Unique woodburned ornaments

Photo by Ashlee Glen & Courtesy of Melanie Layne Hylton

Art has been part of my world since I was old enough to grasp a Crayola crayon,” said Melanie Layne Hylton.

“My mother, an introverted homemaker, was my earliest creative influence. A wonderful example in so many ways, she encouraged artistic expression from toddlerhood.”

A Bedford, Virginia, native, Hylton has had a long and meandering relationship with art, spurred along by supportive parents and teachers who championed her creativity. While Hylton has dabbled in many mediums over the years, one art form in particular sparked: pyrography. 

Pyrography, or woodburning, is a freehanded artform where the artist will create burn marks on wood or other materials to create intricate designs. 

“My familiarity with pyrography goes back to childhood when an older brother received a woodburner for Christmas,” Hylton remembered. “Mama warned us girls that the tool was not a toy and, like the hooks and lures in his tacklebox, we must leave our brother’s things alone. I fondly recall the sweet aroma while watching him burn simple lettering on a grainy round of wood. I was not allowed to get close, but the deliberate intensity of his hand fascinated me as it moved over tiny peaks and valleys in the grain.”

As Hylton grew older, she acquired a woodburner of her own and taught herself how to burn.

“Through experimentation, my own techniques emerged right away,” she said. “My lifelong signature style of hyperrealism transferred naturally to burning. I was completing large complex woodburnings at nearly the same skill level previously acquired in my drawings.”

While Hylton often completes detailed portraiture, landscapes, still life, and architectural subjects on large scale pieces of wood, she is also well-known for her wood-burned Christmas ornaments. She applies her same hyperrealistic focus to small pieces of wood, creating winter wonderlands, commemorative pet portraits, and custom designs to don customers’ trees. 

“Making art on organic material requires patience and flexibility,” she explained. “Dark streaks, knots, and checked areas are often visible upon inspection of a round of wood. But not all flaws are hindrances. Some prove to be assets, adding interest to a work of art.”

While some ornaments are left organic—with only the intricate burn marks—Hylton will often finish her ornaments with a pop of color.

“Second only to burning, color is the most joyous part of my creative process,” she said. “I thoroughly enjoy marrying the mediums to create special effects in my work.”  

To follow along with Hylton’s work, find her on Facebook at Olde Dominion Artworks. She is currently booked with commissions for the current holiday season.

The Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Royal Shirée brings activism and change to the stage

Photo by Ashlee Glen

Royal Shirée began her playwright and solo performing career while she was in college, but her flair for dramatic storytelling goes back to when she was a toddler. Shirée used to volunteer for story hour in school and spin fairytales, but as she grew older, she began to tell stories rooted in today’s societal issues. In her plays, all the “-isms” became the dragons that needed to be slain.

“Theater is the willing suspension of disbelief,” Shirée said. “You have to place yourself in that moment, in that time, and forget that you are looking at a stage or looking at a person saying lines. Theater is an active part of activism. It is also a very real part of connecting to people and their spirits.”

For Shirée, theater is more than entertainment; it’s education. Shirée grew up in a family of educators and so was raised with an educator mentality. Her award-winning play Sisters, a collaboration with Connecticut-based playwright Joanne Hudson, was incorporated into the Ridgefield, CT, middle school curriculum.

Markedly, Shirée wrote her solo piece Clippings while she studied at Hollins University to earn her MFA in playwriting. Shirée values this play for its important themes. Clippings explores global female abuse through domestic violence, rape, the system sworn to protect, and notably, the horror of female genital mutilation, which is practiced in areas of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

“Everyone has a backstory and there are a lot of social ills that people fall victim to,” Shirée said. “I want to address those issues to help change and positively affect the lives of the ignored.”

Shirée harbors a deep love for writing. She describes it as her escapism, with the need of “the intellectual stimulation of writing.”

“Writing is an expedition,” Shirée said. “You have to really discover [the story], then you have to exhume a lot of facts, then you analyze [them] … I always want to know why—why this and why that …. Instead of writing ‘this is the person,’ I want to write about how this person came to be.”

Storytellers like Jamaica Kincaid, August Wilson, Spike Lee, and Maya Angelou inspired Shirée to be bold in her art. Their work also helped Shirée learn how to develop characters and give them authenticity. 

That being said, writing and performing activate two different parts of her brain. Shirée describes performing as being all about the timing, rhythm, accents, and crescendo. Her role as a performer is to bring to life all of the voices she wrote into the script.

“I think it’s really important that the voices are heard. … These voices may be male, may be female, may be drunk, may be dying, whatever the case may be,” she explained.

Shirée currently works as the resident playwright at the Hamner Theater. Though she is battling health issues, Shirée refuses to abandon her passion. She makes an effort to think creatively, if not write, every day.  

To support her work, visit her website at www.royalshiree.com.

