Image: “Grilled Cheese and Sweet Tea”
January 23, 2024-March 25, 2024
Opening Reception February 1, 6 PM to 7:30 (registration requested: https://www.createappalachia.org/event/at-home-in-lower-appalachia-opening-reception/)
Create Appalachia’s Kingsport Center for Art & Technology, 225 W Center Street, Kingsport, TN 37660
No Admission Fee (Donations Appreciated)
Open weekdays, 8:30-5 PM
January 23, 2024: Create Appalachia welcomes the public to At Home in Lower Appalachia, an exhibit of photographs by Emmalee Barbour featuring homes, kitchens, and scenes of everyday life from Barbour’s own family farm in Chuckey, Tennessee. This solo exhibition will be displayed prominently in the Create Appalachia Kingsport Center Gallery located at: 225 W. Center St., Suite 115, Kingsport, TN 37660.
Barbour’s images are a study in lighting, evoking a sense of nostalgia and a childlike sense of freedom and play. Most importantly, they capture the beauty of living and making a home in Appalachia. Some of these are a part of Emmalee’s Appalachian Kitchens: Heart of the Home series. Emmalee wants to share her own experience of Appalachia as a place where modern and old traditions mix in beautiful ways. She demonstrates through her art that, contrary to negative stereotypes about the region, there is joy, hospitality, and beauty in abundance here.
“Barbour’s photographs live in antique and thrifted frames, further adding to the eclectic and homey experience in her exhibit,” says Katie Edwards, Curator of the show and Exhibit Committee Chair for Create Appalachia. “Her photography demonstrates her skill in transforming raw photos into stunning works of art. Although the series has been taken in recent years, it would be easy to imagine many of the pieces had been captured over fifty or more years. To manipulate lighting, composition, and visual age of photographs in such a natural way is a testament to Barbour’s subtle and effective skill.”
Emmalee Barbour studied compositing and photography at East Tennessee State University. She currently holds a Bachelor of Science in Digital Media with a focus in Visual Effects. She has won local photo competitions for her farm photography. She has also made several videos and photos, editing them for the Appalachian Highlands Humane Society as a means for increasing adoptions and bringing attention to the Humane Society itself. As a lover of all things animal and Appalachian, she turns her creative ability to making images of her home in hopes that others will see the same wonder and charm of her place that she does.
At Home in Lower Appalachia will open to the public on Jan. 23, 2024 and will remain up until March 25th, 2024. An opening reception will be held on Feb. 1, 2024, from 6:00pm – 7:00pm. The reception is free and open to the public, but registration is requested: https://www.createappalachia.org/event/at-home-in-lower-appalachia-opening-reception/
Create Appalachia strives to make the Appalachian Highlands a better place to live and work by supporting innovation and entrepreneurship centered around the arts and creativity. We work to sustain an environment that will generate new businesses, provide jobs in arts-based businesses, and highlight the important role that creativity plays in the region’s economic vitality.
