Let Your Voice Be Heard
LOCATION: Gallery at The Center
110 West College Street . Murfreesboro, TN 37130
ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, Febuary 14, 6 to 9 PM
The gallery is free and open to the public, Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
I often refer to myself as an “artistic story teller”. As a child growing up in rural Rutherford County, I was quite fortunate to be around elders telling numerous tells & stories. I could listen to my parents and grandparents for hours. Subsequently, it was not a surprise that as an artist, I love to weave a story around my art. I was always surrounded by warm, rich, bold colors from the landscape to the trees, and skies. Dr. Barbara Hodges’ create art that invite the viewer to ponder and explore. With a passion for hope, excellence, beauty and things spiritual, she skillfully creates artwork that possesses vibrancy, textures, bold brilliant colors, light, and mystery.
My artwork has evolved over the years from oil drip style to now mixed media incorporating found objects and textile. Folds in the fabric are created to generate the 3D aspect. I love to portray life in color. My artwork is depicted as a narrative and always layered with a symbol of “social consciousness” which may be an object or person. Artistic styles ranges from memory paintings, abstract, traditional, and experimental art. Hodges’ goal is to share her art always leaving the viewer with some life lesson. Her art is meant to enlighten, inspire, elevate, empower, and educate the viewer.
The year 2020 is a very special year being the “Year of the Woman” and thus reminds me of all the special women in my life past, present, and future. These women can be characterized as strong, determined, hopeful, survivors, change-makers, forgiving, and filled with perseverance with the ability to let go of the past. They possess the uncanny ability to laugh, see good in each day, and succeed despite the obstacles and challenges of life. The art in this exhibition is designed to give a voice to the voiceless and inspire, educate, and empower the observer. One goal of my art is to depict as elegantly stated by Suffragist Nannie Helen Burroughs to give women “a Tower of strength of which poets have never sung, orators have never spoken, and scholars have never written”.
Contact The Artist: Email: hodgesl@bellsouth.net
Art allowed me to express what I feel, think, and experience. I grew up during the time of the Civil Rights Era in Meridian, Mississippi. A time of change – filled with challenges, perils, hope, dreams, uncertainty, and great sacrifices. My parents shielded my siblings and I against the harsh realities and negative influences during that time. Yet, we were exposed to these harsh realities through the media – TV, radio, and newspaper. Some things could not be shielded against such as the harsh realities and disparities in the education system and access to medical care.
Growing up in Meridian Mississippi, I learned to appreciate the beauty of life and nature despite challenging times and events. “Nature with all its beauty reflects a moment in time. Through painting, I can capture not only the beauty in nature, but also what can be imagined, the struggle, joy and pain of the Human Spirit”. Art allows me to express my God-given abilities in ways the world have not seen before, and to unlock the keys of nature’s unique shapes and wonderful creations.
My paintings are designed to capture not only the beauty in nature, but also what can be imagined, the struggle, joy and pain of the Human experience. Oil painting is my preferred medium. My art is meant to be expressive, thought-provoking, and imaginative. My art offers the viewer possibilities into the human experience.
Past Exhibitions and Shows
“Conversation: Untold Stories”
July 29 – August 17, 2019 | Opening–1-4 p.m., Saturday, August 3, 2019,
Todd Art Gallery, MTSU Todd Hall, Room 224A
Curated by Dr. Barbara and Mr. Leroy Hodges this juried collaborative art exhibition of local and regional artists gives something of meaning to the audience through inspiring, engaging, and educating works of art. Skillfully through visual, written, or social media storytelling, these artists offer the opportunity to talk with and not at the audience, to interact and offer their perspective for untold stories, conversations from history, societal concerns, and environmental issues.
Artists Include:
Leroy Hodges, Jr., Dr. Barbara Hodges, Michael McBride, James Threalkill, Carlton Wilkinson, Dayo Johnson, Destiney Powell, Michael Mucker, Diane Stockard, Jennifer McGuire, Heloise Shilstat, Ginny Togrye, Henry L. Jones, Lakesha Moore, and Walter Pope.
Saturdays At Todd
Exploring the Colors, Shapes, and Harmony of Cubism with Fabric Art
The workshop, led by Leroy and Barbara Hodges, will provide participants with 100% hands-on experience in creating a 2-dimensional piece of artwork using fabric art and cubism. Participants will explore the Colors, Shapes, and Harmony of Cubism fused with Fabric Art. Leroy Hodges utilizes Cubism in much of his artwork. Barbara is a mixed media artist who focused on Fabric Art. Participant will use these 2 creative art forms to create a beautiful, colorful, unique 2-D mixed media artwork. Open to the public, limited to 20 participants, all supplies provided. All ages welcome!
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm CDT
Location: Todd Hall, Room 236
Created by: TG Todd Gallery
Other Exhibitions in May
☑ Art Exhibit: Bradley Academy Museum & Culture Center.
