New Website - New Blog

Hey Everybody.  I have a new website and blog www.anthonytavis.com. Please check it out and subscribe!  

Mae Fighters

Here are some of my recent Mae Fighters.

 Since I was a kid, I always loved the paint jobs on vintage military aircraft.  My Auntie Mae used to work on them back on WWII.  When I was a child, she would draw fighter planes for my brother and I on demand.  She was a self taught artist and could draw many planes from memory because she built them herself. These fun UFOs were inspired by Auntie Mae and the mysterys that surround UFOs and Area 51.

Invasion Stripes

Tuskegee Airmen "Red Tail" 

Love the paint job.  Kids called it "the Bat Plane". 

On a recent trip to the USS Alabama, the family and I got to do some up close research on the subject.   

Hope you enjoy them. Contact me for details and pricing.  

Alabama Blues Project

Recently painted guitar to raise money for the Alabama Blues Project.  http://www.alabamablues.org.  I love this organization and everything it is about.  Johnny Shines was the real deal Delta Blues Legend.   He started in Mississippi rambling with the legendary Robert Johnson.  His adventures took him to Chicago and beyond and eventually settled here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he spent the remainder of his days.  This guitar is a tribute to him.

   

Monster Makeover V

Glad to be a part of this great event.  The monster Makeover V is an art show featuring the art of children from Tuscaloosa area schools.  The children drew monsters and the artists made art based on those monsters.  Both the children's art and the artists pieces are being auctioned off to raise money for arts grants.   Tuscaloosa News published a book featuring all the art work from the show.   The main event is  Oct 30th,  at the Transportation Museum in Tuscaloosa.  It is geared toward children and costumes are encouraged.  Please stop in and show your support!

     Being an artist gives me the opportunity to go places that I’ve never been.  It’s a great feeling to be able to go to some part of the country I’ve never been before and not be a stranger.  Even if I’m not making sales, I can sit around at a slow show and make friends with the artists around me. It’s a great feeling to open a newspaper, or magazine and see your friends and their artwork in it.  I love looking at all the work of the artists I have met along the way on my own wall, or on the wall of some random restaurant or public space in some faraway place or close by.  It makes you feel like part of something much larger.  The best thing about being an artist and knowing other artists is that through the distribution of their art, the spirit of all these amazing people show up all over the place, and change your experience of the place you find it.  This weekend I will be in my hometown of Hoover, Alabama at the Moss Rock Festival, please come out and see us!  I'll be there with my friends Donna DiGiorgio, Jeff Wells & Pam Hamby, Gyl Turner, Chad Moore, David Nuttall and more!  November 1-2, 10 AM-5 PM.

Hey Folks, I got some great stuff cooking in the studio, feel free to contact me if you ever want to pop in and see what I got.  I'll be at the Red Barn Premier Invitational Art Show (http://theredbarnfoundation.org/?p=1804) in Leeds on May 10th, Arts Alive! in Downtown Florence Alabama May 17-18 (http://www.artsalivealabama.com/), And Art in the Gardens on June 21-22 at Aldridge Gardens in Hoover Alabama (http://aldridgegardens.com/home.html).  Hope to see you all real soon.

Come See me Thursday for Blues, Libations and, of course, Folk Art!

A Jammin' Autumn!

The Monte Sano Arts Festival in Huntsville was a great show!

Despite the collapsed tent and the pouring rain.  

Of course, I met some great people and saw some old friends, and my parents finally got to see me in my element.

Christmas is coming up soon and it's never too early to start stocking up on some one of a kind hand made gifts while supporting your local arts scene! 

Here’s my Fall line up, hope to see y'all in the next few weeks!!

           

September 28^th:  The Old 280 Fall Boogie,  Waverly AL.  An all day music festival out near Auburn

October 7^th:  Hot Strings Festival, Colonial Brookwood Village, Mountain Brook, AL.  Bluegrass Festival fundraiser for The Foundry

October 12^th:  Art and Music on the Green, Ross Bridge, Hoover, AL.  Arts and Music with lots of Beer Wine and Food tastings!!

November 2-3^rd: Moss Rock Festival, at The Preserve in Hoover, AL.  2 Day art and Music Festival

It's going to be a busy Autumn, I hope to see Y'all real soon! 

Birmingham Art Walk was great! now on to Leeds

Thanks Birmingham!  Art Walk was a huge success!  I met some great people and had a great time.  Luckily, the rain stayed away!  The event staff was so accommodating and helpful!  A special thanks to Joy, Heather, John and Chuck for all their help (and purchases)!  Next weekend Sept 15-16 is the Leeds Downtown Folk Festival which is a great down home event.  Looking forward to the Dixieland Jazz Band and all the wonderful art.  If you missed me at Art Walk, or saw something that you just had to have, come see me in Leeds! 

Hope to see you at Artwalk 2012: September 7-8

Artwalk 2012 will take place Friday, September 7 from 5-10 pm and Saturday, September 8 from noon-6 p.m. in Birmingham's historic loft district on Morris, 1st and 2nd Avenues North between 22nd and 25th Streets.

My new line: Musical chairs! Old chairs with custom paint job makes a great addition to your music room, front porch or a gift for your finger picker.  No arms on the chair allows plenty of elbow room!  This classic ladder back chair is the quintessential addition to your southern folk art collection.  I have several more ladder backs, a spindle back and an old school chair in the studio waiting for paint.  This particular piece has a primitive blues theme. starting at $325.00

OUTLAND BLUES: Visions from Alabama’s Peculiar Highway.

