Opening Night: Friday, August 4, 2023, 6-8pm
Knoxville singer and musician, Nancy Brennan Strange, will be performing folk, jazz and original music throughout the Opening Night Celebration.
"What is and always has been important to me are the mountains, the animals, the trees, the faces. And, always, always, the colors. Spellbound by the complexity of light, I attempt with my brush strokes to explore the amazing and evasive world of color. In my paintings, I try to capture the light that dances around me every day in these mountains. Energy fields become apparent in my work. I draw with my paintbrush and as the painting progresses the brushes become smaller and the work more detailed and refined. If I had to name my painting style, then it is Appalachian Impressionism."
August Muse is thrilled to showcase Angelyn DeBord's work, during the month of August 2023.
Come and celebrate opening night with Debord, Friday, August 4, 2023 from 6-8pm. Enjoy talking with DeBord, light refreshments and music by Nancy Brennan Strange, vocalist in Strange Company, Knoxville, TN.
Artist Angelyin DeBord was born and raised in a multigenerational family in the Smokey Mountains of Western North Carolina, Angelyn DeBord's art is inspired by the beautiful mountain land where she was born and raised. DeBord has been inspired by the artwork of many artists and all the beautiful images from her childhood: Bell jars full of beets, grapes and peaches setting on a dusty shelf in a canning house, clothes hanging on a line and fabric patched together from other things. She lives with her husband on their organic farm high up on the Clinch Mountain in Scott County, VA.
“I was so fortunate to grow up in the midst of FOUR generations of Appalachian women. These women taught me the ancient art of ‘taking a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and recreating it all into THIS!” Every day I was exposed to their innate and indomitable creativity. I spent my early years saturated with sensory experiences. I have spent my grownup years contemplating the power of my growing up years.
The sights, smells, cadences of voices and colors, the emblems and patterns on our consciousness. I think about symbols and how symbols shift and shape the patterns of our lives. I want to paint what I know, what I see every day and I remain in an endless journey of capturing the powers of colors and light. The paintings are often mystical in concept and inspired by life energies. By getting in touch with our early sensory memories and sharing these memories, how can we fail to see what makes us special and what makes us the same? How can we remain estranged from each other and from this earth? To this very day, living high on a mountain, on an isolated mountain farm, my day-to-day life echoes my growing up years." Angelyn has a degree in Visual Art from Appalachian State University and has studied painting in France, Italy and Germany. DeBord has exhibited throughout the Appalachian Mountains. Her paintings are in many collections throughout American and as far away as Australia. Contact Angelyn: adebord @gmail.com