March 6, 2008 issue
Boone Flooded with New Works During Art Crawl Friday
Story by Anna Oakes
Along with this week’s heavy rains comes a flood of new art to downtown Boone. The monthly Boone Art Crawl takes place Friday, March 7, beginning at 5:00 p.m.
Enjoy downtown Boone and see new works of art at the Turchin Center, Jones House, Nthº Gallery and ArtWalk. The Downtown Boone Development Association sponsors the Art Crawl. For more information, call 828-262-4532.
Jones House Community Center
634 West King Street
828-264-1789
The Watauga Arts Council galleries in the Jones House Community Center during March offer two diverse exhibits. The Art Crawl reception is from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
In the Mazie Jones Gallery, Jamie Goodman will show a photography exhibit titled Boone As I See It, a collection of photographs designed to represent how one person views the enigmatic entity that is Boone. Goodman, a longtime resident of the area, was raised in Boone, graduated from Watauga High School in 1988, attended Appalachian State University and after several false attempts to leave the area, eventually decided to remain in the mountains.
While primarily raised in the town of Boone by university professor parents, Goodman had the unique position of being caught between the university culture and the truly local one.
“I grew up seeing two completely different sides of Boone,” Goodman said. “It was a unique, and sometimes confusing, way to be introduced to the social structures of society.” The exhibit is a series of photographs mounted in a mixed-media style presentation, with both black and white and color prints on watercolor paper.
Goodman is currently a freelance graphic artist and photographer living in downtown Boone.
In the Open Door Gallery, a student exhibit of artwork from High Country Christian Home Schoolers is on display. The art in this exhibit represents the efforts of about a dozen students who attend art classes taught during the Thoughtful Thursday program. Art Teachers are Rebecca Burnett, Tara Belk and Holly Soukup.
High Country Christian Home Schoolers exists to provide encouragement, support and guidance to home schooling families in the High Country of North Carolina. About 400 children representing 130 families are a part of the HCCHS.
Both exhibits are on display from Tuesday, March 4, until Friday, March 28, from noon to 5:00 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts
423 West King Street
828-262-3017
The March Art Crawl is the time for a reception celebrating new spring exhibitions at the Turchin Center. The reception, with food and live music, takes place from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Three exhibitions open in the East Wing on Friday, March 7. If you can kill a snake with it, it ain’t art!, works by Jonathan Williams curated by Tom Patterson, will be in the Main Gallery. Williams’ works as the publisher of the Jargon Society books, highlighting overlooked and underrated aspects of American and British culture, are the focus of this exhibition.
James Fickling, a self-taught artist, creates drawings and paintings investigating themes of warfare, monsters or the macabre. His work is on display in the Catwalk Community Gallery. In the Mezzanine Gallery are the works of amateur and professional photographers that capture the unique character, people, places and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians as part of the 2008 Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition.
Also on display are three exhibitions that opened February 1: Debbie Arnold, Appalachian’s Department of Art Faculty Biennial, and Judy Humphrey and Marianne Stevens Suggs.
Boone Bike Initiative
Bottom Floor of Turchin Center
www.bikeboone.org
The Boone Bike Initiative has a new shop located in the rear of the Turchin Center building on the bottom floor. During Art Crawl, the shop will hold an open house, giving the public a chance to meet its volunteers and gather information about local events, bicycle routes and the shop’s bike rental program.
Nthº Gallery and Studios
683 West King Street
Approaching Liberation, an exhibition by Eric Mathis, will be featured at the Nthº Gallery and Studios during the March Art Crawl, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Mathis describes his work as “organic political art,” and it employs natural materials, including salts.
“In my art, I seek to elucidate the organic nature of politics, specifically the aesthetical side of politics,” Mathis said. Other artists displaying works are Bannister Pope, Jamie Carroll and Charlie Slack.
The exhibition is a benefit show, and all proceeds from sale of the art will be donated to United Students Against Sweatshops, a local student organization seeking a “sweatfree” policy for all apparel licensed by Appalachian State University. The group wants ASU to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program ensuring that workers producing university apparel have basic human rights in the workplace, can form independent unions and can negotiate living wages.
The Nthº Gallery and Studios is a cooperative art venue that seeks to promote emerging and established artists in the High Country region. The Nthº Gallery and Studios is located at 683 West King Street, across from the Post Office and above Loretta’s Vendetta.
ArtWalk
611 West King Street
828-264-9998
Woodworking is the featured art form at ArtWalk during the month of March. Though a resident of Oregon, Charles Elkan’s functional wood pieces are equally at home in High Country residences as they are in New York offices.
Elkan began working with wood 28 years ago with his wife, Mona. Charles and Mona create their own unique, functional works of art. Charles and Mona personally shape, sand and finish each piece. Their collection at ArtWalk includes a variety of clocks and business card holders in numerous woods, sizes and designs.
Charles Elkan’s work is located on ArtWalk’s main level. ArtWalk features more than 300 local, regional and national artists on three and a half floors.
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