He plays music but he's not a DJ. He's a master of the microphone but he's not an MC. He was in a band but he doesn't sing or play an instrument. He's a self-described Hype Man, maybe Douglasville's one and only. What is a Hype Man? To start with, you have to definitely be a renaissance man and 100 percent artist. "You're the guy that makes the crowd move," said C.P. "Bugsy" Lazarre, who was born in Brooklyn, raised for eight years in Haiti and lived for a couple of years in Canada. "A Hype Man is a promoter and announcer but that's not all he does." Bugsy came to the Atlanta area in 1996 and…
Friends of David James "D.J." Watson don't need a fancy, catered gallery opening to know he's an artist. One look at his piercings and tats give a hint at his creative nature but a glance at his living room seals the deal. "My home is my gallery," he said. "It's where we let it all hang out. I can't make myself get rid of anything." In one corner of his living room lies an old eight-track tape player with protruding large silver knobs, encased in that 70s-style fake-wood pattern metal shell. But that's just the canvas. Watson created the art by covering the tape player with cut out …
Photoshop is her paintbrush and photographs are her canvas. Using the modern computer skills needed for composite photography art, French born and trained artist Dominique Chaponot breathes life into her creations, full of rich detail and varied textures. Computer software, like Photoshop, allows Chaponot to seamlessly blend up to 25 photos into one. The final product looks more like a detail-rich painting than a photograph. Chaponot and her husband, Francois, moved to the United States because of the job he had at the time. After traveling from Paris to New Jersey when she was 35 years …
Emily Lightner was already selling her works of art at the age of 5. An employee of country music star Travis Tritt had stopped by the Red Cockerill Gallery in Austell, shopping for a present for Tritt to celebrate the star's new-born baby, and Lightner's abstract painting caught his eye. Lightner' s career in art was born. She has been around art and artists her entire life since the Red Cockerill Gallery belongs to her parents, who are both well-known area artists. Lightner's most recent work is titled "Wish upon a Star," and was given away yesterday at the Empty Bowl Luncheon, held at …
Joie Beal, 18, is a Douglas County High School student who wants to one day be a comic book artist. But she doesn't want to draw superheroes. She wants to draw stories about regular people in everyday situations. That's not a surprising attitude from an artist who admits that though she believes a school art show displayed her work, she never attended it. She'll have another chance to see her artwork on display if she visits the Douglasville/Douglas County Cultural Arts Center before the end of December. Her holiday card design was one of four chosen from more than 100 entries and 20 local …
