Chattanooga-based artist T.R. Reed brings his kinetic, comic, whirligig "Creachters" to the LowerTown Arts & Music Festival, which features over 50 artists whose creations will be on display and for sale at the two-day event. On Sounds Good, Kate Lochte speaks with Reed about how he creates the colorful pieces and how he got started as an artist.
T.R. Reed describes how he finds inspiration for his Creachters: "I feel a throbbing in the back of my head and there's a little tap back there and it drains down the back of my neck and I pick them up and mold them up and put them on the shelf." As a self-taught artist and musician, Reed draws from a well of creativity going back to the 70s, when he published fake magazines under a pseudonym and took up playing unconventional instruments with friends. In 1981, he entered an exhibition called "whirligigs, weathervanes and wind toys" and the experience evolved into the work he displays and sells at exhibits and art shows - and the LowerTown Arts & Music Festival.
The pieces are made with colorful acrylics and high finish gloss, usually out of plywood and recycled materials. Ornaments begin at $25 and medium table-top pieces go from $175 to $400.
