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- [S104] Cocke County, Tennessee, and its People, Cocke County Heritage Book Committee, (Walsworth Publishing, 1992), 106.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 11 Apr 2014.
April blossoms and sunshine ideal time to consider art
(c)2014 NPT PHOTO BY DAVID POPIEL
The portrait of actor Tom Selleck immediately caught my eye when touring David Freeman's North Street
studio in March. You can see the variety of subjects that this artist handles with ease and expression.
Author: David Popiel
The first full month of spring is full of surprises so far as weather as we had a few cool mornings in our hometown but the apple blossoms have yet to appear and that reminds me if we might have some frosty morning weather later after the full moon on the 15th?
You recall we completed a chat with Jim Carpenter, of Parrottsville, on Three War Veterans, and on Thursday morning he told me that he was on his way to Washington DC for the annual event to honor World War II veterans. There may be others from Cocke County attending so Jim might get some photos for us. I also talked with Lee Yagel, 90, another Three War Veteran Association member in Surprise, Arizona. He informed me that the founder of this fine organization, Frank Durbin, recently died in California. When Jim and I were talking about the modern era Three War Veterans, he reminded me I had just written about two: former Navy SEALs Don Shipley and Dexter Phillips. I had forgotten that these men are considered veterans of the wars from the Gulf War through Afghanistan. If you know of any others, please call me at the Plain Talk. Fred Giles reminded me he served in the Navy in World War II. He then was transferred to the Air Force in 1955 in the 5th Air Force during Korean War. His third war was Vietnam 1967-68 with the 56 Air Commando Wing, attached at Nakom Phanom, Royal Thai Air Force Base.
Positive things happening
The warming weather sets the local scene for more activity. As I said last week, workers with George Reagan Company are renovating the former Goddard building off West Broadway. Vonda Dean with Lowland Credit Union tells me this is a $1 million commitment by the bank to serve Newport. The construction phase should be complete in June and then employees will migrate to the new facility and open by early fall. Marsha Anderson is the Newport branch manager. During another run down the road, I stopped at Arvis Keys' large metal building behind his Luck Pawn business and saw some activity. Floyd Ray Ford introduced me to his son, Ben Ford, who was doing carpenter work inside. They and others will be soon setting up several large copper stills (Yes, legal) to produce, my guess, more than a thousand gallons of moonshine per day. You will be reading more about this. Another important stop I made was to hear Matt Munsey and the Monroeville band perform for Judge John Bell's campaign shindig at City Park. After hearing that Matt was nominated for a Grammy Award, this was a must-hear event. I'm not a big bluegrass fan, like our former employee John Ford, but must say that Matt and the band are awesome and will win many awards. I knew his father, James Munsey, well and helped him promote his start-up log cabin business many decades ago. After this, he and wife, the former Mitzi Moore, did mission work in south Texas. James was an outstanding preacher and man, dying much too young. I will be placing some video on our Website, newportplaintalk.com and recommend you see it and buy their music. Also, I will give you some inside information that the Plain Talk has a super size Website soon to be launched. Our company has been working on it for many months and you will finally be able to get practically all the local news online this month right here in Newport. Sports Editor Seth Butler is leading this digital media project.
A lifelong artist
During a balmy December day, David Freeman showed up in the parking lot of the Plain Talk with a huge painting on canvas that he had completed. It took the entire bed of his small pickup. Many of you have seen his works about town inside and outside. He specializes in Smokies outdoor scenery but he is a versatile artist. At age 63, David is in good health and has been a commercial artist since 1971, that's over 40 years. And I am sure he would tell you it is true about starving artists. You can view some of his creations at his gallery, 584 North Street.
The particular large canvas I photographed was of horses, a subject David remembered sketching as a youngster attending Newport Grammar School. He said those were Ben Holder's ponies. In addition to Smoky Mountain scenes he does a lot of commercial portraits, using black on gray paper in oils.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 18 Apr 2014.
Flowers and light frost paint brilliant image for Easter
(c)2014 NPT PHOTO BY DAVID POPIEL
This winter snow scene in the mountains will be one of four season theme large-canvas paintings David
Freeman has been commissioned to do for a Gatlinburg business. He has spent many hours over the winter
in his studio on the creation.
Author: David Popiel
After a brief brush with patchy frost on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, the temperatures warmed up for our hometown on the eve of Easter but the apple crop escaped the worst.
