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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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The Arts

Francis’ memories inspire colorful paintings

Pictured is a detail from Tom Francis’ painting “High Tide,” on display now in SCAD-Atlanta’s Gallery Trois.

Pictured is a detail from Tom Francis’ painting “High Tide,” on display now in SCAD-Atlanta’s Gallery Trois.

By Monique Bos
Published: Friday, February 15, 2008

Through a series of colorful, tropically themed paintings, Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta painting professor Tom Francis recalls the dive trips he and his wife used to take.

“We traveled somewhere every six weeks,” he explained. “The paintings are in large part influenced by being in the environment and being underwater in various locations like the Yucatán and Costa Rica.”

Adopting two young girls from China curtailed their travels, so Francis revisits his favorite locations through his paintings, some of which are on display through March 27 in Trois Gallery at SCAD-Atlanta, 1600 Peachtree St. The exhibition, “Looking Back Remembering When,” was complemented by another show of work from the series at Mercer University’s Hardman Hall Gallery. Francis gave a visiting artist talk Jan. 31, and the show closed Feb. 5.

He said many of the paintings were created in 2006-07 and share common themes and imagery. The red-wing blackbird hearkens to his childhood in Wisconsin; mountain ranges characterize his work about Costa Rica.

“As far as the parrots in the paintings, my wife and I had birds prior to having kids,” he explained.

School buses, another common motif in his work, provided the primary means of transportation in the Yucatán, and the sun and moon hearken back to Mayan symbolism.

“Is the civilization waxing or waning?” he asked. “The irony is that as a tourist, they need you there, but they don’t want you there.”

One of the early paintings in the series commemorated a friend he and his wife lost.

“We had a friend we took a lot of dive trips with in the Yucatán. This guy liked to deep dive by himself … and one time he didn’t come up,” Francis explained. “’Banquet,’ the large painting I did about that, was the first time I used fruit, vegetables and wine … The fish skeletons became a metaphor for Jim and his death.”

Many of the paintings show indoor scenes with windows looking out onto vivid landscapes, imagery that reflects Francis’ current state.

“The window becomes a metaphor for being at home, recalling all these places,” he explained. “I’m loaded with memories, which keeps me painting, keeps me going.”

He also recently completed two paintings that depict seafood motifs — lobsters, crabs, fish and starfish — along with his daughters’ feet. In one, he also painted the feet of four Taiwanese and two Korean girls — all friends of his daughters — on a beach. “It goes from very bright and colorful to dark as the light filters out,” he said. “It’s packed and playful.”

This work is on display as part of the SCAD-Atlanta faculty show at Studio 151, 659 Auburn Ave., through May 1. Francis and painting colleague Michael Brown also are planning an exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, in April.