Feature Articles

November Issue 2002

Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC, Features Works by Jill Allen & Mary Mason

Divergence; Two Approaches to Organic Form is an exhibit that starts with a common thread and follows it in different directions. On view at the Central Piedmont Community College Art Gallery from Nov. 8 through Dec. 8, 2002, the exhibit features works by artists Jill Allen and Mary Mason. Both artists question the notion, so common in Western culture, that art and use are mutually exclusive. However, their specific sources of imagery are quite different and they have chosen artistic genre that are often thought to be diametrically opposed.

Jill Allen

Jill Allen, who is a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, makes sculptural objects suggesting tools and devices whose functions have become obscure or even absurd. She is influenced by simple hand tools, Art Deco objects, toys and unusual man-made objects. These forms are abstracted, often using organic references that make them humorous. Allen makes forms that refer to use, but uses them purely for talking about utilitarian objects as a "physical journal entry about our experiences and ourselves."

Mary Mason

Mary Mason's imagery is taken from the flora and fauna of her native Michigan, often rendered in extremely realistic detail. It is reminiscent of the Yixing pottery from China that is her most important influence. Some of her work is sculpture and some takes on the more difficult challenge of making work that is sculptural as well as utilitarian. Mason's sculpture encourages people to remember the joy of a simple moment spent in contemplation of the natural world. Her pottery draws correlations between joyful contemplation of the natural world and the spiritual quality of daily rituals such as making tea.

For more info check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/330-2722, or on the web at (www.cpcc.edu).

Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: info@carolinaarts.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.