((PKG))  APPALACHIAN ARTIST   
((Banner:  Cropland Artist)) 
((Reporter/Camera:  Arturo Martinez)) 
((Extra sound credits:  Guitar songs by John Douglas 
Powers))  
((Map:  Knoxville, Tennessee))   
((Main characters:  1 male))  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
I went to high school in a really rural place and I didn't know 
that being an artist was still a thing.  When I was in high 
school, it was sort of on a list with like blacksmiths and 
cobblers like people used to do that.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
I was born in a very rural part of the country.  These 
agricultural landscapes and the machinery and the 
equipment that goes with that was an early influence in the 
work and I think still kind of permeates the work.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
So, this piece called Ialu is probably from about 10 years 
ago, from this body of work kind of looking at fields, the visual 
of the motion of tall grass and the wind.  You never see the 
wind.  You always see the effects of the wind.  But also, for 
me is sort of calling to mind of the front end of a harvest or a 
reaper and the way that this machine enters the field and sort 
of like cuts the grain down and processes the grain.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
I don't think of it as a robot creating art.  These are no more 
robots than just sort of like atoms that are moving through 
space right now.  This is just a sort of device that helps 
visualize or record that phenomenon.  So, it appears 
inorganic but it's actually quite organic.  But the heart of it 
really is controlled chance, that you create a barrier and 
make some selections in terms of color.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
Some of my favorite moments are like in the corner.  This is 
like highway roadmap business of LA.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
The overlay in a lot of cases comes out of more historical 
narratives.  A lot of the philosophical questions that are 
embedded in the work for me are ancient questions.  Where 
do you go when you die?  Or, what is the wind?  Or, where 
does the wind come from?  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
I'm also very interested in getting out of my routine and 
seeing the world.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
Remarkable things can be found all over the place, 
sometimes just up the road from where you live.  It's a 
question of deviating from your normal path.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
We are on our way to the museum of Appalachia which is a 
collection of historic artifacts from the region that go back 
really to early settlers in the area.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
What's really exciting to me is that a lot of these are utilitarian 
things, but they end up being these aesthetic qualities to 
objects that are not always intentional, but as an artist, it's 
very inspirational.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
As a sculptural object this is amazing and it's so intriguing to 
be able to come and see the tool marks still on here, the way 
that this was shaped.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
Man, I would take this thing home and hang it on my wall.  
These millstones are amazing.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
There was a moment in time when you saw how things 
worked and you saw how they were made and even saw 
who made them and that's not really a part of society 
anymore.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
It’s just amazing.  There are all these gears and all these 
chains and weights to make two hands on a clock go around.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
The work is engineering without being an engineer.  But a lot 
of it is very much kind of trial and error or discovery. 
((NATS))  
((John Powers, Artist)) 
So, this is a prototype for a section of a much larger piece 
with these gears driven by a large central gear. 
((NATS)) 
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
This is a piece called Grist, based off of the same lantern 
gears that were in the mechanism of the mill.  So, it's a piece 
that eats itself over time with an overlay of this more 
conceptual question for me about time or timeliness.  
Influences a lot of the works are 17th, 18th, 19th century 
implements, historical technology that fed contemporary 
technology.  
((NATS)) 
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
All the woodwork is done by hand here in the studio and I guess 
the obvious gap in that would be the found objects.  This is the 
same model of typewriter that my grandparents had when I was 
young.  
((NATS)) 
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
It's already on.  This was a commissioned piece.  So, it's typing 
the sentence, "I will not talk in class".  As I was looking at it, the 
"Coronet" is the model of typewriter, but a "coronet" is also a 
musical instrument.  Turned it on for the first time and then it, there 
was also all this sound that was coming out of the very imperfect 
mechanism that I had built.  That's not to be done away with and 
solved.  It’s to be embraced and sort of grown as part of the 
content of the work.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
Sound is really essential for these pieces.  You know, a lot of 
times the sound is not necessarily a really pleasant tone.  The 
idea that the unpleasant thing and the pleasant thing are 
originating from the same mechanism kind of mirrors like the idea 
of life and death not being opposite things but sort of two sides of 
the same thing.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
So, I'm supported in part by my teaching appointment and 
supplemented significantly by the work that I'm able to sell out of 
the studio on my own.  
((NATS))  
((John Douglas Powers, Artist))  
I think at the end of the day, it's too much work to do unless you 
love it and so, part of it, I think, this is something that connects all 
creative people but there's a certain compulsion like, I can't not 
make the things.  And for the most part, I'm making the work that I 
want to see in the world and there's a hope that making that work 
leads to opportunities for conversation. 
((NATS/MUSIC))