[bright music] - Join us as we embark on a journey of artistic exploration and inspiration where every brushstroke tells a story.

And every sketch captures a moment of self-discovery.

I'm Jeremy Park, CEO of cityCURRENT, an organization dedicated to powering the good through media, events and philanthropy.

We've partnered with Marina Cutler and the Cutler Crane Gallery in Memphis, Tennessee to bring you this special recognition event, featuring their latest exhibition, Creativity Explored: A Journey of Inspiration.

This exhibition showcases the extraordinary solo works of Memphis artists, Chloe Owens and April Pierce.

Two immensely talented creatives who have spent the past year immersed in a transformative studio residency at the Cutler Crane Gallery and Studios.

Their art speaks to the deeply personal journeys they've undertaken, shaped by resilience, self-discovery, and boundless creativity.

Through expressive abstract paintings, Chloe Owens embraces joy, confidence, and self-acceptance, using art as a sanctuary and a source of empowerment.

Meanwhile, April Pierce invites us into her world of introspection, where daily self-portrait sketches explore the balance between beauty and imperfection.

Beyond the canvas, this exhibition is an invitation, an opportunity for reflection and personal connection.

Before we delve into the incredible talent behind Creativity Explored, let's hear from Marina Cutler, the visionary behind this residency and exhibition as she shares her perspective on the transformative power of art.

- I'm Marina Cutler, and I am with the Cutler Crane Gallery, the Contemporary Gallery.

And the idea behind our gallery is that it is a not-for-profit.

We have artwork from Memphis artists and we give back to the community.

Anything that sells here goes back to the community.

The exhibit we have right now is so exciting.

We are two artists, Chloe Owens and April Pierce.

Both of them won residencies in the studio, so they spent the last year working in the studio, creating artwork.

And this exhibition has been a year in production, so we are now showcasing what they've done for the last year in the residency.

It's really fun.

Both artists before coming here and working in the residency in the studio really said to me, I have nowhere to work.

And you know, you think that, that's a possibility, but when they were explaining to me one, Chloe saying, I used to work on a table in my mom's room and April saying I never had the ability to spread all my artwork out.

I do a little work on table, and I spread it out here and I'm like, wow, I have a collection of artwork.

So watching them go from artists who are confined, and now having the studio space to work in was really liberating for them and liberating for me to see how we were able to help them grow.

You know, one of the things that's really important when we do this is making sure that the artists are able to go from creating their artwork, but also grow as they create their artwork and learning how important it is for them to move on to the next level of their art career.

So that's been something that's been marvelous for us.

You know, getting to know both artists has been really quite refreshing for me.

And I said before, I'm kind of spoiled getting to know these artists because I get to sit and talk with them, and really dive deep into their background.

One of the things about meeting Chloe, and talking to her was she really struggled with depression and us being able to give her this space and give her a place to have solitude and create, shared her voice in a louder way.

As she always says, she is a big, bold person with a loud personality, and this gave her that opportunity.

So I got to know her because she was sharing a little bit more of that information, how she had gone through depression and how art really helped heal her.

But she doesn't use it as a crutch, she uses it as a way to share with everybody.

And I was getting that.

For me, it was soul replenishing.

So it isn't just her, I'm spoiled because I'm getting that.

And when it came to working with April, we spent a lot of time putting the show together, and talking a lot.

And April really is this unbelievable talent who is kind of, she's sure of herself, she knows she's good at what she does, but at the same time, having this space and allowing herself to work all mass in one space, and seeing all her work was almost like she was reconnecting with herself.

And I was reconnecting with her, or I was connecting with her, not reconnecting.

I was connecting with her as she was going through that process.

You know, very enlightening.

People don't realize that art does many things.

It is great for the artist to create, it's healing 'cause they send a message through their art.

It's so healing for those who are around it just to hear the artists talk.

So that's...

I'm a kid in a candy store when I'm with these artists, so I'm spoiled.

So it was very enlightening for me, and I am blessed to have spent time with both Chloe Owens and April Pierce and showcase their work.

I mean their great talents.

And I know I will see them go great places.

So one of the things that's interesting is April is very much kind of portraying what she is seeing in the mirror, and trying to share that with the world, but not look at me, look at you.

And it's very much soul searching, but going out to the world, and soul searching and helping people.

She doesn't have a story of I've been inflicted with something that is helping me heal.

She's just constantly healing, and sharing great love.

