After a semester of painting, Michael Meads takes a minute to take in his collection of oil paintings, entitled “Cookies ‘n Kreme,” as it hangs in a Woods Hall art studio.
The works, now complete, will be featured at the Druid City Brewing Company Taproom from 6-9 p.m. Friday. The canvases hanging about the room highlight the familiar faces of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh but much in a darker mood than Disney.
“It’s Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh growing up, just in the Pooh-land after we left off. Our generation kind of stopped what happened, so these are instances where Christopher Robin is growing up, with Winnie the Pooh, and just raising hell,” Meads, a senior majoring in studio art, said.
Meads, whose concentration is ceramics, began oil painting because it required a lot of reflection and time. His inspiration for “Cookies ‘n Kreme” came from the “impossible” relationship between bears and humans.
“I was playing around with the idea of bears and people living together,” Meads said. “It’s just a matter of time until the bear chomps on a human’s head if they’re together.”
Somber themes, including robbery, rebellion and homicide, transport A.A. Milne’s original characters into adulthood, rather unwillingly.
“I looked at Winnie the Pooh books and tried to find items from that story looked at through the context of being an adult. It’s not a bastardization of Pooh, but it kind of is,” Meads said. “Christopher Robin initially had a rifle on his back, and he was going to put Pooh out of his misery.”
Upon the collection’s completion, Meads found a venue that would highlight the “grit” of his collection. The paintings would not be shown in a gallery, but rather at the Druid City Brewing Company, down the street from Meads’ home.
“I live right at the end of that street, and I heard they were opening a taproom, so I went and checked it out. I thought [it] would be a sweet place to have a show like this,” Meads said.
Meads discussed the idea of a reception with Bo Hicks, co-owner and co-brew master of Druid City Brewing. Hicks was on-board, as he and co-owner Elliott Roberts had been discussing ways to get involved with the Tuscaloosa arts community.
“We’ve got these walls and a really nice place for people to come, so we were talking about trying to feature some local artists on our walls,” Hicks said. “We get a fair number of students and also a fair number of people that work with the University, professors and other support staff, and also local Tuscaloosa people like to come by.”
Meads said he was influenced by his teacher James Davis, a graduate student in studio art, who taught Meads and has seen him develop as an artist.
“I met Michael when he was an intro student, and he would hang out in my studio. It is great to see what he has gleaned from class,” Davis said.
As far as future endeavors, Meads and Hicks both said they want to see artists continue to display work around Tuscaloosa. Meads is beginning a new collection of paintings about the town, while Hicks continues to support the local arts community.
“I want to bring to light the beautiful dirty things in this town. I want to make some work about Tuscaloosa that is still humorous,” Meads said.
