Combining art with coffee, Java Cabana opened an exhibit of AnnDiggs' work last Friday. The show will continue for at least amonth.
Diggs works in watercolor and acrylic. The current exhibit,"Primary Colors, Basic Shapes, and More," is all acrylic art.
Her work is diluted and copies watercolor painting inappearance. She's studied under Billie Shelburne, Doris Mee,William Bradley, Karen North Wells and Don Morgan.
"Acrylic paint is more forgiving than watercolor," she said.
A retired kindergarten teacher, Diggs has only been studying andpainting for six years. After retiring, she began teaching art tochildren through the Memphis Arts Council.
There, she taught impressionism and became "hooked on thestyle."
She said she uses impressionism because realism seemed to limither.
"Impressionism frees me to express myself as an artist," shesaid.
Although she's sold a lot of pieces, she said she couldn'tsurvive by just painting.
Retirement hasn't slowed her down any either. She continues tostudy with other artists to develop her style and study color. Shesaid she feels uncomfortable painting figures and rarely paintsthem. Most of her work is inspired by nature, and she often paintsscenes from her house in Cape Cod.
"When I'm on Cape Cod, I paint outside. The light and waterinspire most of my work," she said. Even when she's disappointedwith a piece, she uses a technique - patchwork painting - in whichshe cuts the painting into square inch pieces and reassembles themin order to create a new painting.
This is her second show at Java Cabana. As its name implies, theshow consists of bright primary colors in a study of shapes. Yet,her usual inspiration makes up a good portion of the show as well,with soft yielding colors in scenes from her beloved Cape Cod.
She referred to the midtown coffee house as a "communitycenter." Artists, musicians and poets gather there and circulatetheir work.
"They're doing a great job for the community," Diggs said.
Java Cabana opened as Java Cabana Gallery in 1992.
"At the time, there weren�t many coffee shops in the areaso it kind of just turned into a coffee house," said current JavaCabana owner, Mary Burns.
The coffee house rents wall space to artists for a smallcommission.
"We aren't trying to make money off the artists. We're trying toget their art out there," she said.
Burns described Diggs as an "asset," willing to share herselfwith the community.
Also for the second year, Diggs will operate a booth in front ofJava Cabana for the annual Cooper-Young Festival starting thisSaturday.
"My original art doesn't sell as well at festivals. People don'twant to spend as much there," she said. She sells prints of herwork there along with small, framed pieces and cards.
She received a bachelor's degree in theater arts from SkidmoreCollege and a master's degree in education from The University ofMemphis.
Since she retired from Memphis City Schools in 1997, she hasoften volunteered her time to teach. She also donates some of herworks to WKNO-TV, the local Public Television station.
She currently teaches art to an autistic boy in order to helphim communicate. She is a member of the Memphis Germantown ArtLeague and of Artists' Link, which helps create venues forartists.
