Archive for May, 2010

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North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Features Pottery of Buncombe County

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

I’m jumping the gun again on our June issue of Carolina Arts, but I wanted readers to know about this exhibit as soon as possible – especially since works by the contemporary artists being featured are for sale. The exhibit started May 7, but if you didn’t read about it until after our June issue hits the streets – you would be way behind other collectors. Now we can’t have that for our loyal readers.

BTW – the true meaning of the phrase “contemporary artists” in this case is artists who are still alive. The word “contemporary” doesn’t always mean – cutting edge, funky or even avant-garde. But many of the contemporary artists in this exhibit may be producing non-traditional pottery. Now, if I only had a description for non-traditional. Well, you could always go see for yourself.

Here’s the press release:

The North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, is presenting The Pottery of Buncombe County, A Historical and Contemporary Overview, featuring two separate, but related exhibitions, on view through July 31, 2010.

The Contemporary Pottery Overview of Buncombe County, curated by Brian McCarthy of Asheville, NC, a  longtime major supporter of the NC Pottery Center is featured in Galleries I and II.  Contemporary wares by thirty-nine potters from the Buncome County, Asheville area includes works by: Troy Amastar, Maria Andrate-Troya, Kristen Benyo-Schoonover, Eileen Black, Charlie Brown, Kyle Carpenter, Chiwa Clark, Josh Copus, Julie Covington, Lee Davis, Holly deSaillan, Steven Forbes-deSoule, Paul Frehe, Diana Gillispie, Hank Goodman, Michael Hoffman, Jennifer Hoolihan, Freeman Jones, Matthew Jones, Maggie Jones, Gabriel Kline, Eric Knoche, Tyrone Larson, Julie Larson, Cynthia Lee, Rodney Leftwich, Leah Leitson, Rob Mangum, Beth Moring, Karen Newgard, Les Powell, John Ransmeier, Emily Reason, Cassie Ryalls, Akira Satake, Joey Sheehan, Heather Tinnero, Kathy Triplett, and Fran Welch.


Work by Kyle Carpenter


Work by Steven Forbes deSoule

The works by these contemporary artists are available for sale during the exhibition.

The Historical Pottery Overview of Buncombe County, curated by Steve Lott of the Buncombe County area is showcased in Gallery III. This exhibit features historical Buncombe County forms from early masters like Oscar Bachelder, Davis Brown, Javan Brown, Thomas Case, David Donkel, George Donkel, Albert Fulbright, Jeter Lankford, Cash Penland, William Marion Penland, Joseph Sylvester Penland, Lee Smith Pottery, Walter B. Stephen, Edward Stone, John Henry Stone, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Throckmorton, and Benjamin Trull.


Historical work from Pisgah Forest


Historical work from Pisgah Forest

These exhibitions are being sponsored by Harriett Herring.

Exhibitions at the North Carolina Pottery Center are also made possible through the generosity of our membership, the North Carolina Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mary and Elliott Wood Foundation and the Goodnight Educational Foundation.

The Center is located in Seagrove, in the heart of the state. Its mission is to interpret the history and on-going tradition of North Carolina pottery making. Beginning with American Indian pottery and followed by the work of European settlers, production has continued uninterrupted for centuries. Interpretive exhibits and programs are featured, and the Center provides information to visitors about the nearly 100 potteries located in the Seagrove area.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at 336/873-8430 or visit (www.ncpotterycenter.org).

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Carolina Arts Unleashed Gets a WordPress Upgrade – Finally

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

When I say finally – I don’t mean anything other than we finally took time to risk the upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. And, when I say “we” – I mean my better half Linda did all the research, talking with our server technicians, backing up of files, and doing the upgrade process – a full day of work, when she could have been doing many other things. And, Zelda Ravenel, our HTML wizard found and implanted the right code to make our type a little bigger (which shrank during the upgrade) and fixed the text to not be force-justified.

The average viewer may not notice the big changes, but believe me – some of these changes have solved problems we have been dealing with since we started – almost two years ago.

First, under the old system, if you clicked on one of the Categories to the right – it would only show you the last 10 entries. Very frustrating if you wanted to see something old in that category which had 20 or more entries. And, when you got to the bottom of our page after ten entries, you could not go back to look at older entries. So, if you wanted to see some older entries you couldn’t get to them – even if you knew what month they were posted – if that time period had more than 10 entries – forgetaboutit! Very frustrating for me and I’m sure our viewers.

