JULY 2, 2009 ISSUE
Gallery News
Downtown Boone Art Crawl
Kick off a great Fourth of July weekend with the Downtown Boone Art Crawl on Friday, July 3. The Art Crawl continues to grow in popularity and participation, featuring new art exhibitions at downtown galleries, live music performances, special sales at local businesses and plenty of refreshments.
Receptions at several downtown art galleries begin around 6:00 p.m. and continue throughout the evening. The Downtown Boone Development Association sponsors the Art Crawl. For more information, call 828-262-4532.
Support the Nthº Gallery and Studios at Nthdependence Day, the independent, nonprofit gallery’s annual fundraiser and exhibition taking place during this Friday’s Art Crawl.
Nthº Gallery and Studios
683 West King Street
During the Art Crawl, the Nthº Gallery and Studios will celebrate its 12th anniversary with Nthdependence Day, a showing of work by current and former Nthº Gallery members. Nthdependence Day is the independent, nonprofit gallery’s largest annual fundraiser, and donations are greatly needed to fund the Nth’s operating costs for the next year. The gallery has set a fundraising goal of $1,200.
The exhibition begins at 7:00 p.m. and features artists Lowell Hayes, Greg Smith, Virgina Nuckolls, Keeler Kaple, Michael Allen and others. A gallery will also hold a raffle and serve delicious treats donated from local restaurants.
If you are unable to attend on Friday, you can mail a donation to the Nthº Gallery to P.O. Box 482, Boone, NC 28607. Because the Nthº Gallery is not a registered nonprofit organization, donations are not tax-deductible.
The Nthº Gallery is located at 683 West King Street, across from the Post Office and above Loretta’s Vendetta. For more info, email nthdegreegallery@gmail.com or call 828-773-0895.
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts
423 West King Street
828-262-3017
Join the Summer Exhibition Celebration at the Turchin Center on Friday, July 3, by enjoying an evening of great art, music and food shared with an art-loving community.
Three new exhibitions debut on Friday. Stephen Siegel: Wonderful Life opens in the Mezzanine and Main galleries. Siegel, who lives and works in New York, was the 1998 Rosen Outdoor Sculpture winner at ASU. The exhibition is a series of 52 wall pieces “about the simple, cumulative changes that generate form, from generation to generation,” the artist said. “There being no wolves, competition for mates or climate change to force natural selection in the studio, that determinate has been the artist's eye; what we used to call sensibility." The Siegel exhibition will premiere at the Turchin Center in honor of the 25th anniversary of An Appalachian Summer Festival. After opening at the center, the exhibition will travel nationally through 2010.
The work of painter Harlan Toole will be on display in the Catwalk Community Gallery. Toole, born in Mobile, Ala., and currently living in Lenoir, is a graduate of ASU’s Department of Art. The artist's childhood in Alabama and her relationship with water continue to shape her work. She said, “I have an obsession with water, specifically the Gulf of Mexico. Biologically, we all are connected to the water because of the similarities between the ocean and the human body such as solidity or composition and salinity.”
Opening in the Carroll Gallery is Samina Iqbal: Recent Paintings. Born in Pakistan, Iqbal is an adjunct faculty member at ASU who works in printmaking, painting and installations.
On display in Gallery B of the Center’s West Wing is Faculty Selects 2009, the Furniture Society’s Annual Student Juried Exhibition. Featured in the West Wing’s Mayer Gallery and the grounds of the Turchin Center is Gillian Christy: Inside and Out. Christy’s sculpture focuses on ideas and related images of home.
In the West Wing’s Gallery A is the Halpert Biennial. A national, juried, two-dimensional art competition and exhibition program, the Halpert Biennial is designed to recognize new works by emerging and established artists residing in the United States.
The watercolors of Ron Skelton are featured in the Mazie Jones Gallery at the Jones House during the month of July.
Jones House Community Center
634 West King Street
828-264-1789
As always throughout the summer, Watauga Arts Council’s Summer Concert on the Lawn will begin at 5:00 p.m. Surefire and fiddler Meade Richter will be this Friday’s performers.
A reception to honor the gallery artists will follow the concert. Featured artists are Ron Skelton, with beautiful watercolor paintings in the downstairs Mazie Jones Gallery; and Trudy Muegel, with photographs of the Scottish Highlands and the High Country in the upstairs Open Door Gallery.
Skelton’s watercolor exhibit in the main gallery gives testament to his travels and his love of the High Country. The artist has lived in Beech Mountain since 1989 with his wife Eve. His travels as an Army officer and a seven-year stint in Turkey working for the Boeing Company give his artwork a broad perspective.
In the upstairs gallery, Muegel continues the theme of world travels with her exhibit, The Two Highlands. Half of the photos in this exhibit were taken in Scotland in 2005. The other half represents the artist’s most recent project, depicting the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Also throughout the evening, singer-songwriter Sharon Mitchell will entertain gallery patrons as she plays popular standards and old favorites on the antique upright piano in the parlor. Orville Hicks will also be on hand in the parlor to sign copies of his newest book, Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns, as transcribed by Julia Taylor Ebel and illustrated by Sherry Jenkins Jensen.
