FROM CANVAS TO CANVAS:
Selected Images from
the Tennessee Fireworks Project
by E. Heather Lose

July 3rd - August 7th
Artist Reception: Thursday, August 5th from 6:00 - 7:30pm

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
Heather Lose grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. Her BFA is from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she holds an MA in Professional Media Practices from the School of Mass Communications and Media Arts at Southern Illinois University. Her creative ventures encompass photography, graphic design for print and the web, and she is a part-time radio announcer. Heather teaches graphic design and photography classes at the Art Institute of Tennessee–Nashville. Her personal work is predominantly centered around documentary and environmental portraiture photography. Heather programs and hosts her own radio show, the Honky Tonk Jukebox, on WRVU Nashville. Heather’s truck sports Tennessee Titans plates, and spare moments will find her gardening, working in her basement darkroom, or stalking the world with an old Nikon film camera.
 

ARTIST STATEMENT:
These images have been culled from a large body of photographic work loosely called the Tennessee Fireworks Project. Each year since 2004, I have gone on the road to photograph the seasonal fireworks stands that mushroom up alongside Tennessee’s two-lane highways during the small period in June/July when it becomes legal to sell fireworks. This rambling exploration is a love letter to the summer days of my youth, to my home state, and to her people.

I’m calling this collection From Canvas to Canvas for several reasons. Formally, these photographic images have been re-introduced to canvas, the same material that houses many seasonal fireworks businesses. The overall project is very much about the act of returning. I have returned to the familiar two-lane highways of my home state time and again, working in the blazing sun, my trusty Nikon in my hands. Summer sounds of insects, firecrackers, hot rods and laughter take me back in time. I find the seasonal stands to be fascinating, formally and on a symbolic level, as they relate to nostalgia and memory, current events, nationalism, and economics. To date I have logged thousands of miles, met hundreds of people, and have shot countless images.

As a working graphic designer since the ’80s, much of my profession in the early years involved planning, cutting, pasting, peeling, and aligning. So it feels very natural to involve these old-fashioned skills in the work I am doing today. Every image is initially shot to film. From traditional photographic prints, I then take them through a digital scanning and printing process. The final step requires re-assembly of each image onto canvas utilizing a gel medium transfer method. I enjoy photographing the images in a traditional manner, running them through the digital world, and then using time-honored tools like paintbrushes and X-acto knives to see each piece come back to life.

Some of the Fireworks images are pure graphic design, some are documentary photography, some are affectionate location shots, and some of the images feel political. I’ve shot many environmental portraits of the tent workers who I now call my friends. You’ll see me out there again next year — just me and my Nikons, in my little white truck packed with coolers and film. And once again I will be seeking those colorful stripes beyond each curve of the road.