Spring break for students not only here but about the US surely has added to the traffic flowing through Newport streets and highways and that may be why gasoline prices have been cruising towards $3.60 per gallon. Many folks have already tuned up their mowers at Smith’s Repair Shop where you will still find the shop cat snoring on the counter. I saw those folks including Tip Brown mowing on Thursday. On the same road, Woodlawn Avenue, I saw Vinny Pisciotta painting the renovated former George Miller Jr. home now owned by Tony and Janice Cureton. Vinny, from New York, has worked several weeks on the project. About 70 percent of the old paint had to be stripped from the poplar wood surface. Then he sprayed on white paint, brushed this out while wet and finished with a final spray coat. The new dark shingle roof does not have a spec of white paint on it. In early May I will show you what the final touches due to this historic home. Over the past week I met more interesting people who you will be reading about shortly. But for now, let’s return to our visit with Newport artist David Freeman.
Large scenes on canvas
Freeman whimsically calls the recent trio of horses, painted using acrylics and oil in a fall setting, “Moe, Larry, and Curley.” It was to be placed at the Club Vacation in the Smokies Resort at the Holiday Inn, Gatlinburg. I think he said it would be in a swimming pool area. They like his work so much the owners have commissioned spring, summer, and winter scenes. The three horses are on a canvas measuring 4.5 feet by 7 feet. I can’t recall how long this one painting took, but he did another that David said took him three months to do. It is on an outside retaining wall and is 200 feet long at the Mountain Loft Resort, Gatlinburg. Speaking of outside murals, his popular one of rhododendrons is on the side of Faye Fish’s Modern Woodmen of America office facing the railroad tracks and off North Street. He also does inside murals, too. The wall scene helped Mountain Loft earn a beautification award.
For Freeman, the art business has been fulltime and part-time, depending on season and economy. You may also see him on the festival circuits. “That’s what got me going.” Other things he does to earn a buck include custom framing and giving art lessons. I also learned a little more about him as we shared our recipes for staying in good health such as proper nutrition and exercise. Yes, he teaches yoga.
From a long line of Freemans
He is the son of the oldest of the Freeman brothers, Warren Freeman, who died in 1977. Of the brothers, only Dan and Roland survive. The last time I saw Dan he was still at Freeman’s Furniture store off Highway 25E. Now he has sidekick, Jim, with him. As a young man, David learned to drive a straight-shift delivery truck for the Freemans, and I assume it included the late Paul Freeman, who ran the popular store at the East Broadway center. Early on, David decided he did not want to be a furniture salesperson. You can find out more about him at davidfreemanartist.com or scout out local business walls to see his paintings.
After our first recent talk late last year, I wanted to know more about David Freeman so I located his 584 North Street gallery, in one of twin 1930s era houses just past Knowles Market. He has owned the house for about five years but lives in Northridge Estates near Parrottsville to assist his mother, Eula Phillips. She is originally from Groundhog Road. I had mentioned his father, Warren Freeman, the oldest of the brothers and married to Eula. They had six children the oldest being Brenda Oakley, who with sister, Linda Early, lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina. David is third oldest followed by the late Steve Freeman, a leukemia victim, Wayne Freeman of Edwina, and Donnie Freeman, employed by Newport Utilities.
While David seems to have been born with a sketch pencil in his hand, Steve learned late in life he too had artistic talents but “you have to pursue it,” said David. I mentioned a former Cosby student of mine and asked if David knew Dwayne Rollins. Yes, he is a talented airbrush artist, and David has worked on projects with him such as the Hunt/Wesson sign at ConAgra and the Cosby High School eagles art. Another artist friend of Freeman’s you know is Thelma Ogle. Freeman is a member of the Morristown and Tennessee Arts Associations. This April through May he will exhibit some of his works at the Morristown Library.
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 25 Apr 2014.
Just Plain Talk: Late spring always resonates with World War II veterans
(c)2014 NPT PHOTO BY DAVID POPIEL
The Hill Topper, a Victorian house off Mims Avenue at College Street, is quietly being renovated after remaining abandoned and damaged for years. I am glad that someone out of state had the money and interest in reviving the house so I am trying to find the stories behind it and you will soon read more on this in the Plain Talk.
