist's Statement
My working process seems to be a conversation with myself, my innerness. It is a constant search, an excavation. This "digging" lends itself therefore to the mixed media process that I use of layering drawing, painting and collage materials. My subject matter is derived from this personal searching as all Art has done since the beginning of time. I therefore use universal, archetypal symbols to engage the viewer and encourage them to look through the layers and discover a story of their own.

Vicksburg Photographer has new book.

Vicksburg's Melody Golding has brought us several of her photos from her exhibition: 'Katrina: Mississippi Women Remember' which opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, March-May 2007. More than Fifty sepia toned silver gelatin prints and unique large imbue prints were exhibited along with hours of black and white streaming video Melody has taken spanning from September 2005 to August 2006. This comprehensive exhibition and unique photographic journal, with its stunning sepia photographs of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina forms the basis of the book entitled 'Katrina: Mississippi Women Remember' published by the University Press of Mississippi in May 2007. Included are essays by noted authors Ellen Gilchrist and Mary Anderson Pickard. This book will join Melody's photographs of the storm's aftermath with the stories and reflections of those who lived through it. A compelling component of this exhibit is the interspersed text of poignant phrases drawn from the book. A solo exhibit of Melody's work, "Stark Exposures: Images of Katrina", opened at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art on June 1 and continued through August 16, 2006. This was the first exhibit about Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Visit Melody's website to see more images and learn more about her and her work.

Lesley & Daniel Speak...

Every Thursday afternoon, members of the Mississippi Arts Commission staff host "The Mississippi Arts Hour," a radio program broadcast on WLEZ (103.7 FM) in Jackson, Mississippi. The show features interviews with Mississippi artists, musicians, craftspeople, and others involved in arts and culture from around the state.

April 12, 2007 - The Attic Gallery in Vicksburg, Mississippi has been showcasing the work of unique visual artists for over 30 years. Gallery owners Lesley Silver and Daniel Boone join Malcolm White for a discussion of the history of the gallery, Vicksburg's blooming arts scene, and their latest venture, the Highway 61 Coffee House.

click here to listen to the interview.