Deep Fried Kudzu

There was an article in Southern Living about three or four years ago about planting a chair and since then I've been really wanting to try it.  The whole project took less than 20 minutes.

First, just remove the seat, then spray the chair all over with sealant.  Let dry.

Next, unroll a length of chicken wire over the open seat, push it down to make as deep a 'bowl' as will be necessary for your plants, and cut with tin snips.  Take this smaller, more manageable piece of chicken wire, and further mold it around the open area:

Cut again with snips, and begin stapling the form along the outline of the chair:

Take the coco liner (this is great for keeping all the soil in but allowing for good drainage) and fit in the chair.  The big folds will tell you where to cut small sections out so there is a bit of overlap but not too much.  If you cut while the coco liner is in the chair, you'll see exactly how much to remove: 

Next, add potting soil and plants, water, and it's all set!:

Perfect!  


When I uploaded my pics to Flickr, I took a look to see other planted chairs and found several.  


Love this one.  And what about this!?

I love revolving table restaurants: the kind with the giant lazy susan in the middle, where you sit at a giant table with people who are at first strangers, then fast friends.


While we were in Chattanooga, we went to the only revolving tables restaurant I know of outside Mississippi: Bea's.  


The Times Free Press had an article about it earlier this year; the restaurant is now 60 years old.  The piece read in part:

"So Bea and Bill put in the lazy Susans for the plant workers to get them in and out in 30 minutes," Doug Bradshaw said.

The tables look the same, though the Formica tops have been replaced with new Formica and the lazy Susans now sport sneeze guards -- state law. But the condiments arranged on the top shelf of the lazy Susans are the same -- jars of Tabasco peppers, chopped onions, pickled beets, chow-chow and hot sauce alongside pitchers of water and freshly brewed tea. And the main shelf is always filled with food that keeps coming hot from the kitchen as long as you want it.

"My first 'date' was at Bea's," said Chattanooga resident Tina Harvey Crawford. "I was in the fifth grade. We went to church, then Bea's. You gotta love a lazy Susan."

Not much has been added to the menu through the years -- just strawberry cobbler when berries are in season.

"And we started doing fried catfish on Friday nights," Doug Bradshaw said. "We don't change a whole lot."

But one thing hasn't changed: It's all made from scratch, starting at 5 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

"The recipes were in place when we got here," Mike Bradshaw said. "And along the way, they were smart enough not to mess with them."

Nationwide on Monday evening, Citizen Architect, the documentary about Sambo Mockbee and Auburn's Rural Studio, will be aired on public television stations.  

Citizen Architect explores Mockbee’s effort to provide students with an experience that forever inspires them to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities. Revealing the philosophy and heart behind the Rural Studio, the documentary is guided by passionate, frank and never-before-seen interviews with Mockbee himself.

The film follows Jay Sanders, a young, first-time instructor at the Rural Studio as he leads a group of students in the process of crafting a home for their charismatic client, Jimmie Lee Matthews. Known within the community as Music Man because of his passion for soul music, Jimmie Lee maintains a healthy zeal for life, blasting R&B from his vast collection of used stereos and boasting that he “ain’t never met a stranger!” Over the course of the project a powerful bond forms between Sanders, the students and Music Man.

Citizen Architect supplements Mockbee's words and the students' experiences with perspective from other architects and designers who share praise and criticism of the Rural Studio, including Peter Eisenman, Michael Rotondi, Cameron Sinclair, Steve Badanes and Hank Louis. Their dialogue infuses the film with a larger discussion of architecture’s role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, social change and citizenship.

Folk Fest is this weekend in Atlanta, beginning today.  It looks as though there are just almost 100 exhibitors (meaning artists alone, and gallery owners who are bringing works by multiple artists).  


This is who I'm most looking forward to, in no particular order:


Anton Haardt - she emailed me that she'll be bringing pieces by Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mary T. Smith, James Purdy, Sam Doyle, Howard Finster, Sybil Gibson, & many others.  Another thing I'm excited for Anton about is that she just finished a new book about Juanita Rogers.  She will be bringing copies of her Mose T book also.


Dr. Bob


Marcia Weber Art Objects


Rising Fawn Folk Art


Ginger Young Gallery


Main Street Gallery




Now, here's the thing: if you are looking for contemporary folk/outsider/self-taught/visionary art - and you know who you are interested in and you can attend festivals that they appear at, then Folk Fest may not live up to your expectations.


Some gallery owners (and some self-representing artists) will be bringing art that you may very well not consider folk art.   You can scroll through a list of the exhibitors here.


Some artists will be over-represented.  For instance, last year it seemed as though we were on Cornbread (John Anderson) overload with so many galleries bringing his work.  


On the other hand, many of the galleries brought artists with them and of course that is terrific.  What else is terrific is that so many of them have the better pieces of vintage art that you really can't find elsewhere.


If you like to see what/who gallery owners find new and exciting that you may not know about - or you're interested in work by an artist who has passed away, whose works will be shown by these galleries - this is a great opportunity.  The galleries are coming to you once a year here at Folk Fest, rather than you driving all over to do your collecting.


Here are some pics from last year's Folk Fest:


 Jimmy Straehla was there with his bottlecap truck:

Steve Shepard:

Robin Anne Cooper:

Jim Shores:

 'Cornbread' John Anderson:

We like not taking the interstate.  This past weekend, we took the boys back to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and took some 'back roads' up through NE Alabama.


Here was a place selling 'bbq wood' that had an honor box so you could get as much as you need at whatever hour and leave the amount due in the container:

“Before I knew it, it was done. It was kind of like daddy had a hand in it. It all happened too easy. Do you know what I’m saying?” Ms. Bradshaw said.

Pauline, who’s living in Atlanta with Ms. Bradshaw, came up to watch the journey.

“I had mother there at Silver Hill when they dug him up. Then we followed the truck over to Head Springs and (Pastor) Ken Johnson had a prayer over his grave when they buried him in Head Springs. She was sitting there in an air-conditioned car when they buried him,” Ms. Bradshaw said. “She says I’m so glad we’ve got your daddy moved. It’s not bothering her now. She’s at peace now.”

The county recently received a $70,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to put toward buying the property. Mr. Winters said the rest of the purchase price, which has not been agreed on, would be privately raised.

He said buying the property would use "zero county dollars." After buying Paradise Gardens, the county only would have to provide normal maintenance service such as clearing drainage ditches and would not be renovating any of the buildings, he said.

Tommy Littleton, who runs Paradise Gardens Park and Museum, said county ownership probably would help with securing grants. He said such funding has been the gardens' "primary hurdle" because donors said they wanted to be sure their beneficiary is stable and secure before giving.

I love Elvis.  

A friend sent me a list of restaurants in the Clarion-Ledger last week stated were 'must-eat' restaurants in Mississippi.  It was funny that they mentioned nine restaurants and we've been to six of them....don't these look good...


Pie from the Crystal Grill in Greenwood:

"Join the Mississippi Arts Commission in a grassroots campaign to preserve Vicksburg's unique visionary art destination: Margaret's Grocery. 

I spent yesterday afternoon with my friend Wade Wharton, the gentleman who the city of Huntsville had taken to court over his art environment a couple of years ago.  He's been working on many new projects - can't wait to show: