Meet the Folk │ Calvin Nicely: Eternal Flame
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Producer
Ashley Gregg
Description
Calvin Nicely begins his glasswork with only the gesture of an idea. The glass has just as much say in how this all turns out. "I’m letting the glass lead me to what it wants to be,” he tells us. Pushing and releasing, moving in and out, Nicely’s studio practice is a laborious dance with the glass. Flow is important and leaves little room for pause. Glasswork requires you to be just as loose and flexible as you are strong and enduring. There’s a beautiful contrast between the making of Nicely’s work and its final presentation. These artworks were born out of an environment of motion, heat, and intensity, though what he presents in the gallery space is resolute, quiet, and still.
“It's just magical what you can do with glass. Only you limit it, really, by the limitations of your own skill and imagination,” he says. Nicely’s imagination dives deep into the interior world of humans and also transcends into the spiritual world, seeking to connect with something beyond our everyday presentations and experiences. The mask and flame are common motifs in his work, ones he describes as “spirits frozen in time.” Endowed with great care, these sculptural objects invite a deeper engagement and contemplation. Nicely shares, “I always say that everybody, when they leave the house in the morning, puts the mask on. You're dealing with your children, your husband—you have one mask; you go to the grocery store—you have another mask; you go to work, you have to put on another demeanor. So, people are not always presenting what's there. You have to look behind the mask to see what's really there.”
Calvin Nicely is an African American glass artist who resides and works in studios in Tennessee and also Western North Carolina. He is a veteran of both the United States Air Force and Navy. Calvin began working with hot glass in 1994 as a studio assistant, where he worked for over twelve years gaining knowledge and insight into the medium of studio glass.
Calvin was selected in 1998 to design and create the “Tennessee Governor’s Awards in the Arts,” presented by the honorable Don Sundquist, State Governor of Tennessee. His work is in several private and public collections and has been shown at various venues in major cities throughout the country including Atlanta, Chicago, and Las Vegas. Five of Calvin’s glassworks are part of the Reece Museum’s Sammie L. Nicely Collection.
Publication Date
11-12-2024
City
Johnson City, TN
Keywords
Appalachia, African-American art, artists, glass-blowing, glass work, Appalachian art, Appalachia, public folklore, public history, regional museum, culture practitioner, folklore, oral history, artist, artifact
Disciplines
American Material Culture | Appalachian Studies | Folklore | Glass Arts
Recommended Citation
The Reece Museum, East Tennessee State University, "Meet the Folk │ Calvin Nicely: Eternal Flame" (2024). Meet the Folk [documentary series]. 1.
https://dc.etsu.edu/meetthefolk/1
