Good taste isn't hard to find

Photo by: Leila Mattimore
Lauren Gregg's "Nerdimals" are displayed in the Prince Avenue
restaurant The Grit. The Grit features new art installations every
every three weeks.

By Leila Mattimore

There’s no need to put on fancy pants to see great art these days. Museums, galleries and exhibits with expensive admission no longer rule the show.

Athens has long been reputed as a college town with a unique blend of “high culture.” The music venues, restaurants, art galleries, all combine to form a city that values a pleasing aesthetic quality and good taste.

And good taste in Athens is never hard to find. Especially since in many of the restaurants around town you can also find local artists’ work on display.

Jay Totti, general manager of The Grit restaurant, explains how the artists and the restaurants have a mutually beneficial relationship. “We like to support local artists by giving them a space to share their work with the public, but it also benefits the restaurant’s atmosphere,” Totti said.

Every three weeks The Grit features an installation of art by a local artist, but there are certain pieces in the restaurant that never change. According to Totti, the atmosphere remains constant, but it is supplemented with a taste of something new.

“You have a menu of food with specials which change, and you also have a menu of art or appearance,” Totti said. Customers can try a daily special when they come in, or can order their usual off the menu. The same theory can be applied to the ever-varying art.

Currently, The Grit is featuring art by Lauren Gregg. Twelve of Gregg’s “nerdimals,” 15.5 x 19.5 framed illustrations, can be found in the restaurant adding a playful element to the “atmosphere menu”. Enjoying while you eat is free, but the art is also available for purchase. The “nerdimals” go for about $150 each, and Gregg also sells prints online.

Big City Bread Café is another Athens restaurant that proudly displays local artists. “Sweet Thoughts,” by Kate Schönke, is the current installation. The series is made of handmade paper, ribbon, and collage.

“I really like the cupcakes and sweets in this collage,” Haley Peterson, a sophomore accounting major at the University of Georgia, said of the “Sweet Thoughts” series. “They’re great for the bakery. I think they’re actually making me hungrier.”

Some customers have mixed feelings though, and think the art doesn’t always add to a diner’s experience. “That ominous face, or ghost, over there is scary,” Vinny Barba, a junior at UGA, said, of an untitled, permanent work in Big City Bread cafe.

“I like the little ghost,” Peterson responded.





Edited by: Courtney Smith

Local tattoo artist mixes cute with carnage

Photo by: Alex McKelvey
Local tattoo artist Guzik stands outside Pain & Wonder
where both he and Groves work.

By: Alex McKelvey
Mike Groves abandoned working at electronic retail stores to pursue a career creating distorted, bizarre and sometimes disturbing artwork meant to twist people’s perceptions of reality. He has since become a well-respected tattoo artist at Pain & Wonder, located at 285 W. Washington St.
As far as his colleagues are concerned, Groves brings a new-fangled style to Pain & Wonder’s catalog.
“He is Jim Henson on acid, drawing robots,” Groves’ coworker, Guzik, the self-proclaimed chaplain of Pain & Wonder, said.
Groves combines his fascination with comic book art and his academic background in graphic design to create a distinctive artistic style that is apparent in his work.
The ink artisan has been drawing all of his life. At an early age, he was frequently given art supplies by his grandfather, Glen Wagers, an Emmy-award-winning set designer.
Now, Groves is a freelance artist with a repertoire of strange work, showcased on skin and T-shirts alike. He has been working at Pain & Wonder for seven years, but his income is reinforced through his online gallery, poopbird.com, where much of his work is for sale.
“It is nontraditional,” Groves said, when asked about his style. “It has a comic book, animated kind-of feel.”
His work is certainly nontraditional. He often draws content from video games or childhood television programs with a scratchy, abrasive approach that is reminiscent of artwork by Ralph Steadman, the artist who illustrated some of Hunter S. Thompson’s work.
One of Groves’ pieces features Sesame Street character Bert, wielding an axe and standing over a pile of carnage. It’s almost as if Groves is introducing the childhood icon to a universe created by the new generation of violent video games.
It is images like this that distinguish Groves from other local tattoo artists and draw in the customers.
Christopher Poss, an Athens local was lured by the creative energy in Groves’ artwork and commissioned him to design his custom robot tattoo.
“It is something new,” Poss said, flashing his tattoo and admiring it. “The robot wants to be menacing but it’s too cartoony to do it.”
This concept of dualism seems to encapsulate an element that makes much of Groves’ work so captivating. According to Groves, he tries to warp the content of his art in two notable ways. He takes dark content and makes it bright and cheery, or he takes symbols of childhood innocence and warps them with deranged, Steadman-like imagery.
Groves is content making a living out of his passion for strange aesthetics and he does not miss his job at Circuit City.
He feels blessed to work in Athens, where he is able to do a lot of custom work that allows him a great deal of artistic liberty.
“It’s an artistic job that has a strong fan base for the kind of stuff I do,” Groves said.