So I would say that her style is more on the lines of wanting people to see who they are.

Chloe has a message of, I had to find who I was and in finding who I am, I wanna share it with the world and I want you all to know that you too can be great, and find greatness.

So the two have different messages, but kind of confine with each other, or kind of move along a similar path.

The end result being that they just really want everyone to have great fun looking at their artwork, smile, be happy, think about who you are and be happy with who you are.

Like that's what they're both saying.

Look at who you are, but happy with who you are through this artwork.

And by the way, buy some artwork and just love it.

Have it hanging in your space because if you have this, hopefully you're getting that vibe in your world hanging on, you know, artwork on their walls, so yeah.

It's really important for females to have a voice in the art world.

The female artist is actually the greater population when it comes to creating.

But if you look at museums, and some of the great institutions we have that are showcasing artwork, it's mostly men.

So the reason why it's important to give them a voice is not because they are not as great, it's because they are as great, if not better, but as great.

And their artwork is important and they should not be snuffed aside like they are Sunday painters.

And sometimes a female artist will be looked upon like a Sunday painter.

And I say that meaning a craft, or it's, you know, a marketplace.

But we have serious artists who are female artists.

And I think the more that people get familiar with looking at artwork that is created by females, then they are more comfortable with it, then they deserve to see it in high places, see it in their homes to start, buy it, own it, and then see it in museums.

Because museums need to get behind women artists.

It's really important.

So with this exhibition, Chloe Owen's and April's work is available for sale and anything that sells, 50% goes to them.

And then the other 50% goes to Neighborhood Christian Centers.

And why that's important is we're celebrating and supporting the artists, but at the same time, we're doing good on the other side when it sells.

It's about bringing back something into the community.

And the way you can do that is you can either come to Cutler Crane Gallery, and you'll be able to purchase the artwork here, but you're also able to go online at the Cutler Crane Gallery and buy the artwork there.

- Thank you Marina and the Cutler Crane Gallery for creating such an inspiring space for artistic growth and innovation.

Now let's shine a spotlight on the artist themselves.

We'll be sharing the stunning work of Chloe Owens, and April Pierce, along with exclusive interviews where they discuss their creative journeys, inspirations, and what this residency has meant for their growth as artists.

Sit back and prepare to be moved by the passion and artistry behind Creativity Explored.

- My name is Chloe Owens, I'm one of the artists and residents here at Cutler Crane Gallery.

I'm born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee.

I moved back here in December of 2022 to launch my art career.

It's going great so far.

It's been such a privilege to work in this art space, and to have this opportunity and this residency that Marina has provided.

It's been great.

For me this year of having my own space, especially as an emerging artist, meant having space to play, to experiment, and to really figure out who am I, and who do I wanna be as an artist.

I think when artists first come onto the scene, there can be a lot of imposter syndrome.

There can be a lot of, who am I?

What do I do?

Should I make work because that's what everyone else is making or because that's what will sell?

I had gotten a lot of feedback from a lot of people about what I was making and it was all over the place.

So this was the time for me to confirm who I was.

I would come in here and sometimes April would be here, sometimes not, early mornings, middle of the work day when I should be at my nine to five, late nights, put my headphones on, put on a show or a movie and just go for it.

And it was fun.

It was a fun process.

It was hard at times too, because it's hard to block out what other people say.

But I think that was also the beauty of this space, that there is actually nobody else around, sort of.

I do think it was really incredible to be able to have a space with April.

There's another studio artist in the building.

So to get to talk with her, learn from both of them, that inspired me in a lot of ways.

It helped me think differently, but ultimately it helped me solidify who I wanna be and what kind of art I wanna make and put out in the world.

- I'm April Pierce and I'm a part of the show called Creativity Explored: a Journey of Inspiration.

Some of the things I say to my students over and over again, I start to realize like, hmm, am I doing those things myself?

And those are things that I should be doing too.

Almost like a way to kind of check back in with, you know, am I getting out of my comfort zone?

Am I... You know, can I push this piece a little bit farther?

Am I trying new things?

Am I getting better with the materials that I use?

That kind of thing.

I'm not a native Memphian.

I grew up in north Texas, but I've been here, I've lived in Memphis for 15 years now.

I got my MFA at University of Memphis a few years after moving here.

So yeah, I mean I went to school for art, but I've always made art between my academic endeavors.

And then after I finished my MFA, I became a mom.

And then getting back into making art, actually teaching really helped me get back into making art.

