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  1. Establishing Shot Video Series, Episode 2: Mia Bergeron Wednesday, October 07, 2009

    Mia Bergeron is a classically-trained portrait painter who has studied in Providence, RI; Boston MA; and Florence, Italy, who came to Chattanooga after a successful showing at the city’s Four Bridges Arts Festival. Mia has had the opportunity to work with CreateHere on multiple fronts,as both a MakeWork grant recipient and a graduate of the SpringBoard business planning course. Today, she is self-employed in a viable career as a portrait artist. For more information on her work, visit her website.

    The Faces of Chattanooga is a year-long endeavor by portrait artist Mia Bergeron in conjunction to a MakeWork grant she received from CreateHere. The mission of this project is to paint portraits of nine Chattanooga residents in order to tell their stories, both tragic and triumphant. All nine portraits will be accompanied by brief stories and biographies, exhibited together publicly.

    This project is about starting conversations between seemingly disparate groups. For example, Mia will choose each sitter to represent a different aspect of Chattanooga demographically, and each portrait will be in discussion with the other eight aesthetically. There have also been some additions to the original idea.

    So far, this project has given Mia the opportunity to engage a number of local heroes, legends, and characters. Her first was of Brother Ron Fender, a Gregorian monk who washes the feet of the homeless at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen. Mia has also had the fortune of befriending Sandy Bell, a local celebrity and flower aficionado, as well as Kirk Wilder, a handsome young man who has struggled for four years with brain trauma resulting from a stab wound to the head. At the moment, Mia is painting An Ho Nan, an 82-year old woman from China who studied Chinese calligraphy and classical painting with the last emperor’s brother.

    In the process of finishing these paintings, there have been tearful afternoons, many reasons to smile, and countless surprising, rich stories. In the end, there will be nine paintings to testify to Chattanooga’s diversity and to the strength and humility of its residents.

    Each sitter will name a non-profit in Chattanooga that has been important in their lives. A printed catalogue of the project, along with photographs, in-depth stories, and quotes will be for sale at the exhibition of the nine portraits. All the proceeds of this catalogue will then be donated to the nine organizations named by each sitter. In the end, artists, non-profits and residents will be united in sorting out the realities and common fictions of daily life in Chattanooga.

     

    Posted by Administrator