First Friday to highlight fusion of music, art

It’s August and time for First Friday celebrations with attractions and activities downtown in restaurants, music venues, shops, sidewalks, squares and other spots.

And it means time for a First Friday Art Crawl with new exhibit openings – and closings – at downtown galleries.

Here’s a rundown with some of the highlights with a focus on a local artist who’s curating an exhibit combining art, photography and music.

“Johnny Mollica did such a good job installing bicentennial art in Macon last year, we thought why not get him to do something at our Arts Alliance gallery,” said Julie Wilkerson, executive director of the Macon Arts Alliance. “We told him it could be his work or he could invite whoever he wanted. He chose to bring some of his and have Adam Smith display photography. Plus, he’s arranged for music as well.”

Mollica is best known around Macon as Johnny Mo, a self-proclaimed blues fanatic in addition to being an avid creator. He’s heavily involved with the community, its creative ventures and spearheads many art-music ventures of his own.

“Johnny’s work combines music and art and that’s perfect for Macon and the Arts Alliance,” Wilkerson said. “We absolutely support live music along with the visual arts. In a small way, we want to bring his feel for the blues and art into the gallery. It’s all about how music, art and creativity all fit together.”

You’ve likely seen Mollica’s art or handiwork around even if you didn’t realize it, though his hallmark “absurdist art” is striking and memorable. He’s been central to remodeling Grant’s Lounge’s Wall of Fame and had previous shows and involvements there and at Triangle Arts Macon, the 567 Center Gallery, Gallery West, the Big House Museum, Famous Mike’s Restaurant, other restaurants, Capricorn Studios and, as he says, pretty much everywhere.

He’s had a piece in a show at the Arts Alliance Gallery before but this is his first solo-ish show there.

Mollica is self-taught and told me he got his start drawing cartoons as a kid in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In search of warmer weather, he wound up in college in Memphis.

“I’ve been making art as far back as I can remember,” he said. “It’s just something I did and I didn’t take seriously. Mad Magazine was a big influence and I did cartoons because of that. I’m sure I went to museums as a kid but it’s Mad that struck me.”

Mollica was studying economics at school in Memphis – or maybe it was the Memphis blues scene he actually studied. 

“I got my degree but it was music that knocked me out,” Mollica said. “You could walk out and there’d be blues music on every street. It was like I’d gone to heaven. That and discovering ‘60s-style psychedelic concert posters changed things for me. They were like comic books dipped in Art Nouveau and acid.”

Today, Mollica still paints but as often as not it’s a hammer and odd materials in his hand rather than a brush and paint. Wilkerson called his style not quite folk art but close and noted he was a mentor to Macon folk artist Rhonda Miller.

“I call it absurdist art and consider myself a leading artist of the Macon Absurdist Art Movement,” he said. Laughing, he continued, “I’m pretty much the one who made up the name so I can say that.”

To pick and choose a few of Mollica’s words to describe his work, you could go with folk art-ish, assemblages, mixed media, found art, bottle caps, paint, juke joint,  pictures, and, of course, he has to say he adds anything to give it a bluesy, musical feel.

When not creating art, Mollica tends to promote art, music and community. Here are a few of his projects:

-The Church of Duane Allman, a mobile art installation housed in a trailer once used by Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks and The Freight Train Band. As you would expect, it contains Mollica’s original art with Duane Allman as the subject;

-His multi-artist Folk Blues Art Show each September at Grant’s Lounge;

-And his newest and biggest multi-day blues and folk art event, October’s All Blues Music & Arts Revival at Bicentennial Park in Macon’s historic Mill Hill neighborhood featuring a folk-art expo, crafts and fun for kids and families and two stages with some of the Southeast’s biggest and should-be-better-known blues players.

“I get to do all these things and I love music and I love doing them but if I’m not creating art then I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I could be creating this this way – I need to run home and work on it.’ I get all these ideas when I’m not there creating but, you know how it is, sometimes when you’re trying to create it’s hard to think of things or get them like you want or how you envisioned. Sometimes you just have to grind it and sand it all down and start again and sometimes – a lot of people won’t like this – but sometimes you just have to flip it around and see if it speaks to you or looks right that other way. I know that sounds weird but it’s true. If I’m not creating, I feel like something is trying to burst out and I have to get back to art and let it go.”

An equally fanatic blues fan, Mollica called in his friend and photographer Adam Smith to be part of the exhibit. Smith grew up in Macon but is now Atlanta-based. For almost 30 years, Smith has chronicled the South’s landscapes and music to award-winning results. Country music legend Marty Stuart called him one of his favorite all-time photographers saying, “He shoots lean, neat and to the point. He understands the dance between music and photography and knows how to capture it. He eases up on a musical situation in the form of a ghost and his results are always timeless.”

Smith says on his website, “I want the viewer to not only look at the photography, I want it to be an all-around experience. I want it to encapsulate everything … where an audience gets kind of a full view of the whole shebang.”

On the sound side, Mollica is calling in Mississippi’s Ric Patton to play guitar and harmonica for the occasion.

The exhibit is called “Goin’ Down Slow” and it runs through August at the Macon Arts Alliance Gallery, 486 1st St. There will be an opening reception Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with wine and beer.

Other First Friday exhibits include:

-Prints, etchings and drawings by Craig Burkhalter at the Wesleyan Leadership Lab, 522 Cherry St., from 5-7 p.m. A former art instructor in Macon, Burkhalter is now retired and living in North Georgia where he continues to create art. In addition to his art, give a tip of the hat to Burkhalter as a founding member of the now defunct but influential Macon Contemporary Arts Exchange, once housed on two floors of the old Washington Building at Mulberry and Second streets. It was the 20 or so Exchange artists that initiated the original First Fridays downtown which have now taken on a larger life of their own.

-The 567 Center for Renewal, 456 1st St., will have a reception from 5-8 p.m.

To open its “Favorite Strangers” exhibit featuring paintings by Shannon Riddle. Along with the exhibit, meet Riddle and enjoy light refreshments.

-At Gallery West, 337 3rd St., a closing party will be from 5-9 p.m. for Michael Pierce’s exhibit, “Elemental Mana” with the artist in attendance.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com and join him on Instagram at @michael_w_pannell.