Current & Upcoming

"Spruill Gallery - July 2-31, 2010"
Exhibition celebrating 35 years of art in the community featuring work by instructors, board, and staff of the Spruill Center for the Arts. See details at www.spruillgallery.blogspot.com.
All works of art will be for sale.

Past Exhibitions

"My Wendy, My Way" National Art Contest
Art title: Melinda Lou
Exhibited at Wendy's Restaurant Corporate Headquarters in Dublin, Ohio
Grand prize winner - December 10, 2008
*See News Article Below

Last Resort Bar and Grill
184 West Clayton Street
Athens, GA 30601
(706) 549-0810
Map and Directions
Exhibition Dates: March 5, 2007 - April 1, 2007

DePalmas Italian Cafè, Athens Ga
Exhibition Dates: April 2, 2007 - April 30, 2007

Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia
Senior- Exit Show Spring 2006 and Various Exhibitions

Pasta Vino Italian Restaurant, Alpharetta Ga
June 2005

Article Title: Local teacher wins $25,000 prize
Publication: The Dunwoody Crier
Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008

“Very heartwarming.” That is how a judge described the painting by local artist and Our Lady of Assumption Catholic School teacher Jessica Harms that won the grand prize in the national “My Wendy, My Way” Art Contest on December 10.

Harms and OLA, where she teaches art, will each receive a $25,000 award.

Artists from 22 cities submitted paintings, in which they gave their own interpretation of the restaurant chain’s well-known Wendy logo and included traditions of their local communities.

Harms and two other finalists from Kansas City and Tampa explained their works for the two judges from the Savannah College of Art and Design at Wendy’s International, Inc. headquarters in Dublin, Ohio, where the announcement was made.

“I am a father and seeing a young girl holding her father’s hand was very touching,” contest judge Michael Ulichney, who teaches advertising, said. “All the paintings were wonderful works of art. This had an emotional connection.”

“The brand is about family,” he added. “Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas was a big supporter of adoption.”

Wendy was the nickname of one of Thomas’s daughters and Ulichney noted that Harms knew the daughter’s real name. He said the quality and content of the painting also made her painting stand out from the rest.

Bob Bertini, a spokesman for Wendy’s in Ohio, said Harms’ painting captured the youthful innocence of Wendy.

Harms said kindergarten student Tori Webb and music teacher David Coheley were the models for her painting depicting Wendy and her father walking through the history of Atlanta. Among the tree limbs in the painting, she included pictures of Atlanta landmarks, such as the Fox Theater, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the first railroad depot and the first baseball field for the Atlanta Crackers. She also used passages from the novel “Gone With The Wind.”

“I glued down the pictures and painted on top of that,” she said.

Wendy’s added the art contest this year to its national Taste Tour, in which the public sampled hamburgers in a festival atmosphere in several cities.

“Each artist finished their work on site during the Taste Tour,” Bertini said. “It was a good way to expose the artists to the community.”

Harms, a 2005 graduate of the University of Georgia, said her painting was 95 percent complete when she brought it to the sampling event at Atlantic Station. She had about two weeks to work on the painting and do the research.

“I appreciate the fact that she involved her students with the Wendy's painting from the beginning by asking for their input and ideas,” school principal Anita Nagel said. “She kept the painting in her classroom during the week so that the students could see the different stages of the painting as it progressed.”

“Without a doubt her creativity and innovative classroom approach makes her an outstanding art teacher,” Nagel said. “The initiative she showed by entering the contest and her desire to give back to our school community is exceptional, and we feel very fortunate to have her on our faculty.”

Harms, who teaches art to 540 students, said the school will use its award to buy new technology for the classrooms.

“OLA feels truly blessed to be the recipient of this significant gift, and we would like to express our gratitude to Wendy's for the opportunities this gift will provide for our students through additional equipment and instructional materials," Nagel said.