Daily Dolly

Growing up, I first heard/saw Dolly perform on The Cas Walker Show. Cas Walker had a chain of grocery stores in my hometown of Knoxville, and Dolly more or less got her start there. With her tall blonde beehive hair and flawless makeup, she made quite an impression on me in my youth. My love for Dolly grew over the years as she continued to wow me and the state of Tennessee and then the world with her gauzy voice trilling about love, butterflies and 9 to 5. When she opened Dollywood and helped provide livelihoods for basically her entire Sevierville hometown, she went from amazing pop culture icon to hometown saint in my heart. On my yearly travels to visit my Tennessee family and friends, we always try to work in a visit to Dollywood. When we can't, we at the very least visit her statue in Sevierville to pay respects to goddess Dolly. She is also known for her support of Gay rights, and human rights in general and I've had a few musician friends in Nashville work with her and have heard that she is just as warm and hilarious in person as you might expect. I haven't even mentioned her Imagination Library program, have I? For all the enrichment she has provided in my life, I am dedicating a bit of my daily art practice this year to Dolly. Daily Dolly will be my homage to her, to my home state and just to the value of seeing the positive in life rather than clinging to the negative. I'll share some and keep some for myself, but either way I will be paying my respects to Dolly Daily in 2015. Do what you can with what you've got, and grow your own little plot. It's what Dolly did and does.