Another problem we had to deal with was the fact that for a period of time – before I started checking each entry very carefully – entries were being assigned to not only the selected category, but to other random categories – filling some categories up with unrelated entries – further blocking you from seeing old entries on one subject.

Sometimes I had to do intensive Google searches to find old entries from last year. Until a few days ago, there were a few I could never find. Oh my!

Some glitch obviously happened when we first set up the blog and there seemed to be nothing we could do about it – at least no one we knew who had knowledge of WordPress knew how to fix it but by upgrading to the new version, but…. some people warned us about some bloggers loosing all their back entries during the upgrade process. So we dealt with things as best we could until “we” dared venture into that dreaded upgrade. And now, WordPress has fixed their upgrades so it is much easier and everything will be automatically transferred from the archives.

There may still be a few things out there that need fixing and it will take some time learning some of the new tricks the upgrade can do, but we’ll be working on that – when we can.

I’m a content guy – not a technician. So when I get a bright idea or see something on another blog I want to do – I have to take that problem to someone else and beg and beg until someone else can figure it out for me – them show me how to do it. Which can take some time. Sometime I don’t have time to do the things I want. But, we do the best we can.

Look – we’re still not on Facebook or Tweeting and may never be there and by the time we are – there will be something else. There is always something new these days.

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Nina Liu and Friends in Charleston, SC, Features Photographs by Michael Johnson

Friday, May 7th, 2010

We received this press release a little after our May deadline, but I want everyone to know about this exhibit – well before our next issue of Carolina Arts. And, I’m happy to say, in full disclosure, that Linda and I own two of Michael Johnson’s wonderful black and white photographs – taken with a pre-digital camera and printed on real photographic paper. That still means something to me, but don’t read too much into it – digital photographs printed on high-quality papers are just as good these days. Of course the image still matters and Johnson is pretty old school when it comes to that – classic, clean, and black and white.

I’m offering some images of Michael Johnson’s which are not in this exhibit to give you a feeling for his work. Hopefully we’ll have some from the exhibit soon. I didn’t want to wait on those images to make this posting as the exhibit starts this evening.

Here’s the press release:

Nina Liu and Friends presents an exhibition of black and white photographs by Michael Johnson entitled The Classic Landscape, starting May 7 and continuing through July 15, 2010.

The photographs in The Classic Landscape entice the eye with subtle gradations of tone that range from white through seemingly infinite shades of gray to black. Johnson created these images of the west and mid-west during the period from 1976 through 1995. As a group, the photographs evoke the timeless qualities of the American landscape. Johnson skillfully balances the grandeur of clouded skies with earthbound, patterned fields in such a way that each image is able to stand alone or to work with its fellows to even greater visual impact.

Johnson has been creating silver gelatin photographs of rural American landscapes for more than three decades, and he has exhibited his work at galleries and museums across the country.  Among the institutions that have collected his photographs are the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC; the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, IL; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston. Johnson also has exhibited his work at Photo Gallery International in Tokyo, Japan. His photographs also are in the collections of Sprint, McDonald’s, Bank of America, and many other corporations.

An article in the Los Angeles Times referred to Johnson as “one of the country’s premier landscape photographers.” Critics have said that Johnson’s photographs “speak with an eloquence of vision and craft from bygone days” and that they “speak for themselves in their strength of purpose, elegance of form and composition, and in their ability to simplify things without being ordinary.”

Gallery hours are 10am to 5pm, Monday through Saturday and noon until 5pm on Sunday. The gallery is located in the historic Poinsett House at 24 State Street in Charleston. For more information about the exhibition, telephone Nina Liu and Friends at 843/722-2724.

O.K. here’s some images that will be in the exhibit.


Elephant Head, MT 1979


Amphitheater, Chiricahua, AZ 1980


Canyon Floor, Chinle Wash, AZ 1989

Now that didn’t take so long. Go see this exhibit.

