Developed in collaboration between the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art (STMA) and Georgia Writers Museum (GWM), a new Touch Grass exhibit at STMA will feature the art of painter Raven Waters, potter Senora Lynch of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe, and Steffen Thomas, the rural Buckhead museum’s featured artist.
The official title of the exhibit — Touch Grass: Steffen Thomas, Senora Lynch, and Raven Waters — plays on a popular phrase used to describe people who spend too much time on their smartphones and not enough in the real world. In this case, “grass” refers to great works depicting the natural environment by these three renowned artists.
The environmentally focused exhibition explores our place in the natural world through the eyes of artists and writers and their audiences.
Do we exist as part of nature? Or are we outside of nature, experiencing the environment as tourists or consumers?
“Touch Grass will not only engage our communities in thinking about our connections with the natural world but also provide a springboard to building a relationship of trust with Indigenous artists and American Indian communities, particularly in the Southeast,” STMA Executive Director and Touch Grass curator Alyson Vuley said. “This exhibition and related programs represent our first step on our journey to true collaboration with Indigenous peoples in an authentic and sustained way.”
Raven Waters received a Fine Arts degree from Georgia Southern and uses a variety of paint and drawing media to capture people, animals, and birds in their environments.
Waters lives and paints on a farm in southern Georgia with his partner, Janisse Ray, a Georgia Writers Hall of Fame honoree.
Senora Lynch is a contemporary clay artist and an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of North Carolina. Her work has been displayed in the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It is in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of History and the National Museum of the American Indian.
Lynch is an educator who teaches many traditional arts and cultural competency.
Steffen Thomas was born in Germany but became a prolific Atlanta-based artist who worked in many mediums, including painting, sculpting, and welding.
His work rested on a high level of inspiration, and Thomas believed unequivocally in the rightness of his path.
The Steffen Thomas Museum of Art is committed to arts accessibility for all students. K-12 area public schools receive free admission for field trips with guided exhibition tours. Thanks to a grant from Central GA EMC, students on field trips receive their sketchbook to do guided in-gallery drawing activities and then outside to experiment with drawing on the idyllic grounds of the art museum. In addition, each visiting student receives a Family Pass (printed in Spanish and English) to return to the museum for free with their families.
The Touch Grass exhibition's opening reception will be held at STMA from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1. Tickets are $20 each and include hors d’oeuvres and cocktails.
Contact Georgia Writers Museum at georgiawritersmuseum.org/touchgrass to register.
Following the opening reception, the Touch Grass exhibit will remain on view until June 28 alongside STMA’s permanent collection.
STMA is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is $10 for adults and $8 for students and seniors.