Our Worship & Creative Arts Department hosts seasonal art exhibits highlighting and celebrating Grace Center’s visual artists and their work. Join us as we partner with God in cultivating community around the arts and encouraging creativity within our community. You are invited to view our current exhibition, Coastlines: Motion & Stillness, featuring photographer Davin McLaird in Grace Cafe.
About the Collection
The collection, Coastlines: Motion & Stillness depicts how these two qualities are captured in the context of the ocean’s interaction with the land. Motion can be captured in a way that “freezes” it, or it can be allowed to blur, providing brushstrokes that are wild and unpredictable. There is even a piece where the motion is coming from intentional movement of the camera, with the result actually depicting more stillness than one might expect.
For purchasing visit www.davinart.store.
About the Artist
Davin McLaird is a Nashville area creative who expresses himself through music and photography. Having been a musician longer than he cares to admit, photography is the more recent and currently higher priority, with his interest in the medium starting in 2013. Davin’s main subjects have been landscapes and cityscapes. USA Today selected one of his shots of the Nashville skyline for use in a photographic feature of that city. In contrast to the literal expression of landscape photography, Davin also pursues more thematic work, with shots that use elements of nature or landscapes to create a mood or feeling. Davin resides in Franklin, Tennessee and regularly visits California, Oregon, Washington State and other locations for a broad selection of subjects.
Artist Statement
As an introvert, connection is something far more important to me than I perhaps let on. Being a musician, connection between the players within an ensemble has always been a priority, especially with jazz due to the improvisational aspect of it. If you’re not tuned in to the other players, the chance of what you choose to play actually complimenting the other musicians grows slim. Of course, there are aspects of connection in all styles, and that connection can also be established between the musician and the listener, or ultimately between the artist, listener and our Creator.
While lending itself more to the contemplative introvert in me, photography has some of these same elements. Certainly looking for beauty in creation can lead to an invitation to connect with the Creator. For me, this is true in quiet places, and especially at sunrise. I often question, “Did God create this beauty for our enjoyment, or did God create in us some amazing mechanism that attributes beauty to mundane things such as earth and water and sky?” I don’t spend too much time trying to reach a conclusion because either way, I love being out there, finding this beauty and capturing it. What I’m exploring now deals less with the literal documentation of a place and more with the feeling invoked by the photo. It might still be a landscape, but there is some mystery about it that bypasses the rational urge to locate the place on a map. I want my pictures to inspire something in the viewer - maybe uncovering something within the viewer that just needed to be awakened. I think enjoyment of creation primes us to be able to enjoy the Creator. To facilitate that progression and that connection is something very satisfying to me, whether through photographs or music.
Calling All Artists!
We are accepting submissions for future solo and group curated exhibitions! If you would like your work to be considered for our 2019 lineup of exhibitions please click the button below to fill out our submission form.