APSU 80s Art Alumni

How often do we get the opportunity to see an amazing art exhibit and have a glass of wine with twenty old friends in the same night? Saturday’s reunion in Clarksville was really great, and I’m glad so many of you could be there. The people above are me (Todd Duren), Gina Binkley, Bruce Childs, Susan Bryant, Lisa Cook, Mary Irwin, Mary (Irwin) Maxwell, Barabara (Hicks) Ladd, Tammy (Married name?) McKissack, and Hobart Payne.

For those of you that couldn’t make it (Scott, Jody, Ken, Clarence, et al), I’ll try to recall the highlights. First Karen and Hobart and I poked around in the Trahern Building, which has changed a lot since we were there. Then there was the opening for Olen Bryant’s amazing retrospective at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center. At 80, Olen is looking back on a rich career as an artist an educator, and his exhibit is an impressive accomplishment. Afterward Susan Bryant invited us to the Downtown Artists Gallery where we slurped chardonnay and caught up on each other’s lives. I’d love for people to post their comments below. Oh, and click on the “more pictures” link in the sidebar to see some of my pix from the event.

Oh, and please click the email link and send me contact info for your old Trahern friends!

Wahoo! Here’s a pic from the past. Ken Mastri circa 1985 in the Trahern hallway just outside the Art Office. Check out his other photos by clicking right about here. He’s a very busy guy these days, married to lovely art grad Tamelyn. He’s a dad. He’s a radio personality. He’s a VW freak. Anyway, I visited him and his fam awhile back, and I’m trying to get him and Tam to come to the reunion. So click the comments link below and send him some love…

I emailed Larry Hortenbury last week, and got this kind reply:

Todd,

Thanks for the invite. You are terrific people. How could I have been so lucky as to have so many incredibly smart and creative people as students and friends during my years there? I would say it must have been something in the water in Clarksville, but many of you arrived already alive to the arts or at least alive to what art can do and can be in your lives. I don’t know that I can get there on the 15th but I will be thinking about you guys with many fond memories. The work was a good kind of hard, but the jokes and laughter were better!

Todd, I hope your adventures into real estate are going well.

Larry