Creating Outside the Box
Art can take myriad forms, from painting and drawing to sculpting, mixed-media, and more – and Chattanooga has countless creatives devoted to these crafts. For some of these artists, however, their medium of choice goes beyond the conventional. Here, we profile five talented local artists who use the unexpected to create their art. Read on to learn more about their medium, process, and the meaning behind it all.
By Rachel Studebaker / Photography by Rich Smith
“I’ve been an artist my entire life, even if I didn’t always call myself that,” says mixed-media artist Ashley Delaney. “I grew up in a deeply creative environment – watching my dad paint and build, constantly surrounded by my mom’s encouragement and materials, inheriting my great-grandmother’s sewing machine, and spending time antiquing with my grandfather. Creativity was always part of how I understood the world.”
Answering this call to creativity, Delaney began making visual art in 2021. “In many ways, it felt like something I had been holding in for years suddenly needed to come out,” she recalls. “My work evolved naturally from the things I had always loved: storytelling, reclaimed materials, textiles, and objects with history.”
Delaney works primarily with reclaimed and recycled items: “discarded textiles, found objects, repurposed paper and old books, and any kind of shiny trinket that catches my eye.” She sources her materials by frequenting antique stores and estate sales searching for hidden gems. “But honestly, at this point, a lot of materials just find me,” she adds. “Friends and family know the kinds of things I’m drawn to, so they’ll pass along fabric scraps, broken jewelry, old magazines, belt buckles, bags of coins … If it has texture, history, or a little sparkle, chances are I can find a place for it in my work.”
Delaney’s process is hands-on: cutting, gluing, stitching, and layering elements into a harmonious composition. “It’s an intuitive and tactile practice, almost like listening,” she describes. “Each piece of my art is made up of many materials, each with their own story, coming together to create something new and whole.”
“Visually, my pieces are layered and often a bit interactive – at a distance, you see the overall composition, but up close, you discover hidden details, tiny universes, little stories tucked into the fabric of the whole. That shift in perspective is intentional. It reflects how we relate to the world, to each other, and to ourselves. We’re all small parts of something bigger. When you zoom in, you see our individual textures; when you step back, you see how we’re connected,” finishes Delaney.
Concrete may call to mind construction, but for Cydney Parkes, it’s a medium for meaningful artwork. Parkes creates large-scale concrete sculptures and installations whose sturdy material represent strength found in vulnerability and authenticity.
“I use concrete because it’s such a firm foundation – reliable and strong. But what draws me to it most is that it has a mind of its own. It’s difficult to manipulate, and I love that about it. It knows exactly what it is, and working with a medium that’s so unapologetically itself is both grounding and challenging. It keeps me honest in my design process,” shares Parkes.
Working with such a rigid medium isn’t always easy, but Parkes prefers it this way. “Materials – especially concrete – often have their own way of behaving. Learning to work with that instead of against it is both humbling and rewarding. It’s a balance between intention and letting the process unfold as it wants to,” she explains.
Recently, Parkes has expanded her scope of work to include architectural design for commercial and residential spaces. Fueling this focus is a desire to bring beauty to her city. As managing partner and creative director for Mapleleaf Realco, her current project is the renovation of The Bolt Building on Main Street – a landmark development where she is using concrete as the main eye-catching element to merge art, architecture, and community.
“While concrete remains a core medium in my work, my focus is expanding beyond materials to creating meaningful environments and experiences. I’m passionate about bringing good design to our community and delivering high-quality projects that introduce a fresh level of design to Chattanooga – design that feels authentic and thoughtfully integrated into the city’s fabric,” she says.
Parkes gravitates to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which focuses on finding beauty in imperfection. She shares, “Building and design really capture that for me; it’s always a moving target, and you have to pivot well. I love the dance and the challenge of life throwing its flow at me and getting to work with whatever is presented.”
Whether designing a space or a sculpture, Parkes ultimately aims to capture a feeling and communicate it through art and design. “To me, art and design are the first languages spoken when you enter a space – they tell you how to feel before words ever do. I love the mystery of that, being able to guide someone’s emotions through materials, textures, and forms,” she finishes.
While many artists will head to an art store to restock supplies, Amanda Brazier simply steps outside. Earth pigments form the foundation of her work, sourced and sifted from local rocks and clays. She also processes plant fibers and studio scraps for papermaking, taking a posture of resourcefulness every step of the way.
For Brazier, finding these materials often means slowing down and paying attention to the world around her. Colorful rocks and soils catch her eye from the side of the road or while searching a yard. In the fall, Brazier cuts iris and lily leaves for fresh paper pulp, and friends often gift found materials.
