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This week Elizabeth Downing talks with two of Tulsa’s young creatives.
Meet Michelle Firment Reid and Grace Grothaus.
Firment Reid is a full-time artist with a studio in the Blue Dome District, and Grothaus works in Philbrook Museum of Art’s Education Department while actively creating artwork on the side.
Firment Reid primarily “experiments with paint” and is currently working on incorporating lyrical handwriting into her canvases as “vanishing commentary.”
Grothaus’ background is also in painting, but she’s currently exploring installation and public art, “making apparent the juxtaposition between natural and industrial systems.”
They have both made their mark as exhibitors and volunteers in the arts scene, and both embody the spirit and energy that we must continue to attract to Tulsa. They are both Tulsa transplants; Grothaus moved here two years ago, and Firment Reid arrived 12 years ago.
It’s no surprise that there are striking similarities in their involvement in the arts community as nonprofit volunteers and as exhibiting artists. Having been ensconced in the art scenes of a number of other cities — regional, national, and international — they bring distinctive viewpoints to Tulsa’s art scene.
Grothaus says she believes Tulsa is on the edge of an artistic renaissance, which rightly captures the energy that pervades Tulsa’s communities of young artists and young professionals.
“I think we’re at the brink of something big and we’re empowered enough to help nudge it over the edge,” she says.
She also says that sense of ownership breeds a remarkably “inclusive and supportive community of artists.”
When asked how she would characterize the Tulsa art scene, Firment Reid sums it up thusly: “Tulsa is no Washington, D.C., or New York City, nor should it try to be. Tulsa has its own strengths and history to draw upon.”
This speaks directly to the identity crisis seen so often among artists here, and Firment Reid strikes exactly the right attitude with the “nor should (we) try to be.” Spot on, I say: Let’s be us instead of something we’re not.
After all, Tulsa has a lot going for it, especially for the young and not-so-wealthy. Tulsa is affordable and just the right size, which means a lot more chances to have a studio, show artwork at a gallery and be a part of producing an arts program or exhibition.
Grothaus echoes the general sentiment: “Tulsa has stolen my heart.”
Grothaus and Firment Reid have taken different paths to get here, and they are making their own forays into the battlefield of the arts. They are two of many using their creativity professionally and otherwise. Like most other artists, you may not recognize them on the street, but even if you don’t know it, they are slowly and quietly building this city’s sense of self with each hour of volunteer work and each stroke of the brush.
Next week, come back for two upcoming exhibits that highlight Tulsa’s young artists — the TYPros Next/Now Show and Momentum Tulsa.
Elizabeth Downing is not an art critic, but a local photographer of the urban landscape and a devoted Midtowner. She and her husband own Avansic, a digital forensics and electronic discovery company in downtown Tulsa. She is the president of the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition and serves on the board at the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition and the Tulsa YWCA.
