THE COLLECTED WORKS OF TOSS CHANDLER book was unveiled at a reading and author’s talk last Saturday at A Likely Story bookshop in Midway. Jennifer Chandler, the editor of the book, spoke with the co-owners of the publisher, Rabbit House Press, Erin Chandler (standing on left) and Emily Wilhoite. (Photo by Scott White)
THE FRONT COVER of the book features Toss Chandler’s self-portrait. (Courtesy of Rabbit House Press)
By Scott White
Woodford Sun Staff
Career retrospectives of accomplished artists in museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, or one of the Smithsonian’s great art institutions include the publication of a “catalog,” an oversized book with images spanning the artists’ career. They typically contain essays by noted art historians and curators.
It is a signal accomplishment of an artist’s career, whether alive or posthumously, to have a career catalog rather than a catalog of a specific time period or style.
Thanks to Erin Chandler and Emily Wilhoit, co-owners of the independent publisher Rabbit House Press, Woodford County native and renowned and prolific artist Toss Chandler (1934 – 2023) is now the subject of a career catalog, or book.
“The Collected Works of Toss Chandler” was unveiled at a reading, reception and, essentially, a get-together of family, friends and admirers at A Likely Story bookstore in Midway on Saturday, May 9.
It has over 400 images in a variety of media and styles, documenting highly biographical experiences, fantasy worlds and the life of a Woodford County tobacco farmer. It chronicles a deep depression caused by the death of her father, Whitney Dunlap, in 1977, when she couldn’t paint for many months.
The catalog’s essay is by the great Kentucky writer Wendell Berry, who recounts meeting and being enthralled by Toss at a high school dance in 1951 and being struck by her “standing somewhat apart, clearly more given to observing than being observed.” And after seeing Toss’s images in the book wrote, “the paintings . . . that are most moving to me are of farms that she had always known . . . in these, there is a beautiful light that I take to signify the artist’s abiding love.”
The project began as a family project in 2018 or 2019 by Jennifer Chandler, Toss’s daughter-in-law, who is the editor of the completed book.
Jennifer told the story of how the catalog came into being, which sounded like a cross between a detective novel and a scavenger hunt, guided by insightful questions and observations from Erin, who is Toss’s niece.
“The spark was there were two binders Toss had compiled of her work, which were not complete, but were a start. I was worried if anything happened to those, then her work would be unlocatable,” Jennifer said. “I began photographing the paintings and other pieces, calling and emailing her friends to find other ones asking, ‘Do you have anything painted by Toss?’, making appointments to go photograph them and then uploading them into Snapfish (a website that allows people to create photo albums, memory books, etc.).”
Jennifer spent hundreds of hours trying to decipher the original colors from faded photos, consulting with Toss’s middle son, Whit Chandler, on titles and dates, and running down rumors and checking auction sites.
Within a few years, she had several copies of the Snapfish book printed, which became gifts to members of the Chandler and Dunlap families.
“We have become collectors, too. Finding the paintings was hard; she didn’t give us much,” Jennifer laughed. “She sold her work . . . in fact, the day after this book was finalized, I found another one. So, I guess it will keep evolving as new pieces come to us.”
Jennifer said she loved the paintings with trees and “the creatures in the trees were always my favorite.” She owns 45 original pieces, and is always learning of others.
Many of the paintings in the catalog are in the realm of fantasy, but with a strong dose of the real, almost always evocative of nature . . . which makes sense as Toss grew up on her parents’ farm on Pisgah Pike.
Toss’s son, Ben Chandler, Jennifer’s husband (and the publisher of the Sun), talked about what it was like to have a creative force like Toss as a mother.
“Well, it could be just crazy,” he said. “I’ll tell you one thing I really loved about her and which influenced me a lot, was she just did not give a damn what others thought of her. She went about her business, and if someone didn’t like it, then she just filed that under ‘their problem.’”
Lifelong Midwegian and artist Jenny Fisher grew up with Toss and Toss’s husband Ben, as her own parents’ closest friends. Fisher related how Toss was a frequent presence and that she began taking art lessons from Toss.
“(Toss) taught just like she usually was every day. Observant, a way of seeing things, and she taught me that way . . . I remember her asking, ‘Look at that tree, what does it look like to you?’ And so I was able to draw or paint a tree the right way by learning how to see it.”
Erin, too, was very close to Toss, helping assist as Toss slipped away into a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Erin shared how Toss still retained her artist’s eye. “I’d go on drives in the country with Aunt Toss, and she’d point to a beautiful shade of green and not be able to find that word, instead saying ‘Dorothy,’ like the Wizard of Oz, and just be smiling and delighted.”
Until her last few years, Toss still doodled, and those, too, are in the catalog. One of those doodles is the logo for Rabbit House Press that Erin recalled Toss drew around 2007. “It’s this little man, who’s just this smart little jester who is really funny and kind of menacing, with one eye, and looks real smart and cool. I said, this has to be our logo and Emily agreed.”
The catalog is evidence of a remarkable and consequential artistic life. And, thanks to her daughter-in-law, the body of work can be viewed both as pure enjoyment and by art historians for decades to come. Toss Chandler’s life’s work as an artist is truly loosed upon the world.
Editor’s Note: You can obtain a copy of “The Collected Work of Toss Chandler” at A Likely Story in Midway, and it is expected to be in regional bookstores soon. It can also be ordered from the publisher at rabbithousepress.com.