Artist Richard Riley Creates Surreal, Spooky, and Sublime Replicas

Photos by Ashlee Glen & Courtesy of Richard Riley

He has created pop culture and movie prop and character replicas for major amusement parks, Disneyland, orthodontist offices, museums, and myriad private clients. Madison Heights–based Riley Replicas has shipped creations around the globe, finding his work featured in France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, and Australia. What turned into a full-time passion enterprise for Richard Riley began as a side job when the artist needed a second income. 

In 1999, Riley was working for a fire extinguisher company. The Lynchburg-area native needed a second job to supplement his regular paycheck, and an idea came from his brother. 

Riley’s brother subscribed to a magazine called Toy Fair, which catered to action figure collectors, he said. The magazine was hiring artists to make dioramas they could stage their featured action figures in. 

“He was like, ‘Why don’t you try that?’ I said, ‘Sure, why not?’” Riley said. So, he made some dioramas, took photographs of them, and sent them in to the magazine in response to their job advertisement. He was hired on the spot.

Riley worked for the magazine making dioramas for a year, until operations shifted and the work started drying up. Riley’s brother, once again, gave him another idea.

“My brother, again, showed me where people were making replicas of figures from Star Wars and he said, ‘They’re selling them on eBay.’ And again, I was like, ‘I can do that!’ So I just jumped into it and started making these small figures,” Riley said. 

After launching that endeavor, Riley got what he considers his big break in the replica-making world. 

In 2003, a New York City client who owned a comic book shop commissioned Riley to make some Star Wars replicas for his private collection. This contract had Riley making a replica every two weeks. One of his first projects was a Jabba the Hutt replica, re-creating the infamous sloppy space slug. 

One day, the client asked Riley if he would start making some Star Wars mask replicas. His vision was to put them on full-size mannequins, dressing them to look like various Star Wars characters to set up around his comic bookstore. 

“I had no idea how to even begin to make one, but I could either lose a customer or figure it out, so I told him ‘I’ve never done a mask. I know the principles behind it. Let me try something but of Styrofoam.’”

The Styrofoam mask was a success. 

Styrofoam has been Riley’s go-to material ever since. 

Sometimes he works with fiberglass or uses plastic resin molds when making multiple pieces of the same item, but Styrofoam is by far the most common and primary material used to create his replicas. 

“It’s more economical for the client, and also it’s so forgiving,” Riley said. “If you cut something or if you carve something and it’s not exactly right, just cut that part out, put a new piece in, and then carve it again. No big deal.” 

In 2015, Riley went full-time with his business. 

He is mostly a one-man show, except on occasion where he needs something like a metal frame or a metal decoration for a particular replica. In these cases, Riley said he hires a local specialist for whatever service he needs. 

All of Riley’s clients find him online, he explained. 

“The internet has completely changed how people like me do work,” Riley said. 

In a competitive market, Riley chooses not to limit himself to a hyper-specific niche and makes sure he always delivers by his promised deadline.

“I’ve really diversified when it comes to what I make,” he said. “I don’t try to pigeonhole myself.” 

The most fulfilling part of his work, Riley said, is troubleshooting—figuring out how to go from nothing to the final product. Each creation is different and requires a different process as a result.

“I know what the piece is going to look like before I finish it. In my mind’s eye, I know exactly what it’s going to look like. It’s just the figuring out how to get to that point because certain pieces will require it to be hollow. Other pieces may require it have an internal structure. It might have to have a metal frame in it, or a wood frame in it,” Riley said.

The least favorite part of his job is shipping the items, particularly large ones, Riley admitted. Trying to pack and pay for everything can be a headache. When possible, he said he drives a project to its destination himself. 

One hundred percent of his work goes out of state, Riley said. Although he is based in Virginia, no client has contacted him directly from the Commonwealth. 

Riley’s annual commissions vary year by year, but this year he is booked solid through 2024. Clients are on a waitlist for next year, he said. Sometimes, he might only do five jobs a year, but they are usually major ones. 

In May, Riley had a replica of the head of the shark from the classic movie Jaws. The nearly four-foot piece will be mounted on the wall of a 1970s/1980s movie-themed Texas restaurant, he said. As a major fan of this movie, the job was an extra special one for the artist. 

The dream job would be to make a replica of the full-sized shark from Jaws, Riley said. That, along with a life-size T-Rex and some spaceships from the Star Wars universe. 

If people visit Kings Dominion during Halloween, they might see one of Riley’s creations on display: a cemetery arch. This commission was made through a New York-based firm working with the amusement park. Other Halloween pieces can be found at Six Flags amusement park, and Disneyland in California. 

Out of his extensive portfolio, three projects stand out to Riley among the most memorable. 

Around 2013, Riley made a replica of a Star Wars creature for a car manufacturer. His work was featured in that year’s Super Bowl advertisement for the manufacturer. 

A few years ago, Riley received a commission to make an ancient-looking statue of the legendary Greek hero Hercules fighting Cerberus, the three-headed dog who, in mythology, stands guard in the realm of Hades. After delivering the piece, Riley found out it was displayed at an event the president attended. 