Edited by: Courtney Smith

Two students create art with a bark

Photo by: Jordan Stover
Student artist Mandy Newton sketches the outline of a new piece of art.
She and her roommate plan to sell their dog-themed art at local craft fairs

By: Jordan Stover

This summer, two University of Georgia students will combine their love of UGA, football and dogs with their love of painting, cooking and designing in an effort to earn some spending money.

Mandy Newton, a senior from Sylvania, Ga., and Jessica Vaughan, a junior from Cartersville, Ga., are working on items to put in their “dog-themed” booths that they plan on setting up at arts and crafts festivals all over Georgia.

The two have primarily been working on paintings of classic UGA symbols such as the arch and the athletic association’s “G.”

Newton wanted to sell UGA paintings because it is a subject that is very close to her heart since both of her parents attended UGA.

“I wanted to paint the ‘G’ because it was more football-related than the arch,” Newton, a math education major, said.

According to Vaughan, she and Newton also wanted to make UGA paintings because they thought that they would sell better.

“We wanted to make [the art] relevant,” Vaughan, a biology major, said. “Not many people will buy random pictures of flowers, but Georgia fans will always buy UGA stuff.”

Cindy Watkins, an animal science major from Rome, Ga., agreed with the idea that UGA paintings would sell better than anything else.

“I don’t normally buy stuff like that, but I would buy UGA paintings,” Watkins said. “I always stop at booths in the mall that have UGA stuff to see what I can find.”

In addition to UGA paintings, Newton and Vaughan also plan to sell dog treats, dog visors and paintings of their dog Zoe, a teacup Chihuahua.

“We wanted to stick with a theme and the dog items seemed to fit since UGA’s mascot is the bulldogs,” Newton said. “We also plan on putting ‘G’s’ and arches on the dog visors to keep with the theme.”

Zoe the dog will accompany her owners to the arts festivals and act as their mascot. Newton said that she and Vaughan are planning to dress her up in a Georgia cheerleading uniform to help work the booth.

Vaughan and Newton have not decided for sure which festivals they will be participating in this summer, but they will definitely be at the Rose Lawn Arts Festival in Cartersville, Ga. in the fall.

Vaughan and Newton got the idea to sell their arts and crafts at festivals while visiting the Rose Lawn Arts Festival last year. According to Newton, they saw what other people were doing and decided to give it a try.

While Vaughan attended a high school known for its excellent fine arts program and has been painting for most of her life, Newton is fairly new to painting but said that she is really enjoying it.

“I haven’t painted very much before, but it’s fun and it’s a great way to earn some extra money during the summer,” Newton said.

Edited by: Courtney Smith

Good taste isn’t hard to find

Photo by Leila Mattimore
Local artist Lauren Gregg's framed works displayed at Prince Avenue restaurant The Grit.


By Leila Mattimore

A gallery isn’t the only place to find art in Athens anymore.

Athens has long been reputed as a college town with more “high culture” than “college.” The music venues, restaurants, art galleries, all combine to form a city that values pleasing aesthetic quality and good taste.

And good taste in Athens is never hard to find. In many of the restaurants around town, works by local artists are on display.