Today turned out to be a beautiful day here in Memphis, which is a great relief after all the rain we’ve had over the last few weeks!

This was a perfect day for the first annual AIA Memphis Chalk Art Festival, held outside the Brooks Museum in mid-town Memphis.

Over 30 teams took part in the competition and I was honored to be asked by AIA Memphis to photograph the event for them.

The standard of artwork was excellent, and everyone had a lot of fun. Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who took part today!

I am very much looking forward to attending the Celebration of Architecture gala event on Saturday April 4th 2009 as the official photographer for AIA Memphis. AIA Memphis is the West Tennessee chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the event this year celebrates the 2009 design awards.

For more information on the event, please visit the AIA Web Site.

On Saturday 23rd August 2008, AIA Memphis held a very special event on Main Street called Dining By Design. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be the official photographer for this event, which celebrated architectural design in a Memphis Cotton Row residence.

This was an incredibly lively and fun evening – with a tremendous amount for the guests to see, eat & experience during the fun-packed evening.

Pianist Dennis Whitehead provided some wonderful piano music to start the evening off.

The sound of the beautiful Steinway echoed throughout the building, providing a wonderful atmosphere to get the event rolling.

This was followed by the energetic dancers of the New Ballet Ensemble with their entrancing movements and contemporary dance styles.

These young dancers and musicians are incredibly dedicated and talented and I wish the New Ballet Ensemble all the success in the world for the future.

Finally, the evening was rounded off by an incredible performance by Amy LaVere and her amazing band.

Amy’s distinctive mixture of classic country/gypst and jazz music had everyone up and dancing in no time!

You can read more about Amy at the Archer Records web site at http://www.archer-records.com/?page=artist.asp&sub=y&aid=5

The atmosphere of this event was relaxed, fun, entertaining, dynamic and exciting all at the same time! I had a great time creating the images from this event, and many thanks to AIA Memphis for allowing me the opportunity to work with them again.

Photographs from the event can be viewed here:

http://www.collages.net/

The username is “dining by design” and the password is 21925