Course Description

This class, "Meet the Artists," is a four week class that will highlight four artists from various artistic venues: Andrew Crawford, iron sculptor; Elizabeth Stockton, contemporary oil painter; Jim Auchmutey, AJC feature writer and author, and Terry Helwig, author.

Each will present and discuss their creative process and their current work.

Tuesday, March 8, 11:15AM - Andrew Crawford

Andrew was born in Chatham, New Jersey in 1970. He moved to Atlanta with his parents and two older brothers in 1971. Crawford’s youthful artistic endeavors included works in clay, drawing, and music. Andrew’s grandmother, recognizing his enthusiasm, encouraged him, along with his parents who allowed him to set up a workshop in his home.

Crawford attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he studied sculpture. After graduating in 1993, he returned to Atlanta and opened his workshop and studio, the Andrew T Crawford Ironworks. His goal was to create functional objects with an emphasis on blacksmithing. As Crawford built his business and his clientele, he continued to receive attention for his unique ornamental gates. This format has consistently been an identifiable trait throughout his career.

Along with dozens of private commissions, Crawford has created ironwork and sculpture for schools, businesses, and municipalities. Some of his most prominent works have been for the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the City of Washington D.C. His works are also among the collections of several American museums.  Crawford currently employs four full-time craftsmen who collaborate with him in making sculpture and functional objects of original design.

Tuesday, March 15, 11:15AM- Elizabeth Stockton, oil painter

Elizabeth Stockton is an Atlanta-based artist, specializing in large, layered oil paintings. She draws inspiration from her interest in color interaction, landscapes, minimalism, typography, and mark making.  Her compositions are built through a process of adding and subtracting layers of oil, which are allowed to dry between applications. “ I follow a course of simplifying and complicating, creating chaos or order until the painting starts to emerge and show a hint of what IT wants to be.  I’m not so much a make-it-happen artist as a let-it-happen one.’’

Stockton grew up in a family in which art was highly valued. Her father, Jack Niles, was a fiercely independent artist who demonstrated the need for simultaneous creativity and discipline. Her art practice was cultivated from as far back as she can remember.  She studied Fine Art and Design at the University of Georgia. She continues her education through persistent painting, exploration, artists’ residencies, workshops, and study of past and present artists.

As a fine artist, Stockton’s talent is clearly showcased in originality, as well as artistic and technical prowess. She is driven by a visual single-mindedness which ‘‘cannot be turned off’’, approaching blank canvases from a spiritual mindset, never a production process. The emotional power of her paintings invites the viewer to deeply engage in her creations. This has inspired repeated purchases from individuals, decorators, designers, and corporate art collectors. Her paintings are prominently displayed in fine homes and corporate headquarters around the country and as far reaching as New Delhi. 

Tuesday, March 22, 11:15AM- Jim Auchmutey, AJC feature writer and book author

Jim spent almost 30 years as a writer and editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, specializing in stories about the South and its history and culture. He was twice named the Cox Newspapers chain's Writer of the Year and was honored by the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, the Associated Press and the Sigma Delta Chi journalism society.

Jim has written extensively about food. He has co-authored two cookbooks, including the first devoted solely to barbecue sauces and rubs, The Ultimate Barbecue Sauce Cookbook. He is a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi and has won awards for his food writing from the James Beard Foundation and the Association of Food Journalists. He was a guest curator for the Atlanta History Center’s Barbecue Nation exhibition, which inspired his latest book, Smokelore.

Tuesday, March 29, 11:15AM - Terry Helwig - Award winning author

Terry is an award-winning author whose new book, Shifting Shorelines, has been praised as a twenty-first century Gift from the Sea. Terry’s wise, lyrical, and heartwarming prose reveals a deep thinker who finds meaning and correlation between both her inner and outer worlds. A naturalist at heart, with a master’s degree in counseling psychology, Terry says nature and synchronicity have been two of her most profound teachers. 

Her favorite pastime, combing the beach of a Florida barrier island, is a dream come true—especially for a child whose turbulent upbringing threatened to overwhelm her. Terry recounts her early struggle to keep hope alive in her coming-of-age memoir Moonlight on Linoleum, which won Elle Magazine’s 2012 Grand Prix Nonfiction Book of the Year.