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Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, SC, is Looking for a Few Past Members

Friday, May 7th, 2010

The Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, SC, is looking for a couple of its past members. Don’t worry, they are not looking to collect past dues or fees. The current gallery members are planning a 15th anniversary exhibition to celebrate the gallery’s founding, including works by all past members later in August of this year, but they can’t locate Pat Lusk or Roberta B. Rhodes.

Now this is the commercial art gallery that has been located at two locations on East Bay Street in Charleston – not to be confused with the City of Charleston’s City Gallery at Waterfront Park, located on Prioleau Street in Charleston. I’m not sure how people keep getting these two gallery spaces mixed up, but I guess they do. Yes, they both have the word “Waterfront” in their names, and both are located on streets next to each other on the Cooper River side of Charleston, but come on – the Waterfront Gallery came first – 15 years ago. Perhaps some of the confusion over the name comes from the fact that the Charleston area now has three waterfront parks – in Charleston, Mt. Pleasant and North Charleston – all with “Waterfront” in their names.

You have to be careful in naming your gallery or parks for that matter. I remember when a gallery on East Bay Street called the East Bay Street Gallery had to move to King Street and eventually over to Mt. Pleasant, SC – yet they kept that name. I bet that really caused them a lot of explaining over the years and caused a lot of confusion for old customers. Now they’re closed – maybe it was the name?

I remember back 15 years ago when most of the founding members of the Waterfront Gallery came from Gallery 12, which used to be located on King Street – a fact most people writing about Charleston’s visual art community today can’t remember – as they were not here – even ten years ago. I’m old – I’ve been in the Charleston area for 36 years. On a good day I can remember back at least 35 of those years. Come to think of it I think one of the problems Gallery 12 had before the split was it had 13 or 14 members – too many for the space on King Street. Again, a name can mean a lot.

I remember both Pat Lusk and Roberta B. Rhodes, but couldn’t help the folks at the Waterfront Gallery locate these two artists. I last heard that Lusk may have moved to Florida and haven’t heard Rhodes’ name in many years.

Lusk, one of the founding members of Waterfront Gallery, was a painter who owned the Silver Palm Gallery on Hilton Head Island, SC, when she joined the gallery. She then left Charleston, but later came back and opened the Pat Lusk Gallery on Broad Street, and then left again. If anyone knows where she is now – tell her to get in touch with the folks at Waterfront Gallery  – or call them yourselves with some info.

Rhodes was also one of the founding members of Waterfront Gallery and did 3-D letter-box pieces, which were shown at the gallery, but she also did pottery and eventually quilts. I think she taught art in schools across South Carolina as a SC Arts Commission artists in residence instructor, but hasn’t crossed the Carolina Arts radar in many a year – almost since she left Waterfront Gallery. If you know where she is now – tell her to get in touch with the folks at Waterfront Gallery – or call them yourselves with some info.

Waterfront Gallery is located at 215 East Bay Street in downtown Charleston. It is the Lowcountry’s largest member-owned gallery, featuring original works of art in oils, pastels, watercolors, monotypes as well as lithographic prints by artists from throughout the state, including: Helen K. Beacham, Bette Lu Bentley-Layne, Carole Carberry, Susan Colwell, Dixie Dugan, Katherine DuTremble, Marcell Easter, Carolyn Francis, Vicki Gates, Bob Graham, J. Michael Kennedy, Daryl Knox, Morgan Kuhn, Paula Lonneman, Dianne Munkittrick, Judith Perry, Amelia Rose Smith, Colleen Wiessmann,  and Detta Cutting Zimmerman. They also carry works in glass by Herman Leonhardt and fused glass works by Steve Hazard. The gallery is open Mon.-Thur., 11am-6pm; Fri. & Sat., 11am -9pm & Sun., noon-5pm.

If you have info about these two artists call 843/722-1155 or for info about the current gallery and its artists call that number or visit (www.waterfrontartgallery.com).

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Converse Students Exhibit Print and Mixed Media Works at HUB-BUB Showroom Gallery in Spartanburg, SC

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Three art students from Converse College in Spartanburg are having an exhibit opening tonight at the HUB-BUB Showroom Gallery in Spartanburg, but we don’t promote receptions at Carolina Arts. We allow folks to do that in paid advertising. But with a little smarts – you could figure it out.