All events are free. The Arts Council galleries are sponsored in part by Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff and Grassroots Funds of the North Carolina Arts Council.
Darla Sargeant will demonstrate her polymer clay work at ArtWalk from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Friday.
ArtWalk
611 West King Street
828-264-9998
Darla Sargeant was born in Ashe County and lived in Boone until 1989. After briefly living in Hickory, she returned to her mountain roots. She began making art at an early age, and thanks to an upbringing full of crafts, Sargeant learned such trades as sewing, quilting and crochet from her mother and grandmother.
She was drawn to polymer clay because of its three-dimensional capabilities, colors and endless possibilities. She started her own design studio, Celtic Dolphin, soon after realizing that clay designs were her life passion.
She is inspired by nature: animals, trees and flowers. She aims to capture the beauty and magic she finds in all the living things around her. She typically works on several pieces at one time, sometimes picking up where she left off weeks earlier.
Over the years, her work has undergone many stylistic transformations. Beginning her designs with a more sculptural approach, she then moved to concentrating on cane work. Her more recent work has returned to her roots of sculptural design.
Sargeant will demonstrate her work from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. during the Art Crawl. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Hands Gallery
543 West King Street
828-262-1970
Visit the Hands Gallery from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to browse the works of the Hands Gallery member-artists. Featured artists include paper artist Lindsay Cero, potter Jeff Martin and jewelry maker Sharon Bass. Refreshments will be served.
Bass has been making jewelry since 2002, and her company, Water Girl Designs, is her full-time profession. Bass works with steel wire to create woven and sculpture wire jewelry, often featuring pearls.
“I’m influenced a lot by nature and the sea,” she said. “It’s earthy mixed with edgy.”
The Greenhouse
164 South Depot Street
828-268-5022
At the Greenhouse, Christa Capua will have an exhibition of her work—the first show she has hosted in years. The Greenhouse will also feature the photography of Ryan Sigsbey and the work of Teresa Cerda.
Wine To Water
703 West King Street
828-406-1955
Stop by the offices of Wine To Water, a nonprofit organization focused on providing clean water to needy people around the world, during the Art Crawl on Friday.
Wine to Water will offer free samples of great wines and information about how people can get involved in Wine to Water’s mission. Every eight seconds, a child dies from lack of water or a water-related illness.
Wine to Water will also host an event at Our Daily Bread restaurant, featuring live music, art by sgraffito potter Jeff Martin and wine tastings. Martin will donate 25 percent of sales of his work to Wine to Water’s cause. For more info, click to www.winetowater.org or www.jeffmartinceramics.com.
Green Mother Goods
116 West King Street
828-262-3525
Green Mother Goods will host a hula hoop workshop at 5:30 p.m. on the night of Art Crawl. Locally handmade decorated hula-hoops will be available. Sample Bald Guy Brew, organic fair-trade locally roasted coffee, and Hold the Heat raw chocolate and chips, also made locally. Take a look at local art and global fair-trade handcrafts, including handmade jewelry.
The Collective on Depot
125 South Depot Street
thecollectiveondepot@gmail.com
Artists of The Collective on Depot will open their studio doors to the public around 7:00 p.m. Located through the doors to the left of Black Cat Burrito, The Collective On Depot is principally a work and studio space for local artists and musicians. Current members are Jamie Carroll, Chris Curtin, Travis Donovan, Dan Kaple, Sean Matthews, Peter Oakley, Uijin Park, Melissa Reaves, Virginia Nuckolls and Christian Smith. The Collective seconds as a gallery and performance space for regional and nonregional artists and musicians.
The Collective has three special features in store for the July 3 Art Crawl. First, the members will be saying goodbye to Travis Donovan, an original member who will be leaving town for grad school. Second, students from an ASU sculpture class will display their final works from last semester. The Collective will also showcase its artist-in-residence, Rebecca Farris, who has been awarded the opportunity to work in the studio and create a new body of work for a special installation at The Collective.
Also at the Art Crawl:
• Footsloggers will have a 20 percent off sale on all Patagonia items.
• Gladiola Girls will hold a "Draw Your Own Discount" event. Customers will draw for their own 10 to 35 percent discount off their total purchase. The business will also have wine, beverages and fruit and cheese hors d’oeuvres.
• beansTalk will show the paintings of Treba McLean.
• Char will have appetizer specials and a wine sampling special.
• Reid's will serve dinner from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
• Mast General Store will hosting Americana band Woodgrain from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and show handcrafted jewelry by artist Sarah Gibbs.
• Doe Ridge Pottery will have several of their artists present and serve food and wine refreshments for guests.
• Nelson's Salon will feature the paintings of Katharine Mya.
• BeadBox & Grateful Grounds will feature a Czech glass trunk show until 9:00 p.m.
• Lucky Penny will be open until 9:00 p.m. and will be running a special Art Crawl Sale. The store will also show furniture and paintings by Michael Olsen and artwork by Liz Roberts.
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