back next Rise Above Below, Backdrop Gallery, © 1997 Tom Ferguson
Backdrop Gallery was a great space, an attempt to create a
gathering place for the arts community which worked for awhile but of
course it encountered the usualy obstacles... money, money, money...
and ego clashes... and money... right on Peachtree across from Crawford
Long Hospital. One of the big problems in creating such a space is that
the arts community, like everything else in Atlanta, sprawls.... so how
do you create a center for sprawl? And parking, did I mention parking?
They usually showed photography upstairs at street
level & the funky basement bar/coffee house was for everything else.
I performed solo at the closing reception, accompanied by the
sequencing i'd gotten seduced by: vocals with drums, bass, keyboards
etc; laid down simple around which I could play & sing. For the
opening Whatley Fenlon, Nevin Lash & Cyndia Hunnicutt joined me on
guitar/vocals, keyboards & drums. I'm always amazed by how some
performers can capture an audience & some can't. I often find my
contributions being ignored even in small groups. A forceful
personality I am not. So I looked up in surprise when I got applause
for a song, people at the bar turning from their conversations for a
moment. And I noticed the song was the same one that had gotten
applause in a similar situation in Michigan, a bluesy number called
Button Pusher. Oh, i'm mixing up two stories. The opening reception is
accurate. The Button Pusher story really happened later when they'd
added a stage & bar & invited me to do another show... don't
even remember which paintings. Anyway, here are the paintings for this
one, 10 views in two pages.