Riley said his personal favorite project was making Max, the dog from Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas. This piece went to an orthodontist office in South Carolina, where the holiday theme was “the Grinch.”

Chris Jerrigan, the orthodontist at this office, has been a regular client of Riley’s for five years now. He practices what he calls “experiential marketing,” setting up elaborate quarterly themes in his office. Countries of the world; Disney themes with castles, cottages, and soon an eight-foot dragon; and a 12-foot Rockefeller Center replica; seasonal themes for Halloween and Christmas—there is always something set up in the small-town practice. 

“I always wonder if he’s not going to get snapped up by Lucasfilm or Universal to start making their stuff. It’s just crazy, his level of talent,” Jerrigan said. 

Riley’s biggest piece of advice to fellow artists, which he wishes he had done, is to take business courses.

“Whatever job or dream someone has, there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t follow it. None whatsoever,” Riley said.   

Julian Raven, Opens Gallery and Studio on Wards Road

When artist Julian Raven shares his story, he paints a picture as vivid and lively as the stunning works he displays in his new gallery on Wards Road.

Raven’s journey from a young English boy living in Spain with a penchant and talent for art to an internationally celebrated artist with a vast and versatile catalog of work has been full of peaks, valleys, and serendipitous moments. He seems to recall every step of his journey with gratitude for bringing him to where he is today.

Raven’s earliest memory of loving art occurred when he was about eight years old and living in Spain.

“I can remember sitting with my father on a veranda in a villa in southern Spain, where I grew up,” he recalled. “It was a sunny day, and I did a colored pencil drawing of some beautiful bougainvillea that was wrapped around a white-washed wall. It was a clear picture of my inclination towards the visual arts.”

When his family moved to Portugal when he was a bit older, Raven attended tiny international English-speaking schools and continued pursuing his passion for art. He won several art contests, but because the arts were not prioritized in these schools, Raven was not fully supported in his pursuit—that is, until the day his math teacher found him sketching in the school’s library.

“My math teacher saw me doodling in the library at the English International College and set a crushed can of Coke in front of me to sketch,” said Raven. “After I was done sketching, he basically took me by the hand and walked me over to meet David Bodlak, an artist and teacher in the art department.”

Bodlak mentored and championed Raven when the latter was in his mid-teens and continues to be a source of great inspiration to him to this day.

“He was a wonderful mentor,” Raven stated. “His enthusiasm and encouraging spirit were incredible. In an art class where you have all different skill levels, he would go from student to student and always find something redeemable about each person’s work. He has had a tremendous impact on me.”

Raven graduated high school at the age of 16 and took a year off to focus on his art. He then went on to study at the prestigious Chelsea College of Arts in London.

During his time at the College, Raven experienced a series of highs and lows. Although he “was in heaven because the facilities were huge,” he was struggling greatly with his father’s death, which happened when Raven was only 10, and with the political climate that surrounded him. He notes that he lost his faith in God and often felt hopeless and lost during this time.

Raven ended up leaving the College and going back to Spain, where he began to work in the bar business. Then, in early 1992, Raven’s life changed dramatically as he sat alone on a mountain.

“I came to faith in God in Spain, alone and sitting on a mountain, contemplating nature,” he recalled.
“That experience changed my life and led me down a spiritual journey where I began to pursue missionary work.”

This missionary work brought him to America. He originally planned to do missionary work in California for six months and then move to Mexico as a missionary, but he ended up moving to Elmira, New York, in 1996 instead. There, he met his wife, Gloria, and they started their own business: Raven’s Custom Creations. As Raven used his artistic skills to create custom-painted and decorative furniture, his passion for art was invigorated.

In addition to thriving artistically, Raven was spiritually and personally fulfilled. He and Gloria had three children, and he opened his own gallery in Elmira in 2007. Then the 2008 financial crisis occurred.

Forced to close the gallery, Raven and his family moved back to Spain for a year and a half. Ultimately, they moved back to Elmira and Raven opened a new gallery.

After entertaining the idea of RVing out west, Raven and Gloria decided to move to Lynchburg, where all three of their children still study at Liberty University. Raven knew that he wanted to open a gallery here; the challenge was finding the right spot for it. Julian Raven Artist, LLC, found a home at 2121 Wards Road and officially opened on March 25.

“I could have gotten a warehouse and been off the beaten path,” he said. “I looked at those options but decided that if I wanted to get up and running, I needed to be in an area with more movement. It’s sort of an unlikely setting for an art studio because I’m stuck between a Wendy’s and a McDonald’s, but it’s also sort of fitting because I’m a contrarian by nature. It just had what I saw as the bones to be something great.”

Raven and his son spent six weeks completely renovating the building, which houses not only Raven’s work, but also what he calls his “Renaissance Creative Palette” of services: painting parties, art classes, portrait painting and photography, and more. There is a screen-printing room downstairs and a brand-new photo studio, for which a ribbon cutting ceremony was held on June 15.