So I've been teaching for the last eight or nine years.

Integrating creative expression and art making at home is really easy because my daughter loves to draw, she loves to make art.

So that's something we can do together.

Also as an educator, it's fun to maybe try out things with her sometimes.

But we like to make collage, and I like to do things that are very easy for anyone to try and enjoy.

So my husband will join us a lot of times making collage, or just drawing for fun.

So the work in this exhibition kind of evolved from these really quick, small drawings I was doing of myself in the sketchbook.

And I wanted to do something a little more resolved, a little more finished with them.

And that's kind of what evolved into these, what I now call self portraits.

They didn't really start out that way.

And they might not necessarily always look like me, but the things that I'm thinking about when I'm making them are very much based on personal experiences.

So in that way, I like to think of them as self-portraits, and there are figures in them.

So even though the likeness is not always there, there's lots of ways I think they make sense as self-portraits.

And hopefully there's pieces that maybe other people can pick out, and relate to maybe in their own way as a parent or a mother.

I think a lot of 'em are really weird.

And one of the things that I love to do with them is find some kind of balance between the weirdness, the strangeness, and the beauty in them.

Like a lot of them, sometimes the color's like really pretty, the line work is really nice, but there's one where the figure is like the hand is holding this little tiny skull in it and it's just this...

I love that balance or that juxtaposition between strangeness and something that you just really wanna spend a lot of time looking at.

I guess that's what I would want someone that's looking at it to take away with them is, wow, this drawing has some really weird things going on in it, but I can't stop looking at it because there's a lot of other really interesting things happening in it as well.

The residency has been great because mainly the space, Chloe and I had space to spread the work out, look at the work together, you know, have something going here, have something going over here and try things that I wouldn't have space for at home or like these, this was kind of a...

These inkblots where it was kind of a side adventure from the self portraits, but these made their way into at least one of the drawings out there and these got really messy.

And I was able to like spend like a week playing around with those, which I wouldn't get to do at my own studio.

So the time, the space to really think about these specific pieces, and knowing that the residency was gonna culminate in a show and to have that goal set, like, okay, I have the time, have this space, know what I wanna do, but also leave room for experimenting and having fun has just been, yeah, it's been inspiring.

I'm excited about the pieces, I'm excited to make more of them.

It's been great talking to Chloe 'cause we have such different... We work very differently, we make very different things, but it's been fun to talk to her about her experience and share the space and see how her work has progressed too.

- When I create art, it's never about what is it gonna look like in the end, it's a very personal process.

So I live with major depression and anxiety.

And when I came back to art in 2020 during COVID, it was at the height of my depression.

It was before I was technically diagnosed, it was before I was getting any help.

And when I turned to the canvas and the paint, and the paint pens, it's a process of getting out of my head, getting out of the world and getting out of the negativity.

I do always know at the beginning that I want something that I can look back at that makes me feel good, and that's how I approach all of it.

So every piece that you see in this show, that's always how I was thinking about it.

I do it almost as a meditative process.

Nothing is ever planned.

I pick out the colors maybe, but other than that it's me giving myself therapy and I hope that the end product can bring somebody else some joy.

Memphis is home.

I remember being younger, this was the city I always wanted to get away from.

I didn't think that there was anything here for me.

And I think it's funny actually to have come back after almost, or just over 10 years.

And it have opened itself up to me, and helped me open up to become the artist that I am, and I'm constantly growing into.

I don't know that I have any of this without Memphis.

When I left for school, being an artist wasn't ever a part of the plan.

I always knew I wanted to do something that would be helpful to people.

You know, for some that looks like being a doctor, I know that's what my family wanted.

But for me, that ended up being social work, which is a career path that I know I found a lot of identity in.

They have a strong like moral code, a strong code of ethics.

And I felt that sense of values, and justice, and so I dove into that.

I've spent a lot of time working in nonprofits, and really just trying to live up to those values.

One of which being all people have inherent dignity and worth.

You know, when I think about what my art does for me, it was teaching me to remind myself about that inside of me.

But yeah, spending, a lot of the time that I have with nonprofits has been...

I don't think I'd be here without it.

I've seen so much of how people can be down, how people can be in situations that no one has ever planned for, in need of support, in need of a lot of things, a lot of change, big and small.

And so outside of my art, I still work within that.

