By Jennifer Jacob Brown / staff writer
If you ever frequented Peavey Melody Music, you won't really notice the paintings, photography, handmade jewelry, and metal work that surround you when you first enter what is now Art and Soul.
You'll be too busy sorting through old memories, realizing that you'd begun to forget the details inside the building — the three little windows that sit up high on the inside wall, the shapes in the balcony railing.
But once you start to take in the rest of your surroundings, you'll realize that, not only are you surrounded by a large variety of local artwork, but there are still musical instruments everywhere.
Then you'll have another realization: They aren't really musical instruments anymore. What was once a trumpet is now a lamp, and an old piano has been refashioned into a display table that may one day become a bar. The instruments, said owner Kelly Corey, were lost causes, unrepairable corpses of pianos and guitars left behind when Peavey Melody Music closed.
Corey opened Art and Soul, a showcase for all forms of art, partly because when she began looking for a place to show her own art, she figured other artists would like to show their work as well.
Corey primarily works with copper, making everything from wire embellished wine glasses to christmas ornaments, but she loves all forms of art.
"My goal here is to show talent of all types," she said. "Somebody might think that a person that makes quilts is a crafter, not an artist, but to me, that's art."
With paintings, photography, handcrafted jewelry, metalwork, furniture, and even birdhouses on display, she's made good progress toward achieving that goal.
Most of the art displayed is local, though one regional artist, Monica Day of Madison, shows her earthy abstract paintings there.
Among the numerous other artists showing their work at Art and Soul are jewelry maker Eileen McNair Weber, who sells her fine jewelry made with precious metals for reasonable prices, Cindy McDaniel, a photographer who uses photo editing software to turn her photos into digital canvases, and Ryan Follis, whose black and white photos of local landscapes serve as a reminder that beauty can be found right out the back door if we just look properly.
Alongside her own art, Corey displays the art that she creates collectively with Henry Massey and Don Chisolm. Calling themselves "Three Part Harmony," Corey, McDaniel, and Chisolm do a lot of repurposing of wood and metal. Along with their repurposed instruments, they have on display a wooden birdhouse embellished in copper that was made from pieces of cedar discarded along a highway by a utility company.
The versatile art of Three Part Harmony serves as a great example of Corey's philosophy that, be it a perfectly cooked steak or a beautifully crafted quilt, if it's inspired, it's art.
"You literally give birth to these things," she said. "You conceive it. You ponder it. You start to work on it. You experiment. And when it all comes together you have this part of you that's out there for other people to enjoy."
Corey said she is looking for more types of art to show at Art and Soul, especially 3-D art such as pottery and sculpture. She also sells furniture on consignment and is currently looking for pieces from the '60s and '70s.
Art and Soul is open from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays (Corey said staying open after 5 p.m. makes her more available to the people who work downtown), and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
