Macon artist wants her emotive work to tell stories, good and bad. Where you can see it.

Unabashed emotion and artistic self-revelation are key to a May First Friday art opening as Macon’s Hazel Caldwell exhibits work at her Green Light Gallery on First Street.

The presentation shows the work of a talented painter and offers an intimate invitation into a world that, like most of our worlds, is filled with beauty, joy, turmoil and trauma.

Caldwell’s newest works come largely from the sights and emotions seen and felt during her recent multi-week stay in Tucson, Arizona, a time she said was filled with hiking, sketching, watercolor studies, photography and other creativity amid the wonders surrounding her – but more as well. She said the time was also a quest for healing in nature and through programmed therapy to bring insight and healing following the termination of a relationship.

As a growing artist and as a person, Caldwell said she’s become unafraid of expressing raw, personal emotion – good and bad – in her work along with the pleasantries of life.

“I was in Tucson for about five weeks painting and doing therapy like crazy,” Caldwell said. “The photos, sketches, watercolor studies, pen and ink drawings and other works I did there are what I’ve been putting on canvas since I returned. Oil is my primary medium but it’s not the easiest to travel with.”

The new show features a timeline of art including the initial Tucson drafts and resulting oil paintings she created at The Green Light Gallery, also her studio. She said her art is an attempt to let viewers in on her life, the process of her work and the situations people share as delightful and disturbing.

For many artists, the process of creating is a guarded, hidden one. But Caldwell has been happy to paint in view of passersby walking along First Street’s gallery row, often with door open and windows bare at the gallery’s 452 address.

She said the process is often like life itself.

“Working in oil is a demanding but rewarding process of creating layers, making mistakes, revisiting and correcting them and, after much effort, arriving at what you want the finished piece to be. You hope on some level it expresses what you want it to convey whether clearly or understated.”

Caldwell is an emotive painter, and she has made it her focus to tell stories rather than worry about work that would sell well.

“There’s nothing wrong with painting pretty things or selling well, but not if it’s in opposition to what you feel you need to express,” she said. “I paint beautiful things, but I’ve been through too much in my life for that to be all I have to offer. It would be soul-crushing for me to just do that to sell so I paint where I’m at in life. I try to make sense of my past and where I’m at. That’s very therapeutic for me.”

Caldwell’s work is frequently embedded with images carrying varying degrees of symbolism. ”That’s kind of my thing,” she said.

Caldwell is adamant she doesn’t want to dictate what a viewer may or may not take away from her paintings or how deeply they decide to peer into them. She said that’s ultimately between the viewer and the work.

But just as she’s open with showing her process, Caldwell is open to discussing what her works mean to her. Doing so reveals another side of her: a creative person who has long believed in the value of art but who’s also come to believe art can heal and that the work of helping others heal is vital.

That’s clear from her background and current pursuits.

Growing up in Macon, Caldwell said she had a major fascination with her aunt’s artwork, well-known artist Catharine Liles.

“I looked up to her,” Caldwell said. “Her paintings were so breathtaking to me, how she captured light and people – it blew me away. When I was a senior in high school I was in AP art, got the art award and was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I’m OK as an artist.’”

Caldwell graduated from Stratford Academy in 1996 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art from the College of Charleston, minoring in psychology. Then came a Master of Science degree in art therapy from Eastern Virginia Medical School.

“It was a shock to find you could combine therapy and art,” she said.

That revelation came after stumbling on an instructor’s file labeled “Art Therapy.”

“It led me to get my masters and become a licensed therapist and art therapist,” she said. “Today, I not only paint but have an active art therapy practice.”

Caldwell is part of Mercer University’s adjunct faculty, originally teaching art and now teaching art therapy. She’s been part of numerous shows, including Mercer’s McEachern Art Center’s recent “Crosstown” exhibit, which featured faculty work from Macon’s colleges and universities.

This summer, she and others will travel to Europe to provide art therapy to refugees living in France.

Obviously, her work has steadily shown at Green Light Gallery, the First Street space she co-leased in 2023, but other shows have included Mercer students and various artists and artisans.

Of the gallery, Caldwell said, “I want to be a part of the community I live in and I want the gallery to connect deeply with the community as a place that’s not stuffy but relaxing, a place where people can connect with art and one another. I eventually want to offer classes. As my studio, I want it to be an open-door space so people can watch works in process. I don’t mind people being inquisitive and, hey, if some haters come by, maybe they can teach me something, too.”

Eric O’Dell is a longtime associate professor of art at Mercer and has seen Caldwell and her art develop.

“Hazel has the energy it takes to be an artist and that’s rare,” he said. “It takes energy to face up to an empty canvas, to do piece after piece, then to step back and get after it again and again. Especially if you pour as much of yourself into it as Hazel does. It takes courage and no one can make that easier or figure it out for you. Hazel’s work is becoming more and more courageous. I’ve always enjoyed her energy and sincerity. Still do.”

Like her creative process, Caldwell’s life journey is something she travels alone but something she’s come to eagerly share.

“We all go through our trauma, brokenness and troubling times,” she said. “Mine left me mentally numb, unable to feel hunger and in an awful ‘middle’ with no highs or lows, just going through the motions like a robot. I couldn’t paint and wasn’t creative at all. One thing I want my art to say is that mental health is important.

“Finding help and solutions is important and possible. I love expressing the beauty around me but I’m no longer afraid to express the real darkness. It’s exhausting but I think people can appreciate both. It’s important to know it’s something we’re all subject to.”

Caldwell bears testimony to the value of finding insightful help and continuing to seek it from those with understanding and from friends old and new. She said many of the “wonderful chosen family” of friends she found in Arizona will fly in from near and far for her show.

The new exhibit opens Friday at 6 p.m. with light refreshments and an artist talk by Caldwell at 6:30 p.m.

More on Caldwell’s art and The Green Light Gallery can be found at greenlightartgallery.com and hazelcaldwell.com.

For more on May First Friday art openings, including Macon Arts Alliance’s “Evocative Animals” solo exhibition by Matt Donner and The 567 Center’s “Immerse: An Exploration of Student Creativity” featuring work by Cornerstone Academy of Art & Design students, as well as other First Friday activities, search “May First Friday Downtown Macon” for NewTown Macon’s overall rundown.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.