Meet the FY 2014 IAF Winners

Kelly Bond

Choreographer and performer Kelly Bond uses her art to better know and express the human person. She and her duet partner, Melissa Krodman, have used their past works to explore the consciousness and unconsciousness of humanity. Their newest explorative piece, “Jean & Terry: Your Guides Through Dark, Light and Nebulous,” is still being developed. It will explore the idea that the human body is both a dwelling place and reflection of a greater energy and the possibility that it can act as a two-way channel for information, through physical experience. Bond hopes to premiere the performance early 2016.

Bond earned her BFA in dance performance and choreography and BA in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, and MA in European dance-theatre practice from the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance. She is relatively new to Nashville and is looking to integrate her work into the city’s rich artistic culture.

Bryce Brisco

Bryce Brisco is both a creator and explorer of pottery and ceramics. Considered an artist of contemporary pottery, he draws his inspiration from the pursuit of traditional Southern American folk wares and its three main influences: German salt glaze, English slipware and Chinese ash glaze. Through his use of locally sourced materials and processes close to the original technique, Brisco crafts his work in view of its functional standpoint, as well as the historical, cultural and symbolical roles of pottery.

Brisco is originally from Arkansas and received his BFA in Painting from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University. He is currently an artist-in-residence at the Appalachian Center for Craft in Smithville, TN.

Jan LaPerle

Whimsical writer Jan LaPerle has worked in poetry, fiction and verse. She writes to feel and to understand, to celebrate and to discover. Her creative process includes reflection on her current life events, interwoven with the everyday demands of motherhood and participation in the professional sphere. LaPerle’s recent works are inspired by the fears and joys of motherhood, as found in her most current book A Pretty Place To Mourn. The five women who’s lives this story, written in verse, follows are the incarnation and development of these fears.

LaPerle received her BA in English and MFA in creative writing from Southern Illinois University and is now an English professor at Tusculum College. She looks forward to using her fellowship award to promote her newest book through a series of live readings throughout Tennessee and surrounding states.

Greg Sand

Artist Gregory Sand challenges traditional photography through his exploration of the media’s expression of time and its relationship to issues of existence and death. By recycling old photographs to create new abstract works of art, he shares his interest in the juxtaposition between the brief moment of life a still image captures and the future that the image’s subject has already lived.

Sand graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in studio art from Austin Peay State University. Working of Clarksville, Tenn., Sand has exhibits in Nashville and across the country. His work has earned him the honor of being selected by critic Catherine Edelman and the Griffin Museum of Photography as one of “the most exciting new artists emerging in the world of photography.”

Laurel Jean Sprague

Mixed media artist Laurel Jean Sprague uses her work to express the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Beginning as a portrait photographer, she now integrates this skill with numerous other techniques to produce her works. Most recently she has used a variety of processes and mediums to reveal the dual aspect of man–internal and external–while also exploring the connection of these aspects to nature. With the IAF award, she has purchased new equipment for her art and is now working towards completing the adaption of her studio space that will eventually also become an artist co-op and host gallery exhibitions, classes and workshops.

Sprague is originally from Harrogate, TN. She received her BFA in photography from Piedmont College and Master of Humanities in fine art from Tiffin University. She has exhibited her work throughout Tenn. and surrounding states, currently produces out of her studio in South Nashville and is also store manager for SmART!