Author: Philip Bartko Jr.

At first glance, the scene looks familiar. Carefully stacked boxes of ornaments, ribbons, and trimmings fill every empty inch of open space in the period rooms in the Mansion. The flurry of activity crescendos as the opening night of Holiday LIGHTS looms.

However, a closer look reveals some changes starting with the overall theme – Sweet Holiday Dreams.

“This year’s theme reinterprets the Mansion’s holiday décor as a series of enchanting vignettes inspired by classic stories, songs, and traditions,” said Laura Dowling, the former Chief Floral Designer at the White House and the mastermind behind the project. “The idea is that Christmas comes alive in dreams. From music to movies, there is this connection between the holiday and dreams.”

After creating, designing, and installing last year’s stunning décor in the Cheekwood Mansion, Dowling said it was a year-long planning process to devise the new theme, color palettes for each room and envision different decorations for each space. She was inspired by visions of sugarplums, candy-colored hues, and chestnuts roasting over an open fire. 

A discerning eye may recognize individual ornaments or ribbons used in last year’s display but will also notice each has been repurposed in a new way.

“My goal was to use all of the ornaments, ribbons, and topiaries from last year and reimagine them in different spaces throughout the Mansion to create an entirely new look and theme,” said Dowling. “It shows it is possible to use a base collection of décor embellished with a few new elements to create fresh and inspiring designs year after year.”

Whether it is vibrant bursts of color in the Drawing Room inspired by Dolly Parton’s “Hard Candy Christmas” or the whimsical pink and purple trees in the Loggia that pay tribute to the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker, each space comes alive with vintage-style ornaments, festive bouquets, colorful ribbons, and striking topiaries, wreaths, trees, and garlands – all created with Dowling’s signature touch, infused with her love of history, Paris, and the French garden-style.

Robbie Honey decorates a tree in the Mansion.

A designer decorates a tree in the Mansion.

Volunteers work on a wreath during Holiday LIGHTS Craft Days.

Transforming more than 10 spaces at the Cheekwood Mansion is just the latest impressive accomplishment on Dowling’s resume. Having served as Chief Floral Designer at the White House from 2009-2015, she managed the floral design for thousands of private and official White House parties, receptions, and state dinners as well as large-scale installations for the Fourth of July, Halloween, and the iconic White House Christmas. She is also an author of five books and is a regular speaker at national, regional, and local horticulture associations, garden clubs, and museums.

The opportunity to collaborate with Dowling brought many familiar faces back to Cheekwood – even if they had to travel across the world to make it happen.

“I did want to come back, but wasn’t going to due to a schedule conflict,” said Robbie Honey, author and renowned floral designer, who traveled from Cape Town, South Africa, to Nashville. “Laura got in contact and said, ‘Can we make this happen? Let’s make this happen,’ and I jumped at it. It is great to be a part of the team.” 

The dream team of florists who brought Dowling’s designs to life was smaller this year, which Dowling said added cohesion and expedited the design process.

“The people who are here are all world-class designers who bring their own touch and ideas to the project,” said Dowling.

While the number of designers working in the Mansion may have decreased, the number of volunteers helping in the studios in the nearby Frist Learning Center more than made up the difference.

For about three weeks, a group of extraordinary volunteers of all ages and levels of artistic ability contributed their time to participate in “Holiday LIGHTS Craft Days.” They were tasked with completing a series of small projects that ended up having a big impact on the overall installation and design. With painstaking precision and hours of dedication, the volunteers took a combination of craft paper, tissue squares, masking tape, and glitter and turned it into about three dozen decorative balls that would later appear on the trees throughout the Mansion. Others dipped 40,000 handmade paper florets in glitter to help create four beautiful geometric snowflake wreaths for the Loggia doors.

“It’s really a testament to how you can take simple things and transform them into something beautiful,” said Dowling.

Many volunteers ended up staying long past their scheduled shifts lending their time and talent to help bring Laura’s vision to life.  

“We had so much fun,” said Joan Cheek, a longstanding Cheekwood board member, supporter, and volunteer. “Sometimes we just opened boxes of ornaments and added wires, so they were ready to hang. Whatever the designers needed, we were ready to help.”

