Photo of painting “Captain John Smith Saved by Pocahontas,” Alonzo Chappel, Taubman Museum of Art

Join us starting at 7 p.m. this Saturday, December 15 for the fourth event in our coffee shop talk series presented by the Arts Authority here at our Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea on Starkey Road: “Uncovering a Nation’s Soul Through Art: How a Painting of Pocahontas Reflects Remembrance, Sectional Strife, and Future Conflict.”  Art and history professor B. Scott Crawford will discuss the hidden meaning in Alonzo Chappel’s painting “John Smith Saved by Pochohontas” in a da Vinci code style exploration of elements of the founding of our nation.

The painting is currently on display at the Taubman Museum of Art here in Roanoke – here’s a link to a 2007 Roanoke Times article by Kevin Kittredge that highlights the painting and this event’s presenter, Scott Crawford: http://www.roanoke.com/extra/wb/11840

An excerpt from the 2007 article:

Wrong in everything from its minor details (consider the western headdresses the Virginia Indians are wearing) to its story line (the whole thing might have never happened), “Capt. John Smith Saved by Pocahontas,” by Alonzo Chappel, nevertheless provides the kind of opportunity Scott Crawford loves.

For more information or to RSVP, visit www.facebook.com/MillMountainCoffeeStarkey

Submitted by Miranda Beck, Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea

Photo of painting “Captain John Smith Saved by Pocahontas,” Alonzo Chappel, Taubman Museum of Art