{"id":224,"date":"2017-09-07T23:44:58","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T23:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/?p=224"},"modified":"2021-08-16T00:51:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T00:51:34","slug":"being-the-change-he-hopes-to-see-gregory-christies-contribution-to-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/2017\/09\/07\/being-the-change-he-hopes-to-see-gregory-christies-contribution-to-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Being the Change He Hopes to See: Gregory Christie\u2019s Contribution to Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Visit Decatur, Georgia, and you\u2019ll quickly notice that it\u2019s one of the most eclectic neighborhoods in Atlanta.\u00a0 Down the road from the African American storefronts and mega-churches, nightclubs, and braiding salons are trendy haunts and quietly plush homes where the upper middle class raise their families.\u00a0 Just beyond this, a vibrant South Asian community has flowered and brought with it jewelers, sari shops, grocery stores, and beauty salons.\u00a0 In the thick of it all is GAS-Art Gifts Autographed Children\u2019s Bookstore owned and operated by Coretta Scott King Book Award-winning illustrator R. Gregory Christie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAS-Art Gifts, short for Gregarious Art Statements, is unique.\u00a0 Located inside Decatur\u2019s North Dekalb Mall, it blends the feeling of an upscale art gallery with a come-one-come-all community center where visitors can choose to engage their own creativity or simply shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Opening a store was a chance opportunity that came when an art dealer operating in the mall invited Christie to display his books for Black History Month.  \u201cBlack grandmothers and soccer moms of all ethnicities cleared my table off each week.  And before I knew it, I had to keep ordering cases of books to keep up with the demand,\u201d Christie says, sounding both amused and deeply appreciative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, he transformed what he describes as a raw and uninviting space into what can now only be described as a brightly hued oasis.\u00a0 It\u2019s the kind of space that Christie would have appreciated having when growing up in suburban New Jersey, where museums and art education were sparse.\u00a0 He drew inspiration from any place he could, namely the library and public television.\u00a0 \u201cArt was a savior for me, says Christie, “It built my self-esteem.\u201d Over time, art also opened doors for him to live abroad in various European cities. Ones where he says, \u201cIf someone decides, ‘I want to be an Egyptologist,\u2019 they can study that, and they don\u2019t have to go broke.\u201d He wants to share that same expansive vision with his young customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Christie says that he spends about seventy hours a week working in his store.\u00a0 \u201cI do everything from sweeping the floor to cleaning the toilets to shaking the hands of anyone who comes in.\u201d\u00a0 And because GAS-Art Gifts also serves as his studio, it gives his young and old visitors the rare opportunity to see an artist at work.\u00a0 Getting to meet his book-buying audience is gratifying.\u00a0 He says, \u201cIt keeps an internal balance for me.\u00a0 I can have a flow of words and consciousness.\u00a0 What I\u2019m thinking can be expressed because I\u2019m always speaking to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Christie goes on to add, \u201cBecause this mall has been good to me, I pass it on to the customer.\u201d  He does this by offering affordable individual and group instruction as well as paint parties for children and adults.  And while he says that his motivation is to address some of the grave inner deficits that he sees growing in society, he emphasizes that his store is a service, not a charity.  \u201cYes, this shop is for profit.  But, it\u2019s very fair.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While serving the community, Christie has also found time to help promote the work of The Sweet Blackberry Foundation, with whom he has collaborated to make animated films.\u00a0 These accompany the books that he and the actress Karyn Parsons have created to tell the stories of marginalized African American achievers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Creating new work, appearing at festivals, doing school visits, and managing a store may seem like a lot for some.\u00a0 But Gregory Christie seems to believe in the old African American adage of lifting as one climbs.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe thirty years of my life have been spent learning everything I can.\u00a0 Bookbinding, sculpture, painting, photography.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gained a lot of knowledge, and I want to teach people things that I wish I\u2019d known.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post by Jen\u00e9 Watson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jen\u00e9 Watson works as a public librarian at a system in suburban Atlanta, where she coordinates Books in the Barbershop and family meditation programs.\u00a0 She is the author of\u00a0The Spirit That Dreams: Conversations with Women Artists of Color<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visit Decatur, Georgia, and you\u2019ll quickly notice that it\u2019s one of the most eclectic neighborhoods in Atlanta.\u00a0 Down the road from the African American storefronts and mega-churches, nightclubs, and braiding salons are trendy haunts and quietly plush homes where the upper middle class raise their families.\u00a0 Just beyond this, a vibrant South Asian community has … Continue reading Being the Change He Hopes to See: Gregory Christie\u2019s Contribution to Community<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-csk-award-winners","category-illustrator-award"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1425,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/1425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olos.ala.org\/csk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}