Once a sleepy railroad town, the New Roanoke is hip, happening and surprisingly citified – home to a mix of creatives and entrepreneurs from all over the world … or right down the road. In each installment of our blog series, you’ll meet a new face who’ll share their spin on the Star City – their favorite places to eat, drink, mix, mingle or get inspired.
In this installment, we talked to local abstract artist Maggie Perrin Key.
Maggie Perrin Key
It’s hard to go far in Roanoke without brushing up against Maggie Perrin Key’s playful washes of mustard and blush, amber and rose. If you’re sipping coffee at Roasters Next Door, a canvas hovers nearby, bathing a corner in sunlit hues. And if you drive down Campbell Avenue near Fifth, you can’t miss one of Maggie’s newest – and biggest – projects yet: a grapefruit-pink mural spanning the entire storefront at Hustle / Haven, a boutique gym set to open in 2020.
“It’s something I always wanted to do – just doing my art – but I didn’t think I’d be doing it at 26,” admits Maggie, a lifetime Roanoker who previously helped found a local maker’s collective and a line of slow-fashion clothing before settling down to focus solely on her art.
The focus shows. Her light-filled studio in Belmont is dotted with colorful new pieces: two canvases she’s painting on commission, a series of smaller works for upcoming pop-ups, and a giant dangling mobile for a solo show at the Alexander/Heath Contemporary gallery in May.
She’s also experimenting with new techniques.
Artwork by Maggie Perrin Key
“It’s funny: early last year I was talking to a fellow artist doing collage, and I said out loud, ‘I’m so terrified of collaging’ … And all of a sudden, just a few months ago, I started cutting up paint chips from the hardware store, and now I’ve made all these little collages and it’s really informing the installation part of my work… It’s very different for me.”
The burst of creativity isn’t the only surprise for Maggie. It’s also surprising that it’s happening here, in a town she’s called home for most her life.
“Around the corner, two blocks over, is the [place] where my grandfather and grandmother moved into when he came back from World War II,” Maggie says. “I remember my dad showing it to me when I was little … and then when I moved [into the studio] and drove by, I thought, this is crazy! … I definitely never thought I’d still be here, in my hometown… But to be near that sense of history – it’s something I feel connected to.”
Here’s what Maggie has to say about her favorite hometown spots:
Where do you love to eat?
MPK: I really like Viet Sub. I get the pho or the traditional bahn mi. And Lucky… I love their bone marrow and their [Roasted Rappahannock] oyster appetizer. I’ve been thinking about that meal for months!
How about for a drink?
MPK: I love Stellina for their atmosphere, and the Pine Room in the Hotel Roanoke. Sitting on their patio in the summer with a drink is really nice.
Where do you go to connect with others?
MPK: Art By Night – that feeds me in a big way. On the first Fridays of the month, all the galleries and art museums in downtown Roanoke stay open late from 5 to 9 with wine and cheese and snacks. It’s one of the only free creative things I know about for visual artists to go to and engage with each other. It’s a priority for me.
Where do you go to find creative inspiration?
MPK: It can be really isolating, just creating in your bubble, and so sometimes I go to the Taubman [Museum of Art]. I usually have a notebook, and when I see a painting, I have a lot of thoughts I need to write down… It helps me understand my work better. I have a whole notebook of art I’ve seen since I was in high school, with little printouts of the paintings so I can remember.
Can you think of any best-kept secrets in the city … places other Roanokers may not have experienced yet?
MPK: I think Alexander/Heath [Contemporary Gallery] is a best-kept secret. A lot of people don’t know about it, and I think they should … We now have all the others [galleries] that are open regularly – selling galleries – and those are fine, but we also need contemporary art spaces.
[For food,] Downshift has this bowl situation – rice and beans, and you can build your own. It’s quick and easy and cheap. When I was painting the mural at Hustle / Haven I would get one every day.
Is there anyone in the city inspiring you to be and do more, creatively?
MPK: I love Ann Glover’s work – she is one of my favorite local artists. She’s represented by The Market Gallery, and I love going there every month because she always has new pieces. Two years ago she started work on these sculptural pieces, and at the Open Studios Tour I went to her house and saw [them.] These pieces were very different than what I’m used to seeing in Roanoke… The small details were burned into my brain!
Do you have any advice for folks trying to build community in Roanoke?
MPK: Figure out what your passion is and follow that. For instance: have you been to BLADE, the gaming place? You can go in and pay $5 and play any board game you want, all day. I’m not a gamer; I don’t play board games, but I went back because this place feels so great, and there are people in there at all times! Now there’s a community here because [founders Josh Swartz and Tim Furrow] followed the thing they were passionate about.
See more of Maggie’s work at her website here, or follow her on Instagram here.
Stay tuned for our next installment of Roanoke According to...!
About the Writer:
Ashley Wilson Fellers is a writer, educator, self-taught painter and contemplative photographer in Roanoke, Virginia. When she isn’t teaching writing at Virginia Western, she snaps photos of sidewalk cracks, rescues wet leaves from windshield wipers and leaves poems hidden under park benches. She has a Master of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Tech.