On Saturday November 6th, the public is invited to an evening celebrating soil, art, and agriculture. Amanda Brazier, a local artist in Red Bank, will unveil her latest mural project at Gaining Ground Grocery.
In her mural, “Field Below,” Brazier created the design by incorporating soils from the Chattanooga community and local farms and vendors of the grocery.
Brazier and her husband moved to Red Bank after she graduated from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee with a BA degree in Studio Art. She and her husband and their two young sons have been residents of the Red Bank area for thirteen years. Brazier and her family enjoy living in the city of Red Bank with its proximity to Stringers Ridge, friendly neighbors, and the ease in walking to area locations. It was during this time that Brazier began gathering and making paints with local soils, rocks, and earth pigments to use in her paintings.
In January of 2021, Holly Martin, the executive director of the Chattanooga Food Center and founder of Gaining Ground Grocery, reached out to Brazier about artwork ideas for the grocery. Because of her skills at making paint with local soils and rocks, the connection between her earth pigment practice and the essential role of healthy soil in agriculture immediately came to mind.
“Soil is a generative material in both agriculture and art,” said Brazier. “I wanted to highlight both the beauty and vitality of the soil through this project.”
Brazier received an Artists Work Grant from ArtsBuild in June and got to work on the Gaining Ground Mural Project. She and Martin visited several farms and community gardens that supply Gaining Ground and gathered soil there to use as paint for the two murals. Brazier and her team also collected soil from the Chattanooga community and hosted a public paint day.
The mural has been completed and installed, and on Saturday, November 6, from 4:00 until 7:00pm, the grand unveiling extravaganza of the mural and soil storytelling event will take place at Gaining Ground Grocery at St. Andrews Center, 1918 Union Avenue in Chattanooga.
For more information about the “Field Below: The Gaining Ground Mural Project,” go to Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChattFoodCenter/ or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CVdFEOIlIFp/.
To read more about Amanda Brazier and her many artistic accomplishments, go to https://linktr.ee/ab.brazier or her website http://www.amandabrazier.com.