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Georgia Art League remembers the past in Nostalgia exhibit at Brenau University
Art show on display until March 9 in Presidents Gallery in Simmons Visual Arts Center
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Artwork on display in the “Nostalgia” exhibit include “Our House” by Ann Zawacki.

‘Nostalgia’ exhibition

When: Through March 9

Where: Presidents Gallery, Simmons Visual Arts Center at Brenau University, 200 Boulevard, Gainesville

Cost: Free

More info: 770-534-6263 or galleries.brenau.edu

“Nostalgia” is all about “trying to remember the past,” Georgia Art League President Linda Tilden said.

And an art show on display through Thursday, March 9, at Brenau University does just that with pieces from members of the Georgia Art League.

Tilden explained the group worked with Nichole M. Rawlings, gallery director of Brenau University Galleries, to present the exhibition.

“We’ve been going back and forth with this for several years,” Tilden said. “We wanted to work together with the community and wanted the art and the school to work together.”

This finally happened in early 2017, and both groups picked a theme to match the other exhibitions at Brenau.

“They have two different shows going on right now,” Tilden said. “One is printmaking and the other is old handwriting. So that’s why we picked ‘Nostalgia.’ It just worked in conjunction with what they had.”

With 41 pieces, the exhibition was open to all Georgia Art League, which is a collection of artists collaborating to help spread the love and respect of the art, according to its website.

“They could only submit one piece, and anything they submitted would have been shown,” Tilden said. “It wasn’t juried or anything.”

But the show was judged, handing out awards for best of show, first place, second place, third place and honorable mention. Ann Zawacki won Best in Show for her use of memorabilia from her past. Others used the same idea.

“Another lady had letters from her grandfather that was in the service, and she put those letters in there,” Tilden said.

Tilden received honorable mention for her piece, a photograph of a 1941 Cadillac hood ornament.

“I took a photograph of a 1941 Cadillac and what impressed me the most was the hood ornament,” she said. “It was just the way the light was hitting it. It felt like it had a life of its own.  … You could see the reflection of so many things in it — the old farm where it’s sitting and the other old cars that were around — all those little bits and pieces were in those reflections. So you just had to kind of really look at it.”

Gallery manager Allison Lauricella, who judged the show, thought along the same lines as Tilden.

“I chose this piece, because I loved the sense of movement in the reflection seen in the hood ornament,” she said. “The photograph is well composed and gives the viewer the sense that the ornament has almost broken away from the car itself and taken flight.”

Tilden encouraged others to attend the exhibition to see the works of the Georgia Art League.

“I don’t think people realize how much we (the Georgia Art League) have going on,” she said. “It (the exhibition) will make you stop and think of some pleasant thing in your past. It makes you just stop and appreciate it.”