August Issue 2002
Davidson County Community College in Lexington, NC, Features Works by Nine Artists
Natural Forces will be seen on the walls of Davidson County Community College's Mendenhall Building, in Lexington, NC. As part of DCCC's rotating art exhibit, the works of nine artists, all abstract or landscape, will add color and adventure to the college this fall. The exhibit will open on Aug. 27 and continue through Dec. 16, 2002.
The featured artists are Lawrence S. Earley of Raleigh, NC, black and white and sepia-toned photography; Lorin Fields of Durham, NC, fiber art; Harold Frontz of Lexington, NC, oil and watercolor; Leslie Frontz of Lexington, NC, oil and watercolor; Zak Garner of Reidsville, NC, acrylic; Jill Jones of Spartanburg, SC, pastel and charcoal; Diane T. Kaczor of Chapel Hill, NC, color photography; Lea Lacky-Zachmann of Winston-Salem, NC acrylic; and Elaine J. Oehmich of Boone, NC, acrylic.
Lawrence S.
Early
Lawrence S. Early, who has photographed landscapes
in the southeastern US and abroad for more than 30 years, says,
"What draws me to photograph landscapes is partly physical
and partly aesthetic. Physically, I love to move through a landscape
and take the measure of it with my body as well as with my camera.
Aesthetically, I'm also trying to capture what it is I see and
feel about a particular landscape." Some of his work has
also appeared in National Geographic R&E, Audubon and
Nature Conservancy.
Lorin Fields strives to recreate patterns within the textiles
she designs to model imagery from kinetic forces that are around
us each day but are often taken for granted. "Color is a
paramount component of my work and by coordinating colors and
collage efforts to put unfamiliar choices against one another,
I challenge the visual instincts to really study the flow of the
overall piece."
"I paint to acquaint people with the beauty of the world
around us. I hope my paintings better inform viewers of the colors,
shapes, and values that make up our world and encourage them to
look more closely at the elegance of our surroundings," says
Harold Frontz, who's work in Natural Forces will consist
primarily of landscapes from England and Italy.
Leslie Frontz, wife of Harold Frontz, hopes
to express a personal response to nature through simple statements
of time and place. "The subjects I choose to paint are those
which seem to characterize best the vitality of the relationship
between the spiritual world within us and what we perceive as
the material world around us," she says.
Zak Garner, an artist who is being featured in DCCC's art show
for the second time, chooses to paint a variety of subjects using
different media and different techniques. Inspiration comes from
many sources, and even though his work is wide in scope, Garner
sees storytelling as his common thread. He considers a painting
to be successful when it can communicate a sense of emotion, time,
and or place. Art is a "joyful journey" to Garner; when
asked why he painted, he answered simply, "Because I don't
have to." Most of Garner's work exhibited in the show is
an abstract style he calls "splash art."
Jill Jones uses a language of simplified shape and color to describe mood and relationship, and although her pieces are based loosely on photographs she made during trips to the Santa Fe area, they are not intended to be literal representations. "To me, the work is both figurative and spiritual, and often far removed from the setting it initially reflects," she says. Jones believes that in her work, the empty space is as real as the objects and solids. She says, "What is left out is as important as what is included."
Diane Kaczor has had a passion for photography
since the day her friend gave her a standard Minolta camera in
1972. It wasn't until 1990 that she began printing her photographs
in color. She remembers standing by the photo processor waiting
for her first color photo, "I was stunned at how it affected
me. I had found a way to preserve a moment of wonder, beauty and
joy... and make it last forever." Kaczor finds photography
to be "a personal thing, an award in itself. If anyone else
finds pleasure in the results, that is even better."
"My paintings represent a portion of my investigation of
the element of water and the element of earth. By painting or
making visual images of these elements, I hope to gain knowledge
and an expanded understanding of them," says Lea Lackey-Zachmann,
who has adopted the images of birds, numbers, colors, and contemporary
objects to paint.
Elaine Oehmich believes her painting provides
"a stage on which various forces of nature may enact their
behavior." She derives inspiration from the natural world,
the sounds and sight of weather conditions, the movement of water,
geological phenomena, the look of things trough a microscope,
beyond the earth through a telescope, and the world that lives
under the sea.
The biannual art exhibit, held in conjunction with Arts United
of Davidson County, is one of the more interesting and enjoyable
ways of exposing students and the public to a unique learning
experience. The college continually seeks to enrich the environment
of the college for students, faculty, staff, and the general public.
The exhibit helps promote visual arts and art education by providing
artists with a forum to show their work.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call Teenie Bingham at 336/249-8186, ext. 239.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2002 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2002 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.