ARTICLES
FOUND: a mixed-media art presentation
Posted by: pjsykes – Mar 05, 2010
I first met Joanna McGlothlin four years ago as the wife of my boyfriend’s drummer. But I soon learned she was more than that—an amazingly talented artist and crafter who also plays music. Her style to me is warm, vintage, homemade and Victorian but also something completely modern and eclectic. She gathers together scraps of paper, tape, photos, ribbons and other bits of ephemera to create really beautiful art.
Joanna, who has been doing her art in its current form for about five years, has been showing her collages and art pieces in her own Lynchburg community for some time. PJ and I were really pleased to bring her to Richmond so her work can be admired by new sets of eyes.
Inspiration comes from all around. She enjoys taking photographs in Lynchburg, especially at her “favorite spot,” the Old City Cemetery and looking at photos of abandoned buildings on flickr. To be amongst antiques and relics of the past also inspires her to be creative. She says, “one of my favorite things to do to get inspired is to visit Estate Specialists here in Lynchburg. Wandering among belongings that may have once been important to someone but weren't important to those they left behind fills me with that nostalgia.”
Her work is presented under the collective title “The Harding Street Assembly Lab,”
named after the street she and her husband Nathan once lived on in Lynchburg. She said, “Many nights were spent in the basement of that tiny house surrounded by friends, creating music or making things. Eventually the music was recorded and while working on artwork, Nathan coined the ‘Lab’ to name the place the recording was done.”
The Harding Street Assembly Lab (HSAL) is also a record label that Joanna and Nathan run, which has put out several 7” with bands from both the burgeoning Lynchburg scene and other places. While they have been putting out music for years, often with fantastic handmade packaging, this is the first time they’ve “legitimized [their] hobbies” by putting a name and financial backing behind the label.
“My main role in [the label] is design, construction & assembly of the artwork, as well as financial consultation on a release by release basis,” Joanna explained.
The following image is HSAL 02 - The Late Virginia Summers, which features Joanna's artwork paired with her husbands music. The 7" was partially recorded two floors bellow her art studio in their Lynchburg home.
Joanna McGlothlin’s show “Found” is hanging at Harrison Street Coffee Shop through March and Harding Street Assembly Lab records are available locally at Deep Groove Records or you can get them direct from www.hardingstreet.org
Other links:
Lynchburg Estate Specialist
The Old City Cemetery
The Harding Street Assembly Lab art blog
words: Melissa Koch / photo: PJ Sykes / artwork: Joanna McGlothlin / sounds: HSAL
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