One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure!
When Joel Anderson is not working on poster art, he likes to tinker in his home studio making art from found objects. He quips: "I spend a lot of time in front of a computer at the office studio, so sometimes, I want to play with power tools, toys and paint brushes. When I need to get out of the digital world and get my hands dirty, I often end up in my garage or basement, rummaging through bins of objects that I have been collecting over the years. I separate the curious things I find into groups of wood, metal, glass, music, technology, toys, nature, Americana, pop culture, etc. Then I arrange the objects to make whimsical Folk Art. If I get inspired to create a few new pieces, I load up my ping pong table with items of various size, shape, color, or theme and begin composing designs that will later be painted, glued, and screwed together into funky, fun, found-object art."
As Anderson Design Group's founder, Joel has always enjoyed blending fine art and commercial art. The ADG headquarters in Nashville, TN is a great example of this fusion—upstairs the staff artists create new poster designs (mostly on iMacs using Adobe Creative Suite.) Downstairs is open to the public featuring a fine art gallery to showcase Joel's folk art and Kai Carpenter's oil paintings. The Studio Store offers the only poster gallery in the world that features all 1,000+ poster designs from all of ADG's various collections. The store also features the Spirit of Nashville Collection, a line of Music City keepsakes sought out by tourist from around the globe. Joel also encourages his creative friends to sell their locally-made products in an area of the shop called the Maker's Market.
The Studio Store and Gallery exude Southern Charm. And being in the heart of Music City, it's a given that most of Joel's compositions feature records, guitar picks or musical instruments.
"I love to create art that makes people smile. My art is like comfort food (or really yummy junk food!) It combines familiar objects that people associate with good times or fun places. It is intended to evoke a bit of nostalgia and remind you why you love living Nashville or in the South."
Next time you are in Nashville, stop by our gallery to see what's new (or what's old but has been given a whole new life!) Joel's folk art will be on display during the month of August. In September, the gallery will feature the original acrylic and oil paintings Joel and Kai created for the soon-to-be-published book: Illustrated Guide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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