Please join us on the evening of Friday, May 4^th at Grace Aberdean Habitat Alchemy in Tuscaloosa for the premier of the latest works by outsider artist Anthony Tavis.  You may have seen Anthony’s vibrant and colorful art at the recent Druid City Arts Festival in downtown Tuscaloosa and the Montevallo Arts Festival.  His latest series includes a variety of new characters, old legends, ancient artifacts, highway signs and roadside varmints. This show is a must see for West Alabamians in particular due to its regionally specific subject matter. Hope to see y’all there!

Art on "R" mountain was a huge success, thank you all who came up to Ruffner Mountain for the show.  A special thanks to Jeff and the crew from the East Lake Arts District for hosting an amazing show.  We will definitely see you there in 2013!

Druid City Arts Festival: The best show to date!

I just want to thank Creative Campus and the Druid City Arts Festival for all their hard work and dedication.  I would also like to thank all of my customers in Tuscaloosa! This festival was truly the best to date.  My Wife, my son and I all had a blast!  It's a shame that this extraordinary event may not happen again next year.  Hopefully DCAF will find a sponsor and this party will go on for years to come.  It was great to see so many familiar faces, the bands were excellent and the food was spectacular!  

Upcoming events for 2012: Please come out and support your local arts scene!

• Druid City Arts Festival!  March 24, 2012.  Government Plaza, Downtown Tuscaloosa Alabama.  11 am to 7 pm.  www.dcaf.ua.edu

• Art on “R” Mountain!  April 7, 2012.  Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, Birmingham, Alabama.  9 am to 5 pm. Parking and Shuttle from East Lake United Methodist Church. www.eastlakearts.org

• 6^th Annual Montevallo Art Show!  April 14, 2012.  Orr Park, Montevallo Alabama.  10 am to 5pm.  http://montevalloartscouncil.org/fest.htm

• Art Till’ Dark  April 21, 2012.  40 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga Tennessee.  12 am til’ 6pm. Hosted by the Famous Winder Binder Gallery.  www.arttildark.com , www.winderbinder.wordpress.com 
•  
• Grace Aberdean Habitat Alchemy! Solo Art Show  Friday May 4th, 2012.  2124 9th Street, Downtown Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  http://graceaberdean.com/
 

New crawlin' king snake peices will be available for purchase at the Druid City Arts Festival in downtown Tuscaloosa March 24 th.

You better come home to my kitchen.....recent pieces related to food.

Shopping Local: A Movement We Can All Agree On!

      "Shopping Local" is not just another trend or a single event, its a cultural shift in how we participate in our own destiny and taking responsibility for our community, country and economy . I refuse to believe Americans are as lazy and whiny as the media would like you to believe. I'm no economist, but it appears to me that it's no easy task to open up a business unless there is demand for your product and people have the money to buy your product (not to mention loans are not as easy to come by these days).  I feel that getting behind this movement could very well create that demand.  I imagine that business owners who live in the community in which they do business have a bigger stake in that community.  Maybe that money spent on Main Street in your town will more likely be recirculated, donated to their church, school or a local youth organization. That reinvestment has the potential turn into jobs or opportunities for local people and local children creating a safer and more successful community.
      Shopping local is a worthy grassroots movement that is about creating a demand for quality American made goods and services from  small American owned businesses, I think that is a hard goal to disagree with no matter what side of the political spectrum you lean towards. This is an opportunity for Americans to take part in making America great again instead of waiting for some politician to do it. This is about a having a positive vision for the run down business district in your home town. It's about selling the deteriorating, foreclosed house next door.  This is about making your locality a great place to live, work, raise kids, go to school. This is about helping more families put their roots down, instead of families having to be uprooted because their job moved overseas or across the country.  This is about making an effort to solve the our country's problems on our own and demonstrating to our children that we are still in control of our own destiny and that America is still  The Land of Opportunity. 
      We're at a crossroads ladies and gentlemen. Are we going to sit around wondering who's going to create the next job for us while pundits and politicians get all up in our heads, telling us to blame each other for our problems?  I'm challenging you fellow Americans, create the demand, make local "cool", know your local merchants, show up for that grand opening! Brag to your friends about the positive experiences you have had there. Go into your local Mom and Pop Shop, introduce yourself, know their name, know who their ball team is, ask how their kids are, they are your neighbors, they share the same concerns as you and are happy to serve you. Remember, next time you pull up to that giant box store parking lot that yellow smiley faces pinned to an apron are no substitute for a real smiling face!

Anthony Tavis Folk Art Now Featured at City Arts Boutique in Woodlawn's 55th Place Arts Incubator

Where can you find original art from Anthony Tavis and other Birmingham artists?  If your in Birmingham, you must stop by the hippest new shop in the Magic City. City Arts Boutique is a great little shop in the blue brick building at 5528 1st Ave. South in the Woodlawn section of Birmingham.  Close to the trendy Crestwood neighborhood, City Arts Boutiques Owner Brooke Fleming has created a magnificent space filled with local art and hand made goods by some of the finest artists in Birmingham. City Arts Boutique not only carries hand made art and decor but will also offer assorted art classes.  Brooke has taken a bold step in the effort to revitalize the Woodlawn neighborhood and will go down in history as one of the founding patrons of this new and exciting arts district.  Tired of sitting around wondering "who's going to clean up Birmingham?" Do your part in making Birmingham Alabama the premier art destination in the Southeast, stop by City Arts Boutique today!