Raven says that his painting parties are a “real way to connect with people,” and adds that “seeing people who have never painted before create works of art is remarkable.” According to Raven, one gentleman came in a couple of times to paint, and after Raven shared the man’s second painting on Instagram, it sold for $100.

When it comes to Raven’s own work, he is a multimedia artist and photographer.

“I have a lot of very broad experience because my artistic hunger has made me curious to discover and try new things,” he noted. “I like to be constantly challenged. I always seem to find difficult things to do!”

That said, Raven specializes in abstract expressionism, which he says allows him “to share his inner-world experience and joy.” He recalls that an attendee of one of his shows referred to him as a “happy Pollock,” a moniker that he happily embraced.

There is no telling where Raven’s journey will take him next, but one thing is certain: he will continue to see the beauty in all things and to share his interpretations of that beauty with others.

“Beauty, for me, is so arresting,” he stated. “When I see true beauty—nature, people—I want
to capture it and share it with others. We live in some pretty serious times right now. I want people to feel lighter after leaving my gallery.”  

To learn more about Julian Raven, his gallery and studio, and his art, check out his website (julianraven.com) and Facebook page.

Artist Krys Kinsel blends mediums and tells stories

Krys Kinsel has always been making something. As a kid in the 90s, Kinsel was making comics, doodling in bright colors, experimenting with abstract designs, and seeing just how far their art could take them.

“In middle school and high school, I started making comics about daily life and zines about the goings on at school,” Kinsel remembered. “I would sell them so I could buy lollipops.”

Kinsel explored fine art, theater, and music in high school; dabbling with the cello and viola. After high school, they went to cosmetology school and spent a few years taking art classes at community college while they got their associates.

That creative exploration continues today and has manifested itself into an entire community of creatives dedicated to expressing themselves and telling unique stories.

Kinsel has brought two annual zine fairs to the Lynchburg area, which brings artists from within the local community as well as from hours away. Not quite sure what a zine is? 

“A zine is essentially a self-published magazine made by one or many people,” Kinsel explained. “It’s very DIY and small press. The thing is, though, that you can’t fully describe a zine because it’s almost an abstract concept in a way—you can have a zine about anything, from poetry, prose, comics, photojournalism, or cookbooks. There are so many different ways to make a zine that there is no wrong way to make one.”

The zine fair has created the beginning stages of a unique community, which Kinsel only hopes will get even bigger.

“I’m not the first person who wanted to do a zine fair in Lynchburg. Stephen Kissel at the Academy Center of the Arts wanted to do one in 2020, but it was pushed back because of the pandemic,” they explained. “But when I was a vendor at the punk rock flea market, Kaleb Gay encouraged me to bring it to life. You’d be surprised at some of the zine makers who have come out of the woodwork.”

Kinsel is also cultivating that community through the YouTube channel Zineville—a pandemic project that has now been running strong for three years.

“It’s my chance to talk about something I’m completely passionate about,” they said. “In the early 2000s, I didn’t see a lot of zines but I’m starting to see them come up now. So [on the show], I talk about the zines I find, show how to make a zine, and show what other people can do with them. I’m starting to see a new generation wanting to express themselves—not on a blog but in a physical way. Everyone wants to make something because it makes them feel good. Zines are an easy way to do that.”

Kinsel waves the banner for zines whenever they have the chance, including local makers fairs where they are often a vendor.

“I go to the Maker’s Faire in the spring and I generally do the same project every year,” they said. “Everybody gets to make a zine at my booth. I show kids and adults how to make a zine just out of one piece of paper. You can see the spark happen in that moment.”

Currently, Kinsel is planning the next zine fair for the Lynchburg area, which they hope will take place next spring. They are also working on a collaborative zine project with multiple contributors called Granny Creatures Folk Wisdom which explores Appalachian folklore.  

The Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival to Return to Lynchburg in August

Photos courtesy of Seven Hills Chamber Music

Like many forms of classical music, chamber music is evocative of the past. Established in the late 1700s, it is deeply rooted in tradition and frequently associated with the great composers of that time: Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Handel, and so on. That said, chamber music most certainly does not belong to or in the past; rather, it is an ever-evolving art form that continues to enchant audiences around the world thanks to the contributions of innovative and talented composers and musicians. Luckily for Lynchburg, one such group of musicians has made it their mission to share their art with local audiences for free every summer: Seven Hills Chamber Music.

Seven Hills Chamber Music was founded by Dudley Raine IV, a freelance violist currently based in New York City. Raine established a piano quartet in 2017, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the group to cease performing; ultimately, though, the pandemic also inspired Raine to think bigger—and closer to his hometown. After networking with musicians he had worked with in New York City, met at festivals, and met through school (Manhattan School of Music), Raine established Seven Hills Chamber Music.

