Macon Magazine

A P R I L / M AY 2 0 1 9 M A C O N M A G A Z I N E . C O M 1 0 9 Sing Stro of Macon Houses & Gardens TOUR TICKETS Available April 1- May 2 at the following locations: RIVERSIDE ACE HARDWARE 3600 Riverside Drive | Macon WESLEYAN ACE HARDWARE 5020 Forsyth Road | Macon RUTLAND ACE HARDWARE 6173 Houston Road | Macon AGAPE NURSERY 3724 Agape Village Road | Macon JOHNSON'S GARDEN CENTER 140 Hartley Avenue | Macon CRETER'S 2374 Ingleside Avenue | Macon CIRCLE ACE HARDWARE 215 S. Commercial Circle | Warner Robins ACE HARDWARE OF GRAY 243 West Clinton Street | Gray EASY LIVING GARDEN CENTER 400 N. Perry Parkway | Perry Free Garden Market House & Garden Seminars MAY 3-5, 2019 HAY HOUSE For rental availability, event tickets and more information: HAYHOUSEMACON.org or 478-742-8155 Featured Seminars Spencer Tunnell Alex Smith Jim Barfield Mary Pinson TOUR OF HOUSES & GARDENS IN HISTORIC SHIRLEY HILLS AND NORTH HIGHLANDS "If people are made uncomfortable by my work, then I must be doing something right." -CHARLES LADSON when I see it, when the pieces and the texture and the parts add up to something greater than the whole." He said that Asheville has given him more carte blanche with his subjects than even his exhibitions New York or Santa Fe. "In Asheville the figure paintings sell well, unlike other galleries that sell more of the landscapes," he said. Ironically, the Santa Fe NuArt Gallery directors first approached Ladson because of their interest his figurative work, but after showing the work for some time, they have found it to be a hard sell, calling the figure pieces "too provocative." Instead, they prefer to show his more conventional landscapes, sans the human form. Of course, Asheville is notably avant- garde and not surprisingly receptive to Ladson's more unusual pieces. e Blue Spiral currently displays Ladson's paintings that include his customary angles and uniquely placed objects, but the human figure also plays a part in these scenes, often surprisingly. Take for instance "County Line," where a semi-transparent human figure blends obscurely into the sharper lines that form the rural buildings, houses, roads and boards of the painting. Or "Postpartum," where a partial female figure emerges amidst a backdrop of horizon, mountains and an ordinary table. ese ordinary objects and forms that characterize his work become subtly extraordinary, veiled in ambiguity. Interestingly, some of Ladson's repeated images include boxes and bags. "I like openings," he said with a laugh. "ey are mysterious." And that's his bag, so to speak, the inexplicable pieces of the everyday. It's something the NuArt Gallery aptly described as a "sense of mystery and stillness, a dream reality steeped in an unknowable past." Some art buyers may find Ladson's ambiguous style a bit disarming, but it's a dilemma that doesn't worry him at all: "If people are made uncomfortable by my work, then I must be doing something right."

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