Currently on display at The Galleria located inside the Johnson City Public Library through April 2nd.
100 W Millard St, Johnson City, TN 37604

A Quiet Chapter

Artist's Statement:

Reading has always been the constant throughout every chapter of my life. I find myself instinctively drawn to the quiet coziness of libraries, coffee shops, and bookstores - places that house thousands of bound adventures and the pulse of the human experience. In curating this collection, I wanted to celebrate the feeling of home that comes when in the company of books.

There is a specific kind of freedom in the life of a reader: the 'timeless time' of a warm cup of tea on a rainy day, lost in a story with nowhere else to be. It is a space for intellectual curiosity and rare stillness. Books also offer a bridge to human connection, an immediate familiarity with someone by way of a shared author or story, or an engaging conversation that can lead you towards your next favorite stories. Looking for books in the real world is a special kind of treasure hunt that can take you to small markets, beautiful old libraries, or to the reading corner of your next favorite coffee shop. Books themselves offer a transportive quality, allowing us to inhabit the life of a royal in 19th-century England or to gain modern day perspective from someone who has lived an entirely different life from our own; these stories have the power to shape the way you see the world and the people in it.

In the words of writer George R.R. Martin, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies." Some of the people featured in this show are new readers in the early years of their reading journeys, with so many lives ahead of them! I invite you to pick up many books while you’re here and lean into that sweetness – it’s one of the best parts of being alive.