Everyone who played a role in transforming the Mansion into a winter wonderland agrees they can’t wait for guests to come to Cheekwood to see the finished product.

“I think what Laura does so well is using what we had before and transforming it and creating something new and extraordinary,” said Honey. “You will be able to recognize elements if you look closely. Otherwise, you will think it is all new. I hope it inspires a sense of wonder and joy.”

“It’s a privilege to work here and bring creativity, beauty, and inspiration to visitors at Cheekwood,” said Dowling.

Guests are welcome to tour the Mansion during the day or in the evening during Holiday LIGHTS. Holiday LIGHTS opens on November 21 and runs until January 4, 2026.

Featured image and image above: Shawn Huckins, courtesy of Shawn Huckins Studio.

Cloth can both conceal and reveal — draped to cover, worn boldly as a statement, or pulled aside to unveil a surprise. Painter Shawn Huckins uses textiles to explore ideas about identity and blending worlds in INTERVENTIONS: Shawn Huckins, on view at Cheekwood through October 26. Launched in 2021, the INTERVENTIONS series invites artists to engage with the Cheekwood Mansion’s historic interiors through their own creative lens.

Seven of Huckins’ paintings are integrated into the historic period rooms of the Mansion, threading a compelling connection between past and present. Each piece draws inspiration from Cheekwood’s permanent collection and its 55-acre estate, inviting visitors to explore history through a modern lens.

Rooted in classical imagery, Huckins’ paintings blend into the Mansion’s surroundings, but a closer look reveals unexpected details.

In the Drawing Room, you’ll find Huckins’ contemporary painting Portrait in Metallic Chrome Fabric (Henry Fitzroy after Kneller), inspired by a 17th-century portrait from Cheekwood’s permanent collection. Huckins painted Fitzroy, a military commander, with a silver fabric obscuring part of his face. The juxtaposition of traditional portraiture and flowing metallic fabric creates an interesting peek-a-boo effect.

Shawn Huckins (American, b. 1984), Portrait in Metallic Chrome Fabric (Henry Fitzroy after Kneller), 2025, Oil and acrylic on canvas. On loan from the artist.

Godfrey Kneller (English, 1646–1723), Henry Fitzroy (1663–1690), First Duke of Grafton, c.1685, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. Thomas Levis. 1961.17.

Though everything is painted in INTERVENTIONS, Huckins has used real 3D textiles in his art. “In my last series, I incorporated yarn into the paintings. I made these latch-hook rugs and attached them to the canvas. It was difficult and it made me sneeze a lot, but it was fun,” he says with a laugh.

Playfulness and humor are hallmarks of Huckins’ work, but deeper messages lie within the layers — personal expressions of wrestling with his own insecurities and inner critic. He hopes viewers take away something optimistic.

“The paintings are about identity, so I hope people realize their own self-worth and that there’s beauty all around,” Huckins says. “We’re living in some hard times right now, so just to see the simple things in life — like a tree between two curtains — can be beautiful.”

In the Q&A below, Huckins shares more about his craft and the inspiration behind his INTERVENTIONS exhibition at Cheekwood.

Tennessee and Lapis Lazuli Blue Curtain by Shawn Huckins at Cheekwood. Photography by Diana Rosales.

 

Can you tell us a little bit about your background as an artist?

 

How did you get into this realistic style of painting?

My family, they’re a bunch of carpenters and architects, so everything is detail-oriented and that kind of rubbed off on me. It’s been ingrained in me to be precise in my craft. I tried to do abstract work in the past. My professors in school were like, “Shawn, just loosen up a little bit, you gotta relax.” And I’m like, “I’ll try, but I can’t” [laughs].

 

What inspired you to start blending classical artworks with modern, contemporary elements?

When I was in school I didn’t take any figure painting courses. When I graduated, I wanted to teach myself how to paint portraits and learn the flesh colors, so I would copy old masters by tracing them to teach myself how to paint.

In the studio I had a piece of tracing paper that had “LOL” on it, and one of my test studies went below the tracing paper, and I saw that contrast between the new and the old. The text series was born from that, combining historical with contemporary things.