Here’s the info we received:

HUB-BUB Showroom Gallery in downtown Spartanburg, SC, will present the exhibit, BFA Senior Show, featuring works by Converse College art students, Katy Butler, Miranda Sawyer and Jamie Tanner, on view from May 6 – 28, 2010.

While Butler, Sawyer and Tanner share the screen-print process within their art, each student’s body of work is extremely different, appearing on both paper and wood panel. Students at Converse, the three women have spent the last four years honing their craft and developing their own personal style.

Andrew Blanchard, the Associate Professor of Printmaking and Photography at Converse College, says, “I have had several strong BFA printmaking students in my past five years at Converse, however, never the trifecta within one graduating year. The work that these three women artist-printmakers have produced is very stellar. Having shown in several juried exhibitions (locally, regionally and nationally) as well as participated in portfolio exchanges and beyond, all three have exhibited a commitment to creating conceptually sound print work. It has a ‘hipness’ to it that fits in perfectly with the current contemporary trends in the international printmaking community. Though all three bodies of work are unique in their own right, the screen-print process is shared among them-which embodies a cohesiveness to the show’s entirety.”

Converse Senior Katy Butler was included in the 2010 Central Michigan University Print Club Undergraduate Exchange Portfolio. This was her second time participating in this event. She was also accepted for this year’s 31st Annual Pickens County Juried Art Exhibition. According to Blanchard, “Katy’s work examines a sort of global view of interconnected relationships and how the passing of time/aging of human kind has affected everyone within it.”

Miranda Sawyer won a Juror’s Prize for her print at the 31st Annual Pickens County Juried Art Exhibition. Sawyer’s work was also accepted into the 2010 Artspace National Juried Printmaking and Photography Exhibition at the Plant Zero Art Center in Richmond, VA. When creating her pieces, Sawyer works with the screen-print process, though she prints on mounted wooden panels. The panels have intricate armatures that consist of smaller wooden panels and/or mounted Plexiglass sheets.


Work by Miranda Sawyer

For the HUB-BUB exhibition, Sawyer found her inspiration at the direction of an alarm clock. Blanchard explains, “Miranda’s work is a self-imposed rigor of randomly chosen times in which her alarm was set some six months ago. When the alarm sounds (whether driving, sleeping, eating, etc…) Miranda documents the world around her – interiors, exteriors, people, conversations, dreams, colors, feeling/emotions etc. – from there, her senior work is all derived from these instances in order to further inspect what makes her tick.”

Jamie Tanner will be exhibiting with Professor Blanchard in the 20/20 Vision: The Art of Contemporary University Printmaking at the Firehouse Gallery in Louisville, GA. Tanner’s work deals with the Neo-Dadaist notion of absurdity – referring to a juxtaposition of unrelated imagery derived from popular culture and appropriated from her environment.

Andrew Blanchard earned a BA degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2000 with an emphasis on printmaking and a minor in photography. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to Paris, France to work and study with Frederic Possot, a master lithography printer. This experience solidified his desire to be a lifelong artist-printmaker. In 2004, he earned his MFA degree from The University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS.

In the last four years, Blanchard’s lithographic and photo silkscreen prints have been included in over sixty national and international juried printmaking exhibitions. He garnered several acquisition awards at the 2009 Pacific States Biennial at the University of Hilo, Hawaii. In addition, his prints have been collected throughout the United States, as well as in France, Bulgaria, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

From 2009 until 2012, his print Is This My World – I Barely Recognize? will travel along with others in the 2009 Southern Graphics Council Traveling Exhibition that will open throughout the United States. In May 2010, Blanchard’s work will appear in the hardcover book, Printmakers Today published by Schiffer Books.

Blanchard is currently the Associate Professor of Printmaking and Photography at Converse College. He is also a board member of the HUB-BUB arts initiative, serving as co-curator for their exhibition space, the Showroom Gallery.

Converse College was founded in 1889 and is located in the heart of Spartanburg – home to six colleges and 13,000 college students. Converse helps women develop the skills necessary to balance a full life. Students develop their unique voices through our challenging liberal arts curriculum, century-old honor tradition, and Daniels Center for Leadership and Service. Our close-knit residential community cultivates a spirit of sisterhood and enterprise among women diverse in backgrounds and interests. Across the board – from art and design to science, business, music and education – professors actively mentor and challenge students through spirited discussions inside and outside of the classroom. The Nisbet Honors Program, Petrie School of Music, independent and collaborative research opportunities, leading national debate teams, study abroad and internship programs, and a 9:1 student/faculty ratio differentiate the Converse learning community.

