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Announcing "Big Muddy"Scenes from the 2002 Ruskey & Clark Missouri River ExpeditionOn Valentine's Day, Friday, February 14, 2003, from 8 - 10 PM, the Painted Planet Artspace in Memphis, TN will present an exhibition of paintings from the Fall 2002 Ruskey & Clark Missouri River Expedition. The Painted Planet is located in the Strings & Things Mall at 1555 Madison Avenue, in Midtown Memphis. Artist John Ruskey and Expedition leader Mike Clark will be on hand for discussion and gallery talk. Mississippi Blues Master Johnnie "Mr. Johnnie" Billington, along with his students and special guests, will provide entertainment. "Big Muddy" is a series of "32 x 40" watercolors, pastels and oils depicting the wilderness of the Missouri River valley, from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi, its buttes and backwaters, its mesas and mountains, its forests and fur-bearing creatures. Seen through the eyes of a canoe-paddling painter, you feel the unpredictable nature of the river and the weather systems of the Northern Great Plains, brilliantly emblazoned in brooding winter skies and turbulent water motions. But man's ignorance and widespread abuse is also seen in impressionistic power plant cooling towers and the dizzying cold ironwork of interstate bridges. The "Big Muddy" paintings are displayed with journal excerpts. Johnnie "Mr. Johnnie" Billington is a recognized blues master from Lambert, Mississippi, who is dedicated to keeping the blues tradition alive by teaching children to play. Accompanying Mr. Johnnie will be some of his young apprentices as well as graduates of his teaching. For more information, please contact Donna Bowers at the Painted Planet Artspace, (901) 728-6278, or John Ruskey, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, at (662) 627-4070. |
