http://nashvillearts.com/2013/03/07/beauty-in-bali-the-art-of-caye-david-and-jalan-jalan/

You’ve never been in a shop that more perfectly reflects the elegance, aesthetics, and desires of its owner than does Jalan-Jalan, Caye David’s 
magnificent Indonesian antique-furniture showroom in the heart of Nashville. Born fifteen years ago on a whim and a tiny budget, the business came about when David fell in love with Bali and decided she had to have a connection there. The elegant yet simple tables, benches, bowls, and functional art objects in Jalan-Jalan have a universal appeal, and they glow with patina that can come only from wear. What kind of woman would make it her business to ship massive containers of beautiful things halfway around the world? Caye David sat down with Nashville Arts to tell us.

NAM: What touched you about Bali so much that you had to make it a part of your life?

DAVID: The elegant culture so vested in its own ancestry and belief system. The beauty. The people.

NAM: Did Nashvillians embrace the idea of Indonesian antiques right away, or did you have to educate them?

DAVID: There was an education process. But people recognize quality and beauty even if they don’t understand the culture where it came from. People love the stories behind the pieces, the history, the provenance. Educating people about true Indonesian antiques 
vs. reproductions wasn’t hard once people saw the difference themselves.

NAM: What does Jalan-Jalan mean?

DAVID: The Indonesian word for road is jalan. Jalan-Jalan is an idiom that means, “I’m just going for a walk.” It’s what you say in the busy marketplace when people are pressuring you to buy: I’m just looking, just going for a walk.

NAM: So when people come in, what do they like best?

DAVID: People love the warmth of old wood, especially in contemporary settings where it softens hard edges. There are pieces that people live with day in and day out. Coffee tables, dining tables, and benches are always in demand. My new design line, Ancient Modern, created from old wood sells as fast as I can make it.

NAM: My favorite thing in your shop is an old wooden bowl, carved, with a knotted rope on the bottom of it.

DAVID: It’s a food bowl. Farmers would take it with them into the rice fields each day.

NAM: That’s so charming. Now I want it. I love that
so many things in your shop are art objects but
they’re useful.

DAVID: The accessories in my showroom began their life as utilitarian. I call it Agrarian Art. Rice spoons, fishing baskets, bowls. It’s honest beauty.

NAM: What’s the average customer of Jalan-Jalan like? DAVID: My customers are creative and curious and often have some

world travel under their belts. They don’t want the ordinary and what they’ll see in everyone else’s homes. They also appreciate other cultures.

NAM: My impression is you work hard but you make it look effortless. Like a swan. All serene on top of the water but paddling furiously underneath.

DAVID: (Laughs.)I think people believe the showroom just magically appears all put together, but recently I posted a lot of photos on Facebook of the whole process, the travel, the buying—all the way to the container’s arrival and unloading crates. It’s like a massive jigsaw puzzle because I don’t buy rooms to go. I buy what I love and hope it will all come together. I have a lot of great help both in Bali and stateside.

NAM: You spend time in Bali and you have a house in Jamaica, two wildly different cultures. What attracts you to these two very dissimilar but indigenous cultures?

DAVID: Experiencing other cultures has taught me how small the world really is, how connected we are, and how we want basically the same things in life. 

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NAM: You wrote on Facebook: “No greater joy, frustration, wonder and appreciation exists for our First World than building a life in the Third.”

DAVID: That’s true.

NAM: Now the Lightening Round: What do you value above all?

DAVID: My children and my friends.

NAM: What excites you?

DAVID: Travel; a new shipment. Hockey.

NAM: If they made a movie of your life, who would
play you?

DAVID: Catherine Keener.

NAM: What’s the craziest thing you shipped to Nashville from Bali?

DAVID: A six-foot-tall standing stone torso. It’s in the showroom now!

NAM: What did I leave out?

DAVID: I have a small, nonprofit organization, 
Overseas Medical, taking medical supplies to Third World countries.    

Visit Jalan-Jalan at 2503 Winford Avenue, Nashville. www.jalanjalanantiques.com

East Meets West Sargam Griffin at Jalan-Jalan 

by Beth Raebeck Hall (Courtesy Nashville Arts)

Sargam Griffin believes art provokes the spirit. When called, the spirit aligns itself with intention, which then leads to the story. This artist feels an extraordinary commitment to each painting and considers each a power that moves out into the world. To create, she begins in silence, eliminating all internal chatter. It is only then that she touches a blank canvas or panel. Magically, like a genie escaping from the bottle, the work begins to speak, to take shape, to guide her. The end result is both captivating and ethereal.