“As we were coming out of the pandemic, I was looking to do something for my hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia,” Raine said. “We had 13 artists come together for three concerts, and we were
all really excited to play live music again. After that, the momentum kind of kept picking up!”

Those three concerts comprised the first Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival in August 2021. Following the success of the inaugural festival—which reached about 1,000 people—the group hosted its second annual festival with 23 performers last year and will present its third festival with 31 performers this August. The group has also added standalone concerts to its repertoire.

A chamber music concert is markedly more intimate than an orchestra concert in that each musician who is performing is usually the only person playing that particular part. Additionally, unlike orchestra ensembles, chamber ensembles do not have conductors.

“In an orchestra, there might be ten violinists playing the same notes, but with chamber music, it’s typically one person—or maybe two people—per part,” noted Raine. “Chamber music is also generally unconducted, which means that the musicians are the ones who have to keep time and breathe together. We have to know each other’s parts because there are a lot of things that go on across the ensemble during a performance.”

As such, the group has developed a close camaraderie that imbues their already dynamic performances with a palpable, effortless, and knowing energy. Listening to them play could easily be compared to listening to a conversation among old friends—a conversation built on familiarity and trust and full of seamless transitions as a wide variety of thoughts and feelings are discussed.

In addition to figuratively telling stories with their music, Seven Hills Chamber Music utilizes literal storytelling to help audience members, many of whom may not be familiar with chamber music, connect with the compositions.

“Before we play a piece, we have one of the artists talk about the piece,” Raine stated. “This artist may give little examples of what people will hear, point out what to listen for, tell a story about the piece, and so on. This makes the experience more relatable for those who may not know much about classical music.”

Showcasing new works by living composers and works by lesser-known composers also enables the ensemble to make chamber music more relatable for modern audiences.

“Everyone likes to hear Beethoven and Mozart, but we bring a lot of new music as well,” Raine said. “My co-director, Nicole Brancato, does a lot of the programming. She is an expert in the field of new music and knows a lot of great composers, and I also have my share of experience with new music. We try to program many different styles of music by all sorts of composers.”

In fact, this year’s festival will open with a celebration of female composers, past and present, on August 16.

“Our opening night concert in Lynchburg this summer will be music exclusively composed by women—both women of the past, such as Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, and living composers like Missy Mazzoli,” remarked Raine.

The group will also be joined by two composers-in-residence, one of whom is on the faculty at Juilliard Pre-College in New York City, and the other of whom is based in San Francisco and often composes music for movies.

After operating out of Raine’s old 501(c)(3) for his piano quartet for about a year, Seven Hills Chamber Music officially became a 501(c)(3) organization last summer. The group has been awarded two grants thus far—one from the Schewel Charitable Foundation and one from the James River Arts & Cultural District program—and has received a great deal of support from the community at large. 

Although the group is currently working on producing a concert for New York City and ultimately hopes to tour throughout the year, Raine stated that “our home base will always be the Lynchburg festival.” He added that he envisions collaborations with other organizations, such as dance companies and chorus groups, and the incorporation of visual arts aspects.

No matter what the future holds, Seven Hills Chamber Music will undoubtedly continue to delight audiences while proving that chamber music is anything but a relic of the past. 

“It’s incredible to be able to share our music with people for free!” Raine exclaimed. “We are passionate about what we do and about sharing that passion with others.”  

For more information about Seven Hills Chamber Music, including the schedule for their summer festival, please visit sevenhillscmf.org.

Tony Camm is Writing His Own Artistic Story

Photos by Ashlee Glen

Local influencer, musician, and creative Tony Camm has nothing more to prove when it comes to how he impacts the Lynchburg community. All know him for his funk band FunkAllStars but he is much more than that. Calling himself an “entertainer-prenuer,” Camm is a jack-of-all-trades. Starting his creative journey around the age of twelve, while making home films with his younger brother, allowed him to learn the importance of creativity and its impact. Starting off with silent films he began to realize the value of being creative, leading him to become a well-versed artist, entrepreneur, and influential leader, whose goal is to entertain, impact, and exude positivity. 

The entertainer-prenuer works in many facets such as painting, music, cartoon producing, and much more. He is a father, actor, leader, and community member who believes that entertainment is his way of impact. He also manages the Lynchburg Grand Hotel across from the Academy Center of the Arts in downtown Lynchburg.

“I think my creative imagination was always there, you know… when you get into the school system they always want to put you in the box,” Camm said, remembering that school only encouraged students to learn certain subjects. “What about the creative side of things?” 

Likewise, Albert Einstein once said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” That thought further validates that the need for arts and innovative programs not only adds value to learning but enhances intelligence. 

Camm understands the importance of the arts in that they help youth determine who and what they want to be—understanding the value of education but emphasizing the importance of creativity in schools. 

“When I was younger they defunded a lot of the arts stuff, [but] that’s the key stuff because kids at their young age need to know at that age what they really want to do,” he said. 