But I think even in doing my art, it's still a part of that process because hey, I hope that this is something that a lot of the folks, the students I've worked with, the families I've worked with, the women I've worked with across, you know, places of education, across domestic and sexual violence, across poverty, is this art... Can I create something that's accessible that gives them a moment of reprieve from all that is going on?

"Who were you before the world told you who you were supposed to be?"

Somebody said that to me.

And I know it's a quote from someone famous, I don't remember who, but somebody told that to me.

And it was at that moment that I started to look back at the things that actually brought me joy, that actually brought me happiness, that made me feel at home and myself.

And that's how I got back to where I am, and was able to create and build something completely new out of it.

So my biggest advice is, you know, there are people and they're well-meaning, they're gonna tell you what they think, what you should do, this and that.

But at the end of the day, what is the thing that makes you excited?

What's the thing that makes your heart sing?

I don't care how weird it is, or if other people think it's ugly.

If it's your jam, do it.

Because the thing that's gonna get you furthest is just being you.

- As we celebrate artistic expression, it's also important to acknowledge the power of community support.

This year we're proud to highlight Neighborhood Christian Centers, Inc. as the beneficiary of this exhibition.

This nonprofit is dedicated to uplifting lives, nurturing futures, and fostering a sense of pride in our beloved city.

We now will hear from Ephie Ballard Johnson, President and CEO of Neighborhood Christian Centers, Inc. who will share more about the incredible work their organization is doing in our community.

Ephie will also introduce us to their innovative social enterprise, Holey Cakes.

Under NCCs workforce development and entrepreneurial training program, Holey Cakes seeks to provide in-house employment, and job skills training to families and individuals.

Modeled as a bakery, this program teaches adults and children the process of baking Bundt cakes, packaging and marketing the cakes to the Memphis area.

- We're so proud to be able to serve our neighbors in need in many different areas.

Our goal is to serve people at their point of need when they need us the most, and to follow them along through their life journey to help move them towards stability and sustainability.

We do that through social services, through case management, through families that are living within food insecurity.

Those that are medical deficient communities, mental health needs, all the different types of areas, including afterschool programs, adult-based programs and our adult-based program that includes our bakery.

So we're very, very excited about all the different opportunities we have to serve our neighbors in different capacities at different levels of need.

So Holey Cakes is our social that was designed through an opportunity with one of our board members now that said, "Hey, I have this cake business.

"I've decided that I'm ready to sunset it, but I don't wanna not consider giving this to someone else."

She came to us and asked would we be willing to take it over, and so we did.

Then we took a few months and rebranded it, and called it Holey Cakes.

So it's a cake with a hole in it.

Kinda play on words 'cause we're Neighborhood Christian Center, so it's a holey cake.

And so we're very excited about that, and we decided to take that and create an opportunity for people that have underemployment or have been first generation employed, maybe just coming out of prison, whatever, and needing to have an opportunity to rebuild skill or to just have times for us to observe, how does that person work?

What is their work ethic like?

Do they understand what it means to come in on the particular time and then follow a particular set of directions.

And so cooking cakes, you gotta follow directions.

Cooking cakes, you have to wait for the cake to cook.

So we have baking therapy going on in there.

And so all those different things, including formal classes to talk through financial literacy, to talk through job search, the talks through helping to build resumes, the talks through actually giving them cross training opportunities at Neighborhood Christian Centers where they get to work not only in the bakery because that's not for everyone.

So we know everybody's not gonna wanna be a baker, but they go through the process so we could see where they fit or how they could fit in the other ways.

And then many of them need to go out and find a job.

So it's just a way of calming it down and say, let's give it a few weeks to give yourself a chance to restart.

Being a part of the opportunity with this event has allowed us to expand our horizons, bring our work, bring our bakery, bring our mission to maybe a group of people that would not have heard about this.

And so that's first of all why we're so grateful to be a part of this.

Secondly, having more people know what we're about helps us to expand and it's quite efficient the way we do it, so that we can be Holey Cakes to the city and beyond.

- Thank you to Chloe Owens and April Pierce for sharing their artistry and personal stories with us.

And a special thank you to Marina Cutler, and the entire team at Cutler Crane Gallery for making Creativity Explored a reality.

As we conclude this special exhibition feature, let's carry forward the essence of what we've witnessed.

Art is a mirror to our emotions, a bridge between perspectives and a catalyst for change.

Thank you for watching this special recognition exhibition.

Remember, creativity is an endless journey.

And through art, we all have the opportunity to explore, express, and inspire.

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