“I cannot wait to see how they turn out and to share them with others,” Griffin says.

Painting is essential to me. It’s how I express myself in the world. There is a certain level of vulnerability that I’m willing to expose.

Titles are deliberate—their genesis lies in deep thought and emotion about powerful subjects.The Fifth Element, The Economy, and Japan demonstrate the fusion of inspiration, intention, and conversation with color and texture. All possess a relevant and luminous identity. These works create great conversation.

“Painting expands my sense of being,” says Griffin. “My intention is to create truthful, real work with depth. It is vital they are compelling from a distance and up close. It all starts with an intention. It’s important to capture these times of exponential change, as it’s a substantial part of my creative process,” she notes in her soft-spoken manner.

Sargam Griffin’s exhibit East Meets West is at Jalan-Jalan September 12 through December 15. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. Jalan-Jalan is located at 2503 Winford Avenue, Nashville, TN.   

Read more of the article here.

East Meets West Sargam Griffin at Jalan-Jalan

by Beth Raebeck Hall

Sargam Griffin believes art provokes the spirit. When called, the spirit aligns itself with intention, which then leads to the story. This artist feels an extraordinary commitment to each painting and considers each a power that moves out into the world. To create, she begins in silence, eliminating all internal chatter. It is only then that she touches a blank canvas or panel. Magically, like a genie escaping from the bottle, the work begins to speak, to take shape, to guide her. The end result is both captivating and ethereal.

“I cannot wait to see how they turn out and to share them with others,” Griffin says.

Painting is essential to me. It’s how I express myself in the world. There is a certain level of vulnerability that I’m willing to expose.

Titles are deliberate—their genesis lies in deep thought and emotion about powerful subjects.The Fifth Element, The Economy, and Japan demonstrate the fusion of inspiration, intention, and conversation with color and texture. All possess a relevant and luminous identity. These works create great conversation.

“Painting expands my sense of being,” says Griffin. “My intention is to create truthful, real work with depth. It is vital they are compelling from a distance and up close. It all starts with an intention. It’s important to capture these times of exponential change, as it’s a substantial part of my creative process,” she notes in her soft-spoken manner.

Griffin attained her global sensitivities early. Visits to Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Great Pyramids of Giza, and the North Sea made indelible impressions on her young artistic psyche. Later journeys to Africa, India, Switzerland, and Italy are deeply embedded in her remarkable talent.

I seek a certain clarity of light and will go to great lengths to find it.

A 2006 visit to Rome created a defining moment for her creative vision. “While visiting the Vatican, I wandered off. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by the Collection of Modern Art in the Apartment of Alexander VI,” she notes. The vast rooms of magnificent modern art and sculptures deeply affected her. “It was a divine moment. I was truly speechless. I knew I had to spend the rest of my life doing this,” she says with reverence. Soon after, she began painting large abstract paintings on canvas and museum-quality panels, listening ardently to the voices of paint, pigment, and canvas.

For Griffin, her role as an artist is to invigorate, inspire, and illuminate through her work. Illumination is accomplished through deep layering of the highest quality oils, alkyds, translucent French pigments, and varnishes or resins, all mixed by hand. Each work contains thirty to forty layers. Griffin says each layer guides the next, until the painting determines it is complete. “It’s finished when it is independent of me,” she says.

Griffin takes the art of revelation to an exact level with her new series. ArtDoors™ are substantial works of fine art painted on functional doors. Some pivot, some slide, some are hinged. But, as with all work, she lets the piece guide the creative process.

“Wood tells you what it is going to be,” she says. “I use museum-quality birch wood and stretchers, but the process is the same. The work is an honest representation of what I am guided to paint. These literally allow the viewer to see what is revealed through the images and colors and behind the door. Sometimes I am shocked at what comes through,” she says with a smile.

Sargam Griffin’s exhibit East Meets West is at Jalan-Jalan September 12 through December 15. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. Jalan-Jalan is located at 2503 Winford Avenue, Nashville, TN.   

sargamgriffin.com   jalanjalanantiques.com