In addition, it is clear that math, reading, and other subjects are valuable, but Camm believes it is not what everyone uses every day. 

“We use our reactive minds all the time,” he shared. 

Moreover, it is creative sensibility that influences our society and Camm truly believes that all ideas can be completed if there are two things. First is “being able to come up with an idea,” and the second thing is to “have the [support] and people to help you make it happen.” 

Realizing that the things he does make an impact on the people that watch, he ensures that he thinks of every individual in his following when doing a project, program, or event. Being an entertainer-prenuer has given Camm the space to create community everywhere he goes, though he is well aware of the impact he makes and does not take it lightly. 

“With everything I do, I make sure I think of how it can impact someone because it can impact someone positively or negatively,” Camm explained. “And if you think it will impact someone negatively then you have a choice. You can still do it, if it will benefit you or you could say, ‘Well that would be cool but I don’t want it to [impact others like that]’. That option is always right there.” 

He cares about what he provides to his community to certify that the arts can truly help change the atmosphere and connection among individuals within a community. Hoping that his impact has youth saying, “Well if he [Camm] did it let’s see if we can do it.”

Despite the possible mental obstacles such as self-doubt, Camm continues to muster the courage to act on an idea. 

“It’s not why, it’s a why not?” said Camm, as to say, the only thing stopping an individual from making all of their ideas possible is based on the resources and support they have. If the individual has all of the above, then is it the individual getting in the way of one’s own dreams and aspirations?

It can be believed that he is an amazing person who all can learn from. Teaching those who come in contact with him the principles of positive thinking and overcoming self-doubt. 

Recently, Camm launched a Jazz Club in the shared space at 720 Commerce Street—something he didn’t even know the community wanted until he started to do it. 

“Everybody wants to be entertained and sometimes people don’t even know they want it…,” he shared, yet again reinforcing that it’s all about acting on your ideas and having confidence that it will all work out. 

Tony Camm has various ideas he has pursued—his jazz club, comic book series, radio show, and even his own clothing line—and yet he still continues to grow and dream up new ideas. His motto is, “Live everyday like it’s your first…” and every day he says to himself, “I’m brand new to the world…so what can I do today?” Ultimately showing how profound his wisdom is and why he is so successful at what he does. 

Entertainment is one thing he does well and will continue to do because, “Everything we do daily, involves some form of entertainment… Entertainment to me equates to fun. So, if you wipe away all forms of entertainment and there is nothing but work, there is no art, no music, there’s no culture—all that stuff, in my opinion, is more important than anything else. I don’t think anyone is born to work a job… the arts and the culture, which doesn’t get enough credit for anything, needs to be different.”

To see Camm’s current projects, visit his website at cammentertainment.com.  

Muralist paints life on a large scale

Muralist Andrew Williams has always been an artist. Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Williams’ mother was a proponent of his connection with the arts from an early age.

“I had great access to art stores,” Williams remembered. “My mom would buy charcoal pencil sets and paper—I still have my first drawing pad. It started with charcoal drawings, and then I got into drawing Disney characters. From there, I transitioned to watercolor.”

That transition to watercolor was the first time Williams experimented with color—an experiment that led to his future as the muralist he is today. In 2016, Williams was contracted by The Draper Mercantile and Trading Company in Draper, Virginia, for a large-scale mural.

“I was good friends with the folks at Draper Mercantile and I had gifted the owner a watercolor of the building,” he said. “She offered to have me take a stab at the wall outside, which already had a mural on it, but it was faded. It’s a 160-foot wall and was the first mural I ever did.”

The Draper Mercantile mural took three months for Williams to complete. The process began with sketches with pen and pencil on paper and then, once approved by the owner, the design transitioned onto the wall surface.

“While I was working on that mural, I was contacted by someone from Wytheville to do a 90-foot mural,” Williams said. “And it just kind of snowballed from there.”

In 2018, Williams’ muralist work brought him to Lynchburg when he was commissioned to paint a mural of Donkey Kong at The Water Dog. Then, just a few years later, The Water Dog team commissioned Williams to paint a large-scale sign for the entrance of Oktoberfest in downtown Lynchburg.

“Dave [one of the owners of The Water Dog] wanted Donkey Kong, so that was pretty straight forward,” he explained. “But, as for the Oktoberfest sign, that was an incorporation of the logo mixed with German characters and beer. Dave pushed the envelope for me with the Oktoberfest sign because it opened up a different path to travel down and seeing the opportunities that can come with that. I’m excited to see the evolution of public art, and that’s what I’m trying to focus on for these next few years. I’m excited to see what’s next after murals for public art—what balances between a mural, a sculpture, etc. I’m excited to continue to explore the beautification of public events.”

Williams’ work keeps him traveling all over Virginia—hopping from one commission to the next. As of this writing, Williams has just finished a memorial for a WWII veteran and is currently working on a three-dimensional mural in Roanoke.