 

What themes did you explore in the seven works you created for INTERVENTIONS, and how do they connect to the Cheekwood Estate?

Within the seven paintings, there are two series. One series is called Dirty Laundry, which is the portraits wrapped in fabric and revealed, and that explores the complexities of identity, the self, insecurities, hiding, all those things.

The second series is my new Curtain series, which combines curtains or draperies with landscapes. And that deals with blending two worlds together, a dreamlike state with reality and where those two crossroads meet.

Great Smoky Mountains During Sunrise and Red Curtain by Shawn Huckins at Cheekwood. Photography by Sam Angel.

 

The Curtain series suggests that something’s behind the curtain. What’s behind the curtain and why does that appeal to you?

In the newer work, behind the curtains are mostly made-up landscapes that I’ve conjured up. My partner and I recently built a house in Peterborough, and our bedroom faces the east. We have these long curtains and every morning we see the most beautiful sunrises over Temple Mountain. One morning there was a slit in the curtain. It wasn’t fully closed, and the bursting colors came through the curtains. It was beautiful, it was fairy-tale like, very dreamlike. And I was thinking to myself, “I’m so lucky to be here and to have the opportunity to own this land and just see this every morning.”

So, the Curtain series was kind of born from that visual and expands from that.

 

Do you have a personal favorite piece in this exhibition?

Great Smoky Mountains During Sunrise and Red Curtain is inspired by a previous painting of mine. The other painting has a blue curtain and in the middle is a view of Mount Monadnock, a mountain where I’m from. I see it from my house; it’s a beautiful thing to see. This painting is part of the Curtain series; it blends two worlds together. With this painting, I swapped out Mount Monadnock with the Great Smoky Mountains to honor Tennessee, where I’m showing at Cheekwood. I wanted to honor the state that we’re in and the Mansion.

The sunrise is a wildfire smoky haze because where I’m from in New Hampshire, lots of wildfire smoke from Canada has been drifting down. It’s horrible, but we have these beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I also think it’s neat that New Hampshire and Tennessee are connected by the Appalachian Mountain range.

 

Is there a reason why the curtain is red in that painting?

I saw bits of red in the carpet and in the fabric of the chairs in the Mansion Library, so I thought that it would go well with the wood tones. It fits perfectly.

Shawn Huckins (American, b. 1984), Various Floral and Plaid Fabrics: Young Girl Holding a Basket of Fruit (after Drouais), 2023, Oil and acrylic on canvas. On loan from the artist.

Various Floral and Plaid Fabrics: Young Girl Holding a Basket of Fruit (after Drouais) by Shawn Hawkins at Cheekwood. Photography by Diana Rosales.

 

The fabric is obscuring the face of the figure in Various Floral and Plaid Fabrics: Young Girl Holding a Basket of Fruit (after Drouais), which is common in your work. What inspired that painting?

That painting is part my Dirty Laundry series, which was inspired by Covid. We were all locked in our houses, we were all questioning our life choices, who we are as people. I was questioning myself as an artist; I started questioning my own identity. What I did is I took historical portraits I’ve been working with for 10-plus years, and instead of putting text over them, which I’m known for, I used draped cloth around the faces to hide their identity to symbolize hiding their insecurities, their desires. The whole series was born from my insecurities as a person.

 

What is the most fun you’ve ever had while making art?

We just built a house and along with that house, we built a studio, too. My entire career I’d been working in a tiny spare bedroom. Now I have a big boy studio so I have room to sprawl out and I can work on more ambitious projects. It’s been really fun the last year and a half, where I can just really focus on making some good work and not be confined by a tiny space.

 

Do you have a favorite spot in the gardens or has anything caught your eye outdoors at Cheekwood?

The installation by James Turrell, Blue Pesher, is beautiful. I found that space is really calming and meditative – it’s very peaceful in there.

 

If your art had an odor, what would it smell like?

If you mean a literal odor, such as oil paint, or solvents, that’s what they smell like. But if you mean a metaphorical smell based on imagery, I would say fresh, cold morning air with a breeze of musty basement smell. Maybe a hint of wildfire smoke….