Clinton’s Fresh Air Yoga Studio and Art Gallery will be hosting local musician and artist Raymond Creasy at its August exhibition. Creasy’s many and varied talents and his eclectic style will provide an interesting evening.
Creasy’s latest CD is titled “Fusion,” a word which should describe the process each of us utilizes in our constant absorption of experience and aesthetics. Do we filter, forge, and fashion, or merely file away? Raymond Creasy must define the word as a solipsist does. He, too, is a sponge at the center of his universe, but to keep absorbing requires giving up some of what has been internalized. When he frees up space in his cranial computer, one sees art, hears music, lyrics and stories - - an integration of what has shaped him, reformed by the purely human element of creativity into something remarkable.
Although he has traveled extensively, Creasy is a product of Tennessee, a cultural petri dish for musicians. He has performed with such musical legends as Porter Waggoner, Carl Perkins, and Willie Nelson, has played with successful bands and formed two of his own. He has performed at concerts and festivals, in clubs and on college campuses. He has performed on and hosted radio and television shows. His popularity is easily explained: he’s really good. He plays guitar, mandolin, and instruments one would be hard-pressed to pronounce. He was twice named Tennessee’s best banjo player. His music is unique, but there’s an occasional hint of Willie Nelson or Neil Young. Or is it a more atavistic sound? Blues? Appalachian? Native American? In any case, those influences are discreetly intertwined with distinctive Creasy. He will keep you listening.
Creasy’s art is as intriguing as his music, and as diverse. Be it acrylics, oils, pastels, watercolors, or wood, his medium is chosen by the subject. He has exhibited in four states and taken Best of Show in the Memphis Watercolors Show and the Purchase Award, Arkansas Artists, at Little Rock’s Arkansas Art Center. The faces in his portraits tell stories and record histories. His scenes and landscapes elicit fleeting thoughts of 19th-century artist and illustrator Arthur Rackham, minus the woods’ fairies - - you are just one tiny step away from what’s genuine. Creasy himself best describes this subtle element of unreality in his work: “Art is life and life is everywhere. I just like to feel the landscape, absorb the energy, light, and textures and communicate them in my work.” And we’re back to that synesthetic process of creativity again: the senses affect how we see a scene, and that alteration from “true” is the creative element that makes a painting instead of a photograph. His abstracts are geometric, compelling, and, like his music, curiously dimensional.
Born and educated in Tennessee, Creasy has toured and played all over the United States, and shown his artwork in Tennessee, Colorado and New Mexico. Since moving to Van Buren County in 1988, he has made musical appearances at such regional venues as Riverfest, the Ozark Folk Center and Memphis in May, and has had art shows at Pinnacle Gallery in Clinton, the Advent and Arts Café in Conway and the Arkansas Craft Gallery in Mountain View. Creasy’s murals can be seen in Mountain View and Leslie.
If you miss Creasy’s opening, you’ll miss an exceptional event. Both his art and music will be showcased from 6 to 8 p. m., August 11, at Fresh Air Yoga Studio and Art Gallery, 652 Main Street in Clinton. You can enjoy the art while being woven into the music. - Cynthia Dusenberry
