Artist Beth Collins’s ‘stacks’ on display at Creative Alternative open house

The Creative Alternative’s biannual open house is Sunday, offering a chance to check out the Riley Avenue collaborative studio and its longtime focus on training young and old in the arts.

Also on hand will be area artist Beth Collins displaying and discussing her distinctive “stacks” which are sculpture creations formed by stacking plates, bowls, glassware, ceramics and other decorative found objects and thrift store finds.

“This is one of two open houses we have each year,” said Brooks Whittle Dantzler, director and a founder of Creative Alternative. “They give us a chance to invite people in to see our space and find out about what we’ll be offering in future months, especially programs for kids like the ones during school breaks such as Kindness University, which will be 9 a.m. until noon on Tuesday. It’s led by well-known local artist Rhonda Miller who is our artist in residence.”

While a rich variety of art groups, studios, galleries and other centers have sprung up in recent years offering classes and creative opportunities from individual instruction to creative social evenings, it’s something Dantzler has been doing since 1979 at the Creative Alternative.

An artist herself, Dantzler first learned art at her grandmother’s kitchen table. 

“Her name was Annie Louise Wooten Whittle, and she was a classically trained artist,” Dantzler said. “We would talk about everything and do art. In those days, learning to paint was much stricter, but it gave a good foundation though it didn’t leave room to be yourself and explore your own technique as a creative person.”

Dantzler’s father was a Navy man, and they moved around a lot until settling in Macon in 1956. Dantzler graduated from Miller High School in 1969, its last year as an all-girl school and before becoming Central High School. Several learning opportunities presented themselves, such as art-focused time spent in New York, and she eventually graduated from the University of Georgia majoring in painting and drawing but with work in art education as well. She then taught for a year in Thomaston before returning to Macon to teach and develop an art curriculum for First Presbyterian Day School. Finally, she taught art and gifted programs in Macon public schools. While still teaching, she and a few others began the Creative Alternative.

Though taking art education classes at UGA was almost a fluke, she said she came to realize her calling is teaching as well as being an artist.

From the beginning, teaching children individually, in groups and in enrichment programs and camps has been key but adults have and still do find their place at the Creative Alternative. Through the years, the center has been art and music-focused but at times also taught dance and drama.

“We teach the many aspects of what it is to be an artist and have programs to build a portfolio and do other things to help them develop along the way to further education and life in the art world,” Dantzler said. “But at some point, creatives have to be allowed to fly on their own.

Mentoring is a large part of the Creative Alternative philosophy and extends to artists who show during open houses.

“Most often, we have artists who haven’t shown their work anywhere before, many who haven’t even shown their work to anyone outside their family,” she said. “We have them do an exhibit to learn the ropes, see what it takes and see what it feels like. It can be so validating and even life-changing when others see your work. We like to build them up that way. But Beth, well, I’ve known Beth for years and she’s been creating and showing art forever though not so much lately.”

Many know Collins as an avid art lover, gallery-goer, supporter of the arts and collector yet many are unaware of her wide-ranging talents. Accomplished at drawing and painting, she said she began in her very early years. In grade school, because she was usually ahead of her class in her work, teachers would let her draw on pictures on the blackboard. A native of Bonaire, she enjoyed art classes at Warner Robins High School and received awards for her work.

She was also an athlete who enjoyed and excelled in track and basketball.

“Talk about growing up in rural Georgia, I did,” she said. “You had to entertain yourself and I did a lot of drawing and a lot of running. If I wanted to get somewhere I just ran.”

Jobs through the years ranged from grading cotton for the USDA to IT work at Robins Air Force Base and for the City of Warner Robins.

Still, Collins’s love for art and creating remained strong but had to move over a bit when she became interested in ecology and native plants. She’s now an expert in native plants and, retired now, has a small business consulting regarding vegetation, landscaping and native plants.

“It’s mainly by word of mouth,” she said. “The native plant nurseries give out my name and then somebody will contact me for a site visit to look at their situation, and I let them know what they can do. I’m also a Master Gardener and Master Naturalist.”

Though her drawings and paintings are excellent and she’s worked in stained glass, pottery and other forms through the years, her art time these days is largely devoted to creating her “stacks,” which take up space alongside pots for planting.

“My daughter lives in Colorado, and on a visit out there I took a mosaic class, and the woman who taught it also made what I call stacks,” Collins said. “She called them garden towers and had them all over her yard. Since then, I’ve just kind of made it my own. Mine are different, in my own style, but the inspiration came from her.”

Collins said most of her materials come from thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales and the like.

“I enjoy seeing what I can come up with as I put it together,” she said. “I enjoy both creating art and working to help our natural world. When I was in college, I went back and forth majoring in art and science then I ended up majoring in criminal justice, which was crazy. I was actually kind of recruited for that.” 

Collins said she considers herself a patron of the arts and has bought first works of many up-and-coming creatives, including Miller. She’s known in art circles and to artists who would probably be interested to see a measure of her work.

“I like to meet other artists and support them by purchasing their work,” she said. “My walls are full of really interesting things.”

Speaking of Miller, she’s set to be around the Creative Alternative Sunday to talk about Kindness University, but for First Friday next week she’ll be part of Visions Unseen, an exhibit opening at Gallery West, 447 Third St., which celebrates creativity as a practice for wellness and recovery. It begins at 5 p.m. The exhibit is in conjunction with Minds Eye Connections.