“I’m at the point in my career where I can find a wall that’s begging to be beautified,” Williams said. “I see a vision, and then I cold call it and pitch it. I’m not afraid to tackle any sort of project that someone may have. The more unique and the more crazy a project is, the more I want to do it.
I’m not scared to push the envelope on some of these projects.”  

What the Revitalization of the Tutelo Language Will Mean for the Monacan Indian Nation

“A language is not just words. It’s a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It’s all embodied in a language.”
– Noam Chomsky

Throughout its history, the Monacan Indian Nation has demonstrated astounding resilience in the face of obstacles orchestrated by those who wish to eradicate its identity. The Monacan community has not only overcome these obstacles, but has also utilized them as opportunities to reclaim and strengthen its identity time and again. To say the least, the journey has been arduous and the victories hard-won, but the Monacan people have continued to reclaim and revitalize the aspects of their identity that have been taken from them. 

One such aspect is the Monacan language, Tutelo, which is in the process of being recreated, restored, and cataloged. The importance of language to a community’s identity cannot be overstated; when a community’s language dies, that community must then use the words—which, as Chomsky said, are never just words—of others to refer to itself. The Monacans’ reclamation of Tutelo is monumental, a fact made even clearer as one learns about the journey that led to this reclamation.

The Monacan Indian Nation is headquartered on Bear Mountain in Amherst County, and its citizens are descended from Eastern Siouan groups from Virginia and North Carolina. The Nation’s efforts to attain state and federal recognition—which it did in 1989 and 2018, respectively—demonstrate the Monacans’ longstanding strength and ability to turn obstacles into opportunities. 

In fact, the earliest documentation of Monacan presence in Virginia—documentation that was ultimately integral in the Nation’s achievement of federal recognition—details the capture of a Monacan man.

“The history of our people dates back to 1608 as far as physical, handwritten proof of us being here in the state of Virginia goes,” said Lou Branham, Director of the Monacan Indian Nation Ancestral Museum. “It goes back to a personal journal kept by Captain John Smith. He ran across a Monacan named Amoroleck, took him captive, and questioned him about the Powhatan Confederacy. This document was very important when it came to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and us getting federal recognition.”

In the 1920s, Dr. Walter Plecker enacted what Branham calls a “paper genocide” of Virginia-based Native Americans by eliminating the option to identify oneself as an indigenous person when responding to the census. Plecker, along with the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America, persuaded the Virginia General Assembly to pass the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which stated that it was illegal for whites and non-whites to marry, and which recognized only two racial classifications: “white” and “colored.”

“Plecker was in a position of power—he was the head of Vital Records and Statistics for 32 years—and he believed in eugenics,” Branham noted. “He thought that you were either white or you were colored; to him, no Native Americans existed.”

As a result, Monacan people who moved away—often to marry whom they wanted and to generally escape the rampant racism in the area—would frequently be unable to locate family members upon their return.

The United States Supreme Court overturned the Racial Integrity Act in 1967, thus allowing Native Americans in Virginia to marry whom they chose and to change their birth certificates—for a fee, until 1997—to accurately convey their identities.

“When we went for state recognition, we had to mail off our birth certificates,” recalled Branham.
“If we hadn’t gone for state recognition, we never would have known that that documentation had been changed.”

Branham chooses to see Plecker’s contemptible actions as a catalyst in the Monacan Nation’s journey to fully reclaim its identity.

“I’m a firm believer that in our walk in life, we have ups and downs and many side roads that are taken,” she stated. “Plecker was just a part of the plan that happened to happen to the Monacan people.”

Branham’s father, Ronnie, started the Monacan tribe as an entity along with his first cousin and founder of the Monacan Indian Nation Ancestral Museum, Phyllis Hicks. Ronnie Branham was the first elected chief of the Nation, and Hicks was an ordained minister who pastored the church that resides on the Monacans’ seven-and-a-half acres of land alongside the tribal schoolhouse (once used as both a school and a community meeting space) and the museum.

“This land is the heart and soul of our community,” said Branham. “If you take this away, it’s almost like ripping a heart away from a body. The history of generations and generations of our family—of kids playing in the creeks and running through the woods, of people going to the church and the school and attending functions—is here. Here I promote no negative energy. Everything here is positive for me because this has always been a positive and peaceful place in my life.”

As the Monacan Nation’s recent federal recognition continues to open doors to various government programs—including a community health services program that will be open to Native Americans from any tribe and to community members who are Medicaid and Medicare recipients—the restoration of the Tutelo language has come to the forefront.

The process was initiated by the late George Whitewolf, who was a Monacan medicine man, in 2000. According to Branham, Whitewolf spent a great deal of time with the Lakota tribe and shared their language, Lakhota, with the Monacan tribe upon his return. These interactions prompted further research of Lakhota and other Siouan languages, and the Monacan people ultimately discovered that they spoke Tutelo.

The near-extinction of Tutelo resulted largely from colonization. Additionally, the last native speaker passed away around the year 2000.