Author: David Popiel
April has produced a few showers, some frost but not much and now higher temperatures for our hometown as we get ready to leave the month on a new moon and venture into May.
I am always surprised to meet folks again whom I haven�t seen in years and such was the case at Lowland Credit Union last week. There was a sporty hatchback 2013 Ford Focus parked outside and the fellow who owns it is Billy Jenkins, of Del Rio. You old timers from ConAgra will know him. His wife, the former Lucille �Lou� Woody, was with him. She is still recuperating from illness many months ago and I was glad to see her again. Billy�s family comes from the Bryson City, North Carolina area but he loves living in Del Rio. He and his neighbors are renewing an effort to get a cellphone tower to serve the area, and I told him the Plain Talk would help on this project.
Many jobs, many talents
There is still more to know about artist David Freeman. After high school and some studies at East Tennessee State University, he worked from 1971 until 1981 at Morrison Printing Company as a commercial artist. He later became art director at the school calendar department of Acme Printing, Morristown. But to make a living as an artist you usually do many different jobs as he has done from industrial painting to work at Bush Brothers cannery. �I�ve been everywhere,� reminds me of the line from the Johnny Cash song.
He augments his painting commissions and sales by matting and framing prints, paintings, sketches or his portraits. He recently did a magnificent wave scene for Lee Schilling. David focuses on his strengths. �I love nature, what God created, to create themes like a paradise.� The other side of his brain leads him to interests in science, biology, and physics. He is also an ordained deacon with Memorial Baptist Church and designed the church�s logo you see on its signage.
It was inspiring to look at photos he shared of last year�s Rock the Block, a Memorial Baptist Church sponsored event. The Plain Talk works with Judge John Bell�s son, Luke Bell, on this periodic summer event promotion. David set up a large canvas and painted an image of the crucified Christ. It takes him about 15 minutes with appropriate music in the background while those attending Rock the Block watch. He calls this �performance art.� He is a broadly talented man and showed me a recent water feature in a large vase with purple irises. He sells these custom works that remind me of sculptures. And then he has taken on some interior design work where he blends his artistic flourishes with walls, fixtures, and rooms to create a usable work of art. His gallery contains a good sampling of what he does best so drop by one day and see for yourself.
Just last Friday I learned more about the Freemans and especially his daughter, Julie Freeman Mullins, who attended NGS and CCHS. She graduated from Walters State Community College in 2005 with a degree in culinary arts, hotel/restaurant management. Then at ETSU she graduated in 2008 with a degree in business management. All this gave her the chance to start with Carson Springs Conference Center as food service coordinator and executive chef. She had already worked part-time at the center while attending college. Dad taught her art, which she enjoys, and Julie pursues photography, home decoration, painting, and scrapbooking. Julie is also a part-time dance instructor for ADC and Company Dance Studio, Greeneville. She married Josh Mullins, of Newport, also a WSCC graduate and attending ETSU where he learn philosophy and religious studies with a plan to earn a master of divinity degree. When not studying, he also works at Carson Springs center as recreation coordinator. David Freeman�s wife, Brenda (Walker) Freeman works for Colgate Company, Morristown.
A Victorian home revival
It took me a few passes along College Street near Newport Grammar School, and seeing activity at the formerly well dilapidated Victorian house in recent days, I pulled in to see what was going on. You know the house as it has sat on the corner of Mims and College for at least 100 years. I wandered upstairs, and perhaps my first time ever inside this formerly dying or dead house. It had been a rental for years and nothing much done on it. For many years it remained empty with vandals breaking out all the windows. Twenty, the owner said.
On the second floor I found the fellow who had recently purchased it after seeing it for sale on the Internet. For now, I promised not to reveal his name but maybe later. He is from out-of-state and grew up to love old large homes. Eddie Walker gave him some of the history on the house and perhaps I can find out and share it with you. The main thing the dwelling needed was all new electrical and plumbing, and of course replacement windows and doors. The youthful owner was pleased with the help he had gotten from his neighbor, Bill Agee, to use water and electricity. He said that had it not been for the supportive and knowledgeable way Mark Robinson, codes enforcer, with the City of Newport had helped, most likely he would never have taken on the project. I have an inkling of the cost and work having witnessed Tony Cureton and many contractors at work only a hundred or so yards away off Woodlawn Avenue. These two houses are rather contemporary.
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