Artist spends lifetime documenting ever-changing Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — PONDER: /pŏn′dər/ To think about (something) with thoroughness and care. To reflect or consider with thoroughness and care.
That “something” to artist Phil Ponder is the city he has called home for decades. Ponder believes Nashville is just loaded with different architectural styles. His legendary landscapes of Nashville are both beautiful works of art and mesmerizing in detail.
“So when I get through doing a finished pencil sketch, then I go over the pencil marks with a very, very fine pinpoint here, I’ll show you, this is a size 005. So it is about the size of a human hair. And because when I’m doing every brick, you know, some of these bricks, I’m doing like 38 rows of bricks per inch, can you imagine all the little tiny marks,” explained Ponder while describing his process.
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Every four years, Ponder has spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 hours hand drawing the city right down to the brick. His beloved wife, Dot, has a unique way of describing his work.
“Yeah, my wife calls it picky, picky. And I am, but I call it detailed architectural memories. And that’s, that’s what I do. Because, you know, this is this is almost crazy. There’s no artist that does. So it uses a calculator to figure out the size of the bricks. But it’s me. So what like, What can I say?”
Now in his 90’s and sharp, “slowing down” is not in his vocabulary. Next year, Ponder will once again take on Nashville’s evolving skyline, his 12th.
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What is certain, it will be another masterpiece. What is not, is Nashville’s skyline. Nashville Yards, 1010 Church, the city’s soon-to-be tallest building, and the domed east bank stadium, are all in the pipeline.
To include or not in his art, that’s Ponder’s call.
“So that’s my advantage. That’s the artistic license part of what I do. Sometimes you have to just, you know, add a little mystique to it and finish sometimes you finish it before the contractor does,” explained Ponder.
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His love of Nashville will never be questioned, his appreciation for the city he calls home is woven through every thought that he…ponders…
“God’s really blessed me to bring me here to Nashville, to be able to say make memories of special things and special maybe to one person, maybe special to 1000 people. You just don’t know. Sometimes, it’s surprising.”
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