“A lot of it had to do with colonization and eugenics,” Branham noted. “The United States’ political ideology of things is that they wanted to colonize Native Americans and make them conform to non-Native ways.”

A group of historians and linguists, led by indigenous historian and language activist Dr. Marvin Richardson of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe, is working with Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages to create a Tutelo-Saponi Monacan Living Dictionary. This online dictionary is accessible to the general public and continues to grow at a steady pace.

“We’ve got to recreate words and grammar,” stated Branham. “We’re currently working on creating words and phrases, but it’s hard to do the verbs right now. We actually have about 700 entry words so far, but by the end of 2023, we hope to have 3,000.”

For Branham, the revitalization of Tutelo is important on both a personal and a wide-scale level.

“When I was little, I remember my grandmother using certain words and phrases, and my father would say, ‘You can’t teach her that,’” she recalled. “My great-grandmother said, ‘If we spoke our language, we could risk having our homes burnt down.’ I think it’s a shame that you have to live in fear just because you have different cultural beliefs and speak a different language.”

As Branham continues to build bridges with community organizations to raise awareness of and garner support for the Monacan Indian Nation, she is excited to see the bridge between the Nation’s past and future become fortified by Tutelo’s return.

“It’s going to open up a new world from the old world,” she said. “It’s our old, traditional language, but to so many it’s going to be something that’s brand new.”  

Photos courtesy of Mitchell Bryant

Lynchburg Living Editor Megan Williams: You’ve been seriously pursuing photography since you were in the 10th grade; were you initially interested in adventure and landscape photography?

Mitchell Bryant: The outdoors was often the subject of a lot of those early photographs as I didn’t know what I was doing. I could practice by myself and learn with no real boundaries. I’d grab my camera, go for a walk behind our house, and shoot through a roll of film. Now, my love for the outdoors is a much more holistic endeavor. I love being in nature. My camera has become a faithful hiking/backpacking partner throughout the years and one that I lean on to retell the stories in vivid detail. 

MW: Who or what has most inspired you, or driven you forward in your growth as a photographer?

MB: In the early parts of my career I religiously followed Jeremy Cowart. He had such a creative and innovative approach to image-making, while maintaining such a lovely balance of technical prowess and experimental creativity. I learned a lot from his images and continue to follow his work closely today. 

One of my favorites to keep up with is painter and traditional artist Mark Maggiori. His method of reproducing massive landscapes with impeccable detail and visceral color leaves me scratching my head often saying, “How?!”

Another no-brainer follow is Chris Burkard. 

MW: How do you approach your outdoor/adventure/travel photography? Do you set out with a specific vision in mind, or do you tend to capture moments that are more spontaneous or real-time?

MB: If I’m traveling to a new place, I’m like a kid seeing the world for the first time. Almost everything is image-worthy. I want to remember it all, and some of it might be considered art. When I return to a place, experience or environment that I love, I’m much more particular and premeditated. There are certain aspects of that adventure or that story that I want my viewers to experience and “remember” even if it’s something they’ve never experienced. That often involves wide context imagery, action/journey of some kind, and, of course, my layered, textured, patterned, artful landscapes. 

MW: In your opinion, what makes a good photograph?

MB: Technically speaking there are rules, a prescription of aesthetics that you can follow, like many art forms, that are the “compositional elements of a great, technically sound photograph”. Those elements come together to create a well-structured, beautiful, pleasing image.

Great photography is found at the intersection of innovation, expertise, courage, and creativity—knowing everything you “should do” and daring to abandon that appropriately. My favorite images (and most art for that matter) transport us to another time and place where presence—the power of here and now—is visceral and transformative.

MW: Looking back at your work, what are some of your favorite photographs that you’ve shot? What makes them special to you?

MB: I’m big on Type 2 fun (look it up). Any images that help me recall a certain moment, adventure, or experience of course have a special place in my book. My wife can tell you I’m constantly scrolling through my phone looking through old photographs and laughing, or sighing, or saying, “Oh man look at this, wow that was 2015?!” It is absolutely one of my favorite things. My friends and family probably get tired of me taking over the TV so I can Airplay an image and tell them about what was going on again and again. 

Also in terms of favorites or images that are special to me—anytime someone seeks out my work for a large print in their home or workspace—that is the ultimate compliment. 

MW: Do you have any photos or styles that you want to explore? Where do you see your photography going from here in terms of subject and style?

MB: This is fun for me to think about. In the future I want to involve my family more. Photography can tend to be a solo venture. I want my boys in particular to find a love and appreciation for this world and a love and respect for all of nature’s beauty and the people within it. If I could bottle the reactions my boys have, their wonder and imagination running rampant, and pour that all over my images, I’d be doing just fine.

The work I want to focus on involves being outside more and more. There is a lot left to be explored in that regard. 

I’m also working on having more of my images printed/installed on a massive scale, whether that be in retail spaces, custom residential builds, or hospitality projects.