 My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.--Ursula K. Le Guin |
 Union AvenueAn Urban Journal Exploring Place, Purpose, Literature, Memory, and This Time |
Journal Entries
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March, 2001, page 4
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But I digress.... Speaking of McCarthy reminds me of another reason people end up here: they marry or have a relationship, romantic or otherwise, with a Knoxvillian and end up staying around even when the relationship goes bust. Cormac McCarthy's second wife, Annie DeLisle, is a good example. DeLisle no longer lives here, but it took her several years after the marriage ended to shake this red clay from her shoes. She became a kind of local celebrity in her own right, owned Annie's, a small restaurant in downtown's Old City, a place known for its good food and live jazz. Someone asked her once how a Brit like herself ended up in Knoxville, and she said with venom, "That God-damned Cormac McCarthy."
I met a painter here recently, a young Korean portrait artist named Don Yang who came to Knoxville via Chicago. An artist leaving Chicago for Knoxville seems incomprehensible. My curiosity was peaked when I first encountered his work in the 11th Street Expresso coffeehouse. You can view Don's painting of 11th Street on their website.
The coffeehouse sits at the Eastern edge of what is called the Ft. Sanders area, a deteriorating historic residential area adjacent to the university campus that in 1863 was the site of a Civil War battle, the successful attack of a Confederate troop commanded by Gen. Longstreet against a fortified troop of Union soldiers. The area continues to be a political and legal battleground because of its divided stance on the issue of community redevelopment. Many of its old original Victorian residencies have been demolished, as was the homeplace of the aforementioned James Agee, to make way for parking lots for the expanding campus. The coffee house is in one of the remaining Victorian houses and, of our city's six thriving coffeehouses, is probably the best attempt at a real campus coffeehouse: intimate, worn, bohemian, with books, local art, chess boards, and a friendly mascot, an aging shepherd named Nick.
A long wall is covered in oil portraits, remarkable likenesses of the coffee house staff and regulars. I was told the artist hangs out there and practices portraiture. I took his card, called, and dropped by his studio to look at his other work. Don Yang is a courteous, gentle spirit who has a passion for painting as his life work. I ended up buying a still life and receiving an invitation to drop in his life drawing workshops. I asked him how he came to live here, where art, when it is bought at all, is usually bought for interior design purposes and tends toward mountain landscapes and dogwood blossoms. Don told me his friend, a Knoxville native, had persuaded him to move to Knoxville two years ago, but the friend had not long after gotten a divorce and moved on. Don's answer for why he stayed is similar to the one give by most Yankees who have migrated South: he likes the slower pace.
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