Last week I took a trip through my hometown, Memphis, TN, and stopped by for a studio visit with painter Hamlett Dobbins . Dobbins is the Director of the Clough-Hanson Gallery @ Rhodes College and also operates Material Art Space . Material is an alternative project space that has hosted the most contemporary, high quality exhibitions in Memphis over the last seven years while providing a venue for artists from Birmingham, AL to Tokyo, Japan. From Dobbin's statement in the current issue of New American Paintings: In our everyday lives, there are times when we are gripped with a whole-body pleasure, a spine thrill of delight when time seems to slow and we are hyper-present. I am trying to understand what it is about these extraordinary experiences of real life moments, in stories or movies that move me so. The way Elwood P. Dowd says, "and the evening wore on" in Harvey...the recording of my father's voice telling "The Story of the Rose"...the w...