Converse competes in NCAA Division II athletics – the highest level of any women’s college, is the only women’s college on the All-Steinway School roster, and is consistently top ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

For more information about this press release, contact Jennifer Baker, associate director of communications for Converse College, at 864/596-9705 or e-mail to (jennifer.baker@converse.edu).

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Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, NC, Reaches Out to NASCAR Visitors

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Here’s some more news about the ever-expanding Center City Charlotte project. It’s nice to see a museum of modern art reaching out to NASCAR fans. Not all art lovers are one dimensional. I love art – I also love NFL Football. Go Panthers! Hope that youth building project works out.

Here’s the press release we received at Carolina Arts:

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, located at the Levine Center for the Arts in Center City, Charlotte, NC, will host a BMW Art Car May 10 through May 21, 2010. The first Art Car in the BMW’s special collection, painted by Alexander Calder in 1975, will be on display inside the museum’s lobby to coincide with the opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on May 11, 2010. The Hall of Fame is just two blocks away from the Bechtler and opening day ticket holders will be offered a $2 discount off regular museum admission prices.

The Art Car will be displayed for a limited time before heading to France where it will join in the debut of the recently announced 17th BMW Art Car. The newest Art Car addition will be designed by prominent contemporary artist Jeff Koons. Accompanying the exhibit at the Bechtler will be rare, behind-the-scenes video footage of Calder signing his Art Car.

It’s fitting that the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art will be the temporary home to the Calder BMW Art Car. The Bechtler collection contains works by Calder, an American artist best known for his colorful mobile sculptures. Currently on display in the museum’s fourth floor gallery is a Calder watercolor, tapestry and artist book.

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art opened in January 2010, as the only museum dedicated to the exhibition of mid-20th-century modern art in the southeastern United States. The museum is named after the family of Andreas Bechtler, a Charlotte resident and native of Switzerland who inherited and assembled a collection of more than 1,400 artworks created by major figures of 20th-century modernism. The Bechtler collection comprises art in various media by European and American artists, including seminal figures such as Giacometti, Miró, Ernst, Warhol, LeWitt, Hepworth and Picasso. The museum building was designed by renowned architect Mario Botta.

A 35-year tradition of turning cars into canvases was initiated by one man’s intertwined love of racing and art. In 1975, French race car driver Hervé Poulain commissioned American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) to paint the BMW 3.0 CSL Poulain was to drive in the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race. Inspired by the car’s impact on race fans, BMW championed the continuation of the project. The collection now includes 16 works from other renowned artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. Each car bears the art of a notable artist from its respective decade. BMW recently announced that Jeff Koons will create the 17th Art Car in the collection. For further info visit (www.bmwusanews.com/artsandculture).

American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is one of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists. He is best known for his colorful mobiles and sculptures. Calder was the first in a line of renowned artists to help marry the world of art with the world of motorsports through the BMW Art Car collection. The BMW creation was one of Calder’s last works before he died. The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art has three works by Calder currently on view.

Opening May 11, 2010, in Charlotte, the 150,000-square-foot NASCAR Hall of Fame is an interactive, entertainment attraction honoring the history and heritage of NASCAR. The high-tech venue, designed to educate and entertain race fans and non-fans alike, includes artifacts, interactive exhibits, a 275-person state-of-the-art theater, Hall of Honor, Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, NASCAR Hall of Fame gear shop and the NASCAR Media Group-operated broadcast studio. For further info visit (www.NASCARHall.com).

Visitors to the Bechtler can view the Calder BMW Art Car during normal museum hours with the purchase of an admission ticket. The museum will open specially on a Tuesday (the day it is normally closed) to celebrate the May 11 Hall of Fame kickoff.

Museum Hours: Weekdays and Saturdays 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. Open Sunday 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. (Open until 9 p.m. the first and third Fridays of the month).

Admission: $8 for adults, $6 seniors, students and educators, free for members and children 10 and under, $4 youth 11-18 years old.

For further information call the Museum at 704/353-9200 or visit (www.bechtler.org).

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