The Janet Levine March Gallery will feature the work of Cole Slivka. If you are a knitter, or fan of knitting, prepared to be wowed. Slivka’s art is a form of archaeology, unearthing and reviving vintage knitting traditions from the 1930s and earlier. Raised in the North Dakota Badlands by creative parents—a musician father and a mother who sewed—she began knitting and playing guitar at eight, blending tactile craft with artistic expression.
Self-taught and obsessive, Slivka hunts for rare patterns and antique yarns, often untouched for nearly a century. Her work honors these materials by recreating garments that bring history back to life, especially gowns from the 1930s, which she views as rare treasures both in design and fabric.
Beyond aesthetics, Slivka’s practice is about preservation and storytelling through fabric. Outside knitting, she explores music, painting, and writing, all informing her artistic vision. Ultimately, she aims to establish a vintage knitting museum, merging craft with cultural memory ensuring that the designers of yesterday are honored for their mighty contributions to fashion.
The JLMG2 Gallery will feature the clock work of Martin Welch and the needlework of Anna Saterstrom.
“When I was growing up, all the women in my house were using needles. I’ve always had a fascination with the needle, the magic power of the needle. The needle is used to repair damage. It’s a claim to forgiveness. It is never aggressive; it’s not a pin.”
This quote from sculptor Louise Bourgeois reflects the near vanishing connection between needles and needle workers that has been reemerging in recent years. The Slow Stitch movement invites us to reconnect through needlework with one another and with ourselves, one stitch at a time.
Slow stitch needlework is about process rather than product. Stitching by hand connects us with intention to our sense of touch and repetitive movement. There are no rules, training or precise techniques to restrain the imagination or creative impulse. Designs often evolve during the process and may incorporate materials other than fiber, such as print, pigment, beads or found objects.
Saterstrom has always been surrounded by needlework. Her mother and all the women in her family were, and still are, continually making something. She was surrounded by endless examples of needlework by grandmothers, great grandmothers, numerous aunts, and today by the work of her daughter, sister and granddaughter! Her own work often includes the work of predecessors, known and unknown and incorporates their hours of stitching and creativity into her own. Her dolls, toys and stitchwork are a wonderment to behold.
Welch returns with his imaginative, recycled, fantastical clocks. He is a professional woodworker for the past 35 years while continuing to make art in various media and currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Sig Held Gallery will feature the Don Olea. Although a native of San Diego, California, Don and his wife have lived in Gallatin, TN for the past 25 years. He has more than 30 years of professional experience as an award-winning illustrator, photographer, digital and watercolor painter.
Olea has been an artist all his life, starting with simple pencil drawings as a child, then charcoals and pen and ink. His grandfather gave him his first camera when he was a sophomore in high school in 1979 and that began his love of capturing the world around him on film. As the computer age ushered in a new era of graphic designers and digital photography, Olea gravitated toward commercial art and advertising design as well as newspaper and magazine design. Working as a commercial artist he was able to take advantage of both his drawing and photography skills.
Olea spent over 10 years years as a photographer and graphic designer for sister publications: Billboard Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter and Amusement Business Magazine in Nashville and Los Angeles. The music, entertainment, and sports industries have always been among his favorite subjects to paint or draw. However, to expand his subject matter, he turned his attention to depicting historical military art.
Olea has been inspired through his watercolor and digital paintings, to honor and tell the story of those who came before him serving with honor and distinction. Men such as his grandfather, Virgil Clark, who was a SSGT with the 2nd Marines, 1939-45 and his brother, Bernie, who was a SGT with the 502nd/101st Airborne, 1941-45. As an Airborne Infantry veteran who, coincidentally, also served with the 502nd in Berlin, 1984-86, Olea’s creative work is a labor of love. His realism style serves the historical military art genre well and helps to tell their story to fellow veterans, family members and enthusiasts.
As a proud veteran and artist, Don Olea will not let the flame of patriotism vanquish.
The Senior Lounge will continue featuring the work of the Tennessee Watercolor Society.
The House gallery will feature the Under One Roof collaborative exhibit.
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The Exhibition Dates are November 5th – 31st.
The Artist reception will be held on November 12th from 6-8 pm and feature music by DJ Joseph Harris, Henna by Seemi, and Jewelry by Chandler Dezigns.
The exhibitions are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the GJCC at 615.354-1699, Curator Carrie Mills at carrie@nashvillejcc.org, or go to www.nashvillejcc.org.