“Every single time I make a mark with earth pigments or touch my handmade paper, I am amazed at the beauty of each color and material. I also enjoy sharing my work with others, especially when they make a connection between the work and something familiar or even unexpected,” says Brazier.
While creating paint and paper can be time-consuming work, Brazier relies on plenty of planning and patience when creating a new collection. Her artwork consists of warm, earthy colors and combines pigments, paper, and patterns to pay homage to the places they were derived from. “The marks and materials of my work are meditations on the rhythms of the place I call home,” Brazier describes.
Beyond the earth, Brazier draws inspiration from her grandmother’s quilts, often painting patterns that mirror the weaving and stitching of textiles. She also incorporates the marks of bird sonograms – digital expressions of bird vocalizations. “These paintings are my record of listening. The painted sonogram becomes a familiar, universal language, near, but often unnoticed,” she shares.
Brazier hopes her artwork will spark “a desire to notice and listen to the life around us – and a desire to care for it in more meaningful ways.” She concludes, “I have two goals for my work: to co-create with the Creator and to bring gentle and loving attention to what tends to be familiar but often unnoticed: rocks, soil, plants, birds and their songs, and the patterns of life all around us.”
Laura Cleary Williams’ area of expertise is drawing, but these days, she isn’t reaching for pencil and paper. Instead, Williams works with silk tulle and hand-sewn thread to create layered, translucent pieces that transcend traditional concepts of drawn art.
To create her art, Williams drapes, stitches, glues, and suspends materials into one intricate piece. “The most rewarding part of my process is when the piece finally clicks into place – when all the stitched lines, layers of tulle, and delicate marks come together and become something more than their individual parts. There’s a moment when the work stops feeling like a collection of materials and starts to feel whole, like it’s transcended the mark-making and taken on a presence of its own. That transformation – that quiet shift from construction to meaning – is what I chase every time,” she shares.
These fabric-based creations are part of Williams’ current body of work, Beyond the Veil: Memories of Space and Time, exhibiting at Wavelength Space beginning October 3. Behind this collection – and all of Williams’ work – is a belief that drawing is a language of its own.
“The materials themselves – transparent, suspended, delicate – mirror the nature of memory: soft, shifting, and often incomplete. I think of these works as visual echoes – drawings that hold space for what can’t quite be said with words,” she explains, adding, “Working with these materials allows me to turn drawing into something atmospheric, emotional, and dimensional – a kind of visual language that invites reflection and pause.”
Williams concludes, “My main goal is to invite viewers to redefine what drawing can be – what it looks like, what it means, and how it can make us feel. I want to expand the idea of drawing beyond paper and pencil, into space, into fabric, into something experiential. Through materials like silk tulle and thread, I create work that asks viewers to slow down and feel – to sit with the quiet, the translucent, the ephemeral. Ultimately, I want my work to evoke emotion more than explanation. I hope it stirs something subtle but lasting, the way memory or music does – something just beyond words.”
Art has always been a part of Terry Cannon’s life. “My earliest memories are of drawing and creating,” recalls Cannon. “I knew from an early age I wanted to be an artist.”
While life would take Cannon in different directions in early adulthood, he would reconnect with his passion for making art in his mid-30s and has since built a decades-long career from his pursuit of creativity.
Upon first glance, Cannon’s artwork consists of colorful, mixed-media sculptures and canvases, often depicting animals and flowers. However, take a closer look and you’ll discover a treasure trove of found objects. An assortment of buttons transforms into the wings of a butterfly; a guitar becomes the body of a horse; and paint brushes are repurposed as birthday cake candles. “I love when people try and figure out how I make my pieces,” Cannon says.
Behind these pieces is a vision for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary and giving a second life to items that would otherwise be discarded or forgotten. When asked how he finds materials for his art, Cannon says, “You name it: antique stores, eBay, the side of the road. If we keep our eyes and minds open, there is inspiration to be found everywhere.”
Cannon’s process is always evolving based on where his imagination leads him. “I’m always experimenting and moving forward. When I start to get bored or frustrated with what I’m doing, I start to try new things,” he explains.
The result is a body of work where every piece is infused with imagination, yet not one is alike. His spontaneous style has garnered attention from area businesses and led to public displays of his work beyond the gallery. Most notably, Cannon has led the design and decoration of three locations of Champy’s World Famous Fried Chicken and created a large-scale installation on display at Creative Discovery Museum.
No matter where it is viewed, Cannon’s ultimate goal for his art is simply to elicit a sense of wonder, inspiration, and joy in children and adults alike.
