Art teachers as teaching artists.

Just the word makes you want to look closer, doesn't it?

LUMINOUS.

That's the name of the new show that is hanging (as of today) in the Levy Gallery in the lobby of the Buckman Fine and Performing Arts Center. The show features paintings by Elizabeth Garat and ceramics by Anne Froning.

(What? You didn't know St. Mary's has an art gallery on campus? It's true: the shows change frequently, and feature local artists, St. Mary's students and, for the first time this year, St. Mary's alumnae. Click here for a link to the gallery schedule.)

But back to the new show. Both artists' names might be familiar to you. Ms. Garat is our Middle School art teacher, whose commitment to helping fifth through eighth graders develop their visual vocabulary and learn to have fun with art is matched by her commitment to continuing to develop her own work. She has studied plein air painting -- painting outside -- and the soothing moonscape above, called "Summer Crescent," is in the St. Mary's show. Is it from her time painting in Tuscany in Italy? From her own Memphis backyard? Come to the opening reception (it's free) Friday from 5:30-7:30pm and ask her yourself.

Anne Froning's ceramics (left) are an interesting blend with Ms. Garat's paintings. You might remember Anne as one of the 2010 Louise T. Archer Artists in Residence. With her husband, Sean Murphy, she led bands of ECC and Lower School girls in building and celebrating the burrows that woodland animals make as a project of their collaborative, Being: Art. Her graceful ceramics now hang in the Levy Gallery; a major work hangs in the Physician's Dining Room at the new LeBonheur Children's Hospital.

For more information about the opening reception or to view the art in the gallery, call Cindi Younker at 901.537.1483.