1-May-2019 to 31-May-2019
☑ Art Exhibit: Stone Rivers Battlefield for Decoration Day.
4-May-2019
For Immediate Release
Inaugural Art Exhibit @ Washington Theater Gallery
Dr. Barbara and Leroy Hodges Open First Exhibition at New Community Gallery Space
The Washington Theatre and Patterson Community Center are pleased to announce the premiere of “Spring Into the Arts” (2019), an exhibition of modernist paintings by Murfreesboro-based artists and community advocates Dr. Barbara Hodges and Leroy Hodges. “Spring Into the Arts” is the first exhibition to open at the new art gallery and community project space in the lobby of the Washington Theatre.
MURFREESBORO, March 28, 2019 – Dr. Barbara Hodges and Leroy Hodges premiere Spring Into the Arts (2019), an extensive exhibition of modernist paintings at the newly launched gallery and community project space in the lobby of the Washington Theatre at Patterson Park Community Center. Featuring an extensive selection of paintings the artist-couple has produced together and independently over the last several years, the exhibition celebrates their robust arts practice and contribution to Murfreesboro’s creative community.
Spring Into the Arts (2019) surveys the Hodges work related to community, time, and music, with particular emphasis on work that denotes the regeneration, renewal, and the metamorphosis associated with various phases and moments of life. Says the Hodges, “This exhibition…signifies the passion, joy, and hope found with springtime. The observer determines the story as it relates to their life…It is our hope that the viewer finds these artworks to be inspiring, uplifting, and empowering.”
Working with intense and colorful palette choices—which the artists’ describe as “brilliant, poignant, bold, and textural”—the Hodge’s respective creative practices converge in Spring Into the Arts (2019) with a shared vibrancy of color and subject matter. Working between a number of Modernist stylistic references—from drip and slash painting, cubism, and color fields to abstraction—the breadth of the Hodges technical mastery with paint is further underscored by their ability to unify these divergent styles on canvas.
Through their continued commitment to arts programming and education in the community, Dr. Barbara and Leroy Hodges exemplify the intent of the new gallery to better serve the community through art, and have been foundational to the creative environment that has enabled its emergence. With the desire to continue to foster an environment of exchange where different voices and experiences are represented across experimental and traditional mediums, the new gallery exhibition programming will highlight young, emerging, and established local and regional contemporary artists.
Currently Unnamed, the gallery space is an interdepartmental partnership between The City of Murfreesboro’s Washington Theatre and Patterson Park Community Center. It is the mission of the gallery to offer a decentralized platform for the local community to engage in the production of, and ideas generated by, contemporary art through exhibitions, dialogue, educational programming, and community events. This project space showcases and supports novel art and ideas that promote accessibility, inclusion, and creative growth in a manner appropriate to the community space in which it resides.
Spring Into The Arts is open March 16, 2019 — April 27, 2019. The public is invited to attend the opening reception on Saturday, April 6 (3:00pm – 5:00pm) at the new Washington Theatre gallery space located in Patterson Park Community Center. The artists will be present during the opening reception.
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Artist Statement: Leroy Hodges
Arts allows me to express what I feel, think, and experience. I grew up during the Civil Rights era in Meridian, Mississippi—a time of change, filled with challenges, perils, hopes, dreams, uncertainty, and great sacrifices. My parents shielded my siblings and I against the harsh realities and negative influences during that time. Yet, we were exposed to these harsh realities through the media—television, radio, and newspaper. Some things could not be shielded against; harsh realities and disparities in the education system and access to medical care.
Growing up in Meridian, I learned to appreciate the beauty of life and nature despite challenging times and events. “Nature with all its beauty reflects a moment in time. Through painting, I can capture not only the beauty in nature, but also what can be imagined, the struggle, joy, and pain of the Human Spirit”. Art allows me to express my God given abilities in ways the world have not seen before, and to unlock natures unique shapes and creations.
My paintings are designed to capture not only the beauty in nature but also what can be imagined, the struggle, joy, and pain of the human experience. Oil painting is my preferred medium. My art is meant to be expressive, thought provoking, and imaginative. My art offers the viewers possibilities into the human experience.
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Artist Statement: Dr. Barbara Hodges
Creating art that invites the viewer to ponder and explore is Barbara Hodge’s primary goal. With a passion for hope, excellence, beauty, and things spiritual, Barbara’s paintings also reflect her love for bold brilliant colors, textures, light, and mystery. Most importantly, Barbara’s artwork is intricately narrative and layered with symbols of “social consciousness”.
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About The Washington Theatre:
The Washington Theatre is an accessible performance and event space in Patterson Park Community Center. Home to Perform Murfreesboro—a professional youth theatre education program—The Washington Theatre facilitates community arts programming, theatre education, and rental space for private and public productions.
For more information about the new gallery space, The Washington Theatre, or Spring Into the Arts (2019), please contact Susan Hicks at: shicks@murfreesborotn.gov
