Steve Wariner: A Parallel Passion for Art and Music
Steve Wariner is one of country music’s best-known entertainers. Over the course of his long career, he’s scored 14 number-one hits and earned four Grammy awards and 11 Grammy nominations. But Steve is also a gifted visual artist who creates works in oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media. In this episode of MACC Talk, Steve joins host John Pitcher to discuss his exhibit The Flip Side, which runs from June 21 to July 26, 2026 at the MACC. The episode is sponsored by the MACC’s Heritage Music Series.
Grammy-winning musician Steve Wariner has pursued a parallel passion for the visual arts and music since childhood. Photo by David McClister
“Gettin’ It” by Steve Wariner. Many of Wariner’s landscapes, seascapes and Western paintings are in an impressionistic style.
“Shemya” by Steve Wariner. This abstract painting was inspired by a hair-raising plane trip to the island of Shemya in the Bering Sea.
“Lower East Side Looking at Brooklyn in 2020” by Steve Wariner. This haunting image was created during the pandemic lockdown.
Steve Wariner creates his paintings in a home studio located on his property.
Steve Wariner makes a habit of painting daily. His routine is interrupted only when he’s pursuing his parallel passion for music.
Robin Willis is the MACC’s Healing Arts Coordinator. She also works as the Exhibition and Events Manager and Director of Outreach. Robin has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University with a minor in Entrepreneurship. She is a multi-discipline artist with emphasis in writing, mixed media abstract painting, alternative process photography, collage, and book arts and binding. In addition to her art practices, she holds several healing modalities certificates, such as extensive kundalini yoga teacher training and education, Reiki master, systemic family constellation facilitator, and depth psychology-based therapy trainings. As an avid learner, she explores and encourages others in their exploration in art, psyche, and our relationship to the micro and macro worlds within and around us. Influenced by John Muir’s quote, When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe, she fuses art, healing, and organization throughout her work and personal life as a creative-scientist minded person.
Kaylin Warden
Creative Design and Operations Manager
Kaylin Warden serves as the MACC’s Creative Design and Operations Manager. In this post, she oversees the organization’s graphic design work for exhibitions, events and special projects. She also coordinates the MACC’s arts outreach activities and assists with bookkeeping, among other duties. Kaylin, above all, is passionate about the arts. It comes as no surprise, then, that she is now pursuing a master’s degree in art history. When she’s not at the MACC, you can find her reading her favorite books (especially ones dealing with maritime mysteries), cooking, gardening, playing with her cat and two dogs, and cheering for the Nashville Predators.
Ruth Chase
Regional Arts Director
Ruth Chase is the Regional Arts Director of Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center, joining the team in 2023. For Ruth, the job is all about community, bringing people together to uplift and educate artists and art lovers alike. Her role at Monthaven is to strengthen the local artist community and build connections that will enrich Hendersonville and our surrounding communities through art exhibitions, art education, and opportunities for regional artists.
Prior to joining Monthaven, Ruth worked in the arts for over 30 years and is a multimedia artist and graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute. Her artistic practice is inquiry-based and engages in community bridge-building. She was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the City of Los Angeles, curated and juried exhibitions, and has taught at the Crocker Art Museum.
Ruth was awarded an Artist-in-Residence for Artist Activating Communities through a grant from the California Arts Council for three consecutive years. Her film Belonging screened at both the 18th Annual Nevada City Film Festival and Wild & Scenic Film Festival. She has received the Legendary Female Artist of Venice award, and she has exhibited in The Crocker Kingsley, the Museum of Northern California Art, and the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute. Ruth also continues her work as a Curatorial Consultant and Art director for the Californian Indigenous Research Project, where she has worked with the local tribe since 2018.
